start for Logansville."
Ned and Mr. Damon agreed with this and soon they were prepared to
move.
"Where will you find Mr. Whitford?" asked Ned of his chum, as the
Falcon arose in the air.
"At the post-office. That's where we arranged to meet. There is a
sort of local custom house there, I believe."
Straight over the forest flew Tom Swift and his airship, with the
great searchlight housed on top. They delayed their start until the
other craft had had a chance to get well ahead, and they were well
up in the air; there was no sight of the biplane in which Andy had
sailed over their heads a short time before.
"Where are you going to land?" asked Ned, as they came in view of
the town.
"The best place I can pick out," answered Tom. "Just on the
outskirts of the place, I think. I don't want to go down right in
the centre, as there'll be such a crowd. Yet if Andy has been using
his airship here the people must be more or less used to seeing
them."
But if the populace of Logansville had been in the habit of having
Andy Foger sail over their heads, still they were enough interested
in a new craft to crowd around when Tom dropped into a field near
some outlying houses. In a moment the airship was surrounded by a
crowd of women and children, and there would probably been a lot of
men, but for the fact that they were away at work. Tom had come down
in a residential section.
"Say, that's a beauty!" cried one boy.
"Let's see if they'll let us go on!" proposed another.
"We're going to have our own troubles," said Tom to his chum. "I
guess I'll go into town, and leave the rest of you on guard here.
Keep everybody off, if you have to string mildly charged electrical
wires about the rail."
But there was no need to take this precaution, for, just as the
combined juvenile population of that part of Logansville was
prepared to storm, and board the Falcon, Koku appeared on deck.
"Oh, look at the giant!"
"Say, this is a circus airship?"
"Wow! Ain't he big!"
"I'll bet he could lift a house!"
These and other expressions came from the boys and girls about the
airship. The women looked on open-mouthed, and murmurs of surprise
and admiration at Koku's size came from a number of men who had
hastily run up.
Koku stepped from the airship to the ground, and at once every boy
and girl made a bee-line for safety.
"That will do the trick!" exclaimed Tom with a laugh. "Koku, just
pull up a few trees, and look as
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