"Guess I'd better get a blank check and some money," replied Tom
as he entered the house. "I'll need to pay a deposit if I secure
the boat."

"That's so. Well, good luck," and with his mind busy on a plan
for a new kind of storage battery, the inventor went on to his
workroom. Tom got some cash and his checkbook from a small safe
he owned and was soon speeding over the road to Lanton, his motor-
cycle making quite a cloud of dust. While he is thus hurrying
along to the auction I will tell you something about him.

Tom Swift, son of Barton Swift, lived with his father and a
motherly housekeeper, Mrs. Baggert, in a large house on the
outskirts of the town of Shopton, in New York State. Mr. Swift
had acquired considerable wealth from his many inventions and
patents, but he did not give up working out his ideas simply
because he had plenty of money. Tom followed in the footsteps of
his parent and had already taken out several patents.

Shortly before this story opens the youth had become possessed of
a motor-cycle in a peculiar fashion. As told in the first volume
of this series, entitled "Tom Swift and His Motor-cycle," Tom was
riding to the town of Mansburg on an errand for his father one day
when he was nearly run down by a motorcyclist. A little later the
same motorcyclist, who was a Mr. Wakefield Damon, of Waterfield,
collided with a tree near Tom's home and was severely cut and
bruised, the machine being broken. Tom and his father cared for
the injured rider, and Mr. Damon, who was an eccentric individual,
was so disheartened by his attempts to ride the motor-cycle that