Tom Swift Among the Diamond Makers | Page 6

aeronaut, and
after his recovery he joined Tom in building a big airship, called the
Red Cloud. Tom's adventures in this craft are set down in detail in the
third volume of the series, called "Tom Swift and His Airship." Not
only did he and Mr. Sharp and Mr. Damon make a great trip, but they
captured some bank robbers, and incidentally cleared themselves from
the imputation of having looted the vault of seventy-five thousand
dollars, which charge was fostered by a certain Mr. Foger, and his son
Andy, who was Tom's enemy.
Not satisfied with having conquered the air, Tom and his father set to
work to gain a victory over the ocean. They built a boat that could
navigate under water, and, in the fourth book of the series, called "Tom
Swift and His Submarine Boat," you will find an account of how they
went under the ocean to secure a sunken treasure, and the fight they had
with their enemies who sought to get it away from them. They went
through many perils, not the least of which was capture by a foreign
warship.
In the fifth book, entitled "Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout," there
was told the story of a wonderfully speedy electric automobile the
young inventor constructed, and how he made a great race in it, and
saved from ruin a bank, in which his father and Mr. Damon were
interested.
Tom's ability as an inventor had, by this time, become well known. One
day, as related in a volume called "Tom Swift and His Wireless
Message," he received a letter from a Mr. Hosmer Fenwick, of
Philadelphia, asking his aid in perfecting an airship which the resident
of the Quaker City had built, but which would not work. In his small
monoplane, the Butterfly, Tom and Mr. Damon went to Philadelphia,
as Mr. Damon was acquainted with Mr. Fenwick.

Tom carefully inspected the Whizzer which was the name of Mr.
Fenwick's airship, and, after some difficulties, succeeded in getting the
electric craft in shape to make a flight.
Tom, Mr. Damon and Mr. Fenwick started to make a trip to Cape May
in the Whizzer, but were caught in a terrific storm, and blown out to sea.
The wind became a hurricane, the airship was disabled, and wrecked in
mid-air. When it fell to earth it landed on one of the small West Indian
islands, but what was the terror of the three castaways to find that the
island was subject to earthquake shocks.
But the earth-tremors were not the only surprise in store for Tom and
his two friends, On the island they found five men and two ladies, who,
by strange chance, had been stranded there when the yacht Resolute,
owned by Mr. George Hosbrook, was wrecked in the same storm that
disabled the airship. Mr. Hosbrook, a millionaire, was taking a party of
friends to the West Indies.
When the castaways (among whom were Mr. and Mrs. Amos Nestor,
parents of Mary Nestor, a girl of whom Tom was very fond) found that
there was danger of the island being destroyed in an earthquake, they
were in despair. There seemed no way of being rescued, as the island
was out of the line of regular ship travel.
Tom, however, was resourceful. With the electrical apparatus from the
wrecked airship, he built a wireless plant, and sent messages for help,
broadcast over the ocean.
They were finally heard, and answered, by an operator on board the
steamer Camberanian, which came on under forced draught, and
rescued Tom and his friends. It was only just in time, for, no sooner
had they gotten aboard the steamer in lifeboats, than the whole island
was destroyed by an earthquake shock.
But Tom, the parents of Mary Nestor, Mr. Damon, Mr. Fenwick, and
all the others, got safely home. Among the survivors from the yacht
Resolute was a Mr. Barcoe Jenks, who now, most unexpectedly, had
confronted Tom through the glass window of the jewelry store. Mr.

Jenks was a peculiar man. Tom discovered this on Earthquake Island.
Mr. Jenks carried with him some stones which he said were diamonds.
He asserted that he had made them, but Tom did not know whether or
not to believe this.
When it seemed that the castaways would not be saved Mr. Jenks
offered Tom a large sum in these same diamonds for some plan
whereby he might escape the earthquakes. Mr. Jenks said there was a
certain secret in connection with the manufactured diamonds that he
had to solve--that he had been defrauded of his rights-- and that a
certain Phantom Mountain figured in it. But Tom, at that time, paid
little attention to Mr. Jenks' talk. The time was to come, however, when
he would attach much importance