Their journey to New York was uneventful, and they found that the parts of the airship had safely arrived, and had been taken aboard the steamer.  The little party went aboard themselves, after a day spent in sight-seeing, and that afternoon the Soudalar, which was the vessel’s name, steamed away from the dock at high tide.

“Off for Africa!” exclaimed Tom to Ned, as they stood at the rail, watching the usual crowd wave farewells.  “Off for Africa, Ned.”

As Tom spoke, a gentleman who had been standing near him and his chum, vigorously waving his hand to some one on the pier, turned quickly.  He looked sharply at the young inventor for a moment, and then exclaimed: 

“Well, if it isn’t Tom Swift!  Did I hear you say you were going to Africa?”

Tom looked at the gentleman with rather a puzzled air for a moment.  The face was vaguely familiar, but Tom could not recall where he had seen it.  Then it came to him in a flash.

“Mr. Floyd Anderson!” exclaimed our hero.  “Mr. Anderson of—­”

“Earthquake Island!” exclaimed the gentleman quickly, as he extended his hand.  “I guess you remember that place, Tom Swift.”

“Indeed I do.  And to think of meeting you again, and on this African steamer,” and Tom’s mind went back to the perilous days when his wireless message had saved the castaways of Earthquake Island, among whom were Mr. Anderson and his wife.

“Did I hear you say you were going to Africa?” asked Mr. Anderson, when he had been introduced to Ned, and the others in Tom’s party.

“That’s where we’re bound for,” answered the lad.  “We are going to elephant land.  But where are you going, Mr. Anderson?”

“Also to Africa, but not on a trip for pleasure or profit like yourselves.  I have been commissioned by a missionary society to rescue two of its workers from the heart of the dark continent.”

“Rescue two missionaries?” exclaimed Tom, wonderingly.

“Yes, a gentleman and his wife, who, it is reported, have fallen into the hands of a race known as the red pygmies, who hold them captives!”

CHAPTER IX

ATTACKED BY A WHALE

Surprise at Mr. Anderson’s announcement held Tom silent for a moment.  That the gentleman whom he had been the means of rescuing, among others, from Earthquake Island, should be met with so unexpectedly, was quite a coincidence, but when it developed that he was bound to the same part of the African continent as were Tom and his friends, and when he said he hoped to rescue some missionaries from the very red pygmies so feared by the old elephant hunter—­this was enough to startle any one.

“I see that my announcement has astonished you,” said Mr. Anderson, as he noted the look of surprise on the face of the young inventor.

“It certainly has!  Why, that’s where we are bound for, in my new airship.  Come down into our cabin, Mr. Anderson, and tell us all about it.  Is your wife with you?”