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Page 8
Tom Swift, after his arrival home, went on an expedition among a
gang of men known as the "Diamond Makers" who were hidden in the
Rocky Mountains. He was accompanied by Mr. Barcoe Jenks, one of the
castaways of Earthquake Island. They found the diamond makers, and
had some surprising adventures, barely escaping with their lives.
This did not daunt Tom, however, and he once more started off on an
expedition in his airship the Red Cloud to Alaska, amid the caves of
ice. He was searching for a valley of gold, and though he and his
friends found it, they came to grief. The Fogers, father and son,
tried to steal the gold from them, and, failing in that, incited the
Eskimos against our friends. There was a battle, but the forces of
nature were even more to be dreaded than the terrible savages.
The ice cave, in which the Red Cloud was stored, collapsed, crushing
the gallant craft, and burying it out of sight forever under
thousand of tons of the frozen bergs.
After a desperate journey Tom and his friends reached civilization,
with a large supply of gold. Tom regretted very much the destruction
of the airship, but he at once set to work on another--a monoplane
this time, instead of a combined aeroplane and dirigible balloon.
This new craft he called the Humming Bird and it was a "sky racer"
of terrific speed. In it, as we have said, Tom brought a specialist
to operate on his father, when, because of a broken railroad bridge,
the physician could not otherwise have gotten to Shopton. He and Tom
traveled through the air at the rate of over one hundred miles an
hour. Later, Tom took part in a big race for a ten-thousand-dollar
prize, and won, defeating Andy Foger, and a number of well-known
"bird-men" who used biplanes and monoplanes of a more or less
familiar type.
The government became interested in Tom's craft, the Humming Bird,
and, as told in the ninth book of this series, Tom Swift and His Sky
Racer, they secured some rights in the invention.
And now Tom, who had done nothing for several months following the
great race--that is, nothing save to work on his new rifle--Tom, we
say, sighed for new adventures.
"Well, Tom, what is on your mind?" asked his father at the supper
table that evening. "What is worrying you?"
"Nothing is worrying me, Dad."
"You are thinking of something. I can see that. Are you afraid your
electric rifle won't work as well as you hope, when Ned comes over
to try it?"
"No, it isn't that, Dad. But I may as well tell you, I guess. I've
been reading in the paper about a big elephant hunt in Africa, and
I--"
"That's enough, Tom! You needn't say any more," interrupted Mr.
Swift. "I can see which way the wind is blowing. You want to go to
Africa with your new rifle."
"Well, Dad, not exactly--that is--"
"Now, Tom, you needn't deny it," and Mr. Swift laughed. "Well, I
don't blame you a bit. You have been rather idle of late."
"I would like to go, Dad," admitted the young inventor, "only I'd
never think of it while you weren't well."
"Don't worry about me, Tom. Of course I will be lonesome while you
are gone, but don't let that stand in the way. If you want to go to
Africa, you may start to-morrow, and take your new rifle with you."
"The rifle part would be all right, Dad, but if I went I'd want to
take an airship along, and it will take me some little time to
finish the Black Hawk, as I have named my new craft."
"Well, there's no special hurry, is there?" asked Mr. Swift. "The
elephants in Africa are likely to stay there for some time. If you
want to go, why don't you get right to work on the Black Hawk and
make the trip? I'd like to go myself."
"I wish you would, Dad," exclaimed Tom eagerly.
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