continually blessing himself, some part of his anatomy, or his
possessions. Mr. Damon was riding a motor-cycle, and it started
to climb a tree, to his pain and fright. Afterward Tom purchased
the machine, and had many adventures on it, including a chase
after a gang of men who had stolen a valuable patent model
belonging to Mr. Swift.
Mr. Swift, and his son were both inventors. They lived together
in a fine house in the suburbs of Shopton, New York, and with
them dwelt Mrs. Baggert, the housekeeper (for Tom's mother was
dead), and also Garret Jackson, an expert engineer, who aided the
young inventor and his father in perfecting many machines.
There was also another semi-member of the household, to wit,
Eradicate Sampson, an eccentric colored man, who owned a mule
called Boomerang. Eradicate did odd jobs around the place, and
the mule assisted his owner--that is when the mule felt like it.
In the second volume of the series, entitled "Tom Swift and His
Motor-Boat," there was related the incidents following a pursuit
after a gang of unprincipled men, who sought to get Possession of
some of Mr. Swift's patents, and it was while in this boat that
Tom, his father, and a friend, Ned Newton, rescued from Lake
Carlopa a Mr. John Sharp, who fell from his burning balloon. Mr.
Sharp was a skilled aeronaut, and after his recovery he joined
Tom in building a big airship, called the Red Cloud. Tom's
adventures in this craft are set down in detail in the third
volume of the series, called "Tom Swift and His Airship." Not
only did he and Mr. Sharp and Mr. Damon make a great trip, but
they captured some bank robbers, and incidentally cleared
themselves from the imputation of having looted the vault of
seventy-five thousand dollars, which charge was fostered by a
certain Mr. Foger, and his son Andy, who was Tom's enemy.
Not satisfied with having conquered the air, Tom and his father
set to work to gain a victory over the ocean. They built a boat
that could navigate under water, and, in the fourth book of the
series, called "Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat," you will find
an account of how they went under the ocean to secure a sunken
treasure, and the fight they had with their enemies who sought to
get it away from them. They went through many perils, not the
least of which was capture by a foreign warship.
In the fifth book, entitled "Tom Swift and His Electric
Runabout," there was told the story of a wonderfully speedy
electric automobile the young inventor constructed, and how he
made a great race in it, and saved from ruin a bank, in which his
father and Mr. Damon were interested.
Tom's ability as an inventor had, by this time, become well
known. One day, as related in a volume called "Tom Swift and His
Wireless Message," he received a letter from a Mr. Hosmer
Fenwick, of Philadelphia, asking his aid in perfecting an airship
which the resident of the Quaker City had built, but which would
not work. In his small monoplane, the Butterfly, Tom and Mr.
Damon went to Philadelphia, as Mr. Damon was acquainted with Mr.
Fenwick.