Swift and His Great Searchlight," I had the pleasure of
telling you how the lad captured the smugglers who were working against
Uncle Sam over the border.

Tom, as you will see, had, with the help of his father, perfected many
wonderful inventions. The lad lived with his aged parent, his mother
being dead, in the village of Shopton, in New York State.

While the house, which was presided over by the motherly Mrs. Baggert,
was large, it was almost lost now amid the many buildings surrounding
it, from balloon and airship hangars, to shops where varied work was
carried on. For Tom did most of his labor himself, of course with men
to help him at the heavier tasks. Occasionally he had to call on
outside shops.

In the household, beside his father, himself and Mrs. Baggert, was
Eradicate Sampson, an aged colored man-of-all-work, who said he was
called "Eradicate" because he eradicated dirt. There was also Koku, a
veritable giant, one of two brothers whom Tom had brought with him from
Giant Land, when he escaped from captivity there, as related in the
book of that name.

Mr. Damon was, with Ned Newton, Tom's chum, the warmest friend of the
family, and was often at Tom's home, coming from the neighboring town
of Waterford, where he lived.

Tom had been back some time now from working for the government in
detecting the smugglers, but, as you may well suppose, he had not been
idle. Inventing a number of small things, including useful articles for
the house, was a sort of recreation for him, but his mind was busy on
one great scheme, which I will tell you about in due time.

Among other things he had just perfected a new style of magneto for one
of his airships. The magneto, as you know, is a sort of small dynamo,
that supplies the necessary spark to the cylinder, to explode the
mixture of air and gasoline vapor. He was trying out this magneto in
the Humming Bird when the accident I have related in the first chapter
occurred.

"There! He's coming to!" exclaimed Mrs. Baggert, as she leaned over
Tom, who was stretched out on the sofa in the library. "Give him
another smell of this ammonia," she went on, handing the bottle to Mr.
Swift.

"No--no," faintly murmured Tom, opening his eyes. "I--I've had enough
of that, if you please! I'm all right."

"Are you sure, Tom?" asked his father. "Aren't you hurt anywhere?"

"Not a bit, Dad! It was foolish of me to go off that way; but I
couldn't seem to help it. It all got black