d?" asked Tom after an inspection of the searchlight.

"All ready, as far as I'm concerned, Tom."

"Then let her go!"

Like a bird of the night, the great aeroplane shot into the air,
and, with scarcely a sound that could be heard ten feet away, she
moved forward at great speed.

"What are you going to do first?" asked Ned.

"Fly around a bit, and then come back over my house. I'm going to
try the lantern on that first, and see what I can make out from a
couple of miles up in the air."

Up and up went the Falcon, silently and powerfully, until the
barograph registered nearly fourteen thousand feet.

"This is high enough." spoke Tom.

He shifted a lever that brought the searchlight into focus on
Shopton, which lay below them. Then, turning on the current, a
powerful beam of light gleamed out amid the blackness.

"Jove! That's great!" cried Ned. "It's like a shaft of daylight!"

"That's what I intended it to be!" cried Tom in delight.

With another shifting of the lever he brought the light around so
that it began to pick up different buildings in the town.

"There's the church!" cried Ned. "It's as plain as day, in that
gleam."

"And there's the railroad depot," added Tom.

"And Andy Foger's house!"

"Yes, and there's my house!" exclaimed Tom a moment later, as the
beam rested on his residence and shops. "Say, it's plainer than I
thought it would be. Hold me here a minute, Ned."

Ned shut off the power from the propellers, and the airship was
stationary. Tom took a pair of binoculars, and looked through them
at his home in the focus of light.

"I can count the bricks in the chimney!" he cried in eagerness at
the success of his great searchlight. "It's even better than I
thought it was! Let's go down, Ned."

Slowly the airship sank. Tom played his light all about, picking up
building after building, and one familiar spot after another.
Finally he brought the beam on his own residence again, when not far
above it.

Suddenly there arose a weird cry. Tom and Ned knew at once that it
was Eradicate.

"A comet! A comet!" yelled the colored man. "De end ob de world am
comin'! Run, chillens, run! Beware ob de comet!"

"Eradicate's afraid!" cried Tom with a laugh.

"Oh good mistah comet! Doan't take me!" went on the colored man. "I
ain't neber done nuffin', an' mah mule Boomerang ain't needer. But
ef yo' has t' take somebody, take Boomerang!"

"Keep quiet, Rad! It's all right!" cried Tom. But the col