e pressed his big hands down over the place where the bolts had
broken off, and by main strength of muscle he held the bed-plate in
place until the power was shut off.

"Koku, my boy, you did a great thing!" cried Tom, when he realized
what had happened. "You saved all our lives, and the airship as
well."

"Koku glad," was the simple reply of the giant.

"But, bless my witch hazel!" cried Mr. Damon. "There's blood on your
hands, Koku!"

They looked at the giant's palms. They were raw and bleeding.

"How did it happen?" asked Ned.

"Where belts break off, iron rough-like," explained Koku.

"Rough! I should say it was!" cried Tom. "Why, he just pressed with
all his might on the jagged end of the belts. Koku you're a hero!"

"Hero same as giant?" asked Koku, curiously.

"No, it's a heap sight better," spoke Tom, and there was a trace of
tears in his eyes.

"Bless my vaseline!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, blowing his nose harder
than seemed necessary. "Come over here, Koku, and I'll bandage up
your hands. Poor fellow, it must hurt a lot!"

"Oh, not so bad," was the simple reply.

While Mr. Damon gave first aid to the injured, Tom and Ned put new
bolts in place of the broken ones on the bed-plate, and they tested
them to see that they were perfect. New ones were also substituted
for the two that had been strained, and in the course of an hour the
repairs were made.

"Now we can run as an aeroplane again," said Tom. "But I'm not going
to try such speed again. It was the vibration that did it I guess."

They were now over a wild and desolate stretch of country, for the
region lying on either side of the imaginary line dividing Canada and
New York State, at the point where the St. Lawrence flows north-east,
is sparsely settled.

There were stretches of forest that seemed never to have been
penetrated, and here and there patches of stunted growth, with
little lakes dotted through the wilderness. There were hills and
valleys, small streams and an occasional village.

"Just the place for smuggling," observed Tom, as he looked at a map,
consulted a clock and figured out that they must be near
Logansville. "We can go down here in one of these hollows,
surrounded by this tangled forest, and no one would ever know we
were here. The smugglers could do the same."

"Are you going to try it?" asked Ned.

"I think I will. We'll go up to quite a height now, and I'll see if
I can pick out Logansville. That isn't much of a pl