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