About a week before Tom and Ned had flown from Shopton to the
dry dock where the submarine was being reconstructed in this
small airship. Engine trouble had developed after they had
landed, and they had gone back by automobile, leaving the Air
Scout to be repaired. This had been done, and now Tom intended to
use it in going to Mary's rescue.

Now, when the Air Scout had been run out of the hangar, Tom
climbed into it.

"Sorry I can't take you along," he called to Ned, who had
finished telephoning to Mary's home, "but, under the
circumstances--"

"Two's company and three's a crowd!" laughed Ned. "I know!"

"No, I didn't mean that," Tom said. "You know Mary likes you,
but this will carry only two."

"I know!" answered his chum. "On your way!"

And with an almost noiseless throb of her engine and a whirr of
her propeller, the aeroplane rolled swiftly over the level
starting ground and took the air like a swan leaving its lake.

Tom did not rise to a great height, as he would need only a few
minutes to reach the place where Mary was stalled by the accident
to her machine. Soon he was hovering over a level field, one of
several that lined the country highways in that section. A small
crowd on the turnpike gathered about an evidently disabled