old elephant hunter, the new airship shot
upward on a steep, slant.

"The Black Hawk flies!" yelled Ned Newton. "Now for elephant land
and the big tusks!"

"Yes, and perhaps for the red pygmies, too," added Tom in a low
voice. Then he gave his whole attention to the management of his new
machine, which was rapidly mounting upward, with a speed rivalling
that of his former big craft.

CHAPTER VIII

OFF FOR AFRICA

Higher and higher went the Black Hawk, far above the earth, until
the old elephant hunter, looking down, said in a voice which he
tried to make calm and collected, but which trembled in spite of
himself:

"Of course I'm not an expert at this game, Tom Swift, but it looks
to me as if we'd never get down. Don't you think we're high enough?"

"For the time being, yes," answered the young inventor. "I didn't
think she'd climb so far without the use of the gas. She's doing
well."

"Bless my topknot, yes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "She beats the Red
Cloud, Tom. Try her on a straight-away course."

Which the youth did, pointing the nose of the craft along parallel
to the surface of the earth, and nearly a mile above it. Then,
increasing the speed of the motor, and with the big propellers
humming, they made fast time.

The old elephant hunter grew more calm as he saw that the airship
did not show any inclination to fall, and he noted that Tom and the
others not only knew how to manage it, but took their fight as much
a matter of course as if they were in an automobile skimming along
on the surface of the ground.

Tom put his craft through a number of evolutions, and when he found
that she was in perfect control as an aeroplane, he started the gas
machine, filled the big black bag overhead, and, when it was
sufficiently buoyant, he shut off the motor, and the Black Hawk
floated along like a balloon.

"That's what we'll do if our power happens to give out when we get
over an African jungle, with a whole lot of wild elephants down
below, and a forest full of the red pygmies waiting for us,"
explained Tom to Mr. Durban.

"And I guess you'll need to do it, too," answered the hunter. "I
don't know which I fear worse, the bad elephants wild with rage, as
they get some times, or the little red men who are as strong as
gorillas, and as savage as wolves. It would be all up with us if we
got into their hands. But I think this airship will be just what we
need in Africa. I'd have been able to get out of ma