only show up just as we are starting. I haven't heard from him in the last day or two."
At that moment there was a knock on the private office in the aeroplane shed, where Tom, Ned and Abe Abercrombie were talking.
"Who's there?" asked Torn.
"It's me," answered a voice recognizable as that of the colored man Eradicate.
"What is it, Rad?" asked Tom.
"Why I jest thought I'd tell you dat de blessin' man am comin' down de road."
"The blessing man?" repeated Tom. "Oh, you mean Mr. Damon."
"Yais, sah, dat's jest who I done mean. An' dere's anodder gen'man wif him."
"Mr. Parker, I expect," spoke Tom. "Well, tell them to come in here, Rad."
"Yais, sah. Dey's comin' up de path now, so dey is."
The next moment Tom and the others heard a voice saying:
"Why, bless my necktie! The Red Cloud is gone!" Mr. Damon had peered into the shed, and had not seen the airship, for Tom had it packed up. "I wonder if Tom Swift has gone away? Bless my top-knot, Mr. Parker, I hope we're not too late!"
"Indeed I hope not," added the scientist. "I
