Startled they looked up, to see a
burly Russian staring at them.
The sudden appearance of a man in that lonely spot, his calm regard of
the lads, his stealthy approach, which had made it possible for him to
be almost upon them before they were aware of his presence, all this
made them suspicious of danger. Tom gave a quick glance about, however,
and saw no others--no Cossack soldiers, and as he looked a second time
at the man he noted that he was poorly dressed, that his shoes were
ragged, his whole appearance denoting that he had traveled far, and was
weary and ill.
"What do you make of this, Ned?" asked Tom, in a low voice.
"I don't know what to make of it. He can't be an officer, in that rig,
and he has no one with him. I guess we haven't anything to be afraid of.
I'm going to ask him what he wants."
Which Tom did in his plainest English. At once the man broke into a
stream of confused Russian, and he kept it up until Tom held up his hand
for silence.
"I'm sorry, but I can't understand you," said the young inventor. "I'll
call some one who can, though," and, raising his voice, he summoned Ivan
Petrofsky who, with Mr. Damon, was inside the airship doing some small
repairs.
"There's a Russian out here, Mr. Petrofsky," said Tom, "and what he
wants I can't make out."
The exile was quickly on the scene and, after a first glance at the man,
hurried up to him, grasped him by the hand and at once the two were
talking such a torrent of hard-sounding words that Tom and Ned looked at
each other helplessly, while Mr.
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