f the fellows caught sight of the
airship, and, with yells, pointed upward.

Nearer and nearer to the earth settled the Red Cloud. The criminals in
the camp were running wildly about. Several squads of them darted
through the woods, only to come hurriedly back, where they called to
their companions.

"Ha! My men are evidently on the job!" exclaimed the sheriff. "They are
turning the rascals back!"

Some of the gang were so alarmed at the sight of the great airship
settling down on their camp, that they could only stand and stare at
it. Others were gathering sticks and stones, as if for resistance, and
some could be seen to have weapons. Off to one side was a small hut,
rather better than the rest of the tumbledown shacks in which the
tramps lived. Tom noticed this, and saw several men gathered about it.
One seemed familiar to the lad. He called the attention of Mr. Damon to
the fellow.

"Do you know him?" asked Tom eagerly.

"Bless my very existence! If it isn't Anson Morse! One of the gang!"
cried the eccentric man.

"That's what I thought," agreed Tom. "The bank robbers are here," he
added, to the sheriff.

"If we only recover the money we'll be doing well," remarked Mr. Sharp.

Suddenly there came a shout from the fringe of woods surrounding the
camp, and an instant later there burst from the bushes a number of men.

"My posse!" cried the sheriff. "We ought to be down now!"

The airship was a hundred feet above the ground, but Tom, opening wider
the gas outlet, sent the craft more quickly down. Then, just as it
touched the earth, he forced a mass of vapor into the container, making
the ship buoyant so as to reduce the shock.

An instant later the ship was stationary.

Out leaped the sheriff.

"Give it to 'em, men!" he shouted.

With a yell his men responded, and fired a volley in the air.

"Come on, Tom!" called Mr. Sharp. "We'll make for the hut where you saw
Morse."

"I'll come too! I'll come too!" cried Mr. Damon, rushing along as fast
as he could, a seltzer bottle in either hand.

Tom's chief interest was to reach the men he suspected were the bank
robbers. The lad dashed through the woods toward the hut near which he
had seen Morse. He and Mr. Sharp reached it about the same time. As
they came in front of it out dashed Happy Harry, the tramp. He was
followed by Morse and the man named Featherton. The latter carried a
black valise.

"Hey! Drop that!" shouted Mr. Sharp.

"Drop nothing!" y