el and can't navigate.
She called me up at the house, not wishing to alarm her father, and
Mrs. Baggert told her you and I had come down to the dock, so she
reached me here. I'll go in the small aeroplane and get her. Luckily I
left it here the last time I made a trip. Will you call up Mary's home
and let them know she's all right and that I'll soon be home with her?
They might hear an exaggerated account of the accident."

Ned promised to do this, and at once put in a call for the home of his
chum's fiancee, while Tom had one of his men run out the Air Scout.
This was an aeroplane recently perfected by the young inventor which
slipped through space with scarcely a sound. So silent was it that the
craft had been dubbed "Silent Sam," and it stood Tom in good stead as
those of you know who have read the volume just before the present
book. This sky glider Tom would now use in going to the rescue of Mary
Nestor was not, however, the same large craft that figured in the
previous story. That airship had been given to the United States
government for war purposes. But Tom had built himself a smaller one
for his own use. It had the advantage of enabling him to carry on a
conversation with his passenger when he took one aloft.

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
t