about the unscrupulous men. As it was, the news that the gang was out
of jail had caused the aged inventor some alarm.

It was not without some anxiety that Tom arose the next morning,
fearing he would hear news that the bank had been broken into, but no
such alarming report circulated in Shopton. In fact having made some
inquiries that day of Ned, he learned that no trace had been seen of
the mysterious men. The police had been on the lookout, but they had
seen nothing of them.

"Maybe, after all, they weren't the same ones," suggested Ned, when he
paid Tom another visit the next night.

"Well, of course it's possible that they weren't," admitted the young
inventor. "I'd be very glad to think so. Even if they were, your
encounter with them may have scared them off; and that would be a good
thing."

The next two weeks were busy ones for Tom and Mr. Sharp. Aided
occasionally by Mr. Swift, and with Garret Jackson, the engineer, to
lend a hand whenever needed, the aeronaut and the owner of the speedy
Arrow made considerable progress on their airship.

"What is your father so busy over?" asked Mr. Sharp one day, when the
new aluminum gas holder was about completed.

"I don't know," answered Tom, with a somewhat puzzled air. "He doesn't
seem to want to talk about it, even to me. He says it will
revolutionize travel along a certain line, but whether he is working
on an airship that will rival ours, or a new automobile, I can't make