COPYRIGHT, 1925, BY GROSSET & DUNLAP ———— Tom Swift and His Chest of Secrets [Illustration: IN THE LIGHT OF LANTERNS TOM COUNTED FIVE FIGURES.] CONTENTS I. A CRASH ON THE ROOF II. BIG OFFERS III. DIRTY WORK IV. LIBERTY BONDS V. IVAN BARSKY VI. FIRE VII. A HURRIED EXIT VIII. A SECRET LISTENER IX. MARY’S MESSAGE X. A QUEER STORY XI. A DOUBLE PERIL XII. A RING OF FIRE XIII. JUST IN TIME XIV. A QUEER ATTACK XV. THE TRAP XVI. BOUND IN DARKNESS XVII. OUT OF THE CISTERN XVIII. TWO DISAPPEARANCES XIX. KOKU IS FOUND XX. MANY STRANGE CLEWS XXI. SCOUTING AROUND XXII. A STRANGE MESSAGE XXIII. THE BLUE MACHINE XXIV. A NIGHT WATCH XXV. THE ROUND-UP TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHEST OF SECRETS CHAPTER I A CRASH ON THE ROOF THERE was a puffing as of labored breath, a shuffling of feet in the hallway, a banging and clattering sound, and then a voice cried: “Where you have ’um, Master?” Ned Newton looked up from his desk and glanced across the room at Tom Swift who was poring over a mass of blue prints. The young inventor smiled at his equally youthful business manager as Ned remarked: “There’s your cute little giant Koku up to some of his interesting tricks again! Sounds as if he’d caught Eradicate by the hair of his bald head and was bringing him in upside down!” “Plague take those fellows!” muttered Tom, a look of annoyance passing over his face. “If they don’t stop this everlasting clashing to see who is going to do things around here, I’ll get rid of them both! That’s what I will!” Ned Newton laughed—laughed so hard that a pencil he had been using flew out of his hand and fell to the floor, breaking the fine point the young manager had put on in order to work over the financial affairs of the Swift Construction Company. Then Ned’s face sobered as he noted his broken pencil and he exclaimed: “Oh, soapsuds!” “Why the giggles?” asked Tom a bit impatiently. He had been buried in such deep thought that he resented the interruptions—not only the interruption of the noise outside his private office, but Ned’s laughter. “Oh, I was only laughing because you’ve threatened so many times to get rid of Koku and Eradicate. But you’ve never done it,” went on Ned, “and you never will.”