Probably they feared
I would make an attempt to rescue him. But I have not given up. Me is
somewhere in Siberia."
"And we'll find him!" cried Tom with enthusiasm.
For three days more they lingered, and then, one night, when they were
just getting ready to retire, there was a knock on the cabin door. Mr.
Petrofsky had been to the village that day, and had received no news. He
had only returned about an hour before.
"Some one's knocking," announced Ned, as if there could be any doubt of
it.
"Bless my burglar alarm!" gasped Mr. Damon.
"I'll see who it is," volunteered Mr. Petrofsky, and Tom looked toward
the rack of loaded rifles, for that day a man, seemingly a wood cutter
had passed close to the airship, and had hurried off as if he had seen a
ghost.
The knock was repeated. It might be their friends, and it might be--
But Mr. Petrofsky solved the riddle by throwing back the portal, and
there stood the Nihilist, Nicolas Androwsky.
"Is there anything the matter?" asked the exile quickly.
"We have news," was the cautious answer, as the Nihilist slipped in, and
closed the door behind him.
"News of my brother?"
"Of your brother! He is in a sulphur mine in the Altai Mountains, near
the city of Abakansk."
"Where's that?" asked Tom for he had forgotten most of his Russian
geography.
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