"Did you hear the noise, too?" the lad asked the engineer.

"Yes. It woke me up. Then I heard you moving around, and I heard you
come up here. I thought maybe it was a flight of meteors you'd come to
see, and I knew the glasses would be handy, so I stopped for them. Take
a look, Tom. It's an aeroplane; isn't it?"

"Yes, and not moving very fast, either. They seem to be circling around
here."

The young inventor was peering through the binoculars, and, as soon as
he had the mysterious craft in focus, he cried:

"Look, Mr. Jackson, it's a new kind of monoplane. I never saw one like
it before. I wonder who could have invented that? It's something like a
Santos-Dumont and a Bleriot, with some features of Cornu's Helicopter.
That's a queer machine."

"It certainly is," agreed the engineer, who was now sighting through the
glasses. In spite of the darkness the binoculars brought out the
peculiarities of the aeroplane with considerable distinctness.

"Can you make out who are in it?" asked Tom.

"No," answered Mr. Jackson. "You try."

But Tom had no better luck. There were two persons in the odd machine,
which was slowly flying along, moving in a great circle, with the Swift
house for its center.