The seaplane rose higher as she neared the shore. The yellow streak of Cape Cod was only to be dimly distinguished through the lower windows of the pilot room. Night had fallen when the _Winged Arrow_ spiraled over Shopton and the works. Tom made a ground landing instead of sinking to the surface of Lake Carlopa. He was in a hurry to get home. The searchlights in the yard of the shops served as lighthouses for the plane’s landing. She came down perfectly, bumping along the ground easily upon the wheels, and finally stopped not far from the highroad. The Swift house was not far away. Aside from Koku, who had been on watch continually since the plane had flown away, there were few people to greet the crew. Tom and Ned left the mechanicians to attend to the flying boat and hurried up to the house. Mr. Barton Swift, very much disturbed for him, was walking the library floor. He hurried to greet Tom and Ned, waving a blue cablegram in his hand. “What is it, father?” Tom asked. “What has happened to Mr. Damon and Mary’s father?” “I don’t know,” confessed Barton Swift. “I have been wondering and worrying all the afternoon. And now I know less about it than I did at first.” “How is that?” “It has crossed my mind that the message may be a fake. It may come from some schemer who wishes us ill. But on the face of it—here! Read it!” He thrust the cablegram into Tom’s hand. The young inventor read, and read it aloud for Ned Newton’s benefit: “Mes. Damon and Nestor lost with treasure chest on iceberg in Greenland Sea between Greenland and Iceland. _Kalrye_ a wreck and our boats separated. Believe castaways alive on giant iceberg. Cable funds for rescue, or advise—Olaf Karofsen, com. _Kalrye_, Reykjavik.” CHAPTER XV ON THE WINGS OF THE WIND Ned declared the message was a fake. He would not believe such an extraordinary tale could be true. “Somebody wants to get you off the _Winged Arrow_,” he said. “That fellow who hung around here at the launching—remember? The chap with the Frenchy look. I bet he represented some inventor who is trying to put out a machine like yours. This is a scheme to take your mind off your work and delay you.” “It can’t delay me much now,” said Tom, puzzled. “The flying boat has been proved practical—and is practically complete.” “I fear that something really terrible has happened to our friends up there in the Arctic,” Mr. Swift broke in. “The chief thing to do is to find out about it,” Tom said vigorously. “We’ll test this thing out—find out who Captain Olaf Karofsen of the _Kalrye_ is.” “How are you going to do that and him in Iceland?” scoffed Ned. “It will take you two months or longer to get there.” “We have got to look into it and try to find Mr. Damon and Mary’s father, if it takes two years,” declared Tom.