Ned cried. "Here's something new, and I guess it will
interest you."

"What is it?"

"It's part of an account of some daring smugglers who are working
goods across the Canadian border into the northern part of this
state. The piece is torn, but there's something here which says the
government agents suspect the men of using airships to transport the
stuff."

"Airships! Smugglers using airships!" cried Tom. "It doesn't seem
possible!"

"That's what it says here, Tom. It says the custom house authorities
have tried every way to catch them, and when they couldn't land 'em,
the only theory they could account for the way the smuggling was
going on was by airships, flying at night."

"That's odd. I wonder how it would seem to chase a smuggler in an
airship at night? Some excitement about that; eh, Ned? Let's see
that scrap of paper."

Ned passed it over, and Tom scanned it closely. Then in his turn, he
uttered an exclamation of surprise.

"What is it?" inquired his chum.

"Great Scott, Ned, listen to this! 'It is suspected that some of the
smugglers have'--then there's a place where the paper is torn-'in
Shopton, N.Y.'" finished Tom. "Think of that, Ned. Our town here, is
in some way connected with the airship smugglers! We must find the
rest of this scrap of paper, and paste it together. This may be a
big thing! Find that other scrap! Koku, you go easy on papers next
time," cautioned Tom, good naturedly, as he and his chum began
sorting over the torn parts of the paper.

CHAPTER II

A SPY IN TOWN

Tom Swift, Ned Newton and Koku, the giant, are busy trying to piece
together the torn parts of the paper, containing an account of the
airship smugglers. I will take the opportunity of telling you
something about the young inventor and his work, for, though many of
my readers have made Tom's acquaintances in previous books of this
series, there may be some who pick up this one as their first
volume.

Tom lived with his father, also an inventor of note, in the town of
Shopton, New York state. His mother was dead, and a Mrs. Baggert
kept house. Eradicate was an eccentric, colored helper, but of late
had become too old to do much. Mr. Swift was also quite aged, and
had been obliged to give up most of his inventive work.

Ned Newton was Tom Swift's particular chum, and our hero had another
friend, a Mr. Wakefield Damon, of the neighboring town of Waterford.
Mr. Damon had the odd habit of blessing everything