nds on you, now."

"Don't let that worry you, Dad. You'll soon be as busy as ever,"
for, following a serious operation for an ailment of the heart, Mr.
Swift, who was a veteran inventor, had not been able to do much. But
the devices of his son, especially a speedy monoplane, which Tom
invented, and sold to the United States Government, were now
bringing them in a large income. In fact with royalties from his
inventions and some gold and diamonds which he had secured on two
perilous trips, Tom Swift was quite wealthy.

"I'll never be as busy as I once was," went on Mr. Swift, a little
regretfully, "but I don't know that I care as long as you continue
to turn out new machines, Tom. By the way, how is the electric rifle
coming on? I haven't heard you speak of it lately."

"It's practically finished, Dad. It worked pretty well the time I
took it when we went on the trip to the caves of ice, but I've
improved it very much since then. In fact I'm going to give it a
severe test to-night. Ned Newton is coming over, and it may be that
then we'll find out something about it that could be bettered. But I
think not. It suits me as it is."

"So Ned is coming over to see it; eh? You ought to have Mr. Damon
here to bless it a few times."

"Yes, I wish I did. And he may come along at any moment, as it is.
You never can tell when he is going to turn up. Mrs. Baggert says
you were out walking while I was at the bank, Dad. Do you feel
better after it?"

"Yes, I think I do, Tom. Oh, I'm growing stronger every day, but it
will take time. But now tell me something about the electric gun."

Thereupon the young inventor related to his father some facts about
the improvements he had recently made to the weapon. It was dinner
time when he had finished, and, after the meal Tom went out to the
shed where he built his aeroplanes and his airships, and in which
building he had fitted up a shooting gallery.

"I'll get ready for the trial to-night," he said "I want to see what
it will do to a dummy figure. Guess I'll make a sort of scarecrow
and stuff it with straw. I'll get Eradicate to help me. Rad! I say,
Rad! Where are you?"

"Heah I is, Massa Tom! Heah I is," called a colored man as he came
around the corner of a small stable where he kept his mule
Boomerang. "Was yo'-all callin' me?"

"Yes, Rad, I want you to help make a scarecrow."

"A scarecrow, Massa Tom! Good land a' massy! What fo' yo' want ob a
scarecrow? Yo'-all ain't raisin