Tom Swift and His Air Scout | Page 3

You provide, or agree to also provide on request at no additional
cost, fee or expense, a copy of the etext in its original plain ASCII form
(or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this "Small

Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the net profits
you derive calculated using the method you already use to calculate
your applicable taxes. If you don't derive profits, no royalty is due.
Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg
Association/Carnegie-Mellon University" within the 60 days following
each date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual
(or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU
DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning
machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright
licenses, and every other sort of contribution you can think of. Money
should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association / Carnegie-Mellon
University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

This Etext was prepared for Project Gutenberg by Anthony Matonac.

TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT OR Uncle Sam's Mastery of the
Sky

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
A SKY RIDE II A NEW IDEA III THE BIG OFFER IV MR.

DAMON'S WHIZZER V TOM'S PROJECT VI MAKING PLANS VII
A PROBLEM IN SOUND VIII THROUGH THE ROOF IX AFTER A
SPY X A BIG SPLASH XI A NIGHT TRIP XII THE CRY FOR
HELP XIII SOMETHING QUEER XIV THE TELEPHONE CALL
XV A VAIN SEARCH XVI THE LONG NIGHT XVII SILENT SAM
XVIII SUSPICIONS XIX ANOTHER FLIGHT XX QUEER MARKS
XXI THE DESERTED CABIN XXII CLEWS AT LAST XXIII THE
GOVERNMENT TEST XXIV IN THE MOONLIGHT XXV THE
GOLD TOOTH

TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT
CHAPTER I
A SKY RIDE
"Oh Tom, is it really safe?"
A young lady--an exceedingly pretty young lady, she could be
called--stood with one small, gloved hand on the outstretched wing of
an aeroplane, and looked up at a young man, attired in a leather,
fur-lined suit, who sat in the cockpit of the machine just above her.
"Safe, Mary?" repeated the pilot, as he reached in under the hood of the
craft to make sure about one of the controls. "Why, you ought to know
by this time that I wouldn't go up if it wasn't safe!"
"Oh, yes, I know, Tom. It may be all right for you, but I've never been
up in this kind of airship before, and I want to know if it's safe for me."
The young man leaned over the edge of the padded cockpit, and
clasped in his rather grimy hand the neatly gloved one of the young
lady. And though the glove was new, and fitted the hand perfectly,
there was no attempt to withdraw it. Instead, the young lady seemed to
be very glad indeed that her hand was in such safe keeping.
"Mary!" exclaimed the young man, "if it wasn't safe--as safe as a

church--I wouldn't dream of taking you up!" and at the mention of
"church" Mary Nestor blushed just the least bit. Or perhaps it was that
the prospective excitement of the moment caused the blood to surge
into her cheeks. Have it as you will.
"Come, Mary! you're not going to back out the last minute, are you?"
asked Tom Swift. "Everything is all right. I've made a trial flight, and
you've seen me come down as safely as a bird. You promised to go up
with me. I won't go very high if you don't like it, but my experience has
been that, once you're off the ground, it doesn't make any difference
how high you go. you'll find it very fascinating. So skip along to the
house, and Mrs. Baggert will help you get into your togs."
"Shall I have to wear all those things--such as you have on?" asked
Mary, blushing again.
"Well, you'll be more comfortable in a fur-lined leather suit," asserted
Tom. "And if it does make you look like an Eskimo, why I'm sure it
will be very becoming. Not that you don't look nice now," he hastened
to assure Miss Nestor, "but an aviation suit will be very--well, fetching,
I should say."
"If I could be sure it would 'fetch' me back safe, Tom--"
"That'll do! That'll do!" laughed the young aviator. "One joke like that
is enough in a morning. It was pretty good, though. Now go on in and
tog up."
"You're sure it's safe, Tom?"
"Positive! Trot along now. I want to fix a wire and--"
"Oh, is anything broken?" and the girl, who had started away from the
aeroplane, turned back again.
"No, not broken. It's only a little auxiliary dingus I put