om. "Is that you, Mr. Damon?"

"Bless my collar button! It certainly is."

"Where's Mr. Sharp? I don't hear him."

"Oh, I'm here all right," answered the balloonist. "I'm trying to get
the airship clear of the chimney. Mr. Damon--"

"Yes, I steered wrong!" interrupted the odd man. "Bless my liver pin,
but it was so dark I couldn't see, and when that clap of thunder came I
shifted the deflection rudder instead of the lateral one, and tried to
knock over your chimney."

"Are either of you hurt?" asked Mr. Swift anxiously.

"No, not at all," replied Mr. Sharp. "We were moving slowly, ready for
a landing."

"Is the airship damaged?" inquired Tom.

"I don't know. Not much, I guess," was the answer of the aeronaut.
"I've stopped the engine, and I don't like to start it again until I
can see what shape we're in."

"I'll come up, with Mr. Jackson," called Tom, and he hastily summoned
Garret Jackson, an engineer, who had been in the service of Mr. Swift
for many years. Together they proceeded to the roof by a stairway that
led to a scuttle.

"Is anyone killed?" asked Mrs. Baggert, as Tom hurried up the stairs.
"Don't tell me there is, Tom!"

"Well, I don't have to tell you, for no one is," replied the young
inventor with a laugh. "It's all right. The airship tried to collide
with the chimney, that's all."

He was soon on the large, flat roof of the dwelling, and, with the aid
of lanterns he, the engineer, and Mr. Sharp made a hasty examination.

"Anything wrong?" inquired Mr. Damon, looking out from the cabin of the
Red Cloud where he had taken refuge after the crash, and to get out of
the wet.

"Not much," answered Tom. "One of the forward planes is smashed, but we
can rise by means of the gas, and float down. Is all clear, Mr. Sharp?"

"All clear," replied the balloonist, for the airship had now been
wheeled back from the entanglement with the chimney.

"Then here we go!" cried Tom, as he and the aeronaut entered the craft,
while Mr. Jackson descended through the scuttle.

There came a fiercer burst to the storm, and, amid a series of dazzling
lightning flashes and the muttering of thunder, the airship rose from
the roof. Tom switched on the search-light, and, starting the big
propellers, guided the craft skillfully toward the big shed where it
was housed when not in use.

With the grace of a bird it turned about in the air, and settled to the
ground. It was the work of but a few minutes to run it into t