thes and hands and faces dripped the carmine paint.

"Better have your pictures taken!" cried Ned, peering from an upper
window.

"Yes, and send us one," added Tom, joining his chum. Andy looked up at
them. He dug a mass of red paint from his left ear, removed a mass of
soot from his right cheek, and, shaking his fist, which was alternately
striped red and black, cried out in a rage:

"I'll get even with you yet, Tom Swift!"

"You only got what was coming to you," retorted the young inventor.
"The next time you come sneaking around this airship, trying to damage
it, you'll get worse, and I'll have you arrested. You've had your
lesson, and don't forget it."

The red-haired bully, doubly red-haired now, had nothing more to say.
There was nothing he could say, and, accompanied by his companions, he
made a bee-line for the rear gate in the fence, and darted across the
meadow. They were all sorry enough looking specimens, but solely
through their own fault.

Chapter 8

Winning a Prize

"Well, Tom, what happened?" asked Mr. Sharp, as he saw the trio running
away. "Looks as if you had had an exciting time here."

"No, those fellows had all the excitement," declared Ned. "We had the
fun." And the two lads proceeded to relate what had taken place.

"Tried to damage the airship, eh?" asked Mr. Sharp. "I wish I'd caught
them at it; the scoundrels! But perhaps you handled them as well as I
could have done."

"I guess so," assented Tom. "I must see if they did cut any of the
wires."

But the young inventor and his chum had acted too quickly, and it was
found that nothing, had been done to the Red Cloud.

A little later the airship was taken out of the shed, and made ready
for a trip. The gas ascension was first used, and Ned and Mr. Swift
were passengers with Tom and Mr. Sharp. The machine went about a
thousand feet up in the air, and then was sent in various directions,
to the no small delight of a large crowd that gathered in the meadow
back of the Swift property; for it only required the sight of the
airship looming its bulk above the fence and buildings, to attract a
throng. It is safe to say this time, however, that Andy Foger and his
cronies were not in the audience. They were probably too busy removing
the soot and red paint.

Although it was the first time Mr. Swift had ever been in an airship,
he evinced no great astonishment. In fact he seemed to be thinking
deeply, and on some subject not connec