thought she knew them.

Mr. Sharp evidently did know how to "explain" matters to the irate
principal, for, in a short while, she was smiling. By this time Tom had
about finished his little lecture, and Miss Delafield was at the end of
hers. The entire school of girls was grouped about the Red Cloud,
curiously examining it, but Mary Nestor and her friends probably
learned more than any of the others. Tom was informed that his friend
had been attending the school in Rocksmond since the fall term opened.

"I little thought, when I found we were going to smash into that tower,
that you were below there, studying," said the lad to the girl.

"I'm afraid I wasn't doing much studying," she confessed. "I had just a
glimpse of the airship through the window, and I was wondering who was
in it, when the crash came. Miss Perkman, who is nothing if not brave,
at once started for the roof, and we girls all followed her. However,
are you going to get the ship down?"

"I'm afraid it is going to be quite a job," admitted Tom ruefully.
"Something went wrong with the machinery, or this never would have
happened. As soon as Mr. Sharp has settled with your principal we'll
see what we can do."

"I guess he's settled now," observed Miss Nestor. "Here he comes."

The aeronaut and Miss Perkman were approaching together, and the old
maid did not seem half so angry as she had been.

"You see," Mr. Sharp was saying, "it will be a good advertisement for
your school. Think of having the distinction of having harbored the
powerful airship, Red Cloud, on your roof."

"I never thought of it in that light," admitted the principal.
"Perhaps you are right. I shall put it in my next catalog."

"And, as for damages to the tower, we will pay you fifty dollars,"
continued the balloonist. "Do you agree to that, Mr. Swift?" he asked
Tom. "I think your father, the professor, would call that fair."

"Oh, as long as this airship is partly the property of a professor,
perhaps I should only take thirty-five dollars," put in Miss Perkman.
"I am a great admirer of professors--I mean in a strictly educational
sense," she went on, as she detected a tendency on the part of some of
the young ladies to giggle.

"No, fifty dollars will be about right," went on Mr. Sharp, pulling out
a well-filled wallet. "I will pay you now."

"And if you will wait I will give you a receipt," continued the
principal, evidently as much appeased at the mention of a professor's