APPLETON, Victor. Tom Swift and his Chest of Secrets. Or Tracing the Stolen Inventions. Illustrated. NY: Grosset & Dunlap (ca. 1929). 12mo, [iv] 216pp. + [4]advts. Tan cloth pictorially stamped in black and red. Half-tone frontispiece by W.S. Rogers. A surprisingly clean, bright copy with slightest rubbing at spine ends and corners, previous owner’s name and address on front free endpaper and address sticker on blank verso of frontispiece, in original color pictorial dust jacket (light wear to edges and folds, tear at top of spine mended).

Early printing, having dust jacket ads listing only four additional titles. Tom constructs a large, heavy brass-bound oak chest to keep his blueprints, formulae and models in until an underground vault can be built. Then Tom is attacked and his possessions – including the chest – go missing. Now Tom must discover who stole his Chest of Secrets and save it from the grips of the culprits.