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TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY

OR

A Daring Escape by Airship

BY VICTOR APPLETON

AUTHOR OF "TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR-CYCLE," "TOM SWIFT AND HIS
WIRELESS MESSAGE," "TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED






CONTENTS


    I   A STRANGE REQUEST
   II   THE CIRCUS MAN
  III   TOM WILL GO
   IV   "LOOK OUT FOR MY RIVAL!"
    V   ANDY FOGER LEARNS SOMETHING
   VI   ALARMING NEWS
  VII   FIRE ON BOARD
 VIII   A NARROW ESCAPE
   IX   "FORWARD MARCH!"
    X   A WILD HORSE STAMPEDE
   XI   CAUGHT IN A LIVING ROPE
  XII   A NATIVE BATTLE
 XIII   THE DESERTION
  XIV   IN GIANT LAND
   XV   IN THE "PALACE" OF THE KING
  XVI   THE RIVAL CIRCUS MAN
 XVII   HELD CAPTIVES
XVIII   TOM'S MYSTERIOUS BOX
  XIX   WEAK GIANTS
   XX   THE LONE CAPTIVE
  XXI   A ROYAL CONSPIRACY
 XXII   THE TWIN GIANTS
XXIII   A SURPRISE IN THE NIGHT
 XXIV   THE AIRSHIP FLIGHT
  XXV   TOM'S GIANT--CONCLUSION




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.
I'll have Eradicate fill up the gasolene tank, while I look at the
magneto. It needs a little adjusting, though it works nearly to
perfection since I put in some of that new platinum we got from the
lost mine in Siberia."

"Yes, that was a trip that amounted to something. I wouldn't mind
going on another like that, though we ran lots of risks."

"We sure did," agreed Tom, and then, raising his voice he called
out: "Rad, I say Rad! Where are you? I want you!"

"Comin', massa Tom, comin'," answered an aged <DW52> man, as he
shuffled around the corner of the shed. "What do yo'-all want ob
me?"

"Put some gasolene in the