Mr. Swift looked at Tom critically. He was plainly going over several matters in his mind and not the least of them was the pluck his son had shown in getting back some valuable papers and a model from a gang of thieves. The lad certainly was entitled to some reward and to allow him to get a boat might properly be part of it.

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Excerpt: ...Ned. "Rad, get the things packed up," directed Tom quickly. "We\'ve had enough to eat and I want to make a good distance before we camp for the night." He wanted to get the colored man busy so the Mexican would have no chance to further question him. "Surely the senors are not going to start off again at once--immediately!" protested Delazes. "We have not yet taken the siesta--the noon-day sleep, and--" "We\'re going to cut out the siestas on this trip," interposed Tom. "We don\'t want to stay here too long. We want to find some good ruins that we can study, and the sooner we find them the better." "Ah, then it is but to study--to photograph ruined cities and get relics, that the senors came to Mexico?" Once more that look of cunning came in the Mexican\'s eyes. "That\'s about it," answered Tom shortly. He did not want to encourage too much familiarity on the part of the contractor. "So, no siestas if you please, Senor Delazes. We can all siesta to-night." "Ah, you Americanos!" exclaimed the Mexican with a shrug of his shoulders. He stroked his shiny black moustache. "You are ever so on the alert! Always moving. Well, be it so, we will travel on--to the ruined city--if we can find one," and he gave Tom a look that the latter could not quite understand. It was hot--very hot--but Tom noticed that about a mile farther on, the trail led into a thick jungle of trees, where it would be shady, and make the going more comfortable. "We\'ll be all right when we get there," he said to the others. It was not with very good grace that the Mexicans got their ox teams ready. They had not objected very much when, on the day before Tom had insisted on starting off right after the mid-day meal, but now when it seemed that it was going to be a settled policy to omit the siesta, or noon sleep, there was some grumbling. "They may make trouble for us, Tom," said in a low voice. "Maybe you\'d better give in to them." "Not much!" exclaimed the young inventor. "If I do they\'ll...

The Hardy Boys meets Alex Rider in this second novel in a brand-new series starring everyone's favorite inventor—Tom Swift!Tom gets to take all sorts of cool classes at the Swift Academy of Science and Technology, but robotics may be the one he is most excited for. Their teacher is holding a battling robot tournament, and Tom has to build a machine that will come out on top. With the final battle coming up, Tom and his friends need as much time as possible to refine their masterpiece. But the rest of their teachers have been giving so many pop quizzes that they can barely focus in class, never mind concentrate on the tournament. Naturally, everyone is frustrated with the trend...until a mysterious new phone app appears. If students get pop quizzes during first period, they can warn everyone else about it by getting their phones to emit a high-pitched sound—a mosquito alarm—that adults can't hear. Tom is unsure about the whole...

American boys\' fiction under pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate who produced Tom Swift series, Nancy Drew mysteries, the Hardy Boys, Dave Fearless and many others. Far ranging adventures through the sky over Russia, as Tom and his friends search for the lost Platinum mines. Tom and his friends join up with a Russian escape from the Siberian mines and after Tom builds another plane, or in this case a glider to ride the fierce winds of the Siberian wilds, head off to rescue the Russian\'s Brother and rediscover a lost platinum mine. Needless to say they had many adventures and escapes on this adventure.

Victor Appleton was a popular author in the 20th century, but Victor was not a single individual. instead, that name was used as a pseudonym by the Stratemeyer Syndicate to put out the popular Tom Swift series.

Victor Appleton was a popular author in the 20th century, but Victor was not a single individual. instead, that name was used as a pseudonym by the Stratemeyer Syndicate to put out the popular Tom Swift series.

Chapter I A Strange Request Tom Swift closed the book of adventures he had been reading, tossed it on the table, and got up. Then he yawned. "What\'s the matter?" asked his chum, Ned Newton, who was deep in another volume. "Oh, I thought this was going to be something exciting," replied Tom, motioning toward the book he had discarded. "But say! the make-believe adventures that fellow had, weren\'t anything compared to those we went through in the city of gold, or while rescuing the exiles of Siberia." "Well," remarked Ned, "they would have to be pretty classy adventures to lay over those you and I have had lately. But where are you going?" he continued, for Tom had taken his cap and started for the door. "I thought I\'d go out and take a little run in the aeroplane. Want to come along? It\'s more fun than sitting in the house reading about exciting things that never have happened. Come on out and--" "Yes, and have a tumble from the aeroplane, I suppose you were going to say," interrupted Ned with a laugh. "Not much! I\'m going to stay here and finish this book." "Say," demanded Tom indignantly. "Did you ever know me to have a tumble since I knew how to run an airship?" "No, I can\'t say that I did. I was only joking." "Then you carried the joke too far, as the policeman said to the man he found lugging off money from the bank. And to make up for it you\'ve got to come along with me." "Where are you going?" "Oh, anywhere. Just to take a little run in the upper regions, and clear some of the cobwebs out of my head. I declare, I guess I\'ve got the spring fever. I haven\'t done anything since we got back from Russia last fall, and I\'m getting rusty." "You haven\'t done anything!" exclaimed Ned, following his chum\'s example by tossing aside the book. "Do you call working on your new invention of a noiseless airship nothing?" "Well, I haven\'t finished that yet. I\'m tired of inventing things. I just want to go off, and have some good fun, like getting shipwrecked on a desert island, or being lost in the mountains, or something like that. I want action. I want to get off in the jungle, and fight wild beasts, and escape from the savages!" "Say! you don\'t want much," commented Ned. "But I feel the same way, Tom." "Then come on out and take a run, and maybe we\'ll get on the track of an adventure," urged the young inventor. "We won\'t go far, just twenty or thirty miles or so." The two youths emerged from the house and started across the big lawn toward the aeroplane sheds, for Tom Swift owned several speedy aircrafts, from a big combined aeroplane and dirigible balloon, to a little monoplane not much larger than a big bird, but which was the most rapid flier that ever breathed the fumes of gasolene. "Which one you going to take, Tom?" asked Ned, as his chum paused in front of the row of hangars. "Oh, the little double-seated monoplane, I guess that\'s in good shape, and it\'s easy to manage. When I\'m out for fun I hate to be tinkering with levers and warping wing tips all the while. The Lark practically flies herself, and we can sit back and take it easy....

Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters; Or, Battling with Flames from the Air By , Victor Appleton

Chapter One The Prize Offer "Is this Tom Swift, the inventor of several airships?" The man who had rung the bell glanced at the youth who answered his summons. "Yes, I\'m Tom Swift," was the reply. "Did you wish to see me?" "I do. I\'m Mr. James Gunmore, secretary of the Eagle Park Aviation Association. I had some correspondence with you about a prize contest we are going to hold. I believe—" "Oh, yes, I remember now," and the young inventor smiled pleasantly as he opened wider the door of his home. "Won\'t you come in? My father will be glad to see you. He is as much interested in airships as I am." And Tom led the way to the library, where the secretary of the aviation society was soon seated in a big, comfortable leather chair. "I thought we could do better, and perhaps come to some decision more quickly, if I came to see you, than if we corresponded," went on Mr. Gunmore. "I hope I haven\'t disturbed you at any of your inventions," and the secretary smiled at the youth. "No. I\'m through for to-day," replied Tom. "I\'m glad to see you. I thought at first it was my chum, Ned Newton. He generally runs over in the evening." "Our society, as I wrote you, Mr. Swift, is planning to hold a very large and important aviation meet at Eagle Park, which is a suburb of Westville, New York State. We expect to have all the prominent \'bird-men\' there, to compete for prizes, and your name was mentioned. I wrote to you, as you doubtless recall, asking if you did not care to enter." "And I think I wrote you that my big aeroplane-dirigible, the Red Cloud, was destroyed in Alaska, during a recent trip we made to the caves of ice there, after gold," replied Tom. "Yes, you did," admitted Mr. Gunmore, "and while our committee was very sorry to hear that, we hoped you might have some other air craft that you could enter at our meet. We want to make it as complete as possible, and we all feel that it would not be so unless we had a Swift aeroplane there." "It\'s very kind of you to say so," remarked Tom, "but since my big craft was destroyed I really have nothing I could enter." "Haven\'t you an aeroplane of any kind? I made this trip especially to get you to enter. Haven\'t you anything in which you could compete for the prizes? There are several to be offered, some for distance flights, some for altitude, and the largest, ten thousand dollars, for the speediest craft. Ten thousand dollars is the grand prize, to be awarded for the quickest flight on record." "I surely would like to try for that," said Tim, "but the only craft I have is a small monoplane, the Butterfly, I call it, and while it is very speedy, there have been such advances made in aeroplane construction since I made mine that I fear I would be distanced if I raced in her. And I wouldn\'t like that." "No," agreed Mr. Gunmore. "I suppose not. Still, I do wish we could induce you to enter. I don\'t mind telling you that we consider you a drawing-card. Can\'t we induce you, some way?" "I\'m afraid not. I haven\'t any machine which—" "Look here!" exclaimed the secretary eagerly....