?"
he went on, looking from one to another of the group. "Where's the
biplane?"

"Flew away," answered Tom. "You got struck and knocked down, don't you
remember?"

"Ah!" Dick drew a deep breath. "Yes, I remember now. Oh, how my head
aches!" He put up his hand and noticed the blood. "Got a pretty good
rap, didn't I? What did the machine do, Tom; go to smash?"

"I don't know. The last I saw of her she was sailing over the house."

"She kept right on a-sailin'," answered Aleck. "Went on right ober de
woods along de ribber."

"You don't say! Then we'll have a time of it getting her back." Dick
gritted his teeth. "Phew! how my head hurts!"

"Bring him to the house, and we'll bind his head up," said Mrs. Rover.
"I'll wash the wound first and we can put on some witch hazel."

"Yes, that or some peroxide of hydrogen," added Randolph Rover, who was
a scientific farmer and something of a chemist. "That will kill any
germs that may lodge there."

Dick was half led and half carried to the house and placed on a couch in
the sitting room, and then his aunt went to work to make him
comfortable. The cut was not a deep one, and the youth was suffering
more from shock than from anything else.

"I'll be all right by to-morrow," he assured his Aunt Martha. "I only
got a knock-down blow, that's all."

"The machine didn't fight fairly," added Tom, who had to have his little
joke. "It hit Dick before he was ready."

"Well, I am thankful it was no worse," answered Mrs. Rover. "But it is
bad enough."

"And we'll have to have a mason here to mend the chimney," added
Randolph Rover.

"I'll get a man from the Corners to-morrow," said Tom. "But say, I'd
like to know where the biplane went to," he continued anxiously.

"Maybe it landed on some other house," mused Randolph. "If it did you
may have more to pay for than a dismantled chimney."

"Oh, houses are few and far between in that direction, Uncle Randolph.
What I am afraid of is, that the biplane came down in the trees or on
the rocks and got smashed. That would be a big loss."

"That is true."

"I can send Jack Ness and Aleck Pop out to look for the machine," went
on Tom. "And I can go out myself with Sam, when he returns."

"Yes, you'd better do that," answered Dick. "And I'll go out with you
to-morrow, if you can't locate the machine to-day."

"Better take it easy, Dick," cautioned his aunt.

"Oh, I'll be all right by to-morrow, Aunt Martha. A good night's sleep
wil