somewhat hurt, and the young inventor took him in. Tom and his
father lived in the village of Shopton, New York, and Mr. Swift was
an inventor of note. His son followed in his footsteps. Mrs. Swift
had been dead some years, and they had a good housekeeper, Mrs.
Baggert.

Another "member" of the family was Eradicate Sampson, a colored man
of all work, who said he was named "Eradicate" because he
"eradicated" the dirt. He used to do odd jobs of whitewashing before
he was regularly employed by Mr. Swift as a sort of gardener and
watchman.

In the first book I told how Tom bought the motor cycle from Mr.
Damon, fixed it up, and had many adventures on it, not the least of
which was saving some valuable patent models of his father's which
some thieves had taken.

Then Tom Swift got a motor boat, as related in the second volume of
the series, and he had many exciting trips in that craft. Following
that he made his first airship with the help of a veteran balloonist
and then, not satisfied with adventures in the air, he and his
father perfected a wonderful submarine boat in which they went under
the ocean for sunken treasure.

The automobile industry was fast forging to the front when Tom came
back from his trip under water, and naturally he turned his
attention to that. But he made an electric car instead of one that
was operated by gasolene, and it proved to be the speediest car on
the road.