Tom Swift in Captivity | Page 4

tried
to lead his friend out from behind the shed door.
"Look here, Tom Swift!" exclaimed the odd gentleman indignantly.
"Do you think I'm crazy? Lie down? Rest myself? Go to sleep? Say,
I'm not crazy! I'm not tired! I'm not sleepy! This is the greatest chance

you ever had, and if we get one of those giants--"
"Yes, yes, we'll get one," put in Ned soothingly.
"Of course," added Tom. "Come on, now, Mr. Damon. You'll feel
better after you've had a rest. Dr. Perkinby is coming over to see father
and I'll have him--"
Mr. Damon gave one startled glance at the young inventor and his
chum, and then burst into a peal of hearty laughter.
"Oh, my!" he exclaimed at intervals in his pyroxisms. "Oh, dear! He
thinks I'm out of my head! He can't stand that talk about giants! Oh
dear! Tom Swift, this is the greatest chance you ever had! Come on in
the house and I'll tell you all I know about giant land, and then if you
want to think I'm crazy you can, that's all I've got to say!"
CHAPTER II
THE CIRCUS MAN
Without a word Tom and Ned followed Mr. Damon toward the Swift
house. Truth to tell the youths did not know what to say, or they would
have been bubbling over with questions. But the talk of the odd man,
and his strange request to Tom to go off and capture a giant had so
startled the young inventor and his chum that they did not know
whether to think that Mr. Damon was joking, or whether he had
suddenly taken leave of his senses.
And while I have a few minutes that are occupied in the journey to the
house I will introduce my new readers more formally to Tom Swift and
his friends.
Tom though only a young man, was an inventor of note, as his father
was before him. Father and son lived in a fine house in the town of
Shopton, in New York state, and Mrs. Swift being dead, the two were
well looked after by Mrs. Baggert their housekeeper. Eradicate
Sampson, as I have said, was the man of all work about the place. Ned

Newton who had a position in a Shopton bank, was Tom's particular
chum, and Mr. Wakefeld Damon, of the neighboring town of
Waterfield, was a friend to all who knew him. He had the odd habit of
blessing anything and everything he could think of, interspersing it in
his talk.
In the first volume of this series, called "Tom Swift and His Motor-
Cycle," I related how Tom made the acquaintance of Mr. Damon,
afterward purchasing a damaged motor-cycle from the odd gentleman.
On this machine Tom had many adventures, incidentally saving some
of his father's valuable patents from a gang of conspirators. Later Tom
got a motor boat, and had many races with his rivals on Lake Carlopa,
beating Andy Foger, the red-haired bully of the town, in signal fashion.
After his adventures on the water Tom sighed for some in the air, and
he had them in his airship the Red Cloud.
"Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat." is a story of a search after
sunken treasure, and, returning from that quest Tom built an electric
runabout, the speedest car on the road. By means of a wireless message,
later, Tom was able to save himself and the castaways of Earthquake
Island, and, as a direct outcome of that experience, he was able to go in
search of the diamond makers, and solve the secret of Phantom
Mountain, as told in the book dealing with that subject.
When he went to the caves of ice Tom had bad luck, for his airship was
wrecked, and he endured many hardships in getting home with his
companions, particularly as Andy Foger sought revenge on him.
But Tom pluckily overcame all obstacles and, later, he built a sky racer,
in which he made the quickest trip on record. After that, with his
electric rifle, he went after elephants in the interior of Africa and was
successful in rescuing some missionaries from the terrible red pygmies.
One of the mission workers, later, sent Tom details about a buried city
of gold in Mexico, and Tom and his chum together with Mr. Damon
located this mysterious place after much trouble, as told in the book
entitled, "Tom Swift in the City of Gold." The gold did not prove as
valuable as they expected, as it was of low grade, but they got

considerable money for it, and were then ready for more adventures.
The adventures soon came, as those of you who have read the book
called, "Tom Swift and His Air Glider," can testify. In that I told how
Tom went to