tery, was characteristic of him. Those of my readers who know him,
through having read the previous books of this series, need not be told
this, but you who, perhaps, are just making his acquaintance, may care
to know a little more about him.

As told in my first book, "Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle" the young
inventor lived with his father, Barton Swift, a widower, in the town of
Shopton, New York. Mr. Swift was also an inventor of note.

In my initial volume of this series, Tom became possessed of a
motor-cycle in a peculiar way. It was sold to him by a Mr. Wakefield
Damon, a wealthy gentleman who was unfortunate in riding it. On his
speedy machine, which Tom improved by several inventions, he had a
number of adventures. The principal one was being attacked by a number
of bad men, known as the "Happy Harry Gang," who wished to obtain
possession of a valuable turbine patent model belonging to Mr. Swift.
Tom was taking it to a lawyer, when he was waylaid, and chloroformed.
Later he traced the gang, and, with the assistance of Mr. Damon and
Eradicate Sampson, an aged colored man who made a living for himself
and his mule, Boomerang, by doing odd jobs, the lad found the thieves
and recovered a motor-boat which had been stolen. But the men got away.

In the second volume, called "Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat," Tom bought
at auction the boat stolen by, and recovered from, the thieves, and
proceeded to improve it. While he was taking his father out on a cruise
for Mr Swift's health, the Happy Harry Gang made a successful attempt
to steal some valuable inventions from the Swift house. Tom started to
trace them, and incidentally he raced and beat Andy Foger, a rich
bully. On their way down the lake, after the robbery, Tom, his father
and Ned Newton, Tom's chum, saw a man hanging from the trapeze of a
blazing balloon over Lake Carlopa. The balloonist was Mr. John Sharp
and he was rescued by Tom in a thrilling fashion. In his motor-boat,
Tom had much pleasure, not the least of which was taking out a young
lady named Miss Mary Nestor, whose acquaintance he had made after
stopping her runaway horse, which his bicycle had frightened. Tom's
association with Miss Nestor soon ripened into something deeper than
mere friendship.

It developed that Mr Sharp, whom Tom had saved from the burning
balloon, was an aeronaut of note, and had once planned to build an
airship. After his recovery from his thrilling experience, he mentioned
t