"Tom Swift and His Wireless Message" told of the young inventor's plan
to save the castaways of Earthquake Island, and how he accomplished it
by constructing a wireless plant from the remains of the wrecked airship
Whizzer. After Tom got back from Earthquake Island he went with Mr.
Barcoe Jenks, whom he met on the ill-fated bit of land, to discover the
secret of the diamond makers. They found the mysterious men, but the
trip was not entirely successful, for the mountain containing the cave
where the diamonds were made was destroyed by a lightning shock, just as
Mr. Parker, a celebrated scientist, who accompanied the party, said it
would be.

But his adventure in seeking to discover the secret of making precious
stones did not satisfy Tom Swift, and when he and his friends got back
from the mountains they prepared to go to Alaska to search for gold in
the caves of ice. They were almost defeated in their purpose by the
actions of Andy Foger and his father, who in an under-hand manner, got
possession of a valuable map, showing the location of the gold, and made
a copy of the drawing.

Then, when Tom and his friends set off in the Red Cloud, as related in
"Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice," the Fogers, in another airship, did
likewise. But Tom and his party were first on the scene, and
accomplished their purpose, though they had to fight the savage Indians.
The airship was wrecked in a cave of ice, that collapsed on it, and the
survivors had desperate work getting away from the frozen North.

Tom had been home all the following winter and spring, and he had done
little more than work on some small inventions, when a new turn was
given his thoughts and energies by a visit from Mr. Gunmore, as narrated
in the first chapter of the present volume.