k in him, myself. I think he's visionary. He may think he
has made diamonds, and he may have made some stones that look like them.
I'm very skeptical."

"If you could bring me some, Tom, I could soon tell whether they were
real or not. Can you?"

The lad shook his head.

"I don't expect to see Mr. Jenks again," he said. "He talked
rather wildly about waiting to meet me, but that man is odd--crazy,
perhaps--and I don't imagine I'll see him. He's harmless, but he's
eccentric. Well, there was quite some excitement for a time."

"I should say there was. I thought it was a plan to rob me," and the
jeweler began putting away the diamond pins. In fact, the excitement
so filled the minds of himself and Tom that neither of them thought any
more of the object of the lad's visit, and the young inventor departed
without purchasing the pin he had come after.

It was not until he was out on the street, walking toward his home, that
the matter came back to his mind.

"I declare!" he exclaimed. "I didn't get that pin for Mary, after all!
Well, never mind, I have a week until her birthday, and I can get it
to-morrow."

He walked rapidly toward home, for the weather looked threatening, and
Tom had no umbrella. He was musing on the happenings of the evening when
he reached his house. His father was out, as was Garret Jackson, the
engineer; and Mrs. Baggert, the housekeeper, was entertaining a lady in
the sitting-room, so, as Tom was rather tired, he went directly to his
own room, and, a little later got into bed.

It was shortly after midnight when he was awakened by hearing a rattling
on the window of his room. The reason he was able to fix the time
so accurately was because as soon as he awakened he pressed a little
electric button, and it illuminated the face of a small clock on his
bureau. The hands pointed to five minutes past twelve.

"Humph! That sounds like hail!" exclaimed Tom, as he arose, and looked
out of the casement. "I wonder if any of the skylights of the airship
shed are open? There might be some damage. Guess I'd better go out and
take a look."

He had mentally reasoned this far before he had looked out, and when
he saw that the moon was brightly shining in a clear sky, he was a bit
surprised.

"Why--that wasn't hail," he murmured. "It isn't even raining. I wonder
what it was?"

He was answered a moment later, for a shower of fine gravel from the
walk flew up and clattered against the glass. With a start,