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