eir wagons.

It was quite a surprise therefor, when, as they were leaving the table,
a knock was heard on the cabin door.

"Bless my electric bell!" cried Mr. Damon. "Who can that be?"

"Mr. Petrofsky of course," answered Ned.

"He wouldn't knock--he'd walk right in," spoke Tom, as he went to the
door. As he opened it he saw several dark-bearded men standing there,
and in their midst Mr. Petrofsky.

For one moment our hero feared that his friend had been arrested and
that the police bad come to take the rest of them into custody. But a
word from the exile reassured him.

"These are some of my friends," said Mr. Petrofsky simply. "They are
Nihilists which I am not, but--"

"Nihilists yes! Always!" exclaimed one who spoke English. "Death to the
Czar and the Grand Dukes! Annihilation to the government!"

"Gently my friend, gently," spoke Mr. Petrofsky. "I am opposed to
violence you know." And then, while his new friends gazed wonderingly
at the strange craft, he led them inside. Tom and the others were
hardly able to comprehend what was about to take place.

CHAPTER XVII

ON TO SIBERIA

"Has anything happened?" asked Tom. "Are we suspected? Have they come
to warn us?"

"No, everything is all right, so far," answered Ivan Petrofsky. "I
didn't have the success I hoped for, and we may have to wait here for a
few days to get news of my brother. But these men have been very kind
to me," he went on, "and they have ways of getting information that I
have not. So they are going to aid me."

"That's right!" exclaimed the one who had first spoken. "We will yet
win you to our cause, Brother Petrofsky. Death to the Czar and the
Grand Dukes!"

"Never!" exclaimed the exile firmly. "Peaceful measures will succeed.
But I am grateful for what you can do for me. They heard me describe
your wonderful airship," he explained to Tom, "and wanted to see for
themselves."

The Nihilists were made welcome after Mr. Petrofsky had introduced
them. They had strange and almost unpronounceable names for the ears
of our friends, and I will not trouble you with them, save to say that
the one who spoke English fairly well, and who was the leader, was
called Nicolas Androwsky. There was much jabbering in the Russian
tongue, when Mr. Petrofsky and Mr. Androwsky took the others about the
craft, explaining how it worked.

"I can't show you the air glider," said Tom, who naturally acted as
guide, "as it would take too long to put