81
18 AFTER THE CASH
87
19 STOPPED ON THE ROAD
91
3 4
CONTENTS
20 ON TIME
95
21 OFF TO THE BIG RACE
101
22 IN A DITCH
105
23 THE POWER GONE
107
24 ON THE TRACK
111
25 WINNING THE PRIZE
115 Chapter 1
TOM HOPES FOR A
PRIZE
Father, exclaimed Tom Swift, looking up from a paper he was reading, I
think I can win that prize!
What prize is that? inquired the aged inventor, gazing away from a draw-
ing of a complicated machine, and pausing in his task of making some intricate
calculations. You dont mean to say, Tom, that youre going to have a try for
a government prize for a submarine, after all.
No, not a submarine prize, dad, and the youth laughed. Though our
Advance would take the prize away from almost any other under-water boat, I
imagine. No, its another prize Im thinking about.
What do you mean?
Well, I see by this paper that the Touring Club of America has oered three
thousand dollars for the speediest electric car. The tests are to come o this fall,
on a new and specially built track on Long Island, and its to be an endurance
contest for twenty-four hours, or a race for distance, they havent yet decided.
But Im going to have a try for it, dad, and, besides winning the prize, I think
Ill take Andy Foger down a peg.
Whats Andy been doing now?
Oh, nothing more than usual. Hes always mean, and looking for a chance
to make trouble for me, but I didnt refer to anything special He has a new auto,
you know, and he boasts that its the fastest one in this country. Ill show him
that it isnt, for Im going to win this prize with the speediest car on the road.
But, Tom, you havent any automobile, you know, and Mr. Swift looked
anxiously at his son, who was smiling condently. You cant be going to make
your motor-cycle into an auto; are you?
No, dad.
Then how are you going to take part in the prize contest? Besides, electric
cars, as far as I know, arent specially speedy.
I know it, and one reason why this club has arranged the contest is to
5 6
CHAPTER 1.
TOM HOPES FOR A PRIZE
improve the quality of electric automobiles. Im going to build an electric run-
about, dad.
An electric runabout?
But it will have to be operated with a storage
battery, Tom, and you havent
I guess youre going to say I havent any storage battery, dad, interrupted
Mr. Swifts son. Well, I havent yet, but Im going to have one. Ive been
working on
Oh, ho! exclaimed the aged inventor with a laugh. So thats what youve
been tinkering over these last few weeks, eh, Tom? I suspected it was some new
invention, but I didnt suppose it was that. Well, how are you coming on with
it?
Pretty good, I think. Ive got a new idea for a battery, and I made an
experimental one. I gave it some pretty severe tests, and it worked ne.
But you havent tried it out in a car yet, over rough roads, and under severe
conditions have you?
No, I havent had a chance. In fact, when I invented the battery I had no
idea of using it on a car I thought it might answer for commercial purposes,
or for storing a current generated by windmills. But when I read that account
in the papers of the Touring Club, oering a prize for the best electric car, it
occurred to me that I might put my battery into an auto, and win.
Hum, remarked Mr. Swift musingly. I dont take much stock in electric
autos, Tom. Gasolene seems to be the best, or perhaps steam, generated by
gasolene. Im afraid youll be disappointed. All the electric runabouts I ever
saw, while they were very nice cars, didnt seem able to go so very fast, or very
far.
Thats true, but its because they didnt have the right kind of a battery.
You know an electric locomotive can make pretty good speed, Dad. Over a
hundred miles an hour in tests.
Yes, but they dont run by storage batteries. They have a third rail, and
powerful motors, and Mr. Swift looked quizzically at his son. He loved to
argue with him, for he said it made Tom think, and often the two would thus
thresh out some knotty point of an invention, to the interests of both.
Of course, Dad, there is a good deal of theory in what Im thinking of,
the lad admitted. But it does seem to me that if you put the right kind of a
battery into an automobile, it could scoot along pretty lively. Look what speed
a trolley car can make.
Yes, Tom, but there again they get their power from an overhead wire.
Some of them dont. Theres a new storage battery been invented by a
New Jersey man, which does as well as the third rail or the overhead wire. It
was after reading about his battery that I thought of a plan for mine. It isnt
anything like his; perhaps not as good in some ways, but, for what I want, it is
better in some respects, I think. For one thing it can be recharged very quickly.
Now Tom, look here, said Mr. Swift earnestly, laying aside his papers,
and coming over to where his son sat. You know I never interfere with your
inventions. In fact, the more you think of the better I like it. The airship you
helped build certainly did all that could be desired, and 7
That reminds me. Mr. Sharp and Mr. Damon are out in it now, inter-
rupted Tom. They ought to be back soon. Yes, Dad, the airship Red Cloud
certainly scooted along.
And the submarine, too, continued the aged inventor. Your ideas regard-
ing that were of service to me, and helped in our task of recovering the treasure,
but Im afraid youre going to be disappointed in the storage battery. You may
get it to work, but I dont believe you can make it powerful enough to attain any
great speed. Why dont you conne yourself to making a battery for stationary
work?
Because, Dad, I believe I can build a speedy car, and Im going to try it.
Besides I want to race Andy Foger, and beat him, even if I dont win the prize.
Im going to build that car, and it will make fast time.
Well, go ahead, Tom, responded his father, after a pause. Of course you
can use the shops here as much as you want, and Mr. Sharp, Mr. Jackson, and
I will help you all we can. Only dont be disappointed, thats all.
I wont, Dad. Suppose you come out to my shop and Ill show you a sample
battery Ive been testing for the last week. I have it geared to a small motor,
and its been running steadily for some time. I want to see what sort of a record
its made.
Father and son crossed the yard, and entered a shop which the lad consid-
ered exclusively his own. There he had made many machines, and pieces of
apparatus, and had invented a number of articles which had been patented, and
yielded him considerable of an income.
Theres the battery, Dad, he said, pointing to a complicated mechanism
in one corner
Whats that buzzing noise? asked Mr. Swift. Thats the little motor
I run from the new cells. Look here, and Tom switched on an electric light
above the experimental battery, from which he hoped so much. It consisted
of a steel can, about the size of the square gallon tin in which maple syrup
comes, and from it ran two wires which were attached to a small motor that
was industriously whirring away.
Tom looked at a registering gauge connected with it.
Thats pretty good, remarked the young inventor.
What is it, Tom? and his father peered about the shop.
Why this motor has run an equivalent of two hundred miles on one charging
of the battery! Thats much better than I expected. I thought if I got a hundred
out of it Id be doing well. Dad, I believe, after I improve my battery a bit, that
Ill have the very thing I want! Ill install a set of them in a car, and it will go
like the wind. Ill Toms enthusiastic remarks were suddenly interrupted by
a low, rumbling sound.
Thunder! exclaimed Mr. Swift. The storm is coming, and Mr. Sharp
and Mr. Damon in the airship
Hardly had he spoken than there sounded a crash on the roof of the Swift
house, not far away. At the same time there came cries of distress, and the
crash was repeated. 8
CHAPTER 1.
TOM HOPES FOR A PRIZE
Come on, Dad! Something has happened! yelled Tom, dashing from the
shop, followed by his parent. They found themselves in the midst of a rain
storm, as they raced toward the house, on the roof of which the smashing noise
was again heard. Chapter 2
MR. DAMONS
STEERING
Tom Swift was a lad of action, and his quickness in hurrying out to investigate
what had happened when he was explaining about his new battery, was char-
acteristic of him. Those of my readers who know him, through having read the
previous books of this series, need not be told this, but you who, perhaps, are
just making his acquaintance, may care to know a little more about him.
As told in my rst book, Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle the young in-
ventor lived with his father, Barton Swift, a widower, in the town of Shopton,
New York. Mr. Swift was also an inventor of note.
In my initial volume of this series, Tom became possessed of a motor-cycle
in a peculiar way. It was sold to him by a Mr. Wakeeld Damon, a wealthy
gentleman who was unfortunate in riding it. On his speedy machine, which Tom
improved by several inventions, he had a number of adventures. The principal
one was being attacked by a number of bad men, known as the Happy Harry
Gang, who wished to obtain possession of a valuable turbine patent model
belonging to Mr. Swift. Tom was taking it to a lawyer, when he was waylaid,
and chloroformed. Later he traced the gang, and, with the assistance of Mr.
Damon and Eradicate Sampson, an aged colored man who made a living for
himself and his mule, Boomerang, by doing odd jobs, the lad found the thieves
and recovered a motor-boat which had been stolen. But the men got away.
In the second volume, called Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat, Tom bought
at