Tom Swift in the City of Gold | Page 5

do nothing but
seek adventures and invent flying machines. Of the latter the lad had a
goodly number, some of which involved new and startling ideas. For

Tom was a lad who "did things."
In the first volume of this series, entitled "Tom Swift and His Motor
Cycle," I told you how he became acquainted with Mr. Damon. That
eccentric individual was riding a motor cycle, when it started to climb a
tree. Mr. Damon was thrown off in front of Tom's house, somewhat
hurt, and the young inventor took him in. Tom and his father lived in
the village of Shopton, New York, and Mr. Swift was an inventor of
note. His son followed in his footsteps. Mrs. Swift had been dead some
years, and they had a good housekeeper, Mrs. Baggert.
Another "member" of the family was Eradicate Sampson, a colored
man of all work, who said he was named "Eradicate" because he
"eradicated" the dirt. He used to do odd jobs of whitewashing before he
was regularly employed by Mr. Swift as a sort of gardener and
watchman.
In the first book I told how Tom bought the motor cycle from Mr.
Damon, fixed it up, and had many adventures on it, not the least of
which was saving some valuable patent models of his father's which
some thieves had taken.
Then Tom Swift got a motor boat, as related in the second volume of
the series, and he had many exciting trips in that craft. Following that
he made his first airship with the help of a veteran balloonist and then,
not satisfied with adventures in the air, he and his father perfected a
wonderful submarine boat in which they went under the ocean for
sunken treasure.
The automobile industry was fast forging to the front when Tom came
back from his trip under water, and naturally he turned his attention to
that. But he made an electric car instead of one that was operated by
gasolene, and it proved to be the speediest car on the road.
The details of Tom Swift and his wireless message will be found in the
book of that title. It tells how he saved the castaways of Earthquake
Island, and among them was Mr. Nestor, the father of Mary, a girl
whom Tom thought--but there, I'm not going to be mean, and tell on a

good fellow. You can guess what I'm hinting at, I think.
It was when Tom went to get Mary Nestor a diamond ring that he fell
in with Mr. Barcoe Jenks, who eventually took Tom off on a search for
the diamond makers, and he and Tom, with some friends, discovered
the secret of Phantom Mountain.
One would have thought that these adventures would have been enough
for Tom Swift, but, like Alexander, he sighed for new worlds to
conquer. How he went to the caves of ice in search of treasure, and how
his airship was wrecked is told in the eighth volume of the series, and
in the next is related the details of his swift sky- racer, in which he and
Mr. Damon made a wonderfully fast trip, and brought a doctor to Mr.
Swift in time to save the life of the aged inventor.
It was when Tom invented a wonderful electric rifle, and went to Africa
with a Mr. Durban, a great hunter, to get elephants' tusks, that he
rescued Mr. and Mrs. Illingway, the missionaries, who were held
captive by red pygmies.
That was a startling trip, and full of surprises. Tom took with him to the
dark continent a new airship, the Black Hawk, and but for this he and
his friends never would have escaped from the savages and the wild
beasts.
As it was, they had a hazardous time getting the missionary and his
wife away from the jungle. It was this same missionary who, as told in
the first chapter of this book, sent Tom the letter about the city of gold.
Mr. Illingway and his wife wanted to stay in Africa in an endeavor to
christianize the natives, even after their terrible experience. So Tom
landed them at a white settlement. It was from there that the letter
came.
But the missionaries were not the only ones whom Tom saved from the
red pygmies. Andy Foger, a Shopton youth, was Tom's enemy, and he
had interfered with our hero's plans in his trips. He even had an airship
made, and followed Tom to Africa. There Andy Foger and his
companion, a German were captured by the savages. But though Tom

saved his life, Andy did not seem to give over annoying the young
inventor. Andy was born mean, and, as Eradicate Sampson used to say,
"dat meanness neber will done git whitewashed outer him--dat's a
fack!"