the street. And while they are thus temporarily
hidden may not this opportunity be taken of telling new readers
something of the hero of this story?

The young inventor was introduced in the first volume of this series,
called "Tom Swift and his Motor Cycle." It was Tom's first venture into
the realms of invention, after he had purchased from Mr. Wakefield
Damon a speedy machine that tried to climb a tree with that excitable
gentleman.

Tom, with the help of his father, an inventor of note, rebuilt the
motor cycle adding many improvements, and it served Tom in good stead
more than once.

From then on the career of Tom Swift was steadily onward and upward.
One new invention led to another from his second venture, a motor boat,
through an airship and other marvels, and eventually to a submarine. In
each of these vehicles of motion and travel Tom and his friends, Ned
Newton and Mr. Damon, had many adventures, detailed in the respective
volumes.

His venture in proceeding to save Mary Nestor from possible danger in
the blaze of the fireworks factory was not the first time Tom had
rendered service to the Nestor family. There was that occasion on which
he had sent his wireless message from Earthquake Island, as related in
an earlier volume.

Space forbids the detailing of all that had happened to the young
inventor up to the time of the opening of this story. Sufficient to
say that Tom's latest achievement had been the recovery of treasure
from the depths of the ocean.

Tom Swift's activities in connection with his inventions had become so
numerous that the Swift Construction Company, of which Ned Newton was
financial manager and Mr. Damon one of the directors, had been formed.
And when the rumor came that there was a chance to salvage some of the
untold wealth at the bottom of the sea, Tom was interested, as were his
friends.

It was decided to search for the wreck of the Pandora, sunk in the West
Indies, and one of Tom's latest submarine craft was utilized for this
purpose.

Not to go into all the details, which are given in the last volume of
this series, entitled "Tom Swift and His Undersea Search," suffice it
to say that the venture was begun. Matters were complicated owing to
the fact that Mary Nestor's uncle, Barton Keith, was in trouble over
the loss of valuable papers proving his title to some oil lands. Mary
mentioned that a person, Dixwell Hardley, was the man who, it was
supposed, was trying to defra