nd His
Motor-Cycle," and in that I related how Tom bought the machine from a
Mr. Wakefield Damon, of Waterford, after the odd gentleman had
unintentionally started to climb a tree with it. That disgusted Mr.
Damon with motor-cycling, and Tom had lots of fun on the machine, and
not a few daring adventures.

He and Mr. Damon became firm friends, and the oddity of the
gentleman--mainly that of blessing everything he could think of--was no
objection in Tom's mind. The young inventor and Ned Newton went on many
trips together, Mr. Damon being one of the party.

In Shopton lived Andy Foger, a bullying sort of a chap, who acted very
meanly toward Tom at times. Another resident of the town was a Mr.
Nestor, but Tom was more interested in his daughter Mary than in the
head of the household. Add Eradicate Sampson, an eccentric colored man
who said he got his name because he "eradicated" dirt, and his mule,
Boomerang, and I think you have met the principal characters of these
stories.

After Tom had much enjoyment out of his motor-cycle, he got a motor
boat, and one of his rivals on Lake Carlopa was this same Andy Foger,
but our hero vanquished him. Then Tom built an airship, which had been
the height of his ambition for some years. He had a stirring cruise in
the Red Cloud, and then, deserting the air for the water, Tom and his
father built a submarine, in which they went after sunken treasure. In
the book, "Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout," I told how, in the
speediest car on the road, Tom saved his father's bank from ruin, and
in the book dealing with Tom's wireless message I related how he saved
the Castaways of Earthquake Island.

When Tom went among the diamond makers, at the request of Mr. Barco
Jenks, and discovered the secret of phantom mountain the lad fancied
that might be the end of his adventures, but there were more to follow.
Going to the caves of ice, his airship was wrecked, but he and his
friends managed to get back home, and then it was that the young
inventor perfected his sky racer, in which he made the quickest flight
on record.

Most startling were his adventures in elephant land whither he went
with his electric rifle, and he was the means of saving a missionary,
Mr. Illingway and his wife, from the red pygmies.

Tom had not been home from Africa long before he got a letter from this
missionary, telling about an underground City in Mexico that was said
to be filled with gold. Tom went there, and