and was almost like the one in which he had
gone to the caves of ice, where it was wrecked. It had been, however,
much improved.

The craft was a sort of combined dirigible balloon, and aeroplane, and
could be used as either. There was a machine on board for generating
gas, to use in the balloon part of it, and the ship, which was named
the Flyer, could carry several persons.

"Bless my shoe laces!" cried Mr. Damon one day as he looked at Koku.
"If we take him along in the airship, will we be able to float, Tom?"

"Oh, yes. The airship is plenty big enough. Besides, we are not going
to take along a very large party, and the camera is not heavy. Oh,
we'll be all right. I suppose you'll be on hand to-morrow, Mr. Damon?"

"To-morrow? What for?"

"We're going to take the picture machine up in the airship, and get
some photos from the sky. I expect to make some films from high in the
air, as well as some in the regular way, on the ground, and I want a
little practice. Come around about two o'clock, and we'll have a trial
flight."

"All right. I will. But don't let my wife know I'm going up in an
airship again. She's read of so many accidents lately, that she's
nervous about having me take a trip."

"Oh, I won't tell," promised Tom with a laugh, and he worked away
harder than ever, for there were many little details to perfect. The
weather was now getting warm, as there was an early spring, and it was
pleasant out of doors.

The moving picture camera was gotten in readiness. Extra rolls of films
were on hand, and the big airship, in which they were to go up, for
their first test of taking pictures from high in the air, had been
wheeled out of the shed.

"Are you going up very far?" asked Mr. Nestor of Tom, and the young
inventor thought that Mary's father was a trifle nervous. He had not
made many flights, and then only a little way above the ground, with
Tom.

"Not very high," replied our hero. "You see I want to get pictures that
will be large, and if I'm too far away I can't do it."

"Glad to hear it," replied Mr. Nestor, with a note of relief in his
voice. "Though I suppose to fall a thousand feet isn't much different
from falling a hundred when you consider the results."

"Not much," admitted Tom frankly.

"Bless my feather bed!" cried Mr. Damon. "Please don't talk of falling,
when we're going up in an airship. It makes me nervous."

"We'll not fall!" declared Tom confidently.

Mr. Period sent his re