“No, indeed,” replied Tom.  “As soon as we get to some city where we can pack it up, and ship our gold without fear of being robbed, I’m coming to earth, and go home in a steamer.”

This plan was carried out; and a week later, with the gold safely insured by an express company, and the balloon packed for transportation, our friends went to a railroad station, and took a train for Tampico, there to get a steamer for New York.

“Bless my top knot!” exclaimed Mr. Damon a few days after this, as they were on the vessel.  “I think for queer adventures this one of ours in the city of gold, Tom, puts it all over the others we had.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” answered the young inventor, “we certainly had some strenuous times in the past, and I hope we’ll have some more in the future.”

“The same here,” agreed Ned.

And whether they did or not I will leave my readers to judge if they peruse the next book in this series, which will be called, “Tom Swift and His Air Glider; Or, Seeking the Platinum Treasure.”

They arrived safely in Shopton in due course of time, and found Mr. Swift well.  They did not become millionaires, for they found, to their regret that their gold was rather freely alloyed with baser metals, so they did not have more than half the amount in pure solid gold.  But there was a small fortune in it for all of them.

In recognition of Mr. Illingway, the African missionary having put Tom on the track of the gold, a large sum was sent to him, to help him carry on his work of humanity.

Tom had many offers for the big golden head, but he would not sell it, though he loaned it to a New York museum, where it attracted much attention.  There were many articles written about the underground city of gold from the facts the young inventor furnished.

Eventually the Fogers got home, but they did not say much about their experiences, and Tom and his friends did not think it worth while to prosecute them for the attack.  As for Delazes, Tom never saw nor heard from him again, not in all his reading could he find any account of the head-hunters, who must have been a small, little known tribe.

“And you really kept your promise, and brought me a golden image?” asked Mary Nestor of Tom, when he called on her soon after reaching home.

“Indeed I did, the two that I promised and a particularly fine one that I picked up almost at the last minute,” and Tom gave her the valuable relics.

“And now tell me about it,” she begged, when she had admired them, and then sat down beside Tom:  and there we will leave our hero for the present, as he is in very good company, and I know he wouldn’t like to be disturbed.

THE END

Project Gutenberg’s Tom Swift in the City of Gold, by Victor Appleton ********This file should be named 11tom10.txt or 11tom10.zip********

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