While Tom and his chum are in the house of the Russian, who so strangely
produced the platinum just when it was most needed, I am going to take
just a little time to tell you something about the hero of this story.
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