"Well, if you've fully made up your mind," went on the young inventor, a
little mollified, "lend me a hand to get her in shape for a run. I
expect to make faster time than I ever did before, and I'm going to head
out Waterford way. You'd better come along, Mr. Damon, and I'll drop you
off at your house."

"Bless my feather bed!" gasped the man. "Drop me off! I like that, Tom
Swift!"

"Oh, I didn't mean it exactly that way," laughed Tom. "But will you
come."

"No, thanks, I'm going home by trolley," and then as the odd man went in
the house to speak to Tom's father, the two lads busied themselves about
the airship.

This was a large aeroplane, one of the largest Tom Swift had ever
constructed, and he was a lad who had invented many kinds of machinery
besides crafts for navigating the upper regions. It was not as large as
his combined aeroplane and dirigible balloon of which I have told you in
other books, but it was of sufficient size to carry three persons
besides other weight.

Tom had built it some years before, and it had seemed good enough then.
Later he constructed some of different models, besides the big
combination affair, and he had gone on several trips in that.

He and his chum Ned, together with Eradicate Sampson, the colored man,
and Mr. Damon, had been to a wonderful underground city of gold in
Mexico, and it was soon after their return from this perilous trip that