Now the young inventor and his friends were hovering over the sandy
stretch of coast that extends from Sandy Hook down the Atlantic
seaboard. They were looking for a small fishing hamlet on the outskirts
of which, so the Russian letter stated, was situated the lonely hut in
which Mr. Petrofsky was held a prisoner.

"Do you think you can pick it out from a distance, Tom?" asked Mr.
Damon, as the airship floated slowly along. It was not the big one they
intended taking on their trip to Siberia, but it was sufficiently large
to accommodate the four and leave room for Mr. Petrofsky, should they
succeed in rescuing him.

"I think so," answered the young inventor.

In the letter from Russia a comparatively accurate description of the
prisoner's hut had been given, and also some details about his guards.
For there is little goes on in political circles in the realm of the
Czar that is not known either to the spies of the government or those of
the opposition, and the latter had furnished Tom with reliable
information.

"That looks like the place," said Tom at length, when, after peering
steadily through a powerful telescope, during which time Ned steered the
ship, the young inventor "picked up" a fishing settlement. "There is the
big fish house, spoken of in the letter," he went on, "and the Russians
know a lot about fish. That house makes a good landmark. We'll go down
now, before they have a chance to see us."

The others thought this a good idea, and a little later the airship sank
to the ground amid a lonely stretch of sand dunes, about two miles from