ANDY FOGER'S TRIPLANE


"Going to look for a valley of gold, eh?" remarked Ned Newton as he
and Tom took seats in a little room, fitted up like a den, where the
young inventor frequently worked out the details of the problems
that confronted him. "Where is this valley, Tom? Anywhere so I could
have a chance at it?"

"It's up in Alaska. Just where I don't know, but Abe Abercrombie,
the old miner whom we met when out in Colorado this summer, says he
can find it if we circle around in the airship. So I'm going to take
a chance. I'll tell you all about it."

And, while Tom is doing this, I will take the opportunity to more
formally introduce to my new readers our hero and his friends.

Tom Swift was an inventor of no little note, in spite of his youth.
He lived with his father, Barton Swift, who was also an inventor, on
the outskirts of the village of Shopton, New York State. Tom's
mother was dead, and Mrs. Baggert had kept house for him and his
father since he was a child. Garret Jackson, an expert machinist,
was also a member of the household, and as has been explained,
Eradicate Sampson, who took that name because, as he said he
"eradicate de dirt," was also a sort of retainer. He lived in a
little house on the Swift grounds, and did odd jobs about the place.

In the first book of the series, entitled "Tom Swift and His Motor
Cycle," there was related how the lad became possessed of one of