der

Tom Swift sent his wonderful little craft upward on a gentle slant.
Higher and higher it rose above the ground. Now it topped the trees;
now it was well over them.

On the earth below stood Mr. Swift, Mr. Jack son, Eradicate and Mrs.
Baggert. They were the only witnesses of the trial flight, and as the
aged inventor saw his son's latest design in aeroplanes circling in the
air he gave a cheer of delight. It was too feeble for Tom to hear, but
the lad, glancing down, saw his father waving his hand to him.

"Dear old dad!" thought Tom, waving in return. "I hope he's well enough
to see me win the big prize."

Tom and Mr. Damon went skimming easily through the air, at no great
speed, to be sure, for the young inventor did not want to put too
sudden a strain on his motor.

"This is glorious!" cried the odd gentleman. "I never shall have enough
of aeroplaning, Tom!"

"Nor I, either," added his companion. "But how do you like it? Don't
you think it's an improvement on my Butterfly, Mr. Damon?"

"It certainly is. You're a wonder, Tom! Look out! What are you up to?"
for the machine had suddenly swerved in a startling manner.

"Oh, that's just a new kind of spiral dip I was trying," answered Tom.
"I couldn't do that with my other machine, for I couldn't turn sharp
enough."

"Well, don't do it right away again," begged Mr. Damon, who had turned
a little white, and whose breath was coming in gasps, even though he
was used to hair-raising stunts in the frail craft of the air.

Tom did not take his machine far away, for he did not want to exhibit
it to the public yet, and he preferred to remain in the vicinity of his
home, in case of any accident. So he circled around, did figures of
eight, went up and down on long slants, took sharp turns, and gave the
craft a good tryout.

"Does it satisfy you?" asked Mr. Damon, when Tom had once more made the
spiral dip, but not at high speed.

"In a way, yes," was the answer. "I see a chance for several changes
and improvements. Of course, I know nothing about the speed yet, and
that's something that I'm anxious about, for I built this with the idea
of breaking all records, and nothing else. I know, now, that I can
construct a craft that will successfully navigate the air; in fact,
there are any number of people who can do that; but to construct a
monoplane that will beat anything ever before made is a different
thing. I don't yet know that I have done it."

"When will yo