"It am flyin' all by itself!" "By itself ?" repeated Randolph Rover.

"Impossible, Alexander! A flying machine cannot run itself.

There must be somebody to steer, and manipulate the engine, and----" "Oh, maybe whoever was in it fell out!" screamed Mrs.Rover, and now she looked ready to faint.
"We must find out about this!" returned her husband quickly.

"They had the machine in the shed back of the barn." And he ran in that direction, followed by the colored man, and then by his wife and the cook.

In the meantime the biplane soared on and on, ever rising in the air and moving off in the direction of the river.
When the others arrived they found that Tom had carried poor Dick to the wagon shed and placed him on a pile of horse blankets, and was washing his wounded head with water.