The young inventor was introduced in the first volume of this
series, called "Tom Swift and his Motor Cycle." It was Tom's
first venture into the realms of invention, after he had
purchased from Mr. Wakefield Damon a speedy machine that tried to
climb a tree with that excitable gentleman.

Tom, with the help of his father, an inventor of note, rebuilt
the motor cycle adding many improvements, and it served Tom in
good stead more than once.

From then on the career of Tom Swift was steadily onward and
upward. One new invention led to another from his second venture,
a motor boat, through an airship and other marvels, and
eventually to a submarine. In each of these vehicles of motion
and travel Tom and his friends, Ned Newton and Mr. Damon, had
many adventures, detailed in the respective volumes.

His venture in proceeding to save Mary Nestor from possible
danger in the blaze of the fireworks factory was not the first
time Tom had rendered service to the Nestor family. There was
that occasion on which he had sent his wireless message from
Earthquake Island, as related in an earlier volume.

Space forbids the detailing of all that had happened to the
young inventor up to the time of the opening of this story.
Sufficient to say that Tom's latest achievement had been the
recovery of treasure from the depths of the ocean.

Tom Swift's activities in connection with his inventions had