Those who have read the previous books of this series need no
introduction to him, but in justice to my new readers I must make a
little explanation.
Tom Swift was an inventor, as was his father before him. But Mr. Swift
was getting too old, now, to do much, though he had a pet
invention--that of a gyroscope--on which he worked from time to time.
Tom lived with his father in the village of Shopton, in New York state.
His mother was dead, but a housekeeper, named Mrs. Baggert, looked after
the wants of the inventors, young and old.
The first book of the series was called "Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle,"
and in that I related how Tom bought the machine from a Mr. Wakefield
Damon, of Waterford, after the odd gentleman had unintentionally started
to climb a tree with it. That disgusted Mr. Damon with motor-cycling,
and Tom had lots of fun on the machine, and not a few daring adventures.
He and Mr. Damon became firm friends, and the oddity of the
gentleman--mainly that of blessing everything he could think of--was no
objection in Tom's mind. The young inventor and Ned Newton went on many
trips together, Mr. Damon being one of the party.
In Shopton lived Andy Foger, a bullying sort of a chap, who acted very
meanly toward Tom at times. Another resident of the town was a Mr.
Nestor, but Tom was more interested in his daughter Mary than in the
head of the household.
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