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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:59 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:59 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1364-0.txt b/1364-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a71a89a --- /dev/null +++ b/1364-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5794 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1364 *** + +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE + +or + +Two Miles a Minute on the Rails + + +By + +VICTOR APPLETON + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I A TEMPTING OFFER + II TROUBLE STARTS + III TOM SWIFT'S FRIENDS + IV MUCH TO THINK ABOUT + V BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS + VI THE CONTRACT SIGNED + VII THE MAN WITH BIG FEET + VIII AN ENEMY IN THE DARK + IX WHERE WAS KOKU? + X A STRANGE CONVERSATION + XI TOUCH AND GO + XII THE TRY-OUT DAY ARRIVES + XIII HOPES AND FEARS + XIV SPEED + XV THE ENEMY STILL ACTIVE + XVI OFF FOR THE WEST + XVII THE WRECK OF FORTY-EIGHT + XVIII ON THE HENDRICKTON & PAS ALOS + XIX PERIL, THE MOTHER OF INVENTION + XX THE RESULT + XXI THE OPEN SWITCH + XXII A DESPERATE CHASE + XXIII MR. DAMON AT BAT + XXIV PUTTING THE ENEMY TO FLIGHT + XXV SPEED AND SUCCESS + + + + +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE + + +Chapter I + +A Tempting Offer + + +"An electric locomotive that can make two miles a minute over a +properly ballasted roadbed might not be an impossibility," said Mr. +Barton Swift ruminatively. "It is one of those things that are coming," +and he flashed his son, Tom Swift, a knowing smile. It had been a +topic of conversation between them before the visitor from the West had +been seated before the library fire and had sampled one of the elder +Swift's good cigars. + +"It is not only a future possibility," said the latter gentleman, +shrugging his shoulders. "As far as the Hendrickton and Pas Alos +Railroad Company goes, a two mile a minute gait--not alone on a level +track but through the Pas Alos Range--is an immediate necessity. It's +got to be done now, or our stock will be selling on the curb for about +two cents a share." + +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom Swift +earnestly, and staring at the big-little man before the fire. + +Mr. Richard Bartholomew was just that--a "big-little man." In the +railroad world, both in construction and management, he had made an +enviable name for himself. + +He had actually built up the Hendrickton and Pas Alos from a +narrow-gauge, "jerkwater" road into a part of a great cross-continent +system that tapped a wonderfully rich territory on both sides of the +Pas Alos Range. + +For some years the H. & P. A. had a monopoly of that territory. Now, +as Mr. Bartholomew intimated, it was threatened with such rivalry from +another railroad and other capitalists, that the H. & P. A. was being +looked upon in the financial market as a shaky investment. + +But Tom Swift repeated: + +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" + +Mr. Bartholomew, who was a little man physically, rolled around in his +chair to face the young fellow more directly. His own eyes sparkled in +the firelight. His olive face was flushed. + +"That is much nearer the truth, young man," he said, somewhat harshly +because of his suppressed emotion, "than I want people at large to +suspect. As I have told your father, I came here to put all my cards on +the table; but I expect the Swift Construction Company to take anything +I may say as said in confidence." + +"We quite understand that, Mr. Bartholomew," said the elder Swift, +softly. "You can speak freely. Whether we do business or not, these +walls are soundproof, and Tom and I can forget, or remember, as we +wish. Of course if we take up any work for you, we must confide to a +certain extent in our close associates and trusted mechanics." + +"Humph!" grunted the visitor, turning restlessly again in his chair. +Then he said: "I agree as the necessity of that last statement; but I +can only hope that these walls are soundproof." + +"What's that?" demanded Tom, rather sharply. He was a bright looking +young fellow with an alert air and a rather humorous smile. His father +was a semi-invalid; but Tom possessed all the mental vigor and muscular +energy that a young man should have. He had not neglected his Athletic +development while he made the best use of his mental powers. + +"Believe me," said the visitor, quite as harshly as before, "I begin to +doubt the solidity of all walls. I know that I have been watched, and +spied upon, and that eavesdroppers have played hob with our affairs. + +"Of late, there has been little planned in the directors' room of the +H. & P. A. that has not seeped out and aided the enemy in foreseeing +our moves." + +"The enemy?" repeated Mr. Swift, with mild surprise. + +"That's it exactly! The enemy!" replied Mr. Bartholomew shortly. "The +H. & P. A. has got the fight of its life on its hands. We had a hard +enough time fighting nature and the elements when we laid the first +iron for the road a score of years ago. Now I am facing a fight that +must grow fiercer and fiercer as time goes on until either the H. & P. +A. smashes the opposition, or the enemy smashes it." + +"What enemy is this you speak of?" asked Tom, much interested. + +"The proposed Hendrickton & Western. A new road, backed by new capital, +and to be officered and built by new men in the construction and +railroad game. + +"Montagne Lewis--you've heard of him, I presume--is at the head of the +crowd that have bought the little old Hendrickton & Western, lock, +stock and barrel. + +"They have franchises for extending the road. In the old days the +legislatures granted blanket franchises that allowed any group of +moneyed men to engage in any kind of business as side issues to +railroading. Montagne Lewis and his crowd have got a 'plenty-big' +franchise. + +"They have begun laying iron. It parallels, to a certain extent, our +own line. Their surveyors were smarter than the men who laid out the H. +& P. A. I admit it. Besides, the country out there is developed more +than it was a score of years ago when I took hold. + +"All this enters into the fight between Montagne Lewis and me. But +there is something deeper," said the little man, with almost a snarl, +as he thrashed about again in his chair. "I beat Montagne Lewis at one +big game years ago. He is a man who never forgets--and who never +hesitates to play dirty politics if he has to, to bring about his own +ends. + +"I know that I have been watched. I know that I was followed on this +trip East. He has private detectives on my track continually. And +worse. All the gunmen of the old and wilder West are not dead. There's +a fellow named Andy O'Malley--well, never mind him. The game at present +is to keep anybody in Lewis's employ from getting wise to why I came to +see you." + +"What you say is interesting," Mr. Swift here broke in quietly. "But I +have already been puzzled by what you first said. Just why have you +come to us--to Tom and me--in reference to your railroad difficulties?" + +"And this suggestion you have made," added Tom, "about a possible +electric locomotive of a faster type than has, ever yet been put on the +rails?" + +"That is it, exactly," replied Bartholomew, sitting suddenly upright in +his chair. "We want faster electric motor power than has ever yet been +invented. We have got to have it, or the H. & P. A. might as well be +scrapped and the whole territory out there handed over to Montagne +Lewis and his H. & W. That is the sum total of the matter, gentlemen. +If the Swift Construction Company cannot help us, my railroad is going +to be junk in about three years from this beautiful evening." + +His emphasis could not fail to impress both the elder and the younger +Swift. They looked at each other, and the interest displayed upon the +father's countenance was reflected upon the features of the son. + +If there was anything Tom Swift liked it was a good fight. The clash of +diverse interests was the breath of life to the young fellow. And for +some years now, always connected in some way with the development of +his inventive genius, he had been entangled in battles both of wits and +physical powers. Here was the suggestion of something that would entail +a struggle of both brain and brawn. + +"Sounds good," muttered Tom, gazing at the railroad magnate with +considerable admiration. + +"Let us hear all about it," Mr. Swift said to Bartholomew. "Whether we +can help you or not, we're interested." + +"All right," replied the visitor again. "Whether I was followed East, +and here to Shopton, or not doesn't much matter. I will put my +proposition up to you, and then I'll ask, if you don't want to go into +it, that you keep the business absolutely secret. I have got to put +something over on Montagne Lewis and his crowd, or throw up the sponge. +That's that!" + +"Go ahead, Mr. Bartholomew," observed Tom's father, encouragingly. + +"To begin with, four hundred miles of our road is already electrified. +We have big power stations and supply heat and light and power to +several of the small cities tapped by the H. & P. A. It is a paying +proposition as it stands. But it is only paying because we carry the +freight traffic--all the freight traffic--of that region. + +"If the H. & W. breaks in on our monopoly of that, we shall soon be so +cut down that our invested capital will not earn two per cent.--No, by +glory! not one-and-a-half per cent.--and our stock will be dished. But +I have worked out a scheme, Gentlemen, by which we can counter-balance +any dig Lewis can give us in the ribs. + +"If we can extend our electrified line into and through the Pas Alos +Range our freight traffic can be handled so cheaply and so effectively +that nothing the Hendrickton & Western can do for years to come will +hurt us. Get that?" + +"I get your statement, Mr. Bartholomew," said Mr. Swift. "But it is +merely a statement as yet." + +"Sure. Now I will give you the particulars. We are using the Jandel +locomotives on our electrified stretch of road. You know that patent?" + +"I know something about it, Mr. Bartholomew," said the younger +inventor. "I have felt some interest in the electric locomotive, though +I have done nothing practical in the matter. But I know the Jandel +patent." + +"It is about the best there is--and the most recent; but it does not +fill the bill. Not for the H. & P. A., anyway," said Mr. Bartholomew, +shortly. + +"What does it lack?" asked Mr. Swift. + +"Speed. It's got the power for heavy hauls. It could handle the freight +through the Pas Alos Range. But it would slow up our traffic so that +the shippers would at once turn to the Hendrickton & Western. You +understand that their rails do not begin to engage the grades that our +engineers thought necessary when the old H. & P. A. was built." + +"I get that," said Tom briskly. "You have come here, then, to interest +us in the development of a faster but quite as powerful type of +electric locomotive as the Jandel." + +"Stated to the line!" exclaimed Mr. Bartholomew, smiting the arm of his +chair with his clenched fist. "That is it, young man. You get me +exactly. And now I will go on to put my proposition to you." + +"Do so, Mr. Bartholomew," murmured the old inventor, quite as much +interested as his son. + +"I want you to make a study of electric motive power as applied to +track locomotives, with the idea of utilizing our power plants and +others like them, and even with the possibility in mind of the +continued use of the Jandel locomotives on our more level stretches of +road. + +"But I want your investigation to result in the building of locomotives +that will make a speed of two miles a minute, or as near that as +possible, on level rails, and be powerful enough to snake our heavy +freight trains through the hills and over the steep grades so rapidly +that even two engines, a pusher and a hauler, cannot beat the electric +power." + +"Some job, that, I'll say," murmured Tom Swift. + +"Exactly. Some job. And it is the only thing that will save the H. & P. +A.," said Mr. Bartholomew decidedly. "I put it up to you Swifts. I have +heard of some of your marvelous inventions. Here is something that is +already invented. But it needs development." + +"I see," said Mr. Swift, and nodded. + +"It interests me," admitted Tom. "As I say, I have given some thought +to the electric locomotive." + +"This is the age of speed," said Mr. Bartholomew earnestly. "Rapidity +in handling freight and kindred things will be the salvation, and the +only salvation, of many railroads. Tapping a rich territory is not +enough. The road that can offer the quickest and cheapest service is +the road that is going to keep out of a receivership. Believe me, I +know!" + +"You should," said Mr. Swift mildly. "Your experience should have +taught you a great deal about the railroad business." + +"It has. But that knowledge is worth just nothing at all without swift +power and cheap traffic. Those are the problems today. Now, I am going +to take a chance. If it doesn't work, my road is dished in any case. So +I feel that the desperate chance is the only chance." + +"What is that?" asked Tom Swift, sitting forward in his chair. "I, for +one, feel so much interested that I will do anything in reason to find +the answer to your traffic problem." + +"That's the boy!" ejaculated Richard Bartholomew. "I will give it to +you in a few words. If you will experiment with the electric locomotive +idea, to develop speed and power over and above the Jandel patent, and +will give me the first call on the use of any patents you may contrive, +I will put up twenty-five thousand dollars in cash which shall be yours +whether I can make use of a thing you invent or not." + +"Any time limit in this agreement, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom, making +a few notes on a scratch pad before him on the library table. + +"What do you say to three months?" + +"Make it six, if you can," Tom said with continued briskness. "It +interests me. I'll do my best. And I want you to get your money's +worth." + +"All right. Make it six," said Mr. Bartholomew. "But the quicker you +dig something up, the better for me. Now, that is the first part of my +proposition." + +"All right, sir. And the second?" + +"If you succeed in showing me that you can build and operate an +electric locomotive that will speed two miles a minute on a level track +and will get a heavy drag over the mountain grades, as I said, as +surely as two engines of the coal-burning or oil-burning type, I will +pay you a hundred thousand dollars bonus, besides buying all the +engines you can build of this new type for the first two years. I've +got to have first call; but the hundred thousand will be yours free and +clear, and the price of the locomotives you build can be adjusted by +any court of agreement that you may suggest." + +Tom Swift's face glowed. He realized that this offer was not only +generous, but that it made it worth his while dropping everything else +he had in hand and devoting his entire time and thought for even six +months to the proposition of developing the electric locomotive. + +He looked at his father and nodded. Mr. Swift said, calmly: + +"We take you on that offer, Mr. Bartholomew. Tom has the facts on +paper, and we will hand it to Mr. Newton, our financial manager, in the +morning. If you will remain in town for twenty-four hours, the contract +can be signed." + +"Suits me," declared. Richard Bartholomew, rising quickly from his +chair. "I confess I hoped you would take me up quite as promptly as you +have. I want to get back West again. + +"We will see you in the office of the company at two o'clock tomorrow," +said Tom Swift confidently. + +"Better than good! And now, if that trailer that I am pretty sure +Montagne Lewis sent after me does not get wise to the subject of our +talk, it may be a slick job we have done and will do. I admit I am +rather afraid of the enemy. You Swifts must keep your plans in utter +darkness." + +After a little talk on more ordinary affairs, Mr. Bartholomew took his +departure. It was getting late in the evening, and Tom Swift had an +engagement. While old Rad, their colored servant, was helping him on +with his coat preparatory to Tom's leaving the house, his father called +from the library: + +"Got those notes in a safe place, Tom?" + +"Safest in the world, Dad," his son replied. But he did not go into +details. Tom considered the "safest place in the world" just then was +his own wallet, which was tucked into an inside pocket of his vest "I'm +going to see Mary Nestor, Father," said Tom, as he went to the front +door and opened it. + +He halted a moment with the knob of the door in his hand. The porch was +deep in shadows, but he thought he had seen something move there. + +"That you, Koku?" asked Tom in an ordinary voice. Sometimes his +gigantic servant wandered about the house at night. He was a strange +person, and he had a good many thoughts in his savage brain that even +his young master did not understand. + +There was no reply to Tom's question, so he walked down the steps and +out at the gate. It was not a long distance to the Nestor house, and +the air was brisk and keen, in spite of the fact that threatening +clouds masked the stars. + +Two blocks from the house he came to a high wall which separated the +street from the grounds of an old dwelling. Tom suddenly noticed that +the usual street lights on this block had been extinguished--blown out +by the wind, perhaps. + +Involuntarily he quickened his steps. He reached the archway in the +wall. Here was the gate dividing the private grounds from the street. +As he strode into the shadow of this place a voice suddenly halted Tom +Swift. + +"Hands up! Put 'em up and don't be slow about it!" A bulky figure +loomed in the dark. Tom saw the highwayman's club poised threateningly +over his head. + + + + +Chapter II + +Trouble Starts + + +The fact that he was stopped by a footpad smote Tom Swift's mind as not +a particularly surprising adventure. He had heard that several of that +gentry had been plying their trade about the outskirts of the town. To +a degree he was prepared for this sudden event. + +Then there flashed into Tom's mind the thought of what Mr. Richard +Bartholomew had said regarding the spy he believed had followed him +from the West. Could it be possible that some hired thug sent by +Montagne Lewis and his crooked crowd of financiers considered that Tom +Swift had obtained information from the president of the H. & P. A. +that might do his employers signal service? + +Tom Swift had fallen in with many adventures--and some quite thrilling +ones--since, as a youth, he was first introduced to the reader in the +initial volume of this series, entitled "Tom Swift and His Motor +Cycle." His first experiences as an inventor, coached by his father, +who had spent his life in the experimental laboratory and workshop, was +made possible by his purchase from Mr. Wakefield Damon, now one of his +closest friends, of a broken-down motor cycle. + +Through a series of inventions, some of them of a marvelous kind, Tom +Swift, aided by his father, had forged ahead, building motor boats, +airships, submarines, monoplanes, motion picture cameras, searchlights, +cannons, photo-telephones, war tanks. Of late, as related in "Tom Swift +Among the Fire Fighters," he had engaged in the invention of an +explosive bomb carrying flame-quenching chemicals that would, in time, +revolutionize fire-fighting in tall buildings. + +The matter that Mr. Richard Bartholomew, the railroad magnate, had +brought to Tom's and his father's attention had deeply interested the +young inventor. Thought of the electric locomotive, the development of +which the railroad president stated was the only salvation of the +finances of the H. & P. A., had so held Tom's attention as he walked +along the street that being stopped in this sudden way was even more +startling than such an incident might ordinarily have been. + +Tom was a muscular young fellow; but a club held over one's head by a +burly thug would have shaken the courage of anybody. Dark as it was +under the archway the young fellow saw that the bulk of the man was +much greater than his own. + +"That's right, sonny," said the stranger, in a sneering tone. "You got +just the right idea. When I say 'Stick 'em up' I mean it. Never take a +chance. Ah--ah!" + +The fellow ripped open Tom's overcoat, almost tearing the buttons off. +Another masterful jerk and his victim's jacket was likewise parted +widely. He did not lower the club for an instant. He thrust his left +hand into the V-shaped parting of the young fellow's vest. + +It was then that Tom was convinced of what the fellow was after. He +remembered the notes he had made regarding the contract that was to be +signed on the morrow between the Swift Construction Company and +President Richard Bartholomew of the H. & P. A. Railroad. He +remembered, too, the figure he thought he had seen in the dark porch of +the house as he so recently left it. + +Mr. Bartholomew had considered it very possible that he was being spied +upon. This was one of the spies--a Westerner, as his speech betrayed. +But Tom was suddenly less fearful than he had been when first attacked. + +It did not seem possible to him that Mr. Bartholomew's enemies would +allow their henchman to go too far to obtain information of the +railroad president's intentions. This fellow was merely attempting to +frighten him. + +A sense of relief came to Tom Swift's assistance. He opened his lips to +speak and could the thug have seen his face more clearly in the dark he +would have been aware of the fact that the young inventor smiled. + +The fellow's groping hand entered between Tom's vest and his shirt. The +coarse fingers seized upon Tom's wallet. Nobody likes to be robbed, no +matter whether the loss is great or small. There was not much money in +the wallet, nor anything that could be turned into money by a thief. + +These facts enabled Tom, perhaps, to bear his loss with some fortitude. +The highwayman drew forth the wallet and thrust it into his own coat +pocket. He made no attempt to take anything else from the young +inventor. + +"Now, beat it!" commanded the fellow. "Don't look back and don't run or +holler. Just keep moving--in the way you were headed before. Vamoose." + +More than ever was Tom assured that the man was from the West. His +speech savored of Mexican phrases and slang terms used mainly by +Western citizens. And his abrupt and masterly manner and speech aided +in this supposition. Tom Swift stayed not to utter a word. It was true +he was not so frightened as he had at first been. But he was quite sure +that this man was no person to contend with under present conditions. + +He strode away along the sidewalk toward the far corner of the wall +that surrounded this estate. Shopton had not many of such important +dwellings as this behind the wall. Its residential section was made up +for the most part of mechanics' homes and such plain but substantial +houses as his father's. + +Prospering as the Swifts had during the last few years, neither Tom nor +his father had thought their plain old house too poor or humble for a +continued residence. Tom was glad to make money, but the inventions he +had made it by were vastly more important to his mind than what he +might obtain by any lavish expenditure of his growing fortune. + +This matter of the electric locomotive that had been brought to his +attention by the Western railroad magnate had instantly interested the +young inventor. The possibility of there being a clash of interests in +the matter, and the point Mr. Bartholomew made of his enemies seeking +to thwart his hope of keeping the H. & P. A. upon a solid financial +footing, were phases of the affair that likewise concerned the young +fellow's thought. + +Now he was sure that Mr. Bartholomew was right. The enemies of the H. & +P. A. were determined to know all that the railroad president was +planning to do. They would naturally suspect that his trip East to +visit the Swift Construction Company was no idle jaunt. + +Tom had turned so many fortunate and important problems of invention +into certainties that the name of the Swift Construction Company was +broadly known, not alone throughout the United States but in several +foreign countries. Montagne Lewis, whom Tom knew to be both a powerful +and an unscrupulous financier, might be sure that Mr. Bartholomew's +visit to Shopton and to the young inventor and his father was of such +importance that he would do well through his henchmen to learn the +particulars of the interview. + +Tom remembered Mr. Bartholomew's mention of a name like Andy O'Malley. +This was probably the man who had done all that he could, and that +promptly, to set about the discovery of Mr. Bartholomew's reason for +visiting the Swifts. + +Without doubt the man had slunk about the Swift house and had peered +into one of the library windows while the interview was proceeding. He +had observed Tom making notes on the scratch pad and judged correctly +that those notes dealt with the subject under discussion between the +visitor from the West and the Swifts. + +He had likewise seen Tom thrust the paper into his wallet and the +wallet into his inside vest pocket. Instead of dogging Mr. +Bartholomew's footsteps after that gentleman left the Swift house, the +man had waited for the appearance of Tom. When he was sure that the +young fellow was preparing to walk out, and the direction he was to +stroll, the thug had run ahead and ensconced himself in the archway on +this dark block. + +All these things were plain enough. The notes Tom had taken regarding +the offer Mr. Bartholomew had made for the development of the electric +locomotive might, under some circumstances, be very important. At +least, the highwayman evidently thought them such. But Tom had another +thought about that. + +One thing the young inventor was convinced about, as he strode briskly +away from the scene of the hold-up: There was going to be trouble. It +had already begun. + + + + +Chapter III + +Tom Swift's Friends + + +Tom was still walking swiftly when he arrived in sight of Mary Nestor's +home. He was so filled with excitement both because of the hold-up and +the new scheme that Mr. Richard Bartholomew had brought to him from the +West, that he could keep neither to himself. He just had to tell Mary! + +Mary Nestor was a very pretty girl, and Tom thought she was just about +right in every particular. Although he had been about a good deal for a +young fellow and had seen girls everywhere, none of them came up to +Mary. None of them held Tom's interest for a minute but this girl whom +he had been around with for years and whom he had always confided in. + +As for the girl herself, she considered Tom Swift the very nicest young +man she had ever seen. He was her beau-ideal of what a young man should +be. And she entered enthusiastically into the plans for everything that +Tom Swift was interested in. + +Mary was excited by the story Tom told her in the Nestor sitting room. +The idea of the electric locomotive she saw, of course, was something +that might add to Tom's laurels as an inventor. But the other phase of +the evening's adventure--"Tom, dear!" she murmured with no little +disturbance of mind. "That man who stopped you! He is a thief, and a +dangerous man! I hate to think of your going home alone." + +"He's got what he was after," chuckled Tom. "Is it likely he will +bother me again?" + +"And you do not seem much worried about it," she cried, in wonder. + +"Not much, I confess, Mary," said Tom, and grinned. + +"But if, as you suppose, that man was working for Mr. Bartholomew's +enemies--" + +"I am convinced that he was, for he did not rob me of my watch and +chain or loose money. And he could have done so easily. I don't mind +about the old wallet. There was only five dollars in it." + +"But those notes you said you took of Mr. Bartholomew's offer?" + +"Oh, yes," chuckled Tom again. "Those notes. Well, I may as well +explain to you, Mary, and not try to puzzle you any longer. But that +highwayman is sure going to be puzzled a long, long time." + +"What do you mean, Tom?" + +"Those notes were jotted down in my own brand of shorthand. Such +stenographic notes would scarcely be readable by anybody else. Ho, ho! +When that bold, bad hold-up gent turns the notes over to Montagne +Lewis, or whoever his principal is, there will be a sweet time." + +"Oh, Tom! isn't that fun?" cried Mary, likewise much amused. + +"I can remember everything we said there in the library," Tom +continued. "I'll see Ned tonight on my way home from here, and he will +draw a contract the first thing in the morning." + +"You are a smart fellow, Tom!" said Mary, her laughter trilling sweetly. + +"Many thanks, Ma'am! Hope I prove your compliment true. This +two-mile-a-minute stunt--" + +"It seems wonderful," breathed Mary. + +"It sure will be wonderful if we can build a locomotive that will do +such fancy lacework as that," observed Tom eagerly. "It will be a great +stunt!" + +"A wonderful invention, Tom." + +"More wonderful than Mr. Bartholomew knows," agreed the young fellow. +"An electric locomotive with both great speed and great hauling power +is what more than one inventor has been aiming at for two or three +decades. Ever since Edison and Westinghouse began their experiments, in +truth." + +"Is the locomotive they are using out there a very marvelous machine?" +asked the girl, with added interest. + +"No more marvelous than the big electric motors that drag the trains +into New York City, for instance, through the tunnels. Steam engines +cannot be used in those tunnels for obvious, as well as legal, reasons. +They are all wonderful machines, using third-rail power. + +"But that Jandel patent that Mr. Bartholomew is using out there on the +H. & P. A. is probably the highest type of such motors. It is up to us +to beat that. Fortunately I got a pass into the Jandel shops a few +months ago and I studied at first hand the machine Mr. Bartholomew is +using." + +"Isn't that great!" cried Mary. + +"Well, it helps some. I at least know in a general way the 'how' of the +construction of the Jandel locomotive. It is simple enough. Too simple +by far, I should say, to get both speed and power. We'll see," and he +nodded his head thoughtfully. + +Tom did not stay long with the girl, for it was already late in the +evening when he had arrived at her house. As he got up to depart Mary's +anxiety for his safety revived. + +"I wish you would take care now, Tom. Those men may hound you." + +"What for?" chuckled the young inventor. "They have the notes they +wanted." + +"But that very thing--the fact that you fooled them--will make them +more angry. Take care." + +"I have a means of looking out for myself, after all," said Tom +quietly, seeing that he must relieve her mind. "I let that fellow get +away with my wallet; but I won't let him hurt me. Don't fear." + +She had opened the door. The lamplight fell across porch and steps, and +in a broad white band even to the gate and sidewalk. There was a +motor-car slowing down right before the open gate. + +"Who's this?" queried Tom, puzzled. + +A sharp voice suddenly was raised in an exclamatory explosion. + +"Bless my breakshoes! is that Tom Swift? Just the chap I was looking +for. Bless my mileage-book! this saves me time and money." + +"Why, it's Mr. Wakefield Damon," Mary cried, with something like relief +in her tones. "You can ride home in his car, Tom." + +"All right, Mary. Don't be afraid for me," replied Tom Swift, and ran +down the walk to the waiting car. + +"Bless my vest buttons! Tom Swift, my heart swells when I see you--" + +"And is like to burst off the said vest buttons?" chuckled the young +fellow, stepping in beside his eccentric friend who blessed everything +inanimate in his florid speech. + +"I am delighted to catch you--although, of course," and Tom knew the +gentleman's eyes twinkled, "I could have no idea that you were over +here at Mary's, Tom." + +"Of course not," rejoined the young inventor calmly. "Seeing that I +only come to see her just as often as I get a chance." + +"Bless my memory tablets! is that the fact?" chuckled Mr. Damon. +"Anyway, I wanted to see you so particularly that I drove over in my +car tonight--" + +"Wait a minute," said Tom, hastily. "Is this important?" + +"I think so, Tom." + +"Let me get something else off of my mind first, then, Mr. Damon," Tom +Swift said quickly. "Drive around by Ned's house, will you, please? Ned +Newton's. After I speak a minute with him I will be at your service. + +"Surely, Tom; surely," agreed the gentleman. + +The automobile had been running slowly. Mr. Damon knew the streets of +Shopton very well, and he headed around the next corner. As the car +turned, a figure bounded out of the shadow near the house line. Two +long strides, and the man was on the running board of the car upon the +side where Tom Swift sat. Again an ugly club was raised above the young +fellow's head. + +"You're the smart guy!" croaked the coarse voice Tom had heard before. +"Think you can bamboozle me, do you? Up with 'em!" + +"Bless my spark-plug!" gasped Mr. Wakefield Damon. + +Either from nervousness or intention, he jerked the steering wheel so +that the car made a sudden leap away from the curb. The figure of the +stranger swayed. + +Instantly Tom Swift struck the man's arm up higher and from under his +own coat appeared something that bulked like a pistol in his right +hand. He had intimated to Mary Nestor that he carried something with +which to defend himself from highwaymen if he chose to. This invention, +his ammonia gun, now came into play. + +"Bless my failing eyesight!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, as he shot the +motor-car ahead again in a straight line. + +The man who had accosted Tom so fiercely fell off the running board and +rolled into the gutter, screaming and choking from the fumes from Tom's +gun. + +"Drive on!" commanded the young inventor. "If he keeps bellowing like +that the police will pick him up. I guess he will let us alone +here-after." + +"Bless my short hairs and long ones!" chuckled Mr. Damon. "You are the +coolest young fellow, Tom, that I ever saw. That man must have been a +highwayman. And it is of some of those gentry that I drove over to +Shopton this evening to talk to you about." + + + + +Chapter IV + +Much to Think About + + +Although it was now nearing ten o'clock on this eventful evening, Tom +knew that he would find Ned Newton at home. When Mr. Damon's car +stopped before the house there was a light in Ned's room and the front +door opened almost as soon as Tom rang. Mr. Damon left the car and +entered with the young inventor at his invitation. + +"What's up?" was Ned's greeting, looking at the two curiously as he +ushered them in. "I see this isn't entirely a social call," and he +laughed as he shook the older man's hand. + +"Bless my particular star!" exclaimed the latter excitedly. "Of all the +thrilling adventures that anybody ever got into, it is this Tom Swift +who cooks them up! Why, Newton! do you know that we have been held up +by a highwayman within two blocks of this very house?" + +"And that of course was Tom's fault?" suggested Ned, still smiling. + +"It wouldn't have happened if he had not been with me," said Mr. Damon. + +"I am curious," said Ned, as they seated themselves. "Who was the +footpad? What drew his attention to you two? Tell me about it." + +"Bless my suspender buckles!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "You tell him, Tom. +I don't understand it myself, yet." + +"I think I can explain. But whatever I tell you both, you must hold in +secret. Father and I have been entrusted with some private information +tonight and I am going to take you, Ned, and Mr. Damon, into the +business in a confidential way." + +"Let's have it," begged Newton. "Anything to do with the works?" + +"It is," answered Tom gravely. "We are going to take up a proposition +that promises big things for the Swift Construction Company." + +"A big thing financially?" + +"I'll say so. And it looks as though we were mixing into a conspiracy +that may breed trouble in more ways than one." + +Tom went on to sketch briefly the situation of the Hendrickton & Pas +Alos Railroad as brought to the attention of the Swifts by the +railroad's president. First of all his two listeners were deeply +interested in the proposition Mr. Richard Bartholomew had made the +inventors. Ned Newton jotted down briefly the agreement to be +incorporated in the contract to be drawn and signed, by the Swift +Construction Company and the president of the H. & P. A. road. + +"This looks like a big thing for the company, Tom," the young manager +said with enthusiasm, while Mr. Damon listened to it all with mouth and +eyes open. + +"Bless my watch-charm!" murmured the latter. "An electric locomotive +that can travel two miles a minute? Whew!" + +"Sounds like a big order, Tom," added Ned, seriously. + +"It is a big order. I am not at all sure it can be done," agreed Tom, +thoughtfully. "But under the terms Mr. Bartholomew offers it is worth +trying, don't you think?" + +"That twenty-five thousand dollars is as good as yours anyway," +declared his chum with finality. "I'll see there is no loophole in the +contract and the money must be placed in escrow so that there can be no +possibility of our losing that. The promise of a hundred thousand +dollars must be made binding as well." + +"I know you will look out for those details, Ned," Tom said with a wave +of his hand. + +"That is what I am here for," agreed the financial manager. "Now, what +else? I fancy the building of such a locomotive looks feasible to you +and your father or you would not go into it." + +"But two miles a minute!" murmured Mr. Damon again. "Bless my prize +pumpkins!" + +"The idea of speed enters into it, yes," said Tom thoughtfully. "In +fact electric motor power has always been based on speed, and on +cheapness of moving all kinds of traffic. + +"Look here!" he exclaimed earnestly, "what do you suppose the first +people to dabble in electrically driven vehicles were aiming at? The +motor-car? The motor boat? Trolley cars? All those single motor sort of +things? Not much they weren't!" + +"Bless my glove buttons!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, dragging off his +gauntlets as he spoke. "I don't get you at all, Tom! What do you mean?" + +"I mean to say that the first experiments in the use of electricity as +a motive power were along the electrification of the steam locomotive. +Everybody realized that if a motor could be built powerful enough and +speedy enough to drag a heavy freight or passenger train over the +ordinary railroad right of way, the cost of railroad operation would be +enormously decreased. + +"Coal costs money--heaps of money now. Oil costs even more. But even +with a third-rail patent, a locomotive successfully built to do the +work of the great Moguls and mountain climbers of the last two decades, +and electrically driven, will make a great difference on the credit +side of any railroad's books." + +"Right-o!" exclaimed Ned. "I can see that." + +"That was the object of the first experiments in electric motive +power," repeated Tom. "And it continues to be the big problem in +electricity. The Jandel locomotive is undoubtedly the last word so far +as the construction of an electric locomotive is concerned. But it +falls down in speed and power. I thought so myself when I saw that +locomotive and looked over the results of its work. And this Mr. +Bartholomew has assured father and me this evening that it is a fact. + +"It has a record of a mile a minute on a level or easy grade; but it +can't show goods when climbing a real hill. It slows up both freight +and passenger traffic on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos road. That range of +hills is too much for it. + +"So the Swift Construction Company is going to step in," concluded the +young inventor eagerly. "I believe we can do it. I've the nucleus of +an idea in my head. I never had a problem put up to me, Ned and Mr. +Damon, that interested me more. So why shouldn't I go at it? Besides, I +have dad to advise me." + +"That's right," agreed Ned. "Why shouldn't you? And with such a +contract as you have been offered--" + +"Bless my bootsoles!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, getting up and tramping +about the room in his excitement. "I thought the trolley cars that run +between Shopton and Waterfield were about the fastest things on rails." + +"Not much. The trolley car is a narrow and prescribed manner of using +electricity for motive power. The motor runs but one car--or one and a +trailer, at most," said Tom. "As I have pointed out, the problem is to +build a machine that will transmit power enough to draw the enormous +weight of a loaded freight train, and that over steep grades. + +"A motor for each car is a costly matter. That is why trolley car +companies, no matter how many passengers their cars carry, are so often +on the verge of financial disaster. The margin of profit is too narrow. + +"But if you can get a locomotive built that will drag a hundred cars! +Ah! how does that sound?" demanded Tom. "See the difference?" + +"Bless my volts and amperes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "I should say I do! +Why, Tom, you make the problem as plain as plain can be." + +"In theory," supplemented Ned Newton, although he meant to suggest no +doubt of his chum's ability to solve almost any problem. + +"You've hit it," said Tom promptly. "I only have a theory so far +regarding such a locomotive. But to the inventor the theory always must +come first. You understand that, Ned?" + +"I not only appreciate that fact," said his chum warmly; "but I believe +that you are the fellow to show something definite along the line of an +improved electric locomotive. But, whether you can reach the high mark +set by the president of that railroad--" + +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Mr. Damon in agreement. "Bless my +wind-gauge! It doesn't seem possible!" + +Tom Swift shrugged his shoulders. "It is the impossible that inventors +have to overcome. If we experimenters believed in the impossible little +would be done in this world, to advance mechanical science at least. +Every invention was impossible until the chap who put it through built +his first working model." + +"That's understood, old boy," said Ned, already busily scratching off +the form of the contract he proposed to show the company's legal +advisers early in the morning. + +When he had read over the notes he had made Tom O.K.'d them. "That is +about as I had the items set down myself on the sheet that fellow stole +from me." + +"Wait!" exclaimed Ned, as Tom arose from his chair. "Do you know what +strikes me after your telling me about your second hold-up?" + +"What's that?" asked his chum. + +"Are you sure that was the same fellow who stole your wallet?" + +"Quite sure." + +"Then his second attack on you proves that he got wise to the fact that +your notes were in shorthand. He had a chance to study them while you +visited with Mary Nestor." + +"Like enough." + +"I wonder if it doesn't prove that the fellow has somebody in cahoots +with him right here in Shopton?" ruminated Ned. + +"Bless my spare tire!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, who had already started +for the door but now turned back. + +"That's an idea, Ned," agreed Tom Swift. "It would seem that he had +consulted with some superior," said the young manager of the Swift +Construction Company. "This hold-up man may be from the West; but +perhaps he did not follow Bartholomew alone." + +"I'd like to know who the other fellow is," said Tom thoughtfully. "I +would know the man who attacked me, both by his bulk and his voice. + +"Me, too," put in Mr. Damon. "Bless my indicator! I'd know the +scoundrel if I met him again." + +"The thing to do," said Ned Newton confidently, "is to identify the man +who robbed you tonight as soon as possible and then, if he hangs around +Shopton, to mark well anybody he associates with." + +"Perhaps they will not bother me any more," said Tom, rather carelessly. + +"And perhaps they will," grumbled Mr. Damon. "Bless my self-starter! +they may try something mean again this very night. Come on, Tom. I want +to run you home. And on the way, I tell you, I've got something to put +up to you myself. It may not promise a small fortune like this electric +locomotive business; but bless my barbed wire fence! my trouble has +more than a little to do with footpads, too." + +He led the way out of the house and to the motor car again. In a minute +he had started his engine, and Tom, jumping in beside him, was borne +away toward his own home. + + + + +Chapter V + +Barbed Wire Entanglements + + +"This gets us to your particular trouble, Mr. Damon," Tom Swift said, +while the motor car was rolling along. "You intimated that you had +something to consult me about." + +"Bless my windshield! I should say I had," exclaimed the eccentric +gentleman, swinging around a corner at rather a fast clip. + +"And has it to do with highwaymen?" asked Tom, much amused. + +"Some of the same gentry, Tom," declared Mr. Damon. "I haven't any +peace of my life, I really haven't!" + +"Who is troubling you, sir?" + +"Why, what nonsense that is, to ask that!" ejaculated the gentleman. +"If I knew who they were I wouldn't ask odds of anybody. I'd go after +them. As it is, I've left my servant with a gun loaded with rock-salt +watching for them now." + +"Burglars?" exclaimed Tom, with real interest. + +"Chicken-house burglars! That's the kind of burglars they are," growled +Mr. Damon. "Two or three times they have tried to get my prize buff +Orpingtons. Last night they got me out of bed twice fooling around the +chicken house and yard. Other neighbors have lost their hens already. I +don't mean to lose mine. Want you to help me, Tom." + +"Is that all that is worrying you, Mr. Damon?" laughed the young fellow. + +"Bless my radiator! isn't that enough?" + +"I know you set your clock by those buff Orpingtons," agreed Tom. + +"That's right. That ten-months cockerel, Blue Ribbon Junior, never +fails to crow at three-thirty-three to the minute. Bless my combs and +spurs; a wonderful bird!" + +"But let's see how I can help you regarding the chicken thieves," Tom +said, as they sighted the lights of the Swift house beyond the long +stockade fence that surrounded the Construction Company's premises. + +"You know I have a barbed wire entanglement around the whole yard and +hen-house. I don't take any more chances than I can help. Those prize +buff Orpingtons are a great temptation to chicken lovers--both blond +and brunette," and in spite of his anxiety, Mr. Damon could chuckle at +his own joke. "Even your old Eradicate's friend fell for chickens, you +know." + +"And Rad promptly cured him of the disease," laughed Tom. + +"And I'm trying to cure these others. I've charged my shotgun with +rock-salt--as he did. My servant has orders to shoot anybody who +tampers with my chicken house tonight. + +"But bless my shirt!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "I'll never be able to sleep +comfortably until I know that no thief can get at my buff Orpingtons. I +want you to fix it so I can sleep in peace, Tom." + +He slowed to a stop in front of the Swift's door. Tom stared at his +eccentric friend questioningly. + +"Bless my gaiters!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "don't you see what I want? +And your head already full of this electrified locomotive you are going +to build?" + +"Hush!" murmured Tom, with his hand upon his companion's arm. "But +what do you want me to do?" + +"I want you to fix it so that I can turn a current of electricity into +that barbed wire chicken fence at night that will shock any thief that +touches the wires. Not kill 'em--though they ought to be killed!" +declared the eccentric man. "But shock 'em aplenty. Can't you do it for +me, Tom Swift?" + +"Of course it can be done," said the young fellow. "You use electricity +in your house. There is a feed cable in the street. We will have to +change your lighting switch for another. Fix it with the Electric +Supply Company. It will cost you more--" + +"Bless my pocketbook! I don't care how much it costs. It will be ample +satisfaction to see just one low-down chicken thief squirming on those +wires." + +Tom laughed again. He meant to help his friend; but he did not propose +to rig the wires so that anybody, even a chicken thief, would be +seriously injured by the electric current passing through the strands. + +"I'll come down to Waterfield tomorrow in the electric runabout and fix +things up for you. Get a permit from the Electric Supply Company early +in the morning. Tell them I will rig the thing myself. They can send +their inspector afterward." + +"That's fine, Tom! What--Ugh! what's this? Another footpad?" + +Out of the darkness beside the fence a bulky figure started. For a +moment Tom thought it was the same man who had attacked him twice. Then +the very size of this new assailant proved that suspicion to be +unfounded. + +"Koku!" exclaimed Tom. "What's the matter with you, Koku?" + +The huge and only half-tamed giant gained the side of the car in +seemingly a single stride. In the dark they could not see his face, but +his voice distinctly showed excitement. + +"Master come good. 'Cause there be enemy. Koku find--Koku kill!" + +"Bless my magnifying glass!" ejaculated Mr. Damon. "That fellow is the +most bloodthirsty individual that I ever saw." + +"All in his bringing up," chuckled Tom who knew, as the saying is, that +Koku's bark was a deal worse than his bite. "Killing and maiming his +enemies used to be Koku's principal job. But he has his orders now. He +doesn't kill anybody without consulting me first." + +"Bless my buttons!" murmured Mr. Damon. "That is certainly a good thing +too. What's the matter with him now?" + +That is exactly what Tom himself wanted to know. He had dropped a hand +upon the arm of the giant as he stood beside the car. + +"Who is the enemy, Koku?" he asked. + +"Not know, Master. See him footmarks. Follow him footmarks. Not find. +When do find--kill!" + +"That is, after first obtaining my permission," said Tom dryly. + +"It is so," agreed the imperturbable Koku. "See! Show Master footmarks. +Him look in at window. See! Koku have got the wonder lamp." + +He flashed the electric torch in his hand. He left the car and strode +into the yard. Tom followed him, and Mr. Damon's curiosity brought him +along. + +The giant pointed the ray of the flashlight at the ground below the +porch. Several footprints--the marks of boots at least number twelve in +size--were imbedded in the soil. Koku went around the house to the +other side, following repeated marks of the same boots. + +"How came you to find them, Koku?" asked Tom softly. + +"Me look. All around stockade," and he waved a generous gesture with +his free hand including the fence about the works. "Enemy may come. +Anytime he come. Now he come." + +"Bless my slippery shoes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who had hard work to +keep up both physically and mentally with the giant. "What does he +mean?" + +"Koku has always had it in his head," explained Tom, "that we built +that fence about the works to keep out enemies. And, to tell the truth, +we did! But all that is over--" + +"Is it?" asked Mr. Damon pointedly. "Enemy here," added Koku, flashing +the lamplight upon the footprints on the ground. + +"Those bootmarks," added Mr. Damon, "are doubtless those of that fellow +who jumped upon the running board of the car." + +"Humph! And who robbed me of my wallet," added Tom musingly. "Well, it +might be. And, if so, Koku is right. The enemy has come." + +"Me kill!" exclaimed the giant, stretching himself to his full height. + +"We'll consider the killing later," said Tom, who well knew his +influence with this big fellow. "You are forbidden to kill anybody, or +chase anybody away from here, until I have a talk with them. Enemy or +not--understand?" + +"Me understand," said Koku in his deep voice. "Master say--me do." + +"Just the same," Tom said, aside to Mr. Damon, "there has been somebody +around here. I guess Mr. Bartholomew was right. He is being spied upon. +And now that we Swifts are going to try to do something for him, we are +likely to be spied upon too." + +"Bless my statue of Nathan Hale!" murmured the eccentric gentleman. "I +believe you. And you've been already attacked twice by some thug! You +are positively in danger, Tom." + +"I don't know about that. Save that the fellow who robbed me was sore +because I fooled him. Naturally he might like to get square about those +shorthand notes. He knows no more now about Mr. Bartholomew's business +with us than he did before he held me up." + +"That is a fact," agreed Mr. Damon. + +"And that brings me to another warning, Mr. Damon," added Tom +earnestly, as his friend climbed into the motor car again. "Keep all +that has happened, and all that I told you and Ned about the H. & P. A. +railroad, to yourself." + +"Surely! Surely!" + +"If Mr. Bartholomew's rivals continue to keep their spies hanging +around the works here, we'll handle them properly. Trust Koku for +that," and Tom chuckled. + +"And don't forget my barbed wire entanglements," put in Mr. Damon, +starting his engine. "I want to fix those chicken thieves.'' + +"All right. I'll be over tomorrow," promised Tom Swift. + +Then he stood a minute on the curb and looked after the disappearing +lights of Mr. Damon's car. The latter's problem dovetailed, after all, +into this discovery of possible marauders lurking about the Swift +premises. Koku had made no mistake in bringing his attention to the +matter of the footprints. Tom had seen somebody dodging into the +darkness outside the house when he had come out on his way to visit +Mary Nestor. + +"And sure as taxes," muttered Tom, as he finally turned toward the +front door again, "the fellow who twice attacked me this evening wore +the boots the prints of which Koku found. + +"Those fellows, whoever they are, whether Montagne Lewis and his +associates, or not, have bitten off several mouthfuls that they may be +unable to chew. Anyhow, before they get through they may learn +something about the Swifts that they never knew before." + + + + +Chapter VI + +The Contract Signed + + +Tom Swift went to bed that night without the least fear that the man +who had twice attacked him in the streets of Shopton would be able to +trouble him unless he went abroad again. Koku was on guard. + +The giant whom Tom had brought home from one of his distant wanderings +was wholly devoted to his master. Koku never had, and he never would, +become entirely civilized. + +He was naturally a born tracker of men. For generations his people had +lived amid the alarms of threat and attack. He could not be made to +understand how so many "tribes," as he called them, of civilized men +could live in anything like harmony. + +That somebody should prowl about the Swift house at night with a desire +to rob his young master or injure him, did not surprise Koku in the +least. He accepted the fact of the marauder's presence as quite the +expected thing. + +But the man who had robbed Tom and later tried to repay him for playing +what appeared to be a practical joke on the robber, did not trouble the +Swift premises with his presence before morning. Koku, thrusting +Eradicate Sampson aside and striding to his bedroom to report this +fact, was what awoke Tom at eight o'clock. + +"Hey! What you want, tromping in here for, man?" demanded old Rad +angrily. "An' totin' that spear, too. Where you t'ink yo' is? In de +jungle again? Go 'way, chile!" + +Both Rad and Koku were rapidly outliving the sudden friendship of Rad's +sick days, when it was thought he might be blind for life, and were +dropping back into their old ways of bickering and rivalry for Tom's +attention. + +"I report to the Master," declared the giant, in his deep voice. + +"You tell me, I tell him," Rad said pompously. "No need yo' 'sturbing +Massa Tom at dis hour." + +"Koku go in!" declared the giant sternly. + +"Jes' stay out dere on de stair an' res' yo'self," said Rad. + +Koku lost his temper with old Rad. There was a feud between them, +although deep in their hearts they really were fond of each other. But +the two were jealous of each other's services to young Tom Swift. + +Suddenly Tom heard the old negro utter a frightened squeal. The door +which had been only ajar, burst inward and banged against the door-stop +with a mighty smash. + +Rad went through the big bedroom like a chocolate-colored streak, +entered Tom's bathroom, and the next moment there was the sound of +crashing glass as Eradicate Sampson went through the lower sash of the +window, headfirst, out upon the roof of the porch! + +"What do you mean by this?" shouted Tom, sitting up in bed. + +Koku paused in the doorway, bulking almost to the top of the door. His +right arm was drawn back, displaying his mighty biceps, and he poised a +ten foot spear with a copper head that he had seized from a nest of +such implements which was a decoration of the lower hall. + +Had the giant ever flung that spear at poor Rad's back, half the length +of the staff might have passed through his body. Little wonder that +the colored man, having roused the giant's rage to such a pitch, had +given small consideration to the order of his going, but had gone at +once! + +"You want to scare Rad out of half a year's growth?" Tom pursued +sternly, slipping out of bed and reaching for his robe and slippers. +"And he's broken that window to smithereens." + +"Koku come make report, Master," said the giant. + +"You go put that spear back where you found it and come up properly," +commanded the young fellow, with difficulty hiding his amusement. "Go +on now!" + +He shuffled into the bathroom while the giant disappeared. He peered +out of the broken window. It was a wonder Rad had not carried the sash +with him! The broken glass was scattered all about the roof of the +porch and the old colored man lay groaning there. + +"What did you do this for, Eradicate?" demanded Tom. "You act worse +than a ten-year-old boy." + +"I's done killed, Massa Tom!" groaned Rad with confidence. "I's blood +from haid to foot!" + +There was a scratch on his bald crown from which a few drops of blood +flowed. But with all his terror, Eradicate had put both arms over his +head when he made his dive through the window, and he really was very +little injured. + +"Come in here," repeated Tom. "Fix something over this broken window so +that I can take my bath. And then go and put something on that scratch. +Don't you know better yet, than to cross Koku when he is excited?" + +"Dat crazy ol' cannibal!" spat out Rad viciously. "I'll fix him yet. +I'll pizen his rations, dat's what I'll do." + +"You wouldn't be so bad as that, Rad!" + +"Well, mebbe not," said the colored man, crawling in through the +bathroom window. "It would take too much pizen, anyway, to kill that +giant. Take as much as dey has to give an el'phant to kill it. Anyways, +I's bound to fix him proper some time, yet." + +These quarrels between Eradicate and Koku were intermittent. They +almost always arose, too, because of the desire of the two servants to +wait upon Tom or his father. They were very jealous of each other, and +their clashes afforded Tom and his friends a good deal of amusement. + +While the young inventor was in his bath the giant strode back into the +bedroom, out of which Rad had scurried by another door, and proceeded +to report the result of his night watch about the premises. + +He had not much to tell. In fact, after Tom had gone into the house +Koku had seen nobody lurking about at all. The fact remained that, +earlier in the evening, somebody had made a close surveillance of the +Swift house, but the mysterious marauder had not come back. + +"All right, Koku. Keep your eyes open. I expect that enemy may return +sometime. Too bad," he added to himself, "that I didn't get a better +look at him." + +"Koku know him next time," declared the giant. + +"Why! you didn't even see him this time," cried Tom. + +"See him boots. See marks him boots make. Know him boots. Waugh!" + +"'Waugh!' yourself," returned Tom, shaking his head. "You are +altogether too sure, Koku. You couldn't tell a man from his bootprints +in the mud." + +"Koku know," said the giant, just as confidently. "Wait. Him +catch--see--show Master." + +"Don't you go to grabbing every stranger who comes around the house or +the works for a spy, and make me trouble. Remember now." + +Koku nodded gravely and went away. When he met Rad suddenly in the hall +with Mr. Swift's breakfast tray, the giant said "boo!" and almost cost +the old colored man the loss of the tray. + +"Dat big el'phant ought to be livin' in a barn," declared Rad. "Look +at dat spear he come near runnin' me t'rough wid! If he had, yo' could +ha' driv a tipcart full o' rubbish in after it. Lawsy me!" + +But an hour later when Tom and his father started for the offices of +the Swift Construction Company down the street, Rad and Koku were +sitting before an enormous breakfast in the back kitchen and chatting +together as companionably as ever. + +The old inventor and his son arrived at the offices of the Swift +Construction Company not long ahead of Mr. Richard Bartholomew. Tom had +merely found time to read over the contract that had been jointly +prepared by Ned Newton and the firm's legal advisers, before the +railroad man came. + +"No getting out of the provisions of that paper, Tom," Ned had +whispered, when he saw Mr. Bartholomew coming into the outer office. +"Is this your man?" + +"Yes." + +"A sharp looking little fellow," commented Ned. "But even if he were +bent on tricking us, this contract would hold him. He is solvent and so +is his road--as yet. If it has a bad name in the market that is more +because of slander by the Montagne Lewis crowd than from any real +cause. I've found that out this morning." + +"Faithful Nero!" chuckled Tom. "Aren't going to let the Swifts get +done, are you?" + +"Not if I can help it," declared Ned Newton emphatically. + +A clerk brought Mr. Bartholomew into the private office and he was +introduced to Newton. If he considered the financial manager of the +Swift Construction Company very young for his responsible position, +after he had read the contract he felt considerable respect for Ned +Newton. + +"You've got me here, young man, hard and fast," Mr. Bartholomew said. +"If I was inclined to want to wriggle out, I see no chance of it. But I +don't. You have set forth here exactly my meaning and intent. I want +your best efforts in this matter, Mr. Swift, and if you give them to me +I'll foot the bill as agreed." + +"You've got me interested, I confess," said Tom. "By the way, were your +friends following you when you came here this morning?" + +"My friends?" repeated Mr. Bartholomew, for a moment puzzled. + +"The spy that you mentioned," said Tom, smiling. + +"That Andy O'Malley?" exclaimed Bartholomew. "Haven't spotted him +today." + +"He spotted me last night," said Tom grimly, and proceeded to relate +what had happened. + +"You fooled 'em that time, young man!" exclaimed the railroad +president, with satisfaction. "I am convinced that Montagne Lewis is +behind it. Look out for these fellows when you get to work, Mr. Swift. +They will stop at nothing. I tell you that the fight is on between the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos and the Hendrickton & Western. I have either got +to break them or they will break me." + +"You seem very sure that there is a conspiracy against you, Mr. +Bartholomew," said the senior Swift reflectively. + +"I am sure," was the reply. "And I am likewise sure that this scheme of +electrification of my road through the Pas Alos Range is the only +salvation for my railroad." + +"I should call it a big contract," Ned Newton said, thoughtfully. + +"You have said it! But it is not a visionary scheme I have in mind. You +must know--you Swifts--how successful such an electrification through +the Rockies has been made by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway." + +"I've looked that up," confessed Tom, with enthusiasm. "That was a +great piece of work." + +"It is. It is. But I hope for even a greater outcome of your +experiments, Mr. Swift. Of course, I do not expect to compete with that +great road. They had millions to spend, and they spent them. Those +Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul +built in nineteen hundred and nineteen are wonderful machines. They +have got forty-two freight locomotives, fifteen passenger locomotives +and four switchers of that new type. + +"The Jandel patent that my road uses is, in some degree, the equal of +those Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives. At least, our machines equal +the C., M. & St. P. on our level road. They can reach a mile-a-minute +gait. But when it comes to speed and pull on steep grades--Ah! that is +where they fail." + +"You will have to get power in the hills for your stations," suggested +Tom, thoughtfully. + +"I know that. I know where the power is coming from. I gathered those +waterfalls in years ago. Lewis and his crowd can't shut me off from +them. But I have got to have a speedier and more powerful type of +electric locomotive than has ever yet been built to protect the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad from any rivalry. + +"I am looking to you Swifts to give me that. I am risking this +twenty-five thousand dollars upon your succeeding. And I am offering +you the hundred thousand dollars bonus for the right to purchase the +first successful locomotives that can be built covered by your patents. +Is it plain?" + +"It is eminently satisfactory," said Mr. Swift, quietly. + +"I will do my very best," agreed Tom, warmly. "There isn't a thing the +matter with the agreement," declared Ned Newton, with confidence. +"Gentlemen, sign on the dotted line." + +Five minutes later the twin contracts were in force. One went into the +safe of the Swift Construction Company. The other, Mr. Richard +Bartholomew bore away with him. + + + + +Chapter VII + +The Man with Big Feet + + +The consultation in the private office of the Swift Construction +Company after the departure of Mr. Richard Bartholomew between the two +Swifts and Ned Newton had more to do with a vision of the future than +with mere present finances. + +"I expect you know just about how you are going to work on this new +invention, Tom?" suggested the financial manager, and Tom's chum. + +"Haven't the first idea," rejoined the young inventor, promptly. + +"What do you mean?" ejaculated Ned. "You talked just now as though you +knew all about electric locomotives." + +"I know a good deal about those that have been built, both under the +Jandel patent and those built for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul in +the great Philadelphia shops. + +"But when you ask me if I know how I am going to improve on those +patents so as to make my locomotive twice as speedy and quite as +powerful as those other locomotives--well, I've got to tell you flat +that I have not as yet got the first idea." + +"Humph!" grumbled Ned. "You say it coolly enough." + +"No use getting all heated up about it," returned his friend. "I have +got to consider the situation first. I must look over the field of +electrical invention as applied to motive power. I must study things +out." + +"I don't just see myself," Ned Newton remarked thoughtfully, "why there +should be such a great need for the electrification of locomotives, +anyway. Those great mountain-hogs that draw most of the mountain +railroad trains are very powerful, aren't they? And they are speedy." + +"Locomotives that use coal or oil have been developed about as far as +they can be," said Mr. Swift, quietly. "A successful electric +locomotive has many advantages over the old-time engine." + +"What are those advantages?" asked the business manager, quickly. "I +confess, I do not understand the matter, Mr. Swift." + +"For instance," proceeded the old gentleman, "there is the coal +question alone. Coal is rising in price. It is bulky. Using electricity +as motive power for railroads will do away with fuel trains, tenders, +coal handling, water, and all that. Of course, Mr. Bartholomew will +generate his electricity from water power--the cheapest power on earth." + +"Humph! I've got my answer right now," said Ned Newton. "If there is no +other good reason, this is sufficient." + +"There are plenty of others," drawled Tom, smiling. "Good ones. For +instance, heat or cold has nothing to do with the even running of an +electric locomotive. It can bore right through a snowbank--a thing a +steam engine can't do. It runs at an even speed. Really, grade should +have nothing to do with its speed. There is a fault somewhere in the +construction of the Jandel machine or the H. & P. A. would have little +trouble with those locomotives on its grades. + +"Then, all you have to do to start an electrified locomotive is to turn +a handswitch. No stoking or water-boiling. Does away with the fireboy. +One man runs it!" + +"Why!" cried Ned, "I never stopped to think of all these things." + +"No ashes to dump," went on Tom. "No flues to clean, no boilers to +inspect, and none to wear out. And they say that on the Chicago, +Milwaukee & St. Paul, at least, their freight locomotives handle twice +the load of a steam locomotive at a greatly reduced cost." + +"Sounds fine. Don't wonder Mr. Bartholomew is eager to electrify his +entire tine." + +"On the side of passenger traffic," continued Tom Swift, "the electric +locomotive is smokeless, noiseless, dirtless, and doesn't jerk the +coaches in either stopping or starting. And in addition, the electric +locomotive is much easier on track and roadbed than the old 'iron +horse' driven by steam generated either from coal or oil." + +"It is a great field for your talents, Tom!" cried Ned, warmly. + +"It is a big job," admitted Tom, and he said this with modesty. "I +don't know what I may be able to do--if anything. I would not feel +right in taking Mr. Bartholomew's twenty-five thousand dollars for +nothing." + +"Quite right, my boy," said Mr. Swift, approvingly. + +"Never mind that," said the financial manager, rather grimly. "It was +his own offer and his risk. That twenty-five thousand comes to our +account." + +Tom laughed. "All business, Ned, aren't you? But there is more than +business for the Swift Construction Company in this. Our reputation for +fair dealing as well as for inventive powers is linked up with this +contract. + +"I want to show the Jandel people--to say nothing of the bigger +firms--that the Swifts are to be reckoned with when it comes to +electric invention. Other roads will be electrifying their lines as +fast as it is proved that the electric-driven locomotive has the bulge +on the steam-driven. + +"In the case of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos there are very steep grades +to overcome. Supposedly an electric motor-drive should achieve the same +speed on a hill as on the level. But there is the weight of the train +to be counted on. + +"The H. & P. A. has a two per cent. grade in more than one place. Mr. +Bartholomew confessed as much to me last night. The electric-driven +locomotive of the powerful freight type, which the Jandel people built +for Mr. Bartholomew, can make about sixteen miles an hour on those +grades, although they can hit it up to thirty miles an hour on level +track. + +"His passenger locomotives turn off a mile a minute and more, on the +level road; but they can not climb those steep grades at a much +livelier pace than the freight engines. That is why he is talking about +two-mile-a-minute locomotives. He must get a mighty speedy locomotive, +for both freight and passenger service, to keep ahead of Montagne +Lewis's rival road, the Hendrickton & Western." + +"You don't suppose it can be done, do you?" demanded Ned. "The +two-mile-a-minute locomotive, I mean, Tom." + +"That is the target I am to aim for," returned his friend, soberly. "At +any rate, I hope to improve on the type of locomotive Mr. Bartholomew +is now using, so that the hundred thousand dollars bonus will come our +way as well as this first twenty-five thousand." + +"That wouldn't pay for one engine, would it?" cried Ned. + +"Nor is it expected to. The bonus has nothing to do with payment for +any model, or patent, or anything of the kind. To tell you the truth, +Ned, I understand those big locomotives used by the Chicago, Milwaukee +& St. Paul cost them about one hundred and twelve thousand dollars +each." + +"Whew! Some price, I'll tell the world!" murmured the youthful +financial manager of the Swift Construction Company. + +When the conference was over, and Tom had been through the workshop to +overlook several little jobs that were in process of completion by his +trusted mechanics, it was lunch time. He left word that he would not be +back that day, for this new task he was to attack was not to be +approached with any haphazard thought. + +Tom knew quite as well as his father knew that the idea of improving +the Jandel patent on electric locomotives was no small thing. The +Jandel people had claimed that their patent was the very last word in +electric motor-power. And Tom was quite willing to acknowledge that in +some ways this claim was true. + +But in invention, especially in the field of electric invention, what +is the last word today may be ancient history tomorrow. + +It was because this field is so broad and the possibility of +improvement in every branch of electrical science so exciting, that Tom +had accepted Mr. Bartholomew's challenge with such eagerness. + +Tom went back to the house for lunch, and as he joined his father in +the dining room he remarked to Eradicate: + +"I want the electric runabout brought around after lunch. I am going to +Waterfield. Tell Koku, will you, Rad?" + +"Tell that crazy fellow?" demanded the old colored man heatedly. "Why +should I tell him, Massa Tom? Ain't I able to bring dat runabout out o' +de garbarge? Shore I is!" + +"You can't do everything, Rad," said Tom, soberly. "That is humanly +impossible." + +"But dat Koku can't do nothin' right. Dat's inhumanly possible, Massa +Tom." + +"Give him a chance, Rad. I have to take Koku with me this afternoon. +You must give your attention to the house and to father." + +"Huh! Umm!" grunted Eradicate. + + Rad was jealous of anybody who waited on Tom besides himself. +Yet he was proud of responsibility, too. He teetered between the pride +of being in charge at home and accompanying his young master, and +finally replied: + +"Well, in course, you ain't going to be gone long, Massa Tom. And yo' +father does like to get his nap undisturbed. And he'll want his pot o' +tea afterwards. So I'll let dat irresponsible Koku go wid yo'. But yo' +got to watch him, Massa Tom. Dat giant don't know what he's about half +de time." + +As Koku was not within hearing to challenge that statement, things went +all right. When Tom came out of the house after eating, he found his +very fast car waiting for him, with the giant standing beside it at the +curb. + +"Get in at the back, Koku," said Tom. "I am going to take you with me." + +"Master is much wise," said Koku. "That man with big feet will not hurt +Master while Koku is with him." + +To tell the truth Tom had quite forgotten the supposed spy that had +attacked him the night before. He needed Koku for a purpose other than +that of bodyguard. But he made no comment upon the giant's remark. + +They stopped at one of the gates of the works, and Tom instructed Koku +to bring out and put into the car certain boxes and tools that he +wished to take with him. Then he drove on, taking the road to +Waterfield. + +This way led through farmlands and patches of woods, a rough country in +part. A mile out of the limits of Shopton the road edged a deep valley, +the sidehill sparsely wooded. + +Almost at once, and where there was not a dwelling in sight, they saw a +figure tramping in the road ahead, a big man, roughly dressed, and +wearing a broad-brimmed hat. Somehow, his appearance made Tom reduce +speed and he hesitated to pass the pedestrian. + +The man did not hear the runabout at first; or, at least, he did not +look over his shoulder. He strode on heavily, but rapidly. Suddenly the +young inventor heard the giant behind him emit a hissing breath. + +"Master!" whispered the giant. + +"What's up now?" demanded Tom, but without glancing around. + +"The big feet!" exclaimed Koku. + +The giant's own feet were shod with difficulty in civilized footgear, +but compared with his other physical dimensions his feet did not seem +large. The man ahead wore coarse boots which actually looked too big +for him! Koku started up in the back of the car as the latter drew +nearer to the stranger. + +The man looked back at last and Tom gained a clear view of his +features--roughly carved, dark as an Indian's, and holding a grim +expression in repose that of itself was far from breeding confidence. +In a moment, too, the expression changed into one of active emotion. +The man glared at the young inventor with unmistakable malevolence. + +"Master!" hissed Koku again. "The big feet!" The fellow must have seen +Koku's face and understood the giant's expression. In a flash he turned +and leaped out of the roadway. The sidehill was steep and broken here, +but he went down the slope in great strides and with every appearance +of wishing to evade the two in the motor-car. + +The giant's savage war cry followed the fugitive. Koku leaped from the +moving car. Tom yelled: + +"Stop it, Koku! You don't know that that is the man." + +"The big feet!" repeated the giant. "Master see the red mud dried on +Big Feet's boots? That mud from Master's garden." + +Again Koku uttered his savage cry, and in strides twice the length of +those of the running man, started on the latter's trail. + + + + +Chapter VIII + +An Enemy in the Dark + + +The situation offered suggestions of trouble that stung Tom to +immediate action. The impetuousness of his giant often resulted in +difficulties which the young inventor would have been glad to escape. + +Now Koku was following just the wrong path. Tom Swift knew it. + +"Koku, you madman!" he shouted after the huge native. "Come back here! +Hear me? Back!" + +Koku hesitated. He shot a wondering look over his shoulder, but his +long legs continued to carry him down the slope after the dark-faced +stranger. + +"Come back, I say!" shouted Tom again. "Have I got to come after you? +Koku! If you don't mind what you're told I'll send you back to your own +country and you'll have to eat snakes and lizards, as you used to. Come +here!" + +Whether it was because of this threat of a change of diet, which Koku +now abhorred, or the fact that he had really become somewhat +disciplined and that he fairly worshiped Tom, the giant stopped. The +man with the big shoes disappeared behind a hedge of low trees. + +"Get back up here!" ejaculated Tom sternly. "I'll never take you away +from the house with me again if you don't obey me." + +"Master!" ejaculated the giant, slowly approaching. "That Big Feet--" + +"I don't care if he made those footprints in the yard last night or +not. I don't want him touched. I didn't even want him to know that we +guessed he had been sneaking about the house. Understand?" + +"Of a courseness," grumbled Koku. "Koku understand everything Master +say." + +"Well, you don't act as though you did. Next time when I want any help +I may have to bring Rad with me." + +"Oh, no, Master! Not that old man. He don't know how to help Master. +Koku do just what Master say." + +"Like fun you do," said Tom, still apparently very angry with the +simple-minded giant. "Get back into the car and sit still, if you can, +until we get to Mr. Damon's house." Then to himself he added: "I don't +blame that fellow, whoever he is, for lighting out. I bet he's running +yet!" + +He knew that Koku would say nothing regarding the incident. The giant +had wonderful powers of silence! He sometimes went days without +speaking even to Rad. And that was one of the sources of irritation +between the voluble colored man and the giant. + +"'Tain't human," Rad often said, "for nobody to say nothin' as much as +dat Koku does. Why, lawsy me! if he was tongue-tied an' speechless, an' +a deaf an' dumb mute, he couldn't say nothin' more obstreperously dan +he does--no sir! 'Tain't human." + +So Tom had not to warn the giant not to chatter about meeting the +stranger on the road to Waterfield. If that person with dried red mud +on his boots was the spy who had followed Mr. Richard Bartholomew East +and was engaged by Montagne Lewis to interfere with any attempt the +president of the H. & P. A. might make to pull his railroad out of the +financial quagmire into which it was rapidly sinking, Tom would have +preferred to have the spy not suspect that he had been identified after +his fiasco of the previous evening. + +For if this Western looking fellow was Andy O'Malley, whose name had +been mentioned by the railroad man, he was the person who had robbed +Tom of his wallet and had afterward attempted reprisal upon the young +inventor because the robbery had resulted in no gain to the robber. + +Of course, the fellow had been unable to read Tom's shorthand notes of +the agreement that he had discussed with Mr. Bartholomew. Just what the +nature of that agreement was, would be a matter of interest to the +spy's employer. + +Having failed in this attempt to learn something which was not his +business, the spy might make other and more serious attempts to learn +the particulars of the agreement between the railroad president and the +Swifts. Tom was sorry that the fellow had now been forewarned that his +identity as the spy and footpad was known to Tom and his friends. + +Koku had made a bad mess of it. But Tom determined to say nothing to +his father regarding the discovery he had made. He did not want to +worry Mr. Swift. He meant, however, to redouble precautions at the +Swift Construction Company against any stranger getting past the +stockade gates. + +Arrived at Mr. Damon's home in Waterfield, Tom got quickly to work on +the little job he had come to do for his old friend. Of course, Tom +might have sent two of his mechanics from the works down here to +electrify the barbed wire entanglements that Mr. Damon had erected +around his chicken run. But the young inventor knew that his eccentric +friend would not consider the job done right unless Tom attended to it +personally. + +"Bless my cracked corn and ground bone mixture!" ejaculated the chicken +fancier. "We'll show these night-prowlers what's what, I guess. One of +my neighbors was robbed last night. And I would have been if I hadn't +set a watch while I drove over to see you, Tom. Bless my spurs and +hackles! but these thieves are getting bold." + +"We'll fix 'em," said Tom, cheerfully, while Koku brought the tools and +wire to the hen run. "After we link up your supply of the current with +this wire fence it will be an unhappy chicken burglar who interferes +with it." + +"That was an unhappy fellow who got your charge of ammonia last +evening," whispered Mr. Damon. "Heard anything more of him?" + +"I think I have seen him. But Koku spoiled everything by trying to eat +him up," and Tom laughingly related what had occurred on the way from +Shopton. + +"Bless my boots!" said Mr. Damon. "You'd better see the police, Tom." + +"What for?" + +"Why, they ought to know about such a fellow lurking about Shopton. If +he followed that Western railroad president here--" + +"We'll hope that he will follow Mr. Bartholomew away again," chuckled +Tom. "Mr. Bartholomew won't stay over today. When that chap finds he +has gone he probably will consider that there is no use in his +bothering me any further." + +Whether Tom believed this statement or not, he was destined to realize +his mistake within a very short time. At least, the fact that he was +being spied upon and that the enemy meant him anything but good, seemed +proved beyond a doubt that very week. + +Having done the little job for Mr. Damon, Tom allowed no other outside +matter to take up his attention. He shut himself into his private +experimental workshop and laboratory at the works each day. He did not +even come out for lunch, letting Rad bring him down some sandwiches and +a thermos bottle of cool milk. + +"The young boss is milling over something new," the men said, and +grinned at each other. They were proud of Tom and faithful to his +interests. + +Time was when there had been traitors in the works; but unfaithful +hands had been weeded out. There was not a man who drew a pay envelope +from the Swift Construction Company who would not have done his best to +save Tom and his father trouble. Such a thing as a strike, or labor +troubles of any kind, was not thought of there. + +So Tom knew that whatever he did, or whatever plans he drew, in his +private room, he was safely guarded. Yet he always took a portfolio +home with him at night, for after dinner he frequently continued his +work of the day. Naturally during this first week he did not get far in +any problem connected with the proposed electric locomotive. There +were, however, rough drafts and certain schedules that had to do with +the matter jotted down. + +It was almost twelve at night. Tom had sat up in his own room after his +father had retired, and after the household was still. + +Eradicate was in bed and snoring under the roof, Tom knew. Just where +Koku was, it would have been hard to tell. Although a fine and +penetrating rain was falling, the giant might be roaming about the +waste land surrounding the stockade of the works. The elements had no +terrors for him. + +Tom locked his portfolio and stepped into his bathroom to wash his +hands before retiring. Before he snapped on the electric light over the +basin he chanced to glance through the newly set windowpane which had +replaced the one Rad had shattered in escaping threatened impalement on +Koku's spear. + +Although the clouds were thick and the rain was falling, there was a +certain humid radiance upon the roof of the porch under the bathroom +window. At least, the wet roof glistened so that any moving figure on +or beyond it was visible. + +"What's that?" muttered Tom, and he sank down lower than the sill and +crept slowly to the window. He merely raised himself until his eyes +were on a level with the sill. + +Coming up over the edge of the porch roof was a bulky figure. It was +so dimly outlined at first that Tom could scarcely be sure that it was +that of a man. + +However, it was not possible that any creature but a man would be able +to mount the lattice supporting the honeysuckle vines and so creep out +upon the porch roof. Once making secure his footing, the enemy in the +dark approached directly the bathroom window at which Tom crouched. + + + + +Chapter IX + +Where was Koku? + + +Tom reached up swiftly and pushed over the lever that locked the two +window sashes. In doing this he set his own patent burglar alarm. If +that lever was turned back again, or broken, the buzzers would be set +ringing all over the house, and in Koku's room over the garage. + +He did not believe that the marauder on the roof of the porch could +have seen the flash of his shirt-sleeved arm. But he took no chance of +being observed from outside by rising to his feet. + +On his hands and knees he crept away from the window, and out of the +bathroom. Once there, he stood up, grabbed the portfolio, and without +coat or vest and as he was, dashed out of the bedroom. He had been +positive that nobody but himself was astir in the big house, and he was +right. + +He did not punch the light button when he entered the library. He knew +where to put his hand upon an electric torch in the table drawer, and +he gained possession of this. + +Then he went to the safe and twirled the knob and watched the indicator +find the four numbers which were the "open sesame" to the burglar and +fire-proof door. + +He flung the portfolio into the inner compartment, closed both doors, +and twirled the combination-knob. Then Tom tiptoed to the foot of the +front stairs to listen. He could hear no sound from above. + +He did not want his father to be startled, if the enemy did break in; +and he knew that old Rad, awakened out of a sound sleep, would be worse +than useless at such a time. + +After all, the giant, Koku, was his main dependence under these +circumstances. Tom crept to the outer door, opened it carefully, and +slipped out, letting the spring lock click behind him. For the first +time he realized that he was in his shirt and trousers and wore only +felt slippers on his feet. + +But he was locked out now. He had no key. He must run the risk of the +fine rain and the chill of the night air. + +He stepped off the end of the porch and ran around the house. It was +to the roof of the rear porch that the marauder had climbed. But peer +as he might from down in the yard, Tom could see no moving figure up +there near the bathroom window. It was pitch dark against the wall of +the house. + +He turned to glance up at the window of the sleeping room over the +garage where Koku was supposed to spend the night. But Tom knew the +giant was seldom there during the dark hours. He was as much of a +night-prowler as a wildcat or an owl. + +There was no light there in any case. But Koku did not use a light +much. He could see in the dark, like a wild animal. Tom did not want to +call him. If he must have Koku's help, he would have to climb the +stairs to his bedside. The giant always aroused as wide awake as at +noonday. + +But while the young inventor hesitated a sudden, but muffled, snap--the +breaking of metal--sounded. Tom knew instantly the direction from which +the sound came. + +Although he could see nothing up there at the bathroom window because +of the rain and the deep shadow, he knew that the snapping sound meant +the severing of the window lock that he had so recently closed. Some +instrument had been forced under the bottom of the lower sash and +pressure enough been brought to bear to break the thin steel lever. + +On the heels of this sound came another. A muffled buzzing somewhere in +the house--again! again! And then, startlingly clear from the room over +the garage, the burglar alarm went off in Koku's chamber. + +"It's all off now!" gasped Tom, and he ran to the foot of the +honeysuckle ladder up which he knew the enemy had climbed to get to the +roof of the porch. "If he comes down I'll have him!" muttered Tom, +staring up into the mist and gloom. + +"Fo' de lawsy's sake! 'Tain't mawnin', is it?" Rad's sleepy voice was +heard to announce. "No, it's da'k as--" And the voice trailed off into +silence. + +"Tom! Tom!" the young fellow heard his aroused father shouting. + +Tom knew that his father was in no danger. In fact Mr. Swift's voice +did not even betray apprehension. It was to the garage Tom looked for +an explosion. But none came. + +If Koku was up there the prolonged buzzing of the alarm did not awake +him. Therefore he could not be there. Tom realized that if the burglar +was to be taken the whole affair fell upon his shoulders. + +"And I've got my hands full, if it is the fellow with the big feet that +we saw on the Waterfield Road the other day," muttered the young +inventor. + +Nothing stirred on the porch roof. Moment after moment slipped by. Tom +began to grow more than amazed. He was worried. What would happen next? + +His father had not cried out again. Stepping around to the end of the +roofed porch, Tom saw a light in Mr. Swift's room. Rad had evidently +gone to sleep again. It would take more than an intermittent buzzer to +rouse fully that colored man. + +"When old Morpheus has a strangle hold on Rad, Gabriel's trump would +scarcely awaken him," Tom muttered. + +What had become of the enemy? If it was an ordinary burglar he would +have feared the electric alarm instantly. The buzzers were still +working. But there was no sign of the man who had set them off at the +bathroom window. + +Suddenly Tom heard a door slam. It was from the front of the house. Had +his father come downstairs to look around and see what the matter was? + +The young fellow started around the house on a run. He heard heavy +bootsoles spurning the gravel of the path to the front gate. He arrived +at the far corner of the house in time to see a man dash through the +gateway and run down the street, disappearing finally into the +fast-driving rain. + +"Fooled me! He went in and right through and down the stairs! Out the +front door!" gasped Tom. "Did he get anything? I wonder!" + +He sprang up to the front porch and tried the door. It was locked +again, of course. Should he ring the bell and get Rad or his father +down to the door? + +And then, of a sudden, the principal mystery of all this affair bit +into Tom Swift's mind. The burglar had made his escape. He could +relieve his father's anxiety later. It was his own puzzlement of mind +that he first wished to ease. + +Where was Koku? + +Even had the giant been circling the stockade around the shops he +surely must have come up to the home premises by this time. His keen +ears could not fail to hear the buzzers. They were still going and +would go until the switch was turned. + +If the giant was in his room--Tom turned suddenly and started on a run +for the rear premises. He still carried the hand-lamp and it lit his +way into the garage door and up the narrow stairway. He shot the round +beam of the lamp into Koku's room. + +He had been obliged to have an iron bedstead made to order for the +giant. It stood against one wall of the room. The buzzer was snarling +like a huge bumblebee above the head of the couch. Below it sprawled +the giant, eyes tightly closed and mouth slightly ajar. From the lips +of Koku were emitted sounds worthy of Rad Sampson in his deepest +slumbers! + +"Asleep?" gasped Tom, stepping cat-like into the room. + +And then he was suddenly aware of a sickish, heavy odor in the chamber. +The window had been closed. But it was something more than stale air +that Tom smelled. + +A folded cloth lay on the floor beside the couch. The young fellow saw +at once that it had been originally placed over the giant's face, but +had slid off. And lucky for Koku that it had been dislodged! + +"Chloroform!" muttered Tom. "He's drugged. It is no wonder he did not +hear the burglar alarm." + +In any event, the incident made one deep impression on Tom's mind. The +spies who he believed were working for the Hendrickton & Western +Railroad and its owner, Montagne Lewis, were desperate men. Tom could +not believe that the fellow with the big feet was alone in Shopton and +was unaided in his attempts to find out what Tom was doing. + +This attempt to burglarize the house betrayed the caliber of the enemy. +In chloroforming Koku he had taken the risk of murdering the giant. +Only the fact that the pad of saturated cloth had fallen off Koku's +face had, perhaps, saved the man from suffocation. + +Tom did not tell the giant when he aroused what the matter with him +was. Koku was ill enough! He was wrenched by interior spasms that +seemed almost to tear his huge body to pieces. + +"What done got into dat big lump o' bone an' grizzle?" demanded +Eradicate. "He looks like, he swallowed a volcano, and it just got to +wo'kin' right. My lawsy!" + +"He is a sick man, all right," admitted Tom. "Looks like he wouldn't +try to stab me to deaf wid no spear no mo'," went on Rad, inclined to +approve of Koku's sufferings. + +"If he died you'd be mighty sorry, old man," declared Tom, sternly. + +"Sho' would. Be a mighty hard job to bury him," was the callous +response. + +Just the same, the crotchety old colored man began to hop around in +lively fashion with hot water, and later with coffee and other +stimulants; and he nursed Koku all day as though he were a big baby. + +Koku, who had never been ill before in his life, was inclined to lay +the trouble to an evil genius of some kind. Perhaps, in spite of his +half-civilized state, he was still a devil-worshiper. At any rate, he +had a vital respect for the forces of evil. + +Naturally he considered this unknown and unexpected misery he suffered +the result of malignant influences of some kind. Tom did not want him +to suspect that the man with the big feet had any possible part in the +mystery. Had Koku suspected this, and had he got his hands on the spy, +the latter could never have been successfully used in that sort of work +again. In all probability he would have said that he had had enough. + +Meanwhile Tom made a point of considering each step he took alone +thereafter with particular care. He had a bodyguard--usually the giant +after the latter had recovered--between the works and the house. He did +not bring home any more the schedules or drawings connected with the +electric locomotive that he proposed to have built and to test inside +the stockade of the Swift Construction Company. + +He even put a private detective to work on the matter of finding a man +named Andy O'Malley who might be lurking around Shopton. He had a +pretty clear description of the fellow, for he had not only seen him +once, face to face by daylight, but Tom had written to the president of +the H. & P. A. and had got from that gentleman a clear picture in words +of the spy whom Mr. Bartholomew believed was working in the interests +of Montagne Lewis. + +"If O'Malley appears in Shopton, look out. He is a bad character. He is +not only a notorious gunman, with several warrants out for him in these +parts, but he is a cruel and desperate man in any event. The minute you +mark him, have him arrested and telegraph me. We'll get him extradited +and put him through for ten years or more right in this county." The +private investigator, however, as the weeks went by, could not find any +man who filled O'Malley's description. + +Meanwhile Tom Swift had got what he called "a lead" and was working day +and night upon the invention that he believed might make even the +Jandel people respectful, if not a bit envious. + +First of all Tom had arranged to have built all around inside the +stockade a track of rails heavy enough to stand the wear and tear of +the heaviest locomotive built. Meanwhile the various parts of his +locomotive were being built in several shops, but would be shipped to +the Swift Construction Company and assembled in Tom's try-out shed. + +Great secrecy was of course maintained. Aside from the fact that the +new invention had something to do with electric motive power, nobody +about the shops could say what the new industry portended. Save, of +course, the Swifts themselves, Ned Newton, and Mr. Damon, who was the +Swifts' closest friend and sometimes had furnished additional capital +for Tom's experiments. + +There was a thing that Mr. Damon furnished Tom at this time that proved +in the end to be of much importance. Before Tom had seized upon this +idea of his eccentric friend, and had made proper use of it, something +happened that came near to wrecking utterly Tom's invention and +completely putting an end to Tom himself as an inventor. + + + + +Chapter X + +A Strange Conversation + + +Mr. Wakefield Damon frequently came to the shops, for he was not alone +very friendly with the Swifts, but he was greatly interested in Tom's +new invention. + +"If it goes as good as what you did for my chicken run," he declared, +chuckling, "bless my dampers! you'll beat all the electric locomotives +in the market." + +"That is easy, perhaps," said Tom smiling. "There are not many in the +market at the present time. But I don't know what mine will be. This is +going to be some job." + +"Bless my flues and clinkers!" cried Mr. Damon, "you are not losing +hope, Tom Swift? Look what you did for my chicken run. And believe me, +that entanglement will give a shock that makes a man stand right up and +shake." + +"Have you tried it yourself?" asked Tom. + +"No. But my servant did. I saw him through the window of my study doing +some kind of a shimmy with the shovel. Thought he'd gone crazy. Then I +saw what he had done. It was early in the morning and I hadn't turned +the current off, and he had put one hand against the wires. When he +dropped the shovel as I told him to, bless my plyers and nippers! he +was all right." + +"The current would not seriously hurt him," said Tom. "I was careful +about that." + +"It killed two tomcats," said Mr. Damon. "I certainly was glad of that, +for those two ash-barrel cats kept the whole neighborhood awake. Bless +my claws and whiskers! how those two cats did use to yell. But when one +tried to climb the wires and the other sprang on him, it was all over! +That is, all over but the burial party." + +Mr. Damon was on the ground when the mechanical equipment and a part of +the electrical equipment of the new locomotive arrived and was set up +in the erection shed. The length of the machine was what first +impressed Ned Newton as well as Mr. Damon. + +"Bless my yardstick!" exclaimed the eccentric man, "it's as long as a +gossip's tongue. What a monster it will be!" + +"How long is it, Tom?" asked Ned Newton. + +"When completed, and standing on its drivers and bogie truck and +trailer truck, from cow-catcher to rear bumper it will be a few inches +over ninety feet. And that is slightly longer than the biggest electric +locomotive so far built. But length does not so much enter into the +value of the machine. I would have it built more compactly if I could." + +"What is the horsepower?" asked Mr. Damon. + +"I figure on forty-four hundred horsepower. The power must be received +from a three thousand-volt direct-current trolley. There are twelve +driving-wheels, as you can see. Each pair of drivers will be driven by +a twin-motor geared to the axles through a system of flexible spring +drive. Remember, I have got to obtain both speed as well as power in +this locomotive, for it is being built to pull a passenger train--a +fast cross-continent express--to compete with the best passenger +equipment in the country." + +"Bless my combination ticket!" murmured Mr. Damon. "You have picked out +some task, and no mistake, Tom Swift." + +"He'll do it," cried Ned, with his usual optimism when Tom had once +started on any experimental work. "Of course he will. Just as she +stands there now, only half put together, I would be willing to bet a +farm that she is a better locomotive than the Jandel patent." + +"Three cheers!" laughed Tom. "Ned is as enthusiastic as usual. But +believe me, friends, we are not going to turn out a better locomotive +than the Jandel without both thought and work." + +His friends' enthusiasm was heartening, however. No doubt of that. He +never let them into his experiment room, any more than he allowed his +workmen in there. Aside from his own father, nobody really knew what +Tom Swift was doing behind that always-locked door. + +The huge structure of the locomotive was set up on the driving wheels +and leading and trailing trucks by Tom's chief foreman and a picked +crew. Just such another locomotive had never been seen anywhere about +Shopton. Naturally the men at work on the monster began to speak of it +outside the works. + +Not that they betrayed any secrets regarding the locomotive. In fact, +as yet none of them knew anything about what Tom intended to do with +the big machine. But the story soon circulated that Tom Swift, the +young inventor, was about to show all the previous builders of electric +locomotives how such machines should be built. + +It was even whispered that Tom's objective was a two-mile-a-minute +locomotive. And when this was publicly known the information was not +long in seeping to the ears of certain men who had been keeping as +close a watch as they dared on the Swift Construction Company and the +activities of Tom himself. + +Ned Newton went to the bank one Friday for money for the payroll of the +working and clerical force of the Swift Company. It was an errand he +never relegated to any employee. + +Ned had once worked himself in the bank, and naturally he knew many of +its employees as well as the officials. With his back to the general +waiting room, he sat at the vice president's desk discussing some minor +matter. Only a railing divided the vice president's enclosure from the +long settee on which waiting customers of the bank were seated. + +Ned knew that there were two men directly behind him, whispering +together; but he paid no attention to them until he heard this phrase: + +"It's time to explode in just five hours; then good-night to that +invention, whatever it is." + +This statement might mean almost anything--or nothing. Ordinarily Ned +Newton might not have paid any consideration to the words. But +"invention" was a term that he could not overlook. His mind then was +fixed upon Tom's invention almost as closely as the mind of the young +inventor himself. + +Ned turned around slowly, as though idly, indeed, and tried to see the +faces of the two men behind him. One was a small, neatly dressed man of +professional appearance. He wore a Vandyke beard and eyeglasses. The +other's face Ned could not see; but as they both rose just then and +strolled toward the door of the bank he could observe that the fellow +was big and burly. + +Ned wheeled to his friend, the vice president, and asked: + +"Who are those men, Mr. Stanley? Do you know them?" + +The pair were just going out through the revolving door. The vice +president craned his neck for a look at them. + +"Don't know the small man, Ned. But the other is named O'Malley, I +believe. Somebody introduced him here and he gets a check cashed +occasionally. Not a customer of the bank." + +At that moment the name "O'Malley" did not mean anything to Ned Newton. +But he bade his friend good-bye and went out after the two men. They +had disappeared. + +Rad was in the electric runabout, waiting for him. The words spoken by +O'Malley (Ned thought it must have been he who spoke of the invention +because of his deep voice) continued to disturb Ned's thought. + +"Rad," he said, as he got into the runabout, "did you ever hear the +name O'Malley?" + +"Sure has," declared the colored man. "And it's a bad name and a bad +man owns it." + +"Do you mean that?" exclaimed the financial manager of the Swift +Construction Company, with increasing apprehension. "Who is he?" + +"Why, Mr. Newton, don't you 'member dat man?" + +"Who is he?" repeated Ned. + +"Dat Andy O'Malley is de one what tried to hold up Massa Tom dat time. +O'Malley is de man what's been spyin' on Massa Tom--" + +"Great grief!" exclaimed Ned, breaking in with excitement. "I'll drive +as fast as I can, Rad. There is something wrong at the works, I do +believe!" + +"What's wrong, Mr. Ned?" demanded Rad. "We just come from dere, and +everyt'ing was all right." + +"I just heard something that O'Malley said. I want to get back in a +hurry. I believe that scoundrel is attempting to blow up Tom's +locomotive. We've got to get to the works just as quick as we can." + + + + +Chapter XI + +Touch and Go + + +The mechanical equipment of the new locomotive was now complete and Tom +was establishing the electrical equipment as rapidly as possible. He +not only acted as overseer of this work, but in overalls and jumper he +was doing a good share of the work himself. + +The weight of the electrical equipment when it was finally set up was +not far from two hundred thousand pounds. Altogether, when the oil, +sand, and water tanks were filled, the great machine would weigh two +hundred and eighty-five tons--a monster indeed! + +"She is going to take a lot of current to run her," said Tom to his +father, who was standing by. "When I come to arrange with the Shopton +Electric Company for power, it's a question if they can give me all I +need. And I must have plenty of current to make sure that my motors +fill the bill." + +"As your tests will be made in the daytime, the company should be able +to furnish the power you need," rejoined Mr. Swift. "At night, of +course, when they must furnish so much light as well as power, it might +be difficult for them to give you the proper current." + +"Forty-four hundred horsepower is a big demand," went on Tom. "I've +got to have at least a three-thousand-volt direct-current to feed my +motors. I will soon have to take up the matter with the Electric +Company." + +The heavy work of setting the electrical parts of the locomotive had +been finished the day previous, and the track-derrick was removed. Tom +was engaged in adjusting the more delicate parts of the equipment and +had merely stepped down from the cab to speak to Mr. Swift. + +Now he climbed back into the interior of the great machine which, in a +general way, looked like a box car. An electric locomotive has not much +of the appearance of a steam engine. The machinery is all boxed in and +the entire floor of the locomotive is above even the drivers. + +These six pairs of driving wheels were about seventy inches in +diameter, while the diameter of the leading and following truck-wheels +was but half that number of inches. + +Mr. Swift had turned away from the locomotive when Tom put his head out +of the door again. + +"Do you hear that, father?" he demanded in a puzzled tone. + +"Hear what, Tom?" asked the old inventor, looking up. + +"That ticking sound? I declare, I'd think it was one of those +death-watch beetles had got in here. Sounds like a big watch ticking. I +can't make it out." + +"Where is it? What is it?" repeated Mr. Swift. "I hear nothing down +here on the floor of the shed." + +"Well, it gets me," muttered Tom, and disappeared again. In a moment he +called out: "Say, you fellows! who left his bundle of overalls in here? +Better take 'em out to be manicured. Whose are these?" + +Two or three of the mechanics working near looked up from their tasks. +Mr. Swift turned back to the door of the cab again. + +"What is the matter now, Tom?" he asked, in added curiosity. + +"That bundle, Dad." + +Tom once more appeared and addressed the workmen: "Whose bundle of +dirty overalls is this in here? Come and take 'em away. They shouldn't +have been left here." + +"Why, Mr. Tom," said the foreman who was near, "I didn't see any soiled +overalls in there when I left last evening. Any of you fellows," he +asked the group of hands, "know anything about any overalls?" + +"The bundle is here all right. Pushed back against the third series +motors. Come up here, one of you fellows--" + +Suddenly there was a noise at the end of the shed where the door to the +offices lay. Two figures burst through from the glass doors and charged +down the lanes between the lathes and cranes. Ned Newton led, Rad +Sampson, his face a mouse-gray with fear, followed. + +"Massa Tom! Massa Tom!" shouted the colored man. "Look out fo' de bomb! +Look out fo' de bomb!" + +The foreman sprang toward the high door of the locomotive where Tom +stood, staring out. The young inventor, quick as his mind usually +functioned, did not understand at all what Eradicate meant. + +"There's something wrong in there, Mr. Tom!" shouted the foreman. "Come +down, sir, and let me get up there and see what it is." + +But Mr. Barton Swift grasped the meaning of what was going on more +quickly than anybody else. Tom's father, Tom frequently said, had spent +so many years investigating chemical and mechanical mysteries that he +saw more clearly and more exactly into and through most problems than +other people. + +His raised voice now cut through the rumble of machinery and all the +other noises of the shop. Even Rad Sampson's delirious cry was dwarfed +by Mr. Swift's sharp tone: + +"Tom! The ticking of that watch! That means danger!" + +The declaration seemed to rip away a curtain from Tom's thoughts. +Perhaps Rad's cry about "de bomb" aided the young inventor to +understand the peril that threatened. + +The faint ticking sound that had begun to annoy him during the past few +minutes betrayed the nature of the threatening peril. Tom swung back +from the open doorway of the locomotive cab, reached in to the space +between the motors, and seized the bundle of overall stuff that he had +previously spied. + +He knew instantly that the rapid ticking came from that bundle. It +could be nothing but a time bomb. He had heard of such things and, +indeed, had seen one before, an infernal machine which, set like an +alarm clock, would go off at a certain time. That indicated time might +be an hour hence, or might be within a few seconds! Ned Newton, almost +at the spot, shouted to Tom when the latter reappeared with the bundle +in his hands: + +"Get down out of that, Tom Swift! Quick! For your life!" + +But Tom was cool enough now. He saw his father's white, strained face +at one side and the young inventor could even smile at him. Behind the +foreman was set a barrel of water in which tools were cooled and +tempered. + +"Stoop, McAvoy!" Tom shouted, and tossed the bundle from him. + +Had the infernal machine exploded in midair Tom would not have been +surprised. But McAvoy dodged, Rad clapped his hands over his ears, and, +even Ned Newton halted like a bird-dog at point. + +The bundle splashed into the barrel of water. It sank to the bottom. +There was no explosion. When a few seconds had passed the group of +excited men began to relax. The barrel was carried carefully to a +neighboring field. + +"Fo' de lawsy sake!" gasped Rad, and got a full breath again. + +"That was touch and go, sure enough," muttered Ned Newton. + +"Those overalls sure went to the wash, Boss," declared the foreman. +"What was in 'em? And who put 'em in the cab up there?" + +But Tom dropped down the ladder and went to his father. Their hands +sought each other and gripped, hard. + +"Better not tell Mary about this," whispered Tom. "She's worried enough +as it is." + +"Right, Tom," agreed the old inventor. "From this time on we cannot be +too careful. If there proves to be an infernal machine in that package +we may be sure that we are dealing with desperate men. We've got to +keep our eyes open." + +"Wide open," added Ned. + +"I'll say we have," said Tom. + + + + +Chapter XII + +The Try-Out Day Arrives + + +It did not need Ned Newton's story of what he had overheard at the bank +to prove that an attempt had been made to blow to pieces Tom Swift's +electric locomotive before even it had been tested. + +An examination of the water-soaked package in the open yard of the +shops of the Swift Construction Company, proved that there was enough +explosive in the bomb to blow the shed itself to pieces. But the +stopping of the clockwork attachment of course made the bomb harmless. + +"The main thing to be explained," Tom said, when he and his father and +Ned discussed the particulars of the affair, "is not who did it, or +what it was done for. Those are comparatively easy questions to answer." + +"Yes," agreed Ned. "O'Malley did it, or caused it to be done; and it +was an attempt to balk Mr. Bartholomew and the H, & P. A. rather than +a direct attack upon the Swift Construction Company." + +"I am afraid, however," remarked Mr. Swift, "that Tom has aroused the +personal antagonism of this spy from the West. We must not overlook +that." + +"I don't," replied the young inventor. "O'Malley has it in for me. No +doubt of that. But he could not be sure that I would be hurt by the +explosion he arranged for." + +"True," said his father. + +"The attempt was against my invention. And O'Malley was doubtless urged +to destroy the locomotive that I am building because my success will +aid Mr. Bartholomew and his railroad." + +"Quite agreed," said Ned. "But--" + +"But the important question," interrupted Tom, "is this: How did the +bomb get into the interior of the electric locomotive? That is the +first and most important problem. Its having been done once warns us +that it can be done again until our system of guarding the works is +changed." + +"We have five watchmen on the job at night, and the gates are never +opened in the daytime to anybody for any purpose without a pass," +declared Ned. "I don't see how that fellow got in here with the time +bomb." + +"Exactly. It shows that there is a fault in our system somewhere," said +Tom grimly. "We cannot surround the place at night with an armed guard. +It would cost too much. Even Koku cannot be everywhere. And I have +reason to know that he was wandering about the stockade last night as +usual." + +"The fellow was pretty sharp to slip by," Ned observed. + +"The stockade is no mean barrier, especially with the rows of barbed +wire at the top," said Mr. Swift. + +"Barbed wire! That's it!" exclaimed Tom. It was just here that Mr. +Damon's idea for guarding his prize buff Orpingtons came into play in +Tom's scheme of things. "Barbed wire doesn't seem to keep out spies," +he added slowly. "But believe me, something else will!" + +For Tom to think of a thing was to start action without delay. +Immediately he called a gang from the shops and set them to work +stringing copper wire along the top of the stockade. + +He was sure that the man who had set the time bomb in place had got +into the enclosure over the fence. If he tried the same trick again he +was very apt to have the surprise of his life! + +Each night when the shops closed and the watchmen went on duty, a +current of electricity was turned into those copper wires entwined with +the barbed wire entanglement at the top of the stockade that would +certainly double up any marauder who sought to get over the top. + +However, no further attempt was made against Tom's peace of mind and +against his invention during the immediate weeks that followed. The +young inventor was so closely engaged in his work that he scarcely left +the house or the confines of the shops. Even Mary Nestor saw very +little of him. + +But Mary realized fully that at such a time as this Tom must give all +his thought and energy to the task in hand. She was proud of Tom's +ability and took a deep interest in his inventions. + +"I want to see the test when you try the locomotive, Tom," she told +him, when she came to the shops the first time to look at the monster +locomotive. "What a wonderful thing it is!" + +"Its wonder is yet to be proved," rejoined the young inventor. "I +believe I've got the right idea; but nothing is sure as yet." + +In addition to his mechanical contrivances inside the locomotive, Tom +had to arrange for an increased supply of electric power to drive the +huge machine around the track that was being built inside the stockade. + +A regular station had to be built for receiving the electricity in a +100,000-volt alternating current and delivering it to the locomotive in +a 3,000-volt direct current. Therefore, this station had two functions +to perform--reducing the voltage and changing the current from +alternating to direct. + +The reduction of the voltage was accomplished as follows: The +100,000-volt alternating current was received through an oil switch and +was conveyed to a high-tension current distributor made up of three +lines of copper tubing, thus forming the source of power for this +station. + +From the current distributor the current was conducted through other +oil switches to the transformers--entering at 100,000 volts and +emerging at 2,300 volts. Then the current was conducted from the +transformers through switches to the motor-generator sets and became +the power employed to operate them. + +The motor generator consisted of one alternating current motor driving +two direct current generators. The motor Tom established in his station +was of the 60-cycle synchronous type, which means that the current +changes sixty times each second. + +There were two sets, each generating a 1,500 or 2,000 volt direct +current; and the two generators being permanently connected, delivered +a combined direct current of 3,000 volts--as high a direct voltage +current, Tom knew, as had ever been adopted for railroad work. The +current voltage for ordinary street railway work is 550 volts. + +"I could run even this big machine," Tom explained to Ned Newton, "with +a much lighter current. But out there on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +line the transforming stations deliver this high voltage to the +locomotives. I want to test mine under similar conditions." + +"This is going to be an expensive test, Tom," said Ned, grumbling a +little. "The cost-sheets are running high." + +"We are aiming at a big target," returned the inventor. "You've got to +bait with something bigger than sprats to catch a whale, Ned." + +"Humph! Suppose you don't catch the whale after all?" + +"Don't lose hope," returned Tom, calmly. "I am going after this whale +right, believe me! This is one of the biggest contracts--if not the +very biggest--we ever tackled." + +"It looks as if the expense account would run the highest," admitted +the financial manager. + +"All right. Maybe that is so. But I'll spend the last cent I've got to +perfect this patent. I am going to beat the Jandels if it is humanly +possible to do so." + +"I can only hope you will, Tom. Why, this track and the overhead +trolley equipment is going to cost a small fortune. I had no idea when +you signed that contract with Mr. Bartholomew that so much money would +have to be spent in merely the experimental stage of the thing." + +Ned Newton possessed traits of caution that could not be gainsaid. That +was one thing that made him such a successful financial manager for the +Swift Company. He watched expenditures as closely now as he had when +the business was upon a much more limited footing. + +The rails laid along the inside of the stockade made a two-mile track, +as well ballasted as any regular railroad right of way. In addition the +overhead equipment was costly. + +To eliminate any possibility of the trolley wire breaking, a strong +steel cable, called a catenary, was slung just above the trolley wire. +To this catenary the trolley wire was suspended by hangers at short +intervals. + +These cables were strung from brackets so that a single row of poles +could be used, save at the curves, at which cross-span construction was +used. The trolley wire itself was of the 4/0 size, and was the largest +diameter copper wire ever employed for railroad purposes. + +Several weeks had now passed since the great locomotive had been +assembled in the erection shed and the cab of the locomotive completed. +It really was a monster machine, and any stranger coming into the place +and seeing it for the first time must have marveled at the grim power +suggested by the mere bulk of the structure. + +When the day of the first test arrived Tom allowed only his most +intimate friends to be present. Mary Nestor accompanied Mr. Swift into +the shops at the time appointed, and she was as excited over the +outcome of the test as Tom himself. + +Ned Newton and the mechanical force of the shops knocked off work to +become spectators at the exhibition. The only other outsider was Mr. +Damon. + +"Bless my alternating current!" cried the eccentric gentleman. "I +would not miss this for the world. If you tried to shut me out, Tom, +I'd climb over the stockade to get in." + +"You'd better not," Tom told him, dryly. "If you tried that you'd get a +worse shock than any chicken thief will get that tries to steal your +buff Orpingtons." + + + + +Chapter XIII + +Hopes and Fears + + +Tom climbed into the huge cab of the electric locomotive. In fact, the +cab was the most of it, for every part of the mechanism save the +drivers was covered by the eighty-odd foot structure. From the peak of +the pilot to the rear bumper the length was ninety feet and some inches. + +As Tom slid the monster out upon the yard track the small crowd +cheered. At least, the locomotive had the power to move, and to the +unknowing ones, at least, that seemed a great and wonderful thing. + +What they saw was apparently a box-car--like a mail coach, only with +more high windows--ten feet wide, its roof more than fourteen feet from +the rails, its locked pantagraph adding two feet more to its height. + +Just what was in the cab--the water and oil tanks, the steam-heating +boiler to supply heat and hot water to the train the monster was to +draw, the motors and the many other mechanical contrivances--was hidden +from the spectators. + +In fact, since completing the electrical equipment of the Hercules +0001, as Tom had named the locomotive, the young inventor had allowed +nobody inside the cab, any more than he allowed visitors inside his +private workshop. Even Mr. Swift did not know all the results of Tom's +experimental work. In a general way the older inventor knew the trend +of his son's attempts, but the details and the results of Tom's +experiments, the latter told to nobody. + +But as the huge locomotive rolled into the yard and followed the more +or less circular track inside the yard fence, it was plain to all of +the onlookers that the motive-power was there all right! Just what +speed could be coaxed from the feed-cable overhead was another question. + +Nor did Tom Swift try for much speed on this first test of the Hercules +0001. He went around the two-mile track several times before bringing +his machine to a stop near the crowd of onlookers. He came to the open +door of the cab. + +"One thing is sure, Tom!" shouted Ned. "It do move!" + +"Bless my slippery skates!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "it slides right +along, Tom. You've done it, my boy--you've done it!" + +"It looks good from where I stand, my son," said Mr. Barton Swift. + +It was Mary who suspected that Tom was not wholly satisfied--as yet, at +least--with the test of the Hercules 0001. She cried: + +"Tom! is it all right?" + +"Nothing is ever all right--that is, not perfect--in this old world, I +guess, Mary," returned the young inventor. "But I am not discouraged. +As Ned says, the old contraption 'do move.' How fast she'll move is +another thing." + +"What time did you make?" asked Mr. Swift. + +"Not above fifteen miles an hour." + +"Whew!" whistled Ned dolefully. "That is a long way from--" + +Tom made an instant motion and Ned's careless lips were sealed. It was +not generally known among the men the speed which Tom hoped to obtain +with his new invention. + +"It is a wide shoot at the target, that is true," Tom said, soberly. +"But remember I cannot test it for speed on this short and almost +circular track. Right at the start, however, I see that something about +the power-feed must be changed." + +"What is that?" asked Mary, curiously. + +"I have only had rigged here one trolley wire. There must be two +attached alternately to the catenary cable. Such a form of twin +conductor trolley will permit the collection of a heavy current through +the twin contact of the pantagraph with the two trolley wires, and +should assure a sparkless collection of the current at any speed. You +noticed that when I took the sharper curves there was an aerial +exhibition. I want to do away with the fireworks." + +The fact that the Hercules 0001 was a going and apparently powerful +draught engine satisfied most of the onlookers that Tom Swift was on +the road to final and overwhelming success. The mechanics, indeed, saw +no reason why the locomotive could not be run right out of the yard on +the freight track and coupled to the first train going West. Of course, +the Hercules 0001 could not be delivered to the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +under its own power. + +When the locomotive was run back into the shed and stood once more on +the erection track, Tom confessed to Mary and Ned, while Mr. Damon and +Mr. Swift were looking through the huge cab, that he was not at all +pleased with the action of the machine. + +"I have the best equipment of any electric locomotive on the rails +today. I am sure of that," he said. "The Hercules Three-Oughts-One is +not as long as those electric locomotives of the C. M. &. St. P. But +that's all right. I have built mine more compactly and, properly +geared, it should have all the power of either the Baldwin-Westinghouse +or the Jandel locomotive." + +"Then, Tom dear, what is wrong?" cried Mary. + +"Speed. That is what troubles me. Have I got anything like the speed I +am aiming for?" + +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Ned Newton. "Some speed, boy!" + +"And must you have such great speed, Tom?" repeated Mary. + +"That is in my contract. Not only that, but to be of much use to the H. +& P. A. this locomotive must have such speed--or mighty near it. Of +course, under ordinary conditions, two miles a minute for a locomotive +and train of heavy freights would burn up the track--maybe melt the +flanges and throw everything out of gear." + +"Why try for it, then?" demanded Mary. + +"It is the power suggested by the possession of such speed that we want +in the Hercules Three-Oughts-One. That two miles a minute is a fiction +of the imagination, cannot be claimed. It is possible. It is humanly +possible. It is coming." + +"Then you must be the fellow to first accomplish it, Tom Swift," Ned +declared. + +"Of course, if anybody can do it, you can, Tom," agreed the girl +complacently. + +"Thanks--many, many thanks," laughed the young inventor. "I'd be able +to harness the sun and stars, and put a surcingle around the moon if I +came up to my friends' opinion of my ability. + +"Nevertheless, two-miles-a-minute is my objective point, and I do not +believe it is visionary. Consider the motor-cycle. Ninety miles an hour +has long been possible with that, and some tests have shown a speed of +over a hundred and ten. That is not far from my mark. + +"Some Mallet locomotives of the oil-burning type have achieved from +eighty-five to ninety-five miles an hour with a heavy load behind them. +They are very powerful machines. The Mogul mountain climbers are +powerful, too, although they are not built for speed. + +"The electric Goliaths built for the C. M. & St. P., and the Jandels, +are both very speedy under certain conditions. The former has a maximum +speed of sixty-five miles and the Jandel slightly faster." + +"But that is only half what that Mr. Bartholomew demands of your +invention, Tom!" Mary cried. + +"That is a fact. I must reach twice sixty miles an hour, anyway, to +meet his demand and gain that hundred thousand bonus. But I have the +advantage of a knowledge of all that has been done before my time in +the matter of electrical locomotive construction." + +"The world do move," repeated Ned. "You believe that you have the edge +on all the other inventors?" + +"Along the line of this development--yes," said Tom. "I am taking up +the work where former experimenters ended theirs. Why shouldn't I find +the right combination to bring about a two-miles-a-minute drive?" + +"Oh, Tom!" cried Mary, with clasped hands, "I hope you do." + +"I hope I do, too," said Tom, grimly. "At least, if trying will bring +it, success is going to come my way." + + + + +Chapter XIV + +Speed + + +More than four months had passed since the contract had been signed, +when Tom made his first yard-test of the Hercules 0001. For a month +nothing had been seen or heard of Andy O'Malley, whose identity as the +spy, set by Montagne Lewis to cripple Tom's attempt to help the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad, had been determined beyond any doubt. + +The private inquiry agent that Tom had engaged to find O'Malley had +been unsuccessful in his work. The spy had disappeared from Shopton and +the vicinity. Nevertheless, the inventor did not for a moment overlook +the possibility that the enemy might again strike. + +Every night the electric current was turned into the wires that capped +the stockade of the Swift Construction Company enclosure. Koku beat a +path around the enclosure at night, getting such short sleep as he +seemed to need in the forenoon. + +"Dat crazy cannibal," grumbled Rad, "got it in his haid dat he's gwine +to he'p Massa Tom by walkin' out o' nights like he was dis here +Western, de great sprinter, Ma lawsy me! Koku ain't got brains enough +to fill up a hic'ry nut shell. Dat he ain't." + +Nothing anybody else could do for Tom ever satisfied Rad. The colored +man fully believed that he was the only person really necessary for +Tom's success and peace of mind. In fact, Rad thought that even Ned +Newton's duties as financial manager of the firm were scarcely of as +much importance. + +When he heard that Tom was going West, after a time, with the electric +locomotive, to try it out on the tracks of the H. & P. A., Rad was +quite sure that if he did not go along, the test would not come out +right. + +"O' course yo'll need me, Massa Tom," he said, confidently. "Couldn't +git along widout me nohow. Yo' knows, sir, I allus has to go 'long wid +yo' to fix things." + +"Don't you think father will need you here, Rad?" Tom asked the +faithful old fellow. "You're getting old--" + +"Me gittin' old?" cried, the colored man. "Huh! Yo' don't know 'bout +dis here chile. I don't purpose ever to git old. I been gray-haided +since befo' yo' was born; but I ain't old yit!" + +Mr. Damon chanced to be present at this conversation, and he was highly +amused, yet somewhat impressed, too, by the colored man's statement. + +"Bless my own antiquity!" he exclaimed. "I agree with Rad, Tom. It's +us old fellows who know what to do when an emergency of any kind +arises. Experience teaches more than inspiration." + +"Oh," said Tom, laughing, "I do not deny the value of old friends at +any stage of the game." + +"Bless my roving nature! I am glad to hear you say that. For I tell you +right now, Tom, I want to be out there when you make your final test of +the locomotive." + +"Do you mean that you will go West when I take out the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One?" cried Tom. + +"It's just what I want to do. Bless my traveling bag, Tom! I mean to be +present at your final triumph." + +"What will happen to your buff Orpingtons while you are gone?" asked +the young inventor, gravely. + +"I have got my servant trained to look after those chickens," declared +Mr. Damon. "And this invention of yours is really more important than +even my buff Orpingtons." + +"Just the same," remarked Tom to his eccentric friend, when Rad had +left the room. "I've got to fix it so that Eradicate stays at home with +father. He doesn't really know how old and broken he is--poor fellow." + +"His heart is green, Tom. That's what is the matter with Rad." + +"He is a loyal old fellow. But I shall take Koku with me, not Rad," and +the young inventor spoke decidedly. "And that is going to trouble poor +Rad a lot." + +The prospect of going West, however, was not the main subject of Tom's +thoughts at this time. As the weeks passed and the end of the six +months of experiment came nearer, the inventor was more and more +troubled by the principal difficulty which had from the first +confronted him. Speed. + +That was the mark he had set himself. A maximum speed of two miles a +minute on a level track for the Hercules 0001. With the speed already +attained by both steam and electric locomotives in the more recent +past, this was by no means an impossible attainment, as Tom quite well +knew. + +But he became convinced that the conditions under which he labored made +it impossible for him to be positive of just how great a speed on a +straight, level track his invention would attain. + +There was no electrified stretch of railroad near Shopton on which the +Hercules 0001 might be tested. The track inside the Swift Company's +enclosure did not offer the conditions the inventor needed. He felt +balked. + +"I believe I have hit the right idea in my improvements on the Jandel +patents," he told Ned Newton when they were discussing the matter. "But +believing is one thing. Knowing is another!" + +"Theoretically it works out all right, I suppose?" questioned Ned. + +"Quite. I can prove on paper that I've got the speed. But that isn't +enough. You can see that." + +"Impossible to be sure on the trackage already built here, Tom?" + +"I haven't dared give her all she'll take," grumbled Tom. "If I did, I +fear she'd jump the rails and I'd have a wreck on my hands." + +"And maybe kill yourself!" exclaimed Ned. "You want to have a care." + +"Oh, that's all right! I've taken risks before. I don't want to risk +the safety of the locomotive, which is more important. That machine has +cost us a lot of money." + +"I'll say so!" agreed Ned. "You'll have to wait till you can get the +locomotive out there on the H. & P. A. tracks before you get a fair +speed-test." + +"And suppose instead of a triumph it is a fiasco?" Tom said, +doubtfully. "I tell you straight, Ned: I never was so uncertain about +the outcome of one of my inventions since I began dabbling with +motive-power." + +"We could build several miles of straight track in the waste ground +behind the works," Ned said, thoughtfully. + +"Not a chance! There is neither time nor money for such work. Besides, +I should have to rebuild my transforming station if I supplied longer +conduit wires with current." + +"You don't really consider that you have failed, do you, Tom?" and +Ned's anxiety made his voice sound very woeful indeed. + +"I tell you that my belief doesn't satisfy me. I hate to go West +without being sure--positive. I want to know! I have tried the +locomotive out in the yard half a dozen times. It runs like a fine +watch. There doesn't seem to be a thing the matter with it now. But +what speed can I attain?" + +"I don't see but you'll have to risk it, Tom." + +"I mean to give her one more test. I'll run her out tonight when there +is nobody about but the watchmen--and you, if you want to come. I'll +arrange with the Electric Company for all the current they can spare. +By ginger! I've got to take some risk." + +"By the way, Tom," said his chum, "did it ever strike you as odd that +that private detective agency never got any trace of O'Malley?" + +"Well, he's gone away. We needn't worry about him. Maybe the detective +wasn't very smart, at that." + +"And yet he was here in town after you put the inquiry on foot. I saw +him in the bank. He came there occasionally. And either he, or somebody +he hired, placed that bomb in the locomotive." + +"All those being facts, what of it?" + +"Besides, there was that other fellow--the man with the Vandyke beard. +Might be a shyster lawyer, or something of the kind. He wasn't spotted, +either." + +"To tell the truth, I didn't bother to give the Detective Agency the +description of that fellow, although you gave it to me," and Tom +laughed. "I must confess that I depend more upon my man-trap electric +wires to protect the invention than I do on the private inquiry agent." + +"It's funny, just the same. If I had another job for a detective I +should not submit it to the Blatz Agency," grumbled Ned. + +"I fancy Montagne Lewis and his crowd called off their Wild West +gunman," said Tom. "In any case, every attempt he made to bother us +turned out a fizzle. I am not, however, forgetting precautions, my boy." + +Ned Newton realized that his chum had determined to make this night +test of the electric locomotive the pivotal trial of the whole affair. +He came back to the works after dinner and was let in by the office +watchman at about nine o'clock. + +"Mr. Tom here yet?" he asked the man. + +"Yes, Mr. Newton. The young boss didn't go home to supper, even. That +colored man brought something down for him, and he's in the shed yet." + +"Rad is here, you mean?" + +"Yes, sir. At least, he didn't go out this way, and we watchmen have +instructions to let nobody in or out by the yard gates at night." + +"I'll say Tom is being careful," thought Ned, as he stepped out through +the runway toward the erection shed. + +Before he reached the entrance to the huge shed, however, Ned chanced +to look down the enclosure. There were several arc lights burning, but +even these only furnished a dim illumination for the whole yard. + +He supposed that four watchmen were tramping their several beats along +the inside of the stockade and close to the trolley-track. But when he +saw an instant gleam of light down there, close to the ground, Ned did +not believe that it was the flash of a torch in the hand of any sentry. + +"Funny," he muttered. "That's outside the fence, or I'm much mistaken. +I wonder now--" + +He turned from the door of the shed, left the runway, and began walking +toward the distant point at which he had seen the mysterious flash of +light. + + + + +Chapter XV + +The Enemy Still Active + + +Ned was dressed in a dark business suit, so he was not likely to be +observed from a distance, for it was a starless night. Half way to the +end of the great yard he began to wonder if the light he had seen might +not have been an hallucination. + +He doubted very much if anybody was creeping about outside the fence. +The boards were close together, with scarcely a crack half an inch wide +anywhere. A light out there-- + +It flashed again. He was positive of it this time, and of its locality +as well. It could be nobody who had any honest business about the Swift +Construction Company's premises. It was not Koku, for ordinarily the +giant would not use an electric torch. + +Ned did not know where any of the watchmen were who were acting as +sentinels. In fact, as it appeared later, three of them had been called +off their beats by Tom himself to help in some necessary task inside +the shed. The young inventor was getting ready to run the huge +locomotive out upon the yard-track. + +Remembering vividly the attempt which had been made some weeks before +to blow up the Hercules 0001, it was only natural that Ned should +suspect that the flash of light he had seen revealed the presence of +some ill-conditioned person lurking just beyond the fence. + +A man might be crouching there prepared to hurl an explosive bomb over +the fence when the locomotive was brought around as far as that spot. +Or was the villain foolish enough to attempt to enter the enclosure by +surmounting the fence? + +Ned, keeping close to the ground, crossed the rails in the fortunate +shadow of one of the posts. There he found a place where, with his back +to a pole-prop right at this curve in the trolley system, the shadow +enfolded him completely. + +Had his movements been marked by the person outside the fence? Ned +waited several long and anxious minutes for some move from out there. +Then something rather unexpected occurred. For the past ten minutes he +had forgotten about the test of the Hercules 0001 which Tom had +promised. + +With a blast of its siren the huge electric locomotive burst out of the +shed and thundered around the track. It smote Ned Newton's mind +suddenly that the inventor was going to "take a chance" on this evening +and try to get some speed out of the huge machine. + +The electric headlight cast a broad cone of white and dazzling light +across the yard. It suddenly struck full upon the spot where Ned Newton +crouched; but the upright against which he leaned was broad enough to +hide him completely. + +Looking up at the top of the stockade at that moment of illumination, +the young financial manager of the Swift Construction Company beheld a +crawling figure nearing the wire entanglements on the summit of the +fence. + +The unknown man was climbing by means of a notched pole. Ned could not +see that he bore any bulky object in his hands; indeed, he needed both +of them to aid him to climb. But the man's right hand was reaching +upward, above his head. + +The Hercules 0001 came roaring on. Its cone of light passed beyond +Ned's station. In a few seconds it reached the spot, and roared on. Ned +had not made a move. It seemed to him that he could not move or speak. + +The onrush of the electric locomotive all but swept the young fellow +from his feet. It had come and gone in an instant! + +"He's making more than fifteen or twenty miles an hour, all right," +muttered Ned. + +Then he flashed another glance up at the figure outside the fence. The +man's cap showed above the top of the boards. He seemed to be dragging +something up to him from below--something that hung and swung around +and around a few feet from the ground. + +Ned was about to dart out of concealment and hail the fellow. He was +not armed, nor could he get out of the stockade near this point. He +feared what the marauder intended, and he felt that he must frighten +him away. + +"Suppose that is a bomb and he means to fling it in front of Tom's +locomotive?" thought the anxious Ned. + +He again saw the stranger's right hand reach up above his head. But he +had no bomb in his hand. Ned suddenly shrieked a word of warning! It +had come to him what the man was doing and what the result of his act +would be. + +The wire-cutters bit on one of the copper wires. There followed a flash +of blue flame, and the man screamed. He dropped the thing swinging +below him and involuntarily grabbed at the wires with his left hand. + +He was caught, then! The crackling intermittent shocks of electric +fluid passed through his body in fiery sequence. His limbs writhed. He +mouthed horribly, and croaking gasps came from between his wide open +jaws. + +The Hercules 0001 had rounded the enclosure and was coming down upon +its second lap. The cone of white radiance from the headlight fell upon +the writhing body of the victim on the wires. The locomotive siren +emitted a blast that almost deafened Ned. + +The monster ground to a stop. Tom swung himself half out of the cab +window beside the controller. + +"Who's that?" he yelled. Then he saw Ned below him. "Who is that +fellow?" + +"No friend of yours, Tom, I believe," returned his financial manager in +a shaking voice. + +"Where's Rad? Rad!" Tom shouted at the top of his voice. + +"I's comm', Massa Tom," rejoined the colored man. + +"Never mind coming here! Get a move on, and get to the switchboard. +Turn the current out of the fence wires. + +"Yis, sir, I'll go Massa Tom," declared the old man. + +"Is he a spotter, Ned?" demanded the inventor. + +"He's no friend. I am going out by the gate. He's got something there +that means harm, I believe. Do you think he's killed, Tom?" + +"Only ought to be. Not enough current to kill him. But he's badly +burned and--and--well! I bet he won't care to fool around the works +again." + +Ned dashed away to an entrance. A watchman came running, opened the +small gate, and followed Ned into the open. + +Before they arrived at the vicinity of the accident Rad had got to the +switchboard. The electricity was shut out of the stockade wires. + +Ned uttered another shout. He saw the writhing body of the shocked man +fall from the stockade. When he and the watchman got to the spot the +fellow lay upon his back, groaning and sobbing; but Ned saw at once +that he was more frightened than hurt. + +"Well, you did it that time!" exclaimed the young financial manager. +"And I hope you got enough." + +"You--you demons!" gasped the man. "I'll have the law on you--" + +"Sure you will," cackled the watchman. "You had every right in the +world to try to cut those wires, of course, and get into the yard of +the works. Sure! The judge will believe you all right." + +Ned was, meanwhile, staring closely at the fallen man. Tom had come +down from the locomotive and was close to the fence. + +"Who is he?" demanded the inventor. "Not O'Malley?" + +Ned stepped to the fence and whispered: + +"It's the other fellow. The little chap with the Vandyke. He's dressed +like a tramp, but it's the same man." + +"Is he badly hurt?" demanded Tom. + +"His temper is, Boss," said the watchman callously. "And say! I know +this fellow. He works for the Blatz Detective Agency. I used to work +for those folks myself. His name is Myrick--Joe Myrick." + +"Ned," said Tom sternly, "go to the office and call the police. I'll +make him tell why he was here. And I'll make the Blatz people explain, +too. Hullo! what's that?" + +Ned had seized the rope he had seen in Myrick's hand, and from a patch +of weeds drew a two-gallon oil-can. + +"What you got there, Ned?" repeated the young inventor. + +"Whatever it is, I am going to be mighty easy with it. I think this +scoundrel was trying to get it over the fence and into the way of the +locomotive." + +"You can't hang anything on me," said Myrick, suddenly. "I was just +climbing up to the top of the fence to get a squint at that contraption +you've built. You can't hang anything on me." + +"He's evidently feeling better," said Tom, scornfully. "Nugent, don't +let him get away from you. Go call the police, Ned. And take care of +that can until we can find out what's in it." + +Later, when the police had removed Joe Myrick and the mysterious can +had been deposited in a tub of water in the open lot until its contents +could be examined, Tom said to his chum: + +"I was just working up some speed on the locomotive. The speedometer +indicated fifty-five when I saw that fellow sprawling up there on the +fence. I would not have dared go much faster in any case." + +"Why, you weren't half trying, Tom!" cried the delighted Ned. + +"She did slide around easy, didn't she? Fifty-five on an almost +circular track is a good showing. I am not so scared as I was, my boy." + +"You think that on a straight track you might accomplish what you set +out to do?" + +"It looks like it. At any rate, I shall risk a trial on the H. & P. A. +tracks. I'm going to take her West. Be ready on Monday, Ned, for I +shall want you with me," declared Tom Swift. + + + + +Chapter XVI + +Off for the West + + +Of course, as Tom supposed they would, the Blatz Detective Agency +denied that Joe Myrick, their one-time operative, had been engaged +through their bureau either to spy upon the Swift Construction Company +or to injure Tom's invention of the electric locomotive. + +Nevertheless, three points were indisputable: Myrick had been caught +spying; in his possession was a can of explosive which could be set off +by concussion; and it was a fact that to Myrick had been first +entrusted the matter of hunting for Andy O'Malley when Tom had put the +search for the Westerner up to the Blatz people. + +"He played traitor both to you, Mr. Swift, and to our agency," declared +Blatz to Tom. "I wash my hands of him. I hope the police send him away +for life!" + +"He'll go to prison all right," said Tom, confidently. "But the main +point is that one of your operatives fell down on a simple job. I +wanted that Andy O'Malley traced. He's out of the way, now, of course. +If you had put an honest man to work for me, O'Malley would be behind +the bars himself." + +"Some doubt of that, Mr. Swift," grumbled Blatz. + +"Why?" + +"Where's your evidence that this O'Malley was connected with the +attempt to blow up your locomotive the first time? Mr. Newton's +testimony would need corroboration." + +"Never mind that," rejoined the young inventor, with a smile. "I'd +have him for highway robbery. I recognized him. He robbed me of a +wallet. Guess we could put O'Malley away for awhile on that charge. And +by the time he got out again my job for that Western railroad would be +completed." + +"Humph! Nothing personal in your going after the fellow, then?" queried +the head of the detective agency. + +"No. But I frankly confess that I am afraid of O'Malley. He is +undoubtedly in the employ of men who will pay him well if he wrecks my +invention. But there really is no personal grudge between O'Malley and +me. At least, I feel no particular enmity against the fellow." + +There was a pause. + +"If you say so we will give you a couple of good men as bodyguards on +your trip West," suggested Blatz, licking his lips hungrily. + +"As good men as Myrick?" retorted Tom, rather scornfully. "No, thank +you. Just make your bill out to the Swift Construction Company to date, +and a check will be sent you the first of the month. I will take my own +precautions hereafter." + +And those precautions Tom considered sufficient. When the Hercules 0001 +was towed out of the enclosure belonging to the Swift Construction +Company early on Monday morning, each door and window of the huge cab +was barred and locked. Inside the cab rode Koku, the giant. + +Koku had his orders to allow nobody to enter the Hercules 0001 until +Tom or Ned Newton came to relieve him of his responsibility as guard. +The giant had a swinging cot to sleep on and sufficient food--of a +kind--to last him for a fortnight if necessary. + +He was not armed, for Tom did not often trust him with weapons. The +young inventor, however, did not expect that any armed force would +attack the electric locomotive. + +If Montagne Lewis desired to wreck the new invention which might mean +so much to Mr. Bartholomew and the H. & P. A., he surely would not +allow his hirelings to attack openly the locomotive while it was en +route. + +On the other hand, Tom did not really believe that Andy O'Malley would +attempt any reprisal against him personally. Of course, the Western +desperado might feel himself abused by Tom, especially in the matter of +Tom's use of his ammonia pistol. + +But that had happened months ago. O'Malley had undoubtedly been hired +by Mr. Bartholomew's enemies to obtain knowledge of the contract signed +between the young inventor and the railroad president; and later it was +certain that the spy had tried his best to wreck the electric +locomotive. + +As for any personal assault so many weeks after O'Malley had clashed +with him Tom Swift did not expect it. With Ned in his company on this +journey to Hendrickton, the young inventor had good reason to consider +that he was perfectly safe. + +Mary Nestor and Mr. Swift came to the station to see the two young men +off on Monday evening. Mary had heard about the second attempt made to +blow up the Hercules 0001 and she begged Tom to take every precaution +while he was in the West. + +"You will be in the enemy's country out there, Tom dear," she warned +him. "You won't be careless?" + +"I know I shall be mighty busy," he told her, laughing. "I'll let Ned +play watch-dog. And you know, his is a cautious soul, Mary." + +"I've every confidence in Ned's faithfulness," the girl said, still +with anxious tone. "But those men who are trying to ruin Mr. +Bartholomew's road will stop at nothing. I must hear from you +frequently, Tom, or I shall worry myself ill." + +"Don't lose your courage, Mary," rejoined the inventor, more gravely. +"I do not think they will attack me personally again. Remember that +Koku is on the job, as well as Ned. And Mr. Damon declares he will +follow us West very shortly," and again Tom chuckled. + +"Even Mr. Damon may be a help to you, Tom," declared Mary, warmly. "At +least, he is completely devoted to you." + +"So is Rad Sampson," said Tom, with a little grimace. "I certainly had +my hands full convincing him that father needed him here at home. At +that, Rad is pretty warm over the fact that I sent Koku on with the +locomotive. If anything should chance to happen to my invention, +Eradicate Sampson is going to shout 'I told you so!' all over the shop." + +Mary dabbed her eyes a little with her handkerchief, and Tom patted her +shoulder. + +"Don't worry, Mary," he said more cheerfully. "There won't a thing +happen to me out there at Hendrickton. I'll keep the wires hot with +telegrams. And I'll write to both you and father, and give you the full +particulars of how we get along. You'll keep your eye on father, Mary, +won't you?" + +"You may be sure of that," said the girl. "I will not leave him +entirely to the care of Rad," and she tried hard to smile again. But +it was a difficult matter. + +Such a parting as this is always hard to endure. Tom wrung his father's +hand and warned him to be careful of his health. The train came along +and the two young men boarded it with their personal luggage. + +They had a flash of the two faces--that of Mr. Swift's and Mary's +blooming countenance--as the express started again, and then the +outlook from the Pullman coach showed them the fast-receding environs +of Shopton. + +"We're on our way, my boy," said Tom to his chum. + +"We certainly are," said Ned, thoughtfully. "I wonder what the outcome +of the trip will be? It may not be all plain sailing." + +"Don't croak," rejoined the young inventor, with a grin. + +"I don't see how you can appear so cheerful. Why! you don't even know +if that electric locomotive is safe. Something may have already +happened to it. The freight train might be wrecked. A dozen things +might happen." + +"I am not crossing any bridges before I come to them," declared Tom. +"Besides, I propose to keep in touch with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One +in a certain way--Hullo! Here it is." + +"Here what is?" demanded Ned. + +The Pullman conductor at that moment came in through the forward +corridor. He had a telegram in his hand, and intoned loudly as he +approached: + +"Mr. Swift! Mr. Thomas Swift! Telegram for Mr. Swift." + +"That is for me, Conductor," said Tom briskly, offering his card. + +"All right, Mr. Swift. Just got it at Shopton. Operator said you had +boarded my car. This is railroad business, you'll notice. Have you any +reply, sir?" + +Tom ripped open the envelope and unfolded the telegram. He held it so +that Ned could read, too. It was signed: "N. G. Smith, Conductor, +Number 48." + +"What's that?" exclaimed Ned, reading the message. + +"'Locomotive and crazy man in it all right at Lingo,'" repeated Tom +aloud, and chuckled. + +"No, Conductor, there is no answer." + +"Good!" exclaimed Ned. "You arranged to get reports en route from the +conductors handling the Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" + +"Surest thing you know," replied Tom. "And I guess, from the wording of +this message, that the crew of Forty-eight have already found out that +Koku is not an ordinary guard." + +"He's a great boy," smiled Ned. "Glad he is on the job." + + + + +Chapter XVII + +The Wreck of Forty-Eight + + +The two chums sought their berths that night in high fettle. Even Ned +sloughed off his mood of apprehension which he had worn on boarding the +train at Shopton. + +For, true to the arrangement Tom had made with the railroad people, +another reassuring telegram was brought to him before bedtime. The +second conductor responsible for the management of the Western bound +freight to which the Hercules 0001 was attached, sent back a brief +statement of the safety of the electric locomotive. + +Naturally the two chums would have passed the freight and got well +ahead of it before reaching Hendrickton. But Tom had business in +Chicago, and they stayed over in that city for twenty-four hours. The +freight train went around the city, of course. But the telegrams +continued to reach Tom promptly, even at the hotel where he and Ned +stopped in the city. + +Occasionally the trainmen in charge of the freight mentioned Koku. His +eccentric behavior doubtless somewhat puzzled the railroaders. + +"That's all right," chuckled Ned. "Let them think Koku is dangerous if +they want to. That O'Malley person believed he was!" + +"I'll say so!" replied Tom. "The way he ran when Koku started after him +that time on the Waterfield Road seemed to prove that he didn't want to +mix with Koku." + +"If he--or other spies--learns that Koku is with the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, it ought to warn them away from the locomotive." + +This was Ned's final speech before getting into his berth. He, as well +as Tom, slept quite as calmly on this first night out of Chicago as +they had before. + +They knew exactly where the electric locomotive was. It was on the same +road as this train they were traveling in, and, although on a different +track, it was not many miles ahead. In fact, if the two trains kept to +schedule, the transcontinental passenger train would pass the freight +in question about five o'clock in the morning. + +It lacked half an hour of that time when the Pullman train came +suddenly to a jolting stop. Both Tom and Ned were awakened with the +rest of the passengers in their coach. + +Heads were poked out between curtains all along the aisle and a chorus +of more or less excited voices demanded: + +"What's the matter?" + +"Nothin's the matter wid dis train, gen'lemens an' ladies," came in the +porter's important voice. "Jest nothin' at all's happened. It's done +happened up ahead of us, das all." + +"Well, what has happened ahead of us, George?" asked Ned. + +"Jest another train, Boss, been splatterin' itself all ober de right of +way. We sort o' bein' held up, das all," replied the porter. + +"That's good news--for us," said Ned, preparing to climb back into his +berth. But he halted where he was when he heard his chum ask: + +"What train left the track, George?" + +"A freight train, sah. Yes, sah. Number Forty-eight. She jumped de +rails, side-swiped de accommodation dat was holdin' us back, and has +jest done spread herself all over de right of way." + +"My goodness!" gasped Ned. + +"Hear that, Ned?" exclaimed Tom. "Scramble into your clothes, boy. The +Hercules Three-Oughts-One is hitched to Forty-eight." + +"Suppose she's off the track?" murmured Ned. + +"It's lucky if she isn't smashed to matchwood," groaned Tom, and almost +immediately left the Pullman coach on the run. + +Ned was not far behind him. When they reached the cinder path beside +the freight train it was just sunrise. Long arms of rosy light reached +down the mountain side to linger on the tracks and what was strewed +across them. A glance assured the two young fellows from the East that +it was a bad smash indeed. + +Several of the rear boxcars were slung athwart the passenger tracks. +The passenger train that had been ahead of the Pullman train on which +Tom and Ned rode, had been badly beaten in all along its side. Scarcely +a whole window was left on the inner side of the five cars. But those +cars were not derailed. It was merely some of the freight cars that +retarded the further progress of the transcontinental flyer. A derrick +car must be brought up to lift away the debris before the fast train +could move on. + +Tom and Ned walked forward along the length of the wreck. Suddenly the +anxious young inventor seized Ned's arm. + +"Glory be!" he ejaculated. "It's topside up, anyway." + +"The Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" gasped Ned. + +"That's what it is!" + +Tom quickened his pace, and his financial manager followed close upon +his heels. The forward end of Forty-eight had not left the track and +the electric locomotive stood upright upon the rails, being near the +head end of the train. + +"If this wreck was intentional, and aimed at your invention, Tom," +whispered Ned Newton, "it did not result as the wreckers expected." + +Tom scouted the idea suggested by his chum. And in a few moments they +learned from a railroad employee that a broken flange on a boxcar wheel +had caused the wreck. + +"So that disposes of your suspicion, Ned," said Tom, approaching the +huge electric locomotive. + +"Hey, gents!" exclaimed another railroad man, one of the crew of the +wrecked freight. "Better keep away from that locomotive." + +"What's the matter with it?" Ned asked, curiously. + +"Got some kind of an aborigine caged up in it. You put your hand on any +part of it and he's likely to jump out and bite your hand off, or +something. Believe me, he's some savage." + +Both Tom and Ned burst into laughter. The former went forward to the +door of the cab and knocked in a peculiar way. It was a signal that the +giant recognized instantly. + +"Master!" Koku cried from inside the cab. "Master! Him come in?" + +"No, Koku," said Tom. "I'm not coming in. Are you all right?" + +"Yes. Koku all right. Him come out?" + +"No, no!" laughed Tom. "You are not at your journey's end yet, Koku. +Keep on the job a while longer." + +"Sure. Koku stay here forever, if Master say so." + +"Forever is a long word, Koku," said Tom, more seriously. "I'll tell +you when to open the door. I'll be at the end of the journey to meet +you." + +"It all right if Master say so. But Koku no like to travel in box," +grumbled the giant. + +Tom turned from the electric locomotive to see Ned staring across the +tracks at a man who was talking to several of the train crew of the +side-swiped accommodation train. That train was about to be moved on +under its own power. None of the wreckage of the freight interfered +with the progress of the accommodation. + +Tom stepped to Ned's side and touched his arm. "Who is he?" the +inventor asked. + +The man who had attracted Ned's attention and now held Tom's interest +as well was a solid looking man with gray hair and a dyed mustache. He +was chewing on a long and black cigar, and he spoke to the train hands +with authority. + +"Well, why can't you find him?" he wanted to know in a hoarse and +arrogant voice. + +"Who is he?" asked Tom again in Ned's ear. + +"I've seen him somewhere. Or else I've seen somebody that looks like +him. Maybe I've seen his picture. He's somebody of importance." + +"He thinks he is," rejoined the young inventor, with some disdain. + +In answer to something one of the railroad men said the important +looking individual uttered an oath and added: + +"There's nobody been killed then? He's just missing? He was sitting in +the coach ahead of me. I saw him just before the wreck. You know +O'Malley yourself. Do you mean to say you haven't seen him, Conductor?" + +"I assure you he disappeared like smoke, sir," said the passenger +conductor. "I haven't an idea what became of him." + +"Humph! If you see him, send him to me," and the solid man stepped +heavily aboard the nearest coach and disappeared inside. + +Tom and Ned stared at each other with wondering gaze. O'Malley! The +spy who had represented Montagne Lewis and the Hendrickton & Western +Railroad in the East. + +"What do you know about that?" demanded Ned, wonderingly. + +"Hold on!" exclaimed Tom. He sprang across the rails after the +conductor of the accommodation train that was just starting on. "Let +me ask you a question." + +"Yes, sir?" replied the conductor + +"Who was that man who just spoke to you?" "That man? Why, I thought +everybody out this way knew Montagne Lewis. That is his name, sir--and +a big man he is. Yes, sir," and the conductor, giving the watching +engineer of his train the "highball," caught the hand-rail of the car +and swung himself aboard as the train started. + + + + +Chapter XVIII + +On the Hendrickton & Pas Alos + + +The transcontinental was delayed three hours by the strewn wreckage of +the rear of Number Forty-eight. When she went on the two young fellows +from Shopton gazed anxiously at the Hercules 0001, which stood between +two gondolas in the forward end of the freight train. + +"Just by luck nothing happened to it," muttered Ned. + +"Just luck," agreed Tom Swift. "It was a shock to me to learn that Andy +O'Malley was right there on the spot when the accident happened." + +"And his employer, too," added Ned. "For we must admit that Mr. +Montagne Lewis is the man who sicked O'Malley on to you." + +"True." + +"And they were both in the accommodation that was sideswiped by the +derailed cars of Number Forty-eight." + +"That, likewise is a fact," said Tom, nodding quickly. + +"But what puzzles me, as it seemed to puzzle Lewis, more than anything +else, is what became of O'Malley?" + +"I guess I can see through that knot-hole," Tom rejoined. + +"Yes?" + +"I bet O'Malley got a squint at me--or perhaps at you--as we walked up +the track from this coach, and he lit out in a hurry. There stood the +Three-Oughts-One, and there were we. He knew we would raise a hue and +cry if we saw him in the vicinity of my locomotive." + +"I bet that's the truth, Tom." + +"I know it. He didn't even have time to warn his employer. By the way, +Ned, what a brute that Montagne Lewis looks to be." + +"I believe you! I remember having seen his photograph in a magazine. +Oh, he's some punkins, Tom." + +"And just as wicked as they make 'em, I bet! Face just as pleasant as a +bulldog's!" + +"You said it. I'm afraid of that man. I shall not have a moment's peace +until you have handed the Hercules Three-Oughts-One over to Mr. +Bartholomew and got his acceptance." + +"If I do," murmured Tom. + +"Of course you will, if that Lewis or his henchmen don't smash things +up. You are not afraid of the speed matter now, are you?" demanded Ned +confidently. + +"I can be sure of nothing until after the tests," said Tom, shaking his +head. "Remember, Ned, that I have set out to accomplish what was never +done before--to drive a locomotive over the rails at two miles a +minute. It's a mighty big undertaking." + +"Of course it will come out all right. If Koku is faithful----" + +"That is the smallest 'if' in the category," Tom interposed, with a +laugh. "If I was as sure of all else as I am of Koku, we'd have plain +sailing before us." + +Two days later Tom Swift and Ned Newton were ushered into the private +office of the president of the H. & P. A. at the Hendrickton terminal. +The two young fellows from the East had got in the night before, had +become established at the best hotel in the rapidly growing Western +municipality, and had seen something of the town itself during the +hours before midnight. + +Now they were ready for business, and very important business, too. + +Mr. Richard Bartholomew sat up in his desk chair and his keen eyes +suddenly sparkled when he saw his visitors and recognized them. + +"I did not expect you so soon. Your locomotive arrived yesterday, Mr. +Swift. How are you, Mr. Newton?" + +He motioned for them to take chairs. His secretary left the room. The +railroad magnate at once became confidential. + +"Nothing happened on the way?" he asked, pointedly. "There was a +freight wreck, I understand?" + +"And we chanced to be right at hand when that happened," said Tom. + +"So was your friend, Mr. Lewis," remarked Ned Newton. + +"You don't mean to say that Montagne Lewis--" + +"Was there. And Andy O'Malley," put in Tom. + +Then he detailed the incident, as far as he and Ned knew the details, +to Mr. Bartholomew, who listened with close attention. + +"Well, it might merely have been a coincidence," murmured the railroad +president. "But, of course, we can't be sure. Anyhow, it is just as +well if your servant, Mr. Swift, keeps close watch still upon that +locomotive." + +"He will," said Tom, nodding. "He is down there in the yard with the +Hercules Three-Oughts-One, and I mean to keep Koku right on the job." + +"Good! Let's go down and look at her," Mr. Bartholomew said, eagerly. + +But first Tom wanted to go into the theoretical particulars of his +invention. And he confessed that thus far his tests of the locomotive +had not been altogether satisfactory. + +"I have got to have a clear track on a stretch of your own line here, +Mr. Bartholomew, and under certain conditions, before I can be sure as +to just how much speed I can get out of the machine." + +"Speed is the essential point, Mr. Swift," said the railroad man, +seriously. + +"That is what I have been telling Ned," Tom rejoined. "I believe my +improvements over the Jandel patents are worthy. I know I have a very +powerful locomotive. But that is not enough." + +"We have got to shoot our trains through the Pas Alos Range faster than +trains were ever shot over the grades before, or we have failed," said +Mr. Bartholomew, with decision. + +"But--" began Ned; but Tom put up an arresting hand and his financial +manager ceased speaking. + +"I have not forgotten the details of our contract, Mr. Bartholomew," he +said, quietly. "Two-miles-a-minute is the target I have aimed for. +Whether I have hit it or not, well, time will show. I have got to try +the locomotive out on the tracks of the H. & P. A. in any case. The +Hercules Three-Oughts-One has been dragged a long distance, and has +been through at least one wreck. I want to see if she is all right +before I test her officially." + +"I'll arrange that for you," said Mr. Bartholomew, briskly, putting +away his papers. "I will go with you, too, and take a look at the +marvel." + +"And a marvel it is," grumbled Ned. "Don't let him fool you, Mr. +Bartholomew. Tom never does consider what he's done as being as great +as it really is." + +"Everything must be proved," Tom said, cautiously. "If it was a +financial problem, Mr. Bartholomew, believe me it would be Ned who +displayed caution. But I have seldom built anything that could not--and +has not--later been improved." + +"You do not consider your electric locomotive, then, a completed +invention?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, as the three walked down the yard. + +"I have too much experience to say it is perfect," returned Tom. "I can +scarcely believe, even, that it is going to suit you, Mr. Bartholomew, +even if the speed test is as promising as I hope it may be." + +"Humph!" + +"But before I shall be willing to throw up the sponge and say that I +have failed, I shall monkey with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One quite a +little on your tracks." + +"Your six months isn't up yet," said Mr. Bartholomew, more cheerfully. +"And it doesn't matter if it is. If you see any chance of making a +success of your invention, you are welcome to try it out on the tracks +of the H. & P. A. for another six months." + +"All right," Tom said, smiling. "Now, there is the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, Mr. Bartholomew. And there is Koku looking longingly +through the window." + +In fact, the giant, the moment he saw Tom, ran to unbar and open the +door of the cab on that side. + +"Master! If no let Koku out, Koku go amuck--crazy! No can breathe in +here! No can eat! No can sleep!" + +"The poor fellow!" ejaculated Ned. + +"What's the matter with him?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, curiously. + +"Get out, if you want to, Koku. I'll stay by while you kick up your +heels." + +No sooner had the inventor spoken than the giant leaped from the open +door of the locomotive and dashed away along the cinder path as though +he actually had to run away. Tom burst into a laugh, as he watched the +giant disappear beyond the strings of freight cars. + +"What is the matter with him?" repeated the railroad president. + +"He's got the cramp all right," laughed Tom Swift. "You don't +understand, Mr. Bartholomew, what it means to that big fellow to be +housed in for so many days, and unable to kick a free limb. I bet he +runs ten miles before he stops." + +"The police will arrest him," said the railroad man. + +It was then Ned's turn to chuckle. "I am sorry for your railroad police +if they tackle Koku right now," he said. "He'd lay out about a dozen +ordinary men without half trying. But, ordinarily, he is the most +mild-mannered fellow who ever lived." + +"He will come back, if he is let alone, as harmless as a kitten," Tom +observed. "And when I am not with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One, and +while I continue making my tests, Koku will be on guard. You might tell +your police force, Mr. Bartholomew, to let him alone. Now come aboard +and let me show you what I have been trying to do." + +They spent two hours inside the cab of the great locomotive. Mr. +Richard Bartholomew was possessed of no small degree of mechanical +education. He might not be a genius in mechanics as Tom Swift was, but +he could follow the latter's explanations regarding the improvements in +the electrical equipment of this new type of locomotive. + +"I don't know what your speed tests will show, Mr. Swift," said the +railroad president, with added enthusiasm. "But if those parts will do +what you say they have already done, you've got the Jandels beat a +mile! I'm for you, strong. Yes, sir! like your friend, Newton, here, I +believe that you have hit the right track. You are going to triumph." + +But Tom's triumph did not come at once. He knew more about the +uncertainties of mechanical contrivances than did either Mr. +Bartholomew or Ned Newton. + +The very next day the Hercules 0001 was got out upon a section of the +electrified system of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railway, and the +pantagraphs of the huge locomotive for the first time came into +connection with the twin conductor trolleys which overhung the rails. + +Ned accompanied Tom as assistant. Koku was allowed by the inventor to +roam about the hills as much as he pleased during the hours in which +his master was engaged with the Hercules 0001. Tom did not think any +harm would come to Koku, and he knew that the giant would enjoy +immensely a free foot in such a wild country. The two young fellows, +dressed in working suits of overall stuff, spent long hours in the cab +of the electric locomotive. Their try-outs had to be made for the most +part on sidetracks and freight switches, some miles outside +Hendrickton, where the invention would not be in the way of regular +traffic. + +Speed on level tracks had been raised in one test to over ninety-five +miles an hour and Mr. Bartholomew cheered wildly from the cab of a huge +Mallet that paced Tom's locomotive on a parallel track. No steam +locomotive had ever made such fast time. + +But Tom was after something bigger than this. He wanted to show the +president of the H. & P. A. that the Hercules 0001 could drag a load +over the Pas Alos Range at a pace never before gained by any +mountain-hog. + +Therefore he coaxed the electric locomotive out into the hills, some +hundred or more miles from headquarters. He had to keep in touch with +the train dispatcher's office, of course; the new machine had often to +take a sidetrack. Nor was much of this hilly right-of-way electrified. +The Jandels locomotive had been found to be a failure on the sharp +grades; so the extension of the trolley system had been abandoned. + +But there was one steep grade between Hammon and Cliff City that had +been completed. The current could be fed to the cables over this +stretch of track, and for a week Tom used this long and steep grade +just as much as he could, considering of course the demands of the +regular traffic. + +The telegraph operator at Half Way (merely a name for a station, for +there was not a habitation in sight) thrust his long upper-length out +of the telegraph office window one afternoon and waved a "highball" to +the waiting electric locomotive on the sidetrack. + +"Dispatcher says you can have Track Number Two West till the +four-thirteen, westbound, is due. I'll slip the operator at Cliff City +the news and he'll be on the lookout for you as well as me, Mr. Swift. +Go to it." + +Every man on the system was interested, and most of them enthusiastic, +about Tom's invention. The latter knew that he could depend upon this +operator and his mate to watch out for the western-bound flyer that +would begin its climb of the grade at Hammon less than half an hour +hence. + +The electric locomotive was coaxed out across the switch. Tom was +earnestly inspecting the more delicate parts of the mechanism while Ned +(and proud he was to do it) handled the levers. Once on the main line +he moved the controller forward. The machine began to pick up speed. + +The drumming of the wheels over the rail joints became a single +note--an increasing roar of sound. The electric locomotive shot up the +grade. The arrow on the speedometer crept around the dial and Ned's eye +was more often fastened on that than it was on the glistening twin +rails which mounted the grade. + +Black-green hemlock and spruce bordered the right of way on either +hand. Their shadows made the tunnel through the forest almost dark. But +Tom had not seen fit to turn on the headlight. + +"How is she making out?" asked the inventor, coming to look over his +chum's shoulder. + +"It's great, Tom!" breathed Ned Newton, his eyes glistening. "She eats +this grade up." + +"And it's within a narrow fraction of a two per cent.," said the +inventor proudly. "She takes it without a jar--Hold on! What's that +ahead?" + +The locomotive had traveled ten miles or more from Half Way. The +summit of the grade was not far ahead. But the forest shut out all view +of the station at Cliff City and the structures that stood near it. + +Right across the steel ribbons on which the hercules 0001 ran, Tom had +seen something which brought the question to his lips. Ned Newton saw +it too, and he shouted aloud: + +"Tree down! A log fallen, Tom!" + +He did not lose completely his self-control. But he grabbed the levers +with less care than he should. He tried to yank two of them at once, +and, in doing so, he fouled the brakes! + +He had shut off connection with the current. But the brake control was +jammed. The locomotive quickly came to a halt. Then, before Tom could +get to the open door, the wheels began spinning in reverse and the +great Hercules 0001 began the descent of the steep grade, utterly +unmanageable! + + + + +Chapter XIX + +Peril, The Mother of Invention + + +Tom Swift's first thought was one of thankfulness. Thankfulness that he +did not have a drag of fifty or sixty steel gondolas or the like to add +their weight to the down-pull. The locomotive's own weight of +approximately two hundred and seventy tons was enough. + +For when the inventor pushed Ned aside and tried to handle the +controllers properly, he found them unmanageable. There was not a +chance of freeing them and getting power on the brakes. The Hercules +0001 was backing down the mountain side with a speed that was +momentarily increasing, and without a chance of retarding it! + +The young inventor at that moment of peril, knew no more what to do to +avert disaster than Ned Newton himself. + +It flashed across his mind, however, that others beside themselves were +in peril because of this accident. The fast express from the East that +should pass Half Way at four-thirteen, might already be climbing the +hill from Hammon. Hammon, at the foot of the grade, was twenty-five +miles away. Nor was the track straight. + +If the operator at Half Way did not see the runaway locomotive and +telephone the danger to the foot of the grade, when the Hercules 0001 +came tearing down the track it might ram something in the Hammon yard, +if it did not actually collide with the approaching westbound express. + +Such an emergency as this is likely either to numb the brains of those +entangled in the peril or excite them to increased activity. Ned Newton +was apparently stunned by the catastrophe. Tom's brain never worked +more clearly. + +He seized the siren lever and set it at full, so that the blast called +up continuous echoes in the forest as the locomotive plunged down the +incline. He ran to the door again, on the side where Half Way station +lay, and hung out to signal the operator who had so recently given him +right of way on this stretch of mountain road. + +"We're going to smash! We're going to smash!" groaned Ned Newton. + +Tom read these words on his chum's lips, rather than heard them, for +the roar of the descending locomotive drowned every other sound. Tom +waved an encouraging hand, but did not reply audibly. + +Meanwhile his brain was working as fast as ever it had. He had +instantly comprehended all the danger of the situation. But in addition +he appreciated the fact that such an accident as this might happen at +any time to this or any other locomotive he might build. + +Automatic brakes were all right. If there had been a good drag of cars +behind the Hercules 0001, on which the compressed air brakes might have +been set, the present manifest peril might have been obliterated. The +brakes on the cars would have stopped the whole train. + +But to halt this huge monster when alone, on the grade, was another +matter. Once the locomotive brake lever was jammed, as in this case, +there was no help for the huge machine. It had to ride to the foot of +the grade--if it did not chance to hit something on the way! + +And with this realization of both the imminent peril and the need of +averting it, to Tom's active brain came the germ of an idea that he +determined to put into force, if he lived through this accident, on +each and every electric locomotive that he might in the future build. + +This monster, flying faster and faster down the mountain side, was a +menace to everything in its track. There might be almost anything in +the way of rolling stock on the section between Half Way and Hammon at +the foot of the grade. If this thunderbolt of wood and steel collided +with any other train, with the force and weight gathered by its plunge +down the mountain, it would drive through such obstruction like a +projectile from Tom's own big cannon. + +Tom realized this fact. He knew that whatever object the Hercules 0001 +might strike, that object would be shattered and scattered all about +the right of way. What might happen to the runaway was another matter. +But the inventor believed that the electric locomotive would be less +injured than anything with which it came into collision. + +At any rate, thought of the peril to himself and his invention had +secondary consideration in Tom Swift's mind. It was what the monster +which he could not control might do to other rolling stock of the H. & +P. A. that rasped the young fellow's mind. + +The grade above Half Way had few curves. Tom soon caught the first +glimpse of the station. Would the operator hear the roar of the +descending runaway and understand what had happened? + +He leaned far out from the open doorway and waved his cap madly. He +began to shout a warning, although he saw not a soul about the station +and knew very well that his voice was completely drowned by the voice +of the siren and the drumming of the great wheels. + +Suddenly the tousled head of the operator popped out of his window. He +saw the coming locomotive, the drivers smoking! + +To be a good railroad man one has to have his wits about him. To be a +good operator at a backwoods station one has to have two sets of +wits--one set to tell what to do in an emergency, the other to listen +and apprehend the voice of the sounder. + +This Half Way man was good. He knew better than to try the telegraph +instrument. He grabbed the telephone receiver and jiggled the hook up +and down on the standard while the Hercules 0001 roared past the +station. + +It did not need Tom's frantically waving cap to warn him what had +happened. And he remembered clearly the fact of the expected westbound +flyer. + +"Hammon? Get me? This is Half Way. That derned electric hog has sprung +something and is coming down, lickity-split! + +"Yes! Clear your yard! Where's Number Twenty-eight? Good! Side her, or +she'll be ditched. Get me?" + +The voice at the other end of the wire exploded into indignant +vituperation. Then silence. The Half Way operator had done his +best--his all. He ran out upon the platform. The electric locomotive +had disappeared behind the woods, but the roar of its wheels and the +shrill voice of its siren echoed back along the line. + +The sound faded into insignificance. The operator went back into his +hut and stayed close by the telephone instrument for the next ten +minutes to learn the worst. + +If the operator's nerves were tense, what about those of Tom Swift and +his chum? Ned staggered to the door and clung to Tom's arm. He shrilled +into the latter's ear: + +"Shall we jump?" + +"I don't see any soft spots," returned Tom, grimly. "There aren't any +life nets along this line." + +Ned Newton was frightened, and with good reason. But if his chum was +equally terrified he did not show it. He continued to lean from the +open door to peer down the grade as the Hercules 0001 drove on. + +Around curve after curve they flew. It entered Ned's tortured mind that +if his chum had wanted speed, he was getting it now! He realized that +two miles a minute was a mere bagatelle to the pace now accomplished by +the runaway locomotive. + + + + +Chapter XX + +The Result + + +As Ned Newton, fumbling at the controls when he saw the fallen tree +across the tracks, had jammed the brakes, the station master at Hammon, +at the bottom of this long grade on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos, had +stepped out to the blackboard in the barnlike waiting room and scrawled +with a bit of chalk: + +"No. 28--Westbound--due 3:38 is 15 m. late." + + +The fact, thus given to the general public or to such of it as might be +interested, averted what would have been a terrible catastrophe. + +The fast express was late. When the babbling voice of the Half Way +operator over the telephone warned Hammon of the coming of the runaway +electric locomotive, there was time to shift switches at the head of +the yard so that, when Number Twenty-eight came roaring in, she was +shunted on to a far track and flagged for a stop before she hit the +bumper. + +Thirty seconds later, from the west, the Hercules 0001 roared down the +grade and shot into the cleared west track in a halo of smoke and dust. +Speed! No runaway had ever traveled faster and kept the rails. The +story of the incident was embalmed in railroad history, and no history +is so full of vivid incident as that of the rail. + +When the first relay of excited railroad men reached the electric +locomotive after it had stopped on the long level, even Ned Newton had +pulled himself together and could look out upon the world with some +measure of calmness. Tom Swift was making certain notes and draughting +a curious little diagram upon a page of his notebook. + +"What happened to you, Mr. Swift?" was the demand of the first arrival. + +"Oh, my foot slipped," said the young inventor, and they got nothing +more out of him than that. + +But to Ned, after the crowd had gone, the inventor said: + +"Ned, my boy, they used to say that necessity was the mother of +invention. Therefore a loaf of bread was considered the maternal parent +of the locomotive. I've got one that will beat that." + +"Whew!" gasped Ned. "How can you? I haven't got my breath back yet." + +"It is peril that is the mother of invention," Tom went on, still +jotting down his notes. "Believe me! that jolt gave me a new idea--an +important idea. Suppose that operator at Half Way had been out back +somewhere, and had not seen or heard us flash by?" + +"Well, suppose he had? What's the answer?" sighed Ned. + +"Like enough we would have rammed something down here." + +"And I hardly understand even now why we didn't do just that," muttered +his chum, with a shake of his head. + +"Wake up, Ned! It's all over," laughed Tom. "While it was happening I +admit I was guessing just as hard as you were about the finish. But--" + +"Your recovery is better," grumbled his friend. "I'm scared yet." + +"And it might happen again--" + +"No--not--ever!" exclaimed Ned. "I shall never touch those controllers +again. I'll drive your airscout, or your fastest automobile, or +anything like that. But me and this electric locomotive have parted +company for good. Yes, sir!" + +"All right. It wasn't your fault. It might happen to any +motor-engineer. And the very fact that it can happen has given me my +idea. I tell you that danger is the mother of invention." + +"As far as I am concerned, it can be father and grandparents into the +bargain," Ned declared, with a smile. + +"Wake up!" cried his friend again. "I have got a dandy idea. I wouldn't +have missed that trip for anything." + +"You are crazy," interrupted Ned. "Suppose we had bumped something?" + +"But we didn't bump anything, except my brain tank. An idea bumped it, +I tell you. I am going to eliminate any such peril as that here-after." + +"You mean you are going to make it impossible for this locomotive ever +to slide down such a hill again if the brakes won't work? Humph! +Meanwhile I will go out and make the nearest water-fall begin to run +upward." + +"Don't scoff. I do not mean just what you mean." + +"I bet you don't!" + +"But although I cannot be sure that a locomotive will never again fall +downhill," said Tom patiently, "I'm going to fix it so that warning +need not be given by some operator along the line. The engineer must +be able to send warning of his accident, both up and down the road." + +"Huh? How are you going to do that?" demanded Ned. + +"Wireless telephone. I may make some improvements on the present +models; but it is practicable. It has been used on submarines and +cruisers, and lately its practicability has been proved in the forestry +service. + +"Every one of these electric locomotives I turn out will be supplied +with wireless sets. The expense of making certain telegraph offices +along the line into receiving stations will be small. I am going to +take that up with Mr. Bartholomew at once. And I am going to fix these +brake controls so that nobody need ball them up again." + +If, out of such a desperate adventure, Tom could bring to fruition +really worthwhile improvements in relation to his invention, Ned +acknowledged the value of the incident. Just the same, he had a +personal objection to having any part in a similar experience. + +He was brave, but he could not forget danger. Tom seemed to throw the +effect of that terrible ride off his mind almost instantly. Ned dreamed +of it at night! + +However, from that time things seemed to go with a rush. Mr. +Bartholomew approved of the young inventor's suggestion regarding the +use of the wireless telephone as a method of averting a certain quality +of danger in the use of the proposed monster locomotive. The railroad +man was convinced that Tom's ideas were finally to culminate in +success, and he was ready to spend money, much money, in pushing on the +work. + +It was not long before a private test of the Hercules 0001 up the grade +from Hammon to Cliff City showed Mr. Bartholomew that the speed he had +required in his contract was attainable. With a drag fully as heavy as +any two locomotives had been able to get over the same sector, the new +locomotive alone marked a forty-five mile an hour pace. + +This attainment was kept quiet; not even the train crew knew what the +monster had done when they reached the summit of the mountain. But Mr. +Bartholomew, who rode with Tom and Ned in the cab, had held his own +watch on the test and compared it every minute with the speedometer. + +"I am satisfied that you are going to do more than I had really hoped, +Mr. Swift," the railroad president said at the end of the run. "Already +you could drive this locomotive at a two-mile-a-minute clip on level +rails, I am sure. Keep at it! Nobody will be more delighted than I +shall be if you pull down that hundred thousand dollars' bonus." + +"That's a fine way to talk, sir," cried Ned, with enthusiasm. + +"I mean every word of it, Mr. Newton. The money is his as soon as he +makes good." + +Both Tom and his financial manager left the president's office in a +satisfied state of mind. + +"Great news to send home, Tom," remarked Ned, when they were alone. + +"Righto, Ned. My father will be glad to hear it." + +"And what about Mary?" And Ned poked his chum in the ribs. + +"I guess she'll be glad too," Tom replied, his face reddening. + +That night Tom sent word to Mary and also a telegram, in code, to his +father, saying the prospects were now bright for a quick finish of the +task that had brought him West. + + + + +Chapter XXI + +The Open Switch + + +Meanwhile the work of electrifying another division of the Hendrickton +& Pas Alos Railroad had been pushed to completion. As Mr. Bartholomew +had in the first place stated, the road controlled water rights in the +hills which would supply any number of electric power stations, and his +enemies could not shut his road off from these waterfalls. + +Tom had not warned his faithful servant, the giant Koku, to watch out +for Andy O'Malley in particular; the inventor knew that the giant would +be as cautious about any stranger as could be wished. But personally +Tom was amazed that either O'Malley or some other henchman of the +president of the Hendrickton & Western did not make an attempt to +injure the electric locomotive. + +"Perhaps Mr. Bartholomew's police are really of some good," said Ned +Newton, when his chum mentioned his surprise on this point. "Has Koku +seen nobody lurking about at night?" + +"He certainly has not seen the man he calls 'Big Feet,'" chuckled Tom. +"If he had spotted O'Malley, there certainly would have been an +explosion." + +"Tell you what," Ned said reflectively, "the longer Lewis keeps off +you, the more suspicious I should be." + +"You think he is a bad citizen, do you?" + +"And then some, as the boys say out here," replied Ned. "I wouldn't +trust that man any farther than I would a nest of hornets or a shedding +rattlesnake." + +"I am inclined to believe, with you, Ned, that Lewis is hatching up +something and is keeping mighty whist about it. I sounded Mr. +Bartholomew on the idea and he, too, is puzzled." + +"I guess he knows that hombre," grumbled Ned. + +"Mr. Bartholomew admits that several roads have sent representatives to +make inquiries about my locomotive. They have got wind of it, and, +after all, most railroads work in unison. What means progress for one +is progress for all." + +"That same rule does not seem to apply in the case of the H. & P. A. +and the H. & W.," remarked Ned. + +"No. They are out and out rivals. And Lewis and his gang have done this +road dirt--no two ways about that. But when I am convinced that my +locomotive has got all the speed and power contracted for, Mr. +Bartholomew wants to invite a bunch of his brother railroaders to see +the tests--to ride in the Hercules Three-Oughts-One, in fact." + +"How about it? You going to agree? Suppose they have some inventive +sharp along who will be able to steal some of your mechanical +contrivances--in his head, I mean," and Ned seemed quite suddenly +anxious. + +"I had thought of that. But before the test I shall send my blueprints +to Washington. Our patent attorney there has already filed tentative +plans and applied for certain patents that I consider completed. Don't +fret. I'll make it impossible for anybody to steal our patents legally." + +"Yes! But illegally?" + +"That we cannot help in any case, and you know it," Tom said. "If some +road tries to build anything like the Hercules Three-Oughts-One for the +first two years without arranging with the Swift Construction Company, +you know that that railroad can be made to suffer in the courts, and +you are the boy, Ned, to put them over the jumps for it." + +"Sure," grumbled his chum. "It's always up to me to save the day." + +"Exactly," chuckled Tom. "And in your character of life saver, do look +out for anybody who looks suspicious hanging about the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One. I'll take care of rival inventors. You and Koku keep +your eyes peeled for the H. & W. spies. Especially for that Andy +O'Malley. I feel that he will again show up. Maybe by 'the pricking of +my thumb' as Macbeth's witch used to remark." + +Every day save Sunday the electric locomotive had some kind of try-out. +On a level track Tom was sure of his monster invention's qualities; but +in the hills, at a distance from the Hendrickton terminal, it was +another matter. + +The grades were steep; but the road was well ballasted. There was +plenty of power. He saw the Jandel locomotives hurry back and forth +with the local trains and realized that this rival invention was by no +means to be despised. + +It was at about this time, too, that Mr. Damon appeared in Hendrickton. +Early one forenoon, when Tom and Ned were preparing to take the +Hercules 0001 out of the yard, and Koku was going to his lodgings to +get a little sleep, Tom's eccentric friend came across the tracks, +waving his cane at Tom. + +"Bless my frogs and switch-targets!" he ejaculated, "I've walked a mile +from that station to get here. Where are you going with that big +contraption? How does it work? Does it make all the speed you want, Tom +Swift? Bless my rails and sleepers!' + +"We're going about a hundred miles out on the road to a good, stiff +grade," Tom told him, having shaken hands in welcome. "If you want to, +get aboard." + +"They haven't blown you up yet, or otherwise wrecked the locomotive," +remarked Mr. Damon, grinning broadly. "I'll have to write right back to +your father--and to a certain young lady who shows a remarkable +interest in your welfare--that you are all right." + +"They should already be sure of that," laughed Tom. "Ned and I have +kept the post-office department and the telegraph company very busy." + +"They are waiting for my report," announced Mr. Damon, with confidence. +"And I am waiting for yours. Tell me, Tom: Is the locomotive a success?" + +"It's going to be," declared the inventor, with decision. + +"Bless my trolley wires!" cried Mr. Damon, "I am glad to hear that. +Then you will surely pull down the extra hundred thousand dollars?" + +"I believe I shall fulfill every clause of the contract Mr. Bartholomew +and I signed," said Tom. + +"Then it's more than a success!" cried his friend. "You have invented +another marvel, Tom Swift!" + +"Marvel or not," rejoined Tom, "I believe that the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One will top anything so far built in the way of electric +locomotives." + +"Hurrah!" cried Mr. Damon. "Bless my controller! But your father and +Mary Nestor will be glad to hear that!" + +Mr. Damon was quite as much interested in this invention as he always +was in anything the young inventor worked upon. When he had once seen +the Hercules 0001 work on an up-grade he was doubly enthusiastic. To +his sanguine mind the locomotive was already completed. He could see no +possibility of failure. + +Tom, however, had to prove to his own satisfaction the success of every +detail of his invention before he was willing to tell Mr. Bartholomew +that he was ready for a public test. Mr. Damon, nor even Ned, could +scarcely see the reason for Tom's caution. + +Tom's favorite try-out grade was between Hammon and Cliff City. He +could obtain a right of way order from the train dispatcher on that +grade, sometimes of an hour's duration. He often snaked a load of +gondolas or cattle cars up the grade, relieving both the puller and +pusher steam locomotive. By this time the H. & P. A. system had +stopped using the Jandel machines on any grades. They had proved their +lack of power for such work. + +"But the Hercules Three-Oughts-One shows at every test that it has the +kick," Mr. Damon cried. + +In his enthusiasm he was out every day with Tom and Ned. And sometimes +Koku remained in the cab during the trial runs as well. + +On one such occasion Tom had drawn a heavy train over the mountain, +taking it down the grade beyond Cliff City to Panboro in the farther +valley. This was over a newly built stretch of the electrified road. +The power station charged the trolley cables with an abundance of +current, and the Hercules 0001 made a splendid trip. + +"Bless my cuff-links!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, his rosy face one beaming +smile. "You couldn't expect to do better than this. You save one +locomotive on the haul, and you beat the schedule ten minutes, so that +you had to lay by to get right of way into the yard here. Why linger +longer, Tom?" + +"I agree with Mr. Damon," Ned said. "It seems to work perfectly. And +you have, I believe, established your required speed." + +"Can't be too perfect," said the young inventor, smiling. "But I will +tell Mr. Bartholomew when we get back that he can set his time for the +big test whenever he pleases. I have already sent our patent attorney +in Washington the final blueprints. Now, if nothing happens--" + +"Bless my stickpin!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "What can happen now that the +locomotive is practically perfect?" + +That question was answered in one way, and a most startling way, within +the hour. Tom got right of way back over the mountain and pushed the +electric locomotive up-grade at almost top speed. He drew no train on +this occasion, and the speed made by the Hercules 0001 was really +remarkable. + +They topped the rise at Cliff City and got orders from the dispatcher +to proceed on the time of Number Eighty-seven, which chanced to be +late. With that release Tom might have made the entire distance of a +hundred and ten miles to Hendrickton had it not been for the +accident--the unexpected something that so often happens in the +railroad business. + +Tom was a careful driver; the chatter of Ned and Mr. Damon did not take +the inventor's mind off his business for one instant. He was quite +alert at his window, looking ahead, as Koku was at the open doorway of +the cab. + +Not a mile outside of Cliff City, and on this eastbound side of the +right of way, was a long siding and a shipping point for timber. It was +sometimes a busy point; but at this time of year there were no +lumbermen about and no activities in the adjacent forest. + +The Hercules 0001 came spinning along from the Cliff City yards, and +Tom Swift gave scarcely a glance to the joint of the switch ahead. He +had been over it so many times of late, and knew that it was always +locked. The railroad did not even keep a man here at this season. + +Suddenly Koku emitted a wild yell. He startled everybody else in the +cab, as he flung his huge body more than half out of the doorway and +prepared to jump--or so it seemed. + +Ned shrieked a warning to the big fellow. Mr. Damon began to bless +everything in sight. But it was Tom, quite as excited as his friends, +who understood what Koku shouted: + +"Big Feet! Big Feet! I see um Big Feet, Master!" + +The next moment he threw himself from the rapidly moving locomotive. He +might have been killed easily enough. But fortunately he landed feet +first in the drift beside the rails, and remained upright as he slid +down into the ditch. + +Tom, glancing ahead again, saw the flash of a man in a checked Mackinaw +running up through the open wood and away from the right of way. He +could not be sure of Andy O'Malley's figure at that distance; but he +could be pretty confident of Koku's identification. + +And then, with a shock that gripped and almost paralyzed his mind, Tom +saw again the switch ahead of the pilot of the Hercules 0001. The +switch was open, and at the speed the electric locomotive had attained, +if she did not jump the rails, it seemed scarcely possible that she +could be stopped before hitting the bumper at the end of the siding! + + + + +Chapter XXII + +A Desperate Chase + + +These moments were fraught with peril, and not alone peril to the huge +machine that Tom Swift had built, but peril to those who remained in +the cab of the electric locomotive, as her forward trucks struck the +open switch. + +There was a mighty jerk that brought a shout from Ned Newton's lips and +a grunt from Mr. Damon. Tom clung to his swivel-seat, staring ahead. + +The pilot of the electric locomotive shot over on the siding; the +forward trucks followed, then the great drivers. The whole locomotive +swerved into the siding, but for several breathless seconds Tom was not +at all sure that the monster would not jump the rails and head into the +ditch! + +Meanwhile his gaze measured the speed of that flying figure in the +Mackinaw as it scuttled up the slope through the open grove of hard +wood and pine. He could not at first see Koku, but he knew the giant +was headed for the fugitive, whether the latter proved to be Andy +O'Malley or not. + +Tom's gaze flashed to what lay ahead of the electric locomotive. As it +seemed to joggle back into balance, gain its uprightness, as it were, +the inventor saw the great, log-braced bumper between the two rails at +the end of the siding. With what force would the locomotive hit that +obstruction? + +Until the trailers were over the switch Tom dared not give her the +brakes. To lock the brake shoes upon the wheels might easily throw the +locomotive off the rails. But the instant he felt the tail of the long +locomotive swerve off the switch he jabbed the compressed air lever and +the wild shriek of the brake shoes answered to his effort. + +Then the bumper was but a few yards ahead. The electric locomotive was +bound to collide with it. And under the speed at which it had been +running, now scarcely reduced by half, the collision was apt to be a +tragic happening! + +Weeks of effort might be ruined in that moment! If the crash was +serious, thousands of dollars might be lost! In truth, Tom Swift +apprehended the possibility of a disaster, the complete results of +which might put the test of his invention forward for weeks--perhaps +for months. + +Nor could he do a thing to avert the disaster. He had reversed and set +the brakes immediately after the last wheel of the trailer was on the +siding. Nothing more could he do as the great electric locomotive bore +down upon the solid timber at the far end of this short track. + +Those few seconds, as the locked wheels slid toward the end of the +siding, were about as hard to bear as any experience the young inventor +had ever gone through. It was not so much the peril of the accident, it +was the possibility of what might happen to the locomotive. + +Within those few moments, however, Tom considered more than the safety +of his companions and himself, and more than the peril of wreck to his +locomotive. He considered the schedule of the trains on this division +of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos and remembered all those that might be +within this sector at this time. + +If the locomotive smashed into the bumper with force enough to wreck +the structure, would some approaching train on the westbound track not +be endangered? + +The thought was parent to Tom's act before the collision occurred. With +a single swift motion he reached for the signaling apparatus which he +had established in connection with his wireless telephone. + +Just the moment before the head of the locomotive rammed that seemingly +immovable barrier at the end of the siding there flashed into the air +from Tom's annunciator the code word agreed upon announcing a wreck, +and the number of the sector on which the electric locomotive was then +running. + +The next moment the crash occurred. + +Tom had leaped up with a shout of warning. "Hang on!" was his cry. But +when the locomotive had struck and rebounded Ned, from far down the +aisle of the locomotive, wanted to know in a very peevish tone what he +should have hung on to? + +"My elbows!" he groaned. "I've skinned 'em, and my back has got a twist +in it like the Irishman thought he had when he put on his overalls +hind-side to. What's happened?" + +"Bless my radiolite!" growled Mr. Damon. "My watch crystal is broken +all to finders, if you want to know. Bless my shock-absorbers! you +won't do this locomotive a bit of good, Tom Swift, if you stop it so +abruptly." + +"And that's the surest word you ever said," responded Tom, hurrying to +the door. "I don't know what's broken, but we're still on the rails. +The most immediate thing to learn, is the where-abouts of the fellow +who did this." + +"Who opened the switch?" cried Ned. + +"I believe it was Andy O'Malley. Come on, Ned! Koku is after him and I +don't want him to tear O'Malley apart before I get there." + +"O'Malley has got powerful interests behind him, and it might go hard +with Koku if he injured the spy and some of these Westerners caught +him," suggested Mr. Damon. + +"They ought to thank Koku for manhandling the fellow--if he does," said +Ned. + +"As a matter of fact," replied Tom, "Koku will merely hold to the +fellow until we get there. But my giant's strength is enormous, and he +does not always know the strength of his grasp. He might hurt the +fellow. Come on," and Tom leaped from the doorway of the electric +locomotive. + +Ned leaped down the ladder after his chum. + +"Which way did they go?" he asked. + +"Across the ditch and up the hill," said Tom. "Mr. Damon!" he called +back to that eccentric man, "will you please remain there and watch the +locomotive?" + +"I certainly will. And I'm armed, too," shouted Mr. Damon. "Don't fear +for this locomotive, Tom. I am right on the job." + +Tom waved his hand in reply, leaped the ditch, and started up through +the wood. Ned was close behind him, and the two young men ran as hard +as they could in the direction Tom had seen Andy O'Malley, followed by +the giant, running. + +In places the earth was slippery with pine needles, and the ground was +elsewhere rough. Therefore the chums did not make much speed in running +after the giant and his quarry. But Tom was sure of the direction in +which the two had disappeared, and he and Ned kept doggedly on. + +They went over the crest of the hill and lost sight of the siding and +the locomotive. Here was a sharp descent into a gulch, and some rods +away, in the bottom of this gully, the young fellows obtained their +first sight of Koku. He was still running with mighty strides and was +evidently within sight of the man he had set out after in such haste. + +"Hey! Koku!" shouted Tom Swift. + +The giant's hearing was of the keenest. He glanced back and raised his +arm in greeting. But he did not slacken his pace. + +"He must see O'Malley, Tom," cried Ned Newton. + +"I am sure he does. And I want to get there about as soon as Koku grabs +the fellow," panted Tom. + +"He'll maul O'Malley unmercifully," said Ned. + +"I don't want Koku to injure him," admitted Tom, and he increased his +own stride as he plunged down into the gully. + +The young inventor distanced his chum within the next few moments. Tom +ran like a deer. He reached the bottom of the gully and kept on after +Koku's crashing footsteps. At every jump, too, he began to shout to the +giant: + +"Koku! Hold him!" + +The giant's voice boomed back through the heavy timber: "I catch him! I +hold him for Master! I break all um bones! Wait till Koku catch him!" + +"Hold him, Koku!" yelled Tom again. "Be careful and don't hurt him till +I get there!" + +He could not see what the giant was doing. The timber was thicker down +here. It might be that the giant would seize the man roughly. His zeal +in Tom's cause was great, and, of course, his strength was enormous. + +Yet Tom did not want to call the giant off the trail. Andy O'Malley +must be captured at this time. He had done enough, too much, indeed, in +attempting the ruin of Tom's plans. Before the matter went any further +the young inventor was determined that Montagne Lewis' spy should be +put where he would be able to do no more harm. + +But he did not want the man permanently injured. He knew now that Koku +was so wildly excited that he might set upon O'Malley as he would upon +an enemy in his own country. + +"Koku! Stop! Wait for me!" Tom finally shouted. + +Now the young inventor got no reply from the giant. Had the latter got +so far ahead that he no longer heard his master's command? + +Tom pounded on, working his legs like pistons, putting every last ounce +of energy he possessed into his effort. This was indeed a desperate +chase. + + + + +Chapter XXIII + +Mr. Damon at Bay + + +Mr. Wakefield Damon was a very odd and erratic gentleman, but he did +not lack courage. He was much more disturbed by the possible injury to +Tom Swift's invention by this collision with the bumper at the end of +the timber siding than he had been by his own danger at the time of the +accident. + +He did not understand enough about the devices Tom had built in the +forward end of the locomotive cab to understand, by any casual +examination, if they were at all injured. But when he climbed down +beside the track he saw at once that the forward end of the locomotive +had received more than a little injury. + +The pilot, or cow-catcher, looked more like an iron cobweb than it did +like anything else. The wheels of the forward trucks had not left the +track, but the impact of the heavy locomotive with the bumper had been +so great that the latter was torn from its foundations. A little more +and the electric locomotive would have shot off the end of the rails +into the ditch. + +While Mr. Damon was examining the front of the locomotive, and Tom and +Ned remained absent, he suddenly observed a group of men hurrying out +of the forest on the other side of the H. & P. A. right of way. They +were not railroad men--at least, they were not dressed in uniform--but +they were drawn immediately to the locomotive. + +The leader of the party was a squarely built man with a determined +countenance and a heavy mustache much blacker than his iron gray hair. +He was a bullying looking man, and he strode around the rear of the +locomotive and came forward just as though he was confident of boarding +the machine by right. + +Mr. Damon, knowing himself in the wilderness and not liking the +appearance of this group of strangers, had retired at once to the cab, +and now stood in the doorway. + +"Where's that young fool Swift?" growled the man with the dyed +mustache, looking up at Mr. Damon and laying one hand upon the rail +beside the ladder. + +"Don't know any such person," declared Mr. Damon promptly. + +"You don't know Tom Swift?" cried the man. + +"Oh! That's another matter," said Mr. Damon coolly. "I don't know any +fool named Swift, either young or old. Bless my blinkers! I should say +not." + +"Isn't he here?" demanded the man, gruffly. + +"Tom Swift isn't here just now--no." + +"I'm coming up," announced the stranger, and started to put his foot on +the first rung of the iron ladder. + +"You're not," said Mr. Damon, promptly. + +"What's that?" ejaculated the man. + +"You only think you are coming up here. But you are not. Bless my +fortune telling cards!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I should say not." + +At this point the black-mustached man began to splutter words and +threats so fast that nobody could quite understand him. Mr. Damon, +however, did not shrink in the least. He stood adamant in the doorway +of the cab. + +Finding little relief in bad language, the enemy made another attempt +to climb up. For one thing, he was physically brave. He did not call on +his companions to go where he feared to. + +"I'll show you!" he bawled, and scrambled up the rungs of the ladder. + +Mr. Damon did show him. He drew from some pocket a black object with a +bulb and a long barrel. Somebody below on the cinder path shouted: + +"Look out, boss he's got a gun!" + +At that moment the marauder reached out to seize Mr. Damon's coat. Then +the object in Mr. Damon's hand spat a fine spray into the florid face +of the enemy! + +"Whoo! Achoo! By gosh!" bawled the big man, and he fell back screaming +other ejaculations. + +"Bless my face and eyes!" cried Mr. Damon. "What did I tell you? And +you other fellows want to notice it. Tom Swift isn't here just at this +precise moment; but he is guarding his locomotive just the same. He +invented this ammonia pistol, and I should say it was effectual. Do +you?" + +The eccentric man was shrewd enough now to keep behind the jamb of the +cab door. For some of these fellows, he realized, might be armed with +more deadly weapons than his own. + +"Hey, Mr. Lewis!" cried one big fellow, "d'you want we should get that +fellow for you?" + +"I want to know how badly that blamed thing is smashed," replied the +big man with the dyed mustache savagely. "Where's O'Malley?" + +"O'Malley's lit out, Boss, like I told you. That giant and them other +fellows is after him." + +"Break into that cab! Oh! My eyes! I'll kill that old fool! Break a +way in there--What's that?" + +In pain as he was, his other senses were alert. He was first to hear +the screeching whistle of the on-coming freight. + +"Think they got wind of this so quick?" demanded Montagne Lewis, for it +was he. "Are they sending help from Cliff City?" + +"It's a regular freight," returned one of his men. + +"She's comm' a-whizzin'," added another. "Right down the eastbound +track. If the crew see us--" + +"Wait!" commanded Lewis. "Isn't that switch open?" + +"You bet it is, Boss." + +"Let it be, then," cried the chief plotter. "Let 'em run into it. That +freight will smash up this electric locomotive more completely than we +could possibly do it. Stand away, men, and let her go!" + +A sharp curve in the right of way hid the siding, as well as the open +switch into it, from the gaze of the engineer who held the throttle of +the coming freight. His locomotive drew a string of empties, eastbound, +and having had a heavy pull of it coming up the grade to Cliff City, as +soon as he had got the highball from the yardmaster there, he had "let +her out," and was now coming to the head of the down grade to Hammon at +high speed. + +As it chanced, the wireless receiving station of Tom's new telephone +system was not yet completed at Cliff City. The news of the wreck of +the Hercules 0001 and her position had not been relayed to the master +of the Cliff City yards. + +That employee of the H. & P. A. had taken a chance in letting the +string of empties through his block. He knew the electric locomotive +was somewhere ahead, but he thought it would be making its usual time +and would have already passed Half Way. + +But the situation was serious. The freight was coming along at top +speed and the switch into the siding was still open. Montagne Lewis and +his crew of ruffians might well stand back and let what seemed sure to +happen, happen! The driving freight must do more harm to Tom Swift's +invention than they could have hoped to do with the sledges and bars +they had brought with them to the spot. + +Mr. Wakefield Damon had shown his courage already. He would have been +glad to do more to save Tom's locomotive from further injury, but he +did not realize what was threatening. He did not hear the shriek of the +freight engine's whistle. + + + + +Chapter XXIV + +Putting the Enemy to Flight + + +The pilot and headlight of the freight locomotive came around the turn +and the freight thundered on toward the switch. Seeing the group of men +standing by the stalled electric locomotive, and the locomotive itself +in the clear of the siding, the driver of the freight did not suppose +the switch was open. Nobody who was not a criminal would have stood by +idly in such an emergency and let the freight run into an open switch. + +Therefore, for the first minute, the coming engineer did not observe +his danger. Lewis and his gang stared at the head of the freight and +did nothing. They had moved hastily back from the siding so as to be +clear of the wreckage. Mr. Damon was in the front of the cab of +Hercules 0001 and had no idea of the approaching menace. + +But of a sudden a loud shout echoed through the wood. Tom Swift came +over the ridge and started toward his invention at top speed. From that +height he saw the freight train coming, he observed the men standing at +the siding, and he recognized Montagne Lewis, roughly as the railroad +magnate was dressed. + +Instantly Tom realized what was about to happen--what would surely +occur--and he saw what must be done if the utter wreck of his +locomotive was to be averted. Yelling at the top of his voice, he +leaped down the slope. + +"That's Swift!" shouted Lewis. "Stop him!" But the men he had hired to +do his wicked work fell back instead of trying to halt the young +inventor. It was not Tom's appearance that made them quail. Over the +ridge there appeared a second figure--and a more fearful or threatening +apparition none of them had ever before seen! + +Koku came running with the limp body of Andy O'Malley slung over his +shoulder like a bag of meal. The fellows knew it was Andy from his +dress. + +The giant came down the slope after Tom as though he wore the +seven-league boots. The fellows Lewis had hired to wreck the electric +locomotive shrank back from before both Tom and the giant. + +"Get him!" yelled the half blinded Lewis again. + +"Get your grandmother!" bawled one of the men suddenly. "Good-night!" + +He turned tail and ran, disappearing almost instantly into the thicker +woods. And his mates, after a moment of wavering, sped after him. Lewis +was left alone, quite helpless because of the ammonia fumes. + +As a matter of fact not all of O'Malley's predicament was due to Koku. +The rascal, exhausted by his run and half blind through fright and +rage, had stumbled, fallen, and struck his head on a root, which +rendered him unconscious. + +This, of course, Lewis and his ruffians did not know. All the men of +the railroad president's gang saw was the gigantic Koku coming along in +great strides, bearing the unconscious O'Malley, who was a burly +fellow, as though he were a featherweight. No wonder they fled from +such a monster. + +Tom had reached the switch, and he was several seconds ahead of the +freight locomotive. The engineer saw the open switch then; but he was +too late to stop his train. + +Going into reverse, however, helped some. Tom seized the switch lever +and threw it over, locking it in place, just as the forward trucks +thundered upon the joint. The train swept by in safety, and the +engineer leaned from his cab window to wave a grateful hand at the +young inventor. + +Neither the engineer nor the crew of the freight understood the meaning +of the scene at the timber siding. All they learned was that Tom Swift +had saved the freight from a possible wreck. + +The young inventor turned sharply from the switch and motioned with his +hand to Koku. + +"Throw that fellow into the cab, Koku," he commanded. + +The giant did as he was told, just as Ned Newton came panting to the +spot. + +"Did they do any harm, Tom?" he cried. Then he saw Montagne Lewis +standing by, and he seized his chum's arm. "Do you see what I see, +Tom?" he demanded, earnestly. + +"I guess we both see the same snake," rejoined his chum. "And I mean to +scotch it." + +"Montagne Lewis!" murmured Ned. "And we've got his chief tool." + +Tom said nothing to his chum, but he approached Lewis with determined +mien. + +"I can see something has happened to you, Mr. Lewis, and I can guess +what it is. The effect of that ammonia will blow away after a time. Ask +your friend, Andy O'Malley. He knows all about it, for he sampled it +back East, in Shopton." + +"I'm going to get square for this, young man," growled the railroad +magnate. "You know who I am. And that fellow in the cab knew me, too. +How dared he shoot that stuff into my face and eyes?" + +"I fancy it didn't take much daring on Mr. Damon's part," and Tom +actually chuckled. "A big crook isn't any more important in our eyes +than a little crook. We've got your henchman, O'Malley--" + +"And you'd better let him go. I'm telling you," snarled Lewis. "I'll +ruin you in this country, Tom Swift. I've got influence--" + +"You won't have much after this thing comes out. And believe me, I mean +to spread it abroad. I've got nothing to win or lose from you, Mr. +Lewis. As for O'Malley, I'll put him behind the bars for a good long +term." + +"You'll do a lot--" + +"More than you think," said Tom. "Koku!" The giant had pitched +O'Malley, who was still senseless, into the cab, and now was coming up +behind Lewis. + +"Yes, Master," said the giant. + +"Get him!" + +"Yes, Master," said Koku, and to Lewis' startled amazement, the next +instant he was in the hands of the giant! + +He screamed and threatened, and even kicked, to no avail. When he was +pitched into the electric locomotive he was held under the threat of +Mr. Damon's ammonia pistol until Tom and Ned and the giant entered and +the door was shut. Then Koku proceeded to tie both the prisoners by +wrist and ankle while the others examined the mechanism of the Hercules +0001. + +The pantagraph had been torn off the trolley wires when the locomotive +had gone on the siding. But now Tom climbed to the roof of the +locomotive, and with Koku's aid managed to set the rear pantagraph at +such an angle that its wheels caught the trolley cables again, and once +more the current was pumped into the Hercules 0001. + +Tom tried out the several parts of the mechanism and found that, +despite the jar of the collision, nothing was really injured. + +"I built this thing to withstand hard usage," he declared with pride. +"The Swift Hercules Electric Locomotives will not be built for parlor +ornaments. She is going to run into Hendrickton under her own power, in +spite of a smashed cows catcher and target lights." + +"Is nothing really injured, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon. "Bless my dinner +set! I thought everything had gone to smash when she hit that bumper." + +"She will be as good as new in a week," declared Tom, with conviction. + +This prophecy of the young inventor proved to be true. A week from that +day the public test of the electric locomotive on the Hendrickton & Pas +Alos Railroad was held. A picked delegation of railroad men was present +to observe and marvel, with Mr. Bartholomew; but Montagne Lewis, the +president of the H. & W., was not one of those who attended. + +Of course, Lewis soon got out of jail on bail. But the accusation +against him was a serious one. His guilt would be proved by his own +employee, Andy O'Malley, who was in a hospital for the time being. + +O'Malley had got enough. He had turned State's evidence and implicated +his employer. Influential and wealthy as Lewis was, he could not escape +trial with O'Malley when the time came. + +"One thing sure, Lewis has got all he wants. He isn't likely to try any +more crooked work against the H. & P. A.," Mr. Bartholomew said. "I can +thank you for that, Tom Swift, as well as for your invention. You +have saved the day for my railroad." + +"You can thank Koku," chuckled Tom. "If he hadn't spied and identified +'Big Feet,' we might not have caught O'Malley, and, through O'Malley, +implicated Montagne Lewis. You give Koku a new suit of clothes, Mr. +Bartholomew, and we will call it square. But be sure and have the +pattern of the goods loud enough." + +This conversation took place while the party of guests was gathering to +board Mr. Bartholomew's private car, attached to the Hercules 0001. Mr. +Damon was one of the guests and so was Ned Newton. Tom took into the +cab a crew of H. & P. A. men who would hereafter drive the huge +locomotive and take care of her. + +The semaphore signal dropped and the electric locomotive started as +quietly as a baby going to sleep! There was not a jar as the train +moved off the siding and over the switches to the main line. + +The dispatcher had arranged a clear road for them. Tom knew that he had +a free track ahead of him--a level of ninety-odd miles to the Hammon +yards. As he passed the Hendrickton shops he touched the siren lever +for a moment, and the shrill voice of the Hercules 0001 bade the town +good-bye. + +The next minute the visitors in the private car grabbed out their +split-second watches and began to murmur. The electric locomotive had +begun to travel! + + + + +Chapter XXV + +Speed and Success + + +"What town is that?" + +"Looks like a splotch of paint on a board fence, we went by so quick." + +"I've lost count, Bartholomew. Where are we?" + +Ned Newton listened to these comments from the visiting railroad men +with delight. In reply to a question of his neighbor, the grinning +financial manager of the Swift Construction Company paid: + +"No, sir. That isn't a picket fence. It's the telegraph poles you see, +and they are no nearer together than on another railroad. But we're +going some." + +"Bless my railroad stock!" shouted Mr. Damon, "I should say we were." + +The electric locomotive and the private car were hurled toward the Pas +Alos Range at a speed that almost frightened some of the guests. + +"Three-quarters of an hour!" gasped one man as they began to see the +outskirts of Hammon. "And ninety-six miles? Great Scott, Bartholomew! +that's over two miles a minute!" + +"That is the speed we set out to get," Mr. Richard Bartholomew said, +with quite as much pride as though he had done it all himself. + +But it had been his suggestion and his money that had accomplished this +wonder. Tom Swift was willing to give the railroad president his share +of the fame. + +The train scarcely slackened speed at Hammon, for Tom got the signal +announcing a clear track ahead, and he bucked the grade with all the +power he could get from the feed wires. This hill, so well known to him +now, was surmounted at a slightly decreased speed; but it was a +wonderful display of power after all. + +They went down the other side to Panboro and there linked up with an +eastbound freight that the Hercules 0001 snatched over the mountain to +Hammon at a pace slightly exceeding forty-five miles an hour--at least +twice the speed that any two oil-burning locomotives could attain. As +for the Jandels, they were not in the same class at all with Tom +Swift's locomotive! + +"Bless my speedometer!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, when the train pulled down +and stopped again at the Hendrickton terminal. "This is the greatest +test of speed and power I ever heard of. Why, a coal burner or an oil +burner isn't in it with this Hercules locomotive! What do you say, Mr. +Bartholomew?" + +"I'll say I am satisfied--completely and thoroughly satisfied, Mr. +Damon," said the president of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad +frankly. "Mr. Swift has fulfilled his contract in every particular." + +An hour later the young inventor and his two friends were in conference +with Mr. Bartholomew over a new contract. The bonus of a hundred +thousand dollars would be paid at once to the Swift Construction +Company. But as the elder Swift's name would be needed on the new +contract for the building of other Hercules locomotives, Tom had an +idea. + +"We won't send the papers East for father to sign," he said. "I want +him to see the locomotive in real action. And I know where he can +borrow a private car and come out here in comfort. Rad can come with +him." + +"Bless my valentines!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I bet somebody else will +come too." + +Mr. Damon must have been a prophet, for a fortnight later, when the +borrowed car got in to the Hendrickton terminal at the tail of the +transcontinental flyer, Tom Swift saw first of all Mary Nestor's rosy +face on the platform of the car. + +"Tom! are you all right?" she cried, beaming down upon the young +inventor. + +"No. Half of me is left," he said, grinning up at her. "You look great, +Mary!" + +"Do you think so?" she cried, dimpling. "Well, if anybody should ask +you, Mr. Tom Swift, you look very good to me." + +"Don't make me swell all up, Mary," he laughed. "How's father?" + +"Splendid! And Rad--" + +"Eradicate Sampson is sho' 'nough puffectly all right," broke in the +voice of the old colored man, eager to make himself heard and seen. +"Here I is, Massa Tom. What dat lizard doin' here? Ain't he a sight?" + +The old man had caught sight of Koku in the wonderful new suit Mr. +Bartholomew had ordered made for the giant. A Navajo blanket had +nothing on that suit for a mixture of colors, and Koku strutted like a +turkey-gobbler. + +"My lawsy!" gasped Rad again, "he's as purty as a sunset. Is dat de way +de tailors out here build a man up? Sure's yo live, Massa Tom, I needs +a new suit of clo'es myself." + +And before he got away from Hendrickton, Rad Sampson sported a suit off +the same piece of goods as that of Koku's. Otherwise there might have +been a lasting feud between the giant and the Swift's ancient serving +man. + +Mr. Barton Swift had stood the easy journey in the private car very +well. Before he would sign the contract that Mr. Bartholomew offered, +he wished to see for himself just how good his son's invention was. + +They made another test from Hendrickton to Panboro, over the "official +route," as Ned called it. The time made by Hercules 0001 was even a +little better than before. + +That the invention was well nigh perfect, and that it could do even +more than Mr. Bartholomew had hoped or Tom had claimed, was Mr. Swift's +conviction. + +"Tom," he said to his son, "you have done a wonderful thing. Not only +have you completed a marvelous invention and gained thereby a lot of +money, and more in prospect, but you have aided in the world's progress +to no small degree. + +"Speed in transportation is the big problem before the world of +commerce today. To move goods from point to point safely and cheaply, +as well as rapidly, is the great task of this age. We are entering the +Age of Speed. The railroads must solve the problem to compete with +motor-truck traffic and fast boats on the lakes and rivers of our land. + +"You have, by your invention, shoved the clock of progress forward. I +am proud of you, my boy. I know now that, no matter what may happen to +me, you will make an enviable mark in the world of invention. + +"You have done much before for the Government in time of stress. But +war engines of any kind are not worthy examples of inventive genius +beside such a thing as this. + +"It is the inventions of peace, rather than those of war, that stand +for human progress." + +Coming back over the mountain, Mary Nestor rode in the cab with Tom. +She sat on the swivel stool, in fact, and handled the controls for part +of the way. But she gave up the driver's place to Tom before they +reached the timber siding east of Cliff City. + +"I cannot go by that place without a shudder," Mary said to the +inventor. "Ned and Mr. Damon told me all about that accident. Suppose +you had been killed, Tom!" + +"I see I'll have to build an invention that will make that impossible," +chuckled the young fellow. + +"Make what impossible?" + +"Some invention that will make it positively certain that no matter +what I do or where I go, nothing can harm me. Nothing else will suit +you, Mary, I plainly see." + +"Well," returned the girl, smiling fondly at him. "I admit that would +satisfy me completely!" + + + + + +This Isn't ALL! + + +Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made in +this book? + +Would you like to read other stories continuing their adventures and +experiences, or other books quite as entertaining by the same author? + +On the reverse side of the wrapper which comes with this book, you will +find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the same store +where you got this book. + + +Don't throw away the Wrapper + +Use it as a handy catalog of the books you want some day to have. But +in case you do mislay it, write to the Publishers for a complete +catalog. + + +THE TOM SWIFT SERIES + +By VICTOR APPLETON + +Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers. + Every Volume Complete in Itself. +Every boy possesses some form of inventive genius. Tom Swift is a +bright, ingenious boy and his inventions and adventures make the most +interesting kind of reading. + + TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP + TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE + TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS + TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER + TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE + TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER + TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY + TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA + TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON + TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP + TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL + TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS + TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH + TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS + TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING BOAT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT OIL GUSHER + TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHEST OF SECRETS + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRLINE EXPRESS + + + + +THE DON STURDY SERIES + +By VICTOR APPLETON + +Individual Colored Wrappers and Text illustrations by WALTER S. ROGERS + +Every Volume Complete in Itself + +In company with his uncles, one a mighty hunter and the other a noted +scientist, Don Sturdy travels far and wide, gaining much useful +knowledge and meeting many thrilling adventures. + +DON STURDY ON THE DESERT OF MYSTERY; + Or, Autoing in the Land of the Caravans. + +An engrossing tale of the Sahara Desert, of encounters with wild +animals and crafty Arabs. + +DON STURDY WITH THE BIG SNAKE HUNTERS; + Or, Lost in the Jungles of the Amazon. + +Don's uncle, the hunter, took an order for some of the biggest snakes +to be found in South America--to be delivered alive! The filling of +that order brought keen excitement to the boy. + +DON STURDY IN THE TOMBS OF GOLD; + Or, The Old Egyptian's Great Secret. + +A fascinating tale of exploration and adventure in the Valley of Kings +in Egypt. Once the whole party became lost in the maze of cavelike +tombs far underground. + +DON STURDY ACROSS THE NORTH POLE; + Or, Cast Away in the Land of Ice. + +Don and his uncles joined an expedition bound by air across the north +pole. A great polar blizzard nearly wrecks the airship. + +DON STURDY IN THE LAND OF VOLCANOES; + Or, The Trail of the Ten Thousand Smokes. + +An absorbing tale of adventures among the volcanoes of Alaska in a +territory but recently explored. A story that will make Don dearer to +his readers than ever. + + + + +THE RADIO BOYS SERIES (Trademark Registered) + +By ALLEN CHAPMAN + +Author of the "Railroad Series," Etc. Individual Colored Wrappers. +Illustrated. Every Volume Complete in Itself. + +A new series for boys giving full details of radio work, both in +sending and receiving--telling how small and large amateur sets can be +made and operated, and how some boys got a lot of fun and adventure out +of what they did. Each volume from first to last is so thoroughly +fascinating, so strictly up-to-date and accurate, we feel sure all lads +will peruse them with great delight. + +Each volume has a Foreword by Jack Binns, the well-known radio expert. + +THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS; + Or, Winning the Ferberton Prize. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT; + Or, The Messsage That Saved the Ship. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT THE SENDING STATION; + Or, Making Good in the Wireless Room. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS; + Or, The Midnight Call for Assistance. + +THE RADIO BOYS TRAILING A VOICE; + Or, Solving a Wireless Mystery. + +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE FOREST RANGERS; + Or, The Great Fire on Spruce Mountain. + +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE ICEBERG PATROL; + Or, Making Safe the Ocean Lanes. + +RADIO BOYS WITH THE FLOOD FIGHTERS; + Or, Saving the City in the Valley. + + + +THE RAILROAD SERIES + +By ALLEN CHAPMAN + +Author of the "Radio Boys," Etc. + +Uniform Style of Binding. Illustrated. + +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + + +In this line of books there is revealed the whole workings of a great +American railroad system. There are adventures in abundance--railroad +wrecks, dashes through forest fires, the pursuit of a "wildcat" +locomotive, the disappearance of a pay car with a large sum of money on +board--but there is much more than this--the intense rivalry among +railroads and railroad men, the working out of running schedules, the +getting through "on time" in spite of all obstacles, and the +manipulation of railroad securities by evil men who wish to rule or +ruin. + +RALPH OF THE ROUND HOUSE; + Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man. + +RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER; + Or, Clearing the Track. + +RALPH ON THE ENGINE; + Or, The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail. + +RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS; + Or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer. + +RALPH, THE TRAIN DISPATCHER; + Or, the Mystery of the Pay Car. + +RALPH ON THE ARMY TRAIN; + Or, The Young Railroader's Most Daring Exploit. + +RALPH ON THE MIDNIGHT FLYER; + Or, The Wreck at Shadow Valley. + +RALPH AND THE MISSING MAIL POUCH; + Or, The Stolen Government Bonds. + + + + +THE RIDDLE CLUB BOOKS By ALICE DALE HARDY + +Individual Colored Wrappers. Attractively Illustrated. Every Volume +Complete in Itself. + +Here is as ingenious a series of books for little folks as has ever +appeared since "Alice in Wonderland." The idea of the Riddle books is a +little group of children--three girls and three boys decide to form a +riddle club. Each book is full of the adventures and doings of these +six youngsters, but as an added attraction each book is filled with a +lot of the best riddles you ever heard. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT HOME + +An absorbing tale that all boys and girls will enjoy reading. How the +members of the club fixed up a clubroom in the Larue barn, and how +they, later on, helped solve a most mysterious happening, and how one +of the members won a valuable prize, is told in a manner to please +every young reader. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB IN CAMP + +The club members went into camp on the edge of a beautiful lake. Here +they had rousing good times swimming, boating and around the campfire. +They fell in with a mysterious old man known as The Hermit of Triangle +Island. Nobody knew his real name or where he came from until the +propounding of a riddle solved these perplexing questions. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS + +This volume takes in a great number of winter sports, including skating +and sledding and the building of a huge snowman. It also gives the +particulars of how the club treasurer lost the dues entrusted to his +care and what the melting of the great snowman revealed. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT SUNRISE BEACH + +This volume tells how the club journeyed to the seashore and how they +not only kept up their riddles but likewise had good times on the sand +and on the water. Once they got lost in a fog and are marooned on an +island. Here they made a discovery that greatly pleased the folks at +home. + + + + +THE HONEY BUNCH BOOKS + +By HELEN LOUISE THORNDYKE Individual Colored Wrappers and Text +Illustrations Drawn by + +WALTER S. ROGERS + + +A new line of fascinating tales for little girls. Honey Bunch is a +dainty, thoughtful little girl, and to know her is to take her to your +heart at once. + +HONEY BUNCH: JUST A LITTLE GIRL + +Happy days at home, helping mamma and the washerlady. And Honey Bunch +helped the house painters too--or thought she did. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE CITY + +What wonderful sights Honey Bunch saw when she went to visit her +cousins in New York! And she got lost in a big hotel and wandered into +a men's convention! + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM + +Can you remember bow the farm looked the first time you visited it? How +big the cows and horses were, and what a roomy place to play in the +barn proved to be? + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE SEASHORE + +Honey Bunch soon got used to the big waves and thought playing in the +sand great fun. And she visited a merry-go-round, and took part in a +seaside pageant. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST LITTLE GARDEN + +It was great sport to dig and to plant with one's own little garden +tools. But best of all was when Honey Bunch won a prize at the flower +show. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS IN CAMP + +It was a great adventure for Honey Bunch when she journeyed to Camp +Snapdragon. It was wonderful to watch the men erect the tent, and +wonderful to live in it and have good times on the shore and in the +water. + + + + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES + +By LAURA LEE HOPE + +Author of the "Bobbsey Twins," "Bunny Brown" Series, Etc. + +Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers. + +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + + +These tales take in the various adventures participated in by several +bright, up-to-date girls who love outdoor life. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE; + Or, Camping and Tramping for Fun and Health. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE; + Or, The Stirring Cruise of the Motor Boat Gem. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR; + Or, The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP; + Or, Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA; + Or, Wintering in the Sunny South. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW; + Or, The Box That Was Found in the Sand. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND; + Or, A Cave and What it Contained. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE; + Or, Doing Their Bit for Uncle Sam. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE; + Or, Doing Their Best For the Soldiers. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT; + Or, A Wreck and A Rescue. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE; + Or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLE; + Or, The Girl Miner of Gold Run. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AROUND THE CAMPFIRE; + Or, The Old Maid of the Mountains. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON CAPE COD; + Or, Sally Ann of Lighthouse Rock. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tom Swift and his Electric Locomotive, by +Victor Appleton + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1364 *** diff --git a/1364-h/1364-h.htm b/1364-h/1364-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40a6c2b --- /dev/null +++ b/1364-h/1364-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8830 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Tom Swift and his Electric Locomotive, +by Victor Appleton +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.finis { text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1364 ***</div> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE +</H1> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +or +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Two Miles a Minute on the Rails +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +VICTOR APPLETON +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">A TEMPTING OFFER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">TROUBLE STARTS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">TOM SWIFT'S FRIENDS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">MUCH TO THINK ABOUT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">THE CONTRACT SIGNED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">THE MAN WITH BIG FEET</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">AN ENEMY IN THE DARK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">WHERE WAS KOKU?</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">A STRANGE CONVERSATION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">TOUCH AND GO</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">THE TRY-OUT DAY ARRIVES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">HOPES AND FEARS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">SPEED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">THE ENEMY STILL ACTIVE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">OFF FOR THE WEST</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">THE WRECK OF FORTY-EIGHT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">ON THE HENDRICKTON & PAS ALOS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">PERIL, THE MOTHER OF INVENTION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">THE RESULT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">THE OPEN SWITCH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">A DESPERATE CHASE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">MR. DAMON AT BAT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">PUTTING THE ENEMY TO FLIGHT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">SPEED AND SUCCESS</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE +</h1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Tempting Offer +</H3> + +<P> +"An electric locomotive that can make two miles a minute over a +properly ballasted roadbed might not be an impossibility," said Mr. +Barton Swift ruminatively. "It is one of those things that are coming," +and he flashed his son, Tom Swift, a knowing smile. It had been a +topic of conversation between them before the visitor from the West had +been seated before the library fire and had sampled one of the elder +Swift's good cigars. +</P> + +<P> +"It is not only a future possibility," said the latter gentleman, +shrugging his shoulders. "As far as the Hendrickton and Pas Alos +Railroad Company goes, a two mile a minute gait—not alone on a level +track but through the Pas Alos Range—is an immediate necessity. It's +got to be done now, or our stock will be selling on the curb for about +two cents a share." +</P> + +<P> +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom Swift +earnestly, and staring at the big-little man before the fire. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Richard Bartholomew was just that—a "big-little man." In the +railroad world, both in construction and management, he had made an +enviable name for himself. +</P> + +<P> +He had actually built up the Hendrickton and Pas Alos from a +narrow-gauge, "jerkwater" road into a part of a great cross-continent +system that tapped a wonderfully rich territory on both sides of the +Pas Alos Range. +</P> + +<P> +For some years the H. & P. A. had a monopoly of that territory. Now, +as Mr. Bartholomew intimated, it was threatened with such rivalry from +another railroad and other capitalists, that the H. & P. A. was being +looked upon in the financial market as a shaky investment. +</P> + +<P> +But Tom Swift repeated: +</P> + +<P> +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Bartholomew, who was a little man physically, rolled around in his +chair to face the young fellow more directly. His own eyes sparkled in +the firelight. His olive face was flushed. +</P> + +<P> +"That is much nearer the truth, young man," he said, somewhat harshly +because of his suppressed emotion, "than I want people at large to +suspect. As I have told your father, I came here to put all my cards on +the table; but I expect the Swift Construction Company to take anything +I may say as said in confidence." +</P> + +<P> +"We quite understand that, Mr. Bartholomew," said the elder Swift, +softly. "You can speak freely. Whether we do business or not, these +walls are soundproof, and Tom and I can forget, or remember, as we +wish. Of course if we take up any work for you, we must confide to a +certain extent in our close associates and trusted mechanics." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" grunted the visitor, turning restlessly again in his chair. +Then he said: "I agree as the necessity of that last statement; but I +can only hope that these walls are soundproof." +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" demanded Tom, rather sharply. He was a bright looking +young fellow with an alert air and a rather humorous smile. His father +was a semi-invalid; but Tom possessed all the mental vigor and muscular +energy that a young man should have. He had not neglected his Athletic +development while he made the best use of his mental powers. +</P> + +<P> +"Believe me," said the visitor, quite as harshly as before, "I begin to +doubt the solidity of all walls. I know that I have been watched, and +spied upon, and that eavesdroppers have played hob with our affairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Of late, there has been little planned in the directors' room of the +H. & P. A. that has not seeped out and aided the enemy in foreseeing +our moves." +</P> + +<P> +"The enemy?" repeated Mr. Swift, with mild surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"That's it exactly! The enemy!" replied Mr. Bartholomew shortly. "The +H. & P. A. has got the fight of its life on its hands. We had a hard +enough time fighting nature and the elements when we laid the first +iron for the road a score of years ago. Now I am facing a fight that +must grow fiercer and fiercer as time goes on until either the H. & P. +A. smashes the opposition, or the enemy smashes it." +</P> + +<P> +"What enemy is this you speak of?" asked Tom, much interested. +</P> + +<P> +"The proposed Hendrickton & Western. A new road, backed by new capital, +and to be officered and built by new men in the construction and +railroad game. +</P> + +<P> +"Montagne Lewis—you've heard of him, I presume—is at the head of the +crowd that have bought the little old Hendrickton & Western, lock, +stock and barrel. +</P> + +<P> +"They have franchises for extending the road. In the old days the +legislatures granted blanket franchises that allowed any group of +moneyed men to engage in any kind of business as side issues to +railroading. Montagne Lewis and his crowd have got a 'plenty-big' +franchise. +</P> + +<P> +"They have begun laying iron. It parallels, to a certain extent, our +own line. Their surveyors were smarter than the men who laid out the H. +& P. A. I admit it. Besides, the country out there is developed more +than it was a score of years ago when I took hold. +</P> + +<P> +"All this enters into the fight between Montagne Lewis and me. But +there is something deeper," said the little man, with almost a snarl, +as he thrashed about again in his chair. "I beat Montagne Lewis at one +big game years ago. He is a man who never forgets—and who never +hesitates to play dirty politics if he has to, to bring about his own +ends. +</P> + +<P> +"I know that I have been watched. I know that I was followed on this +trip East. He has private detectives on my track continually. And +worse. All the gunmen of the old and wilder West are not dead. There's +a fellow named Andy O'Malley—well, never mind him. The game at present +is to keep anybody in Lewis's employ from getting wise to why I came to +see you." +</P> + +<P> +"What you say is interesting," Mr. Swift here broke in quietly. "But I +have already been puzzled by what you first said. Just why have you +come to us—to Tom and me—in reference to your railroad difficulties?" +</P> + +<P> +"And this suggestion you have made," added Tom, "about a possible +electric locomotive of a faster type than has, ever yet been put on the +rails?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is it, exactly," replied Bartholomew, sitting suddenly upright in +his chair. "We want faster electric motor power than has ever yet been +invented. We have got to have it, or the H. & P. A. might as well be +scrapped and the whole territory out there handed over to Montagne +Lewis and his H. & W. That is the sum total of the matter, gentlemen. +If the Swift Construction Company cannot help us, my railroad is going +to be junk in about three years from this beautiful evening." +</P> + +<P> +His emphasis could not fail to impress both the elder and the younger +Swift. They looked at each other, and the interest displayed upon the +father's countenance was reflected upon the features of the son. +</P> + +<P> +If there was anything Tom Swift liked it was a good fight. The clash of +diverse interests was the breath of life to the young fellow. And for +some years now, always connected in some way with the development of +his inventive genius, he had been entangled in battles both of wits and +physical powers. Here was the suggestion of something that would entail +a struggle of both brain and brawn. +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds good," muttered Tom, gazing at the railroad magnate with +considerable admiration. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us hear all about it," Mr. Swift said to Bartholomew. "Whether we +can help you or not, we're interested." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," replied the visitor again. "Whether I was followed East, +and here to Shopton, or not doesn't much matter. I will put my +proposition up to you, and then I'll ask, if you don't want to go into +it, that you keep the business absolutely secret. I have got to put +something over on Montagne Lewis and his crowd, or throw up the sponge. +That's that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Go ahead, Mr. Bartholomew," observed Tom's father, encouragingly. +</P> + +<P> +"To begin with, four hundred miles of our road is already electrified. +We have big power stations and supply heat and light and power to +several of the small cities tapped by the H. & P. A. It is a paying +proposition as it stands. But it is only paying because we carry the +freight traffic—all the freight traffic—of that region. +</P> + +<P> +"If the H. & W. breaks in on our monopoly of that, we shall soon be so +cut down that our invested capital will not earn two per cent.—No, by +glory! not one-and-a-half per cent.—and our stock will be dished. But +I have worked out a scheme, Gentlemen, by which we can counter-balance +any dig Lewis can give us in the ribs. +</P> + +<P> +"If we can extend our electrified line into and through the Pas Alos +Range our freight traffic can be handled so cheaply and so effectively +that nothing the Hendrickton & Western can do for years to come will +hurt us. Get that?" +</P> + +<P> +"I get your statement, Mr. Bartholomew," said Mr. Swift. "But it is +merely a statement as yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure. Now I will give you the particulars. We are using the Jandel +locomotives on our electrified stretch of road. You know that patent?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know something about it, Mr. Bartholomew," said the younger +inventor. "I have felt some interest in the electric locomotive, though +I have done nothing practical in the matter. But I know the Jandel +patent." +</P> + +<P> +"It is about the best there is—and the most recent; but it does not +fill the bill. Not for the H. & P. A., anyway," said Mr. Bartholomew, +shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"What does it lack?" asked Mr. Swift. +</P> + +<P> +"Speed. It's got the power for heavy hauls. It could handle the freight +through the Pas Alos Range. But it would slow up our traffic so that +the shippers would at once turn to the Hendrickton & Western. You +understand that their rails do not begin to engage the grades that our +engineers thought necessary when the old H. & P. A. was built." +</P> + +<P> +"I get that," said Tom briskly. "You have come here, then, to interest +us in the development of a faster but quite as powerful type of +electric locomotive as the Jandel." +</P> + +<P> +"Stated to the line!" exclaimed Mr. Bartholomew, smiting the arm of his +chair with his clenched fist. "That is it, young man. You get me +exactly. And now I will go on to put my proposition to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Do so, Mr. Bartholomew," murmured the old inventor, quite as much +interested as his son. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to make a study of electric motive power as applied to +track locomotives, with the idea of utilizing our power plants and +others like them, and even with the possibility in mind of the +continued use of the Jandel locomotives on our more level stretches of +road. +</P> + +<P> +"But I want your investigation to result in the building of locomotives +that will make a speed of two miles a minute, or as near that as +possible, on level rails, and be powerful enough to snake our heavy +freight trains through the hills and over the steep grades so rapidly +that even two engines, a pusher and a hauler, cannot beat the electric +power." +</P> + +<P> +"Some job, that, I'll say," murmured Tom Swift. +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly. Some job. And it is the only thing that will save the H. & P. +A.," said Mr. Bartholomew decidedly. "I put it up to you Swifts. I have +heard of some of your marvelous inventions. Here is something that is +already invented. But it needs development." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," said Mr. Swift, and nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"It interests me," admitted Tom. "As I say, I have given some thought +to the electric locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"This is the age of speed," said Mr. Bartholomew earnestly. "Rapidity +in handling freight and kindred things will be the salvation, and the +only salvation, of many railroads. Tapping a rich territory is not +enough. The road that can offer the quickest and cheapest service is +the road that is going to keep out of a receivership. Believe me, I +know!" +</P> + +<P> +"You should," said Mr. Swift mildly. "Your experience should have +taught you a great deal about the railroad business." +</P> + +<P> +"It has. But that knowledge is worth just nothing at all without swift +power and cheap traffic. Those are the problems today. Now, I am going +to take a chance. If it doesn't work, my road is dished in any case. So +I feel that the desperate chance is the only chance." +</P> + +<P> +"What is that?" asked Tom Swift, sitting forward in his chair. "I, for +one, feel so much interested that I will do anything in reason to find +the answer to your traffic problem." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the boy!" ejaculated Richard Bartholomew. "I will give it to +you in a few words. If you will experiment with the electric locomotive +idea, to develop speed and power over and above the Jandel patent, and +will give me the first call on the use of any patents you may contrive, +I will put up twenty-five thousand dollars in cash which shall be yours +whether I can make use of a thing you invent or not." +</P> + +<P> +"Any time limit in this agreement, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom, making +a few notes on a scratch pad before him on the library table. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you say to three months?" +</P> + +<P> +"Make it six, if you can," Tom said with continued briskness. "It +interests me. I'll do my best. And I want you to get your money's +worth." +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Make it six," said Mr. Bartholomew. "But the quicker you +dig something up, the better for me. Now, that is the first part of my +proposition." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, sir. And the second?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you succeed in showing me that you can build and operate an +electric locomotive that will speed two miles a minute on a level track +and will get a heavy drag over the mountain grades, as I said, as +surely as two engines of the coal-burning or oil-burning type, I will +pay you a hundred thousand dollars bonus, besides buying all the +engines you can build of this new type for the first two years. I've +got to have first call; but the hundred thousand will be yours free and +clear, and the price of the locomotives you build can be adjusted by +any court of agreement that you may suggest." +</P> + +<P> +Tom Swift's face glowed. He realized that this offer was not only +generous, but that it made it worth his while dropping everything else +he had in hand and devoting his entire time and thought for even six +months to the proposition of developing the electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +He looked at his father and nodded. Mr. Swift said, calmly: +</P> + +<P> +"We take you on that offer, Mr. Bartholomew. Tom has the facts on +paper, and we will hand it to Mr. Newton, our financial manager, in the +morning. If you will remain in town for twenty-four hours, the contract +can be signed." +</P> + +<P> +"Suits me," declared. Richard Bartholomew, rising quickly from his +chair. "I confess I hoped you would take me up quite as promptly as you +have. I want to get back West again. +</P> + +<P> +"We will see you in the office of the company at two o'clock tomorrow," +said Tom Swift confidently. +</P> + +<P> +"Better than good! And now, if that trailer that I am pretty sure +Montagne Lewis sent after me does not get wise to the subject of our +talk, it may be a slick job we have done and will do. I admit I am +rather afraid of the enemy. You Swifts must keep your plans in utter +darkness." +</P> + +<P> +After a little talk on more ordinary affairs, Mr. Bartholomew took his +departure. It was getting late in the evening, and Tom Swift had an +engagement. While old Rad, their colored servant, was helping him on +with his coat preparatory to Tom's leaving the house, his father called +from the library: +</P> + +<P> +"Got those notes in a safe place, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"Safest in the world, Dad," his son replied. But he did not go into +details. Tom considered the "safest place in the world" just then was +his own wallet, which was tucked into an inside pocket of his vest "I'm +going to see Mary Nestor, Father," said Tom, as he went to the front +door and opened it. +</P> + +<P> +He halted a moment with the knob of the door in his hand. The porch was +deep in shadows, but he thought he had seen something move there. +</P> + +<P> +"That you, Koku?" asked Tom in an ordinary voice. Sometimes his +gigantic servant wandered about the house at night. He was a strange +person, and he had a good many thoughts in his savage brain that even +his young master did not understand. +</P> + +<P> +There was no reply to Tom's question, so he walked down the steps and +out at the gate. It was not a long distance to the Nestor house, and +the air was brisk and keen, in spite of the fact that threatening +clouds masked the stars. +</P> + +<P> +Two blocks from the house he came to a high wall which separated the +street from the grounds of an old dwelling. Tom suddenly noticed that +the usual street lights on this block had been extinguished—blown out +by the wind, perhaps. +</P> + +<P> +Involuntarily he quickened his steps. He reached the archway in the +wall. Here was the gate dividing the private grounds from the street. +As he strode into the shadow of this place a voice suddenly halted Tom +Swift. +</P> + +<P> +"Hands up! Put 'em up and don't be slow about it!" A bulky figure +loomed in the dark. Tom saw the highwayman's club poised threateningly +over his head. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Trouble Starts +</H3> + +<P> +The fact that he was stopped by a footpad smote Tom Swift's mind as not +a particularly surprising adventure. He had heard that several of that +gentry had been plying their trade about the outskirts of the town. To +a degree he was prepared for this sudden event. +</P> + +<P> +Then there flashed into Tom's mind the thought of what Mr. Richard +Bartholomew had said regarding the spy he believed had followed him +from the West. Could it be possible that some hired thug sent by +Montagne Lewis and his crooked crowd of financiers considered that Tom +Swift had obtained information from the president of the H. & P. A. +that might do his employers signal service? +</P> + +<P> +Tom Swift had fallen in with many adventures—and some quite thrilling +ones—since, as a youth, he was first introduced to the reader in the +initial volume of this series, entitled "Tom Swift and His Motor +Cycle." His first experiences as an inventor, coached by his father, +who had spent his life in the experimental laboratory and workshop, was +made possible by his purchase from Mr. Wakefield Damon, now one of his +closest friends, of a broken-down motor cycle. +</P> + +<P> +Through a series of inventions, some of them of a marvelous kind, Tom +Swift, aided by his father, had forged ahead, building motor boats, +airships, submarines, monoplanes, motion picture cameras, searchlights, +cannons, photo-telephones, war tanks. Of late, as related in "Tom Swift +Among the Fire Fighters," he had engaged in the invention of an +explosive bomb carrying flame-quenching chemicals that would, in time, +revolutionize fire-fighting in tall buildings. +</P> + +<P> +The matter that Mr. Richard Bartholomew, the railroad magnate, had +brought to Tom's and his father's attention had deeply interested the +young inventor. Thought of the electric locomotive, the development of +which the railroad president stated was the only salvation of the +finances of the H. & P. A., had so held Tom's attention as he walked +along the street that being stopped in this sudden way was even more +startling than such an incident might ordinarily have been. +</P> + +<P> +Tom was a muscular young fellow; but a club held over one's head by a +burly thug would have shaken the courage of anybody. Dark as it was +under the archway the young fellow saw that the bulk of the man was +much greater than his own. +</P> + +<P> +"That's right, sonny," said the stranger, in a sneering tone. "You got +just the right idea. When I say 'Stick 'em up' I mean it. Never take a +chance. Ah—ah!" +</P> + +<P> +The fellow ripped open Tom's overcoat, almost tearing the buttons off. +Another masterful jerk and his victim's jacket was likewise parted +widely. He did not lower the club for an instant. He thrust his left +hand into the V-shaped parting of the young fellow's vest. +</P> + +<P> +It was then that Tom was convinced of what the fellow was after. He +remembered the notes he had made regarding the contract that was to be +signed on the morrow between the Swift Construction Company and +President Richard Bartholomew of the H. & P. A. Railroad. He +remembered, too, the figure he thought he had seen in the dark porch of +the house as he so recently left it. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Bartholomew had considered it very possible that he was being spied +upon. This was one of the spies—a Westerner, as his speech betrayed. +But Tom was suddenly less fearful than he had been when first attacked. +</P> + +<P> +It did not seem possible to him that Mr. Bartholomew's enemies would +allow their henchman to go too far to obtain information of the +railroad president's intentions. This fellow was merely attempting to +frighten him. +</P> + +<P> +A sense of relief came to Tom Swift's assistance. He opened his lips to +speak and could the thug have seen his face more clearly in the dark he +would have been aware of the fact that the young inventor smiled. +</P> + +<P> +The fellow's groping hand entered between Tom's vest and his shirt. The +coarse fingers seized upon Tom's wallet. Nobody likes to be robbed, no +matter whether the loss is great or small. There was not much money in +the wallet, nor anything that could be turned into money by a thief. +</P> + +<P> +These facts enabled Tom, perhaps, to bear his loss with some fortitude. +The highwayman drew forth the wallet and thrust it into his own coat +pocket. He made no attempt to take anything else from the young +inventor. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, beat it!" commanded the fellow. "Don't look back and don't run or +holler. Just keep moving—in the way you were headed before. Vamoose." +</P> + +<P> +More than ever was Tom assured that the man was from the West. His +speech savored of Mexican phrases and slang terms used mainly by +Western citizens. And his abrupt and masterly manner and speech aided +in this supposition. Tom Swift stayed not to utter a word. It was true +he was not so frightened as he had at first been. But he was quite sure +that this man was no person to contend with under present conditions. +</P> + +<P> +He strode away along the sidewalk toward the far corner of the wall +that surrounded this estate. Shopton had not many of such important +dwellings as this behind the wall. Its residential section was made up +for the most part of mechanics' homes and such plain but substantial +houses as his father's. +</P> + +<P> +Prospering as the Swifts had during the last few years, neither Tom nor +his father had thought their plain old house too poor or humble for a +continued residence. Tom was glad to make money, but the inventions he +had made it by were vastly more important to his mind than what he +might obtain by any lavish expenditure of his growing fortune. +</P> + +<P> +This matter of the electric locomotive that had been brought to his +attention by the Western railroad magnate had instantly interested the +young inventor. The possibility of there being a clash of interests in +the matter, and the point Mr. Bartholomew made of his enemies seeking +to thwart his hope of keeping the H. & P. A. upon a solid financial +footing, were phases of the affair that likewise concerned the young +fellow's thought. +</P> + +<P> +Now he was sure that Mr. Bartholomew was right. The enemies of the H. & +P. A. were determined to know all that the railroad president was +planning to do. They would naturally suspect that his trip East to +visit the Swift Construction Company was no idle jaunt. +</P> + +<P> +Tom had turned so many fortunate and important problems of invention +into certainties that the name of the Swift Construction Company was +broadly known, not alone throughout the United States but in several +foreign countries. Montagne Lewis, whom Tom knew to be both a powerful +and an unscrupulous financier, might be sure that Mr. Bartholomew's +visit to Shopton and to the young inventor and his father was of such +importance that he would do well through his henchmen to learn the +particulars of the interview. +</P> + +<P> +Tom remembered Mr. Bartholomew's mention of a name like Andy O'Malley. +This was probably the man who had done all that he could, and that +promptly, to set about the discovery of Mr. Bartholomew's reason for +visiting the Swifts. +</P> + +<P> +Without doubt the man had slunk about the Swift house and had peered +into one of the library windows while the interview was proceeding. He +had observed Tom making notes on the scratch pad and judged correctly +that those notes dealt with the subject under discussion between the +visitor from the West and the Swifts. +</P> + +<P> +He had likewise seen Tom thrust the paper into his wallet and the +wallet into his inside vest pocket. Instead of dogging Mr. +Bartholomew's footsteps after that gentleman left the Swift house, the +man had waited for the appearance of Tom. When he was sure that the +young fellow was preparing to walk out, and the direction he was to +stroll, the thug had run ahead and ensconced himself in the archway on +this dark block. +</P> + +<P> +All these things were plain enough. The notes Tom had taken regarding +the offer Mr. Bartholomew had made for the development of the electric +locomotive might, under some circumstances, be very important. At +least, the highwayman evidently thought them such. But Tom had another +thought about that. +</P> + +<P> +One thing the young inventor was convinced about, as he strode briskly +away from the scene of the hold-up: There was going to be trouble. It +had already begun. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Tom Swift's Friends +</H3> + +<P> +Tom was still walking swiftly when he arrived in sight of Mary Nestor's +home. He was so filled with excitement both because of the hold-up and +the new scheme that Mr. Richard Bartholomew had brought to him from the +West, that he could keep neither to himself. He just had to tell Mary! +</P> + +<P> +Mary Nestor was a very pretty girl, and Tom thought she was just about +right in every particular. Although he had been about a good deal for a +young fellow and had seen girls everywhere, none of them came up to +Mary. None of them held Tom's interest for a minute but this girl whom +he had been around with for years and whom he had always confided in. +</P> + +<P> +As for the girl herself, she considered Tom Swift the very nicest young +man she had ever seen. He was her beau-ideal of what a young man should +be. And she entered enthusiastically into the plans for everything that +Tom Swift was interested in. +</P> + +<P> +Mary was excited by the story Tom told her in the Nestor sitting room. +The idea of the electric locomotive she saw, of course, was something +that might add to Tom's laurels as an inventor. But the other phase of +the evening's adventure—"Tom, dear!" she murmured with no little +disturbance of mind. "That man who stopped you! He is a thief, and a +dangerous man! I hate to think of your going home alone." +</P> + +<P> +"He's got what he was after," chuckled Tom. "Is it likely he will +bother me again?" +</P> + +<P> +"And you do not seem much worried about it," she cried, in wonder. +</P> + +<P> +"Not much, I confess, Mary," said Tom, and grinned. +</P> + +<P> +"But if, as you suppose, that man was working for Mr. Bartholomew's +enemies—" +</P> + +<P> +"I am convinced that he was, for he did not rob me of my watch and +chain or loose money. And he could have done so easily. I don't mind +about the old wallet. There was only five dollars in it." +</P> + +<P> +"But those notes you said you took of Mr. Bartholomew's offer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes," chuckled Tom again. "Those notes. Well, I may as well +explain to you, Mary, and not try to puzzle you any longer. But that +highwayman is sure going to be puzzled a long, long time." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"Those notes were jotted down in my own brand of shorthand. Such +stenographic notes would scarcely be readable by anybody else. Ho, ho! +When that bold, bad hold-up gent turns the notes over to Montagne +Lewis, or whoever his principal is, there will be a sweet time." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Tom! isn't that fun?" cried Mary, likewise much amused. +</P> + +<P> +"I can remember everything we said there in the library," Tom +continued. "I'll see Ned tonight on my way home from here, and he will +draw a contract the first thing in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"You are a smart fellow, Tom!" said Mary, her laughter trilling sweetly. +</P> + +<P> +"Many thanks, Ma'am! Hope I prove your compliment true. This +two-mile-a-minute stunt—" +</P> + +<P> +"It seems wonderful," breathed Mary. +</P> + +<P> +"It sure will be wonderful if we can build a locomotive that will do +such fancy lacework as that," observed Tom eagerly. "It will be a great +stunt!" +</P> + +<P> +"A wonderful invention, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"More wonderful than Mr. Bartholomew knows," agreed the young fellow. +"An electric locomotive with both great speed and great hauling power +is what more than one inventor has been aiming at for two or three +decades. Ever since Edison and Westinghouse began their experiments, in +truth." +</P> + +<P> +"Is the locomotive they are using out there a very marvelous machine?" +asked the girl, with added interest. +</P> + +<P> +"No more marvelous than the big electric motors that drag the trains +into New York City, for instance, through the tunnels. Steam engines +cannot be used in those tunnels for obvious, as well as legal, reasons. +They are all wonderful machines, using third-rail power. +</P> + +<P> +"But that Jandel patent that Mr. Bartholomew is using out there on the +H. & P. A. is probably the highest type of such motors. It is up to us +to beat that. Fortunately I got a pass into the Jandel shops a few +months ago and I studied at first hand the machine Mr. Bartholomew is +using." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't that great!" cried Mary. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it helps some. I at least know in a general way the 'how' of the +construction of the Jandel locomotive. It is simple enough. Too simple +by far, I should say, to get both speed and power. We'll see," and he +nodded his head thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +Tom did not stay long with the girl, for it was already late in the +evening when he had arrived at her house. As he got up to depart Mary's +anxiety for his safety revived. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you would take care now, Tom. Those men may hound you." +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" chuckled the young inventor. "They have the notes they +wanted." +</P> + +<P> +"But that very thing—the fact that you fooled them—will make them +more angry. Take care." +</P> + +<P> +"I have a means of looking out for myself, after all," said Tom +quietly, seeing that he must relieve her mind. "I let that fellow get +away with my wallet; but I won't let him hurt me. Don't fear." +</P> + +<P> +She had opened the door. The lamplight fell across porch and steps, and +in a broad white band even to the gate and sidewalk. There was a +motor-car slowing down right before the open gate. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's this?" queried Tom, puzzled. +</P> + +<P> +A sharp voice suddenly was raised in an exclamatory explosion. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my breakshoes! is that Tom Swift? Just the chap I was looking +for. Bless my mileage-book! this saves me time and money." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's Mr. Wakefield Damon," Mary cried, with something like relief +in her tones. "You can ride home in his car, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Mary. Don't be afraid for me," replied Tom Swift, and ran +down the walk to the waiting car. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my vest buttons! Tom Swift, my heart swells when I see you—" +</P> + +<P> +"And is like to burst off the said vest buttons?" chuckled the young +fellow, stepping in beside his eccentric friend who blessed everything +inanimate in his florid speech. +</P> + +<P> +"I am delighted to catch you—although, of course," and Tom knew the +gentleman's eyes twinkled, "I could have no idea that you were over +here at Mary's, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not," rejoined the young inventor calmly. "Seeing that I +only come to see her just as often as I get a chance." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my memory tablets! is that the fact?" chuckled Mr. Damon. +"Anyway, I wanted to see you so particularly that I drove over in my +car tonight—" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute," said Tom, hastily. "Is this important?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think so, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me get something else off of my mind first, then, Mr. Damon," Tom +Swift said quickly. "Drive around by Ned's house, will you, please? Ned +Newton's. After I speak a minute with him I will be at your service. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely, Tom; surely," agreed the gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +The automobile had been running slowly. Mr. Damon knew the streets of +Shopton very well, and he headed around the next corner. As the car +turned, a figure bounded out of the shadow near the house line. Two +long strides, and the man was on the running board of the car upon the +side where Tom Swift sat. Again an ugly club was raised above the young +fellow's head. +</P> + +<P> +"You're the smart guy!" croaked the coarse voice Tom had heard before. +"Think you can bamboozle me, do you? Up with 'em!" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my spark-plug!" gasped Mr. Wakefield Damon. +</P> + +<P> +Either from nervousness or intention, he jerked the steering wheel so +that the car made a sudden leap away from the curb. The figure of the +stranger swayed. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly Tom Swift struck the man's arm up higher and from under his +own coat appeared something that bulked like a pistol in his right +hand. He had intimated to Mary Nestor that he carried something with +which to defend himself from highwaymen if he chose to. This invention, +his ammonia gun, now came into play. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my failing eyesight!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, as he shot the +motor-car ahead again in a straight line. +</P> + +<P> +The man who had accosted Tom so fiercely fell off the running board and +rolled into the gutter, screaming and choking from the fumes from Tom's +gun. +</P> + +<P> +"Drive on!" commanded the young inventor. "If he keeps bellowing like +that the police will pick him up. I guess he will let us alone +here-after." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my short hairs and long ones!" chuckled Mr. Damon. "You are the +coolest young fellow, Tom, that I ever saw. That man must have been a +highwayman. And it is of some of those gentry that I drove over to +Shopton this evening to talk to you about." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Much to Think About +</H3> + +<P> +Although it was now nearing ten o'clock on this eventful evening, Tom +knew that he would find Ned Newton at home. When Mr. Damon's car +stopped before the house there was a light in Ned's room and the front +door opened almost as soon as Tom rang. Mr. Damon left the car and +entered with the young inventor at his invitation. +</P> + +<P> +"What's up?" was Ned's greeting, looking at the two curiously as he +ushered them in. "I see this isn't entirely a social call," and he +laughed as he shook the older man's hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my particular star!" exclaimed the latter excitedly. "Of all the +thrilling adventures that anybody ever got into, it is this Tom Swift +who cooks them up! Why, Newton! do you know that we have been held up +by a highwayman within two blocks of this very house?" +</P> + +<P> +"And that of course was Tom's fault?" suggested Ned, still smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"It wouldn't have happened if he had not been with me," said Mr. Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"I am curious," said Ned, as they seated themselves. "Who was the +footpad? What drew his attention to you two? Tell me about it." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my suspender buckles!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "You tell him, Tom. +I don't understand it myself, yet." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I can explain. But whatever I tell you both, you must hold in +secret. Father and I have been entrusted with some private information +tonight and I am going to take you, Ned, and Mr. Damon, into the +business in a confidential way." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's have it," begged Newton. "Anything to do with the works?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is," answered Tom gravely. "We are going to take up a proposition +that promises big things for the Swift Construction Company." +</P> + +<P> +"A big thing financially?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say so. And it looks as though we were mixing into a conspiracy +that may breed trouble in more ways than one." +</P> + +<P> +Tom went on to sketch briefly the situation of the Hendrickton & Pas +Alos Railroad as brought to the attention of the Swifts by the +railroad's president. First of all his two listeners were deeply +interested in the proposition Mr. Richard Bartholomew had made the +inventors. Ned Newton jotted down briefly the agreement to be +incorporated in the contract to be drawn and signed, by the Swift +Construction Company and the president of the H. & P. A. road. +</P> + +<P> +"This looks like a big thing for the company, Tom," the young manager +said with enthusiasm, while Mr. Damon listened to it all with mouth and +eyes open. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my watch-charm!" murmured the latter. "An electric locomotive +that can travel two miles a minute? Whew!" +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds like a big order, Tom," added Ned, seriously. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a big order. I am not at all sure it can be done," agreed Tom, +thoughtfully. "But under the terms Mr. Bartholomew offers it is worth +trying, don't you think?" +</P> + +<P> +"That twenty-five thousand dollars is as good as yours anyway," +declared his chum with finality. "I'll see there is no loophole in the +contract and the money must be placed in escrow so that there can be no +possibility of our losing that. The promise of a hundred thousand +dollars must be made binding as well." +</P> + +<P> +"I know you will look out for those details, Ned," Tom said with a wave +of his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"That is what I am here for," agreed the financial manager. "Now, what +else? I fancy the building of such a locomotive looks feasible to you +and your father or you would not go into it." +</P> + +<P> +"But two miles a minute!" murmured Mr. Damon again. "Bless my prize +pumpkins!" +</P> + +<P> +"The idea of speed enters into it, yes," said Tom thoughtfully. "In +fact electric motor power has always been based on speed, and on +cheapness of moving all kinds of traffic. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here!" he exclaimed earnestly, "what do you suppose the first +people to dabble in electrically driven vehicles were aiming at? The +motor-car? The motor boat? Trolley cars? All those single motor sort of +things? Not much they weren't!" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my glove buttons!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, dragging off his +gauntlets as he spoke. "I don't get you at all, Tom! What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean to say that the first experiments in the use of electricity as +a motive power were along the electrification of the steam locomotive. +Everybody realized that if a motor could be built powerful enough and +speedy enough to drag a heavy freight or passenger train over the +ordinary railroad right of way, the cost of railroad operation would be +enormously decreased. +</P> + +<P> +"Coal costs money—heaps of money now. Oil costs even more. But even +with a third-rail patent, a locomotive successfully built to do the +work of the great Moguls and mountain climbers of the last two decades, +and electrically driven, will make a great difference on the credit +side of any railroad's books." +</P> + +<P> +"Right-o!" exclaimed Ned. "I can see that." +</P> + +<P> +"That was the object of the first experiments in electric motive +power," repeated Tom. "And it continues to be the big problem in +electricity. The Jandel locomotive is undoubtedly the last word so far +as the construction of an electric locomotive is concerned. But it +falls down in speed and power. I thought so myself when I saw that +locomotive and looked over the results of its work. And this Mr. +Bartholomew has assured father and me this evening that it is a fact. +</P> + +<P> +"It has a record of a mile a minute on a level or easy grade; but it +can't show goods when climbing a real hill. It slows up both freight +and passenger traffic on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos road. That range of +hills is too much for it. +</P> + +<P> +"So the Swift Construction Company is going to step in," concluded the +young inventor eagerly. "I believe we can do it. I've the nucleus of +an idea in my head. I never had a problem put up to me, Ned and Mr. +Damon, that interested me more. So why shouldn't I go at it? Besides, I +have dad to advise me." +</P> + +<P> +"That's right," agreed Ned. "Why shouldn't you? And with such a +contract as you have been offered—" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my bootsoles!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, getting up and tramping +about the room in his excitement. "I thought the trolley cars that run +between Shopton and Waterfield were about the fastest things on rails." +</P> + +<P> +"Not much. The trolley car is a narrow and prescribed manner of using +electricity for motive power. The motor runs but one car—or one and a +trailer, at most," said Tom. "As I have pointed out, the problem is to +build a machine that will transmit power enough to draw the enormous +weight of a loaded freight train, and that over steep grades. +</P> + +<P> +"A motor for each car is a costly matter. That is why trolley car +companies, no matter how many passengers their cars carry, are so often +on the verge of financial disaster. The margin of profit is too narrow. +</P> + +<P> +"But if you can get a locomotive built that will drag a hundred cars! +Ah! how does that sound?" demanded Tom. "See the difference?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my volts and amperes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "I should say I do! +Why, Tom, you make the problem as plain as plain can be." +</P> + +<P> +"In theory," supplemented Ned Newton, although he meant to suggest no +doubt of his chum's ability to solve almost any problem. +</P> + +<P> +"You've hit it," said Tom promptly. "I only have a theory so far +regarding such a locomotive. But to the inventor the theory always must +come first. You understand that, Ned?" +</P> + +<P> +"I not only appreciate that fact," said his chum warmly; "but I believe +that you are the fellow to show something definite along the line of an +improved electric locomotive. But, whether you can reach the high mark +set by the president of that railroad—" +</P> + +<P> +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Mr. Damon in agreement. "Bless my +wind-gauge! It doesn't seem possible!" +</P> + +<P> +Tom Swift shrugged his shoulders. "It is the impossible that inventors +have to overcome. If we experimenters believed in the impossible little +would be done in this world, to advance mechanical science at least. +Every invention was impossible until the chap who put it through built +his first working model." +</P> + +<P> +"That's understood, old boy," said Ned, already busily scratching off +the form of the contract he proposed to show the company's legal +advisers early in the morning. +</P> + +<P> +When he had read over the notes he had made Tom O.K.'d them. "That is +about as I had the items set down myself on the sheet that fellow stole +from me." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait!" exclaimed Ned, as Tom arose from his chair. "Do you know what +strikes me after your telling me about your second hold-up?" +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" asked his chum. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sure that was the same fellow who stole your wallet?" +</P> + +<P> +"Quite sure." +</P> + +<P> +"Then his second attack on you proves that he got wise to the fact that +your notes were in shorthand. He had a chance to study them while you +visited with Mary Nestor." +</P> + +<P> +"Like enough." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if it doesn't prove that the fellow has somebody in cahoots +with him right here in Shopton?" ruminated Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my spare tire!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, who had already started +for the door but now turned back. +</P> + +<P> +"That's an idea, Ned," agreed Tom Swift. "It would seem that he had +consulted with some superior," said the young manager of the Swift +Construction Company. "This hold-up man may be from the West; but +perhaps he did not follow Bartholomew alone." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to know who the other fellow is," said Tom thoughtfully. "I +would know the man who attacked me, both by his bulk and his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Me, too," put in Mr. Damon. "Bless my indicator! I'd know the +scoundrel if I met him again." +</P> + +<P> +"The thing to do," said Ned Newton confidently, "is to identify the man +who robbed you tonight as soon as possible and then, if he hangs around +Shopton, to mark well anybody he associates with." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps they will not bother me any more," said Tom, rather carelessly. +</P> + +<P> +"And perhaps they will," grumbled Mr. Damon. "Bless my self-starter! +they may try something mean again this very night. Come on, Tom. I want +to run you home. And on the way, I tell you, I've got something to put +up to you myself. It may not promise a small fortune like this electric +locomotive business; but bless my barbed wire fence! my trouble has +more than a little to do with footpads, too." +</P> + +<P> +He led the way out of the house and to the motor car again. In a minute +he had started his engine, and Tom, jumping in beside him, was borne +away toward his own home. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Barbed Wire Entanglements +</H3> + +<P> +"This gets us to your particular trouble, Mr. Damon," Tom Swift said, +while the motor car was rolling along. "You intimated that you had +something to consult me about." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my windshield! I should say I had," exclaimed the eccentric +gentleman, swinging around a corner at rather a fast clip. +</P> + +<P> +"And has it to do with highwaymen?" asked Tom, much amused. +</P> + +<P> +"Some of the same gentry, Tom," declared Mr. Damon. "I haven't any +peace of my life, I really haven't!" +</P> + +<P> +"Who is troubling you, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what nonsense that is, to ask that!" ejaculated the gentleman. +"If I knew who they were I wouldn't ask odds of anybody. I'd go after +them. As it is, I've left my servant with a gun loaded with rock-salt +watching for them now." +</P> + +<P> +"Burglars?" exclaimed Tom, with real interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Chicken-house burglars! That's the kind of burglars they are," growled +Mr. Damon. "Two or three times they have tried to get my prize buff +Orpingtons. Last night they got me out of bed twice fooling around the +chicken house and yard. Other neighbors have lost their hens already. I +don't mean to lose mine. Want you to help me, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Is that all that is worrying you, Mr. Damon?" laughed the young fellow. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my radiator! isn't that enough?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know you set your clock by those buff Orpingtons," agreed Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"That's right. That ten-months cockerel, Blue Ribbon Junior, never +fails to crow at three-thirty-three to the minute. Bless my combs and +spurs; a wonderful bird!" +</P> + +<P> +"But let's see how I can help you regarding the chicken thieves," Tom +said, as they sighted the lights of the Swift house beyond the long +stockade fence that surrounded the Construction Company's premises. +</P> + +<P> +"You know I have a barbed wire entanglement around the whole yard and +hen-house. I don't take any more chances than I can help. Those prize +buff Orpingtons are a great temptation to chicken lovers—both blond +and brunette," and in spite of his anxiety, Mr. Damon could chuckle at +his own joke. "Even your old Eradicate's friend fell for chickens, you +know." +</P> + +<P> +"And Rad promptly cured him of the disease," laughed Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"And I'm trying to cure these others. I've charged my shotgun with +rock-salt—as he did. My servant has orders to shoot anybody who +tampers with my chicken house tonight. +</P> + +<P> +"But bless my shirt!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "I'll never be able to sleep +comfortably until I know that no thief can get at my buff Orpingtons. I +want you to fix it so I can sleep in peace, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +He slowed to a stop in front of the Swift's door. Tom stared at his +eccentric friend questioningly. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my gaiters!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "don't you see what I want? +And your head already full of this electrified locomotive you are going +to build?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush!" murmured Tom, with his hand upon his companion's arm. "But +what do you want me to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to fix it so that I can turn a current of electricity into +that barbed wire chicken fence at night that will shock any thief that +touches the wires. Not kill 'em—though they ought to be killed!" +declared the eccentric man. "But shock 'em aplenty. Can't you do it for +me, Tom Swift?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it can be done," said the young fellow. "You use electricity +in your house. There is a feed cable in the street. We will have to +change your lighting switch for another. Fix it with the Electric +Supply Company. It will cost you more—" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my pocketbook! I don't care how much it costs. It will be ample +satisfaction to see just one low-down chicken thief squirming on those +wires." +</P> + +<P> +Tom laughed again. He meant to help his friend; but he did not propose +to rig the wires so that anybody, even a chicken thief, would be +seriously injured by the electric current passing through the strands. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll come down to Waterfield tomorrow in the electric runabout and fix +things up for you. Get a permit from the Electric Supply Company early +in the morning. Tell them I will rig the thing myself. They can send +their inspector afterward." +</P> + +<P> +"That's fine, Tom! What—Ugh! what's this? Another footpad?" +</P> + +<P> +Out of the darkness beside the fence a bulky figure started. For a +moment Tom thought it was the same man who had attacked him twice. Then +the very size of this new assailant proved that suspicion to be +unfounded. +</P> + +<P> +"Koku!" exclaimed Tom. "What's the matter with you, Koku?" +</P> + +<P> +The huge and only half-tamed giant gained the side of the car in +seemingly a single stride. In the dark they could not see his face, but +his voice distinctly showed excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Master come good. 'Cause there be enemy. Koku find—Koku kill!" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my magnifying glass!" ejaculated Mr. Damon. "That fellow is the +most bloodthirsty individual that I ever saw." +</P> + +<P> +"All in his bringing up," chuckled Tom who knew, as the saying is, that +Koku's bark was a deal worse than his bite. "Killing and maiming his +enemies used to be Koku's principal job. But he has his orders now. He +doesn't kill anybody without consulting me first." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my buttons!" murmured Mr. Damon. "That is certainly a good thing +too. What's the matter with him now?" +</P> + +<P> +That is exactly what Tom himself wanted to know. He had dropped a hand +upon the arm of the giant as he stood beside the car. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is the enemy, Koku?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Not know, Master. See him footmarks. Follow him footmarks. Not find. +When do find—kill!" +</P> + +<P> +"That is, after first obtaining my permission," said Tom dryly. +</P> + +<P> +"It is so," agreed the imperturbable Koku. "See! Show Master footmarks. +Him look in at window. See! Koku have got the wonder lamp." +</P> + +<P> +He flashed the electric torch in his hand. He left the car and strode +into the yard. Tom followed him, and Mr. Damon's curiosity brought him +along. +</P> + +<P> +The giant pointed the ray of the flashlight at the ground below the +porch. Several footprints—the marks of boots at least number twelve in +size—were imbedded in the soil. Koku went around the house to the +other side, following repeated marks of the same boots. +</P> + +<P> +"How came you to find them, Koku?" asked Tom softly. +</P> + +<P> +"Me look. All around stockade," and he waved a generous gesture with +his free hand including the fence about the works. "Enemy may come. +Anytime he come. Now he come." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my slippery shoes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who had hard work to +keep up both physically and mentally with the giant. "What does he +mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Koku has always had it in his head," explained Tom, "that we built +that fence about the works to keep out enemies. And, to tell the truth, +we did! But all that is over—" +</P> + +<P> +"Is it?" asked Mr. Damon pointedly. "Enemy here," added Koku, flashing +the lamplight upon the footprints on the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Those bootmarks," added Mr. Damon, "are doubtless those of that fellow +who jumped upon the running board of the car." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! And who robbed me of my wallet," added Tom musingly. "Well, it +might be. And, if so, Koku is right. The enemy has come." +</P> + +<P> +"Me kill!" exclaimed the giant, stretching himself to his full height. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll consider the killing later," said Tom, who well knew his +influence with this big fellow. "You are forbidden to kill anybody, or +chase anybody away from here, until I have a talk with them. Enemy or +not—understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Me understand," said Koku in his deep voice. "Master say—me do." +</P> + +<P> +"Just the same," Tom said, aside to Mr. Damon, "there has been somebody +around here. I guess Mr. Bartholomew was right. He is being spied upon. +And now that we Swifts are going to try to do something for him, we are +likely to be spied upon too." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my statue of Nathan Hale!" murmured the eccentric gentleman. "I +believe you. And you've been already attacked twice by some thug! You +are positively in danger, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know about that. Save that the fellow who robbed me was sore +because I fooled him. Naturally he might like to get square about those +shorthand notes. He knows no more now about Mr. Bartholomew's business +with us than he did before he held me up." +</P> + +<P> +"That is a fact," agreed Mr. Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"And that brings me to another warning, Mr. Damon," added Tom +earnestly, as his friend climbed into the motor car again. "Keep all +that has happened, and all that I told you and Ned about the H. & P. A. +railroad, to yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"Surely! Surely!" +</P> + +<P> +"If Mr. Bartholomew's rivals continue to keep their spies hanging +around the works here, we'll handle them properly. Trust Koku for +that," and Tom chuckled. +</P> + +<P> +"And don't forget my barbed wire entanglements," put in Mr. Damon, +starting his engine. "I want to fix those chicken thieves.'' +</P> + +<P> +"All right. I'll be over tomorrow," promised Tom Swift. +</P> + +<P> +Then he stood a minute on the curb and looked after the disappearing +lights of Mr. Damon's car. The latter's problem dovetailed, after all, +into this discovery of possible marauders lurking about the Swift +premises. Koku had made no mistake in bringing his attention to the +matter of the footprints. Tom had seen somebody dodging into the +darkness outside the house when he had come out on his way to visit +Mary Nestor. +</P> + +<P> +"And sure as taxes," muttered Tom, as he finally turned toward the +front door again, "the fellow who twice attacked me this evening wore +the boots the prints of which Koku found. +</P> + +<P> +"Those fellows, whoever they are, whether Montagne Lewis and his +associates, or not, have bitten off several mouthfuls that they may be +unable to chew. Anyhow, before they get through they may learn +something about the Swifts that they never knew before." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Contract Signed +</H3> + +<P> +Tom Swift went to bed that night without the least fear that the man +who had twice attacked him in the streets of Shopton would be able to +trouble him unless he went abroad again. Koku was on guard. +</P> + +<P> +The giant whom Tom had brought home from one of his distant wanderings +was wholly devoted to his master. Koku never had, and he never would, +become entirely civilized. +</P> + +<P> +He was naturally a born tracker of men. For generations his people had +lived amid the alarms of threat and attack. He could not be made to +understand how so many "tribes," as he called them, of civilized men +could live in anything like harmony. +</P> + +<P> +That somebody should prowl about the Swift house at night with a desire +to rob his young master or injure him, did not surprise Koku in the +least. He accepted the fact of the marauder's presence as quite the +expected thing. +</P> + +<P> +But the man who had robbed Tom and later tried to repay him for playing +what appeared to be a practical joke on the robber, did not trouble the +Swift premises with his presence before morning. Koku, thrusting +Eradicate Sampson aside and striding to his bedroom to report this +fact, was what awoke Tom at eight o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey! What you want, tromping in here for, man?" demanded old Rad +angrily. "An' totin' that spear, too. Where you t'ink yo' is? In de +jungle again? Go 'way, chile!" +</P> + +<P> +Both Rad and Koku were rapidly outliving the sudden friendship of Rad's +sick days, when it was thought he might be blind for life, and were +dropping back into their old ways of bickering and rivalry for Tom's +attention. +</P> + +<P> +"I report to the Master," declared the giant, in his deep voice. +</P> + +<P> +"You tell me, I tell him," Rad said pompously. "No need yo' 'sturbing +Massa Tom at dis hour." +</P> + +<P> +"Koku go in!" declared the giant sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"Jes' stay out dere on de stair an' res' yo'self," said Rad. +</P> + +<P> +Koku lost his temper with old Rad. There was a feud between them, +although deep in their hearts they really were fond of each other. But +the two were jealous of each other's services to young Tom Swift. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Tom heard the old negro utter a frightened squeal. The door +which had been only ajar, burst inward and banged against the door-stop +with a mighty smash. +</P> + +<P> +Rad went through the big bedroom like a chocolate-colored streak, +entered Tom's bathroom, and the next moment there was the sound of +crashing glass as Eradicate Sampson went through the lower sash of the +window, headfirst, out upon the roof of the porch! +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean by this?" shouted Tom, sitting up in bed. +</P> + +<P> +Koku paused in the doorway, bulking almost to the top of the door. His +right arm was drawn back, displaying his mighty biceps, and he poised a +ten foot spear with a copper head that he had seized from a nest of +such implements which was a decoration of the lower hall. +</P> + +<P> +Had the giant ever flung that spear at poor Rad's back, half the length +of the staff might have passed through his body. Little wonder that +the colored man, having roused the giant's rage to such a pitch, had +given small consideration to the order of his going, but had gone at +once! +</P> + +<P> +"You want to scare Rad out of half a year's growth?" Tom pursued +sternly, slipping out of bed and reaching for his robe and slippers. +"And he's broken that window to smithereens." +</P> + +<P> +"Koku come make report, Master," said the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"You go put that spear back where you found it and come up properly," +commanded the young fellow, with difficulty hiding his amusement. "Go +on now!" +</P> + +<P> +He shuffled into the bathroom while the giant disappeared. He peered +out of the broken window. It was a wonder Rad had not carried the sash +with him! The broken glass was scattered all about the roof of the +porch and the old colored man lay groaning there. +</P> + +<P> +"What did you do this for, Eradicate?" demanded Tom. "You act worse +than a ten-year-old boy." +</P> + +<P> +"I's done killed, Massa Tom!" groaned Rad with confidence. "I's blood +from haid to foot!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a scratch on his bald crown from which a few drops of blood +flowed. But with all his terror, Eradicate had put both arms over his +head when he made his dive through the window, and he really was very +little injured. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in here," repeated Tom. "Fix something over this broken window so +that I can take my bath. And then go and put something on that scratch. +Don't you know better yet, than to cross Koku when he is excited?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dat crazy ol' cannibal!" spat out Rad viciously. "I'll fix him yet. +I'll pizen his rations, dat's what I'll do." +</P> + +<P> +"You wouldn't be so bad as that, Rad!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, mebbe not," said the colored man, crawling in through the +bathroom window. "It would take too much pizen, anyway, to kill that +giant. Take as much as dey has to give an el'phant to kill it. Anyways, +I's bound to fix him proper some time, yet." +</P> + +<P> +These quarrels between Eradicate and Koku were intermittent. They +almost always arose, too, because of the desire of the two servants to +wait upon Tom or his father. They were very jealous of each other, and +their clashes afforded Tom and his friends a good deal of amusement. +</P> + +<P> +While the young inventor was in his bath the giant strode back into the +bedroom, out of which Rad had scurried by another door, and proceeded +to report the result of his night watch about the premises. +</P> + +<P> +He had not much to tell. In fact, after Tom had gone into the house +Koku had seen nobody lurking about at all. The fact remained that, +earlier in the evening, somebody had made a close surveillance of the +Swift house, but the mysterious marauder had not come back. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Koku. Keep your eyes open. I expect that enemy may return +sometime. Too bad," he added to himself, "that I didn't get a better +look at him." +</P> + +<P> +"Koku know him next time," declared the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"Why! you didn't even see him this time," cried Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"See him boots. See marks him boots make. Know him boots. Waugh!" +</P> + +<P> +"'Waugh!' yourself," returned Tom, shaking his head. "You are +altogether too sure, Koku. You couldn't tell a man from his bootprints +in the mud." +</P> + +<P> +"Koku know," said the giant, just as confidently. "Wait. Him +catch—see—show Master." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you go to grabbing every stranger who comes around the house or +the works for a spy, and make me trouble. Remember now." +</P> + +<P> +Koku nodded gravely and went away. When he met Rad suddenly in the hall +with Mr. Swift's breakfast tray, the giant said "boo!" and almost cost +the old colored man the loss of the tray. +</P> + +<P> +"Dat big el'phant ought to be livin' in a barn," declared Rad. "Look +at dat spear he come near runnin' me t'rough wid! If he had, yo' could +ha' driv a tipcart full o' rubbish in after it. Lawsy me!" +</P> + +<P> +But an hour later when Tom and his father started for the offices of +the Swift Construction Company down the street, Rad and Koku were +sitting before an enormous breakfast in the back kitchen and chatting +together as companionably as ever. +</P> + +<P> +The old inventor and his son arrived at the offices of the Swift +Construction Company not long ahead of Mr. Richard Bartholomew. Tom had +merely found time to read over the contract that had been jointly +prepared by Ned Newton and the firm's legal advisers, before the +railroad man came. +</P> + +<P> +"No getting out of the provisions of that paper, Tom," Ned had +whispered, when he saw Mr. Bartholomew coming into the outer office. +"Is this your man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"A sharp looking little fellow," commented Ned. "But even if he were +bent on tricking us, this contract would hold him. He is solvent and so +is his road—as yet. If it has a bad name in the market that is more +because of slander by the Montagne Lewis crowd than from any real +cause. I've found that out this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Faithful Nero!" chuckled Tom. "Aren't going to let the Swifts get +done, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not if I can help it," declared Ned Newton emphatically. +</P> + +<P> +A clerk brought Mr. Bartholomew into the private office and he was +introduced to Newton. If he considered the financial manager of the +Swift Construction Company very young for his responsible position, +after he had read the contract he felt considerable respect for Ned +Newton. +</P> + +<P> +"You've got me here, young man, hard and fast," Mr. Bartholomew said. +"If I was inclined to want to wriggle out, I see no chance of it. But I +don't. You have set forth here exactly my meaning and intent. I want +your best efforts in this matter, Mr. Swift, and if you give them to me +I'll foot the bill as agreed." +</P> + +<P> +"You've got me interested, I confess," said Tom. "By the way, were your +friends following you when you came here this morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"My friends?" repeated Mr. Bartholomew, for a moment puzzled. +</P> + +<P> +"The spy that you mentioned," said Tom, smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"That Andy O'Malley?" exclaimed Bartholomew. "Haven't spotted him +today." +</P> + +<P> +"He spotted me last night," said Tom grimly, and proceeded to relate +what had happened. +</P> + +<P> +"You fooled 'em that time, young man!" exclaimed the railroad +president, with satisfaction. "I am convinced that Montagne Lewis is +behind it. Look out for these fellows when you get to work, Mr. Swift. +They will stop at nothing. I tell you that the fight is on between the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos and the Hendrickton & Western. I have either got +to break them or they will break me." +</P> + +<P> +"You seem very sure that there is a conspiracy against you, Mr. +Bartholomew," said the senior Swift reflectively. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure," was the reply. "And I am likewise sure that this scheme of +electrification of my road through the Pas Alos Range is the only +salvation for my railroad." +</P> + +<P> +"I should call it a big contract," Ned Newton said, thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"You have said it! But it is not a visionary scheme I have in mind. You +must know—you Swifts—how successful such an electrification through +the Rockies has been made by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway." +</P> + +<P> +"I've looked that up," confessed Tom, with enthusiasm. "That was a +great piece of work." +</P> + +<P> +"It is. It is. But I hope for even a greater outcome of your +experiments, Mr. Swift. Of course, I do not expect to compete with that +great road. They had millions to spend, and they spent them. Those +Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul +built in nineteen hundred and nineteen are wonderful machines. They +have got forty-two freight locomotives, fifteen passenger locomotives +and four switchers of that new type. +</P> + +<P> +"The Jandel patent that my road uses is, in some degree, the equal of +those Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives. At least, our machines equal +the C., M. & St. P. on our level road. They can reach a mile-a-minute +gait. But when it comes to speed and pull on steep grades—Ah! that is +where they fail." +</P> + +<P> +"You will have to get power in the hills for your stations," suggested +Tom, thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"I know that. I know where the power is coming from. I gathered those +waterfalls in years ago. Lewis and his crowd can't shut me off from +them. But I have got to have a speedier and more powerful type of +electric locomotive than has ever yet been built to protect the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad from any rivalry. +</P> + +<P> +"I am looking to you Swifts to give me that. I am risking this +twenty-five thousand dollars upon your succeeding. And I am offering +you the hundred thousand dollars bonus for the right to purchase the +first successful locomotives that can be built covered by your patents. +Is it plain?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is eminently satisfactory," said Mr. Swift, quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"I will do my very best," agreed Tom, warmly. "There isn't a thing the +matter with the agreement," declared Ned Newton, with confidence. +"Gentlemen, sign on the dotted line." +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes later the twin contracts were in force. One went into the +safe of the Swift Construction Company. The other, Mr. Richard +Bartholomew bore away with him. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Man with Big Feet +</H3> + +<P> +The consultation in the private office of the Swift Construction +Company after the departure of Mr. Richard Bartholomew between the two +Swifts and Ned Newton had more to do with a vision of the future than +with mere present finances. +</P> + +<P> +"I expect you know just about how you are going to work on this new +invention, Tom?" suggested the financial manager, and Tom's chum. +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't the first idea," rejoined the young inventor, promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" ejaculated Ned. "You talked just now as though you +knew all about electric locomotives." +</P> + +<P> +"I know a good deal about those that have been built, both under the +Jandel patent and those built for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul in +the great Philadelphia shops. +</P> + +<P> +"But when you ask me if I know how I am going to improve on those +patents so as to make my locomotive twice as speedy and quite as +powerful as those other locomotives—well, I've got to tell you flat +that I have not as yet got the first idea." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" grumbled Ned. "You say it coolly enough." +</P> + +<P> +"No use getting all heated up about it," returned his friend. "I have +got to consider the situation first. I must look over the field of +electrical invention as applied to motive power. I must study things +out." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't just see myself," Ned Newton remarked thoughtfully, "why there +should be such a great need for the electrification of locomotives, +anyway. Those great mountain-hogs that draw most of the mountain +railroad trains are very powerful, aren't they? And they are speedy." +</P> + +<P> +"Locomotives that use coal or oil have been developed about as far as +they can be," said Mr. Swift, quietly. "A successful electric +locomotive has many advantages over the old-time engine." +</P> + +<P> +"What are those advantages?" asked the business manager, quickly. "I +confess, I do not understand the matter, Mr. Swift." +</P> + +<P> +"For instance," proceeded the old gentleman, "there is the coal +question alone. Coal is rising in price. It is bulky. Using electricity +as motive power for railroads will do away with fuel trains, tenders, +coal handling, water, and all that. Of course, Mr. Bartholomew will +generate his electricity from water power—the cheapest power on earth." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! I've got my answer right now," said Ned Newton. "If there is no +other good reason, this is sufficient." +</P> + +<P> +"There are plenty of others," drawled Tom, smiling. "Good ones. For +instance, heat or cold has nothing to do with the even running of an +electric locomotive. It can bore right through a snowbank—a thing a +steam engine can't do. It runs at an even speed. Really, grade should +have nothing to do with its speed. There is a fault somewhere in the +construction of the Jandel machine or the H. & P. A. would have little +trouble with those locomotives on its grades. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, all you have to do to start an electrified locomotive is to turn +a handswitch. No stoking or water-boiling. Does away with the fireboy. +One man runs it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why!" cried Ned, "I never stopped to think of all these things." +</P> + +<P> +"No ashes to dump," went on Tom. "No flues to clean, no boilers to +inspect, and none to wear out. And they say that on the Chicago, +Milwaukee & St. Paul, at least, their freight locomotives handle twice +the load of a steam locomotive at a greatly reduced cost." +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds fine. Don't wonder Mr. Bartholomew is eager to electrify his +entire tine." +</P> + +<P> +"On the side of passenger traffic," continued Tom Swift, "the electric +locomotive is smokeless, noiseless, dirtless, and doesn't jerk the +coaches in either stopping or starting. And in addition, the electric +locomotive is much easier on track and roadbed than the old 'iron +horse' driven by steam generated either from coal or oil." +</P> + +<P> +"It is a great field for your talents, Tom!" cried Ned, warmly. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a big job," admitted Tom, and he said this with modesty. "I +don't know what I may be able to do—if anything. I would not feel +right in taking Mr. Bartholomew's twenty-five thousand dollars for +nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite right, my boy," said Mr. Swift, approvingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind that," said the financial manager, rather grimly. "It was +his own offer and his risk. That twenty-five thousand comes to our +account." +</P> + +<P> +Tom laughed. "All business, Ned, aren't you? But there is more than +business for the Swift Construction Company in this. Our reputation for +fair dealing as well as for inventive powers is linked up with this +contract. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to show the Jandel people—to say nothing of the bigger +firms—that the Swifts are to be reckoned with when it comes to +electric invention. Other roads will be electrifying their lines as +fast as it is proved that the electric-driven locomotive has the bulge +on the steam-driven. +</P> + +<P> +"In the case of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos there are very steep grades +to overcome. Supposedly an electric motor-drive should achieve the same +speed on a hill as on the level. But there is the weight of the train +to be counted on. +</P> + +<P> +"The H. & P. A. has a two per cent. grade in more than one place. Mr. +Bartholomew confessed as much to me last night. The electric-driven +locomotive of the powerful freight type, which the Jandel people built +for Mr. Bartholomew, can make about sixteen miles an hour on those +grades, although they can hit it up to thirty miles an hour on level +track. +</P> + +<P> +"His passenger locomotives turn off a mile a minute and more, on the +level road; but they can not climb those steep grades at a much +livelier pace than the freight engines. That is why he is talking about +two-mile-a-minute locomotives. He must get a mighty speedy locomotive, +for both freight and passenger service, to keep ahead of Montagne +Lewis's rival road, the Hendrickton & Western." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't suppose it can be done, do you?" demanded Ned. "The +two-mile-a-minute locomotive, I mean, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"That is the target I am to aim for," returned his friend, soberly. "At +any rate, I hope to improve on the type of locomotive Mr. Bartholomew +is now using, so that the hundred thousand dollars bonus will come our +way as well as this first twenty-five thousand." +</P> + +<P> +"That wouldn't pay for one engine, would it?" cried Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Nor is it expected to. The bonus has nothing to do with payment for +any model, or patent, or anything of the kind. To tell you the truth, +Ned, I understand those big locomotives used by the Chicago, Milwaukee +& St. Paul cost them about one hundred and twelve thousand dollars +each." +</P> + +<P> +"Whew! Some price, I'll tell the world!" murmured the youthful +financial manager of the Swift Construction Company. +</P> + +<P> +When the conference was over, and Tom had been through the workshop to +overlook several little jobs that were in process of completion by his +trusted mechanics, it was lunch time. He left word that he would not be +back that day, for this new task he was to attack was not to be +approached with any haphazard thought. +</P> + +<P> +Tom knew quite as well as his father knew that the idea of improving +the Jandel patent on electric locomotives was no small thing. The +Jandel people had claimed that their patent was the very last word in +electric motor-power. And Tom was quite willing to acknowledge that in +some ways this claim was true. +</P> + +<P> +But in invention, especially in the field of electric invention, what +is the last word today may be ancient history tomorrow. +</P> + +<P> +It was because this field is so broad and the possibility of +improvement in every branch of electrical science so exciting, that Tom +had accepted Mr. Bartholomew's challenge with such eagerness. +</P> + +<P> +Tom went back to the house for lunch, and as he joined his father in +the dining room he remarked to Eradicate: +</P> + +<P> +"I want the electric runabout brought around after lunch. I am going to +Waterfield. Tell Koku, will you, Rad?" +</P> + +<P> +"Tell that crazy fellow?" demanded the old colored man heatedly. "Why +should I tell him, Massa Tom? Ain't I able to bring dat runabout out o' +de garbarge? Shore I is!" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't do everything, Rad," said Tom, soberly. "That is humanly +impossible." +</P> + +<P> +"But dat Koku can't do nothin' right. Dat's inhumanly possible, Massa +Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Give him a chance, Rad. I have to take Koku with me this afternoon. +You must give your attention to the house and to father." +</P> + +<P> +"Huh! Umm!" grunted Eradicate. +</P> + +<P> +Rad was jealous of anybody who waited on Tom besides himself. +Yet he was proud of responsibility, too. He teetered between the pride +of being in charge at home and accompanying his young master, and +finally replied: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, in course, you ain't going to be gone long, Massa Tom. And yo' +father does like to get his nap undisturbed. And he'll want his pot o' +tea afterwards. So I'll let dat irresponsible Koku go wid yo'. But yo' +got to watch him, Massa Tom. Dat giant don't know what he's about half +de time." +</P> + +<P> +As Koku was not within hearing to challenge that statement, things went +all right. When Tom came out of the house after eating, he found his +very fast car waiting for him, with the giant standing beside it at the +curb. +</P> + +<P> +"Get in at the back, Koku," said Tom. "I am going to take you with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Master is much wise," said Koku. "That man with big feet will not hurt +Master while Koku is with him." +</P> + +<P> +To tell the truth Tom had quite forgotten the supposed spy that had +attacked him the night before. He needed Koku for a purpose other than +that of bodyguard. But he made no comment upon the giant's remark. +</P> + +<P> +They stopped at one of the gates of the works, and Tom instructed Koku +to bring out and put into the car certain boxes and tools that he +wished to take with him. Then he drove on, taking the road to +Waterfield. +</P> + +<P> +This way led through farmlands and patches of woods, a rough country in +part. A mile out of the limits of Shopton the road edged a deep valley, +the sidehill sparsely wooded. +</P> + +<P> +Almost at once, and where there was not a dwelling in sight, they saw a +figure tramping in the road ahead, a big man, roughly dressed, and +wearing a broad-brimmed hat. Somehow, his appearance made Tom reduce +speed and he hesitated to pass the pedestrian. +</P> + +<P> +The man did not hear the runabout at first; or, at least, he did not +look over his shoulder. He strode on heavily, but rapidly. Suddenly the +young inventor heard the giant behind him emit a hissing breath. +</P> + +<P> +"Master!" whispered the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"What's up now?" demanded Tom, but without glancing around. +</P> + +<P> +"The big feet!" exclaimed Koku. +</P> + +<P> +The giant's own feet were shod with difficulty in civilized footgear, +but compared with his other physical dimensions his feet did not seem +large. The man ahead wore coarse boots which actually looked too big +for him! Koku started up in the back of the car as the latter drew +nearer to the stranger. +</P> + +<P> +The man looked back at last and Tom gained a clear view of his +features—roughly carved, dark as an Indian's, and holding a grim +expression in repose that of itself was far from breeding confidence. +In a moment, too, the expression changed into one of active emotion. +The man glared at the young inventor with unmistakable malevolence. +</P> + +<P> +"Master!" hissed Koku again. "The big feet!" The fellow must have seen +Koku's face and understood the giant's expression. In a flash he turned +and leaped out of the roadway. The sidehill was steep and broken here, +but he went down the slope in great strides and with every appearance +of wishing to evade the two in the motor-car. +</P> + +<P> +The giant's savage war cry followed the fugitive. Koku leaped from the +moving car. Tom yelled: +</P> + +<P> +"Stop it, Koku! You don't know that that is the man." +</P> + +<P> +"The big feet!" repeated the giant. "Master see the red mud dried on +Big Feet's boots? That mud from Master's garden." +</P> + +<P> +Again Koku uttered his savage cry, and in strides twice the length of +those of the running man, started on the latter's trail. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +An Enemy in the Dark +</H3> + +<P> +The situation offered suggestions of trouble that stung Tom to +immediate action. The impetuousness of his giant often resulted in +difficulties which the young inventor would have been glad to escape. +</P> + +<P> +Now Koku was following just the wrong path. Tom Swift knew it. +</P> + +<P> +"Koku, you madman!" he shouted after the huge native. "Come back here! +Hear me? Back!" +</P> + +<P> +Koku hesitated. He shot a wondering look over his shoulder, but his +long legs continued to carry him down the slope after the dark-faced +stranger. +</P> + +<P> +"Come back, I say!" shouted Tom again. "Have I got to come after you? +Koku! If you don't mind what you're told I'll send you back to your own +country and you'll have to eat snakes and lizards, as you used to. Come +here!" +</P> + +<P> +Whether it was because of this threat of a change of diet, which Koku +now abhorred, or the fact that he had really become somewhat +disciplined and that he fairly worshiped Tom, the giant stopped. The +man with the big shoes disappeared behind a hedge of low trees. +</P> + +<P> +"Get back up here!" ejaculated Tom sternly. "I'll never take you away +from the house with me again if you don't obey me." +</P> + +<P> +"Master!" ejaculated the giant, slowly approaching. "That Big Feet—" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care if he made those footprints in the yard last night or +not. I don't want him touched. I didn't even want him to know that we +guessed he had been sneaking about the house. Understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of a courseness," grumbled Koku. "Koku understand everything Master +say." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you don't act as though you did. Next time when I want any help +I may have to bring Rad with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, Master! Not that old man. He don't know how to help Master. +Koku do just what Master say." +</P> + +<P> +"Like fun you do," said Tom, still apparently very angry with the +simple-minded giant. "Get back into the car and sit still, if you can, +until we get to Mr. Damon's house." Then to himself he added: "I don't +blame that fellow, whoever he is, for lighting out. I bet he's running +yet!" +</P> + +<P> +He knew that Koku would say nothing regarding the incident. The giant +had wonderful powers of silence! He sometimes went days without +speaking even to Rad. And that was one of the sources of irritation +between the voluble colored man and the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"'Tain't human," Rad often said, "for nobody to say nothin' as much as +dat Koku does. Why, lawsy me! if he was tongue-tied an' speechless, an' +a deaf an' dumb mute, he couldn't say nothin' more obstreperously dan +he does—no sir! 'Tain't human." +</P> + +<P> +So Tom had not to warn the giant not to chatter about meeting the +stranger on the road to Waterfield. If that person with dried red mud +on his boots was the spy who had followed Mr. Richard Bartholomew East +and was engaged by Montagne Lewis to interfere with any attempt the +president of the H. & P. A. might make to pull his railroad out of the +financial quagmire into which it was rapidly sinking, Tom would have +preferred to have the spy not suspect that he had been identified after +his fiasco of the previous evening. +</P> + +<P> +For if this Western looking fellow was Andy O'Malley, whose name had +been mentioned by the railroad man, he was the person who had robbed +Tom of his wallet and had afterward attempted reprisal upon the young +inventor because the robbery had resulted in no gain to the robber. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, the fellow had been unable to read Tom's shorthand notes of +the agreement that he had discussed with Mr. Bartholomew. Just what the +nature of that agreement was, would be a matter of interest to the +spy's employer. +</P> + +<P> +Having failed in this attempt to learn something which was not his +business, the spy might make other and more serious attempts to learn +the particulars of the agreement between the railroad president and the +Swifts. Tom was sorry that the fellow had now been forewarned that his +identity as the spy and footpad was known to Tom and his friends. +</P> + +<P> +Koku had made a bad mess of it. But Tom determined to say nothing to +his father regarding the discovery he had made. He did not want to +worry Mr. Swift. He meant, however, to redouble precautions at the +Swift Construction Company against any stranger getting past the +stockade gates. +</P> + +<P> +Arrived at Mr. Damon's home in Waterfield, Tom got quickly to work on +the little job he had come to do for his old friend. Of course, Tom +might have sent two of his mechanics from the works down here to +electrify the barbed wire entanglements that Mr. Damon had erected +around his chicken run. But the young inventor knew that his eccentric +friend would not consider the job done right unless Tom attended to it +personally. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my cracked corn and ground bone mixture!" ejaculated the chicken +fancier. "We'll show these night-prowlers what's what, I guess. One of +my neighbors was robbed last night. And I would have been if I hadn't +set a watch while I drove over to see you, Tom. Bless my spurs and +hackles! but these thieves are getting bold." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll fix 'em," said Tom, cheerfully, while Koku brought the tools and +wire to the hen run. "After we link up your supply of the current with +this wire fence it will be an unhappy chicken burglar who interferes +with it." +</P> + +<P> +"That was an unhappy fellow who got your charge of ammonia last +evening," whispered Mr. Damon. "Heard anything more of him?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think I have seen him. But Koku spoiled everything by trying to eat +him up," and Tom laughingly related what had occurred on the way from +Shopton. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my boots!" said Mr. Damon. "You'd better see the police, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, they ought to know about such a fellow lurking about Shopton. If +he followed that Western railroad president here—" +</P> + +<P> +"We'll hope that he will follow Mr. Bartholomew away again," chuckled +Tom. "Mr. Bartholomew won't stay over today. When that chap finds he +has gone he probably will consider that there is no use in his +bothering me any further." +</P> + +<P> +Whether Tom believed this statement or not, he was destined to realize +his mistake within a very short time. At least, the fact that he was +being spied upon and that the enemy meant him anything but good, seemed +proved beyond a doubt that very week. +</P> + +<P> +Having done the little job for Mr. Damon, Tom allowed no other outside +matter to take up his attention. He shut himself into his private +experimental workshop and laboratory at the works each day. He did not +even come out for lunch, letting Rad bring him down some sandwiches and +a thermos bottle of cool milk. +</P> + +<P> +"The young boss is milling over something new," the men said, and +grinned at each other. They were proud of Tom and faithful to his +interests. +</P> + +<P> +Time was when there had been traitors in the works; but unfaithful +hands had been weeded out. There was not a man who drew a pay envelope +from the Swift Construction Company who would not have done his best to +save Tom and his father trouble. Such a thing as a strike, or labor +troubles of any kind, was not thought of there. +</P> + +<P> +So Tom knew that whatever he did, or whatever plans he drew, in his +private room, he was safely guarded. Yet he always took a portfolio +home with him at night, for after dinner he frequently continued his +work of the day. Naturally during this first week he did not get far in +any problem connected with the proposed electric locomotive. There +were, however, rough drafts and certain schedules that had to do with +the matter jotted down. +</P> + +<P> +It was almost twelve at night. Tom had sat up in his own room after his +father had retired, and after the household was still. +</P> + +<P> +Eradicate was in bed and snoring under the roof, Tom knew. Just where +Koku was, it would have been hard to tell. Although a fine and +penetrating rain was falling, the giant might be roaming about the +waste land surrounding the stockade of the works. The elements had no +terrors for him. +</P> + +<P> +Tom locked his portfolio and stepped into his bathroom to wash his +hands before retiring. Before he snapped on the electric light over the +basin he chanced to glance through the newly set windowpane which had +replaced the one Rad had shattered in escaping threatened impalement on +Koku's spear. +</P> + +<P> +Although the clouds were thick and the rain was falling, there was a +certain humid radiance upon the roof of the porch under the bathroom +window. At least, the wet roof glistened so that any moving figure on +or beyond it was visible. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" muttered Tom, and he sank down lower than the sill and +crept slowly to the window. He merely raised himself until his eyes +were on a level with the sill. +</P> + +<P> +Coming up over the edge of the porch roof was a bulky figure. It was +so dimly outlined at first that Tom could scarcely be sure that it was +that of a man. +</P> + +<P> +However, it was not possible that any creature but a man would be able +to mount the lattice supporting the honeysuckle vines and so creep out +upon the porch roof. Once making secure his footing, the enemy in the +dark approached directly the bathroom window at which Tom crouched. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Where was Koku? +</H3> + +<P> +Tom reached up swiftly and pushed over the lever that locked the two +window sashes. In doing this he set his own patent burglar alarm. If +that lever was turned back again, or broken, the buzzers would be set +ringing all over the house, and in Koku's room over the garage. +</P> + +<P> +He did not believe that the marauder on the roof of the porch could +have seen the flash of his shirt-sleeved arm. But he took no chance of +being observed from outside by rising to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +On his hands and knees he crept away from the window, and out of the +bathroom. Once there, he stood up, grabbed the portfolio, and without +coat or vest and as he was, dashed out of the bedroom. He had been +positive that nobody but himself was astir in the big house, and he was +right. +</P> + +<P> +He did not punch the light button when he entered the library. He knew +where to put his hand upon an electric torch in the table drawer, and +he gained possession of this. +</P> + +<P> +Then he went to the safe and twirled the knob and watched the indicator +find the four numbers which were the "open sesame" to the burglar and +fire-proof door. +</P> + +<P> +He flung the portfolio into the inner compartment, closed both doors, +and twirled the combination-knob. Then Tom tiptoed to the foot of the +front stairs to listen. He could hear no sound from above. +</P> + +<P> +He did not want his father to be startled, if the enemy did break in; +and he knew that old Rad, awakened out of a sound sleep, would be worse +than useless at such a time. +</P> + +<P> +After all, the giant, Koku, was his main dependence under these +circumstances. Tom crept to the outer door, opened it carefully, and +slipped out, letting the spring lock click behind him. For the first +time he realized that he was in his shirt and trousers and wore only +felt slippers on his feet. +</P> + +<P> +But he was locked out now. He had no key. He must run the risk of the +fine rain and the chill of the night air. +</P> + +<P> +He stepped off the end of the porch and ran around the house. It was +to the roof of the rear porch that the marauder had climbed. But peer +as he might from down in the yard, Tom could see no moving figure up +there near the bathroom window. It was pitch dark against the wall of +the house. +</P> + +<P> +He turned to glance up at the window of the sleeping room over the +garage where Koku was supposed to spend the night. But Tom knew the +giant was seldom there during the dark hours. He was as much of a +night-prowler as a wildcat or an owl. +</P> + +<P> +There was no light there in any case. But Koku did not use a light +much. He could see in the dark, like a wild animal. Tom did not want to +call him. If he must have Koku's help, he would have to climb the +stairs to his bedside. The giant always aroused as wide awake as at +noonday. +</P> + +<P> +But while the young inventor hesitated a sudden, but muffled, snap—the +breaking of metal—sounded. Tom knew instantly the direction from which +the sound came. +</P> + +<P> +Although he could see nothing up there at the bathroom window because +of the rain and the deep shadow, he knew that the snapping sound meant +the severing of the window lock that he had so recently closed. Some +instrument had been forced under the bottom of the lower sash and +pressure enough been brought to bear to break the thin steel lever. +</P> + +<P> +On the heels of this sound came another. A muffled buzzing somewhere in +the house—again! again! And then, startlingly clear from the room over +the garage, the burglar alarm went off in Koku's chamber. +</P> + +<P> +"It's all off now!" gasped Tom, and he ran to the foot of the +honeysuckle ladder up which he knew the enemy had climbed to get to the +roof of the porch. "If he comes down I'll have him!" muttered Tom, +staring up into the mist and gloom. +</P> + +<P> +"Fo' de lawsy's sake! 'Tain't mawnin', is it?" Rad's sleepy voice was +heard to announce. "No, it's da'k as—" And the voice trailed off into +silence. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom! Tom!" the young fellow heard his aroused father shouting. +</P> + +<P> +Tom knew that his father was in no danger. In fact Mr. Swift's voice +did not even betray apprehension. It was to the garage Tom looked for +an explosion. But none came. +</P> + +<P> +If Koku was up there the prolonged buzzing of the alarm did not awake +him. Therefore he could not be there. Tom realized that if the burglar +was to be taken the whole affair fell upon his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"And I've got my hands full, if it is the fellow with the big feet that +we saw on the Waterfield Road the other day," muttered the young +inventor. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing stirred on the porch roof. Moment after moment slipped by. Tom +began to grow more than amazed. He was worried. What would happen next? +</P> + +<P> +His father had not cried out again. Stepping around to the end of the +roofed porch, Tom saw a light in Mr. Swift's room. Rad had evidently +gone to sleep again. It would take more than an intermittent buzzer to +rouse fully that colored man. +</P> + +<P> +"When old Morpheus has a strangle hold on Rad, Gabriel's trump would +scarcely awaken him," Tom muttered. +</P> + +<P> +What had become of the enemy? If it was an ordinary burglar he would +have feared the electric alarm instantly. The buzzers were still +working. But there was no sign of the man who had set them off at the +bathroom window. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Tom heard a door slam. It was from the front of the house. Had +his father come downstairs to look around and see what the matter was? +</P> + +<P> +The young fellow started around the house on a run. He heard heavy +bootsoles spurning the gravel of the path to the front gate. He arrived +at the far corner of the house in time to see a man dash through the +gateway and run down the street, disappearing finally into the +fast-driving rain. +</P> + +<P> +"Fooled me! He went in and right through and down the stairs! Out the +front door!" gasped Tom. "Did he get anything? I wonder!" +</P> + +<P> +He sprang up to the front porch and tried the door. It was locked +again, of course. Should he ring the bell and get Rad or his father +down to the door? +</P> + +<P> +And then, of a sudden, the principal mystery of all this affair bit +into Tom Swift's mind. The burglar had made his escape. He could +relieve his father's anxiety later. It was his own puzzlement of mind +that he first wished to ease. +</P> + +<P> +Where was Koku? +</P> + +<P> +Even had the giant been circling the stockade around the shops he +surely must have come up to the home premises by this time. His keen +ears could not fail to hear the buzzers. They were still going and +would go until the switch was turned. +</P> + +<P> +If the giant was in his room—Tom turned suddenly and started on a run +for the rear premises. He still carried the hand-lamp and it lit his +way into the garage door and up the narrow stairway. He shot the round +beam of the lamp into Koku's room. +</P> + +<P> +He had been obliged to have an iron bedstead made to order for the +giant. It stood against one wall of the room. The buzzer was snarling +like a huge bumblebee above the head of the couch. Below it sprawled +the giant, eyes tightly closed and mouth slightly ajar. From the lips +of Koku were emitted sounds worthy of Rad Sampson in his deepest +slumbers! +</P> + +<P> +"Asleep?" gasped Tom, stepping cat-like into the room. +</P> + +<P> +And then he was suddenly aware of a sickish, heavy odor in the chamber. +The window had been closed. But it was something more than stale air +that Tom smelled. +</P> + +<P> +A folded cloth lay on the floor beside the couch. The young fellow saw +at once that it had been originally placed over the giant's face, but +had slid off. And lucky for Koku that it had been dislodged! +</P> + +<P> +"Chloroform!" muttered Tom. "He's drugged. It is no wonder he did not +hear the burglar alarm." +</P> + +<P> +In any event, the incident made one deep impression on Tom's mind. The +spies who he believed were working for the Hendrickton & Western +Railroad and its owner, Montagne Lewis, were desperate men. Tom could +not believe that the fellow with the big feet was alone in Shopton and +was unaided in his attempts to find out what Tom was doing. +</P> + +<P> +This attempt to burglarize the house betrayed the caliber of the enemy. +In chloroforming Koku he had taken the risk of murdering the giant. +Only the fact that the pad of saturated cloth had fallen off Koku's +face had, perhaps, saved the man from suffocation. +</P> + +<P> +Tom did not tell the giant when he aroused what the matter with him +was. Koku was ill enough! He was wrenched by interior spasms that +seemed almost to tear his huge body to pieces. +</P> + +<P> +"What done got into dat big lump o' bone an' grizzle?" demanded +Eradicate. "He looks like, he swallowed a volcano, and it just got to +wo'kin' right. My lawsy!" +</P> + +<P> +"He is a sick man, all right," admitted Tom. "Looks like he wouldn't +try to stab me to deaf wid no spear no mo'," went on Rad, inclined to +approve of Koku's sufferings. +</P> + +<P> +"If he died you'd be mighty sorry, old man," declared Tom, sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"Sho' would. Be a mighty hard job to bury him," was the callous +response. +</P> + +<P> +Just the same, the crotchety old colored man began to hop around in +lively fashion with hot water, and later with coffee and other +stimulants; and he nursed Koku all day as though he were a big baby. +</P> + +<P> +Koku, who had never been ill before in his life, was inclined to lay +the trouble to an evil genius of some kind. Perhaps, in spite of his +half-civilized state, he was still a devil-worshiper. At any rate, he +had a vital respect for the forces of evil. +</P> + +<P> +Naturally he considered this unknown and unexpected misery he suffered +the result of malignant influences of some kind. Tom did not want him +to suspect that the man with the big feet had any possible part in the +mystery. Had Koku suspected this, and had he got his hands on the spy, +the latter could never have been successfully used in that sort of work +again. In all probability he would have said that he had had enough. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile Tom made a point of considering each step he took alone +thereafter with particular care. He had a bodyguard—usually the giant +after the latter had recovered—between the works and the house. He did +not bring home any more the schedules or drawings connected with the +electric locomotive that he proposed to have built and to test inside +the stockade of the Swift Construction Company. +</P> + +<P> +He even put a private detective to work on the matter of finding a man +named Andy O'Malley who might be lurking around Shopton. He had a +pretty clear description of the fellow, for he had not only seen him +once, face to face by daylight, but Tom had written to the president of +the H. & P. A. and had got from that gentleman a clear picture in words +of the spy whom Mr. Bartholomew believed was working in the interests +of Montagne Lewis. +</P> + +<P> +"If O'Malley appears in Shopton, look out. He is a bad character. He is +not only a notorious gunman, with several warrants out for him in these +parts, but he is a cruel and desperate man in any event. The minute you +mark him, have him arrested and telegraph me. We'll get him extradited +and put him through for ten years or more right in this county." The +private investigator, however, as the weeks went by, could not find any +man who filled O'Malley's description. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile Tom Swift had got what he called "a lead" and was working day +and night upon the invention that he believed might make even the +Jandel people respectful, if not a bit envious. +</P> + +<P> +First of all Tom had arranged to have built all around inside the +stockade a track of rails heavy enough to stand the wear and tear of +the heaviest locomotive built. Meanwhile the various parts of his +locomotive were being built in several shops, but would be shipped to +the Swift Construction Company and assembled in Tom's try-out shed. +</P> + +<P> +Great secrecy was of course maintained. Aside from the fact that the +new invention had something to do with electric motive power, nobody +about the shops could say what the new industry portended. Save, of +course, the Swifts themselves, Ned Newton, and Mr. Damon, who was the +Swifts' closest friend and sometimes had furnished additional capital +for Tom's experiments. +</P> + +<P> +There was a thing that Mr. Damon furnished Tom at this time that proved +in the end to be of much importance. Before Tom had seized upon this +idea of his eccentric friend, and had made proper use of it, something +happened that came near to wrecking utterly Tom's invention and +completely putting an end to Tom himself as an inventor. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Strange Conversation +</H3> + +<P> +Mr. Wakefield Damon frequently came to the shops, for he was not alone +very friendly with the Swifts, but he was greatly interested in Tom's +new invention. +</P> + +<P> +"If it goes as good as what you did for my chicken run," he declared, +chuckling, "bless my dampers! you'll beat all the electric locomotives +in the market." +</P> + +<P> +"That is easy, perhaps," said Tom smiling. "There are not many in the +market at the present time. But I don't know what mine will be. This is +going to be some job." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my flues and clinkers!" cried Mr. Damon, "you are not losing +hope, Tom Swift? Look what you did for my chicken run. And believe me, +that entanglement will give a shock that makes a man stand right up and +shake." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you tried it yourself?" asked Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"No. But my servant did. I saw him through the window of my study doing +some kind of a shimmy with the shovel. Thought he'd gone crazy. Then I +saw what he had done. It was early in the morning and I hadn't turned +the current off, and he had put one hand against the wires. When he +dropped the shovel as I told him to, bless my plyers and nippers! he +was all right." +</P> + +<P> +"The current would not seriously hurt him," said Tom. "I was careful +about that." +</P> + +<P> +"It killed two tomcats," said Mr. Damon. "I certainly was glad of that, +for those two ash-barrel cats kept the whole neighborhood awake. Bless +my claws and whiskers! how those two cats did use to yell. But when one +tried to climb the wires and the other sprang on him, it was all over! +That is, all over but the burial party." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon was on the ground when the mechanical equipment and a part of +the electrical equipment of the new locomotive arrived and was set up +in the erection shed. The length of the machine was what first +impressed Ned Newton as well as Mr. Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my yardstick!" exclaimed the eccentric man, "it's as long as a +gossip's tongue. What a monster it will be!" +</P> + +<P> +"How long is it, Tom?" asked Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +"When completed, and standing on its drivers and bogie truck and +trailer truck, from cow-catcher to rear bumper it will be a few inches +over ninety feet. And that is slightly longer than the biggest electric +locomotive so far built. But length does not so much enter into the +value of the machine. I would have it built more compactly if I could." +</P> + +<P> +"What is the horsepower?" asked Mr. Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"I figure on forty-four hundred horsepower. The power must be received +from a three thousand-volt direct-current trolley. There are twelve +driving-wheels, as you can see. Each pair of drivers will be driven by +a twin-motor geared to the axles through a system of flexible spring +drive. Remember, I have got to obtain both speed as well as power in +this locomotive, for it is being built to pull a passenger train—a +fast cross-continent express—to compete with the best passenger +equipment in the country." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my combination ticket!" murmured Mr. Damon. "You have picked out +some task, and no mistake, Tom Swift." +</P> + +<P> +"He'll do it," cried Ned, with his usual optimism when Tom had once +started on any experimental work. "Of course he will. Just as she +stands there now, only half put together, I would be willing to bet a +farm that she is a better locomotive than the Jandel patent." +</P> + +<P> +"Three cheers!" laughed Tom. "Ned is as enthusiastic as usual. But +believe me, friends, we are not going to turn out a better locomotive +than the Jandel without both thought and work." +</P> + +<P> +His friends' enthusiasm was heartening, however. No doubt of that. He +never let them into his experiment room, any more than he allowed his +workmen in there. Aside from his own father, nobody really knew what +Tom Swift was doing behind that always-locked door. +</P> + +<P> +The huge structure of the locomotive was set up on the driving wheels +and leading and trailing trucks by Tom's chief foreman and a picked +crew. Just such another locomotive had never been seen anywhere about +Shopton. Naturally the men at work on the monster began to speak of it +outside the works. +</P> + +<P> +Not that they betrayed any secrets regarding the locomotive. In fact, +as yet none of them knew anything about what Tom intended to do with +the big machine. But the story soon circulated that Tom Swift, the +young inventor, was about to show all the previous builders of electric +locomotives how such machines should be built. +</P> + +<P> +It was even whispered that Tom's objective was a two-mile-a-minute +locomotive. And when this was publicly known the information was not +long in seeping to the ears of certain men who had been keeping as +close a watch as they dared on the Swift Construction Company and the +activities of Tom himself. +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton went to the bank one Friday for money for the payroll of the +working and clerical force of the Swift Company. It was an errand he +never relegated to any employee. +</P> + +<P> +Ned had once worked himself in the bank, and naturally he knew many of +its employees as well as the officials. With his back to the general +waiting room, he sat at the vice president's desk discussing some minor +matter. Only a railing divided the vice president's enclosure from the +long settee on which waiting customers of the bank were seated. +</P> + +<P> +Ned knew that there were two men directly behind him, whispering +together; but he paid no attention to them until he heard this phrase: +</P> + +<P> +"It's time to explode in just five hours; then good-night to that +invention, whatever it is." +</P> + +<P> +This statement might mean almost anything—or nothing. Ordinarily Ned +Newton might not have paid any consideration to the words. But +"invention" was a term that he could not overlook. His mind then was +fixed upon Tom's invention almost as closely as the mind of the young +inventor himself. +</P> + +<P> +Ned turned around slowly, as though idly, indeed, and tried to see the +faces of the two men behind him. One was a small, neatly dressed man of +professional appearance. He wore a Vandyke beard and eyeglasses. The +other's face Ned could not see; but as they both rose just then and +strolled toward the door of the bank he could observe that the fellow +was big and burly. +</P> + +<P> +Ned wheeled to his friend, the vice president, and asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Who are those men, Mr. Stanley? Do you know them?" +</P> + +<P> +The pair were just going out through the revolving door. The vice +president craned his neck for a look at them. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know the small man, Ned. But the other is named O'Malley, I +believe. Somebody introduced him here and he gets a check cashed +occasionally. Not a customer of the bank." +</P> + +<P> +At that moment the name "O'Malley" did not mean anything to Ned Newton. +But he bade his friend good-bye and went out after the two men. They +had disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +Rad was in the electric runabout, waiting for him. The words spoken by +O'Malley (Ned thought it must have been he who spoke of the invention +because of his deep voice) continued to disturb Ned's thought. +</P> + +<P> +"Rad," he said, as he got into the runabout, "did you ever hear the +name O'Malley?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure has," declared the colored man. "And it's a bad name and a bad +man owns it." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean that?" exclaimed the financial manager of the Swift +Construction Company, with increasing apprehension. "Who is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Mr. Newton, don't you 'member dat man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who is he?" repeated Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Dat Andy O'Malley is de one what tried to hold up Massa Tom dat time. +O'Malley is de man what's been spyin' on Massa Tom—" +</P> + +<P> +"Great grief!" exclaimed Ned, breaking in with excitement. "I'll drive +as fast as I can, Rad. There is something wrong at the works, I do +believe!" +</P> + +<P> +"What's wrong, Mr. Ned?" demanded Rad. "We just come from dere, and +everyt'ing was all right." +</P> + +<P> +"I just heard something that O'Malley said. I want to get back in a +hurry. I believe that scoundrel is attempting to blow up Tom's +locomotive. We've got to get to the works just as quick as we can." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Touch and Go +</H3> + +<P> +The mechanical equipment of the new locomotive was now complete and Tom +was establishing the electrical equipment as rapidly as possible. He +not only acted as overseer of this work, but in overalls and jumper he +was doing a good share of the work himself. +</P> + +<P> +The weight of the electrical equipment when it was finally set up was +not far from two hundred thousand pounds. Altogether, when the oil, +sand, and water tanks were filled, the great machine would weigh two +hundred and eighty-five tons—a monster indeed! +</P> + +<P> +"She is going to take a lot of current to run her," said Tom to his +father, who was standing by. "When I come to arrange with the Shopton +Electric Company for power, it's a question if they can give me all I +need. And I must have plenty of current to make sure that my motors +fill the bill." +</P> + +<P> +"As your tests will be made in the daytime, the company should be able +to furnish the power you need," rejoined Mr. Swift. "At night, of +course, when they must furnish so much light as well as power, it might +be difficult for them to give you the proper current." +</P> + +<P> +"Forty-four hundred horsepower is a big demand," went on Tom. "I've +got to have at least a three-thousand-volt direct-current to feed my +motors. I will soon have to take up the matter with the Electric +Company." +</P> + +<P> +The heavy work of setting the electrical parts of the locomotive had +been finished the day previous, and the track-derrick was removed. Tom +was engaged in adjusting the more delicate parts of the equipment and +had merely stepped down from the cab to speak to Mr. Swift. +</P> + +<P> +Now he climbed back into the interior of the great machine which, in a +general way, looked like a box car. An electric locomotive has not much +of the appearance of a steam engine. The machinery is all boxed in and +the entire floor of the locomotive is above even the drivers. +</P> + +<P> +These six pairs of driving wheels were about seventy inches in +diameter, while the diameter of the leading and following truck-wheels +was but half that number of inches. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Swift had turned away from the locomotive when Tom put his head out +of the door again. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you hear that, father?" he demanded in a puzzled tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Hear what, Tom?" asked the old inventor, looking up. +</P> + +<P> +"That ticking sound? I declare, I'd think it was one of those +death-watch beetles had got in here. Sounds like a big watch ticking. I +can't make it out." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is it? What is it?" repeated Mr. Swift. "I hear nothing down +here on the floor of the shed." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it gets me," muttered Tom, and disappeared again. In a moment he +called out: "Say, you fellows! who left his bundle of overalls in here? +Better take 'em out to be manicured. Whose are these?" +</P> + +<P> +Two or three of the mechanics working near looked up from their tasks. +Mr. Swift turned back to the door of the cab again. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter now, Tom?" he asked, in added curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +"That bundle, Dad." +</P> + +<P> +Tom once more appeared and addressed the workmen: "Whose bundle of +dirty overalls is this in here? Come and take 'em away. They shouldn't +have been left here." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Mr. Tom," said the foreman who was near, "I didn't see any soiled +overalls in there when I left last evening. Any of you fellows," he +asked the group of hands, "know anything about any overalls?" +</P> + +<P> +"The bundle is here all right. Pushed back against the third series +motors. Come up here, one of you fellows—" +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly there was a noise at the end of the shed where the door to the +offices lay. Two figures burst through from the glass doors and charged +down the lanes between the lathes and cranes. Ned Newton led, Rad +Sampson, his face a mouse-gray with fear, followed. +</P> + +<P> +"Massa Tom! Massa Tom!" shouted the colored man. "Look out fo' de bomb! +Look out fo' de bomb!" +</P> + +<P> +The foreman sprang toward the high door of the locomotive where Tom +stood, staring out. The young inventor, quick as his mind usually +functioned, did not understand at all what Eradicate meant. +</P> + +<P> +"There's something wrong in there, Mr. Tom!" shouted the foreman. "Come +down, sir, and let me get up there and see what it is." +</P> + +<P> +But Mr. Barton Swift grasped the meaning of what was going on more +quickly than anybody else. Tom's father, Tom frequently said, had spent +so many years investigating chemical and mechanical mysteries that he +saw more clearly and more exactly into and through most problems than +other people. +</P> + +<P> +His raised voice now cut through the rumble of machinery and all the +other noises of the shop. Even Rad Sampson's delirious cry was dwarfed +by Mr. Swift's sharp tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Tom! The ticking of that watch! That means danger!" +</P> + +<P> +The declaration seemed to rip away a curtain from Tom's thoughts. +Perhaps Rad's cry about "de bomb" aided the young inventor to +understand the peril that threatened. +</P> + +<P> +The faint ticking sound that had begun to annoy him during the past few +minutes betrayed the nature of the threatening peril. Tom swung back +from the open doorway of the locomotive cab, reached in to the space +between the motors, and seized the bundle of overall stuff that he had +previously spied. +</P> + +<P> +He knew instantly that the rapid ticking came from that bundle. It +could be nothing but a time bomb. He had heard of such things and, +indeed, had seen one before, an infernal machine which, set like an +alarm clock, would go off at a certain time. That indicated time might +be an hour hence, or might be within a few seconds! Ned Newton, almost +at the spot, shouted to Tom when the latter reappeared with the bundle +in his hands: +</P> + +<P> +"Get down out of that, Tom Swift! Quick! For your life!" +</P> + +<P> +But Tom was cool enough now. He saw his father's white, strained face +at one side and the young inventor could even smile at him. Behind the +foreman was set a barrel of water in which tools were cooled and +tempered. +</P> + +<P> +"Stoop, McAvoy!" Tom shouted, and tossed the bundle from him. +</P> + +<P> +Had the infernal machine exploded in midair Tom would not have been +surprised. But McAvoy dodged, Rad clapped his hands over his ears, and, +even Ned Newton halted like a bird-dog at point. +</P> + +<P> +The bundle splashed into the barrel of water. It sank to the bottom. +There was no explosion. When a few seconds had passed the group of +excited men began to relax. The barrel was carried carefully to a +neighboring field. +</P> + +<P> +"Fo' de lawsy sake!" gasped Rad, and got a full breath again. +</P> + +<P> +"That was touch and go, sure enough," muttered Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +"Those overalls sure went to the wash, Boss," declared the foreman. +"What was in 'em? And who put 'em in the cab up there?" +</P> + +<P> +But Tom dropped down the ladder and went to his father. Their hands +sought each other and gripped, hard. +</P> + +<P> +"Better not tell Mary about this," whispered Tom. "She's worried enough +as it is." +</P> + +<P> +"Right, Tom," agreed the old inventor. "From this time on we cannot be +too careful. If there proves to be an infernal machine in that package +we may be sure that we are dealing with desperate men. We've got to +keep our eyes open." +</P> + +<P> +"Wide open," added Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say we have," said Tom. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Try-Out Day Arrives +</H3> + +<P> +It did not need Ned Newton's story of what he had overheard at the bank +to prove that an attempt had been made to blow to pieces Tom Swift's +electric locomotive before even it had been tested. +</P> + +<P> +An examination of the water-soaked package in the open yard of the +shops of the Swift Construction Company, proved that there was enough +explosive in the bomb to blow the shed itself to pieces. But the +stopping of the clockwork attachment of course made the bomb harmless. +</P> + +<P> +"The main thing to be explained," Tom said, when he and his father and +Ned discussed the particulars of the affair, "is not who did it, or +what it was done for. Those are comparatively easy questions to answer." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," agreed Ned. "O'Malley did it, or caused it to be done; and it +was an attempt to balk Mr. Bartholomew and the H, & P. A. rather than +a direct attack upon the Swift Construction Company." +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid, however," remarked Mr. Swift, "that Tom has aroused the +personal antagonism of this spy from the West. We must not overlook +that." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't," replied the young inventor. "O'Malley has it in for me. No +doubt of that. But he could not be sure that I would be hurt by the +explosion he arranged for." +</P> + +<P> +"True," said his father. +</P> + +<P> +"The attempt was against my invention. And O'Malley was doubtless urged +to destroy the locomotive that I am building because my success will +aid Mr. Bartholomew and his railroad." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite agreed," said Ned. "But—" +</P> + +<P> +"But the important question," interrupted Tom, "is this: How did the +bomb get into the interior of the electric locomotive? That is the +first and most important problem. Its having been done once warns us +that it can be done again until our system of guarding the works is +changed." +</P> + +<P> +"We have five watchmen on the job at night, and the gates are never +opened in the daytime to anybody for any purpose without a pass," +declared Ned. "I don't see how that fellow got in here with the time +bomb." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly. It shows that there is a fault in our system somewhere," said +Tom grimly. "We cannot surround the place at night with an armed guard. +It would cost too much. Even Koku cannot be everywhere. And I have +reason to know that he was wandering about the stockade last night as +usual." +</P> + +<P> +"The fellow was pretty sharp to slip by," Ned observed. +</P> + +<P> +"The stockade is no mean barrier, especially with the rows of barbed +wire at the top," said Mr. Swift. +</P> + +<P> +"Barbed wire! That's it!" exclaimed Tom. It was just here that Mr. +Damon's idea for guarding his prize buff Orpingtons came into play in +Tom's scheme of things. "Barbed wire doesn't seem to keep out spies," +he added slowly. "But believe me, something else will!" +</P> + +<P> +For Tom to think of a thing was to start action without delay. +Immediately he called a gang from the shops and set them to work +stringing copper wire along the top of the stockade. +</P> + +<P> +He was sure that the man who had set the time bomb in place had got +into the enclosure over the fence. If he tried the same trick again he +was very apt to have the surprise of his life! +</P> + +<P> +Each night when the shops closed and the watchmen went on duty, a +current of electricity was turned into those copper wires entwined with +the barbed wire entanglement at the top of the stockade that would +certainly double up any marauder who sought to get over the top. +</P> + +<P> +However, no further attempt was made against Tom's peace of mind and +against his invention during the immediate weeks that followed. The +young inventor was so closely engaged in his work that he scarcely left +the house or the confines of the shops. Even Mary Nestor saw very +little of him. +</P> + +<P> +But Mary realized fully that at such a time as this Tom must give all +his thought and energy to the task in hand. She was proud of Tom's +ability and took a deep interest in his inventions. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see the test when you try the locomotive, Tom," she told +him, when she came to the shops the first time to look at the monster +locomotive. "What a wonderful thing it is!" +</P> + +<P> +"Its wonder is yet to be proved," rejoined the young inventor. "I +believe I've got the right idea; but nothing is sure as yet." +</P> + +<P> +In addition to his mechanical contrivances inside the locomotive, Tom +had to arrange for an increased supply of electric power to drive the +huge machine around the track that was being built inside the stockade. +</P> + +<P> +A regular station had to be built for receiving the electricity in a +100,000-volt alternating current and delivering it to the locomotive in +a 3,000-volt direct current. Therefore, this station had two functions +to perform—reducing the voltage and changing the current from +alternating to direct. +</P> + +<P> +The reduction of the voltage was accomplished as follows: The +100,000-volt alternating current was received through an oil switch and +was conveyed to a high-tension current distributor made up of three +lines of copper tubing, thus forming the source of power for this +station. +</P> + +<P> +From the current distributor the current was conducted through other +oil switches to the transformers—entering at 100,000 volts and +emerging at 2,300 volts. Then the current was conducted from the +transformers through switches to the motor-generator sets and became +the power employed to operate them. +</P> + +<P> +The motor generator consisted of one alternating current motor driving +two direct current generators. The motor Tom established in his station +was of the 60-cycle synchronous type, which means that the current +changes sixty times each second. +</P> + +<P> +There were two sets, each generating a 1,500 or 2,000 volt direct +current; and the two generators being permanently connected, delivered +a combined direct current of 3,000 volts—as high a direct voltage +current, Tom knew, as had ever been adopted for railroad work. The +current voltage for ordinary street railway work is 550 volts. +</P> + +<P> +"I could run even this big machine," Tom explained to Ned Newton, "with +a much lighter current. But out there on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +line the transforming stations deliver this high voltage to the +locomotives. I want to test mine under similar conditions." +</P> + +<P> +"This is going to be an expensive test, Tom," said Ned, grumbling a +little. "The cost-sheets are running high." +</P> + +<P> +"We are aiming at a big target," returned the inventor. "You've got to +bait with something bigger than sprats to catch a whale, Ned." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! Suppose you don't catch the whale after all?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't lose hope," returned Tom, calmly. "I am going after this whale +right, believe me! This is one of the biggest contracts—if not the +very biggest—we ever tackled." +</P> + +<P> +"It looks as if the expense account would run the highest," admitted +the financial manager. +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Maybe that is so. But I'll spend the last cent I've got to +perfect this patent. I am going to beat the Jandels if it is humanly +possible to do so." +</P> + +<P> +"I can only hope you will, Tom. Why, this track and the overhead +trolley equipment is going to cost a small fortune. I had no idea when +you signed that contract with Mr. Bartholomew that so much money would +have to be spent in merely the experimental stage of the thing." +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton possessed traits of caution that could not be gainsaid. That +was one thing that made him such a successful financial manager for the +Swift Company. He watched expenditures as closely now as he had when +the business was upon a much more limited footing. +</P> + +<P> +The rails laid along the inside of the stockade made a two-mile track, +as well ballasted as any regular railroad right of way. In addition the +overhead equipment was costly. +</P> + +<P> +To eliminate any possibility of the trolley wire breaking, a strong +steel cable, called a catenary, was slung just above the trolley wire. +To this catenary the trolley wire was suspended by hangers at short +intervals. +</P> + +<P> +These cables were strung from brackets so that a single row of poles +could be used, save at the curves, at which cross-span construction was +used. The trolley wire itself was of the 4/0 size, and was the largest +diameter copper wire ever employed for railroad purposes. +</P> + +<P> +Several weeks had now passed since the great locomotive had been +assembled in the erection shed and the cab of the locomotive completed. +It really was a monster machine, and any stranger coming into the place +and seeing it for the first time must have marveled at the grim power +suggested by the mere bulk of the structure. +</P> + +<P> +When the day of the first test arrived Tom allowed only his most +intimate friends to be present. Mary Nestor accompanied Mr. Swift into +the shops at the time appointed, and she was as excited over the +outcome of the test as Tom himself. +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton and the mechanical force of the shops knocked off work to +become spectators at the exhibition. The only other outsider was Mr. +Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my alternating current!" cried the eccentric gentleman. "I +would not miss this for the world. If you tried to shut me out, Tom, +I'd climb over the stockade to get in." +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better not," Tom told him, dryly. "If you tried that you'd get a +worse shock than any chicken thief will get that tries to steal your +buff Orpingtons." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Hopes and Fears +</H3> + +<P> +Tom climbed into the huge cab of the electric locomotive. In fact, the +cab was the most of it, for every part of the mechanism save the +drivers was covered by the eighty-odd foot structure. From the peak of +the pilot to the rear bumper the length was ninety feet and some inches. +</P> + +<P> +As Tom slid the monster out upon the yard track the small crowd +cheered. At least, the locomotive had the power to move, and to the +unknowing ones, at least, that seemed a great and wonderful thing. +</P> + +<P> +What they saw was apparently a box-car—like a mail coach, only with +more high windows—ten feet wide, its roof more than fourteen feet from +the rails, its locked pantagraph adding two feet more to its height. +</P> + +<P> +Just what was in the cab—the water and oil tanks, the steam-heating +boiler to supply heat and hot water to the train the monster was to +draw, the motors and the many other mechanical contrivances—was hidden +from the spectators. +</P> + +<P> +In fact, since completing the electrical equipment of the Hercules +0001, as Tom had named the locomotive, the young inventor had allowed +nobody inside the cab, any more than he allowed visitors inside his +private workshop. Even Mr. Swift did not know all the results of Tom's +experimental work. In a general way the older inventor knew the trend +of his son's attempts, but the details and the results of Tom's +experiments, the latter told to nobody. +</P> + +<P> +But as the huge locomotive rolled into the yard and followed the more +or less circular track inside the yard fence, it was plain to all of +the onlookers that the motive-power was there all right! Just what +speed could be coaxed from the feed-cable overhead was another question. +</P> + +<P> +Nor did Tom Swift try for much speed on this first test of the Hercules +0001. He went around the two-mile track several times before bringing +his machine to a stop near the crowd of onlookers. He came to the open +door of the cab. +</P> + +<P> +"One thing is sure, Tom!" shouted Ned. "It do move!" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my slippery skates!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "it slides right +along, Tom. You've done it, my boy—you've done it!" +</P> + +<P> +"It looks good from where I stand, my son," said Mr. Barton Swift. +</P> + +<P> +It was Mary who suspected that Tom was not wholly satisfied—as yet, at +least—with the test of the Hercules 0001. She cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Tom! is it all right?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing is ever all right—that is, not perfect—in this old world, I +guess, Mary," returned the young inventor. "But I am not discouraged. +As Ned says, the old contraption 'do move.' How fast she'll move is +another thing." +</P> + +<P> +"What time did you make?" asked Mr. Swift. +</P> + +<P> +"Not above fifteen miles an hour." +</P> + +<P> +"Whew!" whistled Ned dolefully. "That is a long way from—" +</P> + +<P> +Tom made an instant motion and Ned's careless lips were sealed. It was +not generally known among the men the speed which Tom hoped to obtain +with his new invention. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a wide shoot at the target, that is true," Tom said, soberly. +"But remember I cannot test it for speed on this short and almost +circular track. Right at the start, however, I see that something about +the power-feed must be changed." +</P> + +<P> +"What is that?" asked Mary, curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I have only had rigged here one trolley wire. There must be two +attached alternately to the catenary cable. Such a form of twin +conductor trolley will permit the collection of a heavy current through +the twin contact of the pantagraph with the two trolley wires, and +should assure a sparkless collection of the current at any speed. You +noticed that when I took the sharper curves there was an aerial +exhibition. I want to do away with the fireworks." +</P> + +<P> +The fact that the Hercules 0001 was a going and apparently powerful +draught engine satisfied most of the onlookers that Tom Swift was on +the road to final and overwhelming success. The mechanics, indeed, saw +no reason why the locomotive could not be run right out of the yard on +the freight track and coupled to the first train going West. Of course, +the Hercules 0001 could not be delivered to the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +under its own power. +</P> + +<P> +When the locomotive was run back into the shed and stood once more on +the erection track, Tom confessed to Mary and Ned, while Mr. Damon and +Mr. Swift were looking through the huge cab, that he was not at all +pleased with the action of the machine. +</P> + +<P> +"I have the best equipment of any electric locomotive on the rails +today. I am sure of that," he said. "The Hercules Three-Oughts-One is +not as long as those electric locomotives of the C. M. &. St. P. But +that's all right. I have built mine more compactly and, properly +geared, it should have all the power of either the Baldwin-Westinghouse +or the Jandel locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, Tom dear, what is wrong?" cried Mary. +</P> + +<P> +"Speed. That is what troubles me. Have I got anything like the speed I +am aiming for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Ned Newton. "Some speed, boy!" +</P> + +<P> +"And must you have such great speed, Tom?" repeated Mary. +</P> + +<P> +"That is in my contract. Not only that, but to be of much use to the H. +& P. A. this locomotive must have such speed—or mighty near it. Of +course, under ordinary conditions, two miles a minute for a locomotive +and train of heavy freights would burn up the track—maybe melt the +flanges and throw everything out of gear." +</P> + +<P> +"Why try for it, then?" demanded Mary. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the power suggested by the possession of such speed that we want +in the Hercules Three-Oughts-One. That two miles a minute is a fiction +of the imagination, cannot be claimed. It is possible. It is humanly +possible. It is coming." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you must be the fellow to first accomplish it, Tom Swift," Ned +declared. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, if anybody can do it, you can, Tom," agreed the girl +complacently. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks—many, many thanks," laughed the young inventor. "I'd be able +to harness the sun and stars, and put a surcingle around the moon if I +came up to my friends' opinion of my ability. +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless, two-miles-a-minute is my objective point, and I do not +believe it is visionary. Consider the motor-cycle. Ninety miles an hour +has long been possible with that, and some tests have shown a speed of +over a hundred and ten. That is not far from my mark. +</P> + +<P> +"Some Mallet locomotives of the oil-burning type have achieved from +eighty-five to ninety-five miles an hour with a heavy load behind them. +They are very powerful machines. The Mogul mountain climbers are +powerful, too, although they are not built for speed. +</P> + +<P> +"The electric Goliaths built for the C. M. & St. P., and the Jandels, +are both very speedy under certain conditions. The former has a maximum +speed of sixty-five miles and the Jandel slightly faster." +</P> + +<P> +"But that is only half what that Mr. Bartholomew demands of your +invention, Tom!" Mary cried. +</P> + +<P> +"That is a fact. I must reach twice sixty miles an hour, anyway, to +meet his demand and gain that hundred thousand bonus. But I have the +advantage of a knowledge of all that has been done before my time in +the matter of electrical locomotive construction." +</P> + +<P> +"The world do move," repeated Ned. "You believe that you have the edge +on all the other inventors?" +</P> + +<P> +"Along the line of this development—yes," said Tom. "I am taking up +the work where former experimenters ended theirs. Why shouldn't I find +the right combination to bring about a two-miles-a-minute drive?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Tom!" cried Mary, with clasped hands, "I hope you do." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope I do, too," said Tom, grimly. "At least, if trying will bring +it, success is going to come my way." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Speed +</H3> + +<P> +More than four months had passed since the contract had been signed, +when Tom made his first yard-test of the Hercules 0001. For a month +nothing had been seen or heard of Andy O'Malley, whose identity as the +spy, set by Montagne Lewis to cripple Tom's attempt to help the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad, had been determined beyond any doubt. +</P> + +<P> +The private inquiry agent that Tom had engaged to find O'Malley had +been unsuccessful in his work. The spy had disappeared from Shopton and +the vicinity. Nevertheless, the inventor did not for a moment overlook +the possibility that the enemy might again strike. +</P> + +<P> +Every night the electric current was turned into the wires that capped +the stockade of the Swift Construction Company enclosure. Koku beat a +path around the enclosure at night, getting such short sleep as he +seemed to need in the forenoon. +</P> + +<P> +"Dat crazy cannibal," grumbled Rad, "got it in his haid dat he's gwine +to he'p Massa Tom by walkin' out o' nights like he was dis here +Western, de great sprinter, Ma lawsy me! Koku ain't got brains enough +to fill up a hic'ry nut shell. Dat he ain't." +</P> + +<P> +Nothing anybody else could do for Tom ever satisfied Rad. The colored +man fully believed that he was the only person really necessary for +Tom's success and peace of mind. In fact, Rad thought that even Ned +Newton's duties as financial manager of the firm were scarcely of as +much importance. +</P> + +<P> +When he heard that Tom was going West, after a time, with the electric +locomotive, to try it out on the tracks of the H. & P. A., Rad was +quite sure that if he did not go along, the test would not come out +right. +</P> + +<P> +"O' course yo'll need me, Massa Tom," he said, confidently. "Couldn't +git along widout me nohow. Yo' knows, sir, I allus has to go 'long wid +yo' to fix things." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think father will need you here, Rad?" Tom asked the +faithful old fellow. "You're getting old—" +</P> + +<P> +"Me gittin' old?" cried, the colored man. "Huh! Yo' don't know 'bout +dis here chile. I don't purpose ever to git old. I been gray-haided +since befo' yo' was born; but I ain't old yit!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon chanced to be present at this conversation, and he was highly +amused, yet somewhat impressed, too, by the colored man's statement. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my own antiquity!" he exclaimed. "I agree with Rad, Tom. It's +us old fellows who know what to do when an emergency of any kind +arises. Experience teaches more than inspiration." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Tom, laughing, "I do not deny the value of old friends at +any stage of the game." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my roving nature! I am glad to hear you say that. For I tell you +right now, Tom, I want to be out there when you make your final test of +the locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean that you will go West when I take out the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One?" cried Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"It's just what I want to do. Bless my traveling bag, Tom! I mean to be +present at your final triumph." +</P> + +<P> +"What will happen to your buff Orpingtons while you are gone?" asked +the young inventor, gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"I have got my servant trained to look after those chickens," declared +Mr. Damon. "And this invention of yours is really more important than +even my buff Orpingtons." +</P> + +<P> +"Just the same," remarked Tom to his eccentric friend, when Rad had +left the room. "I've got to fix it so that Eradicate stays at home with +father. He doesn't really know how old and broken he is—poor fellow." +</P> + +<P> +"His heart is green, Tom. That's what is the matter with Rad." +</P> + +<P> +"He is a loyal old fellow. But I shall take Koku with me, not Rad," and +the young inventor spoke decidedly. "And that is going to trouble poor +Rad a lot." +</P> + +<P> +The prospect of going West, however, was not the main subject of Tom's +thoughts at this time. As the weeks passed and the end of the six +months of experiment came nearer, the inventor was more and more +troubled by the principal difficulty which had from the first +confronted him. Speed. +</P> + +<P> +That was the mark he had set himself. A maximum speed of two miles a +minute on a level track for the Hercules 0001. With the speed already +attained by both steam and electric locomotives in the more recent +past, this was by no means an impossible attainment, as Tom quite well +knew. +</P> + +<P> +But he became convinced that the conditions under which he labored made +it impossible for him to be positive of just how great a speed on a +straight, level track his invention would attain. +</P> + +<P> +There was no electrified stretch of railroad near Shopton on which the +Hercules 0001 might be tested. The track inside the Swift Company's +enclosure did not offer the conditions the inventor needed. He felt +balked. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe I have hit the right idea in my improvements on the Jandel +patents," he told Ned Newton when they were discussing the matter. "But +believing is one thing. Knowing is another!" +</P> + +<P> +"Theoretically it works out all right, I suppose?" questioned Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite. I can prove on paper that I've got the speed. But that isn't +enough. You can see that." +</P> + +<P> +"Impossible to be sure on the trackage already built here, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't dared give her all she'll take," grumbled Tom. "If I did, I +fear she'd jump the rails and I'd have a wreck on my hands." +</P> + +<P> +"And maybe kill yourself!" exclaimed Ned. "You want to have a care." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's all right! I've taken risks before. I don't want to risk +the safety of the locomotive, which is more important. That machine has +cost us a lot of money." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say so!" agreed Ned. "You'll have to wait till you can get the +locomotive out there on the H. & P. A. tracks before you get a fair +speed-test." +</P> + +<P> +"And suppose instead of a triumph it is a fiasco?" Tom said, +doubtfully. "I tell you straight, Ned: I never was so uncertain about +the outcome of one of my inventions since I began dabbling with +motive-power." +</P> + +<P> +"We could build several miles of straight track in the waste ground +behind the works," Ned said, thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a chance! There is neither time nor money for such work. Besides, +I should have to rebuild my transforming station if I supplied longer +conduit wires with current." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't really consider that you have failed, do you, Tom?" and +Ned's anxiety made his voice sound very woeful indeed. +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you that my belief doesn't satisfy me. I hate to go West +without being sure—positive. I want to know! I have tried the +locomotive out in the yard half a dozen times. It runs like a fine +watch. There doesn't seem to be a thing the matter with it now. But +what speed can I attain?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see but you'll have to risk it, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"I mean to give her one more test. I'll run her out tonight when there +is nobody about but the watchmen—and you, if you want to come. I'll +arrange with the Electric Company for all the current they can spare. +By ginger! I've got to take some risk." +</P> + +<P> +"By the way, Tom," said his chum, "did it ever strike you as odd that +that private detective agency never got any trace of O'Malley?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he's gone away. We needn't worry about him. Maybe the detective +wasn't very smart, at that." +</P> + +<P> +"And yet he was here in town after you put the inquiry on foot. I saw +him in the bank. He came there occasionally. And either he, or somebody +he hired, placed that bomb in the locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"All those being facts, what of it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Besides, there was that other fellow—the man with the Vandyke beard. +Might be a shyster lawyer, or something of the kind. He wasn't spotted, +either." +</P> + +<P> +"To tell the truth, I didn't bother to give the Detective Agency the +description of that fellow, although you gave it to me," and Tom +laughed. "I must confess that I depend more upon my man-trap electric +wires to protect the invention than I do on the private inquiry agent." +</P> + +<P> +"It's funny, just the same. If I had another job for a detective I +should not submit it to the Blatz Agency," grumbled Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"I fancy Montagne Lewis and his crowd called off their Wild West +gunman," said Tom. "In any case, every attempt he made to bother us +turned out a fizzle. I am not, however, forgetting precautions, my boy." +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton realized that his chum had determined to make this night +test of the electric locomotive the pivotal trial of the whole affair. +He came back to the works after dinner and was let in by the office +watchman at about nine o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Tom here yet?" he asked the man. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Mr. Newton. The young boss didn't go home to supper, even. That +colored man brought something down for him, and he's in the shed yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Rad is here, you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. At least, he didn't go out this way, and we watchmen have +instructions to let nobody in or out by the yard gates at night." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say Tom is being careful," thought Ned, as he stepped out through +the runway toward the erection shed. +</P> + +<P> +Before he reached the entrance to the huge shed, however, Ned chanced +to look down the enclosure. There were several arc lights burning, but +even these only furnished a dim illumination for the whole yard. +</P> + +<P> +He supposed that four watchmen were tramping their several beats along +the inside of the stockade and close to the trolley-track. But when he +saw an instant gleam of light down there, close to the ground, Ned did +not believe that it was the flash of a torch in the hand of any sentry. +</P> + +<P> +"Funny," he muttered. "That's outside the fence, or I'm much mistaken. +I wonder now—" +</P> + +<P> +He turned from the door of the shed, left the runway, and began walking +toward the distant point at which he had seen the mysterious flash of +light. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Enemy Still Active +</H3> + +<P> +Ned was dressed in a dark business suit, so he was not likely to be +observed from a distance, for it was a starless night. Half way to the +end of the great yard he began to wonder if the light he had seen might +not have been an hallucination. +</P> + +<P> +He doubted very much if anybody was creeping about outside the fence. +The boards were close together, with scarcely a crack half an inch wide +anywhere. A light out there— +</P> + +<P> +It flashed again. He was positive of it this time, and of its locality +as well. It could be nobody who had any honest business about the Swift +Construction Company's premises. It was not Koku, for ordinarily the +giant would not use an electric torch. +</P> + +<P> +Ned did not know where any of the watchmen were who were acting as +sentinels. In fact, as it appeared later, three of them had been called +off their beats by Tom himself to help in some necessary task inside +the shed. The young inventor was getting ready to run the huge +locomotive out upon the yard-track. +</P> + +<P> +Remembering vividly the attempt which had been made some weeks before +to blow up the Hercules 0001, it was only natural that Ned should +suspect that the flash of light he had seen revealed the presence of +some ill-conditioned person lurking just beyond the fence. +</P> + +<P> +A man might be crouching there prepared to hurl an explosive bomb over +the fence when the locomotive was brought around as far as that spot. +Or was the villain foolish enough to attempt to enter the enclosure by +surmounting the fence? +</P> + +<P> +Ned, keeping close to the ground, crossed the rails in the fortunate +shadow of one of the posts. There he found a place where, with his back +to a pole-prop right at this curve in the trolley system, the shadow +enfolded him completely. +</P> + +<P> +Had his movements been marked by the person outside the fence? Ned +waited several long and anxious minutes for some move from out there. +Then something rather unexpected occurred. For the past ten minutes he +had forgotten about the test of the Hercules 0001 which Tom had +promised. +</P> + +<P> +With a blast of its siren the huge electric locomotive burst out of the +shed and thundered around the track. It smote Ned Newton's mind +suddenly that the inventor was going to "take a chance" on this evening +and try to get some speed out of the huge machine. +</P> + +<P> +The electric headlight cast a broad cone of white and dazzling light +across the yard. It suddenly struck full upon the spot where Ned Newton +crouched; but the upright against which he leaned was broad enough to +hide him completely. +</P> + +<P> +Looking up at the top of the stockade at that moment of illumination, +the young financial manager of the Swift Construction Company beheld a +crawling figure nearing the wire entanglements on the summit of the +fence. +</P> + +<P> +The unknown man was climbing by means of a notched pole. Ned could not +see that he bore any bulky object in his hands; indeed, he needed both +of them to aid him to climb. But the man's right hand was reaching +upward, above his head. +</P> + +<P> +The Hercules 0001 came roaring on. Its cone of light passed beyond +Ned's station. In a few seconds it reached the spot, and roared on. Ned +had not made a move. It seemed to him that he could not move or speak. +</P> + +<P> +The onrush of the electric locomotive all but swept the young fellow +from his feet. It had come and gone in an instant! +</P> + +<P> +"He's making more than fifteen or twenty miles an hour, all right," +muttered Ned. +</P> + +<P> +Then he flashed another glance up at the figure outside the fence. The +man's cap showed above the top of the boards. He seemed to be dragging +something up to him from below—something that hung and swung around +and around a few feet from the ground. +</P> + +<P> +Ned was about to dart out of concealment and hail the fellow. He was +not armed, nor could he get out of the stockade near this point. He +feared what the marauder intended, and he felt that he must frighten +him away. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose that is a bomb and he means to fling it in front of Tom's +locomotive?" thought the anxious Ned. +</P> + +<P> +He again saw the stranger's right hand reach up above his head. But he +had no bomb in his hand. Ned suddenly shrieked a word of warning! It +had come to him what the man was doing and what the result of his act +would be. +</P> + +<P> +The wire-cutters bit on one of the copper wires. There followed a flash +of blue flame, and the man screamed. He dropped the thing swinging +below him and involuntarily grabbed at the wires with his left hand. +</P> + +<P> +He was caught, then! The crackling intermittent shocks of electric +fluid passed through his body in fiery sequence. His limbs writhed. He +mouthed horribly, and croaking gasps came from between his wide open +jaws. +</P> + +<P> +The Hercules 0001 had rounded the enclosure and was coming down upon +its second lap. The cone of white radiance from the headlight fell upon +the writhing body of the victim on the wires. The locomotive siren +emitted a blast that almost deafened Ned. +</P> + +<P> +The monster ground to a stop. Tom swung himself half out of the cab +window beside the controller. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's that?" he yelled. Then he saw Ned below him. "Who is that +fellow?" +</P> + +<P> +"No friend of yours, Tom, I believe," returned his financial manager in +a shaking voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Rad? Rad!" Tom shouted at the top of his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"I's comm', Massa Tom," rejoined the colored man. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind coming here! Get a move on, and get to the switchboard. +Turn the current out of the fence wires. +</P> + +<P> +"Yis, sir, I'll go Massa Tom," declared the old man. +</P> + +<P> +"Is he a spotter, Ned?" demanded the inventor. +</P> + +<P> +"He's no friend. I am going out by the gate. He's got something there +that means harm, I believe. Do you think he's killed, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only ought to be. Not enough current to kill him. But he's badly +burned and—and—well! I bet he won't care to fool around the works +again." +</P> + +<P> +Ned dashed away to an entrance. A watchman came running, opened the +small gate, and followed Ned into the open. +</P> + +<P> +Before they arrived at the vicinity of the accident Rad had got to the +switchboard. The electricity was shut out of the stockade wires. +</P> + +<P> +Ned uttered another shout. He saw the writhing body of the shocked man +fall from the stockade. When he and the watchman got to the spot the +fellow lay upon his back, groaning and sobbing; but Ned saw at once +that he was more frightened than hurt. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you did it that time!" exclaimed the young financial manager. +"And I hope you got enough." +</P> + +<P> +"You—you demons!" gasped the man. "I'll have the law on you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure you will," cackled the watchman. "You had every right in the +world to try to cut those wires, of course, and get into the yard of +the works. Sure! The judge will believe you all right." +</P> + +<P> +Ned was, meanwhile, staring closely at the fallen man. Tom had come +down from the locomotive and was close to the fence. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is he?" demanded the inventor. "Not O'Malley?" +</P> + +<P> +Ned stepped to the fence and whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"It's the other fellow. The little chap with the Vandyke. He's dressed +like a tramp, but it's the same man." +</P> + +<P> +"Is he badly hurt?" demanded Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"His temper is, Boss," said the watchman callously. "And say! I know +this fellow. He works for the Blatz Detective Agency. I used to work +for those folks myself. His name is Myrick—Joe Myrick." +</P> + +<P> +"Ned," said Tom sternly, "go to the office and call the police. I'll +make him tell why he was here. And I'll make the Blatz people explain, +too. Hullo! what's that?" +</P> + +<P> +Ned had seized the rope he had seen in Myrick's hand, and from a patch +of weeds drew a two-gallon oil-can. +</P> + +<P> +"What you got there, Ned?" repeated the young inventor. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever it is, I am going to be mighty easy with it. I think this +scoundrel was trying to get it over the fence and into the way of the +locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"You can't hang anything on me," said Myrick, suddenly. "I was just +climbing up to the top of the fence to get a squint at that contraption +you've built. You can't hang anything on me." +</P> + +<P> +"He's evidently feeling better," said Tom, scornfully. "Nugent, don't +let him get away from you. Go call the police, Ned. And take care of +that can until we can find out what's in it." +</P> + +<P> +Later, when the police had removed Joe Myrick and the mysterious can +had been deposited in a tub of water in the open lot until its contents +could be examined, Tom said to his chum: +</P> + +<P> +"I was just working up some speed on the locomotive. The speedometer +indicated fifty-five when I saw that fellow sprawling up there on the +fence. I would not have dared go much faster in any case." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you weren't half trying, Tom!" cried the delighted Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"She did slide around easy, didn't she? Fifty-five on an almost +circular track is a good showing. I am not so scared as I was, my boy." +</P> + +<P> +"You think that on a straight track you might accomplish what you set +out to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"It looks like it. At any rate, I shall risk a trial on the H. & P. A. +tracks. I'm going to take her West. Be ready on Monday, Ned, for I +shall want you with me," declared Tom Swift. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Off for the West +</H3> + +<P> +Of course, as Tom supposed they would, the Blatz Detective Agency +denied that Joe Myrick, their one-time operative, had been engaged +through their bureau either to spy upon the Swift Construction Company +or to injure Tom's invention of the electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, three points were indisputable: Myrick had been caught +spying; in his possession was a can of explosive which could be set off +by concussion; and it was a fact that to Myrick had been first +entrusted the matter of hunting for Andy O'Malley when Tom had put the +search for the Westerner up to the Blatz people. +</P> + +<P> +"He played traitor both to you, Mr. Swift, and to our agency," declared +Blatz to Tom. "I wash my hands of him. I hope the police send him away +for life!" +</P> + +<P> +"He'll go to prison all right," said Tom, confidently. "But the main +point is that one of your operatives fell down on a simple job. I +wanted that Andy O'Malley traced. He's out of the way, now, of course. +If you had put an honest man to work for me, O'Malley would be behind +the bars himself." +</P> + +<P> +"Some doubt of that, Mr. Swift," grumbled Blatz. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Where's your evidence that this O'Malley was connected with the +attempt to blow up your locomotive the first time? Mr. Newton's +testimony would need corroboration." +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind that," rejoined the young inventor, with a smile. "I'd +have him for highway robbery. I recognized him. He robbed me of a +wallet. Guess we could put O'Malley away for awhile on that charge. And +by the time he got out again my job for that Western railroad would be +completed." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! Nothing personal in your going after the fellow, then?" queried +the head of the detective agency. +</P> + +<P> +"No. But I frankly confess that I am afraid of O'Malley. He is +undoubtedly in the employ of men who will pay him well if he wrecks my +invention. But there really is no personal grudge between O'Malley and +me. At least, I feel no particular enmity against the fellow." +</P> + +<P> +There was a pause. +</P> + +<P> +"If you say so we will give you a couple of good men as bodyguards on +your trip West," suggested Blatz, licking his lips hungrily. +</P> + +<P> +"As good men as Myrick?" retorted Tom, rather scornfully. "No, thank +you. Just make your bill out to the Swift Construction Company to date, +and a check will be sent you the first of the month. I will take my own +precautions hereafter." +</P> + +<P> +And those precautions Tom considered sufficient. When the Hercules 0001 +was towed out of the enclosure belonging to the Swift Construction +Company early on Monday morning, each door and window of the huge cab +was barred and locked. Inside the cab rode Koku, the giant. +</P> + +<P> +Koku had his orders to allow nobody to enter the Hercules 0001 until +Tom or Ned Newton came to relieve him of his responsibility as guard. +The giant had a swinging cot to sleep on and sufficient food—of a +kind—to last him for a fortnight if necessary. +</P> + +<P> +He was not armed, for Tom did not often trust him with weapons. The +young inventor, however, did not expect that any armed force would +attack the electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +If Montagne Lewis desired to wreck the new invention which might mean +so much to Mr. Bartholomew and the H. & P. A., he surely would not +allow his hirelings to attack openly the locomotive while it was en +route. +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand, Tom did not really believe that Andy O'Malley would +attempt any reprisal against him personally. Of course, the Western +desperado might feel himself abused by Tom, especially in the matter of +Tom's use of his ammonia pistol. +</P> + +<P> +But that had happened months ago. O'Malley had undoubtedly been hired +by Mr. Bartholomew's enemies to obtain knowledge of the contract signed +between the young inventor and the railroad president; and later it was +certain that the spy had tried his best to wreck the electric +locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +As for any personal assault so many weeks after O'Malley had clashed +with him Tom Swift did not expect it. With Ned in his company on this +journey to Hendrickton, the young inventor had good reason to consider +that he was perfectly safe. +</P> + +<P> +Mary Nestor and Mr. Swift came to the station to see the two young men +off on Monday evening. Mary had heard about the second attempt made to +blow up the Hercules 0001 and she begged Tom to take every precaution +while he was in the West. +</P> + +<P> +"You will be in the enemy's country out there, Tom dear," she warned +him. "You won't be careless?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know I shall be mighty busy," he told her, laughing. "I'll let Ned +play watch-dog. And you know, his is a cautious soul, Mary." +</P> + +<P> +"I've every confidence in Ned's faithfulness," the girl said, still +with anxious tone. "But those men who are trying to ruin Mr. +Bartholomew's road will stop at nothing. I must hear from you +frequently, Tom, or I shall worry myself ill." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't lose your courage, Mary," rejoined the inventor, more gravely. +"I do not think they will attack me personally again. Remember that +Koku is on the job, as well as Ned. And Mr. Damon declares he will +follow us West very shortly," and again Tom chuckled. +</P> + +<P> +"Even Mr. Damon may be a help to you, Tom," declared Mary, warmly. "At +least, he is completely devoted to you." +</P> + +<P> +"So is Rad Sampson," said Tom, with a little grimace. "I certainly had +my hands full convincing him that father needed him here at home. At +that, Rad is pretty warm over the fact that I sent Koku on with the +locomotive. If anything should chance to happen to my invention, +Eradicate Sampson is going to shout 'I told you so!' all over the shop." +</P> + +<P> +Mary dabbed her eyes a little with her handkerchief, and Tom patted her +shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't worry, Mary," he said more cheerfully. "There won't a thing +happen to me out there at Hendrickton. I'll keep the wires hot with +telegrams. And I'll write to both you and father, and give you the full +particulars of how we get along. You'll keep your eye on father, Mary, +won't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"You may be sure of that," said the girl. "I will not leave him +entirely to the care of Rad," and she tried hard to smile again. But +it was a difficult matter. +</P> + +<P> +Such a parting as this is always hard to endure. Tom wrung his father's +hand and warned him to be careful of his health. The train came along +and the two young men boarded it with their personal luggage. +</P> + +<P> +They had a flash of the two faces—that of Mr. Swift's and Mary's +blooming countenance—as the express started again, and then the +outlook from the Pullman coach showed them the fast-receding environs +of Shopton. +</P> + +<P> +"We're on our way, my boy," said Tom to his chum. +</P> + +<P> +"We certainly are," said Ned, thoughtfully. "I wonder what the outcome +of the trip will be? It may not be all plain sailing." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't croak," rejoined the young inventor, with a grin. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see how you can appear so cheerful. Why! you don't even know +if that electric locomotive is safe. Something may have already +happened to it. The freight train might be wrecked. A dozen things +might happen." +</P> + +<P> +"I am not crossing any bridges before I come to them," declared Tom. +"Besides, I propose to keep in touch with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One +in a certain way—Hullo! Here it is." +</P> + +<P> +"Here what is?" demanded Ned. +</P> + +<P> +The Pullman conductor at that moment came in through the forward +corridor. He had a telegram in his hand, and intoned loudly as he +approached: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Swift! Mr. Thomas Swift! Telegram for Mr. Swift." +</P> + +<P> +"That is for me, Conductor," said Tom briskly, offering his card. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Mr. Swift. Just got it at Shopton. Operator said you had +boarded my car. This is railroad business, you'll notice. Have you any +reply, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +Tom ripped open the envelope and unfolded the telegram. He held it so +that Ned could read, too. It was signed: "N. G. Smith, Conductor, +Number 48." +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" exclaimed Ned, reading the message. +</P> + +<P> +"'Locomotive and crazy man in it all right at Lingo,'" repeated Tom +aloud, and chuckled. +</P> + +<P> +"No, Conductor, there is no answer." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" exclaimed Ned. "You arranged to get reports en route from the +conductors handling the Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" +</P> + +<P> +"Surest thing you know," replied Tom. "And I guess, from the wording of +this message, that the crew of Forty-eight have already found out that +Koku is not an ordinary guard." +</P> + +<P> +"He's a great boy," smiled Ned. "Glad he is on the job." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Wreck of Forty-Eight +</H3> + +<P> +The two chums sought their berths that night in high fettle. Even Ned +sloughed off his mood of apprehension which he had worn on boarding the +train at Shopton. +</P> + +<P> +For, true to the arrangement Tom had made with the railroad people, +another reassuring telegram was brought to him before bedtime. The +second conductor responsible for the management of the Western bound +freight to which the Hercules 0001 was attached, sent back a brief +statement of the safety of the electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +Naturally the two chums would have passed the freight and got well +ahead of it before reaching Hendrickton. But Tom had business in +Chicago, and they stayed over in that city for twenty-four hours. The +freight train went around the city, of course. But the telegrams +continued to reach Tom promptly, even at the hotel where he and Ned +stopped in the city. +</P> + +<P> +Occasionally the trainmen in charge of the freight mentioned Koku. His +eccentric behavior doubtless somewhat puzzled the railroaders. +</P> + +<P> +"That's all right," chuckled Ned. "Let them think Koku is dangerous if +they want to. That O'Malley person believed he was!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say so!" replied Tom. "The way he ran when Koku started after him +that time on the Waterfield Road seemed to prove that he didn't want to +mix with Koku." +</P> + +<P> +"If he—or other spies—learns that Koku is with the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, it ought to warn them away from the locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +This was Ned's final speech before getting into his berth. He, as well +as Tom, slept quite as calmly on this first night out of Chicago as +they had before. +</P> + +<P> +They knew exactly where the electric locomotive was. It was on the same +road as this train they were traveling in, and, although on a different +track, it was not many miles ahead. In fact, if the two trains kept to +schedule, the transcontinental passenger train would pass the freight +in question about five o'clock in the morning. +</P> + +<P> +It lacked half an hour of that time when the Pullman train came +suddenly to a jolting stop. Both Tom and Ned were awakened with the +rest of the passengers in their coach. +</P> + +<P> +Heads were poked out between curtains all along the aisle and a chorus +of more or less excited voices demanded: +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothin's the matter wid dis train, gen'lemens an' ladies," came in the +porter's important voice. "Jest nothin' at all's happened. It's done +happened up ahead of us, das all." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what has happened ahead of us, George?" asked Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Jest another train, Boss, been splatterin' itself all ober de right of +way. We sort o' bein' held up, das all," replied the porter. +</P> + +<P> +"That's good news—for us," said Ned, preparing to climb back into his +berth. But he halted where he was when he heard his chum ask: +</P> + +<P> +"What train left the track, George?" +</P> + +<P> +"A freight train, sah. Yes, sah. Number Forty-eight. She jumped de +rails, side-swiped de accommodation dat was holdin' us back, and has +jest done spread herself all over de right of way." +</P> + +<P> +"My goodness!" gasped Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Hear that, Ned?" exclaimed Tom. "Scramble into your clothes, boy. The +Hercules Three-Oughts-One is hitched to Forty-eight." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose she's off the track?" murmured Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"It's lucky if she isn't smashed to matchwood," groaned Tom, and almost +immediately left the Pullman coach on the run. +</P> + +<P> +Ned was not far behind him. When they reached the cinder path beside +the freight train it was just sunrise. Long arms of rosy light reached +down the mountain side to linger on the tracks and what was strewed +across them. A glance assured the two young fellows from the East that +it was a bad smash indeed. +</P> + +<P> +Several of the rear boxcars were slung athwart the passenger tracks. +The passenger train that had been ahead of the Pullman train on which +Tom and Ned rode, had been badly beaten in all along its side. Scarcely +a whole window was left on the inner side of the five cars. But those +cars were not derailed. It was merely some of the freight cars that +retarded the further progress of the transcontinental flyer. A derrick +car must be brought up to lift away the debris before the fast train +could move on. +</P> + +<P> +Tom and Ned walked forward along the length of the wreck. Suddenly the +anxious young inventor seized Ned's arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Glory be!" he ejaculated. "It's topside up, anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"The Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" gasped Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"That's what it is!" +</P> + +<P> +Tom quickened his pace, and his financial manager followed close upon +his heels. The forward end of Forty-eight had not left the track and +the electric locomotive stood upright upon the rails, being near the +head end of the train. +</P> + +<P> +"If this wreck was intentional, and aimed at your invention, Tom," +whispered Ned Newton, "it did not result as the wreckers expected." +</P> + +<P> +Tom scouted the idea suggested by his chum. And in a few moments they +learned from a railroad employee that a broken flange on a boxcar wheel +had caused the wreck. +</P> + +<P> +"So that disposes of your suspicion, Ned," said Tom, approaching the +huge electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, gents!" exclaimed another railroad man, one of the crew of the +wrecked freight. "Better keep away from that locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with it?" Ned asked, curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Got some kind of an aborigine caged up in it. You put your hand on any +part of it and he's likely to jump out and bite your hand off, or +something. Believe me, he's some savage." +</P> + +<P> +Both Tom and Ned burst into laughter. The former went forward to the +door of the cab and knocked in a peculiar way. It was a signal that the +giant recognized instantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Master!" Koku cried from inside the cab. "Master! Him come in?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, Koku," said Tom. "I'm not coming in. Are you all right?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Koku all right. Him come out?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" laughed Tom. "You are not at your journey's end yet, Koku. +Keep on the job a while longer." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure. Koku stay here forever, if Master say so." +</P> + +<P> +"Forever is a long word, Koku," said Tom, more seriously. "I'll tell +you when to open the door. I'll be at the end of the journey to meet +you." +</P> + +<P> +"It all right if Master say so. But Koku no like to travel in box," +grumbled the giant. +</P> + +<P> +Tom turned from the electric locomotive to see Ned staring across the +tracks at a man who was talking to several of the train crew of the +side-swiped accommodation train. That train was about to be moved on +under its own power. None of the wreckage of the freight interfered +with the progress of the accommodation. +</P> + +<P> +Tom stepped to Ned's side and touched his arm. "Who is he?" the +inventor asked. +</P> + +<P> +The man who had attracted Ned's attention and now held Tom's interest +as well was a solid looking man with gray hair and a dyed mustache. He +was chewing on a long and black cigar, and he spoke to the train hands +with authority. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, why can't you find him?" he wanted to know in a hoarse and +arrogant voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is he?" asked Tom again in Ned's ear. +</P> + +<P> +"I've seen him somewhere. Or else I've seen somebody that looks like +him. Maybe I've seen his picture. He's somebody of importance." +</P> + +<P> +"He thinks he is," rejoined the young inventor, with some disdain. +</P> + +<P> +In answer to something one of the railroad men said the important +looking individual uttered an oath and added: +</P> + +<P> +"There's nobody been killed then? He's just missing? He was sitting in +the coach ahead of me. I saw him just before the wreck. You know +O'Malley yourself. Do you mean to say you haven't seen him, Conductor?" +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you he disappeared like smoke, sir," said the passenger +conductor. "I haven't an idea what became of him." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! If you see him, send him to me," and the solid man stepped +heavily aboard the nearest coach and disappeared inside. +</P> + +<P> +Tom and Ned stared at each other with wondering gaze. O'Malley! The +spy who had represented Montagne Lewis and the Hendrickton & Western +Railroad in the East. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you know about that?" demanded Ned, wonderingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on!" exclaimed Tom. He sprang across the rails after the +conductor of the accommodation train that was just starting on. "Let +me ask you a question." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir?" replied the conductor +</P> + +<P> +"Who was that man who just spoke to you?" "That man? Why, I thought +everybody out this way knew Montagne Lewis. That is his name, sir—and +a big man he is. Yes, sir," and the conductor, giving the watching +engineer of his train the "highball," caught the hand-rail of the car +and swung himself aboard as the train started. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +On the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +</H3> + +<P> +The transcontinental was delayed three hours by the strewn wreckage of +the rear of Number Forty-eight. When she went on the two young fellows +from Shopton gazed anxiously at the Hercules 0001, which stood between +two gondolas in the forward end of the freight train. +</P> + +<P> +"Just by luck nothing happened to it," muttered Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Just luck," agreed Tom Swift. "It was a shock to me to learn that Andy +O'Malley was right there on the spot when the accident happened." +</P> + +<P> +"And his employer, too," added Ned. "For we must admit that Mr. +Montagne Lewis is the man who sicked O'Malley on to you." +</P> + +<P> +"True." +</P> + +<P> +"And they were both in the accommodation that was sideswiped by the +derailed cars of Number Forty-eight." +</P> + +<P> +"That, likewise is a fact," said Tom, nodding quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"But what puzzles me, as it seemed to puzzle Lewis, more than anything +else, is what became of O'Malley?" +</P> + +<P> +"I guess I can see through that knot-hole," Tom rejoined. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes?" +</P> + +<P> +"I bet O'Malley got a squint at me—or perhaps at you—as we walked up +the track from this coach, and he lit out in a hurry. There stood the +Three-Oughts-One, and there were we. He knew we would raise a hue and +cry if we saw him in the vicinity of my locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"I bet that's the truth, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"I know it. He didn't even have time to warn his employer. By the way, +Ned, what a brute that Montagne Lewis looks to be." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you! I remember having seen his photograph in a magazine. +Oh, he's some punkins, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"And just as wicked as they make 'em, I bet! Face just as pleasant as a +bulldog's!" +</P> + +<P> +"You said it. I'm afraid of that man. I shall not have a moment's peace +until you have handed the Hercules Three-Oughts-One over to Mr. +Bartholomew and got his acceptance." +</P> + +<P> +"If I do," murmured Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you will, if that Lewis or his henchmen don't smash things +up. You are not afraid of the speed matter now, are you?" demanded Ned +confidently. +</P> + +<P> +"I can be sure of nothing until after the tests," said Tom, shaking his +head. "Remember, Ned, that I have set out to accomplish what was never +done before—to drive a locomotive over the rails at two miles a +minute. It's a mighty big undertaking." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it will come out all right. If Koku is faithful----" +</P> + +<P> +"That is the smallest 'if' in the category," Tom interposed, with a +laugh. "If I was as sure of all else as I am of Koku, we'd have plain +sailing before us." +</P> + +<P> +Two days later Tom Swift and Ned Newton were ushered into the private +office of the president of the H. & P. A. at the Hendrickton terminal. +The two young fellows from the East had got in the night before, had +become established at the best hotel in the rapidly growing Western +municipality, and had seen something of the town itself during the +hours before midnight. +</P> + +<P> +Now they were ready for business, and very important business, too. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Richard Bartholomew sat up in his desk chair and his keen eyes +suddenly sparkled when he saw his visitors and recognized them. +</P> + +<P> +"I did not expect you so soon. Your locomotive arrived yesterday, Mr. +Swift. How are you, Mr. Newton?" +</P> + +<P> +He motioned for them to take chairs. His secretary left the room. The +railroad magnate at once became confidential. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing happened on the way?" he asked, pointedly. "There was a +freight wreck, I understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"And we chanced to be right at hand when that happened," said Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"So was your friend, Mr. Lewis," remarked Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't mean to say that Montagne Lewis—" +</P> + +<P> +"Was there. And Andy O'Malley," put in Tom. +</P> + +<P> +Then he detailed the incident, as far as he and Ned knew the details, +to Mr. Bartholomew, who listened with close attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it might merely have been a coincidence," murmured the railroad +president. "But, of course, we can't be sure. Anyhow, it is just as +well if your servant, Mr. Swift, keeps close watch still upon that +locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"He will," said Tom, nodding. "He is down there in the yard with the +Hercules Three-Oughts-One, and I mean to keep Koku right on the job." +</P> + +<P> +"Good! Let's go down and look at her," Mr. Bartholomew said, eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +But first Tom wanted to go into the theoretical particulars of his +invention. And he confessed that thus far his tests of the locomotive +had not been altogether satisfactory. +</P> + +<P> +"I have got to have a clear track on a stretch of your own line here, +Mr. Bartholomew, and under certain conditions, before I can be sure as +to just how much speed I can get out of the machine." +</P> + +<P> +"Speed is the essential point, Mr. Swift," said the railroad man, +seriously. +</P> + +<P> +"That is what I have been telling Ned," Tom rejoined. "I believe my +improvements over the Jandel patents are worthy. I know I have a very +powerful locomotive. But that is not enough." +</P> + +<P> +"We have got to shoot our trains through the Pas Alos Range faster than +trains were ever shot over the grades before, or we have failed," said +Mr. Bartholomew, with decision. +</P> + +<P> +"But—" began Ned; but Tom put up an arresting hand and his financial +manager ceased speaking. +</P> + +<P> +"I have not forgotten the details of our contract, Mr. Bartholomew," he +said, quietly. "Two-miles-a-minute is the target I have aimed for. +Whether I have hit it or not, well, time will show. I have got to try +the locomotive out on the tracks of the H. & P. A. in any case. The +Hercules Three-Oughts-One has been dragged a long distance, and has +been through at least one wreck. I want to see if she is all right +before I test her officially." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll arrange that for you," said Mr. Bartholomew, briskly, putting +away his papers. "I will go with you, too, and take a look at the +marvel." +</P> + +<P> +"And a marvel it is," grumbled Ned. "Don't let him fool you, Mr. +Bartholomew. Tom never does consider what he's done as being as great +as it really is." +</P> + +<P> +"Everything must be proved," Tom said, cautiously. "If it was a +financial problem, Mr. Bartholomew, believe me it would be Ned who +displayed caution. But I have seldom built anything that could not—and +has not—later been improved." +</P> + +<P> +"You do not consider your electric locomotive, then, a completed +invention?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, as the three walked down the yard. +</P> + +<P> +"I have too much experience to say it is perfect," returned Tom. "I can +scarcely believe, even, that it is going to suit you, Mr. Bartholomew, +even if the speed test is as promising as I hope it may be." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" +</P> + +<P> +"But before I shall be willing to throw up the sponge and say that I +have failed, I shall monkey with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One quite a +little on your tracks." +</P> + +<P> +"Your six months isn't up yet," said Mr. Bartholomew, more cheerfully. +"And it doesn't matter if it is. If you see any chance of making a +success of your invention, you are welcome to try it out on the tracks +of the H. & P. A. for another six months." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," Tom said, smiling. "Now, there is the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, Mr. Bartholomew. And there is Koku looking longingly +through the window." +</P> + +<P> +In fact, the giant, the moment he saw Tom, ran to unbar and open the +door of the cab on that side. +</P> + +<P> +"Master! If no let Koku out, Koku go amuck—crazy! No can breathe in +here! No can eat! No can sleep!" +</P> + +<P> +"The poor fellow!" ejaculated Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with him?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Get out, if you want to, Koku. I'll stay by while you kick up your +heels." +</P> + +<P> +No sooner had the inventor spoken than the giant leaped from the open +door of the locomotive and dashed away along the cinder path as though +he actually had to run away. Tom burst into a laugh, as he watched the +giant disappear beyond the strings of freight cars. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter with him?" repeated the railroad president. +</P> + +<P> +"He's got the cramp all right," laughed Tom Swift. "You don't +understand, Mr. Bartholomew, what it means to that big fellow to be +housed in for so many days, and unable to kick a free limb. I bet he +runs ten miles before he stops." +</P> + +<P> +"The police will arrest him," said the railroad man. +</P> + +<P> +It was then Ned's turn to chuckle. "I am sorry for your railroad police +if they tackle Koku right now," he said. "He'd lay out about a dozen +ordinary men without half trying. But, ordinarily, he is the most +mild-mannered fellow who ever lived." +</P> + +<P> +"He will come back, if he is let alone, as harmless as a kitten," Tom +observed. "And when I am not with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One, and +while I continue making my tests, Koku will be on guard. You might tell +your police force, Mr. Bartholomew, to let him alone. Now come aboard +and let me show you what I have been trying to do." +</P> + +<P> +They spent two hours inside the cab of the great locomotive. Mr. +Richard Bartholomew was possessed of no small degree of mechanical +education. He might not be a genius in mechanics as Tom Swift was, but +he could follow the latter's explanations regarding the improvements in +the electrical equipment of this new type of locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what your speed tests will show, Mr. Swift," said the +railroad president, with added enthusiasm. "But if those parts will do +what you say they have already done, you've got the Jandels beat a +mile! I'm for you, strong. Yes, sir! like your friend, Newton, here, I +believe that you have hit the right track. You are going to triumph." +</P> + +<P> +But Tom's triumph did not come at once. He knew more about the +uncertainties of mechanical contrivances than did either Mr. +Bartholomew or Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +The very next day the Hercules 0001 was got out upon a section of the +electrified system of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railway, and the +pantagraphs of the huge locomotive for the first time came into +connection with the twin conductor trolleys which overhung the rails. +</P> + +<P> +Ned accompanied Tom as assistant. Koku was allowed by the inventor to +roam about the hills as much as he pleased during the hours in which +his master was engaged with the Hercules 0001. Tom did not think any +harm would come to Koku, and he knew that the giant would enjoy +immensely a free foot in such a wild country. The two young fellows, +dressed in working suits of overall stuff, spent long hours in the cab +of the electric locomotive. Their try-outs had to be made for the most +part on sidetracks and freight switches, some miles outside +Hendrickton, where the invention would not be in the way of regular +traffic. +</P> + +<P> +Speed on level tracks had been raised in one test to over ninety-five +miles an hour and Mr. Bartholomew cheered wildly from the cab of a huge +Mallet that paced Tom's locomotive on a parallel track. No steam +locomotive had ever made such fast time. +</P> + +<P> +But Tom was after something bigger than this. He wanted to show the +president of the H. & P. A. that the Hercules 0001 could drag a load +over the Pas Alos Range at a pace never before gained by any +mountain-hog. +</P> + +<P> +Therefore he coaxed the electric locomotive out into the hills, some +hundred or more miles from headquarters. He had to keep in touch with +the train dispatcher's office, of course; the new machine had often to +take a sidetrack. Nor was much of this hilly right-of-way electrified. +The Jandels locomotive had been found to be a failure on the sharp +grades; so the extension of the trolley system had been abandoned. +</P> + +<P> +But there was one steep grade between Hammon and Cliff City that had +been completed. The current could be fed to the cables over this +stretch of track, and for a week Tom used this long and steep grade +just as much as he could, considering of course the demands of the +regular traffic. +</P> + +<P> +The telegraph operator at Half Way (merely a name for a station, for +there was not a habitation in sight) thrust his long upper-length out +of the telegraph office window one afternoon and waved a "highball" to +the waiting electric locomotive on the sidetrack. +</P> + +<P> +"Dispatcher says you can have Track Number Two West till the +four-thirteen, westbound, is due. I'll slip the operator at Cliff City +the news and he'll be on the lookout for you as well as me, Mr. Swift. +Go to it." +</P> + +<P> +Every man on the system was interested, and most of them enthusiastic, +about Tom's invention. The latter knew that he could depend upon this +operator and his mate to watch out for the western-bound flyer that +would begin its climb of the grade at Hammon less than half an hour +hence. +</P> + +<P> +The electric locomotive was coaxed out across the switch. Tom was +earnestly inspecting the more delicate parts of the mechanism while Ned +(and proud he was to do it) handled the levers. Once on the main line +he moved the controller forward. The machine began to pick up speed. +</P> + +<P> +The drumming of the wheels over the rail joints became a single +note—an increasing roar of sound. The electric locomotive shot up the +grade. The arrow on the speedometer crept around the dial and Ned's eye +was more often fastened on that than it was on the glistening twin +rails which mounted the grade. +</P> + +<P> +Black-green hemlock and spruce bordered the right of way on either +hand. Their shadows made the tunnel through the forest almost dark. But +Tom had not seen fit to turn on the headlight. +</P> + +<P> +"How is she making out?" asked the inventor, coming to look over his +chum's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"It's great, Tom!" breathed Ned Newton, his eyes glistening. "She eats +this grade up." +</P> + +<P> +"And it's within a narrow fraction of a two per cent.," said the +inventor proudly. "She takes it without a jar—Hold on! What's that +ahead?" +</P> + +<P> +The locomotive had traveled ten miles or more from Half Way. The +summit of the grade was not far ahead. But the forest shut out all view +of the station at Cliff City and the structures that stood near it. +</P> + +<P> +Right across the steel ribbons on which the hercules 0001 ran, Tom had +seen something which brought the question to his lips. Ned Newton saw +it too, and he shouted aloud: +</P> + +<P> +"Tree down! A log fallen, Tom!" +</P> + +<P> +He did not lose completely his self-control. But he grabbed the levers +with less care than he should. He tried to yank two of them at once, +and, in doing so, he fouled the brakes! +</P> + +<P> +He had shut off connection with the current. But the brake control was +jammed. The locomotive quickly came to a halt. Then, before Tom could +get to the open door, the wheels began spinning in reverse and the +great Hercules 0001 began the descent of the steep grade, utterly +unmanageable! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XIX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Peril, The Mother of Invention +</H3> + +<P> +Tom Swift's first thought was one of thankfulness. Thankfulness that he +did not have a drag of fifty or sixty steel gondolas or the like to add +their weight to the down-pull. The locomotive's own weight of +approximately two hundred and seventy tons was enough. +</P> + +<P> +For when the inventor pushed Ned aside and tried to handle the +controllers properly, he found them unmanageable. There was not a +chance of freeing them and getting power on the brakes. The Hercules +0001 was backing down the mountain side with a speed that was +momentarily increasing, and without a chance of retarding it! +</P> + +<P> +The young inventor at that moment of peril, knew no more what to do to +avert disaster than Ned Newton himself. +</P> + +<P> +It flashed across his mind, however, that others beside themselves were +in peril because of this accident. The fast express from the East that +should pass Half Way at four-thirteen, might already be climbing the +hill from Hammon. Hammon, at the foot of the grade, was twenty-five +miles away. Nor was the track straight. +</P> + +<P> +If the operator at Half Way did not see the runaway locomotive and +telephone the danger to the foot of the grade, when the Hercules 0001 +came tearing down the track it might ram something in the Hammon yard, +if it did not actually collide with the approaching westbound express. +</P> + +<P> +Such an emergency as this is likely either to numb the brains of those +entangled in the peril or excite them to increased activity. Ned Newton +was apparently stunned by the catastrophe. Tom's brain never worked +more clearly. +</P> + +<P> +He seized the siren lever and set it at full, so that the blast called +up continuous echoes in the forest as the locomotive plunged down the +incline. He ran to the door again, on the side where Half Way station +lay, and hung out to signal the operator who had so recently given him +right of way on this stretch of mountain road. +</P> + +<P> +"We're going to smash! We're going to smash!" groaned Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +Tom read these words on his chum's lips, rather than heard them, for +the roar of the descending locomotive drowned every other sound. Tom +waved an encouraging hand, but did not reply audibly. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile his brain was working as fast as ever it had. He had +instantly comprehended all the danger of the situation. But in addition +he appreciated the fact that such an accident as this might happen at +any time to this or any other locomotive he might build. +</P> + +<P> +Automatic brakes were all right. If there had been a good drag of cars +behind the Hercules 0001, on which the compressed air brakes might have +been set, the present manifest peril might have been obliterated. The +brakes on the cars would have stopped the whole train. +</P> + +<P> +But to halt this huge monster when alone, on the grade, was another +matter. Once the locomotive brake lever was jammed, as in this case, +there was no help for the huge machine. It had to ride to the foot of +the grade—if it did not chance to hit something on the way! +</P> + +<P> +And with this realization of both the imminent peril and the need of +averting it, to Tom's active brain came the germ of an idea that he +determined to put into force, if he lived through this accident, on +each and every electric locomotive that he might in the future build. +</P> + +<P> +This monster, flying faster and faster down the mountain side, was a +menace to everything in its track. There might be almost anything in +the way of rolling stock on the section between Half Way and Hammon at +the foot of the grade. If this thunderbolt of wood and steel collided +with any other train, with the force and weight gathered by its plunge +down the mountain, it would drive through such obstruction like a +projectile from Tom's own big cannon. +</P> + +<P> +Tom realized this fact. He knew that whatever object the Hercules 0001 +might strike, that object would be shattered and scattered all about +the right of way. What might happen to the runaway was another matter. +But the inventor believed that the electric locomotive would be less +injured than anything with which it came into collision. +</P> + +<P> +At any rate, thought of the peril to himself and his invention had +secondary consideration in Tom Swift's mind. It was what the monster +which he could not control might do to other rolling stock of the H. & +P. A. that rasped the young fellow's mind. +</P> + +<P> +The grade above Half Way had few curves. Tom soon caught the first +glimpse of the station. Would the operator hear the roar of the +descending runaway and understand what had happened? +</P> + +<P> +He leaned far out from the open doorway and waved his cap madly. He +began to shout a warning, although he saw not a soul about the station +and knew very well that his voice was completely drowned by the voice +of the siren and the drumming of the great wheels. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly the tousled head of the operator popped out of his window. He +saw the coming locomotive, the drivers smoking! +</P> + +<P> +To be a good railroad man one has to have his wits about him. To be a +good operator at a backwoods station one has to have two sets of +wits—one set to tell what to do in an emergency, the other to listen +and apprehend the voice of the sounder. +</P> + +<P> +This Half Way man was good. He knew better than to try the telegraph +instrument. He grabbed the telephone receiver and jiggled the hook up +and down on the standard while the Hercules 0001 roared past the +station. +</P> + +<P> +It did not need Tom's frantically waving cap to warn him what had +happened. And he remembered clearly the fact of the expected westbound +flyer. +</P> + +<P> +"Hammon? Get me? This is Half Way. That derned electric hog has sprung +something and is coming down, lickity-split! +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! Clear your yard! Where's Number Twenty-eight? Good! Side her, or +she'll be ditched. Get me?" +</P> + +<P> +The voice at the other end of the wire exploded into indignant +vituperation. Then silence. The Half Way operator had done his +best—his all. He ran out upon the platform. The electric locomotive +had disappeared behind the woods, but the roar of its wheels and the +shrill voice of its siren echoed back along the line. +</P> + +<P> +The sound faded into insignificance. The operator went back into his +hut and stayed close by the telephone instrument for the next ten +minutes to learn the worst. +</P> + +<P> +If the operator's nerves were tense, what about those of Tom Swift and +his chum? Ned staggered to the door and clung to Tom's arm. He shrilled +into the latter's ear: +</P> + +<P> +"Shall we jump?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see any soft spots," returned Tom, grimly. "There aren't any +life nets along this line." +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton was frightened, and with good reason. But if his chum was +equally terrified he did not show it. He continued to lean from the +open door to peer down the grade as the Hercules 0001 drove on. +</P> + +<P> +Around curve after curve they flew. It entered Ned's tortured mind that +if his chum had wanted speed, he was getting it now! He realized that +two miles a minute was a mere bagatelle to the pace now accomplished by +the runaway locomotive. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Result +</H3> + +<P> +As Ned Newton, fumbling at the controls when he saw the fallen tree +across the tracks, had jammed the brakes, the station master at Hammon, +at the bottom of this long grade on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos, had +stepped out to the blackboard in the barnlike waiting room and scrawled +with a bit of chalk: +</P> + +<P> +"No. 28—Westbound—due 3:38 is 15 m. late." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The fact, thus given to the general public or to such of it as might be +interested, averted what would have been a terrible catastrophe. +</P> + +<P> +The fast express was late. When the babbling voice of the Half Way +operator over the telephone warned Hammon of the coming of the runaway +electric locomotive, there was time to shift switches at the head of +the yard so that, when Number Twenty-eight came roaring in, she was +shunted on to a far track and flagged for a stop before she hit the +bumper. +</P> + +<P> +Thirty seconds later, from the west, the Hercules 0001 roared down the +grade and shot into the cleared west track in a halo of smoke and dust. +Speed! No runaway had ever traveled faster and kept the rails. The +story of the incident was embalmed in railroad history, and no history +is so full of vivid incident as that of the rail. +</P> + +<P> +When the first relay of excited railroad men reached the electric +locomotive after it had stopped on the long level, even Ned Newton had +pulled himself together and could look out upon the world with some +measure of calmness. Tom Swift was making certain notes and draughting +a curious little diagram upon a page of his notebook. +</P> + +<P> +"What happened to you, Mr. Swift?" was the demand of the first arrival. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my foot slipped," said the young inventor, and they got nothing +more out of him than that. +</P> + +<P> +But to Ned, after the crowd had gone, the inventor said: +</P> + +<P> +"Ned, my boy, they used to say that necessity was the mother of +invention. Therefore a loaf of bread was considered the maternal parent +of the locomotive. I've got one that will beat that." +</P> + +<P> +"Whew!" gasped Ned. "How can you? I haven't got my breath back yet." +</P> + +<P> +"It is peril that is the mother of invention," Tom went on, still +jotting down his notes. "Believe me! that jolt gave me a new idea—an +important idea. Suppose that operator at Half Way had been out back +somewhere, and had not seen or heard us flash by?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, suppose he had? What's the answer?" sighed Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Like enough we would have rammed something down here." +</P> + +<P> +"And I hardly understand even now why we didn't do just that," muttered +his chum, with a shake of his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Wake up, Ned! It's all over," laughed Tom. "While it was happening I +admit I was guessing just as hard as you were about the finish. But—" +</P> + +<P> +"Your recovery is better," grumbled his friend. "I'm scared yet." +</P> + +<P> +"And it might happen again—" +</P> + +<P> +"No—not—ever!" exclaimed Ned. "I shall never touch those controllers +again. I'll drive your airscout, or your fastest automobile, or +anything like that. But me and this electric locomotive have parted +company for good. Yes, sir!" +</P> + +<P> +"All right. It wasn't your fault. It might happen to any +motor-engineer. And the very fact that it can happen has given me my +idea. I tell you that danger is the mother of invention." +</P> + +<P> +"As far as I am concerned, it can be father and grandparents into the +bargain," Ned declared, with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Wake up!" cried his friend again. "I have got a dandy idea. I wouldn't +have missed that trip for anything." +</P> + +<P> +"You are crazy," interrupted Ned. "Suppose we had bumped something?" +</P> + +<P> +"But we didn't bump anything, except my brain tank. An idea bumped it, +I tell you. I am going to eliminate any such peril as that here-after." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean you are going to make it impossible for this locomotive ever +to slide down such a hill again if the brakes won't work? Humph! +Meanwhile I will go out and make the nearest water-fall begin to run +upward." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't scoff. I do not mean just what you mean." +</P> + +<P> +"I bet you don't!" +</P> + +<P> +"But although I cannot be sure that a locomotive will never again fall +downhill," said Tom patiently, "I'm going to fix it so that warning +need not be given by some operator along the line. The engineer must +be able to send warning of his accident, both up and down the road." +</P> + +<P> +"Huh? How are you going to do that?" demanded Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Wireless telephone. I may make some improvements on the present +models; but it is practicable. It has been used on submarines and +cruisers, and lately its practicability has been proved in the forestry +service. +</P> + +<P> +"Every one of these electric locomotives I turn out will be supplied +with wireless sets. The expense of making certain telegraph offices +along the line into receiving stations will be small. I am going to +take that up with Mr. Bartholomew at once. And I am going to fix these +brake controls so that nobody need ball them up again." +</P> + +<P> +If, out of such a desperate adventure, Tom could bring to fruition +really worthwhile improvements in relation to his invention, Ned +acknowledged the value of the incident. Just the same, he had a +personal objection to having any part in a similar experience. +</P> + +<P> +He was brave, but he could not forget danger. Tom seemed to throw the +effect of that terrible ride off his mind almost instantly. Ned dreamed +of it at night! +</P> + +<P> +However, from that time things seemed to go with a rush. Mr. +Bartholomew approved of the young inventor's suggestion regarding the +use of the wireless telephone as a method of averting a certain quality +of danger in the use of the proposed monster locomotive. The railroad +man was convinced that Tom's ideas were finally to culminate in +success, and he was ready to spend money, much money, in pushing on the +work. +</P> + +<P> +It was not long before a private test of the Hercules 0001 up the grade +from Hammon to Cliff City showed Mr. Bartholomew that the speed he had +required in his contract was attainable. With a drag fully as heavy as +any two locomotives had been able to get over the same sector, the new +locomotive alone marked a forty-five mile an hour pace. +</P> + +<P> +This attainment was kept quiet; not even the train crew knew what the +monster had done when they reached the summit of the mountain. But Mr. +Bartholomew, who rode with Tom and Ned in the cab, had held his own +watch on the test and compared it every minute with the speedometer. +</P> + +<P> +"I am satisfied that you are going to do more than I had really hoped, +Mr. Swift," the railroad president said at the end of the run. "Already +you could drive this locomotive at a two-mile-a-minute clip on level +rails, I am sure. Keep at it! Nobody will be more delighted than I +shall be if you pull down that hundred thousand dollars' bonus." +</P> + +<P> +"That's a fine way to talk, sir," cried Ned, with enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean every word of it, Mr. Newton. The money is his as soon as he +makes good." +</P> + +<P> +Both Tom and his financial manager left the president's office in a +satisfied state of mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Great news to send home, Tom," remarked Ned, when they were alone. +</P> + +<P> +"Righto, Ned. My father will be glad to hear it." +</P> + +<P> +"And what about Mary?" And Ned poked his chum in the ribs. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess she'll be glad too," Tom replied, his face reddening. +</P> + +<P> +That night Tom sent word to Mary and also a telegram, in code, to his +father, saying the prospects were now bright for a quick finish of the +task that had brought him West. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Open Switch +</H3> + +<P> +Meanwhile the work of electrifying another division of the Hendrickton +& Pas Alos Railroad had been pushed to completion. As Mr. Bartholomew +had in the first place stated, the road controlled water rights in the +hills which would supply any number of electric power stations, and his +enemies could not shut his road off from these waterfalls. +</P> + +<P> +Tom had not warned his faithful servant, the giant Koku, to watch out +for Andy O'Malley in particular; the inventor knew that the giant would +be as cautious about any stranger as could be wished. But personally +Tom was amazed that either O'Malley or some other henchman of the +president of the Hendrickton & Western did not make an attempt to +injure the electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps Mr. Bartholomew's police are really of some good," said Ned +Newton, when his chum mentioned his surprise on this point. "Has Koku +seen nobody lurking about at night?" +</P> + +<P> +"He certainly has not seen the man he calls 'Big Feet,'" chuckled Tom. +"If he had spotted O'Malley, there certainly would have been an +explosion." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell you what," Ned said reflectively, "the longer Lewis keeps off +you, the more suspicious I should be." +</P> + +<P> +"You think he is a bad citizen, do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"And then some, as the boys say out here," replied Ned. "I wouldn't +trust that man any farther than I would a nest of hornets or a shedding +rattlesnake." +</P> + +<P> +"I am inclined to believe, with you, Ned, that Lewis is hatching up +something and is keeping mighty whist about it. I sounded Mr. +Bartholomew on the idea and he, too, is puzzled." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess he knows that hombre," grumbled Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Bartholomew admits that several roads have sent representatives to +make inquiries about my locomotive. They have got wind of it, and, +after all, most railroads work in unison. What means progress for one +is progress for all." +</P> + +<P> +"That same rule does not seem to apply in the case of the H. & P. A. +and the H. & W.," remarked Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"No. They are out and out rivals. And Lewis and his gang have done this +road dirt—no two ways about that. But when I am convinced that my +locomotive has got all the speed and power contracted for, Mr. +Bartholomew wants to invite a bunch of his brother railroaders to see +the tests—to ride in the Hercules Three-Oughts-One, in fact." +</P> + +<P> +"How about it? You going to agree? Suppose they have some inventive +sharp along who will be able to steal some of your mechanical +contrivances—in his head, I mean," and Ned seemed quite suddenly +anxious. +</P> + +<P> +"I had thought of that. But before the test I shall send my blueprints +to Washington. Our patent attorney there has already filed tentative +plans and applied for certain patents that I consider completed. Don't +fret. I'll make it impossible for anybody to steal our patents legally." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! But illegally?" +</P> + +<P> +"That we cannot help in any case, and you know it," Tom said. "If some +road tries to build anything like the Hercules Three-Oughts-One for the +first two years without arranging with the Swift Construction Company, +you know that that railroad can be made to suffer in the courts, and +you are the boy, Ned, to put them over the jumps for it." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure," grumbled his chum. "It's always up to me to save the day." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly," chuckled Tom. "And in your character of life saver, do look +out for anybody who looks suspicious hanging about the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One. I'll take care of rival inventors. You and Koku keep +your eyes peeled for the H. & W. spies. Especially for that Andy +O'Malley. I feel that he will again show up. Maybe by 'the pricking of +my thumb' as Macbeth's witch used to remark." +</P> + +<P> +Every day save Sunday the electric locomotive had some kind of try-out. +On a level track Tom was sure of his monster invention's qualities; but +in the hills, at a distance from the Hendrickton terminal, it was +another matter. +</P> + +<P> +The grades were steep; but the road was well ballasted. There was +plenty of power. He saw the Jandel locomotives hurry back and forth +with the local trains and realized that this rival invention was by no +means to be despised. +</P> + +<P> +It was at about this time, too, that Mr. Damon appeared in Hendrickton. +Early one forenoon, when Tom and Ned were preparing to take the +Hercules 0001 out of the yard, and Koku was going to his lodgings to +get a little sleep, Tom's eccentric friend came across the tracks, +waving his cane at Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my frogs and switch-targets!" he ejaculated, "I've walked a mile +from that station to get here. Where are you going with that big +contraption? How does it work? Does it make all the speed you want, Tom +Swift? Bless my rails and sleepers!' +</P> + +<P> +"We're going about a hundred miles out on the road to a good, stiff +grade," Tom told him, having shaken hands in welcome. "If you want to, +get aboard." +</P> + +<P> +"They haven't blown you up yet, or otherwise wrecked the locomotive," +remarked Mr. Damon, grinning broadly. "I'll have to write right back to +your father—and to a certain young lady who shows a remarkable +interest in your welfare—that you are all right." +</P> + +<P> +"They should already be sure of that," laughed Tom. "Ned and I have +kept the post-office department and the telegraph company very busy." +</P> + +<P> +"They are waiting for my report," announced Mr. Damon, with confidence. +"And I am waiting for yours. Tell me, Tom: Is the locomotive a success?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's going to be," declared the inventor, with decision. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my trolley wires!" cried Mr. Damon, "I am glad to hear that. +Then you will surely pull down the extra hundred thousand dollars?" +</P> + +<P> +"I believe I shall fulfill every clause of the contract Mr. Bartholomew +and I signed," said Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"Then it's more than a success!" cried his friend. "You have invented +another marvel, Tom Swift!" +</P> + +<P> +"Marvel or not," rejoined Tom, "I believe that the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One will top anything so far built in the way of electric +locomotives." +</P> + +<P> +"Hurrah!" cried Mr. Damon. "Bless my controller! But your father and +Mary Nestor will be glad to hear that!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon was quite as much interested in this invention as he always +was in anything the young inventor worked upon. When he had once seen +the Hercules 0001 work on an up-grade he was doubly enthusiastic. To +his sanguine mind the locomotive was already completed. He could see no +possibility of failure. +</P> + +<P> +Tom, however, had to prove to his own satisfaction the success of every +detail of his invention before he was willing to tell Mr. Bartholomew +that he was ready for a public test. Mr. Damon, nor even Ned, could +scarcely see the reason for Tom's caution. +</P> + +<P> +Tom's favorite try-out grade was between Hammon and Cliff City. He +could obtain a right of way order from the train dispatcher on that +grade, sometimes of an hour's duration. He often snaked a load of +gondolas or cattle cars up the grade, relieving both the puller and +pusher steam locomotive. By this time the H. & P. A. system had +stopped using the Jandel machines on any grades. They had proved their +lack of power for such work. +</P> + +<P> +"But the Hercules Three-Oughts-One shows at every test that it has the +kick," Mr. Damon cried. +</P> + +<P> +In his enthusiasm he was out every day with Tom and Ned. And sometimes +Koku remained in the cab during the trial runs as well. +</P> + +<P> +On one such occasion Tom had drawn a heavy train over the mountain, +taking it down the grade beyond Cliff City to Panboro in the farther +valley. This was over a newly built stretch of the electrified road. +The power station charged the trolley cables with an abundance of +current, and the Hercules 0001 made a splendid trip. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my cuff-links!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, his rosy face one beaming +smile. "You couldn't expect to do better than this. You save one +locomotive on the haul, and you beat the schedule ten minutes, so that +you had to lay by to get right of way into the yard here. Why linger +longer, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"I agree with Mr. Damon," Ned said. "It seems to work perfectly. And +you have, I believe, established your required speed." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't be too perfect," said the young inventor, smiling. "But I will +tell Mr. Bartholomew when we get back that he can set his time for the +big test whenever he pleases. I have already sent our patent attorney +in Washington the final blueprints. Now, if nothing happens—" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my stickpin!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "What can happen now that the +locomotive is practically perfect?" +</P> + +<P> +That question was answered in one way, and a most startling way, within +the hour. Tom got right of way back over the mountain and pushed the +electric locomotive up-grade at almost top speed. He drew no train on +this occasion, and the speed made by the Hercules 0001 was really +remarkable. +</P> + +<P> +They topped the rise at Cliff City and got orders from the dispatcher +to proceed on the time of Number Eighty-seven, which chanced to be +late. With that release Tom might have made the entire distance of a +hundred and ten miles to Hendrickton had it not been for the +accident—the unexpected something that so often happens in the +railroad business. +</P> + +<P> +Tom was a careful driver; the chatter of Ned and Mr. Damon did not take +the inventor's mind off his business for one instant. He was quite +alert at his window, looking ahead, as Koku was at the open doorway of +the cab. +</P> + +<P> +Not a mile outside of Cliff City, and on this eastbound side of the +right of way, was a long siding and a shipping point for timber. It was +sometimes a busy point; but at this time of year there were no +lumbermen about and no activities in the adjacent forest. +</P> + +<P> +The Hercules 0001 came spinning along from the Cliff City yards, and +Tom Swift gave scarcely a glance to the joint of the switch ahead. He +had been over it so many times of late, and knew that it was always +locked. The railroad did not even keep a man here at this season. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Koku emitted a wild yell. He startled everybody else in the +cab, as he flung his huge body more than half out of the doorway and +prepared to jump—or so it seemed. +</P> + +<P> +Ned shrieked a warning to the big fellow. Mr. Damon began to bless +everything in sight. But it was Tom, quite as excited as his friends, +who understood what Koku shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Big Feet! Big Feet! I see um Big Feet, Master!" +</P> + +<P> +The next moment he threw himself from the rapidly moving locomotive. He +might have been killed easily enough. But fortunately he landed feet +first in the drift beside the rails, and remained upright as he slid +down into the ditch. +</P> + +<P> +Tom, glancing ahead again, saw the flash of a man in a checked Mackinaw +running up through the open wood and away from the right of way. He +could not be sure of Andy O'Malley's figure at that distance; but he +could be pretty confident of Koku's identification. +</P> + +<P> +And then, with a shock that gripped and almost paralyzed his mind, Tom +saw again the switch ahead of the pilot of the Hercules 0001. The +switch was open, and at the speed the electric locomotive had attained, +if she did not jump the rails, it seemed scarcely possible that she +could be stopped before hitting the bumper at the end of the siding! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Desperate Chase +</H3> + +<P> +These moments were fraught with peril, and not alone peril to the huge +machine that Tom Swift had built, but peril to those who remained in +the cab of the electric locomotive, as her forward trucks struck the +open switch. +</P> + +<P> +There was a mighty jerk that brought a shout from Ned Newton's lips and +a grunt from Mr. Damon. Tom clung to his swivel-seat, staring ahead. +</P> + +<P> +The pilot of the electric locomotive shot over on the siding; the +forward trucks followed, then the great drivers. The whole locomotive +swerved into the siding, but for several breathless seconds Tom was not +at all sure that the monster would not jump the rails and head into the +ditch! +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile his gaze measured the speed of that flying figure in the +Mackinaw as it scuttled up the slope through the open grove of hard +wood and pine. He could not at first see Koku, but he knew the giant +was headed for the fugitive, whether the latter proved to be Andy +O'Malley or not. +</P> + +<P> +Tom's gaze flashed to what lay ahead of the electric locomotive. As it +seemed to joggle back into balance, gain its uprightness, as it were, +the inventor saw the great, log-braced bumper between the two rails at +the end of the siding. With what force would the locomotive hit that +obstruction? +</P> + +<P> +Until the trailers were over the switch Tom dared not give her the +brakes. To lock the brake shoes upon the wheels might easily throw the +locomotive off the rails. But the instant he felt the tail of the long +locomotive swerve off the switch he jabbed the compressed air lever and +the wild shriek of the brake shoes answered to his effort. +</P> + +<P> +Then the bumper was but a few yards ahead. The electric locomotive was +bound to collide with it. And under the speed at which it had been +running, now scarcely reduced by half, the collision was apt to be a +tragic happening! +</P> + +<P> +Weeks of effort might be ruined in that moment! If the crash was +serious, thousands of dollars might be lost! In truth, Tom Swift +apprehended the possibility of a disaster, the complete results of +which might put the test of his invention forward for weeks—perhaps +for months. +</P> + +<P> +Nor could he do a thing to avert the disaster. He had reversed and set +the brakes immediately after the last wheel of the trailer was on the +siding. Nothing more could he do as the great electric locomotive bore +down upon the solid timber at the far end of this short track. +</P> + +<P> +Those few seconds, as the locked wheels slid toward the end of the +siding, were about as hard to bear as any experience the young inventor +had ever gone through. It was not so much the peril of the accident, it +was the possibility of what might happen to the locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +Within those few moments, however, Tom considered more than the safety +of his companions and himself, and more than the peril of wreck to his +locomotive. He considered the schedule of the trains on this division +of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos and remembered all those that might be +within this sector at this time. +</P> + +<P> +If the locomotive smashed into the bumper with force enough to wreck +the structure, would some approaching train on the westbound track not +be endangered? +</P> + +<P> +The thought was parent to Tom's act before the collision occurred. With +a single swift motion he reached for the signaling apparatus which he +had established in connection with his wireless telephone. +</P> + +<P> +Just the moment before the head of the locomotive rammed that seemingly +immovable barrier at the end of the siding there flashed into the air +from Tom's annunciator the code word agreed upon announcing a wreck, +and the number of the sector on which the electric locomotive was then +running. +</P> + +<P> +The next moment the crash occurred. +</P> + +<P> +Tom had leaped up with a shout of warning. "Hang on!" was his cry. But +when the locomotive had struck and rebounded Ned, from far down the +aisle of the locomotive, wanted to know in a very peevish tone what he +should have hung on to? +</P> + +<P> +"My elbows!" he groaned. "I've skinned 'em, and my back has got a twist +in it like the Irishman thought he had when he put on his overalls +hind-side to. What's happened?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my radiolite!" growled Mr. Damon. "My watch crystal is broken +all to finders, if you want to know. Bless my shock-absorbers! you +won't do this locomotive a bit of good, Tom Swift, if you stop it so +abruptly." +</P> + +<P> +"And that's the surest word you ever said," responded Tom, hurrying to +the door. "I don't know what's broken, but we're still on the rails. +The most immediate thing to learn, is the where-abouts of the fellow +who did this." +</P> + +<P> +"Who opened the switch?" cried Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe it was Andy O'Malley. Come on, Ned! Koku is after him and I +don't want him to tear O'Malley apart before I get there." +</P> + +<P> +"O'Malley has got powerful interests behind him, and it might go hard +with Koku if he injured the spy and some of these Westerners caught +him," suggested Mr. Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"They ought to thank Koku for manhandling the fellow—if he does," said +Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"As a matter of fact," replied Tom, "Koku will merely hold to the +fellow until we get there. But my giant's strength is enormous, and he +does not always know the strength of his grasp. He might hurt the +fellow. Come on," and Tom leaped from the doorway of the electric +locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +Ned leaped down the ladder after his chum. +</P> + +<P> +"Which way did they go?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Across the ditch and up the hill," said Tom. "Mr. Damon!" he called +back to that eccentric man, "will you please remain there and watch the +locomotive?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly will. And I'm armed, too," shouted Mr. Damon. "Don't fear +for this locomotive, Tom. I am right on the job." +</P> + +<P> +Tom waved his hand in reply, leaped the ditch, and started up through +the wood. Ned was close behind him, and the two young men ran as hard +as they could in the direction Tom had seen Andy O'Malley, followed by +the giant, running. +</P> + +<P> +In places the earth was slippery with pine needles, and the ground was +elsewhere rough. Therefore the chums did not make much speed in running +after the giant and his quarry. But Tom was sure of the direction in +which the two had disappeared, and he and Ned kept doggedly on. +</P> + +<P> +They went over the crest of the hill and lost sight of the siding and +the locomotive. Here was a sharp descent into a gulch, and some rods +away, in the bottom of this gully, the young fellows obtained their +first sight of Koku. He was still running with mighty strides and was +evidently within sight of the man he had set out after in such haste. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey! Koku!" shouted Tom Swift. +</P> + +<P> +The giant's hearing was of the keenest. He glanced back and raised his +arm in greeting. But he did not slacken his pace. +</P> + +<P> +"He must see O'Malley, Tom," cried Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure he does. And I want to get there about as soon as Koku grabs +the fellow," panted Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"He'll maul O'Malley unmercifully," said Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want Koku to injure him," admitted Tom, and he increased his +own stride as he plunged down into the gully. +</P> + +<P> +The young inventor distanced his chum within the next few moments. Tom +ran like a deer. He reached the bottom of the gully and kept on after +Koku's crashing footsteps. At every jump, too, he began to shout to the +giant: +</P> + +<P> +"Koku! Hold him!" +</P> + +<P> +The giant's voice boomed back through the heavy timber: "I catch him! I +hold him for Master! I break all um bones! Wait till Koku catch him!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hold him, Koku!" yelled Tom again. "Be careful and don't hurt him till +I get there!" +</P> + +<P> +He could not see what the giant was doing. The timber was thicker down +here. It might be that the giant would seize the man roughly. His zeal +in Tom's cause was great, and, of course, his strength was enormous. +</P> + +<P> +Yet Tom did not want to call the giant off the trail. Andy O'Malley +must be captured at this time. He had done enough, too much, indeed, in +attempting the ruin of Tom's plans. Before the matter went any further +the young inventor was determined that Montagne Lewis' spy should be +put where he would be able to do no more harm. +</P> + +<P> +But he did not want the man permanently injured. He knew now that Koku +was so wildly excited that he might set upon O'Malley as he would upon +an enemy in his own country. +</P> + +<P> +"Koku! Stop! Wait for me!" Tom finally shouted. +</P> + +<P> +Now the young inventor got no reply from the giant. Had the latter got +so far ahead that he no longer heard his master's command? +</P> + +<P> +Tom pounded on, working his legs like pistons, putting every last ounce +of energy he possessed into his effort. This was indeed a desperate +chase. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Mr. Damon at Bay +</H3> + +<P> +Mr. Wakefield Damon was a very odd and erratic gentleman, but he did +not lack courage. He was much more disturbed by the possible injury to +Tom Swift's invention by this collision with the bumper at the end of +the timber siding than he had been by his own danger at the time of the +accident. +</P> + +<P> +He did not understand enough about the devices Tom had built in the +forward end of the locomotive cab to understand, by any casual +examination, if they were at all injured. But when he climbed down +beside the track he saw at once that the forward end of the locomotive +had received more than a little injury. +</P> + +<P> +The pilot, or cow-catcher, looked more like an iron cobweb than it did +like anything else. The wheels of the forward trucks had not left the +track, but the impact of the heavy locomotive with the bumper had been +so great that the latter was torn from its foundations. A little more +and the electric locomotive would have shot off the end of the rails +into the ditch. +</P> + +<P> +While Mr. Damon was examining the front of the locomotive, and Tom and +Ned remained absent, he suddenly observed a group of men hurrying out +of the forest on the other side of the H. & P. A. right of way. They +were not railroad men—at least, they were not dressed in uniform—but +they were drawn immediately to the locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +The leader of the party was a squarely built man with a determined +countenance and a heavy mustache much blacker than his iron gray hair. +He was a bullying looking man, and he strode around the rear of the +locomotive and came forward just as though he was confident of boarding +the machine by right. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon, knowing himself in the wilderness and not liking the +appearance of this group of strangers, had retired at once to the cab, +and now stood in the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's that young fool Swift?" growled the man with the dyed +mustache, looking up at Mr. Damon and laying one hand upon the rail +beside the ladder. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know any such person," declared Mr. Damon promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't know Tom Swift?" cried the man. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! That's another matter," said Mr. Damon coolly. "I don't know any +fool named Swift, either young or old. Bless my blinkers! I should say +not." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't he here?" demanded the man, gruffly. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom Swift isn't here just now—no." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm coming up," announced the stranger, and started to put his foot on +the first rung of the iron ladder. +</P> + +<P> +"You're not," said Mr. Damon, promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" ejaculated the man. +</P> + +<P> +"You only think you are coming up here. But you are not. Bless my +fortune telling cards!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I should say not." +</P> + +<P> +At this point the black-mustached man began to splutter words and +threats so fast that nobody could quite understand him. Mr. Damon, +however, did not shrink in the least. He stood adamant in the doorway +of the cab. +</P> + +<P> +Finding little relief in bad language, the enemy made another attempt +to climb up. For one thing, he was physically brave. He did not call on +his companions to go where he feared to. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll show you!" he bawled, and scrambled up the rungs of the ladder. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon did show him. He drew from some pocket a black object with a +bulb and a long barrel. Somebody below on the cinder path shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Look out, boss he's got a gun!" +</P> + +<P> +At that moment the marauder reached out to seize Mr. Damon's coat. Then +the object in Mr. Damon's hand spat a fine spray into the florid face +of the enemy! +</P> + +<P> +"Whoo! Achoo! By gosh!" bawled the big man, and he fell back screaming +other ejaculations. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my face and eyes!" cried Mr. Damon. "What did I tell you? And +you other fellows want to notice it. Tom Swift isn't here just at this +precise moment; but he is guarding his locomotive just the same. He +invented this ammonia pistol, and I should say it was effectual. Do +you?" +</P> + +<P> +The eccentric man was shrewd enough now to keep behind the jamb of the +cab door. For some of these fellows, he realized, might be armed with +more deadly weapons than his own. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, Mr. Lewis!" cried one big fellow, "d'you want we should get that +fellow for you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want to know how badly that blamed thing is smashed," replied the +big man with the dyed mustache savagely. "Where's O'Malley?" +</P> + +<P> +"O'Malley's lit out, Boss, like I told you. That giant and them other +fellows is after him." +</P> + +<P> +"Break into that cab! Oh! My eyes! I'll kill that old fool! Break a +way in there—What's that?" +</P> + +<P> +In pain as he was, his other senses were alert. He was first to hear +the screeching whistle of the on-coming freight. +</P> + +<P> +"Think they got wind of this so quick?" demanded Montagne Lewis, for it +was he. "Are they sending help from Cliff City?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's a regular freight," returned one of his men. +</P> + +<P> +"She's comm' a-whizzin'," added another. "Right down the eastbound +track. If the crew see us—" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait!" commanded Lewis. "Isn't that switch open?" +</P> + +<P> +"You bet it is, Boss." +</P> + +<P> +"Let it be, then," cried the chief plotter. "Let 'em run into it. That +freight will smash up this electric locomotive more completely than we +could possibly do it. Stand away, men, and let her go!" +</P> + +<P> +A sharp curve in the right of way hid the siding, as well as the open +switch into it, from the gaze of the engineer who held the throttle of +the coming freight. His locomotive drew a string of empties, eastbound, +and having had a heavy pull of it coming up the grade to Cliff City, as +soon as he had got the highball from the yardmaster there, he had "let +her out," and was now coming to the head of the down grade to Hammon at +high speed. +</P> + +<P> +As it chanced, the wireless receiving station of Tom's new telephone +system was not yet completed at Cliff City. The news of the wreck of +the Hercules 0001 and her position had not been relayed to the master +of the Cliff City yards. +</P> + +<P> +That employee of the H. & P. A. had taken a chance in letting the +string of empties through his block. He knew the electric locomotive +was somewhere ahead, but he thought it would be making its usual time +and would have already passed Half Way. +</P> + +<P> +But the situation was serious. The freight was coming along at top +speed and the switch into the siding was still open. Montagne Lewis and +his crew of ruffians might well stand back and let what seemed sure to +happen, happen! The driving freight must do more harm to Tom Swift's +invention than they could have hoped to do with the sledges and bars +they had brought with them to the spot. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wakefield Damon had shown his courage already. He would have been +glad to do more to save Tom's locomotive from further injury, but he +did not realize what was threatening. He did not hear the shriek of the +freight engine's whistle. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Putting the Enemy to Flight +</H3> + +<P> +The pilot and headlight of the freight locomotive came around the turn +and the freight thundered on toward the switch. Seeing the group of men +standing by the stalled electric locomotive, and the locomotive itself +in the clear of the siding, the driver of the freight did not suppose +the switch was open. Nobody who was not a criminal would have stood by +idly in such an emergency and let the freight run into an open switch. +</P> + +<P> +Therefore, for the first minute, the coming engineer did not observe +his danger. Lewis and his gang stared at the head of the freight and +did nothing. They had moved hastily back from the siding so as to be +clear of the wreckage. Mr. Damon was in the front of the cab of +Hercules 0001 and had no idea of the approaching menace. +</P> + +<P> +But of a sudden a loud shout echoed through the wood. Tom Swift came +over the ridge and started toward his invention at top speed. From that +height he saw the freight train coming, he observed the men standing at +the siding, and he recognized Montagne Lewis, roughly as the railroad +magnate was dressed. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly Tom realized what was about to happen—what would surely +occur—and he saw what must be done if the utter wreck of his +locomotive was to be averted. Yelling at the top of his voice, he +leaped down the slope. +</P> + +<P> +"That's Swift!" shouted Lewis. "Stop him!" But the men he had hired to +do his wicked work fell back instead of trying to halt the young +inventor. It was not Tom's appearance that made them quail. Over the +ridge there appeared a second figure—and a more fearful or threatening +apparition none of them had ever before seen! +</P> + +<P> +Koku came running with the limp body of Andy O'Malley slung over his +shoulder like a bag of meal. The fellows knew it was Andy from his +dress. +</P> + +<P> +The giant came down the slope after Tom as though he wore the +seven-league boots. The fellows Lewis had hired to wreck the electric +locomotive shrank back from before both Tom and the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"Get him!" yelled the half blinded Lewis again. +</P> + +<P> +"Get your grandmother!" bawled one of the men suddenly. "Good-night!" +</P> + +<P> +He turned tail and ran, disappearing almost instantly into the thicker +woods. And his mates, after a moment of wavering, sped after him. Lewis +was left alone, quite helpless because of the ammonia fumes. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact not all of O'Malley's predicament was due to Koku. +The rascal, exhausted by his run and half blind through fright and +rage, had stumbled, fallen, and struck his head on a root, which +rendered him unconscious. +</P> + +<P> +This, of course, Lewis and his ruffians did not know. All the men of +the railroad president's gang saw was the gigantic Koku coming along in +great strides, bearing the unconscious O'Malley, who was a burly +fellow, as though he were a featherweight. No wonder they fled from +such a monster. +</P> + +<P> +Tom had reached the switch, and he was several seconds ahead of the +freight locomotive. The engineer saw the open switch then; but he was +too late to stop his train. +</P> + +<P> +Going into reverse, however, helped some. Tom seized the switch lever +and threw it over, locking it in place, just as the forward trucks +thundered upon the joint. The train swept by in safety, and the +engineer leaned from his cab window to wave a grateful hand at the +young inventor. +</P> + +<P> +Neither the engineer nor the crew of the freight understood the meaning +of the scene at the timber siding. All they learned was that Tom Swift +had saved the freight from a possible wreck. +</P> + +<P> +The young inventor turned sharply from the switch and motioned with his +hand to Koku. +</P> + +<P> +"Throw that fellow into the cab, Koku," he commanded. +</P> + +<P> +The giant did as he was told, just as Ned Newton came panting to the +spot. +</P> + +<P> +"Did they do any harm, Tom?" he cried. Then he saw Montagne Lewis +standing by, and he seized his chum's arm. "Do you see what I see, +Tom?" he demanded, earnestly. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess we both see the same snake," rejoined his chum. "And I mean to +scotch it." +</P> + +<P> +"Montagne Lewis!" murmured Ned. "And we've got his chief tool." +</P> + +<P> +Tom said nothing to his chum, but he approached Lewis with determined +mien. +</P> + +<P> +"I can see something has happened to you, Mr. Lewis, and I can guess +what it is. The effect of that ammonia will blow away after a time. Ask +your friend, Andy O'Malley. He knows all about it, for he sampled it +back East, in Shopton." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to get square for this, young man," growled the railroad +magnate. "You know who I am. And that fellow in the cab knew me, too. +How dared he shoot that stuff into my face and eyes?" +</P> + +<P> +"I fancy it didn't take much daring on Mr. Damon's part," and Tom +actually chuckled. "A big crook isn't any more important in our eyes +than a little crook. We've got your henchman, O'Malley—" +</P> + +<P> +"And you'd better let him go. I'm telling you," snarled Lewis. "I'll +ruin you in this country, Tom Swift. I've got influence—" +</P> + +<P> +"You won't have much after this thing comes out. And believe me, I mean +to spread it abroad. I've got nothing to win or lose from you, Mr. +Lewis. As for O'Malley, I'll put him behind the bars for a good long +term." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll do a lot—" +</P> + +<P> +"More than you think," said Tom. "Koku!" The giant had pitched +O'Malley, who was still senseless, into the cab, and now was coming up +behind Lewis. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Master," said the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"Get him!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Master," said Koku, and to Lewis' startled amazement, the next +instant he was in the hands of the giant! +</P> + +<P> +He screamed and threatened, and even kicked, to no avail. When he was +pitched into the electric locomotive he was held under the threat of +Mr. Damon's ammonia pistol until Tom and Ned and the giant entered and +the door was shut. Then Koku proceeded to tie both the prisoners by +wrist and ankle while the others examined the mechanism of the Hercules +0001. +</P> + +<P> +The pantagraph had been torn off the trolley wires when the locomotive +had gone on the siding. But now Tom climbed to the roof of the +locomotive, and with Koku's aid managed to set the rear pantagraph at +such an angle that its wheels caught the trolley cables again, and once +more the current was pumped into the Hercules 0001. +</P> + +<P> +Tom tried out the several parts of the mechanism and found that, +despite the jar of the collision, nothing was really injured. +</P> + +<P> +"I built this thing to withstand hard usage," he declared with pride. +"The Swift Hercules Electric Locomotives will not be built for parlor +ornaments. She is going to run into Hendrickton under her own power, in +spite of a smashed cows catcher and target lights." +</P> + +<P> +"Is nothing really injured, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon. "Bless my dinner +set! I thought everything had gone to smash when she hit that bumper." +</P> + +<P> +"She will be as good as new in a week," declared Tom, with conviction. +</P> + +<P> +This prophecy of the young inventor proved to be true. A week from that +day the public test of the electric locomotive on the Hendrickton & Pas +Alos Railroad was held. A picked delegation of railroad men was present +to observe and marvel, with Mr. Bartholomew; but Montagne Lewis, the +president of the H. & W., was not one of those who attended. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, Lewis soon got out of jail on bail. But the accusation +against him was a serious one. His guilt would be proved by his own +employee, Andy O'Malley, who was in a hospital for the time being. +</P> + +<P> +O'Malley had got enough. He had turned State's evidence and implicated +his employer. Influential and wealthy as Lewis was, he could not escape +trial with O'Malley when the time came. +</P> + +<P> +"One thing sure, Lewis has got all he wants. He isn't likely to try any +more crooked work against the H. & P. A.," Mr. Bartholomew said. "I can +thank you for that, Tom Swift, as well as for your invention. You +have saved the day for my railroad." +</P> + +<P> +"You can thank Koku," chuckled Tom. "If he hadn't spied and identified +'Big Feet,' we might not have caught O'Malley, and, through O'Malley, +implicated Montagne Lewis. You give Koku a new suit of clothes, Mr. +Bartholomew, and we will call it square. But be sure and have the +pattern of the goods loud enough." +</P> + +<P> +This conversation took place while the party of guests was gathering to +board Mr. Bartholomew's private car, attached to the Hercules 0001. Mr. +Damon was one of the guests and so was Ned Newton. Tom took into the +cab a crew of H. & P. A. men who would hereafter drive the huge +locomotive and take care of her. +</P> + +<P> +The semaphore signal dropped and the electric locomotive started as +quietly as a baby going to sleep! There was not a jar as the train +moved off the siding and over the switches to the main line. +</P> + +<P> +The dispatcher had arranged a clear road for them. Tom knew that he had +a free track ahead of him—a level of ninety-odd miles to the Hammon +yards. As he passed the Hendrickton shops he touched the siren lever +for a moment, and the shrill voice of the Hercules 0001 bade the town +good-bye. +</P> + +<P> +The next minute the visitors in the private car grabbed out their +split-second watches and began to murmur. The electric locomotive had +begun to travel! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Speed and Success +</H3> + +<P> +"What town is that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Looks like a splotch of paint on a board fence, we went by so quick." +</P> + +<P> +"I've lost count, Bartholomew. Where are we?" +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton listened to these comments from the visiting railroad men +with delight. In reply to a question of his neighbor, the grinning +financial manager of the Swift Construction Company paid: +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir. That isn't a picket fence. It's the telegraph poles you see, +and they are no nearer together than on another railroad. But we're +going some." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my railroad stock!" shouted Mr. Damon, "I should say we were." +</P> + +<P> +The electric locomotive and the private car were hurled toward the Pas +Alos Range at a speed that almost frightened some of the guests. +</P> + +<P> +"Three-quarters of an hour!" gasped one man as they began to see the +outskirts of Hammon. "And ninety-six miles? Great Scott, Bartholomew! +that's over two miles a minute!" +</P> + +<P> +"That is the speed we set out to get," Mr. Richard Bartholomew said, +with quite as much pride as though he had done it all himself. +</P> + +<P> +But it had been his suggestion and his money that had accomplished this +wonder. Tom Swift was willing to give the railroad president his share +of the fame. +</P> + +<P> +The train scarcely slackened speed at Hammon, for Tom got the signal +announcing a clear track ahead, and he bucked the grade with all the +power he could get from the feed wires. This hill, so well known to him +now, was surmounted at a slightly decreased speed; but it was a +wonderful display of power after all. +</P> + +<P> +They went down the other side to Panboro and there linked up with an +eastbound freight that the Hercules 0001 snatched over the mountain to +Hammon at a pace slightly exceeding forty-five miles an hour—at least +twice the speed that any two oil-burning locomotives could attain. As +for the Jandels, they were not in the same class at all with Tom +Swift's locomotive! +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my speedometer!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, when the train pulled down +and stopped again at the Hendrickton terminal. "This is the greatest +test of speed and power I ever heard of. Why, a coal burner or an oil +burner isn't in it with this Hercules locomotive! What do you say, Mr. +Bartholomew?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say I am satisfied—completely and thoroughly satisfied, Mr. +Damon," said the president of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad +frankly. "Mr. Swift has fulfilled his contract in every particular." +</P> + +<P> +An hour later the young inventor and his two friends were in conference +with Mr. Bartholomew over a new contract. The bonus of a hundred +thousand dollars would be paid at once to the Swift Construction +Company. But as the elder Swift's name would be needed on the new +contract for the building of other Hercules locomotives, Tom had an +idea. +</P> + +<P> +"We won't send the papers East for father to sign," he said. "I want +him to see the locomotive in real action. And I know where he can +borrow a private car and come out here in comfort. Rad can come with +him." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my valentines!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I bet somebody else will +come too." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon must have been a prophet, for a fortnight later, when the +borrowed car got in to the Hendrickton terminal at the tail of the +transcontinental flyer, Tom Swift saw first of all Mary Nestor's rosy +face on the platform of the car. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom! are you all right?" she cried, beaming down upon the young +inventor. +</P> + +<P> +"No. Half of me is left," he said, grinning up at her. "You look great, +Mary!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think so?" she cried, dimpling. "Well, if anybody should ask +you, Mr. Tom Swift, you look very good to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't make me swell all up, Mary," he laughed. "How's father?" +</P> + +<P> +"Splendid! And Rad—" +</P> + +<P> +"Eradicate Sampson is sho' 'nough puffectly all right," broke in the +voice of the old colored man, eager to make himself heard and seen. +"Here I is, Massa Tom. What dat lizard doin' here? Ain't he a sight?" +</P> + +<P> +The old man had caught sight of Koku in the wonderful new suit Mr. +Bartholomew had ordered made for the giant. A Navajo blanket had +nothing on that suit for a mixture of colors, and Koku strutted like a +turkey-gobbler. +</P> + +<P> +"My lawsy!" gasped Rad again, "he's as purty as a sunset. Is dat de way +de tailors out here build a man up? Sure's yo live, Massa Tom, I needs +a new suit of clo'es myself." +</P> + +<P> +And before he got away from Hendrickton, Rad Sampson sported a suit off +the same piece of goods as that of Koku's. Otherwise there might have +been a lasting feud between the giant and the Swift's ancient serving +man. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Barton Swift had stood the easy journey in the private car very +well. Before he would sign the contract that Mr. Bartholomew offered, +he wished to see for himself just how good his son's invention was. +</P> + +<P> +They made another test from Hendrickton to Panboro, over the "official +route," as Ned called it. The time made by Hercules 0001 was even a +little better than before. +</P> + +<P> +That the invention was well nigh perfect, and that it could do even +more than Mr. Bartholomew had hoped or Tom had claimed, was Mr. Swift's +conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom," he said to his son, "you have done a wonderful thing. Not only +have you completed a marvelous invention and gained thereby a lot of +money, and more in prospect, but you have aided in the world's progress +to no small degree. +</P> + +<P> +"Speed in transportation is the big problem before the world of +commerce today. To move goods from point to point safely and cheaply, +as well as rapidly, is the great task of this age. We are entering the +Age of Speed. The railroads must solve the problem to compete with +motor-truck traffic and fast boats on the lakes and rivers of our land. +</P> + +<P> +"You have, by your invention, shoved the clock of progress forward. I +am proud of you, my boy. I know now that, no matter what may happen to +me, you will make an enviable mark in the world of invention. +</P> + +<P> +"You have done much before for the Government in time of stress. But +war engines of any kind are not worthy examples of inventive genius +beside such a thing as this. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the inventions of peace, rather than those of war, that stand +for human progress." +</P> + +<P> +Coming back over the mountain, Mary Nestor rode in the cab with Tom. +She sat on the swivel stool, in fact, and handled the controls for part +of the way. But she gave up the driver's place to Tom before they +reached the timber siding east of Cliff City. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot go by that place without a shudder," Mary said to the +inventor. "Ned and Mr. Damon told me all about that accident. Suppose +you had been killed, Tom!" +</P> + +<P> +"I see I'll have to build an invention that will make that impossible," +chuckled the young fellow. +</P> + +<P> +"Make what impossible?" +</P> + +<P> +"Some invention that will make it positively certain that no matter +what I do or where I go, nothing can harm me. Nothing else will suit +you, Mary, I plainly see." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," returned the girl, smiling fondly at him. "I admit that would +satisfy me completely!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3> +This Isn't ALL! +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made in +this book? +</P> + +<P> +Would you like to read other stories continuing their adventures and +experiences, or other books quite as entertaining by the same author? +</P> + +<P> +On the reverse side of the wrapper which comes with this book, you will +find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the same store +where you got this book. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +Don't throw away the Wrapper +</H3> + +<P> +Use it as a handy catalog of the books you want some day to have. But +in case you do mislay it, write to the Publishers for a complete +catalog. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE TOM SWIFT SERIES +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By VICTOR APPLETON +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers.<BR> +Every Volume Complete in Itself. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Every boy possesses some form of inventive genius. Tom Swift is a +bright, ingenious boy and his inventions and adventures make the most +interesting kind of reading. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE<BR> +TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS<BR> +TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE<BR> +TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER<BR> +TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL<BR> +TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH<BR> +TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING BOAT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT OIL GUSHER<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHEST OF SECRETS<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRLINE EXPRESS<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE DON STURDY SERIES +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By VICTOR APPLETON +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Individual Colored Wrappers and Text illustrations by WALTER S. ROGERS +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Every Volume Complete in Itself +</P> + +<P> +In company with his uncles, one a mighty hunter and the other a noted +scientist, Don Sturdy travels far and wide, gaining much useful +knowledge and meeting many thrilling adventures. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DON STURDY ON THE DESERT OF MYSTERY;<BR> +Or, Autoing in the Land of the Caravans. +</P> + +<P> +An engrossing tale of the Sahara Desert, of encounters with wild +animals and crafty Arabs. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DON STURDY WITH THE BIG SNAKE HUNTERS;<BR> +Or, Lost in the Jungles of the Amazon. +</P> + +<P> +Don's uncle, the hunter, took an order for some of the biggest snakes +to be found in South America—to be delivered alive! The filling of +that order brought keen excitement to the boy. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DON STURDY IN THE TOMBS OF GOLD;<BR> +Or, The Old Egyptian's Great Secret. +</P> + +<P> +A fascinating tale of exploration and adventure in the Valley of Kings +in Egypt. Once the whole party became lost in the maze of cavelike +tombs far underground. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DON STURDY ACROSS THE NORTH POLE;<BR> +Or, Cast Away in the Land of Ice. +</P> + +<P> +Don and his uncles joined an expedition bound by air across the north +pole. A great polar blizzard nearly wrecks the airship. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DON STURDY IN THE LAND OF VOLCANOES;<BR> +Or, The Trail of the Ten Thousand Smokes. +</P> + +<P> +An absorbing tale of adventures among the volcanoes of Alaska in a +territory but recently explored. A story that will make Don dearer to +his readers than ever. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE RADIO BOYS SERIES (Trademark Registered) +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By ALLEN CHAPMAN +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Author of the "Railroad Series," Etc. Individual Colored Wrappers. +Illustrated. Every Volume Complete in Itself. +</P> + +<P> +A new series for boys giving full details of radio work, both in +sending and receiving—telling how small and large amateur sets can be +made and operated, and how some boys got a lot of fun and adventure out +of what they did. Each volume from first to last is so thoroughly +fascinating, so strictly up-to-date and accurate, we feel sure all lads +will peruse them with great delight. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Each volume has a Foreword by Jack Binns, the well-known radio expert. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS;<BR> +Or, Winning the Ferberton Prize. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT;<BR> +Or, The Messsage That Saved the Ship. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS AT THE SENDING STATION;<BR> +Or, Making Good in the Wireless Room. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS;<BR> +Or, The Midnight Call for Assistance. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS TRAILING A VOICE;<BR> +Or, Solving a Wireless Mystery. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE FOREST RANGERS;<BR> +Or, The Great Fire on Spruce Mountain. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE ICEBERG PATROL;<BR> +Or, Making Safe the Ocean Lanes. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RADIO BOYS WITH THE FLOOD FIGHTERS;<BR> +Or, Saving the City in the Valley. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE RAILROAD SERIES +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By ALLEN CHAPMAN +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Author of the "Radio Boys," Etc. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Uniform Style of Binding. Illustrated. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Every Volume Complete in Itself. +</P> + +<P> +In this line of books there is revealed the whole workings of a great +American railroad system. There are adventures in abundance—railroad +wrecks, dashes through forest fires, the pursuit of a "wildcat" +locomotive, the disappearance of a pay car with a large sum of money on +board—but there is much more than this—the intense rivalry among +railroads and railroad men, the working out of running schedules, the +getting through "on time" in spite of all obstacles, and the +manipulation of railroad securities by evil men who wish to rule or +ruin. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH OF THE ROUND HOUSE;<BR> +Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER;<BR> +Or, Clearing the Track. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH ON THE ENGINE;<BR> +Or, The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS;<BR> +Or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH, THE TRAIN DISPATCHER;<BR> +Or, the Mystery of the Pay Car. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH ON THE ARMY TRAIN;<BR> +Or, The Young Railroader's Most Daring Exploit. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH ON THE MIDNIGHT FLYER;<BR> +Or, The Wreck at Shadow Valley. +</P> + +<P> +RALPH AND THE MISSING MAIL POUCH;<BR> +Or, The Stolen Government Bonds. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE RIDDLE CLUB BOOKS By ALICE DALE HARDY +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Individual Colored Wrappers. Attractively Illustrated. Every Volume +Complete in Itself. +</P> + +<P> +Here is as ingenious a series of books for little folks as has ever +appeared since "Alice in Wonderland." The idea of the Riddle books is a +little group of children—three girls and three boys decide to form a +riddle club. Each book is full of the adventures and doings of these +six youngsters, but as an added attraction each book is filled with a +lot of the best riddles you ever heard. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT HOME +</P> + +<P> +An absorbing tale that all boys and girls will enjoy reading. How the +members of the club fixed up a clubroom in the Larue barn, and how +they, later on, helped solve a most mysterious happening, and how one +of the members won a valuable prize, is told in a manner to please +every young reader. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RIDDLE CLUB IN CAMP +</P> + +<P> +The club members went into camp on the edge of a beautiful lake. Here +they had rousing good times swimming, boating and around the campfire. +They fell in with a mysterious old man known as The Hermit of Triangle +Island. Nobody knew his real name or where he came from until the +propounding of a riddle solved these perplexing questions. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RIDDLE CLUB THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS +</P> + +<P> +This volume takes in a great number of winter sports, including skating +and sledding and the building of a huge snowman. It also gives the +particulars of how the club treasurer lost the dues entrusted to his +care and what the melting of the great snowman revealed. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT SUNRISE BEACH +</P> + +<P> +This volume tells how the club journeyed to the seashore and how they +not only kept up their riddles but likewise had good times on the sand +and on the water. Once they got lost in a fog and are marooned on an +island. Here they made a discovery that greatly pleased the folks at +home. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE HONEY BUNCH BOOKS +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By HELEN LOUISE THORNDYKE +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Individual Colored Wrappers and Text<BR> +Illustrations Drawn by +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +WALTER S. ROGERS +</P> + +<P> +A new line of fascinating tales for little girls. Honey Bunch is a +dainty, thoughtful little girl, and to know her is to take her to your +heart at once. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: JUST A LITTLE GIRL +</P> + +<P> +Happy days at home, helping mamma and the washerlady. And Honey Bunch +helped the house painters too—or thought she did. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE CITY +</P> + +<P> +What wonderful sights Honey Bunch saw when she went to visit her +cousins in New York! And she got lost in a big hotel and wandered into +a men's convention! +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM +</P> + +<P> +Can you remember bow the farm looked the first time you visited it? How +big the cows and horses were, and what a roomy place to play in the +barn proved to be? +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE SEASHORE +</P> + +<P> +Honey Bunch soon got used to the big waves and thought playing in the +sand great fun. And she visited a merry-go-round, and took part in a +seaside pageant. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST LITTLE GARDEN +</P> + +<P> +It was great sport to dig and to plant with one's own little garden +tools. But best of all was when Honey Bunch won a prize at the flower +show. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS IN CAMP +</P> + +<P> +It was a great adventure for Honey Bunch when she journeyed to Camp +Snapdragon. It was wonderful to watch the men erect the tent, and +wonderful to live in it and have good times on the shore and in the +water. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By LAURA LEE HOPE +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Author of the "Bobbsey Twins," "Bunny Brown" Series, Etc. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Every Volume Complete in Itself. +</P> + +<P> +These tales take in the various adventures participated in by several +bright, up-to-date girls who love outdoor life. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE;<BR> +Or, Camping and Tramping for Fun and Health. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE;<BR> +Or, The Stirring Cruise of the Motor Boat Gem. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR;<BR> +Or, The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP;<BR> +Or, Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA;<BR> +Or, Wintering in the Sunny South. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW;<BR> +Or, The Box That Was Found in the Sand. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND;<BR> +Or, A Cave and What it Contained. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE;<BR> +Or, Doing Their Bit for Uncle Sam. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE;<BR> +Or, Doing Their Best For the Soldiers. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT;<BR> +Or, A Wreck and A Rescue. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE;<BR> +Or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLE;<BR> +Or, The Girl Miner of Gold Run. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AROUND THE CAMPFIRE;<BR> +Or, The Old Maid of the Mountains. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON CAPE COD;<BR> +Or, Sally Ann of Lighthouse Rock. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1364 ***</div> +</BODY> + +</HTML> + + diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tom Swift and his Electric Locomotive + or, Two Miles a Minute on the Rails + +Author: Victor Appleton + +Posting Date: July 17, 2008 [EBook #1364] +Release Date: June, 1998 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SWIFT AND ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE *** + + + + +Produced by Anthony Matonac + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE +</H1> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +or +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Two Miles a Minute on the Rails +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +VICTOR APPLETON +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">A TEMPTING OFFER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">TROUBLE STARTS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">TOM SWIFT'S FRIENDS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">MUCH TO THINK ABOUT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">THE CONTRACT SIGNED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">THE MAN WITH BIG FEET</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">AN ENEMY IN THE DARK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">WHERE WAS KOKU?</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">A STRANGE CONVERSATION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">TOUCH AND GO</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">THE TRY-OUT DAY ARRIVES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">HOPES AND FEARS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">SPEED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">THE ENEMY STILL ACTIVE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">OFF FOR THE WEST</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">THE WRECK OF FORTY-EIGHT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">ON THE HENDRICKTON & PAS ALOS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">PERIL, THE MOTHER OF INVENTION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">THE RESULT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">THE OPEN SWITCH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">A DESPERATE CHASE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">MR. DAMON AT BAT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">PUTTING THE ENEMY TO FLIGHT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">SPEED AND SUCCESS</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE +</h1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Tempting Offer +</H3> + +<P> +"An electric locomotive that can make two miles a minute over a +properly ballasted roadbed might not be an impossibility," said Mr. +Barton Swift ruminatively. "It is one of those things that are coming," +and he flashed his son, Tom Swift, a knowing smile. It had been a +topic of conversation between them before the visitor from the West had +been seated before the library fire and had sampled one of the elder +Swift's good cigars. +</P> + +<P> +"It is not only a future possibility," said the latter gentleman, +shrugging his shoulders. "As far as the Hendrickton and Pas Alos +Railroad Company goes, a two mile a minute gait—not alone on a level +track but through the Pas Alos Range—is an immediate necessity. It's +got to be done now, or our stock will be selling on the curb for about +two cents a share." +</P> + +<P> +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom Swift +earnestly, and staring at the big-little man before the fire. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Richard Bartholomew was just that—a "big-little man." In the +railroad world, both in construction and management, he had made an +enviable name for himself. +</P> + +<P> +He had actually built up the Hendrickton and Pas Alos from a +narrow-gauge, "jerkwater" road into a part of a great cross-continent +system that tapped a wonderfully rich territory on both sides of the +Pas Alos Range. +</P> + +<P> +For some years the H. & P. A. had a monopoly of that territory. Now, +as Mr. Bartholomew intimated, it was threatened with such rivalry from +another railroad and other capitalists, that the H. & P. A. was being +looked upon in the financial market as a shaky investment. +</P> + +<P> +But Tom Swift repeated: +</P> + +<P> +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Bartholomew, who was a little man physically, rolled around in his +chair to face the young fellow more directly. His own eyes sparkled in +the firelight. His olive face was flushed. +</P> + +<P> +"That is much nearer the truth, young man," he said, somewhat harshly +because of his suppressed emotion, "than I want people at large to +suspect. As I have told your father, I came here to put all my cards on +the table; but I expect the Swift Construction Company to take anything +I may say as said in confidence." +</P> + +<P> +"We quite understand that, Mr. Bartholomew," said the elder Swift, +softly. "You can speak freely. Whether we do business or not, these +walls are soundproof, and Tom and I can forget, or remember, as we +wish. Of course if we take up any work for you, we must confide to a +certain extent in our close associates and trusted mechanics." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" grunted the visitor, turning restlessly again in his chair. +Then he said: "I agree as the necessity of that last statement; but I +can only hope that these walls are soundproof." +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" demanded Tom, rather sharply. He was a bright looking +young fellow with an alert air and a rather humorous smile. His father +was a semi-invalid; but Tom possessed all the mental vigor and muscular +energy that a young man should have. He had not neglected his Athletic +development while he made the best use of his mental powers. +</P> + +<P> +"Believe me," said the visitor, quite as harshly as before, "I begin to +doubt the solidity of all walls. I know that I have been watched, and +spied upon, and that eavesdroppers have played hob with our affairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Of late, there has been little planned in the directors' room of the +H. & P. A. that has not seeped out and aided the enemy in foreseeing +our moves." +</P> + +<P> +"The enemy?" repeated Mr. Swift, with mild surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"That's it exactly! The enemy!" replied Mr. Bartholomew shortly. "The +H. & P. A. has got the fight of its life on its hands. We had a hard +enough time fighting nature and the elements when we laid the first +iron for the road a score of years ago. Now I am facing a fight that +must grow fiercer and fiercer as time goes on until either the H. & P. +A. smashes the opposition, or the enemy smashes it." +</P> + +<P> +"What enemy is this you speak of?" asked Tom, much interested. +</P> + +<P> +"The proposed Hendrickton & Western. A new road, backed by new capital, +and to be officered and built by new men in the construction and +railroad game. +</P> + +<P> +"Montagne Lewis—you've heard of him, I presume—is at the head of the +crowd that have bought the little old Hendrickton & Western, lock, +stock and barrel. +</P> + +<P> +"They have franchises for extending the road. In the old days the +legislatures granted blanket franchises that allowed any group of +moneyed men to engage in any kind of business as side issues to +railroading. Montagne Lewis and his crowd have got a 'plenty-big' +franchise. +</P> + +<P> +"They have begun laying iron. It parallels, to a certain extent, our +own line. Their surveyors were smarter than the men who laid out the H. +& P. A. I admit it. Besides, the country out there is developed more +than it was a score of years ago when I took hold. +</P> + +<P> +"All this enters into the fight between Montagne Lewis and me. But +there is something deeper," said the little man, with almost a snarl, +as he thrashed about again in his chair. "I beat Montagne Lewis at one +big game years ago. He is a man who never forgets—and who never +hesitates to play dirty politics if he has to, to bring about his own +ends. +</P> + +<P> +"I know that I have been watched. I know that I was followed on this +trip East. He has private detectives on my track continually. And +worse. All the gunmen of the old and wilder West are not dead. There's +a fellow named Andy O'Malley—well, never mind him. The game at present +is to keep anybody in Lewis's employ from getting wise to why I came to +see you." +</P> + +<P> +"What you say is interesting," Mr. Swift here broke in quietly. "But I +have already been puzzled by what you first said. Just why have you +come to us—to Tom and me—in reference to your railroad difficulties?" +</P> + +<P> +"And this suggestion you have made," added Tom, "about a possible +electric locomotive of a faster type than has, ever yet been put on the +rails?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is it, exactly," replied Bartholomew, sitting suddenly upright in +his chair. "We want faster electric motor power than has ever yet been +invented. We have got to have it, or the H. & P. A. might as well be +scrapped and the whole territory out there handed over to Montagne +Lewis and his H. & W. That is the sum total of the matter, gentlemen. +If the Swift Construction Company cannot help us, my railroad is going +to be junk in about three years from this beautiful evening." +</P> + +<P> +His emphasis could not fail to impress both the elder and the younger +Swift. They looked at each other, and the interest displayed upon the +father's countenance was reflected upon the features of the son. +</P> + +<P> +If there was anything Tom Swift liked it was a good fight. The clash of +diverse interests was the breath of life to the young fellow. And for +some years now, always connected in some way with the development of +his inventive genius, he had been entangled in battles both of wits and +physical powers. Here was the suggestion of something that would entail +a struggle of both brain and brawn. +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds good," muttered Tom, gazing at the railroad magnate with +considerable admiration. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us hear all about it," Mr. Swift said to Bartholomew. "Whether we +can help you or not, we're interested." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," replied the visitor again. "Whether I was followed East, +and here to Shopton, or not doesn't much matter. I will put my +proposition up to you, and then I'll ask, if you don't want to go into +it, that you keep the business absolutely secret. I have got to put +something over on Montagne Lewis and his crowd, or throw up the sponge. +That's that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Go ahead, Mr. Bartholomew," observed Tom's father, encouragingly. +</P> + +<P> +"To begin with, four hundred miles of our road is already electrified. +We have big power stations and supply heat and light and power to +several of the small cities tapped by the H. & P. A. It is a paying +proposition as it stands. But it is only paying because we carry the +freight traffic—all the freight traffic—of that region. +</P> + +<P> +"If the H. & W. breaks in on our monopoly of that, we shall soon be so +cut down that our invested capital will not earn two per cent.—No, by +glory! not one-and-a-half per cent.—and our stock will be dished. But +I have worked out a scheme, Gentlemen, by which we can counter-balance +any dig Lewis can give us in the ribs. +</P> + +<P> +"If we can extend our electrified line into and through the Pas Alos +Range our freight traffic can be handled so cheaply and so effectively +that nothing the Hendrickton & Western can do for years to come will +hurt us. Get that?" +</P> + +<P> +"I get your statement, Mr. Bartholomew," said Mr. Swift. "But it is +merely a statement as yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure. Now I will give you the particulars. We are using the Jandel +locomotives on our electrified stretch of road. You know that patent?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know something about it, Mr. Bartholomew," said the younger +inventor. "I have felt some interest in the electric locomotive, though +I have done nothing practical in the matter. But I know the Jandel +patent." +</P> + +<P> +"It is about the best there is—and the most recent; but it does not +fill the bill. Not for the H. & P. A., anyway," said Mr. Bartholomew, +shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"What does it lack?" asked Mr. Swift. +</P> + +<P> +"Speed. It's got the power for heavy hauls. It could handle the freight +through the Pas Alos Range. But it would slow up our traffic so that +the shippers would at once turn to the Hendrickton & Western. You +understand that their rails do not begin to engage the grades that our +engineers thought necessary when the old H. & P. A. was built." +</P> + +<P> +"I get that," said Tom briskly. "You have come here, then, to interest +us in the development of a faster but quite as powerful type of +electric locomotive as the Jandel." +</P> + +<P> +"Stated to the line!" exclaimed Mr. Bartholomew, smiting the arm of his +chair with his clenched fist. "That is it, young man. You get me +exactly. And now I will go on to put my proposition to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Do so, Mr. Bartholomew," murmured the old inventor, quite as much +interested as his son. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to make a study of electric motive power as applied to +track locomotives, with the idea of utilizing our power plants and +others like them, and even with the possibility in mind of the +continued use of the Jandel locomotives on our more level stretches of +road. +</P> + +<P> +"But I want your investigation to result in the building of locomotives +that will make a speed of two miles a minute, or as near that as +possible, on level rails, and be powerful enough to snake our heavy +freight trains through the hills and over the steep grades so rapidly +that even two engines, a pusher and a hauler, cannot beat the electric +power." +</P> + +<P> +"Some job, that, I'll say," murmured Tom Swift. +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly. Some job. And it is the only thing that will save the H. & P. +A.," said Mr. Bartholomew decidedly. "I put it up to you Swifts. I have +heard of some of your marvelous inventions. Here is something that is +already invented. But it needs development." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," said Mr. Swift, and nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"It interests me," admitted Tom. "As I say, I have given some thought +to the electric locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"This is the age of speed," said Mr. Bartholomew earnestly. "Rapidity +in handling freight and kindred things will be the salvation, and the +only salvation, of many railroads. Tapping a rich territory is not +enough. The road that can offer the quickest and cheapest service is +the road that is going to keep out of a receivership. Believe me, I +know!" +</P> + +<P> +"You should," said Mr. Swift mildly. "Your experience should have +taught you a great deal about the railroad business." +</P> + +<P> +"It has. But that knowledge is worth just nothing at all without swift +power and cheap traffic. Those are the problems today. Now, I am going +to take a chance. If it doesn't work, my road is dished in any case. So +I feel that the desperate chance is the only chance." +</P> + +<P> +"What is that?" asked Tom Swift, sitting forward in his chair. "I, for +one, feel so much interested that I will do anything in reason to find +the answer to your traffic problem." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the boy!" ejaculated Richard Bartholomew. "I will give it to +you in a few words. If you will experiment with the electric locomotive +idea, to develop speed and power over and above the Jandel patent, and +will give me the first call on the use of any patents you may contrive, +I will put up twenty-five thousand dollars in cash which shall be yours +whether I can make use of a thing you invent or not." +</P> + +<P> +"Any time limit in this agreement, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom, making +a few notes on a scratch pad before him on the library table. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you say to three months?" +</P> + +<P> +"Make it six, if you can," Tom said with continued briskness. "It +interests me. I'll do my best. And I want you to get your money's +worth." +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Make it six," said Mr. Bartholomew. "But the quicker you +dig something up, the better for me. Now, that is the first part of my +proposition." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, sir. And the second?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you succeed in showing me that you can build and operate an +electric locomotive that will speed two miles a minute on a level track +and will get a heavy drag over the mountain grades, as I said, as +surely as two engines of the coal-burning or oil-burning type, I will +pay you a hundred thousand dollars bonus, besides buying all the +engines you can build of this new type for the first two years. I've +got to have first call; but the hundred thousand will be yours free and +clear, and the price of the locomotives you build can be adjusted by +any court of agreement that you may suggest." +</P> + +<P> +Tom Swift's face glowed. He realized that this offer was not only +generous, but that it made it worth his while dropping everything else +he had in hand and devoting his entire time and thought for even six +months to the proposition of developing the electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +He looked at his father and nodded. Mr. Swift said, calmly: +</P> + +<P> +"We take you on that offer, Mr. Bartholomew. Tom has the facts on +paper, and we will hand it to Mr. Newton, our financial manager, in the +morning. If you will remain in town for twenty-four hours, the contract +can be signed." +</P> + +<P> +"Suits me," declared. Richard Bartholomew, rising quickly from his +chair. "I confess I hoped you would take me up quite as promptly as you +have. I want to get back West again. +</P> + +<P> +"We will see you in the office of the company at two o'clock tomorrow," +said Tom Swift confidently. +</P> + +<P> +"Better than good! And now, if that trailer that I am pretty sure +Montagne Lewis sent after me does not get wise to the subject of our +talk, it may be a slick job we have done and will do. I admit I am +rather afraid of the enemy. You Swifts must keep your plans in utter +darkness." +</P> + +<P> +After a little talk on more ordinary affairs, Mr. Bartholomew took his +departure. It was getting late in the evening, and Tom Swift had an +engagement. While old Rad, their colored servant, was helping him on +with his coat preparatory to Tom's leaving the house, his father called +from the library: +</P> + +<P> +"Got those notes in a safe place, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"Safest in the world, Dad," his son replied. But he did not go into +details. Tom considered the "safest place in the world" just then was +his own wallet, which was tucked into an inside pocket of his vest "I'm +going to see Mary Nestor, Father," said Tom, as he went to the front +door and opened it. +</P> + +<P> +He halted a moment with the knob of the door in his hand. The porch was +deep in shadows, but he thought he had seen something move there. +</P> + +<P> +"That you, Koku?" asked Tom in an ordinary voice. Sometimes his +gigantic servant wandered about the house at night. He was a strange +person, and he had a good many thoughts in his savage brain that even +his young master did not understand. +</P> + +<P> +There was no reply to Tom's question, so he walked down the steps and +out at the gate. It was not a long distance to the Nestor house, and +the air was brisk and keen, in spite of the fact that threatening +clouds masked the stars. +</P> + +<P> +Two blocks from the house he came to a high wall which separated the +street from the grounds of an old dwelling. Tom suddenly noticed that +the usual street lights on this block had been extinguished—blown out +by the wind, perhaps. +</P> + +<P> +Involuntarily he quickened his steps. He reached the archway in the +wall. Here was the gate dividing the private grounds from the street. +As he strode into the shadow of this place a voice suddenly halted Tom +Swift. +</P> + +<P> +"Hands up! Put 'em up and don't be slow about it!" A bulky figure +loomed in the dark. Tom saw the highwayman's club poised threateningly +over his head. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Trouble Starts +</H3> + +<P> +The fact that he was stopped by a footpad smote Tom Swift's mind as not +a particularly surprising adventure. He had heard that several of that +gentry had been plying their trade about the outskirts of the town. To +a degree he was prepared for this sudden event. +</P> + +<P> +Then there flashed into Tom's mind the thought of what Mr. Richard +Bartholomew had said regarding the spy he believed had followed him +from the West. Could it be possible that some hired thug sent by +Montagne Lewis and his crooked crowd of financiers considered that Tom +Swift had obtained information from the president of the H. & P. A. +that might do his employers signal service? +</P> + +<P> +Tom Swift had fallen in with many adventures—and some quite thrilling +ones—since, as a youth, he was first introduced to the reader in the +initial volume of this series, entitled "Tom Swift and His Motor +Cycle." His first experiences as an inventor, coached by his father, +who had spent his life in the experimental laboratory and workshop, was +made possible by his purchase from Mr. Wakefield Damon, now one of his +closest friends, of a broken-down motor cycle. +</P> + +<P> +Through a series of inventions, some of them of a marvelous kind, Tom +Swift, aided by his father, had forged ahead, building motor boats, +airships, submarines, monoplanes, motion picture cameras, searchlights, +cannons, photo-telephones, war tanks. Of late, as related in "Tom Swift +Among the Fire Fighters," he had engaged in the invention of an +explosive bomb carrying flame-quenching chemicals that would, in time, +revolutionize fire-fighting in tall buildings. +</P> + +<P> +The matter that Mr. Richard Bartholomew, the railroad magnate, had +brought to Tom's and his father's attention had deeply interested the +young inventor. Thought of the electric locomotive, the development of +which the railroad president stated was the only salvation of the +finances of the H. & P. A., had so held Tom's attention as he walked +along the street that being stopped in this sudden way was even more +startling than such an incident might ordinarily have been. +</P> + +<P> +Tom was a muscular young fellow; but a club held over one's head by a +burly thug would have shaken the courage of anybody. Dark as it was +under the archway the young fellow saw that the bulk of the man was +much greater than his own. +</P> + +<P> +"That's right, sonny," said the stranger, in a sneering tone. "You got +just the right idea. When I say 'Stick 'em up' I mean it. Never take a +chance. Ah—ah!" +</P> + +<P> +The fellow ripped open Tom's overcoat, almost tearing the buttons off. +Another masterful jerk and his victim's jacket was likewise parted +widely. He did not lower the club for an instant. He thrust his left +hand into the V-shaped parting of the young fellow's vest. +</P> + +<P> +It was then that Tom was convinced of what the fellow was after. He +remembered the notes he had made regarding the contract that was to be +signed on the morrow between the Swift Construction Company and +President Richard Bartholomew of the H. & P. A. Railroad. He +remembered, too, the figure he thought he had seen in the dark porch of +the house as he so recently left it. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Bartholomew had considered it very possible that he was being spied +upon. This was one of the spies—a Westerner, as his speech betrayed. +But Tom was suddenly less fearful than he had been when first attacked. +</P> + +<P> +It did not seem possible to him that Mr. Bartholomew's enemies would +allow their henchman to go too far to obtain information of the +railroad president's intentions. This fellow was merely attempting to +frighten him. +</P> + +<P> +A sense of relief came to Tom Swift's assistance. He opened his lips to +speak and could the thug have seen his face more clearly in the dark he +would have been aware of the fact that the young inventor smiled. +</P> + +<P> +The fellow's groping hand entered between Tom's vest and his shirt. The +coarse fingers seized upon Tom's wallet. Nobody likes to be robbed, no +matter whether the loss is great or small. There was not much money in +the wallet, nor anything that could be turned into money by a thief. +</P> + +<P> +These facts enabled Tom, perhaps, to bear his loss with some fortitude. +The highwayman drew forth the wallet and thrust it into his own coat +pocket. He made no attempt to take anything else from the young +inventor. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, beat it!" commanded the fellow. "Don't look back and don't run or +holler. Just keep moving—in the way you were headed before. Vamoose." +</P> + +<P> +More than ever was Tom assured that the man was from the West. His +speech savored of Mexican phrases and slang terms used mainly by +Western citizens. And his abrupt and masterly manner and speech aided +in this supposition. Tom Swift stayed not to utter a word. It was true +he was not so frightened as he had at first been. But he was quite sure +that this man was no person to contend with under present conditions. +</P> + +<P> +He strode away along the sidewalk toward the far corner of the wall +that surrounded this estate. Shopton had not many of such important +dwellings as this behind the wall. Its residential section was made up +for the most part of mechanics' homes and such plain but substantial +houses as his father's. +</P> + +<P> +Prospering as the Swifts had during the last few years, neither Tom nor +his father had thought their plain old house too poor or humble for a +continued residence. Tom was glad to make money, but the inventions he +had made it by were vastly more important to his mind than what he +might obtain by any lavish expenditure of his growing fortune. +</P> + +<P> +This matter of the electric locomotive that had been brought to his +attention by the Western railroad magnate had instantly interested the +young inventor. The possibility of there being a clash of interests in +the matter, and the point Mr. Bartholomew made of his enemies seeking +to thwart his hope of keeping the H. & P. A. upon a solid financial +footing, were phases of the affair that likewise concerned the young +fellow's thought. +</P> + +<P> +Now he was sure that Mr. Bartholomew was right. The enemies of the H. & +P. A. were determined to know all that the railroad president was +planning to do. They would naturally suspect that his trip East to +visit the Swift Construction Company was no idle jaunt. +</P> + +<P> +Tom had turned so many fortunate and important problems of invention +into certainties that the name of the Swift Construction Company was +broadly known, not alone throughout the United States but in several +foreign countries. Montagne Lewis, whom Tom knew to be both a powerful +and an unscrupulous financier, might be sure that Mr. Bartholomew's +visit to Shopton and to the young inventor and his father was of such +importance that he would do well through his henchmen to learn the +particulars of the interview. +</P> + +<P> +Tom remembered Mr. Bartholomew's mention of a name like Andy O'Malley. +This was probably the man who had done all that he could, and that +promptly, to set about the discovery of Mr. Bartholomew's reason for +visiting the Swifts. +</P> + +<P> +Without doubt the man had slunk about the Swift house and had peered +into one of the library windows while the interview was proceeding. He +had observed Tom making notes on the scratch pad and judged correctly +that those notes dealt with the subject under discussion between the +visitor from the West and the Swifts. +</P> + +<P> +He had likewise seen Tom thrust the paper into his wallet and the +wallet into his inside vest pocket. Instead of dogging Mr. +Bartholomew's footsteps after that gentleman left the Swift house, the +man had waited for the appearance of Tom. When he was sure that the +young fellow was preparing to walk out, and the direction he was to +stroll, the thug had run ahead and ensconced himself in the archway on +this dark block. +</P> + +<P> +All these things were plain enough. The notes Tom had taken regarding +the offer Mr. Bartholomew had made for the development of the electric +locomotive might, under some circumstances, be very important. At +least, the highwayman evidently thought them such. But Tom had another +thought about that. +</P> + +<P> +One thing the young inventor was convinced about, as he strode briskly +away from the scene of the hold-up: There was going to be trouble. It +had already begun. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Tom Swift's Friends +</H3> + +<P> +Tom was still walking swiftly when he arrived in sight of Mary Nestor's +home. He was so filled with excitement both because of the hold-up and +the new scheme that Mr. Richard Bartholomew had brought to him from the +West, that he could keep neither to himself. He just had to tell Mary! +</P> + +<P> +Mary Nestor was a very pretty girl, and Tom thought she was just about +right in every particular. Although he had been about a good deal for a +young fellow and had seen girls everywhere, none of them came up to +Mary. None of them held Tom's interest for a minute but this girl whom +he had been around with for years and whom he had always confided in. +</P> + +<P> +As for the girl herself, she considered Tom Swift the very nicest young +man she had ever seen. He was her beau-ideal of what a young man should +be. And she entered enthusiastically into the plans for everything that +Tom Swift was interested in. +</P> + +<P> +Mary was excited by the story Tom told her in the Nestor sitting room. +The idea of the electric locomotive she saw, of course, was something +that might add to Tom's laurels as an inventor. But the other phase of +the evening's adventure—"Tom, dear!" she murmured with no little +disturbance of mind. "That man who stopped you! He is a thief, and a +dangerous man! I hate to think of your going home alone." +</P> + +<P> +"He's got what he was after," chuckled Tom. "Is it likely he will +bother me again?" +</P> + +<P> +"And you do not seem much worried about it," she cried, in wonder. +</P> + +<P> +"Not much, I confess, Mary," said Tom, and grinned. +</P> + +<P> +"But if, as you suppose, that man was working for Mr. Bartholomew's +enemies—" +</P> + +<P> +"I am convinced that he was, for he did not rob me of my watch and +chain or loose money. And he could have done so easily. I don't mind +about the old wallet. There was only five dollars in it." +</P> + +<P> +"But those notes you said you took of Mr. Bartholomew's offer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes," chuckled Tom again. "Those notes. Well, I may as well +explain to you, Mary, and not try to puzzle you any longer. But that +highwayman is sure going to be puzzled a long, long time." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"Those notes were jotted down in my own brand of shorthand. Such +stenographic notes would scarcely be readable by anybody else. Ho, ho! +When that bold, bad hold-up gent turns the notes over to Montagne +Lewis, or whoever his principal is, there will be a sweet time." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Tom! isn't that fun?" cried Mary, likewise much amused. +</P> + +<P> +"I can remember everything we said there in the library," Tom +continued. "I'll see Ned tonight on my way home from here, and he will +draw a contract the first thing in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"You are a smart fellow, Tom!" said Mary, her laughter trilling sweetly. +</P> + +<P> +"Many thanks, Ma'am! Hope I prove your compliment true. This +two-mile-a-minute stunt—" +</P> + +<P> +"It seems wonderful," breathed Mary. +</P> + +<P> +"It sure will be wonderful if we can build a locomotive that will do +such fancy lacework as that," observed Tom eagerly. "It will be a great +stunt!" +</P> + +<P> +"A wonderful invention, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"More wonderful than Mr. Bartholomew knows," agreed the young fellow. +"An electric locomotive with both great speed and great hauling power +is what more than one inventor has been aiming at for two or three +decades. Ever since Edison and Westinghouse began their experiments, in +truth." +</P> + +<P> +"Is the locomotive they are using out there a very marvelous machine?" +asked the girl, with added interest. +</P> + +<P> +"No more marvelous than the big electric motors that drag the trains +into New York City, for instance, through the tunnels. Steam engines +cannot be used in those tunnels for obvious, as well as legal, reasons. +They are all wonderful machines, using third-rail power. +</P> + +<P> +"But that Jandel patent that Mr. Bartholomew is using out there on the +H. & P. A. is probably the highest type of such motors. It is up to us +to beat that. Fortunately I got a pass into the Jandel shops a few +months ago and I studied at first hand the machine Mr. Bartholomew is +using." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't that great!" cried Mary. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it helps some. I at least know in a general way the 'how' of the +construction of the Jandel locomotive. It is simple enough. Too simple +by far, I should say, to get both speed and power. We'll see," and he +nodded his head thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +Tom did not stay long with the girl, for it was already late in the +evening when he had arrived at her house. As he got up to depart Mary's +anxiety for his safety revived. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you would take care now, Tom. Those men may hound you." +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" chuckled the young inventor. "They have the notes they +wanted." +</P> + +<P> +"But that very thing—the fact that you fooled them—will make them +more angry. Take care." +</P> + +<P> +"I have a means of looking out for myself, after all," said Tom +quietly, seeing that he must relieve her mind. "I let that fellow get +away with my wallet; but I won't let him hurt me. Don't fear." +</P> + +<P> +She had opened the door. The lamplight fell across porch and steps, and +in a broad white band even to the gate and sidewalk. There was a +motor-car slowing down right before the open gate. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's this?" queried Tom, puzzled. +</P> + +<P> +A sharp voice suddenly was raised in an exclamatory explosion. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my breakshoes! is that Tom Swift? Just the chap I was looking +for. Bless my mileage-book! this saves me time and money." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's Mr. Wakefield Damon," Mary cried, with something like relief +in her tones. "You can ride home in his car, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Mary. Don't be afraid for me," replied Tom Swift, and ran +down the walk to the waiting car. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my vest buttons! Tom Swift, my heart swells when I see you—" +</P> + +<P> +"And is like to burst off the said vest buttons?" chuckled the young +fellow, stepping in beside his eccentric friend who blessed everything +inanimate in his florid speech. +</P> + +<P> +"I am delighted to catch you—although, of course," and Tom knew the +gentleman's eyes twinkled, "I could have no idea that you were over +here at Mary's, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not," rejoined the young inventor calmly. "Seeing that I +only come to see her just as often as I get a chance." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my memory tablets! is that the fact?" chuckled Mr. Damon. +"Anyway, I wanted to see you so particularly that I drove over in my +car tonight—" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute," said Tom, hastily. "Is this important?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think so, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me get something else off of my mind first, then, Mr. Damon," Tom +Swift said quickly. "Drive around by Ned's house, will you, please? Ned +Newton's. After I speak a minute with him I will be at your service. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely, Tom; surely," agreed the gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +The automobile had been running slowly. Mr. Damon knew the streets of +Shopton very well, and he headed around the next corner. As the car +turned, a figure bounded out of the shadow near the house line. Two +long strides, and the man was on the running board of the car upon the +side where Tom Swift sat. Again an ugly club was raised above the young +fellow's head. +</P> + +<P> +"You're the smart guy!" croaked the coarse voice Tom had heard before. +"Think you can bamboozle me, do you? Up with 'em!" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my spark-plug!" gasped Mr. Wakefield Damon. +</P> + +<P> +Either from nervousness or intention, he jerked the steering wheel so +that the car made a sudden leap away from the curb. The figure of the +stranger swayed. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly Tom Swift struck the man's arm up higher and from under his +own coat appeared something that bulked like a pistol in his right +hand. He had intimated to Mary Nestor that he carried something with +which to defend himself from highwaymen if he chose to. This invention, +his ammonia gun, now came into play. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my failing eyesight!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, as he shot the +motor-car ahead again in a straight line. +</P> + +<P> +The man who had accosted Tom so fiercely fell off the running board and +rolled into the gutter, screaming and choking from the fumes from Tom's +gun. +</P> + +<P> +"Drive on!" commanded the young inventor. "If he keeps bellowing like +that the police will pick him up. I guess he will let us alone +here-after." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my short hairs and long ones!" chuckled Mr. Damon. "You are the +coolest young fellow, Tom, that I ever saw. That man must have been a +highwayman. And it is of some of those gentry that I drove over to +Shopton this evening to talk to you about." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Much to Think About +</H3> + +<P> +Although it was now nearing ten o'clock on this eventful evening, Tom +knew that he would find Ned Newton at home. When Mr. Damon's car +stopped before the house there was a light in Ned's room and the front +door opened almost as soon as Tom rang. Mr. Damon left the car and +entered with the young inventor at his invitation. +</P> + +<P> +"What's up?" was Ned's greeting, looking at the two curiously as he +ushered them in. "I see this isn't entirely a social call," and he +laughed as he shook the older man's hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my particular star!" exclaimed the latter excitedly. "Of all the +thrilling adventures that anybody ever got into, it is this Tom Swift +who cooks them up! Why, Newton! do you know that we have been held up +by a highwayman within two blocks of this very house?" +</P> + +<P> +"And that of course was Tom's fault?" suggested Ned, still smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"It wouldn't have happened if he had not been with me," said Mr. Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"I am curious," said Ned, as they seated themselves. "Who was the +footpad? What drew his attention to you two? Tell me about it." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my suspender buckles!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "You tell him, Tom. +I don't understand it myself, yet." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I can explain. But whatever I tell you both, you must hold in +secret. Father and I have been entrusted with some private information +tonight and I am going to take you, Ned, and Mr. Damon, into the +business in a confidential way." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's have it," begged Newton. "Anything to do with the works?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is," answered Tom gravely. "We are going to take up a proposition +that promises big things for the Swift Construction Company." +</P> + +<P> +"A big thing financially?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say so. And it looks as though we were mixing into a conspiracy +that may breed trouble in more ways than one." +</P> + +<P> +Tom went on to sketch briefly the situation of the Hendrickton & Pas +Alos Railroad as brought to the attention of the Swifts by the +railroad's president. First of all his two listeners were deeply +interested in the proposition Mr. Richard Bartholomew had made the +inventors. Ned Newton jotted down briefly the agreement to be +incorporated in the contract to be drawn and signed, by the Swift +Construction Company and the president of the H. & P. A. road. +</P> + +<P> +"This looks like a big thing for the company, Tom," the young manager +said with enthusiasm, while Mr. Damon listened to it all with mouth and +eyes open. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my watch-charm!" murmured the latter. "An electric locomotive +that can travel two miles a minute? Whew!" +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds like a big order, Tom," added Ned, seriously. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a big order. I am not at all sure it can be done," agreed Tom, +thoughtfully. "But under the terms Mr. Bartholomew offers it is worth +trying, don't you think?" +</P> + +<P> +"That twenty-five thousand dollars is as good as yours anyway," +declared his chum with finality. "I'll see there is no loophole in the +contract and the money must be placed in escrow so that there can be no +possibility of our losing that. The promise of a hundred thousand +dollars must be made binding as well." +</P> + +<P> +"I know you will look out for those details, Ned," Tom said with a wave +of his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"That is what I am here for," agreed the financial manager. "Now, what +else? I fancy the building of such a locomotive looks feasible to you +and your father or you would not go into it." +</P> + +<P> +"But two miles a minute!" murmured Mr. Damon again. "Bless my prize +pumpkins!" +</P> + +<P> +"The idea of speed enters into it, yes," said Tom thoughtfully. "In +fact electric motor power has always been based on speed, and on +cheapness of moving all kinds of traffic. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here!" he exclaimed earnestly, "what do you suppose the first +people to dabble in electrically driven vehicles were aiming at? The +motor-car? The motor boat? Trolley cars? All those single motor sort of +things? Not much they weren't!" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my glove buttons!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, dragging off his +gauntlets as he spoke. "I don't get you at all, Tom! What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean to say that the first experiments in the use of electricity as +a motive power were along the electrification of the steam locomotive. +Everybody realized that if a motor could be built powerful enough and +speedy enough to drag a heavy freight or passenger train over the +ordinary railroad right of way, the cost of railroad operation would be +enormously decreased. +</P> + +<P> +"Coal costs money—heaps of money now. Oil costs even more. But even +with a third-rail patent, a locomotive successfully built to do the +work of the great Moguls and mountain climbers of the last two decades, +and electrically driven, will make a great difference on the credit +side of any railroad's books." +</P> + +<P> +"Right-o!" exclaimed Ned. "I can see that." +</P> + +<P> +"That was the object of the first experiments in electric motive +power," repeated Tom. "And it continues to be the big problem in +electricity. The Jandel locomotive is undoubtedly the last word so far +as the construction of an electric locomotive is concerned. But it +falls down in speed and power. I thought so myself when I saw that +locomotive and looked over the results of its work. And this Mr. +Bartholomew has assured father and me this evening that it is a fact. +</P> + +<P> +"It has a record of a mile a minute on a level or easy grade; but it +can't show goods when climbing a real hill. It slows up both freight +and passenger traffic on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos road. That range of +hills is too much for it. +</P> + +<P> +"So the Swift Construction Company is going to step in," concluded the +young inventor eagerly. "I believe we can do it. I've the nucleus of +an idea in my head. I never had a problem put up to me, Ned and Mr. +Damon, that interested me more. So why shouldn't I go at it? Besides, I +have dad to advise me." +</P> + +<P> +"That's right," agreed Ned. "Why shouldn't you? And with such a +contract as you have been offered—" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my bootsoles!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, getting up and tramping +about the room in his excitement. "I thought the trolley cars that run +between Shopton and Waterfield were about the fastest things on rails." +</P> + +<P> +"Not much. The trolley car is a narrow and prescribed manner of using +electricity for motive power. The motor runs but one car—or one and a +trailer, at most," said Tom. "As I have pointed out, the problem is to +build a machine that will transmit power enough to draw the enormous +weight of a loaded freight train, and that over steep grades. +</P> + +<P> +"A motor for each car is a costly matter. That is why trolley car +companies, no matter how many passengers their cars carry, are so often +on the verge of financial disaster. The margin of profit is too narrow. +</P> + +<P> +"But if you can get a locomotive built that will drag a hundred cars! +Ah! how does that sound?" demanded Tom. "See the difference?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my volts and amperes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "I should say I do! +Why, Tom, you make the problem as plain as plain can be." +</P> + +<P> +"In theory," supplemented Ned Newton, although he meant to suggest no +doubt of his chum's ability to solve almost any problem. +</P> + +<P> +"You've hit it," said Tom promptly. "I only have a theory so far +regarding such a locomotive. But to the inventor the theory always must +come first. You understand that, Ned?" +</P> + +<P> +"I not only appreciate that fact," said his chum warmly; "but I believe +that you are the fellow to show something definite along the line of an +improved electric locomotive. But, whether you can reach the high mark +set by the president of that railroad—" +</P> + +<P> +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Mr. Damon in agreement. "Bless my +wind-gauge! It doesn't seem possible!" +</P> + +<P> +Tom Swift shrugged his shoulders. "It is the impossible that inventors +have to overcome. If we experimenters believed in the impossible little +would be done in this world, to advance mechanical science at least. +Every invention was impossible until the chap who put it through built +his first working model." +</P> + +<P> +"That's understood, old boy," said Ned, already busily scratching off +the form of the contract he proposed to show the company's legal +advisers early in the morning. +</P> + +<P> +When he had read over the notes he had made Tom O.K.'d them. "That is +about as I had the items set down myself on the sheet that fellow stole +from me." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait!" exclaimed Ned, as Tom arose from his chair. "Do you know what +strikes me after your telling me about your second hold-up?" +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" asked his chum. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sure that was the same fellow who stole your wallet?" +</P> + +<P> +"Quite sure." +</P> + +<P> +"Then his second attack on you proves that he got wise to the fact that +your notes were in shorthand. He had a chance to study them while you +visited with Mary Nestor." +</P> + +<P> +"Like enough." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if it doesn't prove that the fellow has somebody in cahoots +with him right here in Shopton?" ruminated Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my spare tire!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, who had already started +for the door but now turned back. +</P> + +<P> +"That's an idea, Ned," agreed Tom Swift. "It would seem that he had +consulted with some superior," said the young manager of the Swift +Construction Company. "This hold-up man may be from the West; but +perhaps he did not follow Bartholomew alone." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to know who the other fellow is," said Tom thoughtfully. "I +would know the man who attacked me, both by his bulk and his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Me, too," put in Mr. Damon. "Bless my indicator! I'd know the +scoundrel if I met him again." +</P> + +<P> +"The thing to do," said Ned Newton confidently, "is to identify the man +who robbed you tonight as soon as possible and then, if he hangs around +Shopton, to mark well anybody he associates with." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps they will not bother me any more," said Tom, rather carelessly. +</P> + +<P> +"And perhaps they will," grumbled Mr. Damon. "Bless my self-starter! +they may try something mean again this very night. Come on, Tom. I want +to run you home. And on the way, I tell you, I've got something to put +up to you myself. It may not promise a small fortune like this electric +locomotive business; but bless my barbed wire fence! my trouble has +more than a little to do with footpads, too." +</P> + +<P> +He led the way out of the house and to the motor car again. In a minute +he had started his engine, and Tom, jumping in beside him, was borne +away toward his own home. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Barbed Wire Entanglements +</H3> + +<P> +"This gets us to your particular trouble, Mr. Damon," Tom Swift said, +while the motor car was rolling along. "You intimated that you had +something to consult me about." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my windshield! I should say I had," exclaimed the eccentric +gentleman, swinging around a corner at rather a fast clip. +</P> + +<P> +"And has it to do with highwaymen?" asked Tom, much amused. +</P> + +<P> +"Some of the same gentry, Tom," declared Mr. Damon. "I haven't any +peace of my life, I really haven't!" +</P> + +<P> +"Who is troubling you, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what nonsense that is, to ask that!" ejaculated the gentleman. +"If I knew who they were I wouldn't ask odds of anybody. I'd go after +them. As it is, I've left my servant with a gun loaded with rock-salt +watching for them now." +</P> + +<P> +"Burglars?" exclaimed Tom, with real interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Chicken-house burglars! That's the kind of burglars they are," growled +Mr. Damon. "Two or three times they have tried to get my prize buff +Orpingtons. Last night they got me out of bed twice fooling around the +chicken house and yard. Other neighbors have lost their hens already. I +don't mean to lose mine. Want you to help me, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Is that all that is worrying you, Mr. Damon?" laughed the young fellow. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my radiator! isn't that enough?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know you set your clock by those buff Orpingtons," agreed Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"That's right. That ten-months cockerel, Blue Ribbon Junior, never +fails to crow at three-thirty-three to the minute. Bless my combs and +spurs; a wonderful bird!" +</P> + +<P> +"But let's see how I can help you regarding the chicken thieves," Tom +said, as they sighted the lights of the Swift house beyond the long +stockade fence that surrounded the Construction Company's premises. +</P> + +<P> +"You know I have a barbed wire entanglement around the whole yard and +hen-house. I don't take any more chances than I can help. Those prize +buff Orpingtons are a great temptation to chicken lovers—both blond +and brunette," and in spite of his anxiety, Mr. Damon could chuckle at +his own joke. "Even your old Eradicate's friend fell for chickens, you +know." +</P> + +<P> +"And Rad promptly cured him of the disease," laughed Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"And I'm trying to cure these others. I've charged my shotgun with +rock-salt—as he did. My servant has orders to shoot anybody who +tampers with my chicken house tonight. +</P> + +<P> +"But bless my shirt!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "I'll never be able to sleep +comfortably until I know that no thief can get at my buff Orpingtons. I +want you to fix it so I can sleep in peace, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +He slowed to a stop in front of the Swift's door. Tom stared at his +eccentric friend questioningly. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my gaiters!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "don't you see what I want? +And your head already full of this electrified locomotive you are going +to build?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush!" murmured Tom, with his hand upon his companion's arm. "But +what do you want me to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to fix it so that I can turn a current of electricity into +that barbed wire chicken fence at night that will shock any thief that +touches the wires. Not kill 'em—though they ought to be killed!" +declared the eccentric man. "But shock 'em aplenty. Can't you do it for +me, Tom Swift?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it can be done," said the young fellow. "You use electricity +in your house. There is a feed cable in the street. We will have to +change your lighting switch for another. Fix it with the Electric +Supply Company. It will cost you more—" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my pocketbook! I don't care how much it costs. It will be ample +satisfaction to see just one low-down chicken thief squirming on those +wires." +</P> + +<P> +Tom laughed again. He meant to help his friend; but he did not propose +to rig the wires so that anybody, even a chicken thief, would be +seriously injured by the electric current passing through the strands. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll come down to Waterfield tomorrow in the electric runabout and fix +things up for you. Get a permit from the Electric Supply Company early +in the morning. Tell them I will rig the thing myself. They can send +their inspector afterward." +</P> + +<P> +"That's fine, Tom! What—Ugh! what's this? Another footpad?" +</P> + +<P> +Out of the darkness beside the fence a bulky figure started. For a +moment Tom thought it was the same man who had attacked him twice. Then +the very size of this new assailant proved that suspicion to be +unfounded. +</P> + +<P> +"Koku!" exclaimed Tom. "What's the matter with you, Koku?" +</P> + +<P> +The huge and only half-tamed giant gained the side of the car in +seemingly a single stride. In the dark they could not see his face, but +his voice distinctly showed excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Master come good. 'Cause there be enemy. Koku find—Koku kill!" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my magnifying glass!" ejaculated Mr. Damon. "That fellow is the +most bloodthirsty individual that I ever saw." +</P> + +<P> +"All in his bringing up," chuckled Tom who knew, as the saying is, that +Koku's bark was a deal worse than his bite. "Killing and maiming his +enemies used to be Koku's principal job. But he has his orders now. He +doesn't kill anybody without consulting me first." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my buttons!" murmured Mr. Damon. "That is certainly a good thing +too. What's the matter with him now?" +</P> + +<P> +That is exactly what Tom himself wanted to know. He had dropped a hand +upon the arm of the giant as he stood beside the car. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is the enemy, Koku?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Not know, Master. See him footmarks. Follow him footmarks. Not find. +When do find—kill!" +</P> + +<P> +"That is, after first obtaining my permission," said Tom dryly. +</P> + +<P> +"It is so," agreed the imperturbable Koku. "See! Show Master footmarks. +Him look in at window. See! Koku have got the wonder lamp." +</P> + +<P> +He flashed the electric torch in his hand. He left the car and strode +into the yard. Tom followed him, and Mr. Damon's curiosity brought him +along. +</P> + +<P> +The giant pointed the ray of the flashlight at the ground below the +porch. Several footprints—the marks of boots at least number twelve in +size—were imbedded in the soil. Koku went around the house to the +other side, following repeated marks of the same boots. +</P> + +<P> +"How came you to find them, Koku?" asked Tom softly. +</P> + +<P> +"Me look. All around stockade," and he waved a generous gesture with +his free hand including the fence about the works. "Enemy may come. +Anytime he come. Now he come." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my slippery shoes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who had hard work to +keep up both physically and mentally with the giant. "What does he +mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Koku has always had it in his head," explained Tom, "that we built +that fence about the works to keep out enemies. And, to tell the truth, +we did! But all that is over—" +</P> + +<P> +"Is it?" asked Mr. Damon pointedly. "Enemy here," added Koku, flashing +the lamplight upon the footprints on the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Those bootmarks," added Mr. Damon, "are doubtless those of that fellow +who jumped upon the running board of the car." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! And who robbed me of my wallet," added Tom musingly. "Well, it +might be. And, if so, Koku is right. The enemy has come." +</P> + +<P> +"Me kill!" exclaimed the giant, stretching himself to his full height. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll consider the killing later," said Tom, who well knew his +influence with this big fellow. "You are forbidden to kill anybody, or +chase anybody away from here, until I have a talk with them. Enemy or +not—understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Me understand," said Koku in his deep voice. "Master say—me do." +</P> + +<P> +"Just the same," Tom said, aside to Mr. Damon, "there has been somebody +around here. I guess Mr. Bartholomew was right. He is being spied upon. +And now that we Swifts are going to try to do something for him, we are +likely to be spied upon too." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my statue of Nathan Hale!" murmured the eccentric gentleman. "I +believe you. And you've been already attacked twice by some thug! You +are positively in danger, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know about that. Save that the fellow who robbed me was sore +because I fooled him. Naturally he might like to get square about those +shorthand notes. He knows no more now about Mr. Bartholomew's business +with us than he did before he held me up." +</P> + +<P> +"That is a fact," agreed Mr. Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"And that brings me to another warning, Mr. Damon," added Tom +earnestly, as his friend climbed into the motor car again. "Keep all +that has happened, and all that I told you and Ned about the H. & P. A. +railroad, to yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"Surely! Surely!" +</P> + +<P> +"If Mr. Bartholomew's rivals continue to keep their spies hanging +around the works here, we'll handle them properly. Trust Koku for +that," and Tom chuckled. +</P> + +<P> +"And don't forget my barbed wire entanglements," put in Mr. Damon, +starting his engine. "I want to fix those chicken thieves.'' +</P> + +<P> +"All right. I'll be over tomorrow," promised Tom Swift. +</P> + +<P> +Then he stood a minute on the curb and looked after the disappearing +lights of Mr. Damon's car. The latter's problem dovetailed, after all, +into this discovery of possible marauders lurking about the Swift +premises. Koku had made no mistake in bringing his attention to the +matter of the footprints. Tom had seen somebody dodging into the +darkness outside the house when he had come out on his way to visit +Mary Nestor. +</P> + +<P> +"And sure as taxes," muttered Tom, as he finally turned toward the +front door again, "the fellow who twice attacked me this evening wore +the boots the prints of which Koku found. +</P> + +<P> +"Those fellows, whoever they are, whether Montagne Lewis and his +associates, or not, have bitten off several mouthfuls that they may be +unable to chew. Anyhow, before they get through they may learn +something about the Swifts that they never knew before." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Contract Signed +</H3> + +<P> +Tom Swift went to bed that night without the least fear that the man +who had twice attacked him in the streets of Shopton would be able to +trouble him unless he went abroad again. Koku was on guard. +</P> + +<P> +The giant whom Tom had brought home from one of his distant wanderings +was wholly devoted to his master. Koku never had, and he never would, +become entirely civilized. +</P> + +<P> +He was naturally a born tracker of men. For generations his people had +lived amid the alarms of threat and attack. He could not be made to +understand how so many "tribes," as he called them, of civilized men +could live in anything like harmony. +</P> + +<P> +That somebody should prowl about the Swift house at night with a desire +to rob his young master or injure him, did not surprise Koku in the +least. He accepted the fact of the marauder's presence as quite the +expected thing. +</P> + +<P> +But the man who had robbed Tom and later tried to repay him for playing +what appeared to be a practical joke on the robber, did not trouble the +Swift premises with his presence before morning. Koku, thrusting +Eradicate Sampson aside and striding to his bedroom to report this +fact, was what awoke Tom at eight o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey! What you want, tromping in here for, man?" demanded old Rad +angrily. "An' totin' that spear, too. Where you t'ink yo' is? In de +jungle again? Go 'way, chile!" +</P> + +<P> +Both Rad and Koku were rapidly outliving the sudden friendship of Rad's +sick days, when it was thought he might be blind for life, and were +dropping back into their old ways of bickering and rivalry for Tom's +attention. +</P> + +<P> +"I report to the Master," declared the giant, in his deep voice. +</P> + +<P> +"You tell me, I tell him," Rad said pompously. "No need yo' 'sturbing +Massa Tom at dis hour." +</P> + +<P> +"Koku go in!" declared the giant sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"Jes' stay out dere on de stair an' res' yo'self," said Rad. +</P> + +<P> +Koku lost his temper with old Rad. There was a feud between them, +although deep in their hearts they really were fond of each other. But +the two were jealous of each other's services to young Tom Swift. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Tom heard the old negro utter a frightened squeal. The door +which had been only ajar, burst inward and banged against the door-stop +with a mighty smash. +</P> + +<P> +Rad went through the big bedroom like a chocolate-colored streak, +entered Tom's bathroom, and the next moment there was the sound of +crashing glass as Eradicate Sampson went through the lower sash of the +window, headfirst, out upon the roof of the porch! +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean by this?" shouted Tom, sitting up in bed. +</P> + +<P> +Koku paused in the doorway, bulking almost to the top of the door. His +right arm was drawn back, displaying his mighty biceps, and he poised a +ten foot spear with a copper head that he had seized from a nest of +such implements which was a decoration of the lower hall. +</P> + +<P> +Had the giant ever flung that spear at poor Rad's back, half the length +of the staff might have passed through his body. Little wonder that +the colored man, having roused the giant's rage to such a pitch, had +given small consideration to the order of his going, but had gone at +once! +</P> + +<P> +"You want to scare Rad out of half a year's growth?" Tom pursued +sternly, slipping out of bed and reaching for his robe and slippers. +"And he's broken that window to smithereens." +</P> + +<P> +"Koku come make report, Master," said the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"You go put that spear back where you found it and come up properly," +commanded the young fellow, with difficulty hiding his amusement. "Go +on now!" +</P> + +<P> +He shuffled into the bathroom while the giant disappeared. He peered +out of the broken window. It was a wonder Rad had not carried the sash +with him! The broken glass was scattered all about the roof of the +porch and the old colored man lay groaning there. +</P> + +<P> +"What did you do this for, Eradicate?" demanded Tom. "You act worse +than a ten-year-old boy." +</P> + +<P> +"I's done killed, Massa Tom!" groaned Rad with confidence. "I's blood +from haid to foot!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a scratch on his bald crown from which a few drops of blood +flowed. But with all his terror, Eradicate had put both arms over his +head when he made his dive through the window, and he really was very +little injured. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in here," repeated Tom. "Fix something over this broken window so +that I can take my bath. And then go and put something on that scratch. +Don't you know better yet, than to cross Koku when he is excited?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dat crazy ol' cannibal!" spat out Rad viciously. "I'll fix him yet. +I'll pizen his rations, dat's what I'll do." +</P> + +<P> +"You wouldn't be so bad as that, Rad!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, mebbe not," said the colored man, crawling in through the +bathroom window. "It would take too much pizen, anyway, to kill that +giant. Take as much as dey has to give an el'phant to kill it. Anyways, +I's bound to fix him proper some time, yet." +</P> + +<P> +These quarrels between Eradicate and Koku were intermittent. They +almost always arose, too, because of the desire of the two servants to +wait upon Tom or his father. They were very jealous of each other, and +their clashes afforded Tom and his friends a good deal of amusement. +</P> + +<P> +While the young inventor was in his bath the giant strode back into the +bedroom, out of which Rad had scurried by another door, and proceeded +to report the result of his night watch about the premises. +</P> + +<P> +He had not much to tell. In fact, after Tom had gone into the house +Koku had seen nobody lurking about at all. The fact remained that, +earlier in the evening, somebody had made a close surveillance of the +Swift house, but the mysterious marauder had not come back. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Koku. Keep your eyes open. I expect that enemy may return +sometime. Too bad," he added to himself, "that I didn't get a better +look at him." +</P> + +<P> +"Koku know him next time," declared the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"Why! you didn't even see him this time," cried Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"See him boots. See marks him boots make. Know him boots. Waugh!" +</P> + +<P> +"'Waugh!' yourself," returned Tom, shaking his head. "You are +altogether too sure, Koku. You couldn't tell a man from his bootprints +in the mud." +</P> + +<P> +"Koku know," said the giant, just as confidently. "Wait. Him +catch—see—show Master." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you go to grabbing every stranger who comes around the house or +the works for a spy, and make me trouble. Remember now." +</P> + +<P> +Koku nodded gravely and went away. When he met Rad suddenly in the hall +with Mr. Swift's breakfast tray, the giant said "boo!" and almost cost +the old colored man the loss of the tray. +</P> + +<P> +"Dat big el'phant ought to be livin' in a barn," declared Rad. "Look +at dat spear he come near runnin' me t'rough wid! If he had, yo' could +ha' driv a tipcart full o' rubbish in after it. Lawsy me!" +</P> + +<P> +But an hour later when Tom and his father started for the offices of +the Swift Construction Company down the street, Rad and Koku were +sitting before an enormous breakfast in the back kitchen and chatting +together as companionably as ever. +</P> + +<P> +The old inventor and his son arrived at the offices of the Swift +Construction Company not long ahead of Mr. Richard Bartholomew. Tom had +merely found time to read over the contract that had been jointly +prepared by Ned Newton and the firm's legal advisers, before the +railroad man came. +</P> + +<P> +"No getting out of the provisions of that paper, Tom," Ned had +whispered, when he saw Mr. Bartholomew coming into the outer office. +"Is this your man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"A sharp looking little fellow," commented Ned. "But even if he were +bent on tricking us, this contract would hold him. He is solvent and so +is his road—as yet. If it has a bad name in the market that is more +because of slander by the Montagne Lewis crowd than from any real +cause. I've found that out this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Faithful Nero!" chuckled Tom. "Aren't going to let the Swifts get +done, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not if I can help it," declared Ned Newton emphatically. +</P> + +<P> +A clerk brought Mr. Bartholomew into the private office and he was +introduced to Newton. If he considered the financial manager of the +Swift Construction Company very young for his responsible position, +after he had read the contract he felt considerable respect for Ned +Newton. +</P> + +<P> +"You've got me here, young man, hard and fast," Mr. Bartholomew said. +"If I was inclined to want to wriggle out, I see no chance of it. But I +don't. You have set forth here exactly my meaning and intent. I want +your best efforts in this matter, Mr. Swift, and if you give them to me +I'll foot the bill as agreed." +</P> + +<P> +"You've got me interested, I confess," said Tom. "By the way, were your +friends following you when you came here this morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"My friends?" repeated Mr. Bartholomew, for a moment puzzled. +</P> + +<P> +"The spy that you mentioned," said Tom, smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"That Andy O'Malley?" exclaimed Bartholomew. "Haven't spotted him +today." +</P> + +<P> +"He spotted me last night," said Tom grimly, and proceeded to relate +what had happened. +</P> + +<P> +"You fooled 'em that time, young man!" exclaimed the railroad +president, with satisfaction. "I am convinced that Montagne Lewis is +behind it. Look out for these fellows when you get to work, Mr. Swift. +They will stop at nothing. I tell you that the fight is on between the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos and the Hendrickton & Western. I have either got +to break them or they will break me." +</P> + +<P> +"You seem very sure that there is a conspiracy against you, Mr. +Bartholomew," said the senior Swift reflectively. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure," was the reply. "And I am likewise sure that this scheme of +electrification of my road through the Pas Alos Range is the only +salvation for my railroad." +</P> + +<P> +"I should call it a big contract," Ned Newton said, thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"You have said it! But it is not a visionary scheme I have in mind. You +must know—you Swifts—how successful such an electrification through +the Rockies has been made by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway." +</P> + +<P> +"I've looked that up," confessed Tom, with enthusiasm. "That was a +great piece of work." +</P> + +<P> +"It is. It is. But I hope for even a greater outcome of your +experiments, Mr. Swift. Of course, I do not expect to compete with that +great road. They had millions to spend, and they spent them. Those +Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul +built in nineteen hundred and nineteen are wonderful machines. They +have got forty-two freight locomotives, fifteen passenger locomotives +and four switchers of that new type. +</P> + +<P> +"The Jandel patent that my road uses is, in some degree, the equal of +those Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives. At least, our machines equal +the C., M. & St. P. on our level road. They can reach a mile-a-minute +gait. But when it comes to speed and pull on steep grades—Ah! that is +where they fail." +</P> + +<P> +"You will have to get power in the hills for your stations," suggested +Tom, thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"I know that. I know where the power is coming from. I gathered those +waterfalls in years ago. Lewis and his crowd can't shut me off from +them. But I have got to have a speedier and more powerful type of +electric locomotive than has ever yet been built to protect the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad from any rivalry. +</P> + +<P> +"I am looking to you Swifts to give me that. I am risking this +twenty-five thousand dollars upon your succeeding. And I am offering +you the hundred thousand dollars bonus for the right to purchase the +first successful locomotives that can be built covered by your patents. +Is it plain?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is eminently satisfactory," said Mr. Swift, quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"I will do my very best," agreed Tom, warmly. "There isn't a thing the +matter with the agreement," declared Ned Newton, with confidence. +"Gentlemen, sign on the dotted line." +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes later the twin contracts were in force. One went into the +safe of the Swift Construction Company. The other, Mr. Richard +Bartholomew bore away with him. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Man with Big Feet +</H3> + +<P> +The consultation in the private office of the Swift Construction +Company after the departure of Mr. Richard Bartholomew between the two +Swifts and Ned Newton had more to do with a vision of the future than +with mere present finances. +</P> + +<P> +"I expect you know just about how you are going to work on this new +invention, Tom?" suggested the financial manager, and Tom's chum. +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't the first idea," rejoined the young inventor, promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" ejaculated Ned. "You talked just now as though you +knew all about electric locomotives." +</P> + +<P> +"I know a good deal about those that have been built, both under the +Jandel patent and those built for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul in +the great Philadelphia shops. +</P> + +<P> +"But when you ask me if I know how I am going to improve on those +patents so as to make my locomotive twice as speedy and quite as +powerful as those other locomotives—well, I've got to tell you flat +that I have not as yet got the first idea." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" grumbled Ned. "You say it coolly enough." +</P> + +<P> +"No use getting all heated up about it," returned his friend. "I have +got to consider the situation first. I must look over the field of +electrical invention as applied to motive power. I must study things +out." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't just see myself," Ned Newton remarked thoughtfully, "why there +should be such a great need for the electrification of locomotives, +anyway. Those great mountain-hogs that draw most of the mountain +railroad trains are very powerful, aren't they? And they are speedy." +</P> + +<P> +"Locomotives that use coal or oil have been developed about as far as +they can be," said Mr. Swift, quietly. "A successful electric +locomotive has many advantages over the old-time engine." +</P> + +<P> +"What are those advantages?" asked the business manager, quickly. "I +confess, I do not understand the matter, Mr. Swift." +</P> + +<P> +"For instance," proceeded the old gentleman, "there is the coal +question alone. Coal is rising in price. It is bulky. Using electricity +as motive power for railroads will do away with fuel trains, tenders, +coal handling, water, and all that. Of course, Mr. Bartholomew will +generate his electricity from water power—the cheapest power on earth." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! I've got my answer right now," said Ned Newton. "If there is no +other good reason, this is sufficient." +</P> + +<P> +"There are plenty of others," drawled Tom, smiling. "Good ones. For +instance, heat or cold has nothing to do with the even running of an +electric locomotive. It can bore right through a snowbank—a thing a +steam engine can't do. It runs at an even speed. Really, grade should +have nothing to do with its speed. There is a fault somewhere in the +construction of the Jandel machine or the H. & P. A. would have little +trouble with those locomotives on its grades. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, all you have to do to start an electrified locomotive is to turn +a handswitch. No stoking or water-boiling. Does away with the fireboy. +One man runs it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why!" cried Ned, "I never stopped to think of all these things." +</P> + +<P> +"No ashes to dump," went on Tom. "No flues to clean, no boilers to +inspect, and none to wear out. And they say that on the Chicago, +Milwaukee & St. Paul, at least, their freight locomotives handle twice +the load of a steam locomotive at a greatly reduced cost." +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds fine. Don't wonder Mr. Bartholomew is eager to electrify his +entire tine." +</P> + +<P> +"On the side of passenger traffic," continued Tom Swift, "the electric +locomotive is smokeless, noiseless, dirtless, and doesn't jerk the +coaches in either stopping or starting. And in addition, the electric +locomotive is much easier on track and roadbed than the old 'iron +horse' driven by steam generated either from coal or oil." +</P> + +<P> +"It is a great field for your talents, Tom!" cried Ned, warmly. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a big job," admitted Tom, and he said this with modesty. "I +don't know what I may be able to do—if anything. I would not feel +right in taking Mr. Bartholomew's twenty-five thousand dollars for +nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite right, my boy," said Mr. Swift, approvingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind that," said the financial manager, rather grimly. "It was +his own offer and his risk. That twenty-five thousand comes to our +account." +</P> + +<P> +Tom laughed. "All business, Ned, aren't you? But there is more than +business for the Swift Construction Company in this. Our reputation for +fair dealing as well as for inventive powers is linked up with this +contract. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to show the Jandel people—to say nothing of the bigger +firms—that the Swifts are to be reckoned with when it comes to +electric invention. Other roads will be electrifying their lines as +fast as it is proved that the electric-driven locomotive has the bulge +on the steam-driven. +</P> + +<P> +"In the case of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos there are very steep grades +to overcome. Supposedly an electric motor-drive should achieve the same +speed on a hill as on the level. But there is the weight of the train +to be counted on. +</P> + +<P> +"The H. & P. A. has a two per cent. grade in more than one place. Mr. +Bartholomew confessed as much to me last night. The electric-driven +locomotive of the powerful freight type, which the Jandel people built +for Mr. Bartholomew, can make about sixteen miles an hour on those +grades, although they can hit it up to thirty miles an hour on level +track. +</P> + +<P> +"His passenger locomotives turn off a mile a minute and more, on the +level road; but they can not climb those steep grades at a much +livelier pace than the freight engines. That is why he is talking about +two-mile-a-minute locomotives. He must get a mighty speedy locomotive, +for both freight and passenger service, to keep ahead of Montagne +Lewis's rival road, the Hendrickton & Western." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't suppose it can be done, do you?" demanded Ned. "The +two-mile-a-minute locomotive, I mean, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"That is the target I am to aim for," returned his friend, soberly. "At +any rate, I hope to improve on the type of locomotive Mr. Bartholomew +is now using, so that the hundred thousand dollars bonus will come our +way as well as this first twenty-five thousand." +</P> + +<P> +"That wouldn't pay for one engine, would it?" cried Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Nor is it expected to. The bonus has nothing to do with payment for +any model, or patent, or anything of the kind. To tell you the truth, +Ned, I understand those big locomotives used by the Chicago, Milwaukee +& St. Paul cost them about one hundred and twelve thousand dollars +each." +</P> + +<P> +"Whew! Some price, I'll tell the world!" murmured the youthful +financial manager of the Swift Construction Company. +</P> + +<P> +When the conference was over, and Tom had been through the workshop to +overlook several little jobs that were in process of completion by his +trusted mechanics, it was lunch time. He left word that he would not be +back that day, for this new task he was to attack was not to be +approached with any haphazard thought. +</P> + +<P> +Tom knew quite as well as his father knew that the idea of improving +the Jandel patent on electric locomotives was no small thing. The +Jandel people had claimed that their patent was the very last word in +electric motor-power. And Tom was quite willing to acknowledge that in +some ways this claim was true. +</P> + +<P> +But in invention, especially in the field of electric invention, what +is the last word today may be ancient history tomorrow. +</P> + +<P> +It was because this field is so broad and the possibility of +improvement in every branch of electrical science so exciting, that Tom +had accepted Mr. Bartholomew's challenge with such eagerness. +</P> + +<P> +Tom went back to the house for lunch, and as he joined his father in +the dining room he remarked to Eradicate: +</P> + +<P> +"I want the electric runabout brought around after lunch. I am going to +Waterfield. Tell Koku, will you, Rad?" +</P> + +<P> +"Tell that crazy fellow?" demanded the old colored man heatedly. "Why +should I tell him, Massa Tom? Ain't I able to bring dat runabout out o' +de garbarge? Shore I is!" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't do everything, Rad," said Tom, soberly. "That is humanly +impossible." +</P> + +<P> +"But dat Koku can't do nothin' right. Dat's inhumanly possible, Massa +Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"Give him a chance, Rad. I have to take Koku with me this afternoon. +You must give your attention to the house and to father." +</P> + +<P> +"Huh! Umm!" grunted Eradicate. +</P> + +<P> +Rad was jealous of anybody who waited on Tom besides himself. +Yet he was proud of responsibility, too. He teetered between the pride +of being in charge at home and accompanying his young master, and +finally replied: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, in course, you ain't going to be gone long, Massa Tom. And yo' +father does like to get his nap undisturbed. And he'll want his pot o' +tea afterwards. So I'll let dat irresponsible Koku go wid yo'. But yo' +got to watch him, Massa Tom. Dat giant don't know what he's about half +de time." +</P> + +<P> +As Koku was not within hearing to challenge that statement, things went +all right. When Tom came out of the house after eating, he found his +very fast car waiting for him, with the giant standing beside it at the +curb. +</P> + +<P> +"Get in at the back, Koku," said Tom. "I am going to take you with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Master is much wise," said Koku. "That man with big feet will not hurt +Master while Koku is with him." +</P> + +<P> +To tell the truth Tom had quite forgotten the supposed spy that had +attacked him the night before. He needed Koku for a purpose other than +that of bodyguard. But he made no comment upon the giant's remark. +</P> + +<P> +They stopped at one of the gates of the works, and Tom instructed Koku +to bring out and put into the car certain boxes and tools that he +wished to take with him. Then he drove on, taking the road to +Waterfield. +</P> + +<P> +This way led through farmlands and patches of woods, a rough country in +part. A mile out of the limits of Shopton the road edged a deep valley, +the sidehill sparsely wooded. +</P> + +<P> +Almost at once, and where there was not a dwelling in sight, they saw a +figure tramping in the road ahead, a big man, roughly dressed, and +wearing a broad-brimmed hat. Somehow, his appearance made Tom reduce +speed and he hesitated to pass the pedestrian. +</P> + +<P> +The man did not hear the runabout at first; or, at least, he did not +look over his shoulder. He strode on heavily, but rapidly. Suddenly the +young inventor heard the giant behind him emit a hissing breath. +</P> + +<P> +"Master!" whispered the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"What's up now?" demanded Tom, but without glancing around. +</P> + +<P> +"The big feet!" exclaimed Koku. +</P> + +<P> +The giant's own feet were shod with difficulty in civilized footgear, +but compared with his other physical dimensions his feet did not seem +large. The man ahead wore coarse boots which actually looked too big +for him! Koku started up in the back of the car as the latter drew +nearer to the stranger. +</P> + +<P> +The man looked back at last and Tom gained a clear view of his +features—roughly carved, dark as an Indian's, and holding a grim +expression in repose that of itself was far from breeding confidence. +In a moment, too, the expression changed into one of active emotion. +The man glared at the young inventor with unmistakable malevolence. +</P> + +<P> +"Master!" hissed Koku again. "The big feet!" The fellow must have seen +Koku's face and understood the giant's expression. In a flash he turned +and leaped out of the roadway. The sidehill was steep and broken here, +but he went down the slope in great strides and with every appearance +of wishing to evade the two in the motor-car. +</P> + +<P> +The giant's savage war cry followed the fugitive. Koku leaped from the +moving car. Tom yelled: +</P> + +<P> +"Stop it, Koku! You don't know that that is the man." +</P> + +<P> +"The big feet!" repeated the giant. "Master see the red mud dried on +Big Feet's boots? That mud from Master's garden." +</P> + +<P> +Again Koku uttered his savage cry, and in strides twice the length of +those of the running man, started on the latter's trail. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +An Enemy in the Dark +</H3> + +<P> +The situation offered suggestions of trouble that stung Tom to +immediate action. The impetuousness of his giant often resulted in +difficulties which the young inventor would have been glad to escape. +</P> + +<P> +Now Koku was following just the wrong path. Tom Swift knew it. +</P> + +<P> +"Koku, you madman!" he shouted after the huge native. "Come back here! +Hear me? Back!" +</P> + +<P> +Koku hesitated. He shot a wondering look over his shoulder, but his +long legs continued to carry him down the slope after the dark-faced +stranger. +</P> + +<P> +"Come back, I say!" shouted Tom again. "Have I got to come after you? +Koku! If you don't mind what you're told I'll send you back to your own +country and you'll have to eat snakes and lizards, as you used to. Come +here!" +</P> + +<P> +Whether it was because of this threat of a change of diet, which Koku +now abhorred, or the fact that he had really become somewhat +disciplined and that he fairly worshiped Tom, the giant stopped. The +man with the big shoes disappeared behind a hedge of low trees. +</P> + +<P> +"Get back up here!" ejaculated Tom sternly. "I'll never take you away +from the house with me again if you don't obey me." +</P> + +<P> +"Master!" ejaculated the giant, slowly approaching. "That Big Feet—" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care if he made those footprints in the yard last night or +not. I don't want him touched. I didn't even want him to know that we +guessed he had been sneaking about the house. Understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of a courseness," grumbled Koku. "Koku understand everything Master +say." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you don't act as though you did. Next time when I want any help +I may have to bring Rad with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, Master! Not that old man. He don't know how to help Master. +Koku do just what Master say." +</P> + +<P> +"Like fun you do," said Tom, still apparently very angry with the +simple-minded giant. "Get back into the car and sit still, if you can, +until we get to Mr. Damon's house." Then to himself he added: "I don't +blame that fellow, whoever he is, for lighting out. I bet he's running +yet!" +</P> + +<P> +He knew that Koku would say nothing regarding the incident. The giant +had wonderful powers of silence! He sometimes went days without +speaking even to Rad. And that was one of the sources of irritation +between the voluble colored man and the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"'Tain't human," Rad often said, "for nobody to say nothin' as much as +dat Koku does. Why, lawsy me! if he was tongue-tied an' speechless, an' +a deaf an' dumb mute, he couldn't say nothin' more obstreperously dan +he does—no sir! 'Tain't human." +</P> + +<P> +So Tom had not to warn the giant not to chatter about meeting the +stranger on the road to Waterfield. If that person with dried red mud +on his boots was the spy who had followed Mr. Richard Bartholomew East +and was engaged by Montagne Lewis to interfere with any attempt the +president of the H. & P. A. might make to pull his railroad out of the +financial quagmire into which it was rapidly sinking, Tom would have +preferred to have the spy not suspect that he had been identified after +his fiasco of the previous evening. +</P> + +<P> +For if this Western looking fellow was Andy O'Malley, whose name had +been mentioned by the railroad man, he was the person who had robbed +Tom of his wallet and had afterward attempted reprisal upon the young +inventor because the robbery had resulted in no gain to the robber. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, the fellow had been unable to read Tom's shorthand notes of +the agreement that he had discussed with Mr. Bartholomew. Just what the +nature of that agreement was, would be a matter of interest to the +spy's employer. +</P> + +<P> +Having failed in this attempt to learn something which was not his +business, the spy might make other and more serious attempts to learn +the particulars of the agreement between the railroad president and the +Swifts. Tom was sorry that the fellow had now been forewarned that his +identity as the spy and footpad was known to Tom and his friends. +</P> + +<P> +Koku had made a bad mess of it. But Tom determined to say nothing to +his father regarding the discovery he had made. He did not want to +worry Mr. Swift. He meant, however, to redouble precautions at the +Swift Construction Company against any stranger getting past the +stockade gates. +</P> + +<P> +Arrived at Mr. Damon's home in Waterfield, Tom got quickly to work on +the little job he had come to do for his old friend. Of course, Tom +might have sent two of his mechanics from the works down here to +electrify the barbed wire entanglements that Mr. Damon had erected +around his chicken run. But the young inventor knew that his eccentric +friend would not consider the job done right unless Tom attended to it +personally. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my cracked corn and ground bone mixture!" ejaculated the chicken +fancier. "We'll show these night-prowlers what's what, I guess. One of +my neighbors was robbed last night. And I would have been if I hadn't +set a watch while I drove over to see you, Tom. Bless my spurs and +hackles! but these thieves are getting bold." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll fix 'em," said Tom, cheerfully, while Koku brought the tools and +wire to the hen run. "After we link up your supply of the current with +this wire fence it will be an unhappy chicken burglar who interferes +with it." +</P> + +<P> +"That was an unhappy fellow who got your charge of ammonia last +evening," whispered Mr. Damon. "Heard anything more of him?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think I have seen him. But Koku spoiled everything by trying to eat +him up," and Tom laughingly related what had occurred on the way from +Shopton. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my boots!" said Mr. Damon. "You'd better see the police, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, they ought to know about such a fellow lurking about Shopton. If +he followed that Western railroad president here—" +</P> + +<P> +"We'll hope that he will follow Mr. Bartholomew away again," chuckled +Tom. "Mr. Bartholomew won't stay over today. When that chap finds he +has gone he probably will consider that there is no use in his +bothering me any further." +</P> + +<P> +Whether Tom believed this statement or not, he was destined to realize +his mistake within a very short time. At least, the fact that he was +being spied upon and that the enemy meant him anything but good, seemed +proved beyond a doubt that very week. +</P> + +<P> +Having done the little job for Mr. Damon, Tom allowed no other outside +matter to take up his attention. He shut himself into his private +experimental workshop and laboratory at the works each day. He did not +even come out for lunch, letting Rad bring him down some sandwiches and +a thermos bottle of cool milk. +</P> + +<P> +"The young boss is milling over something new," the men said, and +grinned at each other. They were proud of Tom and faithful to his +interests. +</P> + +<P> +Time was when there had been traitors in the works; but unfaithful +hands had been weeded out. There was not a man who drew a pay envelope +from the Swift Construction Company who would not have done his best to +save Tom and his father trouble. Such a thing as a strike, or labor +troubles of any kind, was not thought of there. +</P> + +<P> +So Tom knew that whatever he did, or whatever plans he drew, in his +private room, he was safely guarded. Yet he always took a portfolio +home with him at night, for after dinner he frequently continued his +work of the day. Naturally during this first week he did not get far in +any problem connected with the proposed electric locomotive. There +were, however, rough drafts and certain schedules that had to do with +the matter jotted down. +</P> + +<P> +It was almost twelve at night. Tom had sat up in his own room after his +father had retired, and after the household was still. +</P> + +<P> +Eradicate was in bed and snoring under the roof, Tom knew. Just where +Koku was, it would have been hard to tell. Although a fine and +penetrating rain was falling, the giant might be roaming about the +waste land surrounding the stockade of the works. The elements had no +terrors for him. +</P> + +<P> +Tom locked his portfolio and stepped into his bathroom to wash his +hands before retiring. Before he snapped on the electric light over the +basin he chanced to glance through the newly set windowpane which had +replaced the one Rad had shattered in escaping threatened impalement on +Koku's spear. +</P> + +<P> +Although the clouds were thick and the rain was falling, there was a +certain humid radiance upon the roof of the porch under the bathroom +window. At least, the wet roof glistened so that any moving figure on +or beyond it was visible. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" muttered Tom, and he sank down lower than the sill and +crept slowly to the window. He merely raised himself until his eyes +were on a level with the sill. +</P> + +<P> +Coming up over the edge of the porch roof was a bulky figure. It was +so dimly outlined at first that Tom could scarcely be sure that it was +that of a man. +</P> + +<P> +However, it was not possible that any creature but a man would be able +to mount the lattice supporting the honeysuckle vines and so creep out +upon the porch roof. Once making secure his footing, the enemy in the +dark approached directly the bathroom window at which Tom crouched. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Where was Koku? +</H3> + +<P> +Tom reached up swiftly and pushed over the lever that locked the two +window sashes. In doing this he set his own patent burglar alarm. If +that lever was turned back again, or broken, the buzzers would be set +ringing all over the house, and in Koku's room over the garage. +</P> + +<P> +He did not believe that the marauder on the roof of the porch could +have seen the flash of his shirt-sleeved arm. But he took no chance of +being observed from outside by rising to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +On his hands and knees he crept away from the window, and out of the +bathroom. Once there, he stood up, grabbed the portfolio, and without +coat or vest and as he was, dashed out of the bedroom. He had been +positive that nobody but himself was astir in the big house, and he was +right. +</P> + +<P> +He did not punch the light button when he entered the library. He knew +where to put his hand upon an electric torch in the table drawer, and +he gained possession of this. +</P> + +<P> +Then he went to the safe and twirled the knob and watched the indicator +find the four numbers which were the "open sesame" to the burglar and +fire-proof door. +</P> + +<P> +He flung the portfolio into the inner compartment, closed both doors, +and twirled the combination-knob. Then Tom tiptoed to the foot of the +front stairs to listen. He could hear no sound from above. +</P> + +<P> +He did not want his father to be startled, if the enemy did break in; +and he knew that old Rad, awakened out of a sound sleep, would be worse +than useless at such a time. +</P> + +<P> +After all, the giant, Koku, was his main dependence under these +circumstances. Tom crept to the outer door, opened it carefully, and +slipped out, letting the spring lock click behind him. For the first +time he realized that he was in his shirt and trousers and wore only +felt slippers on his feet. +</P> + +<P> +But he was locked out now. He had no key. He must run the risk of the +fine rain and the chill of the night air. +</P> + +<P> +He stepped off the end of the porch and ran around the house. It was +to the roof of the rear porch that the marauder had climbed. But peer +as he might from down in the yard, Tom could see no moving figure up +there near the bathroom window. It was pitch dark against the wall of +the house. +</P> + +<P> +He turned to glance up at the window of the sleeping room over the +garage where Koku was supposed to spend the night. But Tom knew the +giant was seldom there during the dark hours. He was as much of a +night-prowler as a wildcat or an owl. +</P> + +<P> +There was no light there in any case. But Koku did not use a light +much. He could see in the dark, like a wild animal. Tom did not want to +call him. If he must have Koku's help, he would have to climb the +stairs to his bedside. The giant always aroused as wide awake as at +noonday. +</P> + +<P> +But while the young inventor hesitated a sudden, but muffled, snap—the +breaking of metal—sounded. Tom knew instantly the direction from which +the sound came. +</P> + +<P> +Although he could see nothing up there at the bathroom window because +of the rain and the deep shadow, he knew that the snapping sound meant +the severing of the window lock that he had so recently closed. Some +instrument had been forced under the bottom of the lower sash and +pressure enough been brought to bear to break the thin steel lever. +</P> + +<P> +On the heels of this sound came another. A muffled buzzing somewhere in +the house—again! again! And then, startlingly clear from the room over +the garage, the burglar alarm went off in Koku's chamber. +</P> + +<P> +"It's all off now!" gasped Tom, and he ran to the foot of the +honeysuckle ladder up which he knew the enemy had climbed to get to the +roof of the porch. "If he comes down I'll have him!" muttered Tom, +staring up into the mist and gloom. +</P> + +<P> +"Fo' de lawsy's sake! 'Tain't mawnin', is it?" Rad's sleepy voice was +heard to announce. "No, it's da'k as—" And the voice trailed off into +silence. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom! Tom!" the young fellow heard his aroused father shouting. +</P> + +<P> +Tom knew that his father was in no danger. In fact Mr. Swift's voice +did not even betray apprehension. It was to the garage Tom looked for +an explosion. But none came. +</P> + +<P> +If Koku was up there the prolonged buzzing of the alarm did not awake +him. Therefore he could not be there. Tom realized that if the burglar +was to be taken the whole affair fell upon his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"And I've got my hands full, if it is the fellow with the big feet that +we saw on the Waterfield Road the other day," muttered the young +inventor. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing stirred on the porch roof. Moment after moment slipped by. Tom +began to grow more than amazed. He was worried. What would happen next? +</P> + +<P> +His father had not cried out again. Stepping around to the end of the +roofed porch, Tom saw a light in Mr. Swift's room. Rad had evidently +gone to sleep again. It would take more than an intermittent buzzer to +rouse fully that colored man. +</P> + +<P> +"When old Morpheus has a strangle hold on Rad, Gabriel's trump would +scarcely awaken him," Tom muttered. +</P> + +<P> +What had become of the enemy? If it was an ordinary burglar he would +have feared the electric alarm instantly. The buzzers were still +working. But there was no sign of the man who had set them off at the +bathroom window. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Tom heard a door slam. It was from the front of the house. Had +his father come downstairs to look around and see what the matter was? +</P> + +<P> +The young fellow started around the house on a run. He heard heavy +bootsoles spurning the gravel of the path to the front gate. He arrived +at the far corner of the house in time to see a man dash through the +gateway and run down the street, disappearing finally into the +fast-driving rain. +</P> + +<P> +"Fooled me! He went in and right through and down the stairs! Out the +front door!" gasped Tom. "Did he get anything? I wonder!" +</P> + +<P> +He sprang up to the front porch and tried the door. It was locked +again, of course. Should he ring the bell and get Rad or his father +down to the door? +</P> + +<P> +And then, of a sudden, the principal mystery of all this affair bit +into Tom Swift's mind. The burglar had made his escape. He could +relieve his father's anxiety later. It was his own puzzlement of mind +that he first wished to ease. +</P> + +<P> +Where was Koku? +</P> + +<P> +Even had the giant been circling the stockade around the shops he +surely must have come up to the home premises by this time. His keen +ears could not fail to hear the buzzers. They were still going and +would go until the switch was turned. +</P> + +<P> +If the giant was in his room—Tom turned suddenly and started on a run +for the rear premises. He still carried the hand-lamp and it lit his +way into the garage door and up the narrow stairway. He shot the round +beam of the lamp into Koku's room. +</P> + +<P> +He had been obliged to have an iron bedstead made to order for the +giant. It stood against one wall of the room. The buzzer was snarling +like a huge bumblebee above the head of the couch. Below it sprawled +the giant, eyes tightly closed and mouth slightly ajar. From the lips +of Koku were emitted sounds worthy of Rad Sampson in his deepest +slumbers! +</P> + +<P> +"Asleep?" gasped Tom, stepping cat-like into the room. +</P> + +<P> +And then he was suddenly aware of a sickish, heavy odor in the chamber. +The window had been closed. But it was something more than stale air +that Tom smelled. +</P> + +<P> +A folded cloth lay on the floor beside the couch. The young fellow saw +at once that it had been originally placed over the giant's face, but +had slid off. And lucky for Koku that it had been dislodged! +</P> + +<P> +"Chloroform!" muttered Tom. "He's drugged. It is no wonder he did not +hear the burglar alarm." +</P> + +<P> +In any event, the incident made one deep impression on Tom's mind. The +spies who he believed were working for the Hendrickton & Western +Railroad and its owner, Montagne Lewis, were desperate men. Tom could +not believe that the fellow with the big feet was alone in Shopton and +was unaided in his attempts to find out what Tom was doing. +</P> + +<P> +This attempt to burglarize the house betrayed the caliber of the enemy. +In chloroforming Koku he had taken the risk of murdering the giant. +Only the fact that the pad of saturated cloth had fallen off Koku's +face had, perhaps, saved the man from suffocation. +</P> + +<P> +Tom did not tell the giant when he aroused what the matter with him +was. Koku was ill enough! He was wrenched by interior spasms that +seemed almost to tear his huge body to pieces. +</P> + +<P> +"What done got into dat big lump o' bone an' grizzle?" demanded +Eradicate. "He looks like, he swallowed a volcano, and it just got to +wo'kin' right. My lawsy!" +</P> + +<P> +"He is a sick man, all right," admitted Tom. "Looks like he wouldn't +try to stab me to deaf wid no spear no mo'," went on Rad, inclined to +approve of Koku's sufferings. +</P> + +<P> +"If he died you'd be mighty sorry, old man," declared Tom, sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"Sho' would. Be a mighty hard job to bury him," was the callous +response. +</P> + +<P> +Just the same, the crotchety old colored man began to hop around in +lively fashion with hot water, and later with coffee and other +stimulants; and he nursed Koku all day as though he were a big baby. +</P> + +<P> +Koku, who had never been ill before in his life, was inclined to lay +the trouble to an evil genius of some kind. Perhaps, in spite of his +half-civilized state, he was still a devil-worshiper. At any rate, he +had a vital respect for the forces of evil. +</P> + +<P> +Naturally he considered this unknown and unexpected misery he suffered +the result of malignant influences of some kind. Tom did not want him +to suspect that the man with the big feet had any possible part in the +mystery. Had Koku suspected this, and had he got his hands on the spy, +the latter could never have been successfully used in that sort of work +again. In all probability he would have said that he had had enough. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile Tom made a point of considering each step he took alone +thereafter with particular care. He had a bodyguard—usually the giant +after the latter had recovered—between the works and the house. He did +not bring home any more the schedules or drawings connected with the +electric locomotive that he proposed to have built and to test inside +the stockade of the Swift Construction Company. +</P> + +<P> +He even put a private detective to work on the matter of finding a man +named Andy O'Malley who might be lurking around Shopton. He had a +pretty clear description of the fellow, for he had not only seen him +once, face to face by daylight, but Tom had written to the president of +the H. & P. A. and had got from that gentleman a clear picture in words +of the spy whom Mr. Bartholomew believed was working in the interests +of Montagne Lewis. +</P> + +<P> +"If O'Malley appears in Shopton, look out. He is a bad character. He is +not only a notorious gunman, with several warrants out for him in these +parts, but he is a cruel and desperate man in any event. The minute you +mark him, have him arrested and telegraph me. We'll get him extradited +and put him through for ten years or more right in this county." The +private investigator, however, as the weeks went by, could not find any +man who filled O'Malley's description. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile Tom Swift had got what he called "a lead" and was working day +and night upon the invention that he believed might make even the +Jandel people respectful, if not a bit envious. +</P> + +<P> +First of all Tom had arranged to have built all around inside the +stockade a track of rails heavy enough to stand the wear and tear of +the heaviest locomotive built. Meanwhile the various parts of his +locomotive were being built in several shops, but would be shipped to +the Swift Construction Company and assembled in Tom's try-out shed. +</P> + +<P> +Great secrecy was of course maintained. Aside from the fact that the +new invention had something to do with electric motive power, nobody +about the shops could say what the new industry portended. Save, of +course, the Swifts themselves, Ned Newton, and Mr. Damon, who was the +Swifts' closest friend and sometimes had furnished additional capital +for Tom's experiments. +</P> + +<P> +There was a thing that Mr. Damon furnished Tom at this time that proved +in the end to be of much importance. Before Tom had seized upon this +idea of his eccentric friend, and had made proper use of it, something +happened that came near to wrecking utterly Tom's invention and +completely putting an end to Tom himself as an inventor. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Strange Conversation +</H3> + +<P> +Mr. Wakefield Damon frequently came to the shops, for he was not alone +very friendly with the Swifts, but he was greatly interested in Tom's +new invention. +</P> + +<P> +"If it goes as good as what you did for my chicken run," he declared, +chuckling, "bless my dampers! you'll beat all the electric locomotives +in the market." +</P> + +<P> +"That is easy, perhaps," said Tom smiling. "There are not many in the +market at the present time. But I don't know what mine will be. This is +going to be some job." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my flues and clinkers!" cried Mr. Damon, "you are not losing +hope, Tom Swift? Look what you did for my chicken run. And believe me, +that entanglement will give a shock that makes a man stand right up and +shake." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you tried it yourself?" asked Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"No. But my servant did. I saw him through the window of my study doing +some kind of a shimmy with the shovel. Thought he'd gone crazy. Then I +saw what he had done. It was early in the morning and I hadn't turned +the current off, and he had put one hand against the wires. When he +dropped the shovel as I told him to, bless my plyers and nippers! he +was all right." +</P> + +<P> +"The current would not seriously hurt him," said Tom. "I was careful +about that." +</P> + +<P> +"It killed two tomcats," said Mr. Damon. "I certainly was glad of that, +for those two ash-barrel cats kept the whole neighborhood awake. Bless +my claws and whiskers! how those two cats did use to yell. But when one +tried to climb the wires and the other sprang on him, it was all over! +That is, all over but the burial party." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon was on the ground when the mechanical equipment and a part of +the electrical equipment of the new locomotive arrived and was set up +in the erection shed. The length of the machine was what first +impressed Ned Newton as well as Mr. Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my yardstick!" exclaimed the eccentric man, "it's as long as a +gossip's tongue. What a monster it will be!" +</P> + +<P> +"How long is it, Tom?" asked Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +"When completed, and standing on its drivers and bogie truck and +trailer truck, from cow-catcher to rear bumper it will be a few inches +over ninety feet. And that is slightly longer than the biggest electric +locomotive so far built. But length does not so much enter into the +value of the machine. I would have it built more compactly if I could." +</P> + +<P> +"What is the horsepower?" asked Mr. Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"I figure on forty-four hundred horsepower. The power must be received +from a three thousand-volt direct-current trolley. There are twelve +driving-wheels, as you can see. Each pair of drivers will be driven by +a twin-motor geared to the axles through a system of flexible spring +drive. Remember, I have got to obtain both speed as well as power in +this locomotive, for it is being built to pull a passenger train—a +fast cross-continent express—to compete with the best passenger +equipment in the country." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my combination ticket!" murmured Mr. Damon. "You have picked out +some task, and no mistake, Tom Swift." +</P> + +<P> +"He'll do it," cried Ned, with his usual optimism when Tom had once +started on any experimental work. "Of course he will. Just as she +stands there now, only half put together, I would be willing to bet a +farm that she is a better locomotive than the Jandel patent." +</P> + +<P> +"Three cheers!" laughed Tom. "Ned is as enthusiastic as usual. But +believe me, friends, we are not going to turn out a better locomotive +than the Jandel without both thought and work." +</P> + +<P> +His friends' enthusiasm was heartening, however. No doubt of that. He +never let them into his experiment room, any more than he allowed his +workmen in there. Aside from his own father, nobody really knew what +Tom Swift was doing behind that always-locked door. +</P> + +<P> +The huge structure of the locomotive was set up on the driving wheels +and leading and trailing trucks by Tom's chief foreman and a picked +crew. Just such another locomotive had never been seen anywhere about +Shopton. Naturally the men at work on the monster began to speak of it +outside the works. +</P> + +<P> +Not that they betrayed any secrets regarding the locomotive. In fact, +as yet none of them knew anything about what Tom intended to do with +the big machine. But the story soon circulated that Tom Swift, the +young inventor, was about to show all the previous builders of electric +locomotives how such machines should be built. +</P> + +<P> +It was even whispered that Tom's objective was a two-mile-a-minute +locomotive. And when this was publicly known the information was not +long in seeping to the ears of certain men who had been keeping as +close a watch as they dared on the Swift Construction Company and the +activities of Tom himself. +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton went to the bank one Friday for money for the payroll of the +working and clerical force of the Swift Company. It was an errand he +never relegated to any employee. +</P> + +<P> +Ned had once worked himself in the bank, and naturally he knew many of +its employees as well as the officials. With his back to the general +waiting room, he sat at the vice president's desk discussing some minor +matter. Only a railing divided the vice president's enclosure from the +long settee on which waiting customers of the bank were seated. +</P> + +<P> +Ned knew that there were two men directly behind him, whispering +together; but he paid no attention to them until he heard this phrase: +</P> + +<P> +"It's time to explode in just five hours; then good-night to that +invention, whatever it is." +</P> + +<P> +This statement might mean almost anything—or nothing. Ordinarily Ned +Newton might not have paid any consideration to the words. But +"invention" was a term that he could not overlook. His mind then was +fixed upon Tom's invention almost as closely as the mind of the young +inventor himself. +</P> + +<P> +Ned turned around slowly, as though idly, indeed, and tried to see the +faces of the two men behind him. One was a small, neatly dressed man of +professional appearance. He wore a Vandyke beard and eyeglasses. The +other's face Ned could not see; but as they both rose just then and +strolled toward the door of the bank he could observe that the fellow +was big and burly. +</P> + +<P> +Ned wheeled to his friend, the vice president, and asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Who are those men, Mr. Stanley? Do you know them?" +</P> + +<P> +The pair were just going out through the revolving door. The vice +president craned his neck for a look at them. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know the small man, Ned. But the other is named O'Malley, I +believe. Somebody introduced him here and he gets a check cashed +occasionally. Not a customer of the bank." +</P> + +<P> +At that moment the name "O'Malley" did not mean anything to Ned Newton. +But he bade his friend good-bye and went out after the two men. They +had disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +Rad was in the electric runabout, waiting for him. The words spoken by +O'Malley (Ned thought it must have been he who spoke of the invention +because of his deep voice) continued to disturb Ned's thought. +</P> + +<P> +"Rad," he said, as he got into the runabout, "did you ever hear the +name O'Malley?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure has," declared the colored man. "And it's a bad name and a bad +man owns it." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean that?" exclaimed the financial manager of the Swift +Construction Company, with increasing apprehension. "Who is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Mr. Newton, don't you 'member dat man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who is he?" repeated Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Dat Andy O'Malley is de one what tried to hold up Massa Tom dat time. +O'Malley is de man what's been spyin' on Massa Tom—" +</P> + +<P> +"Great grief!" exclaimed Ned, breaking in with excitement. "I'll drive +as fast as I can, Rad. There is something wrong at the works, I do +believe!" +</P> + +<P> +"What's wrong, Mr. Ned?" demanded Rad. "We just come from dere, and +everyt'ing was all right." +</P> + +<P> +"I just heard something that O'Malley said. I want to get back in a +hurry. I believe that scoundrel is attempting to blow up Tom's +locomotive. We've got to get to the works just as quick as we can." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Touch and Go +</H3> + +<P> +The mechanical equipment of the new locomotive was now complete and Tom +was establishing the electrical equipment as rapidly as possible. He +not only acted as overseer of this work, but in overalls and jumper he +was doing a good share of the work himself. +</P> + +<P> +The weight of the electrical equipment when it was finally set up was +not far from two hundred thousand pounds. Altogether, when the oil, +sand, and water tanks were filled, the great machine would weigh two +hundred and eighty-five tons—a monster indeed! +</P> + +<P> +"She is going to take a lot of current to run her," said Tom to his +father, who was standing by. "When I come to arrange with the Shopton +Electric Company for power, it's a question if they can give me all I +need. And I must have plenty of current to make sure that my motors +fill the bill." +</P> + +<P> +"As your tests will be made in the daytime, the company should be able +to furnish the power you need," rejoined Mr. Swift. "At night, of +course, when they must furnish so much light as well as power, it might +be difficult for them to give you the proper current." +</P> + +<P> +"Forty-four hundred horsepower is a big demand," went on Tom. "I've +got to have at least a three-thousand-volt direct-current to feed my +motors. I will soon have to take up the matter with the Electric +Company." +</P> + +<P> +The heavy work of setting the electrical parts of the locomotive had +been finished the day previous, and the track-derrick was removed. Tom +was engaged in adjusting the more delicate parts of the equipment and +had merely stepped down from the cab to speak to Mr. Swift. +</P> + +<P> +Now he climbed back into the interior of the great machine which, in a +general way, looked like a box car. An electric locomotive has not much +of the appearance of a steam engine. The machinery is all boxed in and +the entire floor of the locomotive is above even the drivers. +</P> + +<P> +These six pairs of driving wheels were about seventy inches in +diameter, while the diameter of the leading and following truck-wheels +was but half that number of inches. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Swift had turned away from the locomotive when Tom put his head out +of the door again. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you hear that, father?" he demanded in a puzzled tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Hear what, Tom?" asked the old inventor, looking up. +</P> + +<P> +"That ticking sound? I declare, I'd think it was one of those +death-watch beetles had got in here. Sounds like a big watch ticking. I +can't make it out." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is it? What is it?" repeated Mr. Swift. "I hear nothing down +here on the floor of the shed." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it gets me," muttered Tom, and disappeared again. In a moment he +called out: "Say, you fellows! who left his bundle of overalls in here? +Better take 'em out to be manicured. Whose are these?" +</P> + +<P> +Two or three of the mechanics working near looked up from their tasks. +Mr. Swift turned back to the door of the cab again. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter now, Tom?" he asked, in added curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +"That bundle, Dad." +</P> + +<P> +Tom once more appeared and addressed the workmen: "Whose bundle of +dirty overalls is this in here? Come and take 'em away. They shouldn't +have been left here." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Mr. Tom," said the foreman who was near, "I didn't see any soiled +overalls in there when I left last evening. Any of you fellows," he +asked the group of hands, "know anything about any overalls?" +</P> + +<P> +"The bundle is here all right. Pushed back against the third series +motors. Come up here, one of you fellows—" +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly there was a noise at the end of the shed where the door to the +offices lay. Two figures burst through from the glass doors and charged +down the lanes between the lathes and cranes. Ned Newton led, Rad +Sampson, his face a mouse-gray with fear, followed. +</P> + +<P> +"Massa Tom! Massa Tom!" shouted the colored man. "Look out fo' de bomb! +Look out fo' de bomb!" +</P> + +<P> +The foreman sprang toward the high door of the locomotive where Tom +stood, staring out. The young inventor, quick as his mind usually +functioned, did not understand at all what Eradicate meant. +</P> + +<P> +"There's something wrong in there, Mr. Tom!" shouted the foreman. "Come +down, sir, and let me get up there and see what it is." +</P> + +<P> +But Mr. Barton Swift grasped the meaning of what was going on more +quickly than anybody else. Tom's father, Tom frequently said, had spent +so many years investigating chemical and mechanical mysteries that he +saw more clearly and more exactly into and through most problems than +other people. +</P> + +<P> +His raised voice now cut through the rumble of machinery and all the +other noises of the shop. Even Rad Sampson's delirious cry was dwarfed +by Mr. Swift's sharp tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Tom! The ticking of that watch! That means danger!" +</P> + +<P> +The declaration seemed to rip away a curtain from Tom's thoughts. +Perhaps Rad's cry about "de bomb" aided the young inventor to +understand the peril that threatened. +</P> + +<P> +The faint ticking sound that had begun to annoy him during the past few +minutes betrayed the nature of the threatening peril. Tom swung back +from the open doorway of the locomotive cab, reached in to the space +between the motors, and seized the bundle of overall stuff that he had +previously spied. +</P> + +<P> +He knew instantly that the rapid ticking came from that bundle. It +could be nothing but a time bomb. He had heard of such things and, +indeed, had seen one before, an infernal machine which, set like an +alarm clock, would go off at a certain time. That indicated time might +be an hour hence, or might be within a few seconds! Ned Newton, almost +at the spot, shouted to Tom when the latter reappeared with the bundle +in his hands: +</P> + +<P> +"Get down out of that, Tom Swift! Quick! For your life!" +</P> + +<P> +But Tom was cool enough now. He saw his father's white, strained face +at one side and the young inventor could even smile at him. Behind the +foreman was set a barrel of water in which tools were cooled and +tempered. +</P> + +<P> +"Stoop, McAvoy!" Tom shouted, and tossed the bundle from him. +</P> + +<P> +Had the infernal machine exploded in midair Tom would not have been +surprised. But McAvoy dodged, Rad clapped his hands over his ears, and, +even Ned Newton halted like a bird-dog at point. +</P> + +<P> +The bundle splashed into the barrel of water. It sank to the bottom. +There was no explosion. When a few seconds had passed the group of +excited men began to relax. The barrel was carried carefully to a +neighboring field. +</P> + +<P> +"Fo' de lawsy sake!" gasped Rad, and got a full breath again. +</P> + +<P> +"That was touch and go, sure enough," muttered Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +"Those overalls sure went to the wash, Boss," declared the foreman. +"What was in 'em? And who put 'em in the cab up there?" +</P> + +<P> +But Tom dropped down the ladder and went to his father. Their hands +sought each other and gripped, hard. +</P> + +<P> +"Better not tell Mary about this," whispered Tom. "She's worried enough +as it is." +</P> + +<P> +"Right, Tom," agreed the old inventor. "From this time on we cannot be +too careful. If there proves to be an infernal machine in that package +we may be sure that we are dealing with desperate men. We've got to +keep our eyes open." +</P> + +<P> +"Wide open," added Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say we have," said Tom. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Try-Out Day Arrives +</H3> + +<P> +It did not need Ned Newton's story of what he had overheard at the bank +to prove that an attempt had been made to blow to pieces Tom Swift's +electric locomotive before even it had been tested. +</P> + +<P> +An examination of the water-soaked package in the open yard of the +shops of the Swift Construction Company, proved that there was enough +explosive in the bomb to blow the shed itself to pieces. But the +stopping of the clockwork attachment of course made the bomb harmless. +</P> + +<P> +"The main thing to be explained," Tom said, when he and his father and +Ned discussed the particulars of the affair, "is not who did it, or +what it was done for. Those are comparatively easy questions to answer." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," agreed Ned. "O'Malley did it, or caused it to be done; and it +was an attempt to balk Mr. Bartholomew and the H, & P. A. rather than +a direct attack upon the Swift Construction Company." +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid, however," remarked Mr. Swift, "that Tom has aroused the +personal antagonism of this spy from the West. We must not overlook +that." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't," replied the young inventor. "O'Malley has it in for me. No +doubt of that. But he could not be sure that I would be hurt by the +explosion he arranged for." +</P> + +<P> +"True," said his father. +</P> + +<P> +"The attempt was against my invention. And O'Malley was doubtless urged +to destroy the locomotive that I am building because my success will +aid Mr. Bartholomew and his railroad." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite agreed," said Ned. "But—" +</P> + +<P> +"But the important question," interrupted Tom, "is this: How did the +bomb get into the interior of the electric locomotive? That is the +first and most important problem. Its having been done once warns us +that it can be done again until our system of guarding the works is +changed." +</P> + +<P> +"We have five watchmen on the job at night, and the gates are never +opened in the daytime to anybody for any purpose without a pass," +declared Ned. "I don't see how that fellow got in here with the time +bomb." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly. It shows that there is a fault in our system somewhere," said +Tom grimly. "We cannot surround the place at night with an armed guard. +It would cost too much. Even Koku cannot be everywhere. And I have +reason to know that he was wandering about the stockade last night as +usual." +</P> + +<P> +"The fellow was pretty sharp to slip by," Ned observed. +</P> + +<P> +"The stockade is no mean barrier, especially with the rows of barbed +wire at the top," said Mr. Swift. +</P> + +<P> +"Barbed wire! That's it!" exclaimed Tom. It was just here that Mr. +Damon's idea for guarding his prize buff Orpingtons came into play in +Tom's scheme of things. "Barbed wire doesn't seem to keep out spies," +he added slowly. "But believe me, something else will!" +</P> + +<P> +For Tom to think of a thing was to start action without delay. +Immediately he called a gang from the shops and set them to work +stringing copper wire along the top of the stockade. +</P> + +<P> +He was sure that the man who had set the time bomb in place had got +into the enclosure over the fence. If he tried the same trick again he +was very apt to have the surprise of his life! +</P> + +<P> +Each night when the shops closed and the watchmen went on duty, a +current of electricity was turned into those copper wires entwined with +the barbed wire entanglement at the top of the stockade that would +certainly double up any marauder who sought to get over the top. +</P> + +<P> +However, no further attempt was made against Tom's peace of mind and +against his invention during the immediate weeks that followed. The +young inventor was so closely engaged in his work that he scarcely left +the house or the confines of the shops. Even Mary Nestor saw very +little of him. +</P> + +<P> +But Mary realized fully that at such a time as this Tom must give all +his thought and energy to the task in hand. She was proud of Tom's +ability and took a deep interest in his inventions. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see the test when you try the locomotive, Tom," she told +him, when she came to the shops the first time to look at the monster +locomotive. "What a wonderful thing it is!" +</P> + +<P> +"Its wonder is yet to be proved," rejoined the young inventor. "I +believe I've got the right idea; but nothing is sure as yet." +</P> + +<P> +In addition to his mechanical contrivances inside the locomotive, Tom +had to arrange for an increased supply of electric power to drive the +huge machine around the track that was being built inside the stockade. +</P> + +<P> +A regular station had to be built for receiving the electricity in a +100,000-volt alternating current and delivering it to the locomotive in +a 3,000-volt direct current. Therefore, this station had two functions +to perform—reducing the voltage and changing the current from +alternating to direct. +</P> + +<P> +The reduction of the voltage was accomplished as follows: The +100,000-volt alternating current was received through an oil switch and +was conveyed to a high-tension current distributor made up of three +lines of copper tubing, thus forming the source of power for this +station. +</P> + +<P> +From the current distributor the current was conducted through other +oil switches to the transformers—entering at 100,000 volts and +emerging at 2,300 volts. Then the current was conducted from the +transformers through switches to the motor-generator sets and became +the power employed to operate them. +</P> + +<P> +The motor generator consisted of one alternating current motor driving +two direct current generators. The motor Tom established in his station +was of the 60-cycle synchronous type, which means that the current +changes sixty times each second. +</P> + +<P> +There were two sets, each generating a 1,500 or 2,000 volt direct +current; and the two generators being permanently connected, delivered +a combined direct current of 3,000 volts—as high a direct voltage +current, Tom knew, as had ever been adopted for railroad work. The +current voltage for ordinary street railway work is 550 volts. +</P> + +<P> +"I could run even this big machine," Tom explained to Ned Newton, "with +a much lighter current. But out there on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +line the transforming stations deliver this high voltage to the +locomotives. I want to test mine under similar conditions." +</P> + +<P> +"This is going to be an expensive test, Tom," said Ned, grumbling a +little. "The cost-sheets are running high." +</P> + +<P> +"We are aiming at a big target," returned the inventor. "You've got to +bait with something bigger than sprats to catch a whale, Ned." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! Suppose you don't catch the whale after all?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't lose hope," returned Tom, calmly. "I am going after this whale +right, believe me! This is one of the biggest contracts—if not the +very biggest—we ever tackled." +</P> + +<P> +"It looks as if the expense account would run the highest," admitted +the financial manager. +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Maybe that is so. But I'll spend the last cent I've got to +perfect this patent. I am going to beat the Jandels if it is humanly +possible to do so." +</P> + +<P> +"I can only hope you will, Tom. Why, this track and the overhead +trolley equipment is going to cost a small fortune. I had no idea when +you signed that contract with Mr. Bartholomew that so much money would +have to be spent in merely the experimental stage of the thing." +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton possessed traits of caution that could not be gainsaid. That +was one thing that made him such a successful financial manager for the +Swift Company. He watched expenditures as closely now as he had when +the business was upon a much more limited footing. +</P> + +<P> +The rails laid along the inside of the stockade made a two-mile track, +as well ballasted as any regular railroad right of way. In addition the +overhead equipment was costly. +</P> + +<P> +To eliminate any possibility of the trolley wire breaking, a strong +steel cable, called a catenary, was slung just above the trolley wire. +To this catenary the trolley wire was suspended by hangers at short +intervals. +</P> + +<P> +These cables were strung from brackets so that a single row of poles +could be used, save at the curves, at which cross-span construction was +used. The trolley wire itself was of the 4/0 size, and was the largest +diameter copper wire ever employed for railroad purposes. +</P> + +<P> +Several weeks had now passed since the great locomotive had been +assembled in the erection shed and the cab of the locomotive completed. +It really was a monster machine, and any stranger coming into the place +and seeing it for the first time must have marveled at the grim power +suggested by the mere bulk of the structure. +</P> + +<P> +When the day of the first test arrived Tom allowed only his most +intimate friends to be present. Mary Nestor accompanied Mr. Swift into +the shops at the time appointed, and she was as excited over the +outcome of the test as Tom himself. +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton and the mechanical force of the shops knocked off work to +become spectators at the exhibition. The only other outsider was Mr. +Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my alternating current!" cried the eccentric gentleman. "I +would not miss this for the world. If you tried to shut me out, Tom, +I'd climb over the stockade to get in." +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better not," Tom told him, dryly. "If you tried that you'd get a +worse shock than any chicken thief will get that tries to steal your +buff Orpingtons." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Hopes and Fears +</H3> + +<P> +Tom climbed into the huge cab of the electric locomotive. In fact, the +cab was the most of it, for every part of the mechanism save the +drivers was covered by the eighty-odd foot structure. From the peak of +the pilot to the rear bumper the length was ninety feet and some inches. +</P> + +<P> +As Tom slid the monster out upon the yard track the small crowd +cheered. At least, the locomotive had the power to move, and to the +unknowing ones, at least, that seemed a great and wonderful thing. +</P> + +<P> +What they saw was apparently a box-car—like a mail coach, only with +more high windows—ten feet wide, its roof more than fourteen feet from +the rails, its locked pantagraph adding two feet more to its height. +</P> + +<P> +Just what was in the cab—the water and oil tanks, the steam-heating +boiler to supply heat and hot water to the train the monster was to +draw, the motors and the many other mechanical contrivances—was hidden +from the spectators. +</P> + +<P> +In fact, since completing the electrical equipment of the Hercules +0001, as Tom had named the locomotive, the young inventor had allowed +nobody inside the cab, any more than he allowed visitors inside his +private workshop. Even Mr. Swift did not know all the results of Tom's +experimental work. In a general way the older inventor knew the trend +of his son's attempts, but the details and the results of Tom's +experiments, the latter told to nobody. +</P> + +<P> +But as the huge locomotive rolled into the yard and followed the more +or less circular track inside the yard fence, it was plain to all of +the onlookers that the motive-power was there all right! Just what +speed could be coaxed from the feed-cable overhead was another question. +</P> + +<P> +Nor did Tom Swift try for much speed on this first test of the Hercules +0001. He went around the two-mile track several times before bringing +his machine to a stop near the crowd of onlookers. He came to the open +door of the cab. +</P> + +<P> +"One thing is sure, Tom!" shouted Ned. "It do move!" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my slippery skates!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "it slides right +along, Tom. You've done it, my boy—you've done it!" +</P> + +<P> +"It looks good from where I stand, my son," said Mr. Barton Swift. +</P> + +<P> +It was Mary who suspected that Tom was not wholly satisfied—as yet, at +least—with the test of the Hercules 0001. She cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Tom! is it all right?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing is ever all right—that is, not perfect—in this old world, I +guess, Mary," returned the young inventor. "But I am not discouraged. +As Ned says, the old contraption 'do move.' How fast she'll move is +another thing." +</P> + +<P> +"What time did you make?" asked Mr. Swift. +</P> + +<P> +"Not above fifteen miles an hour." +</P> + +<P> +"Whew!" whistled Ned dolefully. "That is a long way from—" +</P> + +<P> +Tom made an instant motion and Ned's careless lips were sealed. It was +not generally known among the men the speed which Tom hoped to obtain +with his new invention. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a wide shoot at the target, that is true," Tom said, soberly. +"But remember I cannot test it for speed on this short and almost +circular track. Right at the start, however, I see that something about +the power-feed must be changed." +</P> + +<P> +"What is that?" asked Mary, curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I have only had rigged here one trolley wire. There must be two +attached alternately to the catenary cable. Such a form of twin +conductor trolley will permit the collection of a heavy current through +the twin contact of the pantagraph with the two trolley wires, and +should assure a sparkless collection of the current at any speed. You +noticed that when I took the sharper curves there was an aerial +exhibition. I want to do away with the fireworks." +</P> + +<P> +The fact that the Hercules 0001 was a going and apparently powerful +draught engine satisfied most of the onlookers that Tom Swift was on +the road to final and overwhelming success. The mechanics, indeed, saw +no reason why the locomotive could not be run right out of the yard on +the freight track and coupled to the first train going West. Of course, +the Hercules 0001 could not be delivered to the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +under its own power. +</P> + +<P> +When the locomotive was run back into the shed and stood once more on +the erection track, Tom confessed to Mary and Ned, while Mr. Damon and +Mr. Swift were looking through the huge cab, that he was not at all +pleased with the action of the machine. +</P> + +<P> +"I have the best equipment of any electric locomotive on the rails +today. I am sure of that," he said. "The Hercules Three-Oughts-One is +not as long as those electric locomotives of the C. M. &. St. P. But +that's all right. I have built mine more compactly and, properly +geared, it should have all the power of either the Baldwin-Westinghouse +or the Jandel locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, Tom dear, what is wrong?" cried Mary. +</P> + +<P> +"Speed. That is what troubles me. Have I got anything like the speed I +am aiming for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Ned Newton. "Some speed, boy!" +</P> + +<P> +"And must you have such great speed, Tom?" repeated Mary. +</P> + +<P> +"That is in my contract. Not only that, but to be of much use to the H. +& P. A. this locomotive must have such speed—or mighty near it. Of +course, under ordinary conditions, two miles a minute for a locomotive +and train of heavy freights would burn up the track—maybe melt the +flanges and throw everything out of gear." +</P> + +<P> +"Why try for it, then?" demanded Mary. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the power suggested by the possession of such speed that we want +in the Hercules Three-Oughts-One. That two miles a minute is a fiction +of the imagination, cannot be claimed. It is possible. It is humanly +possible. It is coming." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you must be the fellow to first accomplish it, Tom Swift," Ned +declared. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, if anybody can do it, you can, Tom," agreed the girl +complacently. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks—many, many thanks," laughed the young inventor. "I'd be able +to harness the sun and stars, and put a surcingle around the moon if I +came up to my friends' opinion of my ability. +</P> + +<P> +"Nevertheless, two-miles-a-minute is my objective point, and I do not +believe it is visionary. Consider the motor-cycle. Ninety miles an hour +has long been possible with that, and some tests have shown a speed of +over a hundred and ten. That is not far from my mark. +</P> + +<P> +"Some Mallet locomotives of the oil-burning type have achieved from +eighty-five to ninety-five miles an hour with a heavy load behind them. +They are very powerful machines. The Mogul mountain climbers are +powerful, too, although they are not built for speed. +</P> + +<P> +"The electric Goliaths built for the C. M. & St. P., and the Jandels, +are both very speedy under certain conditions. The former has a maximum +speed of sixty-five miles and the Jandel slightly faster." +</P> + +<P> +"But that is only half what that Mr. Bartholomew demands of your +invention, Tom!" Mary cried. +</P> + +<P> +"That is a fact. I must reach twice sixty miles an hour, anyway, to +meet his demand and gain that hundred thousand bonus. But I have the +advantage of a knowledge of all that has been done before my time in +the matter of electrical locomotive construction." +</P> + +<P> +"The world do move," repeated Ned. "You believe that you have the edge +on all the other inventors?" +</P> + +<P> +"Along the line of this development—yes," said Tom. "I am taking up +the work where former experimenters ended theirs. Why shouldn't I find +the right combination to bring about a two-miles-a-minute drive?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Tom!" cried Mary, with clasped hands, "I hope you do." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope I do, too," said Tom, grimly. "At least, if trying will bring +it, success is going to come my way." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Speed +</H3> + +<P> +More than four months had passed since the contract had been signed, +when Tom made his first yard-test of the Hercules 0001. For a month +nothing had been seen or heard of Andy O'Malley, whose identity as the +spy, set by Montagne Lewis to cripple Tom's attempt to help the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad, had been determined beyond any doubt. +</P> + +<P> +The private inquiry agent that Tom had engaged to find O'Malley had +been unsuccessful in his work. The spy had disappeared from Shopton and +the vicinity. Nevertheless, the inventor did not for a moment overlook +the possibility that the enemy might again strike. +</P> + +<P> +Every night the electric current was turned into the wires that capped +the stockade of the Swift Construction Company enclosure. Koku beat a +path around the enclosure at night, getting such short sleep as he +seemed to need in the forenoon. +</P> + +<P> +"Dat crazy cannibal," grumbled Rad, "got it in his haid dat he's gwine +to he'p Massa Tom by walkin' out o' nights like he was dis here +Western, de great sprinter, Ma lawsy me! Koku ain't got brains enough +to fill up a hic'ry nut shell. Dat he ain't." +</P> + +<P> +Nothing anybody else could do for Tom ever satisfied Rad. The colored +man fully believed that he was the only person really necessary for +Tom's success and peace of mind. In fact, Rad thought that even Ned +Newton's duties as financial manager of the firm were scarcely of as +much importance. +</P> + +<P> +When he heard that Tom was going West, after a time, with the electric +locomotive, to try it out on the tracks of the H. & P. A., Rad was +quite sure that if he did not go along, the test would not come out +right. +</P> + +<P> +"O' course yo'll need me, Massa Tom," he said, confidently. "Couldn't +git along widout me nohow. Yo' knows, sir, I allus has to go 'long wid +yo' to fix things." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think father will need you here, Rad?" Tom asked the +faithful old fellow. "You're getting old—" +</P> + +<P> +"Me gittin' old?" cried, the colored man. "Huh! Yo' don't know 'bout +dis here chile. I don't purpose ever to git old. I been gray-haided +since befo' yo' was born; but I ain't old yit!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon chanced to be present at this conversation, and he was highly +amused, yet somewhat impressed, too, by the colored man's statement. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my own antiquity!" he exclaimed. "I agree with Rad, Tom. It's +us old fellows who know what to do when an emergency of any kind +arises. Experience teaches more than inspiration." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Tom, laughing, "I do not deny the value of old friends at +any stage of the game." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my roving nature! I am glad to hear you say that. For I tell you +right now, Tom, I want to be out there when you make your final test of +the locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean that you will go West when I take out the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One?" cried Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"It's just what I want to do. Bless my traveling bag, Tom! I mean to be +present at your final triumph." +</P> + +<P> +"What will happen to your buff Orpingtons while you are gone?" asked +the young inventor, gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"I have got my servant trained to look after those chickens," declared +Mr. Damon. "And this invention of yours is really more important than +even my buff Orpingtons." +</P> + +<P> +"Just the same," remarked Tom to his eccentric friend, when Rad had +left the room. "I've got to fix it so that Eradicate stays at home with +father. He doesn't really know how old and broken he is—poor fellow." +</P> + +<P> +"His heart is green, Tom. That's what is the matter with Rad." +</P> + +<P> +"He is a loyal old fellow. But I shall take Koku with me, not Rad," and +the young inventor spoke decidedly. "And that is going to trouble poor +Rad a lot." +</P> + +<P> +The prospect of going West, however, was not the main subject of Tom's +thoughts at this time. As the weeks passed and the end of the six +months of experiment came nearer, the inventor was more and more +troubled by the principal difficulty which had from the first +confronted him. Speed. +</P> + +<P> +That was the mark he had set himself. A maximum speed of two miles a +minute on a level track for the Hercules 0001. With the speed already +attained by both steam and electric locomotives in the more recent +past, this was by no means an impossible attainment, as Tom quite well +knew. +</P> + +<P> +But he became convinced that the conditions under which he labored made +it impossible for him to be positive of just how great a speed on a +straight, level track his invention would attain. +</P> + +<P> +There was no electrified stretch of railroad near Shopton on which the +Hercules 0001 might be tested. The track inside the Swift Company's +enclosure did not offer the conditions the inventor needed. He felt +balked. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe I have hit the right idea in my improvements on the Jandel +patents," he told Ned Newton when they were discussing the matter. "But +believing is one thing. Knowing is another!" +</P> + +<P> +"Theoretically it works out all right, I suppose?" questioned Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite. I can prove on paper that I've got the speed. But that isn't +enough. You can see that." +</P> + +<P> +"Impossible to be sure on the trackage already built here, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't dared give her all she'll take," grumbled Tom. "If I did, I +fear she'd jump the rails and I'd have a wreck on my hands." +</P> + +<P> +"And maybe kill yourself!" exclaimed Ned. "You want to have a care." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's all right! I've taken risks before. I don't want to risk +the safety of the locomotive, which is more important. That machine has +cost us a lot of money." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say so!" agreed Ned. "You'll have to wait till you can get the +locomotive out there on the H. & P. A. tracks before you get a fair +speed-test." +</P> + +<P> +"And suppose instead of a triumph it is a fiasco?" Tom said, +doubtfully. "I tell you straight, Ned: I never was so uncertain about +the outcome of one of my inventions since I began dabbling with +motive-power." +</P> + +<P> +"We could build several miles of straight track in the waste ground +behind the works," Ned said, thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a chance! There is neither time nor money for such work. Besides, +I should have to rebuild my transforming station if I supplied longer +conduit wires with current." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't really consider that you have failed, do you, Tom?" and +Ned's anxiety made his voice sound very woeful indeed. +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you that my belief doesn't satisfy me. I hate to go West +without being sure—positive. I want to know! I have tried the +locomotive out in the yard half a dozen times. It runs like a fine +watch. There doesn't seem to be a thing the matter with it now. But +what speed can I attain?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see but you'll have to risk it, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"I mean to give her one more test. I'll run her out tonight when there +is nobody about but the watchmen—and you, if you want to come. I'll +arrange with the Electric Company for all the current they can spare. +By ginger! I've got to take some risk." +</P> + +<P> +"By the way, Tom," said his chum, "did it ever strike you as odd that +that private detective agency never got any trace of O'Malley?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he's gone away. We needn't worry about him. Maybe the detective +wasn't very smart, at that." +</P> + +<P> +"And yet he was here in town after you put the inquiry on foot. I saw +him in the bank. He came there occasionally. And either he, or somebody +he hired, placed that bomb in the locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"All those being facts, what of it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Besides, there was that other fellow—the man with the Vandyke beard. +Might be a shyster lawyer, or something of the kind. He wasn't spotted, +either." +</P> + +<P> +"To tell the truth, I didn't bother to give the Detective Agency the +description of that fellow, although you gave it to me," and Tom +laughed. "I must confess that I depend more upon my man-trap electric +wires to protect the invention than I do on the private inquiry agent." +</P> + +<P> +"It's funny, just the same. If I had another job for a detective I +should not submit it to the Blatz Agency," grumbled Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"I fancy Montagne Lewis and his crowd called off their Wild West +gunman," said Tom. "In any case, every attempt he made to bother us +turned out a fizzle. I am not, however, forgetting precautions, my boy." +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton realized that his chum had determined to make this night +test of the electric locomotive the pivotal trial of the whole affair. +He came back to the works after dinner and was let in by the office +watchman at about nine o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Tom here yet?" he asked the man. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Mr. Newton. The young boss didn't go home to supper, even. That +colored man brought something down for him, and he's in the shed yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Rad is here, you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. At least, he didn't go out this way, and we watchmen have +instructions to let nobody in or out by the yard gates at night." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say Tom is being careful," thought Ned, as he stepped out through +the runway toward the erection shed. +</P> + +<P> +Before he reached the entrance to the huge shed, however, Ned chanced +to look down the enclosure. There were several arc lights burning, but +even these only furnished a dim illumination for the whole yard. +</P> + +<P> +He supposed that four watchmen were tramping their several beats along +the inside of the stockade and close to the trolley-track. But when he +saw an instant gleam of light down there, close to the ground, Ned did +not believe that it was the flash of a torch in the hand of any sentry. +</P> + +<P> +"Funny," he muttered. "That's outside the fence, or I'm much mistaken. +I wonder now—" +</P> + +<P> +He turned from the door of the shed, left the runway, and began walking +toward the distant point at which he had seen the mysterious flash of +light. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Enemy Still Active +</H3> + +<P> +Ned was dressed in a dark business suit, so he was not likely to be +observed from a distance, for it was a starless night. Half way to the +end of the great yard he began to wonder if the light he had seen might +not have been an hallucination. +</P> + +<P> +He doubted very much if anybody was creeping about outside the fence. +The boards were close together, with scarcely a crack half an inch wide +anywhere. A light out there— +</P> + +<P> +It flashed again. He was positive of it this time, and of its locality +as well. It could be nobody who had any honest business about the Swift +Construction Company's premises. It was not Koku, for ordinarily the +giant would not use an electric torch. +</P> + +<P> +Ned did not know where any of the watchmen were who were acting as +sentinels. In fact, as it appeared later, three of them had been called +off their beats by Tom himself to help in some necessary task inside +the shed. The young inventor was getting ready to run the huge +locomotive out upon the yard-track. +</P> + +<P> +Remembering vividly the attempt which had been made some weeks before +to blow up the Hercules 0001, it was only natural that Ned should +suspect that the flash of light he had seen revealed the presence of +some ill-conditioned person lurking just beyond the fence. +</P> + +<P> +A man might be crouching there prepared to hurl an explosive bomb over +the fence when the locomotive was brought around as far as that spot. +Or was the villain foolish enough to attempt to enter the enclosure by +surmounting the fence? +</P> + +<P> +Ned, keeping close to the ground, crossed the rails in the fortunate +shadow of one of the posts. There he found a place where, with his back +to a pole-prop right at this curve in the trolley system, the shadow +enfolded him completely. +</P> + +<P> +Had his movements been marked by the person outside the fence? Ned +waited several long and anxious minutes for some move from out there. +Then something rather unexpected occurred. For the past ten minutes he +had forgotten about the test of the Hercules 0001 which Tom had +promised. +</P> + +<P> +With a blast of its siren the huge electric locomotive burst out of the +shed and thundered around the track. It smote Ned Newton's mind +suddenly that the inventor was going to "take a chance" on this evening +and try to get some speed out of the huge machine. +</P> + +<P> +The electric headlight cast a broad cone of white and dazzling light +across the yard. It suddenly struck full upon the spot where Ned Newton +crouched; but the upright against which he leaned was broad enough to +hide him completely. +</P> + +<P> +Looking up at the top of the stockade at that moment of illumination, +the young financial manager of the Swift Construction Company beheld a +crawling figure nearing the wire entanglements on the summit of the +fence. +</P> + +<P> +The unknown man was climbing by means of a notched pole. Ned could not +see that he bore any bulky object in his hands; indeed, he needed both +of them to aid him to climb. But the man's right hand was reaching +upward, above his head. +</P> + +<P> +The Hercules 0001 came roaring on. Its cone of light passed beyond +Ned's station. In a few seconds it reached the spot, and roared on. Ned +had not made a move. It seemed to him that he could not move or speak. +</P> + +<P> +The onrush of the electric locomotive all but swept the young fellow +from his feet. It had come and gone in an instant! +</P> + +<P> +"He's making more than fifteen or twenty miles an hour, all right," +muttered Ned. +</P> + +<P> +Then he flashed another glance up at the figure outside the fence. The +man's cap showed above the top of the boards. He seemed to be dragging +something up to him from below—something that hung and swung around +and around a few feet from the ground. +</P> + +<P> +Ned was about to dart out of concealment and hail the fellow. He was +not armed, nor could he get out of the stockade near this point. He +feared what the marauder intended, and he felt that he must frighten +him away. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose that is a bomb and he means to fling it in front of Tom's +locomotive?" thought the anxious Ned. +</P> + +<P> +He again saw the stranger's right hand reach up above his head. But he +had no bomb in his hand. Ned suddenly shrieked a word of warning! It +had come to him what the man was doing and what the result of his act +would be. +</P> + +<P> +The wire-cutters bit on one of the copper wires. There followed a flash +of blue flame, and the man screamed. He dropped the thing swinging +below him and involuntarily grabbed at the wires with his left hand. +</P> + +<P> +He was caught, then! The crackling intermittent shocks of electric +fluid passed through his body in fiery sequence. His limbs writhed. He +mouthed horribly, and croaking gasps came from between his wide open +jaws. +</P> + +<P> +The Hercules 0001 had rounded the enclosure and was coming down upon +its second lap. The cone of white radiance from the headlight fell upon +the writhing body of the victim on the wires. The locomotive siren +emitted a blast that almost deafened Ned. +</P> + +<P> +The monster ground to a stop. Tom swung himself half out of the cab +window beside the controller. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's that?" he yelled. Then he saw Ned below him. "Who is that +fellow?" +</P> + +<P> +"No friend of yours, Tom, I believe," returned his financial manager in +a shaking voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Rad? Rad!" Tom shouted at the top of his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"I's comm', Massa Tom," rejoined the colored man. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind coming here! Get a move on, and get to the switchboard. +Turn the current out of the fence wires. +</P> + +<P> +"Yis, sir, I'll go Massa Tom," declared the old man. +</P> + +<P> +"Is he a spotter, Ned?" demanded the inventor. +</P> + +<P> +"He's no friend. I am going out by the gate. He's got something there +that means harm, I believe. Do you think he's killed, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only ought to be. Not enough current to kill him. But he's badly +burned and—and—well! I bet he won't care to fool around the works +again." +</P> + +<P> +Ned dashed away to an entrance. A watchman came running, opened the +small gate, and followed Ned into the open. +</P> + +<P> +Before they arrived at the vicinity of the accident Rad had got to the +switchboard. The electricity was shut out of the stockade wires. +</P> + +<P> +Ned uttered another shout. He saw the writhing body of the shocked man +fall from the stockade. When he and the watchman got to the spot the +fellow lay upon his back, groaning and sobbing; but Ned saw at once +that he was more frightened than hurt. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you did it that time!" exclaimed the young financial manager. +"And I hope you got enough." +</P> + +<P> +"You—you demons!" gasped the man. "I'll have the law on you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Sure you will," cackled the watchman. "You had every right in the +world to try to cut those wires, of course, and get into the yard of +the works. Sure! The judge will believe you all right." +</P> + +<P> +Ned was, meanwhile, staring closely at the fallen man. Tom had come +down from the locomotive and was close to the fence. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is he?" demanded the inventor. "Not O'Malley?" +</P> + +<P> +Ned stepped to the fence and whispered: +</P> + +<P> +"It's the other fellow. The little chap with the Vandyke. He's dressed +like a tramp, but it's the same man." +</P> + +<P> +"Is he badly hurt?" demanded Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"His temper is, Boss," said the watchman callously. "And say! I know +this fellow. He works for the Blatz Detective Agency. I used to work +for those folks myself. His name is Myrick—Joe Myrick." +</P> + +<P> +"Ned," said Tom sternly, "go to the office and call the police. I'll +make him tell why he was here. And I'll make the Blatz people explain, +too. Hullo! what's that?" +</P> + +<P> +Ned had seized the rope he had seen in Myrick's hand, and from a patch +of weeds drew a two-gallon oil-can. +</P> + +<P> +"What you got there, Ned?" repeated the young inventor. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever it is, I am going to be mighty easy with it. I think this +scoundrel was trying to get it over the fence and into the way of the +locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"You can't hang anything on me," said Myrick, suddenly. "I was just +climbing up to the top of the fence to get a squint at that contraption +you've built. You can't hang anything on me." +</P> + +<P> +"He's evidently feeling better," said Tom, scornfully. "Nugent, don't +let him get away from you. Go call the police, Ned. And take care of +that can until we can find out what's in it." +</P> + +<P> +Later, when the police had removed Joe Myrick and the mysterious can +had been deposited in a tub of water in the open lot until its contents +could be examined, Tom said to his chum: +</P> + +<P> +"I was just working up some speed on the locomotive. The speedometer +indicated fifty-five when I saw that fellow sprawling up there on the +fence. I would not have dared go much faster in any case." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you weren't half trying, Tom!" cried the delighted Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"She did slide around easy, didn't she? Fifty-five on an almost +circular track is a good showing. I am not so scared as I was, my boy." +</P> + +<P> +"You think that on a straight track you might accomplish what you set +out to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"It looks like it. At any rate, I shall risk a trial on the H. & P. A. +tracks. I'm going to take her West. Be ready on Monday, Ned, for I +shall want you with me," declared Tom Swift. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Off for the West +</H3> + +<P> +Of course, as Tom supposed they would, the Blatz Detective Agency +denied that Joe Myrick, their one-time operative, had been engaged +through their bureau either to spy upon the Swift Construction Company +or to injure Tom's invention of the electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, three points were indisputable: Myrick had been caught +spying; in his possession was a can of explosive which could be set off +by concussion; and it was a fact that to Myrick had been first +entrusted the matter of hunting for Andy O'Malley when Tom had put the +search for the Westerner up to the Blatz people. +</P> + +<P> +"He played traitor both to you, Mr. Swift, and to our agency," declared +Blatz to Tom. "I wash my hands of him. I hope the police send him away +for life!" +</P> + +<P> +"He'll go to prison all right," said Tom, confidently. "But the main +point is that one of your operatives fell down on a simple job. I +wanted that Andy O'Malley traced. He's out of the way, now, of course. +If you had put an honest man to work for me, O'Malley would be behind +the bars himself." +</P> + +<P> +"Some doubt of that, Mr. Swift," grumbled Blatz. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Where's your evidence that this O'Malley was connected with the +attempt to blow up your locomotive the first time? Mr. Newton's +testimony would need corroboration." +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind that," rejoined the young inventor, with a smile. "I'd +have him for highway robbery. I recognized him. He robbed me of a +wallet. Guess we could put O'Malley away for awhile on that charge. And +by the time he got out again my job for that Western railroad would be +completed." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! Nothing personal in your going after the fellow, then?" queried +the head of the detective agency. +</P> + +<P> +"No. But I frankly confess that I am afraid of O'Malley. He is +undoubtedly in the employ of men who will pay him well if he wrecks my +invention. But there really is no personal grudge between O'Malley and +me. At least, I feel no particular enmity against the fellow." +</P> + +<P> +There was a pause. +</P> + +<P> +"If you say so we will give you a couple of good men as bodyguards on +your trip West," suggested Blatz, licking his lips hungrily. +</P> + +<P> +"As good men as Myrick?" retorted Tom, rather scornfully. "No, thank +you. Just make your bill out to the Swift Construction Company to date, +and a check will be sent you the first of the month. I will take my own +precautions hereafter." +</P> + +<P> +And those precautions Tom considered sufficient. When the Hercules 0001 +was towed out of the enclosure belonging to the Swift Construction +Company early on Monday morning, each door and window of the huge cab +was barred and locked. Inside the cab rode Koku, the giant. +</P> + +<P> +Koku had his orders to allow nobody to enter the Hercules 0001 until +Tom or Ned Newton came to relieve him of his responsibility as guard. +The giant had a swinging cot to sleep on and sufficient food—of a +kind—to last him for a fortnight if necessary. +</P> + +<P> +He was not armed, for Tom did not often trust him with weapons. The +young inventor, however, did not expect that any armed force would +attack the electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +If Montagne Lewis desired to wreck the new invention which might mean +so much to Mr. Bartholomew and the H. & P. A., he surely would not +allow his hirelings to attack openly the locomotive while it was en +route. +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand, Tom did not really believe that Andy O'Malley would +attempt any reprisal against him personally. Of course, the Western +desperado might feel himself abused by Tom, especially in the matter of +Tom's use of his ammonia pistol. +</P> + +<P> +But that had happened months ago. O'Malley had undoubtedly been hired +by Mr. Bartholomew's enemies to obtain knowledge of the contract signed +between the young inventor and the railroad president; and later it was +certain that the spy had tried his best to wreck the electric +locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +As for any personal assault so many weeks after O'Malley had clashed +with him Tom Swift did not expect it. With Ned in his company on this +journey to Hendrickton, the young inventor had good reason to consider +that he was perfectly safe. +</P> + +<P> +Mary Nestor and Mr. Swift came to the station to see the two young men +off on Monday evening. Mary had heard about the second attempt made to +blow up the Hercules 0001 and she begged Tom to take every precaution +while he was in the West. +</P> + +<P> +"You will be in the enemy's country out there, Tom dear," she warned +him. "You won't be careless?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know I shall be mighty busy," he told her, laughing. "I'll let Ned +play watch-dog. And you know, his is a cautious soul, Mary." +</P> + +<P> +"I've every confidence in Ned's faithfulness," the girl said, still +with anxious tone. "But those men who are trying to ruin Mr. +Bartholomew's road will stop at nothing. I must hear from you +frequently, Tom, or I shall worry myself ill." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't lose your courage, Mary," rejoined the inventor, more gravely. +"I do not think they will attack me personally again. Remember that +Koku is on the job, as well as Ned. And Mr. Damon declares he will +follow us West very shortly," and again Tom chuckled. +</P> + +<P> +"Even Mr. Damon may be a help to you, Tom," declared Mary, warmly. "At +least, he is completely devoted to you." +</P> + +<P> +"So is Rad Sampson," said Tom, with a little grimace. "I certainly had +my hands full convincing him that father needed him here at home. At +that, Rad is pretty warm over the fact that I sent Koku on with the +locomotive. If anything should chance to happen to my invention, +Eradicate Sampson is going to shout 'I told you so!' all over the shop." +</P> + +<P> +Mary dabbed her eyes a little with her handkerchief, and Tom patted her +shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't worry, Mary," he said more cheerfully. "There won't a thing +happen to me out there at Hendrickton. I'll keep the wires hot with +telegrams. And I'll write to both you and father, and give you the full +particulars of how we get along. You'll keep your eye on father, Mary, +won't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"You may be sure of that," said the girl. "I will not leave him +entirely to the care of Rad," and she tried hard to smile again. But +it was a difficult matter. +</P> + +<P> +Such a parting as this is always hard to endure. Tom wrung his father's +hand and warned him to be careful of his health. The train came along +and the two young men boarded it with their personal luggage. +</P> + +<P> +They had a flash of the two faces—that of Mr. Swift's and Mary's +blooming countenance—as the express started again, and then the +outlook from the Pullman coach showed them the fast-receding environs +of Shopton. +</P> + +<P> +"We're on our way, my boy," said Tom to his chum. +</P> + +<P> +"We certainly are," said Ned, thoughtfully. "I wonder what the outcome +of the trip will be? It may not be all plain sailing." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't croak," rejoined the young inventor, with a grin. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see how you can appear so cheerful. Why! you don't even know +if that electric locomotive is safe. Something may have already +happened to it. The freight train might be wrecked. A dozen things +might happen." +</P> + +<P> +"I am not crossing any bridges before I come to them," declared Tom. +"Besides, I propose to keep in touch with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One +in a certain way—Hullo! Here it is." +</P> + +<P> +"Here what is?" demanded Ned. +</P> + +<P> +The Pullman conductor at that moment came in through the forward +corridor. He had a telegram in his hand, and intoned loudly as he +approached: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Swift! Mr. Thomas Swift! Telegram for Mr. Swift." +</P> + +<P> +"That is for me, Conductor," said Tom briskly, offering his card. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Mr. Swift. Just got it at Shopton. Operator said you had +boarded my car. This is railroad business, you'll notice. Have you any +reply, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +Tom ripped open the envelope and unfolded the telegram. He held it so +that Ned could read, too. It was signed: "N. G. Smith, Conductor, +Number 48." +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" exclaimed Ned, reading the message. +</P> + +<P> +"'Locomotive and crazy man in it all right at Lingo,'" repeated Tom +aloud, and chuckled. +</P> + +<P> +"No, Conductor, there is no answer." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" exclaimed Ned. "You arranged to get reports en route from the +conductors handling the Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" +</P> + +<P> +"Surest thing you know," replied Tom. "And I guess, from the wording of +this message, that the crew of Forty-eight have already found out that +Koku is not an ordinary guard." +</P> + +<P> +"He's a great boy," smiled Ned. "Glad he is on the job." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Wreck of Forty-Eight +</H3> + +<P> +The two chums sought their berths that night in high fettle. Even Ned +sloughed off his mood of apprehension which he had worn on boarding the +train at Shopton. +</P> + +<P> +For, true to the arrangement Tom had made with the railroad people, +another reassuring telegram was brought to him before bedtime. The +second conductor responsible for the management of the Western bound +freight to which the Hercules 0001 was attached, sent back a brief +statement of the safety of the electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +Naturally the two chums would have passed the freight and got well +ahead of it before reaching Hendrickton. But Tom had business in +Chicago, and they stayed over in that city for twenty-four hours. The +freight train went around the city, of course. But the telegrams +continued to reach Tom promptly, even at the hotel where he and Ned +stopped in the city. +</P> + +<P> +Occasionally the trainmen in charge of the freight mentioned Koku. His +eccentric behavior doubtless somewhat puzzled the railroaders. +</P> + +<P> +"That's all right," chuckled Ned. "Let them think Koku is dangerous if +they want to. That O'Malley person believed he was!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say so!" replied Tom. "The way he ran when Koku started after him +that time on the Waterfield Road seemed to prove that he didn't want to +mix with Koku." +</P> + +<P> +"If he—or other spies—learns that Koku is with the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, it ought to warn them away from the locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +This was Ned's final speech before getting into his berth. He, as well +as Tom, slept quite as calmly on this first night out of Chicago as +they had before. +</P> + +<P> +They knew exactly where the electric locomotive was. It was on the same +road as this train they were traveling in, and, although on a different +track, it was not many miles ahead. In fact, if the two trains kept to +schedule, the transcontinental passenger train would pass the freight +in question about five o'clock in the morning. +</P> + +<P> +It lacked half an hour of that time when the Pullman train came +suddenly to a jolting stop. Both Tom and Ned were awakened with the +rest of the passengers in their coach. +</P> + +<P> +Heads were poked out between curtains all along the aisle and a chorus +of more or less excited voices demanded: +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothin's the matter wid dis train, gen'lemens an' ladies," came in the +porter's important voice. "Jest nothin' at all's happened. It's done +happened up ahead of us, das all." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what has happened ahead of us, George?" asked Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Jest another train, Boss, been splatterin' itself all ober de right of +way. We sort o' bein' held up, das all," replied the porter. +</P> + +<P> +"That's good news—for us," said Ned, preparing to climb back into his +berth. But he halted where he was when he heard his chum ask: +</P> + +<P> +"What train left the track, George?" +</P> + +<P> +"A freight train, sah. Yes, sah. Number Forty-eight. She jumped de +rails, side-swiped de accommodation dat was holdin' us back, and has +jest done spread herself all over de right of way." +</P> + +<P> +"My goodness!" gasped Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Hear that, Ned?" exclaimed Tom. "Scramble into your clothes, boy. The +Hercules Three-Oughts-One is hitched to Forty-eight." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose she's off the track?" murmured Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"It's lucky if she isn't smashed to matchwood," groaned Tom, and almost +immediately left the Pullman coach on the run. +</P> + +<P> +Ned was not far behind him. When they reached the cinder path beside +the freight train it was just sunrise. Long arms of rosy light reached +down the mountain side to linger on the tracks and what was strewed +across them. A glance assured the two young fellows from the East that +it was a bad smash indeed. +</P> + +<P> +Several of the rear boxcars were slung athwart the passenger tracks. +The passenger train that had been ahead of the Pullman train on which +Tom and Ned rode, had been badly beaten in all along its side. Scarcely +a whole window was left on the inner side of the five cars. But those +cars were not derailed. It was merely some of the freight cars that +retarded the further progress of the transcontinental flyer. A derrick +car must be brought up to lift away the debris before the fast train +could move on. +</P> + +<P> +Tom and Ned walked forward along the length of the wreck. Suddenly the +anxious young inventor seized Ned's arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Glory be!" he ejaculated. "It's topside up, anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"The Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" gasped Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"That's what it is!" +</P> + +<P> +Tom quickened his pace, and his financial manager followed close upon +his heels. The forward end of Forty-eight had not left the track and +the electric locomotive stood upright upon the rails, being near the +head end of the train. +</P> + +<P> +"If this wreck was intentional, and aimed at your invention, Tom," +whispered Ned Newton, "it did not result as the wreckers expected." +</P> + +<P> +Tom scouted the idea suggested by his chum. And in a few moments they +learned from a railroad employee that a broken flange on a boxcar wheel +had caused the wreck. +</P> + +<P> +"So that disposes of your suspicion, Ned," said Tom, approaching the +huge electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, gents!" exclaimed another railroad man, one of the crew of the +wrecked freight. "Better keep away from that locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with it?" Ned asked, curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Got some kind of an aborigine caged up in it. You put your hand on any +part of it and he's likely to jump out and bite your hand off, or +something. Believe me, he's some savage." +</P> + +<P> +Both Tom and Ned burst into laughter. The former went forward to the +door of the cab and knocked in a peculiar way. It was a signal that the +giant recognized instantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Master!" Koku cried from inside the cab. "Master! Him come in?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, Koku," said Tom. "I'm not coming in. Are you all right?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Koku all right. Him come out?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" laughed Tom. "You are not at your journey's end yet, Koku. +Keep on the job a while longer." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure. Koku stay here forever, if Master say so." +</P> + +<P> +"Forever is a long word, Koku," said Tom, more seriously. "I'll tell +you when to open the door. I'll be at the end of the journey to meet +you." +</P> + +<P> +"It all right if Master say so. But Koku no like to travel in box," +grumbled the giant. +</P> + +<P> +Tom turned from the electric locomotive to see Ned staring across the +tracks at a man who was talking to several of the train crew of the +side-swiped accommodation train. That train was about to be moved on +under its own power. None of the wreckage of the freight interfered +with the progress of the accommodation. +</P> + +<P> +Tom stepped to Ned's side and touched his arm. "Who is he?" the +inventor asked. +</P> + +<P> +The man who had attracted Ned's attention and now held Tom's interest +as well was a solid looking man with gray hair and a dyed mustache. He +was chewing on a long and black cigar, and he spoke to the train hands +with authority. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, why can't you find him?" he wanted to know in a hoarse and +arrogant voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is he?" asked Tom again in Ned's ear. +</P> + +<P> +"I've seen him somewhere. Or else I've seen somebody that looks like +him. Maybe I've seen his picture. He's somebody of importance." +</P> + +<P> +"He thinks he is," rejoined the young inventor, with some disdain. +</P> + +<P> +In answer to something one of the railroad men said the important +looking individual uttered an oath and added: +</P> + +<P> +"There's nobody been killed then? He's just missing? He was sitting in +the coach ahead of me. I saw him just before the wreck. You know +O'Malley yourself. Do you mean to say you haven't seen him, Conductor?" +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you he disappeared like smoke, sir," said the passenger +conductor. "I haven't an idea what became of him." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! If you see him, send him to me," and the solid man stepped +heavily aboard the nearest coach and disappeared inside. +</P> + +<P> +Tom and Ned stared at each other with wondering gaze. O'Malley! The +spy who had represented Montagne Lewis and the Hendrickton & Western +Railroad in the East. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you know about that?" demanded Ned, wonderingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on!" exclaimed Tom. He sprang across the rails after the +conductor of the accommodation train that was just starting on. "Let +me ask you a question." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir?" replied the conductor +</P> + +<P> +"Who was that man who just spoke to you?" "That man? Why, I thought +everybody out this way knew Montagne Lewis. That is his name, sir—and +a big man he is. Yes, sir," and the conductor, giving the watching +engineer of his train the "highball," caught the hand-rail of the car +and swung himself aboard as the train started. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +On the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +</H3> + +<P> +The transcontinental was delayed three hours by the strewn wreckage of +the rear of Number Forty-eight. When she went on the two young fellows +from Shopton gazed anxiously at the Hercules 0001, which stood between +two gondolas in the forward end of the freight train. +</P> + +<P> +"Just by luck nothing happened to it," muttered Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Just luck," agreed Tom Swift. "It was a shock to me to learn that Andy +O'Malley was right there on the spot when the accident happened." +</P> + +<P> +"And his employer, too," added Ned. "For we must admit that Mr. +Montagne Lewis is the man who sicked O'Malley on to you." +</P> + +<P> +"True." +</P> + +<P> +"And they were both in the accommodation that was sideswiped by the +derailed cars of Number Forty-eight." +</P> + +<P> +"That, likewise is a fact," said Tom, nodding quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"But what puzzles me, as it seemed to puzzle Lewis, more than anything +else, is what became of O'Malley?" +</P> + +<P> +"I guess I can see through that knot-hole," Tom rejoined. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes?" +</P> + +<P> +"I bet O'Malley got a squint at me—or perhaps at you—as we walked up +the track from this coach, and he lit out in a hurry. There stood the +Three-Oughts-One, and there were we. He knew we would raise a hue and +cry if we saw him in the vicinity of my locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"I bet that's the truth, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"I know it. He didn't even have time to warn his employer. By the way, +Ned, what a brute that Montagne Lewis looks to be." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you! I remember having seen his photograph in a magazine. +Oh, he's some punkins, Tom." +</P> + +<P> +"And just as wicked as they make 'em, I bet! Face just as pleasant as a +bulldog's!" +</P> + +<P> +"You said it. I'm afraid of that man. I shall not have a moment's peace +until you have handed the Hercules Three-Oughts-One over to Mr. +Bartholomew and got his acceptance." +</P> + +<P> +"If I do," murmured Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you will, if that Lewis or his henchmen don't smash things +up. You are not afraid of the speed matter now, are you?" demanded Ned +confidently. +</P> + +<P> +"I can be sure of nothing until after the tests," said Tom, shaking his +head. "Remember, Ned, that I have set out to accomplish what was never +done before—to drive a locomotive over the rails at two miles a +minute. It's a mighty big undertaking." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it will come out all right. If Koku is faithful----" +</P> + +<P> +"That is the smallest 'if' in the category," Tom interposed, with a +laugh. "If I was as sure of all else as I am of Koku, we'd have plain +sailing before us." +</P> + +<P> +Two days later Tom Swift and Ned Newton were ushered into the private +office of the president of the H. & P. A. at the Hendrickton terminal. +The two young fellows from the East had got in the night before, had +become established at the best hotel in the rapidly growing Western +municipality, and had seen something of the town itself during the +hours before midnight. +</P> + +<P> +Now they were ready for business, and very important business, too. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Richard Bartholomew sat up in his desk chair and his keen eyes +suddenly sparkled when he saw his visitors and recognized them. +</P> + +<P> +"I did not expect you so soon. Your locomotive arrived yesterday, Mr. +Swift. How are you, Mr. Newton?" +</P> + +<P> +He motioned for them to take chairs. His secretary left the room. The +railroad magnate at once became confidential. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing happened on the way?" he asked, pointedly. "There was a +freight wreck, I understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"And we chanced to be right at hand when that happened," said Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"So was your friend, Mr. Lewis," remarked Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't mean to say that Montagne Lewis—" +</P> + +<P> +"Was there. And Andy O'Malley," put in Tom. +</P> + +<P> +Then he detailed the incident, as far as he and Ned knew the details, +to Mr. Bartholomew, who listened with close attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it might merely have been a coincidence," murmured the railroad +president. "But, of course, we can't be sure. Anyhow, it is just as +well if your servant, Mr. Swift, keeps close watch still upon that +locomotive." +</P> + +<P> +"He will," said Tom, nodding. "He is down there in the yard with the +Hercules Three-Oughts-One, and I mean to keep Koku right on the job." +</P> + +<P> +"Good! Let's go down and look at her," Mr. Bartholomew said, eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +But first Tom wanted to go into the theoretical particulars of his +invention. And he confessed that thus far his tests of the locomotive +had not been altogether satisfactory. +</P> + +<P> +"I have got to have a clear track on a stretch of your own line here, +Mr. Bartholomew, and under certain conditions, before I can be sure as +to just how much speed I can get out of the machine." +</P> + +<P> +"Speed is the essential point, Mr. Swift," said the railroad man, +seriously. +</P> + +<P> +"That is what I have been telling Ned," Tom rejoined. "I believe my +improvements over the Jandel patents are worthy. I know I have a very +powerful locomotive. But that is not enough." +</P> + +<P> +"We have got to shoot our trains through the Pas Alos Range faster than +trains were ever shot over the grades before, or we have failed," said +Mr. Bartholomew, with decision. +</P> + +<P> +"But—" began Ned; but Tom put up an arresting hand and his financial +manager ceased speaking. +</P> + +<P> +"I have not forgotten the details of our contract, Mr. Bartholomew," he +said, quietly. "Two-miles-a-minute is the target I have aimed for. +Whether I have hit it or not, well, time will show. I have got to try +the locomotive out on the tracks of the H. & P. A. in any case. The +Hercules Three-Oughts-One has been dragged a long distance, and has +been through at least one wreck. I want to see if she is all right +before I test her officially." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll arrange that for you," said Mr. Bartholomew, briskly, putting +away his papers. "I will go with you, too, and take a look at the +marvel." +</P> + +<P> +"And a marvel it is," grumbled Ned. "Don't let him fool you, Mr. +Bartholomew. Tom never does consider what he's done as being as great +as it really is." +</P> + +<P> +"Everything must be proved," Tom said, cautiously. "If it was a +financial problem, Mr. Bartholomew, believe me it would be Ned who +displayed caution. But I have seldom built anything that could not—and +has not—later been improved." +</P> + +<P> +"You do not consider your electric locomotive, then, a completed +invention?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, as the three walked down the yard. +</P> + +<P> +"I have too much experience to say it is perfect," returned Tom. "I can +scarcely believe, even, that it is going to suit you, Mr. Bartholomew, +even if the speed test is as promising as I hope it may be." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" +</P> + +<P> +"But before I shall be willing to throw up the sponge and say that I +have failed, I shall monkey with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One quite a +little on your tracks." +</P> + +<P> +"Your six months isn't up yet," said Mr. Bartholomew, more cheerfully. +"And it doesn't matter if it is. If you see any chance of making a +success of your invention, you are welcome to try it out on the tracks +of the H. & P. A. for another six months." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," Tom said, smiling. "Now, there is the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, Mr. Bartholomew. And there is Koku looking longingly +through the window." +</P> + +<P> +In fact, the giant, the moment he saw Tom, ran to unbar and open the +door of the cab on that side. +</P> + +<P> +"Master! If no let Koku out, Koku go amuck—crazy! No can breathe in +here! No can eat! No can sleep!" +</P> + +<P> +"The poor fellow!" ejaculated Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with him?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Get out, if you want to, Koku. I'll stay by while you kick up your +heels." +</P> + +<P> +No sooner had the inventor spoken than the giant leaped from the open +door of the locomotive and dashed away along the cinder path as though +he actually had to run away. Tom burst into a laugh, as he watched the +giant disappear beyond the strings of freight cars. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter with him?" repeated the railroad president. +</P> + +<P> +"He's got the cramp all right," laughed Tom Swift. "You don't +understand, Mr. Bartholomew, what it means to that big fellow to be +housed in for so many days, and unable to kick a free limb. I bet he +runs ten miles before he stops." +</P> + +<P> +"The police will arrest him," said the railroad man. +</P> + +<P> +It was then Ned's turn to chuckle. "I am sorry for your railroad police +if they tackle Koku right now," he said. "He'd lay out about a dozen +ordinary men without half trying. But, ordinarily, he is the most +mild-mannered fellow who ever lived." +</P> + +<P> +"He will come back, if he is let alone, as harmless as a kitten," Tom +observed. "And when I am not with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One, and +while I continue making my tests, Koku will be on guard. You might tell +your police force, Mr. Bartholomew, to let him alone. Now come aboard +and let me show you what I have been trying to do." +</P> + +<P> +They spent two hours inside the cab of the great locomotive. Mr. +Richard Bartholomew was possessed of no small degree of mechanical +education. He might not be a genius in mechanics as Tom Swift was, but +he could follow the latter's explanations regarding the improvements in +the electrical equipment of this new type of locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what your speed tests will show, Mr. Swift," said the +railroad president, with added enthusiasm. "But if those parts will do +what you say they have already done, you've got the Jandels beat a +mile! I'm for you, strong. Yes, sir! like your friend, Newton, here, I +believe that you have hit the right track. You are going to triumph." +</P> + +<P> +But Tom's triumph did not come at once. He knew more about the +uncertainties of mechanical contrivances than did either Mr. +Bartholomew or Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +The very next day the Hercules 0001 was got out upon a section of the +electrified system of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railway, and the +pantagraphs of the huge locomotive for the first time came into +connection with the twin conductor trolleys which overhung the rails. +</P> + +<P> +Ned accompanied Tom as assistant. Koku was allowed by the inventor to +roam about the hills as much as he pleased during the hours in which +his master was engaged with the Hercules 0001. Tom did not think any +harm would come to Koku, and he knew that the giant would enjoy +immensely a free foot in such a wild country. The two young fellows, +dressed in working suits of overall stuff, spent long hours in the cab +of the electric locomotive. Their try-outs had to be made for the most +part on sidetracks and freight switches, some miles outside +Hendrickton, where the invention would not be in the way of regular +traffic. +</P> + +<P> +Speed on level tracks had been raised in one test to over ninety-five +miles an hour and Mr. Bartholomew cheered wildly from the cab of a huge +Mallet that paced Tom's locomotive on a parallel track. No steam +locomotive had ever made such fast time. +</P> + +<P> +But Tom was after something bigger than this. He wanted to show the +president of the H. & P. A. that the Hercules 0001 could drag a load +over the Pas Alos Range at a pace never before gained by any +mountain-hog. +</P> + +<P> +Therefore he coaxed the electric locomotive out into the hills, some +hundred or more miles from headquarters. He had to keep in touch with +the train dispatcher's office, of course; the new machine had often to +take a sidetrack. Nor was much of this hilly right-of-way electrified. +The Jandels locomotive had been found to be a failure on the sharp +grades; so the extension of the trolley system had been abandoned. +</P> + +<P> +But there was one steep grade between Hammon and Cliff City that had +been completed. The current could be fed to the cables over this +stretch of track, and for a week Tom used this long and steep grade +just as much as he could, considering of course the demands of the +regular traffic. +</P> + +<P> +The telegraph operator at Half Way (merely a name for a station, for +there was not a habitation in sight) thrust his long upper-length out +of the telegraph office window one afternoon and waved a "highball" to +the waiting electric locomotive on the sidetrack. +</P> + +<P> +"Dispatcher says you can have Track Number Two West till the +four-thirteen, westbound, is due. I'll slip the operator at Cliff City +the news and he'll be on the lookout for you as well as me, Mr. Swift. +Go to it." +</P> + +<P> +Every man on the system was interested, and most of them enthusiastic, +about Tom's invention. The latter knew that he could depend upon this +operator and his mate to watch out for the western-bound flyer that +would begin its climb of the grade at Hammon less than half an hour +hence. +</P> + +<P> +The electric locomotive was coaxed out across the switch. Tom was +earnestly inspecting the more delicate parts of the mechanism while Ned +(and proud he was to do it) handled the levers. Once on the main line +he moved the controller forward. The machine began to pick up speed. +</P> + +<P> +The drumming of the wheels over the rail joints became a single +note—an increasing roar of sound. The electric locomotive shot up the +grade. The arrow on the speedometer crept around the dial and Ned's eye +was more often fastened on that than it was on the glistening twin +rails which mounted the grade. +</P> + +<P> +Black-green hemlock and spruce bordered the right of way on either +hand. Their shadows made the tunnel through the forest almost dark. But +Tom had not seen fit to turn on the headlight. +</P> + +<P> +"How is she making out?" asked the inventor, coming to look over his +chum's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"It's great, Tom!" breathed Ned Newton, his eyes glistening. "She eats +this grade up." +</P> + +<P> +"And it's within a narrow fraction of a two per cent.," said the +inventor proudly. "She takes it without a jar—Hold on! What's that +ahead?" +</P> + +<P> +The locomotive had traveled ten miles or more from Half Way. The +summit of the grade was not far ahead. But the forest shut out all view +of the station at Cliff City and the structures that stood near it. +</P> + +<P> +Right across the steel ribbons on which the hercules 0001 ran, Tom had +seen something which brought the question to his lips. Ned Newton saw +it too, and he shouted aloud: +</P> + +<P> +"Tree down! A log fallen, Tom!" +</P> + +<P> +He did not lose completely his self-control. But he grabbed the levers +with less care than he should. He tried to yank two of them at once, +and, in doing so, he fouled the brakes! +</P> + +<P> +He had shut off connection with the current. But the brake control was +jammed. The locomotive quickly came to a halt. Then, before Tom could +get to the open door, the wheels began spinning in reverse and the +great Hercules 0001 began the descent of the steep grade, utterly +unmanageable! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XIX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Peril, The Mother of Invention +</H3> + +<P> +Tom Swift's first thought was one of thankfulness. Thankfulness that he +did not have a drag of fifty or sixty steel gondolas or the like to add +their weight to the down-pull. The locomotive's own weight of +approximately two hundred and seventy tons was enough. +</P> + +<P> +For when the inventor pushed Ned aside and tried to handle the +controllers properly, he found them unmanageable. There was not a +chance of freeing them and getting power on the brakes. The Hercules +0001 was backing down the mountain side with a speed that was +momentarily increasing, and without a chance of retarding it! +</P> + +<P> +The young inventor at that moment of peril, knew no more what to do to +avert disaster than Ned Newton himself. +</P> + +<P> +It flashed across his mind, however, that others beside themselves were +in peril because of this accident. The fast express from the East that +should pass Half Way at four-thirteen, might already be climbing the +hill from Hammon. Hammon, at the foot of the grade, was twenty-five +miles away. Nor was the track straight. +</P> + +<P> +If the operator at Half Way did not see the runaway locomotive and +telephone the danger to the foot of the grade, when the Hercules 0001 +came tearing down the track it might ram something in the Hammon yard, +if it did not actually collide with the approaching westbound express. +</P> + +<P> +Such an emergency as this is likely either to numb the brains of those +entangled in the peril or excite them to increased activity. Ned Newton +was apparently stunned by the catastrophe. Tom's brain never worked +more clearly. +</P> + +<P> +He seized the siren lever and set it at full, so that the blast called +up continuous echoes in the forest as the locomotive plunged down the +incline. He ran to the door again, on the side where Half Way station +lay, and hung out to signal the operator who had so recently given him +right of way on this stretch of mountain road. +</P> + +<P> +"We're going to smash! We're going to smash!" groaned Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +Tom read these words on his chum's lips, rather than heard them, for +the roar of the descending locomotive drowned every other sound. Tom +waved an encouraging hand, but did not reply audibly. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile his brain was working as fast as ever it had. He had +instantly comprehended all the danger of the situation. But in addition +he appreciated the fact that such an accident as this might happen at +any time to this or any other locomotive he might build. +</P> + +<P> +Automatic brakes were all right. If there had been a good drag of cars +behind the Hercules 0001, on which the compressed air brakes might have +been set, the present manifest peril might have been obliterated. The +brakes on the cars would have stopped the whole train. +</P> + +<P> +But to halt this huge monster when alone, on the grade, was another +matter. Once the locomotive brake lever was jammed, as in this case, +there was no help for the huge machine. It had to ride to the foot of +the grade—if it did not chance to hit something on the way! +</P> + +<P> +And with this realization of both the imminent peril and the need of +averting it, to Tom's active brain came the germ of an idea that he +determined to put into force, if he lived through this accident, on +each and every electric locomotive that he might in the future build. +</P> + +<P> +This monster, flying faster and faster down the mountain side, was a +menace to everything in its track. There might be almost anything in +the way of rolling stock on the section between Half Way and Hammon at +the foot of the grade. If this thunderbolt of wood and steel collided +with any other train, with the force and weight gathered by its plunge +down the mountain, it would drive through such obstruction like a +projectile from Tom's own big cannon. +</P> + +<P> +Tom realized this fact. He knew that whatever object the Hercules 0001 +might strike, that object would be shattered and scattered all about +the right of way. What might happen to the runaway was another matter. +But the inventor believed that the electric locomotive would be less +injured than anything with which it came into collision. +</P> + +<P> +At any rate, thought of the peril to himself and his invention had +secondary consideration in Tom Swift's mind. It was what the monster +which he could not control might do to other rolling stock of the H. & +P. A. that rasped the young fellow's mind. +</P> + +<P> +The grade above Half Way had few curves. Tom soon caught the first +glimpse of the station. Would the operator hear the roar of the +descending runaway and understand what had happened? +</P> + +<P> +He leaned far out from the open doorway and waved his cap madly. He +began to shout a warning, although he saw not a soul about the station +and knew very well that his voice was completely drowned by the voice +of the siren and the drumming of the great wheels. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly the tousled head of the operator popped out of his window. He +saw the coming locomotive, the drivers smoking! +</P> + +<P> +To be a good railroad man one has to have his wits about him. To be a +good operator at a backwoods station one has to have two sets of +wits—one set to tell what to do in an emergency, the other to listen +and apprehend the voice of the sounder. +</P> + +<P> +This Half Way man was good. He knew better than to try the telegraph +instrument. He grabbed the telephone receiver and jiggled the hook up +and down on the standard while the Hercules 0001 roared past the +station. +</P> + +<P> +It did not need Tom's frantically waving cap to warn him what had +happened. And he remembered clearly the fact of the expected westbound +flyer. +</P> + +<P> +"Hammon? Get me? This is Half Way. That derned electric hog has sprung +something and is coming down, lickity-split! +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! Clear your yard! Where's Number Twenty-eight? Good! Side her, or +she'll be ditched. Get me?" +</P> + +<P> +The voice at the other end of the wire exploded into indignant +vituperation. Then silence. The Half Way operator had done his +best—his all. He ran out upon the platform. The electric locomotive +had disappeared behind the woods, but the roar of its wheels and the +shrill voice of its siren echoed back along the line. +</P> + +<P> +The sound faded into insignificance. The operator went back into his +hut and stayed close by the telephone instrument for the next ten +minutes to learn the worst. +</P> + +<P> +If the operator's nerves were tense, what about those of Tom Swift and +his chum? Ned staggered to the door and clung to Tom's arm. He shrilled +into the latter's ear: +</P> + +<P> +"Shall we jump?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see any soft spots," returned Tom, grimly. "There aren't any +life nets along this line." +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton was frightened, and with good reason. But if his chum was +equally terrified he did not show it. He continued to lean from the +open door to peer down the grade as the Hercules 0001 drove on. +</P> + +<P> +Around curve after curve they flew. It entered Ned's tortured mind that +if his chum had wanted speed, he was getting it now! He realized that +two miles a minute was a mere bagatelle to the pace now accomplished by +the runaway locomotive. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Result +</H3> + +<P> +As Ned Newton, fumbling at the controls when he saw the fallen tree +across the tracks, had jammed the brakes, the station master at Hammon, +at the bottom of this long grade on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos, had +stepped out to the blackboard in the barnlike waiting room and scrawled +with a bit of chalk: +</P> + +<P> +"No. 28—Westbound—due 3:38 is 15 m. late." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The fact, thus given to the general public or to such of it as might be +interested, averted what would have been a terrible catastrophe. +</P> + +<P> +The fast express was late. When the babbling voice of the Half Way +operator over the telephone warned Hammon of the coming of the runaway +electric locomotive, there was time to shift switches at the head of +the yard so that, when Number Twenty-eight came roaring in, she was +shunted on to a far track and flagged for a stop before she hit the +bumper. +</P> + +<P> +Thirty seconds later, from the west, the Hercules 0001 roared down the +grade and shot into the cleared west track in a halo of smoke and dust. +Speed! No runaway had ever traveled faster and kept the rails. The +story of the incident was embalmed in railroad history, and no history +is so full of vivid incident as that of the rail. +</P> + +<P> +When the first relay of excited railroad men reached the electric +locomotive after it had stopped on the long level, even Ned Newton had +pulled himself together and could look out upon the world with some +measure of calmness. Tom Swift was making certain notes and draughting +a curious little diagram upon a page of his notebook. +</P> + +<P> +"What happened to you, Mr. Swift?" was the demand of the first arrival. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my foot slipped," said the young inventor, and they got nothing +more out of him than that. +</P> + +<P> +But to Ned, after the crowd had gone, the inventor said: +</P> + +<P> +"Ned, my boy, they used to say that necessity was the mother of +invention. Therefore a loaf of bread was considered the maternal parent +of the locomotive. I've got one that will beat that." +</P> + +<P> +"Whew!" gasped Ned. "How can you? I haven't got my breath back yet." +</P> + +<P> +"It is peril that is the mother of invention," Tom went on, still +jotting down his notes. "Believe me! that jolt gave me a new idea—an +important idea. Suppose that operator at Half Way had been out back +somewhere, and had not seen or heard us flash by?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, suppose he had? What's the answer?" sighed Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Like enough we would have rammed something down here." +</P> + +<P> +"And I hardly understand even now why we didn't do just that," muttered +his chum, with a shake of his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Wake up, Ned! It's all over," laughed Tom. "While it was happening I +admit I was guessing just as hard as you were about the finish. But—" +</P> + +<P> +"Your recovery is better," grumbled his friend. "I'm scared yet." +</P> + +<P> +"And it might happen again—" +</P> + +<P> +"No—not—ever!" exclaimed Ned. "I shall never touch those controllers +again. I'll drive your airscout, or your fastest automobile, or +anything like that. But me and this electric locomotive have parted +company for good. Yes, sir!" +</P> + +<P> +"All right. It wasn't your fault. It might happen to any +motor-engineer. And the very fact that it can happen has given me my +idea. I tell you that danger is the mother of invention." +</P> + +<P> +"As far as I am concerned, it can be father and grandparents into the +bargain," Ned declared, with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Wake up!" cried his friend again. "I have got a dandy idea. I wouldn't +have missed that trip for anything." +</P> + +<P> +"You are crazy," interrupted Ned. "Suppose we had bumped something?" +</P> + +<P> +"But we didn't bump anything, except my brain tank. An idea bumped it, +I tell you. I am going to eliminate any such peril as that here-after." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean you are going to make it impossible for this locomotive ever +to slide down such a hill again if the brakes won't work? Humph! +Meanwhile I will go out and make the nearest water-fall begin to run +upward." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't scoff. I do not mean just what you mean." +</P> + +<P> +"I bet you don't!" +</P> + +<P> +"But although I cannot be sure that a locomotive will never again fall +downhill," said Tom patiently, "I'm going to fix it so that warning +need not be given by some operator along the line. The engineer must +be able to send warning of his accident, both up and down the road." +</P> + +<P> +"Huh? How are you going to do that?" demanded Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Wireless telephone. I may make some improvements on the present +models; but it is practicable. It has been used on submarines and +cruisers, and lately its practicability has been proved in the forestry +service. +</P> + +<P> +"Every one of these electric locomotives I turn out will be supplied +with wireless sets. The expense of making certain telegraph offices +along the line into receiving stations will be small. I am going to +take that up with Mr. Bartholomew at once. And I am going to fix these +brake controls so that nobody need ball them up again." +</P> + +<P> +If, out of such a desperate adventure, Tom could bring to fruition +really worthwhile improvements in relation to his invention, Ned +acknowledged the value of the incident. Just the same, he had a +personal objection to having any part in a similar experience. +</P> + +<P> +He was brave, but he could not forget danger. Tom seemed to throw the +effect of that terrible ride off his mind almost instantly. Ned dreamed +of it at night! +</P> + +<P> +However, from that time things seemed to go with a rush. Mr. +Bartholomew approved of the young inventor's suggestion regarding the +use of the wireless telephone as a method of averting a certain quality +of danger in the use of the proposed monster locomotive. The railroad +man was convinced that Tom's ideas were finally to culminate in +success, and he was ready to spend money, much money, in pushing on the +work. +</P> + +<P> +It was not long before a private test of the Hercules 0001 up the grade +from Hammon to Cliff City showed Mr. Bartholomew that the speed he had +required in his contract was attainable. With a drag fully as heavy as +any two locomotives had been able to get over the same sector, the new +locomotive alone marked a forty-five mile an hour pace. +</P> + +<P> +This attainment was kept quiet; not even the train crew knew what the +monster had done when they reached the summit of the mountain. But Mr. +Bartholomew, who rode with Tom and Ned in the cab, had held his own +watch on the test and compared it every minute with the speedometer. +</P> + +<P> +"I am satisfied that you are going to do more than I had really hoped, +Mr. Swift," the railroad president said at the end of the run. "Already +you could drive this locomotive at a two-mile-a-minute clip on level +rails, I am sure. Keep at it! Nobody will be more delighted than I +shall be if you pull down that hundred thousand dollars' bonus." +</P> + +<P> +"That's a fine way to talk, sir," cried Ned, with enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean every word of it, Mr. Newton. The money is his as soon as he +makes good." +</P> + +<P> +Both Tom and his financial manager left the president's office in a +satisfied state of mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Great news to send home, Tom," remarked Ned, when they were alone. +</P> + +<P> +"Righto, Ned. My father will be glad to hear it." +</P> + +<P> +"And what about Mary?" And Ned poked his chum in the ribs. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess she'll be glad too," Tom replied, his face reddening. +</P> + +<P> +That night Tom sent word to Mary and also a telegram, in code, to his +father, saying the prospects were now bright for a quick finish of the +task that had brought him West. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +The Open Switch +</H3> + +<P> +Meanwhile the work of electrifying another division of the Hendrickton +& Pas Alos Railroad had been pushed to completion. As Mr. Bartholomew +had in the first place stated, the road controlled water rights in the +hills which would supply any number of electric power stations, and his +enemies could not shut his road off from these waterfalls. +</P> + +<P> +Tom had not warned his faithful servant, the giant Koku, to watch out +for Andy O'Malley in particular; the inventor knew that the giant would +be as cautious about any stranger as could be wished. But personally +Tom was amazed that either O'Malley or some other henchman of the +president of the Hendrickton & Western did not make an attempt to +injure the electric locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps Mr. Bartholomew's police are really of some good," said Ned +Newton, when his chum mentioned his surprise on this point. "Has Koku +seen nobody lurking about at night?" +</P> + +<P> +"He certainly has not seen the man he calls 'Big Feet,'" chuckled Tom. +"If he had spotted O'Malley, there certainly would have been an +explosion." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell you what," Ned said reflectively, "the longer Lewis keeps off +you, the more suspicious I should be." +</P> + +<P> +"You think he is a bad citizen, do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"And then some, as the boys say out here," replied Ned. "I wouldn't +trust that man any farther than I would a nest of hornets or a shedding +rattlesnake." +</P> + +<P> +"I am inclined to believe, with you, Ned, that Lewis is hatching up +something and is keeping mighty whist about it. I sounded Mr. +Bartholomew on the idea and he, too, is puzzled." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess he knows that hombre," grumbled Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Bartholomew admits that several roads have sent representatives to +make inquiries about my locomotive. They have got wind of it, and, +after all, most railroads work in unison. What means progress for one +is progress for all." +</P> + +<P> +"That same rule does not seem to apply in the case of the H. & P. A. +and the H. & W.," remarked Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"No. They are out and out rivals. And Lewis and his gang have done this +road dirt—no two ways about that. But when I am convinced that my +locomotive has got all the speed and power contracted for, Mr. +Bartholomew wants to invite a bunch of his brother railroaders to see +the tests—to ride in the Hercules Three-Oughts-One, in fact." +</P> + +<P> +"How about it? You going to agree? Suppose they have some inventive +sharp along who will be able to steal some of your mechanical +contrivances—in his head, I mean," and Ned seemed quite suddenly +anxious. +</P> + +<P> +"I had thought of that. But before the test I shall send my blueprints +to Washington. Our patent attorney there has already filed tentative +plans and applied for certain patents that I consider completed. Don't +fret. I'll make it impossible for anybody to steal our patents legally." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! But illegally?" +</P> + +<P> +"That we cannot help in any case, and you know it," Tom said. "If some +road tries to build anything like the Hercules Three-Oughts-One for the +first two years without arranging with the Swift Construction Company, +you know that that railroad can be made to suffer in the courts, and +you are the boy, Ned, to put them over the jumps for it." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure," grumbled his chum. "It's always up to me to save the day." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly," chuckled Tom. "And in your character of life saver, do look +out for anybody who looks suspicious hanging about the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One. I'll take care of rival inventors. You and Koku keep +your eyes peeled for the H. & W. spies. Especially for that Andy +O'Malley. I feel that he will again show up. Maybe by 'the pricking of +my thumb' as Macbeth's witch used to remark." +</P> + +<P> +Every day save Sunday the electric locomotive had some kind of try-out. +On a level track Tom was sure of his monster invention's qualities; but +in the hills, at a distance from the Hendrickton terminal, it was +another matter. +</P> + +<P> +The grades were steep; but the road was well ballasted. There was +plenty of power. He saw the Jandel locomotives hurry back and forth +with the local trains and realized that this rival invention was by no +means to be despised. +</P> + +<P> +It was at about this time, too, that Mr. Damon appeared in Hendrickton. +Early one forenoon, when Tom and Ned were preparing to take the +Hercules 0001 out of the yard, and Koku was going to his lodgings to +get a little sleep, Tom's eccentric friend came across the tracks, +waving his cane at Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my frogs and switch-targets!" he ejaculated, "I've walked a mile +from that station to get here. Where are you going with that big +contraption? How does it work? Does it make all the speed you want, Tom +Swift? Bless my rails and sleepers!' +</P> + +<P> +"We're going about a hundred miles out on the road to a good, stiff +grade," Tom told him, having shaken hands in welcome. "If you want to, +get aboard." +</P> + +<P> +"They haven't blown you up yet, or otherwise wrecked the locomotive," +remarked Mr. Damon, grinning broadly. "I'll have to write right back to +your father—and to a certain young lady who shows a remarkable +interest in your welfare—that you are all right." +</P> + +<P> +"They should already be sure of that," laughed Tom. "Ned and I have +kept the post-office department and the telegraph company very busy." +</P> + +<P> +"They are waiting for my report," announced Mr. Damon, with confidence. +"And I am waiting for yours. Tell me, Tom: Is the locomotive a success?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's going to be," declared the inventor, with decision. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my trolley wires!" cried Mr. Damon, "I am glad to hear that. +Then you will surely pull down the extra hundred thousand dollars?" +</P> + +<P> +"I believe I shall fulfill every clause of the contract Mr. Bartholomew +and I signed," said Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"Then it's more than a success!" cried his friend. "You have invented +another marvel, Tom Swift!" +</P> + +<P> +"Marvel or not," rejoined Tom, "I believe that the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One will top anything so far built in the way of electric +locomotives." +</P> + +<P> +"Hurrah!" cried Mr. Damon. "Bless my controller! But your father and +Mary Nestor will be glad to hear that!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon was quite as much interested in this invention as he always +was in anything the young inventor worked upon. When he had once seen +the Hercules 0001 work on an up-grade he was doubly enthusiastic. To +his sanguine mind the locomotive was already completed. He could see no +possibility of failure. +</P> + +<P> +Tom, however, had to prove to his own satisfaction the success of every +detail of his invention before he was willing to tell Mr. Bartholomew +that he was ready for a public test. Mr. Damon, nor even Ned, could +scarcely see the reason for Tom's caution. +</P> + +<P> +Tom's favorite try-out grade was between Hammon and Cliff City. He +could obtain a right of way order from the train dispatcher on that +grade, sometimes of an hour's duration. He often snaked a load of +gondolas or cattle cars up the grade, relieving both the puller and +pusher steam locomotive. By this time the H. & P. A. system had +stopped using the Jandel machines on any grades. They had proved their +lack of power for such work. +</P> + +<P> +"But the Hercules Three-Oughts-One shows at every test that it has the +kick," Mr. Damon cried. +</P> + +<P> +In his enthusiasm he was out every day with Tom and Ned. And sometimes +Koku remained in the cab during the trial runs as well. +</P> + +<P> +On one such occasion Tom had drawn a heavy train over the mountain, +taking it down the grade beyond Cliff City to Panboro in the farther +valley. This was over a newly built stretch of the electrified road. +The power station charged the trolley cables with an abundance of +current, and the Hercules 0001 made a splendid trip. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my cuff-links!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, his rosy face one beaming +smile. "You couldn't expect to do better than this. You save one +locomotive on the haul, and you beat the schedule ten minutes, so that +you had to lay by to get right of way into the yard here. Why linger +longer, Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"I agree with Mr. Damon," Ned said. "It seems to work perfectly. And +you have, I believe, established your required speed." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't be too perfect," said the young inventor, smiling. "But I will +tell Mr. Bartholomew when we get back that he can set his time for the +big test whenever he pleases. I have already sent our patent attorney +in Washington the final blueprints. Now, if nothing happens—" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my stickpin!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "What can happen now that the +locomotive is practically perfect?" +</P> + +<P> +That question was answered in one way, and a most startling way, within +the hour. Tom got right of way back over the mountain and pushed the +electric locomotive up-grade at almost top speed. He drew no train on +this occasion, and the speed made by the Hercules 0001 was really +remarkable. +</P> + +<P> +They topped the rise at Cliff City and got orders from the dispatcher +to proceed on the time of Number Eighty-seven, which chanced to be +late. With that release Tom might have made the entire distance of a +hundred and ten miles to Hendrickton had it not been for the +accident—the unexpected something that so often happens in the +railroad business. +</P> + +<P> +Tom was a careful driver; the chatter of Ned and Mr. Damon did not take +the inventor's mind off his business for one instant. He was quite +alert at his window, looking ahead, as Koku was at the open doorway of +the cab. +</P> + +<P> +Not a mile outside of Cliff City, and on this eastbound side of the +right of way, was a long siding and a shipping point for timber. It was +sometimes a busy point; but at this time of year there were no +lumbermen about and no activities in the adjacent forest. +</P> + +<P> +The Hercules 0001 came spinning along from the Cliff City yards, and +Tom Swift gave scarcely a glance to the joint of the switch ahead. He +had been over it so many times of late, and knew that it was always +locked. The railroad did not even keep a man here at this season. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Koku emitted a wild yell. He startled everybody else in the +cab, as he flung his huge body more than half out of the doorway and +prepared to jump—or so it seemed. +</P> + +<P> +Ned shrieked a warning to the big fellow. Mr. Damon began to bless +everything in sight. But it was Tom, quite as excited as his friends, +who understood what Koku shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Big Feet! Big Feet! I see um Big Feet, Master!" +</P> + +<P> +The next moment he threw himself from the rapidly moving locomotive. He +might have been killed easily enough. But fortunately he landed feet +first in the drift beside the rails, and remained upright as he slid +down into the ditch. +</P> + +<P> +Tom, glancing ahead again, saw the flash of a man in a checked Mackinaw +running up through the open wood and away from the right of way. He +could not be sure of Andy O'Malley's figure at that distance; but he +could be pretty confident of Koku's identification. +</P> + +<P> +And then, with a shock that gripped and almost paralyzed his mind, Tom +saw again the switch ahead of the pilot of the Hercules 0001. The +switch was open, and at the speed the electric locomotive had attained, +if she did not jump the rails, it seemed scarcely possible that she +could be stopped before hitting the bumper at the end of the siding! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A Desperate Chase +</H3> + +<P> +These moments were fraught with peril, and not alone peril to the huge +machine that Tom Swift had built, but peril to those who remained in +the cab of the electric locomotive, as her forward trucks struck the +open switch. +</P> + +<P> +There was a mighty jerk that brought a shout from Ned Newton's lips and +a grunt from Mr. Damon. Tom clung to his swivel-seat, staring ahead. +</P> + +<P> +The pilot of the electric locomotive shot over on the siding; the +forward trucks followed, then the great drivers. The whole locomotive +swerved into the siding, but for several breathless seconds Tom was not +at all sure that the monster would not jump the rails and head into the +ditch! +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile his gaze measured the speed of that flying figure in the +Mackinaw as it scuttled up the slope through the open grove of hard +wood and pine. He could not at first see Koku, but he knew the giant +was headed for the fugitive, whether the latter proved to be Andy +O'Malley or not. +</P> + +<P> +Tom's gaze flashed to what lay ahead of the electric locomotive. As it +seemed to joggle back into balance, gain its uprightness, as it were, +the inventor saw the great, log-braced bumper between the two rails at +the end of the siding. With what force would the locomotive hit that +obstruction? +</P> + +<P> +Until the trailers were over the switch Tom dared not give her the +brakes. To lock the brake shoes upon the wheels might easily throw the +locomotive off the rails. But the instant he felt the tail of the long +locomotive swerve off the switch he jabbed the compressed air lever and +the wild shriek of the brake shoes answered to his effort. +</P> + +<P> +Then the bumper was but a few yards ahead. The electric locomotive was +bound to collide with it. And under the speed at which it had been +running, now scarcely reduced by half, the collision was apt to be a +tragic happening! +</P> + +<P> +Weeks of effort might be ruined in that moment! If the crash was +serious, thousands of dollars might be lost! In truth, Tom Swift +apprehended the possibility of a disaster, the complete results of +which might put the test of his invention forward for weeks—perhaps +for months. +</P> + +<P> +Nor could he do a thing to avert the disaster. He had reversed and set +the brakes immediately after the last wheel of the trailer was on the +siding. Nothing more could he do as the great electric locomotive bore +down upon the solid timber at the far end of this short track. +</P> + +<P> +Those few seconds, as the locked wheels slid toward the end of the +siding, were about as hard to bear as any experience the young inventor +had ever gone through. It was not so much the peril of the accident, it +was the possibility of what might happen to the locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +Within those few moments, however, Tom considered more than the safety +of his companions and himself, and more than the peril of wreck to his +locomotive. He considered the schedule of the trains on this division +of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos and remembered all those that might be +within this sector at this time. +</P> + +<P> +If the locomotive smashed into the bumper with force enough to wreck +the structure, would some approaching train on the westbound track not +be endangered? +</P> + +<P> +The thought was parent to Tom's act before the collision occurred. With +a single swift motion he reached for the signaling apparatus which he +had established in connection with his wireless telephone. +</P> + +<P> +Just the moment before the head of the locomotive rammed that seemingly +immovable barrier at the end of the siding there flashed into the air +from Tom's annunciator the code word agreed upon announcing a wreck, +and the number of the sector on which the electric locomotive was then +running. +</P> + +<P> +The next moment the crash occurred. +</P> + +<P> +Tom had leaped up with a shout of warning. "Hang on!" was his cry. But +when the locomotive had struck and rebounded Ned, from far down the +aisle of the locomotive, wanted to know in a very peevish tone what he +should have hung on to? +</P> + +<P> +"My elbows!" he groaned. "I've skinned 'em, and my back has got a twist +in it like the Irishman thought he had when he put on his overalls +hind-side to. What's happened?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my radiolite!" growled Mr. Damon. "My watch crystal is broken +all to finders, if you want to know. Bless my shock-absorbers! you +won't do this locomotive a bit of good, Tom Swift, if you stop it so +abruptly." +</P> + +<P> +"And that's the surest word you ever said," responded Tom, hurrying to +the door. "I don't know what's broken, but we're still on the rails. +The most immediate thing to learn, is the where-abouts of the fellow +who did this." +</P> + +<P> +"Who opened the switch?" cried Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe it was Andy O'Malley. Come on, Ned! Koku is after him and I +don't want him to tear O'Malley apart before I get there." +</P> + +<P> +"O'Malley has got powerful interests behind him, and it might go hard +with Koku if he injured the spy and some of these Westerners caught +him," suggested Mr. Damon. +</P> + +<P> +"They ought to thank Koku for manhandling the fellow—if he does," said +Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"As a matter of fact," replied Tom, "Koku will merely hold to the +fellow until we get there. But my giant's strength is enormous, and he +does not always know the strength of his grasp. He might hurt the +fellow. Come on," and Tom leaped from the doorway of the electric +locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +Ned leaped down the ladder after his chum. +</P> + +<P> +"Which way did they go?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Across the ditch and up the hill," said Tom. "Mr. Damon!" he called +back to that eccentric man, "will you please remain there and watch the +locomotive?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly will. And I'm armed, too," shouted Mr. Damon. "Don't fear +for this locomotive, Tom. I am right on the job." +</P> + +<P> +Tom waved his hand in reply, leaped the ditch, and started up through +the wood. Ned was close behind him, and the two young men ran as hard +as they could in the direction Tom had seen Andy O'Malley, followed by +the giant, running. +</P> + +<P> +In places the earth was slippery with pine needles, and the ground was +elsewhere rough. Therefore the chums did not make much speed in running +after the giant and his quarry. But Tom was sure of the direction in +which the two had disappeared, and he and Ned kept doggedly on. +</P> + +<P> +They went over the crest of the hill and lost sight of the siding and +the locomotive. Here was a sharp descent into a gulch, and some rods +away, in the bottom of this gully, the young fellows obtained their +first sight of Koku. He was still running with mighty strides and was +evidently within sight of the man he had set out after in such haste. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey! Koku!" shouted Tom Swift. +</P> + +<P> +The giant's hearing was of the keenest. He glanced back and raised his +arm in greeting. But he did not slacken his pace. +</P> + +<P> +"He must see O'Malley, Tom," cried Ned Newton. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure he does. And I want to get there about as soon as Koku grabs +the fellow," panted Tom. +</P> + +<P> +"He'll maul O'Malley unmercifully," said Ned. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want Koku to injure him," admitted Tom, and he increased his +own stride as he plunged down into the gully. +</P> + +<P> +The young inventor distanced his chum within the next few moments. Tom +ran like a deer. He reached the bottom of the gully and kept on after +Koku's crashing footsteps. At every jump, too, he began to shout to the +giant: +</P> + +<P> +"Koku! Hold him!" +</P> + +<P> +The giant's voice boomed back through the heavy timber: "I catch him! I +hold him for Master! I break all um bones! Wait till Koku catch him!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hold him, Koku!" yelled Tom again. "Be careful and don't hurt him till +I get there!" +</P> + +<P> +He could not see what the giant was doing. The timber was thicker down +here. It might be that the giant would seize the man roughly. His zeal +in Tom's cause was great, and, of course, his strength was enormous. +</P> + +<P> +Yet Tom did not want to call the giant off the trail. Andy O'Malley +must be captured at this time. He had done enough, too much, indeed, in +attempting the ruin of Tom's plans. Before the matter went any further +the young inventor was determined that Montagne Lewis' spy should be +put where he would be able to do no more harm. +</P> + +<P> +But he did not want the man permanently injured. He knew now that Koku +was so wildly excited that he might set upon O'Malley as he would upon +an enemy in his own country. +</P> + +<P> +"Koku! Stop! Wait for me!" Tom finally shouted. +</P> + +<P> +Now the young inventor got no reply from the giant. Had the latter got +so far ahead that he no longer heard his master's command? +</P> + +<P> +Tom pounded on, working his legs like pistons, putting every last ounce +of energy he possessed into his effort. This was indeed a desperate +chase. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Mr. Damon at Bay +</H3> + +<P> +Mr. Wakefield Damon was a very odd and erratic gentleman, but he did +not lack courage. He was much more disturbed by the possible injury to +Tom Swift's invention by this collision with the bumper at the end of +the timber siding than he had been by his own danger at the time of the +accident. +</P> + +<P> +He did not understand enough about the devices Tom had built in the +forward end of the locomotive cab to understand, by any casual +examination, if they were at all injured. But when he climbed down +beside the track he saw at once that the forward end of the locomotive +had received more than a little injury. +</P> + +<P> +The pilot, or cow-catcher, looked more like an iron cobweb than it did +like anything else. The wheels of the forward trucks had not left the +track, but the impact of the heavy locomotive with the bumper had been +so great that the latter was torn from its foundations. A little more +and the electric locomotive would have shot off the end of the rails +into the ditch. +</P> + +<P> +While Mr. Damon was examining the front of the locomotive, and Tom and +Ned remained absent, he suddenly observed a group of men hurrying out +of the forest on the other side of the H. & P. A. right of way. They +were not railroad men—at least, they were not dressed in uniform—but +they were drawn immediately to the locomotive. +</P> + +<P> +The leader of the party was a squarely built man with a determined +countenance and a heavy mustache much blacker than his iron gray hair. +He was a bullying looking man, and he strode around the rear of the +locomotive and came forward just as though he was confident of boarding +the machine by right. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon, knowing himself in the wilderness and not liking the +appearance of this group of strangers, had retired at once to the cab, +and now stood in the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's that young fool Swift?" growled the man with the dyed +mustache, looking up at Mr. Damon and laying one hand upon the rail +beside the ladder. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know any such person," declared Mr. Damon promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't know Tom Swift?" cried the man. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! That's another matter," said Mr. Damon coolly. "I don't know any +fool named Swift, either young or old. Bless my blinkers! I should say +not." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't he here?" demanded the man, gruffly. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom Swift isn't here just now—no." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm coming up," announced the stranger, and started to put his foot on +the first rung of the iron ladder. +</P> + +<P> +"You're not," said Mr. Damon, promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" ejaculated the man. +</P> + +<P> +"You only think you are coming up here. But you are not. Bless my +fortune telling cards!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I should say not." +</P> + +<P> +At this point the black-mustached man began to splutter words and +threats so fast that nobody could quite understand him. Mr. Damon, +however, did not shrink in the least. He stood adamant in the doorway +of the cab. +</P> + +<P> +Finding little relief in bad language, the enemy made another attempt +to climb up. For one thing, he was physically brave. He did not call on +his companions to go where he feared to. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll show you!" he bawled, and scrambled up the rungs of the ladder. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon did show him. He drew from some pocket a black object with a +bulb and a long barrel. Somebody below on the cinder path shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Look out, boss he's got a gun!" +</P> + +<P> +At that moment the marauder reached out to seize Mr. Damon's coat. Then +the object in Mr. Damon's hand spat a fine spray into the florid face +of the enemy! +</P> + +<P> +"Whoo! Achoo! By gosh!" bawled the big man, and he fell back screaming +other ejaculations. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my face and eyes!" cried Mr. Damon. "What did I tell you? And +you other fellows want to notice it. Tom Swift isn't here just at this +precise moment; but he is guarding his locomotive just the same. He +invented this ammonia pistol, and I should say it was effectual. Do +you?" +</P> + +<P> +The eccentric man was shrewd enough now to keep behind the jamb of the +cab door. For some of these fellows, he realized, might be armed with +more deadly weapons than his own. +</P> + +<P> +"Hey, Mr. Lewis!" cried one big fellow, "d'you want we should get that +fellow for you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want to know how badly that blamed thing is smashed," replied the +big man with the dyed mustache savagely. "Where's O'Malley?" +</P> + +<P> +"O'Malley's lit out, Boss, like I told you. That giant and them other +fellows is after him." +</P> + +<P> +"Break into that cab! Oh! My eyes! I'll kill that old fool! Break a +way in there—What's that?" +</P> + +<P> +In pain as he was, his other senses were alert. He was first to hear +the screeching whistle of the on-coming freight. +</P> + +<P> +"Think they got wind of this so quick?" demanded Montagne Lewis, for it +was he. "Are they sending help from Cliff City?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's a regular freight," returned one of his men. +</P> + +<P> +"She's comm' a-whizzin'," added another. "Right down the eastbound +track. If the crew see us—" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait!" commanded Lewis. "Isn't that switch open?" +</P> + +<P> +"You bet it is, Boss." +</P> + +<P> +"Let it be, then," cried the chief plotter. "Let 'em run into it. That +freight will smash up this electric locomotive more completely than we +could possibly do it. Stand away, men, and let her go!" +</P> + +<P> +A sharp curve in the right of way hid the siding, as well as the open +switch into it, from the gaze of the engineer who held the throttle of +the coming freight. His locomotive drew a string of empties, eastbound, +and having had a heavy pull of it coming up the grade to Cliff City, as +soon as he had got the highball from the yardmaster there, he had "let +her out," and was now coming to the head of the down grade to Hammon at +high speed. +</P> + +<P> +As it chanced, the wireless receiving station of Tom's new telephone +system was not yet completed at Cliff City. The news of the wreck of +the Hercules 0001 and her position had not been relayed to the master +of the Cliff City yards. +</P> + +<P> +That employee of the H. & P. A. had taken a chance in letting the +string of empties through his block. He knew the electric locomotive +was somewhere ahead, but he thought it would be making its usual time +and would have already passed Half Way. +</P> + +<P> +But the situation was serious. The freight was coming along at top +speed and the switch into the siding was still open. Montagne Lewis and +his crew of ruffians might well stand back and let what seemed sure to +happen, happen! The driving freight must do more harm to Tom Swift's +invention than they could have hoped to do with the sledges and bars +they had brought with them to the spot. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wakefield Damon had shown his courage already. He would have been +glad to do more to save Tom's locomotive from further injury, but he +did not realize what was threatening. He did not hear the shriek of the +freight engine's whistle. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Putting the Enemy to Flight +</H3> + +<P> +The pilot and headlight of the freight locomotive came around the turn +and the freight thundered on toward the switch. Seeing the group of men +standing by the stalled electric locomotive, and the locomotive itself +in the clear of the siding, the driver of the freight did not suppose +the switch was open. Nobody who was not a criminal would have stood by +idly in such an emergency and let the freight run into an open switch. +</P> + +<P> +Therefore, for the first minute, the coming engineer did not observe +his danger. Lewis and his gang stared at the head of the freight and +did nothing. They had moved hastily back from the siding so as to be +clear of the wreckage. Mr. Damon was in the front of the cab of +Hercules 0001 and had no idea of the approaching menace. +</P> + +<P> +But of a sudden a loud shout echoed through the wood. Tom Swift came +over the ridge and started toward his invention at top speed. From that +height he saw the freight train coming, he observed the men standing at +the siding, and he recognized Montagne Lewis, roughly as the railroad +magnate was dressed. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly Tom realized what was about to happen—what would surely +occur—and he saw what must be done if the utter wreck of his +locomotive was to be averted. Yelling at the top of his voice, he +leaped down the slope. +</P> + +<P> +"That's Swift!" shouted Lewis. "Stop him!" But the men he had hired to +do his wicked work fell back instead of trying to halt the young +inventor. It was not Tom's appearance that made them quail. Over the +ridge there appeared a second figure—and a more fearful or threatening +apparition none of them had ever before seen! +</P> + +<P> +Koku came running with the limp body of Andy O'Malley slung over his +shoulder like a bag of meal. The fellows knew it was Andy from his +dress. +</P> + +<P> +The giant came down the slope after Tom as though he wore the +seven-league boots. The fellows Lewis had hired to wreck the electric +locomotive shrank back from before both Tom and the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"Get him!" yelled the half blinded Lewis again. +</P> + +<P> +"Get your grandmother!" bawled one of the men suddenly. "Good-night!" +</P> + +<P> +He turned tail and ran, disappearing almost instantly into the thicker +woods. And his mates, after a moment of wavering, sped after him. Lewis +was left alone, quite helpless because of the ammonia fumes. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact not all of O'Malley's predicament was due to Koku. +The rascal, exhausted by his run and half blind through fright and +rage, had stumbled, fallen, and struck his head on a root, which +rendered him unconscious. +</P> + +<P> +This, of course, Lewis and his ruffians did not know. All the men of +the railroad president's gang saw was the gigantic Koku coming along in +great strides, bearing the unconscious O'Malley, who was a burly +fellow, as though he were a featherweight. No wonder they fled from +such a monster. +</P> + +<P> +Tom had reached the switch, and he was several seconds ahead of the +freight locomotive. The engineer saw the open switch then; but he was +too late to stop his train. +</P> + +<P> +Going into reverse, however, helped some. Tom seized the switch lever +and threw it over, locking it in place, just as the forward trucks +thundered upon the joint. The train swept by in safety, and the +engineer leaned from his cab window to wave a grateful hand at the +young inventor. +</P> + +<P> +Neither the engineer nor the crew of the freight understood the meaning +of the scene at the timber siding. All they learned was that Tom Swift +had saved the freight from a possible wreck. +</P> + +<P> +The young inventor turned sharply from the switch and motioned with his +hand to Koku. +</P> + +<P> +"Throw that fellow into the cab, Koku," he commanded. +</P> + +<P> +The giant did as he was told, just as Ned Newton came panting to the +spot. +</P> + +<P> +"Did they do any harm, Tom?" he cried. Then he saw Montagne Lewis +standing by, and he seized his chum's arm. "Do you see what I see, +Tom?" he demanded, earnestly. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess we both see the same snake," rejoined his chum. "And I mean to +scotch it." +</P> + +<P> +"Montagne Lewis!" murmured Ned. "And we've got his chief tool." +</P> + +<P> +Tom said nothing to his chum, but he approached Lewis with determined +mien. +</P> + +<P> +"I can see something has happened to you, Mr. Lewis, and I can guess +what it is. The effect of that ammonia will blow away after a time. Ask +your friend, Andy O'Malley. He knows all about it, for he sampled it +back East, in Shopton." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to get square for this, young man," growled the railroad +magnate. "You know who I am. And that fellow in the cab knew me, too. +How dared he shoot that stuff into my face and eyes?" +</P> + +<P> +"I fancy it didn't take much daring on Mr. Damon's part," and Tom +actually chuckled. "A big crook isn't any more important in our eyes +than a little crook. We've got your henchman, O'Malley—" +</P> + +<P> +"And you'd better let him go. I'm telling you," snarled Lewis. "I'll +ruin you in this country, Tom Swift. I've got influence—" +</P> + +<P> +"You won't have much after this thing comes out. And believe me, I mean +to spread it abroad. I've got nothing to win or lose from you, Mr. +Lewis. As for O'Malley, I'll put him behind the bars for a good long +term." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll do a lot—" +</P> + +<P> +"More than you think," said Tom. "Koku!" The giant had pitched +O'Malley, who was still senseless, into the cab, and now was coming up +behind Lewis. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Master," said the giant. +</P> + +<P> +"Get him!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Master," said Koku, and to Lewis' startled amazement, the next +instant he was in the hands of the giant! +</P> + +<P> +He screamed and threatened, and even kicked, to no avail. When he was +pitched into the electric locomotive he was held under the threat of +Mr. Damon's ammonia pistol until Tom and Ned and the giant entered and +the door was shut. Then Koku proceeded to tie both the prisoners by +wrist and ankle while the others examined the mechanism of the Hercules +0001. +</P> + +<P> +The pantagraph had been torn off the trolley wires when the locomotive +had gone on the siding. But now Tom climbed to the roof of the +locomotive, and with Koku's aid managed to set the rear pantagraph at +such an angle that its wheels caught the trolley cables again, and once +more the current was pumped into the Hercules 0001. +</P> + +<P> +Tom tried out the several parts of the mechanism and found that, +despite the jar of the collision, nothing was really injured. +</P> + +<P> +"I built this thing to withstand hard usage," he declared with pride. +"The Swift Hercules Electric Locomotives will not be built for parlor +ornaments. She is going to run into Hendrickton under her own power, in +spite of a smashed cows catcher and target lights." +</P> + +<P> +"Is nothing really injured, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon. "Bless my dinner +set! I thought everything had gone to smash when she hit that bumper." +</P> + +<P> +"She will be as good as new in a week," declared Tom, with conviction. +</P> + +<P> +This prophecy of the young inventor proved to be true. A week from that +day the public test of the electric locomotive on the Hendrickton & Pas +Alos Railroad was held. A picked delegation of railroad men was present +to observe and marvel, with Mr. Bartholomew; but Montagne Lewis, the +president of the H. & W., was not one of those who attended. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, Lewis soon got out of jail on bail. But the accusation +against him was a serious one. His guilt would be proved by his own +employee, Andy O'Malley, who was in a hospital for the time being. +</P> + +<P> +O'Malley had got enough. He had turned State's evidence and implicated +his employer. Influential and wealthy as Lewis was, he could not escape +trial with O'Malley when the time came. +</P> + +<P> +"One thing sure, Lewis has got all he wants. He isn't likely to try any +more crooked work against the H. & P. A.," Mr. Bartholomew said. "I can +thank you for that, Tom Swift, as well as for your invention. You +have saved the day for my railroad." +</P> + +<P> +"You can thank Koku," chuckled Tom. "If he hadn't spied and identified +'Big Feet,' we might not have caught O'Malley, and, through O'Malley, +implicated Montagne Lewis. You give Koku a new suit of clothes, Mr. +Bartholomew, and we will call it square. But be sure and have the +pattern of the goods loud enough." +</P> + +<P> +This conversation took place while the party of guests was gathering to +board Mr. Bartholomew's private car, attached to the Hercules 0001. Mr. +Damon was one of the guests and so was Ned Newton. Tom took into the +cab a crew of H. & P. A. men who would hereafter drive the huge +locomotive and take care of her. +</P> + +<P> +The semaphore signal dropped and the electric locomotive started as +quietly as a baby going to sleep! There was not a jar as the train +moved off the siding and over the switches to the main line. +</P> + +<P> +The dispatcher had arranged a clear road for them. Tom knew that he had +a free track ahead of him—a level of ninety-odd miles to the Hammon +yards. As he passed the Hendrickton shops he touched the siren lever +for a moment, and the shrill voice of the Hercules 0001 bade the town +good-bye. +</P> + +<P> +The next minute the visitors in the private car grabbed out their +split-second watches and began to murmur. The electric locomotive had +begun to travel! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter XXV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Speed and Success +</H3> + +<P> +"What town is that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Looks like a splotch of paint on a board fence, we went by so quick." +</P> + +<P> +"I've lost count, Bartholomew. Where are we?" +</P> + +<P> +Ned Newton listened to these comments from the visiting railroad men +with delight. In reply to a question of his neighbor, the grinning +financial manager of the Swift Construction Company paid: +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir. That isn't a picket fence. It's the telegraph poles you see, +and they are no nearer together than on another railroad. But we're +going some." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my railroad stock!" shouted Mr. Damon, "I should say we were." +</P> + +<P> +The electric locomotive and the private car were hurled toward the Pas +Alos Range at a speed that almost frightened some of the guests. +</P> + +<P> +"Three-quarters of an hour!" gasped one man as they began to see the +outskirts of Hammon. "And ninety-six miles? Great Scott, Bartholomew! +that's over two miles a minute!" +</P> + +<P> +"That is the speed we set out to get," Mr. Richard Bartholomew said, +with quite as much pride as though he had done it all himself. +</P> + +<P> +But it had been his suggestion and his money that had accomplished this +wonder. Tom Swift was willing to give the railroad president his share +of the fame. +</P> + +<P> +The train scarcely slackened speed at Hammon, for Tom got the signal +announcing a clear track ahead, and he bucked the grade with all the +power he could get from the feed wires. This hill, so well known to him +now, was surmounted at a slightly decreased speed; but it was a +wonderful display of power after all. +</P> + +<P> +They went down the other side to Panboro and there linked up with an +eastbound freight that the Hercules 0001 snatched over the mountain to +Hammon at a pace slightly exceeding forty-five miles an hour—at least +twice the speed that any two oil-burning locomotives could attain. As +for the Jandels, they were not in the same class at all with Tom +Swift's locomotive! +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my speedometer!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, when the train pulled down +and stopped again at the Hendrickton terminal. "This is the greatest +test of speed and power I ever heard of. Why, a coal burner or an oil +burner isn't in it with this Hercules locomotive! What do you say, Mr. +Bartholomew?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll say I am satisfied—completely and thoroughly satisfied, Mr. +Damon," said the president of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad +frankly. "Mr. Swift has fulfilled his contract in every particular." +</P> + +<P> +An hour later the young inventor and his two friends were in conference +with Mr. Bartholomew over a new contract. The bonus of a hundred +thousand dollars would be paid at once to the Swift Construction +Company. But as the elder Swift's name would be needed on the new +contract for the building of other Hercules locomotives, Tom had an +idea. +</P> + +<P> +"We won't send the papers East for father to sign," he said. "I want +him to see the locomotive in real action. And I know where he can +borrow a private car and come out here in comfort. Rad can come with +him." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless my valentines!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I bet somebody else will +come too." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Damon must have been a prophet, for a fortnight later, when the +borrowed car got in to the Hendrickton terminal at the tail of the +transcontinental flyer, Tom Swift saw first of all Mary Nestor's rosy +face on the platform of the car. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom! are you all right?" she cried, beaming down upon the young +inventor. +</P> + +<P> +"No. Half of me is left," he said, grinning up at her. "You look great, +Mary!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think so?" she cried, dimpling. "Well, if anybody should ask +you, Mr. Tom Swift, you look very good to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't make me swell all up, Mary," he laughed. "How's father?" +</P> + +<P> +"Splendid! And Rad—" +</P> + +<P> +"Eradicate Sampson is sho' 'nough puffectly all right," broke in the +voice of the old colored man, eager to make himself heard and seen. +"Here I is, Massa Tom. What dat lizard doin' here? Ain't he a sight?" +</P> + +<P> +The old man had caught sight of Koku in the wonderful new suit Mr. +Bartholomew had ordered made for the giant. A Navajo blanket had +nothing on that suit for a mixture of colors, and Koku strutted like a +turkey-gobbler. +</P> + +<P> +"My lawsy!" gasped Rad again, "he's as purty as a sunset. Is dat de way +de tailors out here build a man up? Sure's yo live, Massa Tom, I needs +a new suit of clo'es myself." +</P> + +<P> +And before he got away from Hendrickton, Rad Sampson sported a suit off +the same piece of goods as that of Koku's. Otherwise there might have +been a lasting feud between the giant and the Swift's ancient serving +man. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Barton Swift had stood the easy journey in the private car very +well. Before he would sign the contract that Mr. Bartholomew offered, +he wished to see for himself just how good his son's invention was. +</P> + +<P> +They made another test from Hendrickton to Panboro, over the "official +route," as Ned called it. The time made by Hercules 0001 was even a +little better than before. +</P> + +<P> +That the invention was well nigh perfect, and that it could do even +more than Mr. Bartholomew had hoped or Tom had claimed, was Mr. Swift's +conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"Tom," he said to his son, "you have done a wonderful thing. Not only +have you completed a marvelous invention and gained thereby a lot of +money, and more in prospect, but you have aided in the world's progress +to no small degree. +</P> + +<P> +"Speed in transportation is the big problem before the world of +commerce today. To move goods from point to point safely and cheaply, +as well as rapidly, is the great task of this age. We are entering the +Age of Speed. The railroads must solve the problem to compete with +motor-truck traffic and fast boats on the lakes and rivers of our land. +</P> + +<P> +"You have, by your invention, shoved the clock of progress forward. I +am proud of you, my boy. I know now that, no matter what may happen to +me, you will make an enviable mark in the world of invention. +</P> + +<P> +"You have done much before for the Government in time of stress. But +war engines of any kind are not worthy examples of inventive genius +beside such a thing as this. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the inventions of peace, rather than those of war, that stand +for human progress." +</P> + +<P> +Coming back over the mountain, Mary Nestor rode in the cab with Tom. +She sat on the swivel stool, in fact, and handled the controls for part +of the way. But she gave up the driver's place to Tom before they +reached the timber siding east of Cliff City. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot go by that place without a shudder," Mary said to the +inventor. "Ned and Mr. Damon told me all about that accident. Suppose +you had been killed, Tom!" +</P> + +<P> +"I see I'll have to build an invention that will make that impossible," +chuckled the young fellow. +</P> + +<P> +"Make what impossible?" +</P> + +<P> +"Some invention that will make it positively certain that no matter +what I do or where I go, nothing can harm me. Nothing else will suit +you, Mary, I plainly see." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," returned the girl, smiling fondly at him. "I admit that would +satisfy me completely!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3> +This Isn't ALL! +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made in +this book? +</P> + +<P> +Would you like to read other stories continuing their adventures and +experiences, or other books quite as entertaining by the same author? +</P> + +<P> +On the reverse side of the wrapper which comes with this book, you will +find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the same store +where you got this book. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +Don't throw away the Wrapper +</H3> + +<P> +Use it as a handy catalog of the books you want some day to have. But +in case you do mislay it, write to the Publishers for a complete +catalog. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE TOM SWIFT SERIES +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By VICTOR APPLETON +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers.<BR> +Every Volume Complete in Itself. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Every boy possesses some form of inventive genius. Tom Swift is a +bright, ingenious boy and his inventions and adventures make the most +interesting kind of reading. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE<BR> +TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS<BR> +TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE<BR> +TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER<BR> +TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL<BR> +TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH<BR> +TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING BOAT<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT OIL GUSHER<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHEST OF SECRETS<BR> +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRLINE EXPRESS<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE DON STURDY SERIES +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By VICTOR APPLETON +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Individual Colored Wrappers and Text illustrations by WALTER S. ROGERS +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Every Volume Complete in Itself +</P> + +<P> +In company with his uncles, one a mighty hunter and the other a noted +scientist, Don Sturdy travels far and wide, gaining much useful +knowledge and meeting many thrilling adventures. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DON STURDY ON THE DESERT OF MYSTERY;<BR> +Or, Autoing in the Land of the Caravans. +</P> + +<P> +An engrossing tale of the Sahara Desert, of encounters with wild +animals and crafty Arabs. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DON STURDY WITH THE BIG SNAKE HUNTERS;<BR> +Or, Lost in the Jungles of the Amazon. +</P> + +<P> +Don's uncle, the hunter, took an order for some of the biggest snakes +to be found in South America—to be delivered alive! The filling of +that order brought keen excitement to the boy. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DON STURDY IN THE TOMBS OF GOLD;<BR> +Or, The Old Egyptian's Great Secret. +</P> + +<P> +A fascinating tale of exploration and adventure in the Valley of Kings +in Egypt. Once the whole party became lost in the maze of cavelike +tombs far underground. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DON STURDY ACROSS THE NORTH POLE;<BR> +Or, Cast Away in the Land of Ice. +</P> + +<P> +Don and his uncles joined an expedition bound by air across the north +pole. A great polar blizzard nearly wrecks the airship. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DON STURDY IN THE LAND OF VOLCANOES;<BR> +Or, The Trail of the Ten Thousand Smokes. +</P> + +<P> +An absorbing tale of adventures among the volcanoes of Alaska in a +territory but recently explored. A story that will make Don dearer to +his readers than ever. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE RADIO BOYS SERIES (Trademark Registered) +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By ALLEN CHAPMAN +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Author of the "Railroad Series," Etc. Individual Colored Wrappers. +Illustrated. Every Volume Complete in Itself. +</P> + +<P> +A new series for boys giving full details of radio work, both in +sending and receiving—telling how small and large amateur sets can be +made and operated, and how some boys got a lot of fun and adventure out +of what they did. Each volume from first to last is so thoroughly +fascinating, so strictly up-to-date and accurate, we feel sure all lads +will peruse them with great delight. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Each volume has a Foreword by Jack Binns, the well-known radio expert. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS;<BR> +Or, Winning the Ferberton Prize. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT;<BR> +Or, The Messsage That Saved the Ship. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS AT THE SENDING STATION;<BR> +Or, Making Good in the Wireless Room. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS;<BR> +Or, The Midnight Call for Assistance. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS TRAILING A VOICE;<BR> +Or, Solving a Wireless Mystery. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE FOREST RANGERS;<BR> +Or, The Great Fire on Spruce Mountain. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE ICEBERG PATROL;<BR> +Or, Making Safe the Ocean Lanes. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RADIO BOYS WITH THE FLOOD FIGHTERS;<BR> +Or, Saving the City in the Valley. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE RAILROAD SERIES +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By ALLEN CHAPMAN +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Author of the "Radio Boys," Etc. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Uniform Style of Binding. Illustrated. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Every Volume Complete in Itself. +</P> + +<P> +In this line of books there is revealed the whole workings of a great +American railroad system. There are adventures in abundance—railroad +wrecks, dashes through forest fires, the pursuit of a "wildcat" +locomotive, the disappearance of a pay car with a large sum of money on +board—but there is much more than this—the intense rivalry among +railroads and railroad men, the working out of running schedules, the +getting through "on time" in spite of all obstacles, and the +manipulation of railroad securities by evil men who wish to rule or +ruin. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH OF THE ROUND HOUSE;<BR> +Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER;<BR> +Or, Clearing the Track. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH ON THE ENGINE;<BR> +Or, The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS;<BR> +Or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH, THE TRAIN DISPATCHER;<BR> +Or, the Mystery of the Pay Car. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH ON THE ARMY TRAIN;<BR> +Or, The Young Railroader's Most Daring Exploit. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RALPH ON THE MIDNIGHT FLYER;<BR> +Or, The Wreck at Shadow Valley. +</P> + +<P> +RALPH AND THE MISSING MAIL POUCH;<BR> +Or, The Stolen Government Bonds. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE RIDDLE CLUB BOOKS By ALICE DALE HARDY +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Individual Colored Wrappers. Attractively Illustrated. Every Volume +Complete in Itself. +</P> + +<P> +Here is as ingenious a series of books for little folks as has ever +appeared since "Alice in Wonderland." The idea of the Riddle books is a +little group of children—three girls and three boys decide to form a +riddle club. Each book is full of the adventures and doings of these +six youngsters, but as an added attraction each book is filled with a +lot of the best riddles you ever heard. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT HOME +</P> + +<P> +An absorbing tale that all boys and girls will enjoy reading. How the +members of the club fixed up a clubroom in the Larue barn, and how +they, later on, helped solve a most mysterious happening, and how one +of the members won a valuable prize, is told in a manner to please +every young reader. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RIDDLE CLUB IN CAMP +</P> + +<P> +The club members went into camp on the edge of a beautiful lake. Here +they had rousing good times swimming, boating and around the campfire. +They fell in with a mysterious old man known as The Hermit of Triangle +Island. Nobody knew his real name or where he came from until the +propounding of a riddle solved these perplexing questions. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RIDDLE CLUB THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS +</P> + +<P> +This volume takes in a great number of winter sports, including skating +and sledding and the building of a huge snowman. It also gives the +particulars of how the club treasurer lost the dues entrusted to his +care and what the melting of the great snowman revealed. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT SUNRISE BEACH +</P> + +<P> +This volume tells how the club journeyed to the seashore and how they +not only kept up their riddles but likewise had good times on the sand +and on the water. Once they got lost in a fog and are marooned on an +island. Here they made a discovery that greatly pleased the folks at +home. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE HONEY BUNCH BOOKS +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By HELEN LOUISE THORNDYKE +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Individual Colored Wrappers and Text<BR> +Illustrations Drawn by +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +WALTER S. ROGERS +</P> + +<P> +A new line of fascinating tales for little girls. Honey Bunch is a +dainty, thoughtful little girl, and to know her is to take her to your +heart at once. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: JUST A LITTLE GIRL +</P> + +<P> +Happy days at home, helping mamma and the washerlady. And Honey Bunch +helped the house painters too—or thought she did. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE CITY +</P> + +<P> +What wonderful sights Honey Bunch saw when she went to visit her +cousins in New York! And she got lost in a big hotel and wandered into +a men's convention! +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM +</P> + +<P> +Can you remember bow the farm looked the first time you visited it? How +big the cows and horses were, and what a roomy place to play in the +barn proved to be? +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE SEASHORE +</P> + +<P> +Honey Bunch soon got used to the big waves and thought playing in the +sand great fun. And she visited a merry-go-round, and took part in a +seaside pageant. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST LITTLE GARDEN +</P> + +<P> +It was great sport to dig and to plant with one's own little garden +tools. But best of all was when Honey Bunch won a prize at the flower +show. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS IN CAMP +</P> + +<P> +It was a great adventure for Honey Bunch when she journeyed to Camp +Snapdragon. It was wonderful to watch the men erect the tent, and +wonderful to live in it and have good times on the shore and in the +water. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By LAURA LEE HOPE +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Author of the "Bobbsey Twins," "Bunny Brown" Series, Etc. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Every Volume Complete in Itself. +</P> + +<P> +These tales take in the various adventures participated in by several +bright, up-to-date girls who love outdoor life. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE;<BR> +Or, Camping and Tramping for Fun and Health. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE;<BR> +Or, The Stirring Cruise of the Motor Boat Gem. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR;<BR> +Or, The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP;<BR> +Or, Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA;<BR> +Or, Wintering in the Sunny South. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW;<BR> +Or, The Box That Was Found in the Sand. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND;<BR> +Or, A Cave and What it Contained. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE;<BR> +Or, Doing Their Bit for Uncle Sam. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE;<BR> +Or, Doing Their Best For the Soldiers. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT;<BR> +Or, A Wreck and A Rescue. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE;<BR> +Or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLE;<BR> +Or, The Girl Miner of Gold Run. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AROUND THE CAMPFIRE;<BR> +Or, The Old Maid of the Mountains. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON CAPE COD;<BR> +Or, Sally Ann of Lighthouse Rock. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tom Swift and his Electric Locomotive, by +Victor Appleton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SWIFT AND ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE *** + +***** This file should be named 1364-h.htm or 1364-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/6/1364/ + +Produced by Anthony Matonac + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</BODY> + +</HTML> + + diff --git a/old/1364.txt b/old/1364.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8f4d9d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1364.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6184 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Tom Swift and his Electric Locomotive, by Victor Appleton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tom Swift and his Electric Locomotive + or, Two Miles a Minute on the Rails + +Author: Victor Appleton + +Posting Date: July 17, 2008 [EBook #1364] +Release Date: June, 1998 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SWIFT AND ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE *** + + + + +Produced by Anthony Matonac + + + + + + + + +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE + +or + +Two Miles a Minute on the Rails + + +By + +VICTOR APPLETON + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I A TEMPTING OFFER + II TROUBLE STARTS + III TOM SWIFT'S FRIENDS + IV MUCH TO THINK ABOUT + V BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS + VI THE CONTRACT SIGNED + VII THE MAN WITH BIG FEET + VIII AN ENEMY IN THE DARK + IX WHERE WAS KOKU? + X A STRANGE CONVERSATION + XI TOUCH AND GO + XII THE TRY-OUT DAY ARRIVES + XIII HOPES AND FEARS + XIV SPEED + XV THE ENEMY STILL ACTIVE + XVI OFF FOR THE WEST + XVII THE WRECK OF FORTY-EIGHT + XVIII ON THE HENDRICKTON & PAS ALOS + XIX PERIL, THE MOTHER OF INVENTION + XX THE RESULT + XXI THE OPEN SWITCH + XXII A DESPERATE CHASE + XXIII MR. DAMON AT BAT + XXIV PUTTING THE ENEMY TO FLIGHT + XXV SPEED AND SUCCESS + + + + +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE + + +Chapter I + +A Tempting Offer + + +"An electric locomotive that can make two miles a minute over a +properly ballasted roadbed might not be an impossibility," said Mr. +Barton Swift ruminatively. "It is one of those things that are coming," +and he flashed his son, Tom Swift, a knowing smile. It had been a +topic of conversation between them before the visitor from the West had +been seated before the library fire and had sampled one of the elder +Swift's good cigars. + +"It is not only a future possibility," said the latter gentleman, +shrugging his shoulders. "As far as the Hendrickton and Pas Alos +Railroad Company goes, a two mile a minute gait--not alone on a level +track but through the Pas Alos Range--is an immediate necessity. It's +got to be done now, or our stock will be selling on the curb for about +two cents a share." + +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom Swift +earnestly, and staring at the big-little man before the fire. + +Mr. Richard Bartholomew was just that--a "big-little man." In the +railroad world, both in construction and management, he had made an +enviable name for himself. + +He had actually built up the Hendrickton and Pas Alos from a +narrow-gauge, "jerkwater" road into a part of a great cross-continent +system that tapped a wonderfully rich territory on both sides of the +Pas Alos Range. + +For some years the H. & P. A. had a monopoly of that territory. Now, +as Mr. Bartholomew intimated, it was threatened with such rivalry from +another railroad and other capitalists, that the H. & P. A. was being +looked upon in the financial market as a shaky investment. + +But Tom Swift repeated: + +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" + +Mr. Bartholomew, who was a little man physically, rolled around in his +chair to face the young fellow more directly. His own eyes sparkled in +the firelight. His olive face was flushed. + +"That is much nearer the truth, young man," he said, somewhat harshly +because of his suppressed emotion, "than I want people at large to +suspect. As I have told your father, I came here to put all my cards on +the table; but I expect the Swift Construction Company to take anything +I may say as said in confidence." + +"We quite understand that, Mr. Bartholomew," said the elder Swift, +softly. "You can speak freely. Whether we do business or not, these +walls are soundproof, and Tom and I can forget, or remember, as we +wish. Of course if we take up any work for you, we must confide to a +certain extent in our close associates and trusted mechanics." + +"Humph!" grunted the visitor, turning restlessly again in his chair. +Then he said: "I agree as the necessity of that last statement; but I +can only hope that these walls are soundproof." + +"What's that?" demanded Tom, rather sharply. He was a bright looking +young fellow with an alert air and a rather humorous smile. His father +was a semi-invalid; but Tom possessed all the mental vigor and muscular +energy that a young man should have. He had not neglected his Athletic +development while he made the best use of his mental powers. + +"Believe me," said the visitor, quite as harshly as before, "I begin to +doubt the solidity of all walls. I know that I have been watched, and +spied upon, and that eavesdroppers have played hob with our affairs. + +"Of late, there has been little planned in the directors' room of the +H. & P. A. that has not seeped out and aided the enemy in foreseeing +our moves." + +"The enemy?" repeated Mr. Swift, with mild surprise. + +"That's it exactly! The enemy!" replied Mr. Bartholomew shortly. "The +H. & P. A. has got the fight of its life on its hands. We had a hard +enough time fighting nature and the elements when we laid the first +iron for the road a score of years ago. Now I am facing a fight that +must grow fiercer and fiercer as time goes on until either the H. & P. +A. smashes the opposition, or the enemy smashes it." + +"What enemy is this you speak of?" asked Tom, much interested. + +"The proposed Hendrickton & Western. A new road, backed by new capital, +and to be officered and built by new men in the construction and +railroad game. + +"Montagne Lewis--you've heard of him, I presume--is at the head of the +crowd that have bought the little old Hendrickton & Western, lock, +stock and barrel. + +"They have franchises for extending the road. In the old days the +legislatures granted blanket franchises that allowed any group of +moneyed men to engage in any kind of business as side issues to +railroading. Montagne Lewis and his crowd have got a 'plenty-big' +franchise. + +"They have begun laying iron. It parallels, to a certain extent, our +own line. Their surveyors were smarter than the men who laid out the H. +& P. A. I admit it. Besides, the country out there is developed more +than it was a score of years ago when I took hold. + +"All this enters into the fight between Montagne Lewis and me. But +there is something deeper," said the little man, with almost a snarl, +as he thrashed about again in his chair. "I beat Montagne Lewis at one +big game years ago. He is a man who never forgets--and who never +hesitates to play dirty politics if he has to, to bring about his own +ends. + +"I know that I have been watched. I know that I was followed on this +trip East. He has private detectives on my track continually. And +worse. All the gunmen of the old and wilder West are not dead. There's +a fellow named Andy O'Malley--well, never mind him. The game at present +is to keep anybody in Lewis's employ from getting wise to why I came to +see you." + +"What you say is interesting," Mr. Swift here broke in quietly. "But I +have already been puzzled by what you first said. Just why have you +come to us--to Tom and me--in reference to your railroad difficulties?" + +"And this suggestion you have made," added Tom, "about a possible +electric locomotive of a faster type than has, ever yet been put on the +rails?" + +"That is it, exactly," replied Bartholomew, sitting suddenly upright in +his chair. "We want faster electric motor power than has ever yet been +invented. We have got to have it, or the H. & P. A. might as well be +scrapped and the whole territory out there handed over to Montagne +Lewis and his H. & W. That is the sum total of the matter, gentlemen. +If the Swift Construction Company cannot help us, my railroad is going +to be junk in about three years from this beautiful evening." + +His emphasis could not fail to impress both the elder and the younger +Swift. They looked at each other, and the interest displayed upon the +father's countenance was reflected upon the features of the son. + +If there was anything Tom Swift liked it was a good fight. The clash of +diverse interests was the breath of life to the young fellow. And for +some years now, always connected in some way with the development of +his inventive genius, he had been entangled in battles both of wits and +physical powers. Here was the suggestion of something that would entail +a struggle of both brain and brawn. + +"Sounds good," muttered Tom, gazing at the railroad magnate with +considerable admiration. + +"Let us hear all about it," Mr. Swift said to Bartholomew. "Whether we +can help you or not, we're interested." + +"All right," replied the visitor again. "Whether I was followed East, +and here to Shopton, or not doesn't much matter. I will put my +proposition up to you, and then I'll ask, if you don't want to go into +it, that you keep the business absolutely secret. I have got to put +something over on Montagne Lewis and his crowd, or throw up the sponge. +That's that!" + +"Go ahead, Mr. Bartholomew," observed Tom's father, encouragingly. + +"To begin with, four hundred miles of our road is already electrified. +We have big power stations and supply heat and light and power to +several of the small cities tapped by the H. & P. A. It is a paying +proposition as it stands. But it is only paying because we carry the +freight traffic--all the freight traffic--of that region. + +"If the H. & W. breaks in on our monopoly of that, we shall soon be so +cut down that our invested capital will not earn two per cent.--No, by +glory! not one-and-a-half per cent.--and our stock will be dished. But +I have worked out a scheme, Gentlemen, by which we can counter-balance +any dig Lewis can give us in the ribs. + +"If we can extend our electrified line into and through the Pas Alos +Range our freight traffic can be handled so cheaply and so effectively +that nothing the Hendrickton & Western can do for years to come will +hurt us. Get that?" + +"I get your statement, Mr. Bartholomew," said Mr. Swift. "But it is +merely a statement as yet." + +"Sure. Now I will give you the particulars. We are using the Jandel +locomotives on our electrified stretch of road. You know that patent?" + +"I know something about it, Mr. Bartholomew," said the younger +inventor. "I have felt some interest in the electric locomotive, though +I have done nothing practical in the matter. But I know the Jandel +patent." + +"It is about the best there is--and the most recent; but it does not +fill the bill. Not for the H. & P. A., anyway," said Mr. Bartholomew, +shortly. + +"What does it lack?" asked Mr. Swift. + +"Speed. It's got the power for heavy hauls. It could handle the freight +through the Pas Alos Range. But it would slow up our traffic so that +the shippers would at once turn to the Hendrickton & Western. You +understand that their rails do not begin to engage the grades that our +engineers thought necessary when the old H. & P. A. was built." + +"I get that," said Tom briskly. "You have come here, then, to interest +us in the development of a faster but quite as powerful type of +electric locomotive as the Jandel." + +"Stated to the line!" exclaimed Mr. Bartholomew, smiting the arm of his +chair with his clenched fist. "That is it, young man. You get me +exactly. And now I will go on to put my proposition to you." + +"Do so, Mr. Bartholomew," murmured the old inventor, quite as much +interested as his son. + +"I want you to make a study of electric motive power as applied to +track locomotives, with the idea of utilizing our power plants and +others like them, and even with the possibility in mind of the +continued use of the Jandel locomotives on our more level stretches of +road. + +"But I want your investigation to result in the building of locomotives +that will make a speed of two miles a minute, or as near that as +possible, on level rails, and be powerful enough to snake our heavy +freight trains through the hills and over the steep grades so rapidly +that even two engines, a pusher and a hauler, cannot beat the electric +power." + +"Some job, that, I'll say," murmured Tom Swift. + +"Exactly. Some job. And it is the only thing that will save the H. & P. +A.," said Mr. Bartholomew decidedly. "I put it up to you Swifts. I have +heard of some of your marvelous inventions. Here is something that is +already invented. But it needs development." + +"I see," said Mr. Swift, and nodded. + +"It interests me," admitted Tom. "As I say, I have given some thought +to the electric locomotive." + +"This is the age of speed," said Mr. Bartholomew earnestly. "Rapidity +in handling freight and kindred things will be the salvation, and the +only salvation, of many railroads. Tapping a rich territory is not +enough. The road that can offer the quickest and cheapest service is +the road that is going to keep out of a receivership. Believe me, I +know!" + +"You should," said Mr. Swift mildly. "Your experience should have +taught you a great deal about the railroad business." + +"It has. But that knowledge is worth just nothing at all without swift +power and cheap traffic. Those are the problems today. Now, I am going +to take a chance. If it doesn't work, my road is dished in any case. So +I feel that the desperate chance is the only chance." + +"What is that?" asked Tom Swift, sitting forward in his chair. "I, for +one, feel so much interested that I will do anything in reason to find +the answer to your traffic problem." + +"That's the boy!" ejaculated Richard Bartholomew. "I will give it to +you in a few words. If you will experiment with the electric locomotive +idea, to develop speed and power over and above the Jandel patent, and +will give me the first call on the use of any patents you may contrive, +I will put up twenty-five thousand dollars in cash which shall be yours +whether I can make use of a thing you invent or not." + +"Any time limit in this agreement, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom, making +a few notes on a scratch pad before him on the library table. + +"What do you say to three months?" + +"Make it six, if you can," Tom said with continued briskness. "It +interests me. I'll do my best. And I want you to get your money's +worth." + +"All right. Make it six," said Mr. Bartholomew. "But the quicker you +dig something up, the better for me. Now, that is the first part of my +proposition." + +"All right, sir. And the second?" + +"If you succeed in showing me that you can build and operate an +electric locomotive that will speed two miles a minute on a level track +and will get a heavy drag over the mountain grades, as I said, as +surely as two engines of the coal-burning or oil-burning type, I will +pay you a hundred thousand dollars bonus, besides buying all the +engines you can build of this new type for the first two years. I've +got to have first call; but the hundred thousand will be yours free and +clear, and the price of the locomotives you build can be adjusted by +any court of agreement that you may suggest." + +Tom Swift's face glowed. He realized that this offer was not only +generous, but that it made it worth his while dropping everything else +he had in hand and devoting his entire time and thought for even six +months to the proposition of developing the electric locomotive. + +He looked at his father and nodded. Mr. Swift said, calmly: + +"We take you on that offer, Mr. Bartholomew. Tom has the facts on +paper, and we will hand it to Mr. Newton, our financial manager, in the +morning. If you will remain in town for twenty-four hours, the contract +can be signed." + +"Suits me," declared. Richard Bartholomew, rising quickly from his +chair. "I confess I hoped you would take me up quite as promptly as you +have. I want to get back West again. + +"We will see you in the office of the company at two o'clock tomorrow," +said Tom Swift confidently. + +"Better than good! And now, if that trailer that I am pretty sure +Montagne Lewis sent after me does not get wise to the subject of our +talk, it may be a slick job we have done and will do. I admit I am +rather afraid of the enemy. You Swifts must keep your plans in utter +darkness." + +After a little talk on more ordinary affairs, Mr. Bartholomew took his +departure. It was getting late in the evening, and Tom Swift had an +engagement. While old Rad, their colored servant, was helping him on +with his coat preparatory to Tom's leaving the house, his father called +from the library: + +"Got those notes in a safe place, Tom?" + +"Safest in the world, Dad," his son replied. But he did not go into +details. Tom considered the "safest place in the world" just then was +his own wallet, which was tucked into an inside pocket of his vest "I'm +going to see Mary Nestor, Father," said Tom, as he went to the front +door and opened it. + +He halted a moment with the knob of the door in his hand. The porch was +deep in shadows, but he thought he had seen something move there. + +"That you, Koku?" asked Tom in an ordinary voice. Sometimes his +gigantic servant wandered about the house at night. He was a strange +person, and he had a good many thoughts in his savage brain that even +his young master did not understand. + +There was no reply to Tom's question, so he walked down the steps and +out at the gate. It was not a long distance to the Nestor house, and +the air was brisk and keen, in spite of the fact that threatening +clouds masked the stars. + +Two blocks from the house he came to a high wall which separated the +street from the grounds of an old dwelling. Tom suddenly noticed that +the usual street lights on this block had been extinguished--blown out +by the wind, perhaps. + +Involuntarily he quickened his steps. He reached the archway in the +wall. Here was the gate dividing the private grounds from the street. +As he strode into the shadow of this place a voice suddenly halted Tom +Swift. + +"Hands up! Put 'em up and don't be slow about it!" A bulky figure +loomed in the dark. Tom saw the highwayman's club poised threateningly +over his head. + + + + +Chapter II + +Trouble Starts + + +The fact that he was stopped by a footpad smote Tom Swift's mind as not +a particularly surprising adventure. He had heard that several of that +gentry had been plying their trade about the outskirts of the town. To +a degree he was prepared for this sudden event. + +Then there flashed into Tom's mind the thought of what Mr. Richard +Bartholomew had said regarding the spy he believed had followed him +from the West. Could it be possible that some hired thug sent by +Montagne Lewis and his crooked crowd of financiers considered that Tom +Swift had obtained information from the president of the H. & P. A. +that might do his employers signal service? + +Tom Swift had fallen in with many adventures--and some quite thrilling +ones--since, as a youth, he was first introduced to the reader in the +initial volume of this series, entitled "Tom Swift and His Motor +Cycle." His first experiences as an inventor, coached by his father, +who had spent his life in the experimental laboratory and workshop, was +made possible by his purchase from Mr. Wakefield Damon, now one of his +closest friends, of a broken-down motor cycle. + +Through a series of inventions, some of them of a marvelous kind, Tom +Swift, aided by his father, had forged ahead, building motor boats, +airships, submarines, monoplanes, motion picture cameras, searchlights, +cannons, photo-telephones, war tanks. Of late, as related in "Tom Swift +Among the Fire Fighters," he had engaged in the invention of an +explosive bomb carrying flame-quenching chemicals that would, in time, +revolutionize fire-fighting in tall buildings. + +The matter that Mr. Richard Bartholomew, the railroad magnate, had +brought to Tom's and his father's attention had deeply interested the +young inventor. Thought of the electric locomotive, the development of +which the railroad president stated was the only salvation of the +finances of the H. & P. A., had so held Tom's attention as he walked +along the street that being stopped in this sudden way was even more +startling than such an incident might ordinarily have been. + +Tom was a muscular young fellow; but a club held over one's head by a +burly thug would have shaken the courage of anybody. Dark as it was +under the archway the young fellow saw that the bulk of the man was +much greater than his own. + +"That's right, sonny," said the stranger, in a sneering tone. "You got +just the right idea. When I say 'Stick 'em up' I mean it. Never take a +chance. Ah--ah!" + +The fellow ripped open Tom's overcoat, almost tearing the buttons off. +Another masterful jerk and his victim's jacket was likewise parted +widely. He did not lower the club for an instant. He thrust his left +hand into the V-shaped parting of the young fellow's vest. + +It was then that Tom was convinced of what the fellow was after. He +remembered the notes he had made regarding the contract that was to be +signed on the morrow between the Swift Construction Company and +President Richard Bartholomew of the H. & P. A. Railroad. He +remembered, too, the figure he thought he had seen in the dark porch of +the house as he so recently left it. + +Mr. Bartholomew had considered it very possible that he was being spied +upon. This was one of the spies--a Westerner, as his speech betrayed. +But Tom was suddenly less fearful than he had been when first attacked. + +It did not seem possible to him that Mr. Bartholomew's enemies would +allow their henchman to go too far to obtain information of the +railroad president's intentions. This fellow was merely attempting to +frighten him. + +A sense of relief came to Tom Swift's assistance. He opened his lips to +speak and could the thug have seen his face more clearly in the dark he +would have been aware of the fact that the young inventor smiled. + +The fellow's groping hand entered between Tom's vest and his shirt. The +coarse fingers seized upon Tom's wallet. Nobody likes to be robbed, no +matter whether the loss is great or small. There was not much money in +the wallet, nor anything that could be turned into money by a thief. + +These facts enabled Tom, perhaps, to bear his loss with some fortitude. +The highwayman drew forth the wallet and thrust it into his own coat +pocket. He made no attempt to take anything else from the young +inventor. + +"Now, beat it!" commanded the fellow. "Don't look back and don't run or +holler. Just keep moving--in the way you were headed before. Vamoose." + +More than ever was Tom assured that the man was from the West. His +speech savored of Mexican phrases and slang terms used mainly by +Western citizens. And his abrupt and masterly manner and speech aided +in this supposition. Tom Swift stayed not to utter a word. It was true +he was not so frightened as he had at first been. But he was quite sure +that this man was no person to contend with under present conditions. + +He strode away along the sidewalk toward the far corner of the wall +that surrounded this estate. Shopton had not many of such important +dwellings as this behind the wall. Its residential section was made up +for the most part of mechanics' homes and such plain but substantial +houses as his father's. + +Prospering as the Swifts had during the last few years, neither Tom nor +his father had thought their plain old house too poor or humble for a +continued residence. Tom was glad to make money, but the inventions he +had made it by were vastly more important to his mind than what he +might obtain by any lavish expenditure of his growing fortune. + +This matter of the electric locomotive that had been brought to his +attention by the Western railroad magnate had instantly interested the +young inventor. The possibility of there being a clash of interests in +the matter, and the point Mr. Bartholomew made of his enemies seeking +to thwart his hope of keeping the H. & P. A. upon a solid financial +footing, were phases of the affair that likewise concerned the young +fellow's thought. + +Now he was sure that Mr. Bartholomew was right. The enemies of the H. & +P. A. were determined to know all that the railroad president was +planning to do. They would naturally suspect that his trip East to +visit the Swift Construction Company was no idle jaunt. + +Tom had turned so many fortunate and important problems of invention +into certainties that the name of the Swift Construction Company was +broadly known, not alone throughout the United States but in several +foreign countries. Montagne Lewis, whom Tom knew to be both a powerful +and an unscrupulous financier, might be sure that Mr. Bartholomew's +visit to Shopton and to the young inventor and his father was of such +importance that he would do well through his henchmen to learn the +particulars of the interview. + +Tom remembered Mr. Bartholomew's mention of a name like Andy O'Malley. +This was probably the man who had done all that he could, and that +promptly, to set about the discovery of Mr. Bartholomew's reason for +visiting the Swifts. + +Without doubt the man had slunk about the Swift house and had peered +into one of the library windows while the interview was proceeding. He +had observed Tom making notes on the scratch pad and judged correctly +that those notes dealt with the subject under discussion between the +visitor from the West and the Swifts. + +He had likewise seen Tom thrust the paper into his wallet and the +wallet into his inside vest pocket. Instead of dogging Mr. +Bartholomew's footsteps after that gentleman left the Swift house, the +man had waited for the appearance of Tom. When he was sure that the +young fellow was preparing to walk out, and the direction he was to +stroll, the thug had run ahead and ensconced himself in the archway on +this dark block. + +All these things were plain enough. The notes Tom had taken regarding +the offer Mr. Bartholomew had made for the development of the electric +locomotive might, under some circumstances, be very important. At +least, the highwayman evidently thought them such. But Tom had another +thought about that. + +One thing the young inventor was convinced about, as he strode briskly +away from the scene of the hold-up: There was going to be trouble. It +had already begun. + + + + +Chapter III + +Tom Swift's Friends + + +Tom was still walking swiftly when he arrived in sight of Mary Nestor's +home. He was so filled with excitement both because of the hold-up and +the new scheme that Mr. Richard Bartholomew had brought to him from the +West, that he could keep neither to himself. He just had to tell Mary! + +Mary Nestor was a very pretty girl, and Tom thought she was just about +right in every particular. Although he had been about a good deal for a +young fellow and had seen girls everywhere, none of them came up to +Mary. None of them held Tom's interest for a minute but this girl whom +he had been around with for years and whom he had always confided in. + +As for the girl herself, she considered Tom Swift the very nicest young +man she had ever seen. He was her beau-ideal of what a young man should +be. And she entered enthusiastically into the plans for everything that +Tom Swift was interested in. + +Mary was excited by the story Tom told her in the Nestor sitting room. +The idea of the electric locomotive she saw, of course, was something +that might add to Tom's laurels as an inventor. But the other phase of +the evening's adventure--"Tom, dear!" she murmured with no little +disturbance of mind. "That man who stopped you! He is a thief, and a +dangerous man! I hate to think of your going home alone." + +"He's got what he was after," chuckled Tom. "Is it likely he will +bother me again?" + +"And you do not seem much worried about it," she cried, in wonder. + +"Not much, I confess, Mary," said Tom, and grinned. + +"But if, as you suppose, that man was working for Mr. Bartholomew's +enemies--" + +"I am convinced that he was, for he did not rob me of my watch and +chain or loose money. And he could have done so easily. I don't mind +about the old wallet. There was only five dollars in it." + +"But those notes you said you took of Mr. Bartholomew's offer?" + +"Oh, yes," chuckled Tom again. "Those notes. Well, I may as well +explain to you, Mary, and not try to puzzle you any longer. But that +highwayman is sure going to be puzzled a long, long time." + +"What do you mean, Tom?" + +"Those notes were jotted down in my own brand of shorthand. Such +stenographic notes would scarcely be readable by anybody else. Ho, ho! +When that bold, bad hold-up gent turns the notes over to Montagne +Lewis, or whoever his principal is, there will be a sweet time." + +"Oh, Tom! isn't that fun?" cried Mary, likewise much amused. + +"I can remember everything we said there in the library," Tom +continued. "I'll see Ned tonight on my way home from here, and he will +draw a contract the first thing in the morning." + +"You are a smart fellow, Tom!" said Mary, her laughter trilling sweetly. + +"Many thanks, Ma'am! Hope I prove your compliment true. This +two-mile-a-minute stunt--" + +"It seems wonderful," breathed Mary. + +"It sure will be wonderful if we can build a locomotive that will do +such fancy lacework as that," observed Tom eagerly. "It will be a great +stunt!" + +"A wonderful invention, Tom." + +"More wonderful than Mr. Bartholomew knows," agreed the young fellow. +"An electric locomotive with both great speed and great hauling power +is what more than one inventor has been aiming at for two or three +decades. Ever since Edison and Westinghouse began their experiments, in +truth." + +"Is the locomotive they are using out there a very marvelous machine?" +asked the girl, with added interest. + +"No more marvelous than the big electric motors that drag the trains +into New York City, for instance, through the tunnels. Steam engines +cannot be used in those tunnels for obvious, as well as legal, reasons. +They are all wonderful machines, using third-rail power. + +"But that Jandel patent that Mr. Bartholomew is using out there on the +H. & P. A. is probably the highest type of such motors. It is up to us +to beat that. Fortunately I got a pass into the Jandel shops a few +months ago and I studied at first hand the machine Mr. Bartholomew is +using." + +"Isn't that great!" cried Mary. + +"Well, it helps some. I at least know in a general way the 'how' of the +construction of the Jandel locomotive. It is simple enough. Too simple +by far, I should say, to get both speed and power. We'll see," and he +nodded his head thoughtfully. + +Tom did not stay long with the girl, for it was already late in the +evening when he had arrived at her house. As he got up to depart Mary's +anxiety for his safety revived. + +"I wish you would take care now, Tom. Those men may hound you." + +"What for?" chuckled the young inventor. "They have the notes they +wanted." + +"But that very thing--the fact that you fooled them--will make them +more angry. Take care." + +"I have a means of looking out for myself, after all," said Tom +quietly, seeing that he must relieve her mind. "I let that fellow get +away with my wallet; but I won't let him hurt me. Don't fear." + +She had opened the door. The lamplight fell across porch and steps, and +in a broad white band even to the gate and sidewalk. There was a +motor-car slowing down right before the open gate. + +"Who's this?" queried Tom, puzzled. + +A sharp voice suddenly was raised in an exclamatory explosion. + +"Bless my breakshoes! is that Tom Swift? Just the chap I was looking +for. Bless my mileage-book! this saves me time and money." + +"Why, it's Mr. Wakefield Damon," Mary cried, with something like relief +in her tones. "You can ride home in his car, Tom." + +"All right, Mary. Don't be afraid for me," replied Tom Swift, and ran +down the walk to the waiting car. + +"Bless my vest buttons! Tom Swift, my heart swells when I see you--" + +"And is like to burst off the said vest buttons?" chuckled the young +fellow, stepping in beside his eccentric friend who blessed everything +inanimate in his florid speech. + +"I am delighted to catch you--although, of course," and Tom knew the +gentleman's eyes twinkled, "I could have no idea that you were over +here at Mary's, Tom." + +"Of course not," rejoined the young inventor calmly. "Seeing that I +only come to see her just as often as I get a chance." + +"Bless my memory tablets! is that the fact?" chuckled Mr. Damon. +"Anyway, I wanted to see you so particularly that I drove over in my +car tonight--" + +"Wait a minute," said Tom, hastily. "Is this important?" + +"I think so, Tom." + +"Let me get something else off of my mind first, then, Mr. Damon," Tom +Swift said quickly. "Drive around by Ned's house, will you, please? Ned +Newton's. After I speak a minute with him I will be at your service. + +"Surely, Tom; surely," agreed the gentleman. + +The automobile had been running slowly. Mr. Damon knew the streets of +Shopton very well, and he headed around the next corner. As the car +turned, a figure bounded out of the shadow near the house line. Two +long strides, and the man was on the running board of the car upon the +side where Tom Swift sat. Again an ugly club was raised above the young +fellow's head. + +"You're the smart guy!" croaked the coarse voice Tom had heard before. +"Think you can bamboozle me, do you? Up with 'em!" + +"Bless my spark-plug!" gasped Mr. Wakefield Damon. + +Either from nervousness or intention, he jerked the steering wheel so +that the car made a sudden leap away from the curb. The figure of the +stranger swayed. + +Instantly Tom Swift struck the man's arm up higher and from under his +own coat appeared something that bulked like a pistol in his right +hand. He had intimated to Mary Nestor that he carried something with +which to defend himself from highwaymen if he chose to. This invention, +his ammonia gun, now came into play. + +"Bless my failing eyesight!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, as he shot the +motor-car ahead again in a straight line. + +The man who had accosted Tom so fiercely fell off the running board and +rolled into the gutter, screaming and choking from the fumes from Tom's +gun. + +"Drive on!" commanded the young inventor. "If he keeps bellowing like +that the police will pick him up. I guess he will let us alone +here-after." + +"Bless my short hairs and long ones!" chuckled Mr. Damon. "You are the +coolest young fellow, Tom, that I ever saw. That man must have been a +highwayman. And it is of some of those gentry that I drove over to +Shopton this evening to talk to you about." + + + + +Chapter IV + +Much to Think About + + +Although it was now nearing ten o'clock on this eventful evening, Tom +knew that he would find Ned Newton at home. When Mr. Damon's car +stopped before the house there was a light in Ned's room and the front +door opened almost as soon as Tom rang. Mr. Damon left the car and +entered with the young inventor at his invitation. + +"What's up?" was Ned's greeting, looking at the two curiously as he +ushered them in. "I see this isn't entirely a social call," and he +laughed as he shook the older man's hand. + +"Bless my particular star!" exclaimed the latter excitedly. "Of all the +thrilling adventures that anybody ever got into, it is this Tom Swift +who cooks them up! Why, Newton! do you know that we have been held up +by a highwayman within two blocks of this very house?" + +"And that of course was Tom's fault?" suggested Ned, still smiling. + +"It wouldn't have happened if he had not been with me," said Mr. Damon. + +"I am curious," said Ned, as they seated themselves. "Who was the +footpad? What drew his attention to you two? Tell me about it." + +"Bless my suspender buckles!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "You tell him, Tom. +I don't understand it myself, yet." + +"I think I can explain. But whatever I tell you both, you must hold in +secret. Father and I have been entrusted with some private information +tonight and I am going to take you, Ned, and Mr. Damon, into the +business in a confidential way." + +"Let's have it," begged Newton. "Anything to do with the works?" + +"It is," answered Tom gravely. "We are going to take up a proposition +that promises big things for the Swift Construction Company." + +"A big thing financially?" + +"I'll say so. And it looks as though we were mixing into a conspiracy +that may breed trouble in more ways than one." + +Tom went on to sketch briefly the situation of the Hendrickton & Pas +Alos Railroad as brought to the attention of the Swifts by the +railroad's president. First of all his two listeners were deeply +interested in the proposition Mr. Richard Bartholomew had made the +inventors. Ned Newton jotted down briefly the agreement to be +incorporated in the contract to be drawn and signed, by the Swift +Construction Company and the president of the H. & P. A. road. + +"This looks like a big thing for the company, Tom," the young manager +said with enthusiasm, while Mr. Damon listened to it all with mouth and +eyes open. + +"Bless my watch-charm!" murmured the latter. "An electric locomotive +that can travel two miles a minute? Whew!" + +"Sounds like a big order, Tom," added Ned, seriously. + +"It is a big order. I am not at all sure it can be done," agreed Tom, +thoughtfully. "But under the terms Mr. Bartholomew offers it is worth +trying, don't you think?" + +"That twenty-five thousand dollars is as good as yours anyway," +declared his chum with finality. "I'll see there is no loophole in the +contract and the money must be placed in escrow so that there can be no +possibility of our losing that. The promise of a hundred thousand +dollars must be made binding as well." + +"I know you will look out for those details, Ned," Tom said with a wave +of his hand. + +"That is what I am here for," agreed the financial manager. "Now, what +else? I fancy the building of such a locomotive looks feasible to you +and your father or you would not go into it." + +"But two miles a minute!" murmured Mr. Damon again. "Bless my prize +pumpkins!" + +"The idea of speed enters into it, yes," said Tom thoughtfully. "In +fact electric motor power has always been based on speed, and on +cheapness of moving all kinds of traffic. + +"Look here!" he exclaimed earnestly, "what do you suppose the first +people to dabble in electrically driven vehicles were aiming at? The +motor-car? The motor boat? Trolley cars? All those single motor sort of +things? Not much they weren't!" + +"Bless my glove buttons!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, dragging off his +gauntlets as he spoke. "I don't get you at all, Tom! What do you mean?" + +"I mean to say that the first experiments in the use of electricity as +a motive power were along the electrification of the steam locomotive. +Everybody realized that if a motor could be built powerful enough and +speedy enough to drag a heavy freight or passenger train over the +ordinary railroad right of way, the cost of railroad operation would be +enormously decreased. + +"Coal costs money--heaps of money now. Oil costs even more. But even +with a third-rail patent, a locomotive successfully built to do the +work of the great Moguls and mountain climbers of the last two decades, +and electrically driven, will make a great difference on the credit +side of any railroad's books." + +"Right-o!" exclaimed Ned. "I can see that." + +"That was the object of the first experiments in electric motive +power," repeated Tom. "And it continues to be the big problem in +electricity. The Jandel locomotive is undoubtedly the last word so far +as the construction of an electric locomotive is concerned. But it +falls down in speed and power. I thought so myself when I saw that +locomotive and looked over the results of its work. And this Mr. +Bartholomew has assured father and me this evening that it is a fact. + +"It has a record of a mile a minute on a level or easy grade; but it +can't show goods when climbing a real hill. It slows up both freight +and passenger traffic on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos road. That range of +hills is too much for it. + +"So the Swift Construction Company is going to step in," concluded the +young inventor eagerly. "I believe we can do it. I've the nucleus of +an idea in my head. I never had a problem put up to me, Ned and Mr. +Damon, that interested me more. So why shouldn't I go at it? Besides, I +have dad to advise me." + +"That's right," agreed Ned. "Why shouldn't you? And with such a +contract as you have been offered--" + +"Bless my bootsoles!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, getting up and tramping +about the room in his excitement. "I thought the trolley cars that run +between Shopton and Waterfield were about the fastest things on rails." + +"Not much. The trolley car is a narrow and prescribed manner of using +electricity for motive power. The motor runs but one car--or one and a +trailer, at most," said Tom. "As I have pointed out, the problem is to +build a machine that will transmit power enough to draw the enormous +weight of a loaded freight train, and that over steep grades. + +"A motor for each car is a costly matter. That is why trolley car +companies, no matter how many passengers their cars carry, are so often +on the verge of financial disaster. The margin of profit is too narrow. + +"But if you can get a locomotive built that will drag a hundred cars! +Ah! how does that sound?" demanded Tom. "See the difference?" + +"Bless my volts and amperes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "I should say I do! +Why, Tom, you make the problem as plain as plain can be." + +"In theory," supplemented Ned Newton, although he meant to suggest no +doubt of his chum's ability to solve almost any problem. + +"You've hit it," said Tom promptly. "I only have a theory so far +regarding such a locomotive. But to the inventor the theory always must +come first. You understand that, Ned?" + +"I not only appreciate that fact," said his chum warmly; "but I believe +that you are the fellow to show something definite along the line of an +improved electric locomotive. But, whether you can reach the high mark +set by the president of that railroad--" + +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Mr. Damon in agreement. "Bless my +wind-gauge! It doesn't seem possible!" + +Tom Swift shrugged his shoulders. "It is the impossible that inventors +have to overcome. If we experimenters believed in the impossible little +would be done in this world, to advance mechanical science at least. +Every invention was impossible until the chap who put it through built +his first working model." + +"That's understood, old boy," said Ned, already busily scratching off +the form of the contract he proposed to show the company's legal +advisers early in the morning. + +When he had read over the notes he had made Tom O.K.'d them. "That is +about as I had the items set down myself on the sheet that fellow stole +from me." + +"Wait!" exclaimed Ned, as Tom arose from his chair. "Do you know what +strikes me after your telling me about your second hold-up?" + +"What's that?" asked his chum. + +"Are you sure that was the same fellow who stole your wallet?" + +"Quite sure." + +"Then his second attack on you proves that he got wise to the fact that +your notes were in shorthand. He had a chance to study them while you +visited with Mary Nestor." + +"Like enough." + +"I wonder if it doesn't prove that the fellow has somebody in cahoots +with him right here in Shopton?" ruminated Ned. + +"Bless my spare tire!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, who had already started +for the door but now turned back. + +"That's an idea, Ned," agreed Tom Swift. "It would seem that he had +consulted with some superior," said the young manager of the Swift +Construction Company. "This hold-up man may be from the West; but +perhaps he did not follow Bartholomew alone." + +"I'd like to know who the other fellow is," said Tom thoughtfully. "I +would know the man who attacked me, both by his bulk and his voice. + +"Me, too," put in Mr. Damon. "Bless my indicator! I'd know the +scoundrel if I met him again." + +"The thing to do," said Ned Newton confidently, "is to identify the man +who robbed you tonight as soon as possible and then, if he hangs around +Shopton, to mark well anybody he associates with." + +"Perhaps they will not bother me any more," said Tom, rather carelessly. + +"And perhaps they will," grumbled Mr. Damon. "Bless my self-starter! +they may try something mean again this very night. Come on, Tom. I want +to run you home. And on the way, I tell you, I've got something to put +up to you myself. It may not promise a small fortune like this electric +locomotive business; but bless my barbed wire fence! my trouble has +more than a little to do with footpads, too." + +He led the way out of the house and to the motor car again. In a minute +he had started his engine, and Tom, jumping in beside him, was borne +away toward his own home. + + + + +Chapter V + +Barbed Wire Entanglements + + +"This gets us to your particular trouble, Mr. Damon," Tom Swift said, +while the motor car was rolling along. "You intimated that you had +something to consult me about." + +"Bless my windshield! I should say I had," exclaimed the eccentric +gentleman, swinging around a corner at rather a fast clip. + +"And has it to do with highwaymen?" asked Tom, much amused. + +"Some of the same gentry, Tom," declared Mr. Damon. "I haven't any +peace of my life, I really haven't!" + +"Who is troubling you, sir?" + +"Why, what nonsense that is, to ask that!" ejaculated the gentleman. +"If I knew who they were I wouldn't ask odds of anybody. I'd go after +them. As it is, I've left my servant with a gun loaded with rock-salt +watching for them now." + +"Burglars?" exclaimed Tom, with real interest. + +"Chicken-house burglars! That's the kind of burglars they are," growled +Mr. Damon. "Two or three times they have tried to get my prize buff +Orpingtons. Last night they got me out of bed twice fooling around the +chicken house and yard. Other neighbors have lost their hens already. I +don't mean to lose mine. Want you to help me, Tom." + +"Is that all that is worrying you, Mr. Damon?" laughed the young fellow. + +"Bless my radiator! isn't that enough?" + +"I know you set your clock by those buff Orpingtons," agreed Tom. + +"That's right. That ten-months cockerel, Blue Ribbon Junior, never +fails to crow at three-thirty-three to the minute. Bless my combs and +spurs; a wonderful bird!" + +"But let's see how I can help you regarding the chicken thieves," Tom +said, as they sighted the lights of the Swift house beyond the long +stockade fence that surrounded the Construction Company's premises. + +"You know I have a barbed wire entanglement around the whole yard and +hen-house. I don't take any more chances than I can help. Those prize +buff Orpingtons are a great temptation to chicken lovers--both blond +and brunette," and in spite of his anxiety, Mr. Damon could chuckle at +his own joke. "Even your old Eradicate's friend fell for chickens, you +know." + +"And Rad promptly cured him of the disease," laughed Tom. + +"And I'm trying to cure these others. I've charged my shotgun with +rock-salt--as he did. My servant has orders to shoot anybody who +tampers with my chicken house tonight. + +"But bless my shirt!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "I'll never be able to sleep +comfortably until I know that no thief can get at my buff Orpingtons. I +want you to fix it so I can sleep in peace, Tom." + +He slowed to a stop in front of the Swift's door. Tom stared at his +eccentric friend questioningly. + +"Bless my gaiters!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "don't you see what I want? +And your head already full of this electrified locomotive you are going +to build?" + +"Hush!" murmured Tom, with his hand upon his companion's arm. "But +what do you want me to do?" + +"I want you to fix it so that I can turn a current of electricity into +that barbed wire chicken fence at night that will shock any thief that +touches the wires. Not kill 'em--though they ought to be killed!" +declared the eccentric man. "But shock 'em aplenty. Can't you do it for +me, Tom Swift?" + +"Of course it can be done," said the young fellow. "You use electricity +in your house. There is a feed cable in the street. We will have to +change your lighting switch for another. Fix it with the Electric +Supply Company. It will cost you more--" + +"Bless my pocketbook! I don't care how much it costs. It will be ample +satisfaction to see just one low-down chicken thief squirming on those +wires." + +Tom laughed again. He meant to help his friend; but he did not propose +to rig the wires so that anybody, even a chicken thief, would be +seriously injured by the electric current passing through the strands. + +"I'll come down to Waterfield tomorrow in the electric runabout and fix +things up for you. Get a permit from the Electric Supply Company early +in the morning. Tell them I will rig the thing myself. They can send +their inspector afterward." + +"That's fine, Tom! What--Ugh! what's this? Another footpad?" + +Out of the darkness beside the fence a bulky figure started. For a +moment Tom thought it was the same man who had attacked him twice. Then +the very size of this new assailant proved that suspicion to be +unfounded. + +"Koku!" exclaimed Tom. "What's the matter with you, Koku?" + +The huge and only half-tamed giant gained the side of the car in +seemingly a single stride. In the dark they could not see his face, but +his voice distinctly showed excitement. + +"Master come good. 'Cause there be enemy. Koku find--Koku kill!" + +"Bless my magnifying glass!" ejaculated Mr. Damon. "That fellow is the +most bloodthirsty individual that I ever saw." + +"All in his bringing up," chuckled Tom who knew, as the saying is, that +Koku's bark was a deal worse than his bite. "Killing and maiming his +enemies used to be Koku's principal job. But he has his orders now. He +doesn't kill anybody without consulting me first." + +"Bless my buttons!" murmured Mr. Damon. "That is certainly a good thing +too. What's the matter with him now?" + +That is exactly what Tom himself wanted to know. He had dropped a hand +upon the arm of the giant as he stood beside the car. + +"Who is the enemy, Koku?" he asked. + +"Not know, Master. See him footmarks. Follow him footmarks. Not find. +When do find--kill!" + +"That is, after first obtaining my permission," said Tom dryly. + +"It is so," agreed the imperturbable Koku. "See! Show Master footmarks. +Him look in at window. See! Koku have got the wonder lamp." + +He flashed the electric torch in his hand. He left the car and strode +into the yard. Tom followed him, and Mr. Damon's curiosity brought him +along. + +The giant pointed the ray of the flashlight at the ground below the +porch. Several footprints--the marks of boots at least number twelve in +size--were imbedded in the soil. Koku went around the house to the +other side, following repeated marks of the same boots. + +"How came you to find them, Koku?" asked Tom softly. + +"Me look. All around stockade," and he waved a generous gesture with +his free hand including the fence about the works. "Enemy may come. +Anytime he come. Now he come." + +"Bless my slippery shoes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who had hard work to +keep up both physically and mentally with the giant. "What does he +mean?" + +"Koku has always had it in his head," explained Tom, "that we built +that fence about the works to keep out enemies. And, to tell the truth, +we did! But all that is over--" + +"Is it?" asked Mr. Damon pointedly. "Enemy here," added Koku, flashing +the lamplight upon the footprints on the ground. + +"Those bootmarks," added Mr. Damon, "are doubtless those of that fellow +who jumped upon the running board of the car." + +"Humph! And who robbed me of my wallet," added Tom musingly. "Well, it +might be. And, if so, Koku is right. The enemy has come." + +"Me kill!" exclaimed the giant, stretching himself to his full height. + +"We'll consider the killing later," said Tom, who well knew his +influence with this big fellow. "You are forbidden to kill anybody, or +chase anybody away from here, until I have a talk with them. Enemy or +not--understand?" + +"Me understand," said Koku in his deep voice. "Master say--me do." + +"Just the same," Tom said, aside to Mr. Damon, "there has been somebody +around here. I guess Mr. Bartholomew was right. He is being spied upon. +And now that we Swifts are going to try to do something for him, we are +likely to be spied upon too." + +"Bless my statue of Nathan Hale!" murmured the eccentric gentleman. "I +believe you. And you've been already attacked twice by some thug! You +are positively in danger, Tom." + +"I don't know about that. Save that the fellow who robbed me was sore +because I fooled him. Naturally he might like to get square about those +shorthand notes. He knows no more now about Mr. Bartholomew's business +with us than he did before he held me up." + +"That is a fact," agreed Mr. Damon. + +"And that brings me to another warning, Mr. Damon," added Tom +earnestly, as his friend climbed into the motor car again. "Keep all +that has happened, and all that I told you and Ned about the H. & P. A. +railroad, to yourself." + +"Surely! Surely!" + +"If Mr. Bartholomew's rivals continue to keep their spies hanging +around the works here, we'll handle them properly. Trust Koku for +that," and Tom chuckled. + +"And don't forget my barbed wire entanglements," put in Mr. Damon, +starting his engine. "I want to fix those chicken thieves.'' + +"All right. I'll be over tomorrow," promised Tom Swift. + +Then he stood a minute on the curb and looked after the disappearing +lights of Mr. Damon's car. The latter's problem dovetailed, after all, +into this discovery of possible marauders lurking about the Swift +premises. Koku had made no mistake in bringing his attention to the +matter of the footprints. Tom had seen somebody dodging into the +darkness outside the house when he had come out on his way to visit +Mary Nestor. + +"And sure as taxes," muttered Tom, as he finally turned toward the +front door again, "the fellow who twice attacked me this evening wore +the boots the prints of which Koku found. + +"Those fellows, whoever they are, whether Montagne Lewis and his +associates, or not, have bitten off several mouthfuls that they may be +unable to chew. Anyhow, before they get through they may learn +something about the Swifts that they never knew before." + + + + +Chapter VI + +The Contract Signed + + +Tom Swift went to bed that night without the least fear that the man +who had twice attacked him in the streets of Shopton would be able to +trouble him unless he went abroad again. Koku was on guard. + +The giant whom Tom had brought home from one of his distant wanderings +was wholly devoted to his master. Koku never had, and he never would, +become entirely civilized. + +He was naturally a born tracker of men. For generations his people had +lived amid the alarms of threat and attack. He could not be made to +understand how so many "tribes," as he called them, of civilized men +could live in anything like harmony. + +That somebody should prowl about the Swift house at night with a desire +to rob his young master or injure him, did not surprise Koku in the +least. He accepted the fact of the marauder's presence as quite the +expected thing. + +But the man who had robbed Tom and later tried to repay him for playing +what appeared to be a practical joke on the robber, did not trouble the +Swift premises with his presence before morning. Koku, thrusting +Eradicate Sampson aside and striding to his bedroom to report this +fact, was what awoke Tom at eight o'clock. + +"Hey! What you want, tromping in here for, man?" demanded old Rad +angrily. "An' totin' that spear, too. Where you t'ink yo' is? In de +jungle again? Go 'way, chile!" + +Both Rad and Koku were rapidly outliving the sudden friendship of Rad's +sick days, when it was thought he might be blind for life, and were +dropping back into their old ways of bickering and rivalry for Tom's +attention. + +"I report to the Master," declared the giant, in his deep voice. + +"You tell me, I tell him," Rad said pompously. "No need yo' 'sturbing +Massa Tom at dis hour." + +"Koku go in!" declared the giant sternly. + +"Jes' stay out dere on de stair an' res' yo'self," said Rad. + +Koku lost his temper with old Rad. There was a feud between them, +although deep in their hearts they really were fond of each other. But +the two were jealous of each other's services to young Tom Swift. + +Suddenly Tom heard the old negro utter a frightened squeal. The door +which had been only ajar, burst inward and banged against the door-stop +with a mighty smash. + +Rad went through the big bedroom like a chocolate-colored streak, +entered Tom's bathroom, and the next moment there was the sound of +crashing glass as Eradicate Sampson went through the lower sash of the +window, headfirst, out upon the roof of the porch! + +"What do you mean by this?" shouted Tom, sitting up in bed. + +Koku paused in the doorway, bulking almost to the top of the door. His +right arm was drawn back, displaying his mighty biceps, and he poised a +ten foot spear with a copper head that he had seized from a nest of +such implements which was a decoration of the lower hall. + +Had the giant ever flung that spear at poor Rad's back, half the length +of the staff might have passed through his body. Little wonder that +the colored man, having roused the giant's rage to such a pitch, had +given small consideration to the order of his going, but had gone at +once! + +"You want to scare Rad out of half a year's growth?" Tom pursued +sternly, slipping out of bed and reaching for his robe and slippers. +"And he's broken that window to smithereens." + +"Koku come make report, Master," said the giant. + +"You go put that spear back where you found it and come up properly," +commanded the young fellow, with difficulty hiding his amusement. "Go +on now!" + +He shuffled into the bathroom while the giant disappeared. He peered +out of the broken window. It was a wonder Rad had not carried the sash +with him! The broken glass was scattered all about the roof of the +porch and the old colored man lay groaning there. + +"What did you do this for, Eradicate?" demanded Tom. "You act worse +than a ten-year-old boy." + +"I's done killed, Massa Tom!" groaned Rad with confidence. "I's blood +from haid to foot!" + +There was a scratch on his bald crown from which a few drops of blood +flowed. But with all his terror, Eradicate had put both arms over his +head when he made his dive through the window, and he really was very +little injured. + +"Come in here," repeated Tom. "Fix something over this broken window so +that I can take my bath. And then go and put something on that scratch. +Don't you know better yet, than to cross Koku when he is excited?" + +"Dat crazy ol' cannibal!" spat out Rad viciously. "I'll fix him yet. +I'll pizen his rations, dat's what I'll do." + +"You wouldn't be so bad as that, Rad!" + +"Well, mebbe not," said the colored man, crawling in through the +bathroom window. "It would take too much pizen, anyway, to kill that +giant. Take as much as dey has to give an el'phant to kill it. Anyways, +I's bound to fix him proper some time, yet." + +These quarrels between Eradicate and Koku were intermittent. They +almost always arose, too, because of the desire of the two servants to +wait upon Tom or his father. They were very jealous of each other, and +their clashes afforded Tom and his friends a good deal of amusement. + +While the young inventor was in his bath the giant strode back into the +bedroom, out of which Rad had scurried by another door, and proceeded +to report the result of his night watch about the premises. + +He had not much to tell. In fact, after Tom had gone into the house +Koku had seen nobody lurking about at all. The fact remained that, +earlier in the evening, somebody had made a close surveillance of the +Swift house, but the mysterious marauder had not come back. + +"All right, Koku. Keep your eyes open. I expect that enemy may return +sometime. Too bad," he added to himself, "that I didn't get a better +look at him." + +"Koku know him next time," declared the giant. + +"Why! you didn't even see him this time," cried Tom. + +"See him boots. See marks him boots make. Know him boots. Waugh!" + +"'Waugh!' yourself," returned Tom, shaking his head. "You are +altogether too sure, Koku. You couldn't tell a man from his bootprints +in the mud." + +"Koku know," said the giant, just as confidently. "Wait. Him +catch--see--show Master." + +"Don't you go to grabbing every stranger who comes around the house or +the works for a spy, and make me trouble. Remember now." + +Koku nodded gravely and went away. When he met Rad suddenly in the hall +with Mr. Swift's breakfast tray, the giant said "boo!" and almost cost +the old colored man the loss of the tray. + +"Dat big el'phant ought to be livin' in a barn," declared Rad. "Look +at dat spear he come near runnin' me t'rough wid! If he had, yo' could +ha' driv a tipcart full o' rubbish in after it. Lawsy me!" + +But an hour later when Tom and his father started for the offices of +the Swift Construction Company down the street, Rad and Koku were +sitting before an enormous breakfast in the back kitchen and chatting +together as companionably as ever. + +The old inventor and his son arrived at the offices of the Swift +Construction Company not long ahead of Mr. Richard Bartholomew. Tom had +merely found time to read over the contract that had been jointly +prepared by Ned Newton and the firm's legal advisers, before the +railroad man came. + +"No getting out of the provisions of that paper, Tom," Ned had +whispered, when he saw Mr. Bartholomew coming into the outer office. +"Is this your man?" + +"Yes." + +"A sharp looking little fellow," commented Ned. "But even if he were +bent on tricking us, this contract would hold him. He is solvent and so +is his road--as yet. If it has a bad name in the market that is more +because of slander by the Montagne Lewis crowd than from any real +cause. I've found that out this morning." + +"Faithful Nero!" chuckled Tom. "Aren't going to let the Swifts get +done, are you?" + +"Not if I can help it," declared Ned Newton emphatically. + +A clerk brought Mr. Bartholomew into the private office and he was +introduced to Newton. If he considered the financial manager of the +Swift Construction Company very young for his responsible position, +after he had read the contract he felt considerable respect for Ned +Newton. + +"You've got me here, young man, hard and fast," Mr. Bartholomew said. +"If I was inclined to want to wriggle out, I see no chance of it. But I +don't. You have set forth here exactly my meaning and intent. I want +your best efforts in this matter, Mr. Swift, and if you give them to me +I'll foot the bill as agreed." + +"You've got me interested, I confess," said Tom. "By the way, were your +friends following you when you came here this morning?" + +"My friends?" repeated Mr. Bartholomew, for a moment puzzled. + +"The spy that you mentioned," said Tom, smiling. + +"That Andy O'Malley?" exclaimed Bartholomew. "Haven't spotted him +today." + +"He spotted me last night," said Tom grimly, and proceeded to relate +what had happened. + +"You fooled 'em that time, young man!" exclaimed the railroad +president, with satisfaction. "I am convinced that Montagne Lewis is +behind it. Look out for these fellows when you get to work, Mr. Swift. +They will stop at nothing. I tell you that the fight is on between the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos and the Hendrickton & Western. I have either got +to break them or they will break me." + +"You seem very sure that there is a conspiracy against you, Mr. +Bartholomew," said the senior Swift reflectively. + +"I am sure," was the reply. "And I am likewise sure that this scheme of +electrification of my road through the Pas Alos Range is the only +salvation for my railroad." + +"I should call it a big contract," Ned Newton said, thoughtfully. + +"You have said it! But it is not a visionary scheme I have in mind. You +must know--you Swifts--how successful such an electrification through +the Rockies has been made by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway." + +"I've looked that up," confessed Tom, with enthusiasm. "That was a +great piece of work." + +"It is. It is. But I hope for even a greater outcome of your +experiments, Mr. Swift. Of course, I do not expect to compete with that +great road. They had millions to spend, and they spent them. Those +Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul +built in nineteen hundred and nineteen are wonderful machines. They +have got forty-two freight locomotives, fifteen passenger locomotives +and four switchers of that new type. + +"The Jandel patent that my road uses is, in some degree, the equal of +those Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives. At least, our machines equal +the C., M. & St. P. on our level road. They can reach a mile-a-minute +gait. But when it comes to speed and pull on steep grades--Ah! that is +where they fail." + +"You will have to get power in the hills for your stations," suggested +Tom, thoughtfully. + +"I know that. I know where the power is coming from. I gathered those +waterfalls in years ago. Lewis and his crowd can't shut me off from +them. But I have got to have a speedier and more powerful type of +electric locomotive than has ever yet been built to protect the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad from any rivalry. + +"I am looking to you Swifts to give me that. I am risking this +twenty-five thousand dollars upon your succeeding. And I am offering +you the hundred thousand dollars bonus for the right to purchase the +first successful locomotives that can be built covered by your patents. +Is it plain?" + +"It is eminently satisfactory," said Mr. Swift, quietly. + +"I will do my very best," agreed Tom, warmly. "There isn't a thing the +matter with the agreement," declared Ned Newton, with confidence. +"Gentlemen, sign on the dotted line." + +Five minutes later the twin contracts were in force. One went into the +safe of the Swift Construction Company. The other, Mr. Richard +Bartholomew bore away with him. + + + + +Chapter VII + +The Man with Big Feet + + +The consultation in the private office of the Swift Construction +Company after the departure of Mr. Richard Bartholomew between the two +Swifts and Ned Newton had more to do with a vision of the future than +with mere present finances. + +"I expect you know just about how you are going to work on this new +invention, Tom?" suggested the financial manager, and Tom's chum. + +"Haven't the first idea," rejoined the young inventor, promptly. + +"What do you mean?" ejaculated Ned. "You talked just now as though you +knew all about electric locomotives." + +"I know a good deal about those that have been built, both under the +Jandel patent and those built for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul in +the great Philadelphia shops. + +"But when you ask me if I know how I am going to improve on those +patents so as to make my locomotive twice as speedy and quite as +powerful as those other locomotives--well, I've got to tell you flat +that I have not as yet got the first idea." + +"Humph!" grumbled Ned. "You say it coolly enough." + +"No use getting all heated up about it," returned his friend. "I have +got to consider the situation first. I must look over the field of +electrical invention as applied to motive power. I must study things +out." + +"I don't just see myself," Ned Newton remarked thoughtfully, "why there +should be such a great need for the electrification of locomotives, +anyway. Those great mountain-hogs that draw most of the mountain +railroad trains are very powerful, aren't they? And they are speedy." + +"Locomotives that use coal or oil have been developed about as far as +they can be," said Mr. Swift, quietly. "A successful electric +locomotive has many advantages over the old-time engine." + +"What are those advantages?" asked the business manager, quickly. "I +confess, I do not understand the matter, Mr. Swift." + +"For instance," proceeded the old gentleman, "there is the coal +question alone. Coal is rising in price. It is bulky. Using electricity +as motive power for railroads will do away with fuel trains, tenders, +coal handling, water, and all that. Of course, Mr. Bartholomew will +generate his electricity from water power--the cheapest power on earth." + +"Humph! I've got my answer right now," said Ned Newton. "If there is no +other good reason, this is sufficient." + +"There are plenty of others," drawled Tom, smiling. "Good ones. For +instance, heat or cold has nothing to do with the even running of an +electric locomotive. It can bore right through a snowbank--a thing a +steam engine can't do. It runs at an even speed. Really, grade should +have nothing to do with its speed. There is a fault somewhere in the +construction of the Jandel machine or the H. & P. A. would have little +trouble with those locomotives on its grades. + +"Then, all you have to do to start an electrified locomotive is to turn +a handswitch. No stoking or water-boiling. Does away with the fireboy. +One man runs it!" + +"Why!" cried Ned, "I never stopped to think of all these things." + +"No ashes to dump," went on Tom. "No flues to clean, no boilers to +inspect, and none to wear out. And they say that on the Chicago, +Milwaukee & St. Paul, at least, their freight locomotives handle twice +the load of a steam locomotive at a greatly reduced cost." + +"Sounds fine. Don't wonder Mr. Bartholomew is eager to electrify his +entire tine." + +"On the side of passenger traffic," continued Tom Swift, "the electric +locomotive is smokeless, noiseless, dirtless, and doesn't jerk the +coaches in either stopping or starting. And in addition, the electric +locomotive is much easier on track and roadbed than the old 'iron +horse' driven by steam generated either from coal or oil." + +"It is a great field for your talents, Tom!" cried Ned, warmly. + +"It is a big job," admitted Tom, and he said this with modesty. "I +don't know what I may be able to do--if anything. I would not feel +right in taking Mr. Bartholomew's twenty-five thousand dollars for +nothing." + +"Quite right, my boy," said Mr. Swift, approvingly. + +"Never mind that," said the financial manager, rather grimly. "It was +his own offer and his risk. That twenty-five thousand comes to our +account." + +Tom laughed. "All business, Ned, aren't you? But there is more than +business for the Swift Construction Company in this. Our reputation for +fair dealing as well as for inventive powers is linked up with this +contract. + +"I want to show the Jandel people--to say nothing of the bigger +firms--that the Swifts are to be reckoned with when it comes to +electric invention. Other roads will be electrifying their lines as +fast as it is proved that the electric-driven locomotive has the bulge +on the steam-driven. + +"In the case of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos there are very steep grades +to overcome. Supposedly an electric motor-drive should achieve the same +speed on a hill as on the level. But there is the weight of the train +to be counted on. + +"The H. & P. A. has a two per cent. grade in more than one place. Mr. +Bartholomew confessed as much to me last night. The electric-driven +locomotive of the powerful freight type, which the Jandel people built +for Mr. Bartholomew, can make about sixteen miles an hour on those +grades, although they can hit it up to thirty miles an hour on level +track. + +"His passenger locomotives turn off a mile a minute and more, on the +level road; but they can not climb those steep grades at a much +livelier pace than the freight engines. That is why he is talking about +two-mile-a-minute locomotives. He must get a mighty speedy locomotive, +for both freight and passenger service, to keep ahead of Montagne +Lewis's rival road, the Hendrickton & Western." + +"You don't suppose it can be done, do you?" demanded Ned. "The +two-mile-a-minute locomotive, I mean, Tom." + +"That is the target I am to aim for," returned his friend, soberly. "At +any rate, I hope to improve on the type of locomotive Mr. Bartholomew +is now using, so that the hundred thousand dollars bonus will come our +way as well as this first twenty-five thousand." + +"That wouldn't pay for one engine, would it?" cried Ned. + +"Nor is it expected to. The bonus has nothing to do with payment for +any model, or patent, or anything of the kind. To tell you the truth, +Ned, I understand those big locomotives used by the Chicago, Milwaukee +& St. Paul cost them about one hundred and twelve thousand dollars +each." + +"Whew! Some price, I'll tell the world!" murmured the youthful +financial manager of the Swift Construction Company. + +When the conference was over, and Tom had been through the workshop to +overlook several little jobs that were in process of completion by his +trusted mechanics, it was lunch time. He left word that he would not be +back that day, for this new task he was to attack was not to be +approached with any haphazard thought. + +Tom knew quite as well as his father knew that the idea of improving +the Jandel patent on electric locomotives was no small thing. The +Jandel people had claimed that their patent was the very last word in +electric motor-power. And Tom was quite willing to acknowledge that in +some ways this claim was true. + +But in invention, especially in the field of electric invention, what +is the last word today may be ancient history tomorrow. + +It was because this field is so broad and the possibility of +improvement in every branch of electrical science so exciting, that Tom +had accepted Mr. Bartholomew's challenge with such eagerness. + +Tom went back to the house for lunch, and as he joined his father in +the dining room he remarked to Eradicate: + +"I want the electric runabout brought around after lunch. I am going to +Waterfield. Tell Koku, will you, Rad?" + +"Tell that crazy fellow?" demanded the old colored man heatedly. "Why +should I tell him, Massa Tom? Ain't I able to bring dat runabout out o' +de garbarge? Shore I is!" + +"You can't do everything, Rad," said Tom, soberly. "That is humanly +impossible." + +"But dat Koku can't do nothin' right. Dat's inhumanly possible, Massa +Tom." + +"Give him a chance, Rad. I have to take Koku with me this afternoon. +You must give your attention to the house and to father." + +"Huh! Umm!" grunted Eradicate. + + Rad was jealous of anybody who waited on Tom besides himself. +Yet he was proud of responsibility, too. He teetered between the pride +of being in charge at home and accompanying his young master, and +finally replied: + +"Well, in course, you ain't going to be gone long, Massa Tom. And yo' +father does like to get his nap undisturbed. And he'll want his pot o' +tea afterwards. So I'll let dat irresponsible Koku go wid yo'. But yo' +got to watch him, Massa Tom. Dat giant don't know what he's about half +de time." + +As Koku was not within hearing to challenge that statement, things went +all right. When Tom came out of the house after eating, he found his +very fast car waiting for him, with the giant standing beside it at the +curb. + +"Get in at the back, Koku," said Tom. "I am going to take you with me." + +"Master is much wise," said Koku. "That man with big feet will not hurt +Master while Koku is with him." + +To tell the truth Tom had quite forgotten the supposed spy that had +attacked him the night before. He needed Koku for a purpose other than +that of bodyguard. But he made no comment upon the giant's remark. + +They stopped at one of the gates of the works, and Tom instructed Koku +to bring out and put into the car certain boxes and tools that he +wished to take with him. Then he drove on, taking the road to +Waterfield. + +This way led through farmlands and patches of woods, a rough country in +part. A mile out of the limits of Shopton the road edged a deep valley, +the sidehill sparsely wooded. + +Almost at once, and where there was not a dwelling in sight, they saw a +figure tramping in the road ahead, a big man, roughly dressed, and +wearing a broad-brimmed hat. Somehow, his appearance made Tom reduce +speed and he hesitated to pass the pedestrian. + +The man did not hear the runabout at first; or, at least, he did not +look over his shoulder. He strode on heavily, but rapidly. Suddenly the +young inventor heard the giant behind him emit a hissing breath. + +"Master!" whispered the giant. + +"What's up now?" demanded Tom, but without glancing around. + +"The big feet!" exclaimed Koku. + +The giant's own feet were shod with difficulty in civilized footgear, +but compared with his other physical dimensions his feet did not seem +large. The man ahead wore coarse boots which actually looked too big +for him! Koku started up in the back of the car as the latter drew +nearer to the stranger. + +The man looked back at last and Tom gained a clear view of his +features--roughly carved, dark as an Indian's, and holding a grim +expression in repose that of itself was far from breeding confidence. +In a moment, too, the expression changed into one of active emotion. +The man glared at the young inventor with unmistakable malevolence. + +"Master!" hissed Koku again. "The big feet!" The fellow must have seen +Koku's face and understood the giant's expression. In a flash he turned +and leaped out of the roadway. The sidehill was steep and broken here, +but he went down the slope in great strides and with every appearance +of wishing to evade the two in the motor-car. + +The giant's savage war cry followed the fugitive. Koku leaped from the +moving car. Tom yelled: + +"Stop it, Koku! You don't know that that is the man." + +"The big feet!" repeated the giant. "Master see the red mud dried on +Big Feet's boots? That mud from Master's garden." + +Again Koku uttered his savage cry, and in strides twice the length of +those of the running man, started on the latter's trail. + + + + +Chapter VIII + +An Enemy in the Dark + + +The situation offered suggestions of trouble that stung Tom to +immediate action. The impetuousness of his giant often resulted in +difficulties which the young inventor would have been glad to escape. + +Now Koku was following just the wrong path. Tom Swift knew it. + +"Koku, you madman!" he shouted after the huge native. "Come back here! +Hear me? Back!" + +Koku hesitated. He shot a wondering look over his shoulder, but his +long legs continued to carry him down the slope after the dark-faced +stranger. + +"Come back, I say!" shouted Tom again. "Have I got to come after you? +Koku! If you don't mind what you're told I'll send you back to your own +country and you'll have to eat snakes and lizards, as you used to. Come +here!" + +Whether it was because of this threat of a change of diet, which Koku +now abhorred, or the fact that he had really become somewhat +disciplined and that he fairly worshiped Tom, the giant stopped. The +man with the big shoes disappeared behind a hedge of low trees. + +"Get back up here!" ejaculated Tom sternly. "I'll never take you away +from the house with me again if you don't obey me." + +"Master!" ejaculated the giant, slowly approaching. "That Big Feet--" + +"I don't care if he made those footprints in the yard last night or +not. I don't want him touched. I didn't even want him to know that we +guessed he had been sneaking about the house. Understand?" + +"Of a courseness," grumbled Koku. "Koku understand everything Master +say." + +"Well, you don't act as though you did. Next time when I want any help +I may have to bring Rad with me." + +"Oh, no, Master! Not that old man. He don't know how to help Master. +Koku do just what Master say." + +"Like fun you do," said Tom, still apparently very angry with the +simple-minded giant. "Get back into the car and sit still, if you can, +until we get to Mr. Damon's house." Then to himself he added: "I don't +blame that fellow, whoever he is, for lighting out. I bet he's running +yet!" + +He knew that Koku would say nothing regarding the incident. The giant +had wonderful powers of silence! He sometimes went days without +speaking even to Rad. And that was one of the sources of irritation +between the voluble colored man and the giant. + +"'Tain't human," Rad often said, "for nobody to say nothin' as much as +dat Koku does. Why, lawsy me! if he was tongue-tied an' speechless, an' +a deaf an' dumb mute, he couldn't say nothin' more obstreperously dan +he does--no sir! 'Tain't human." + +So Tom had not to warn the giant not to chatter about meeting the +stranger on the road to Waterfield. If that person with dried red mud +on his boots was the spy who had followed Mr. Richard Bartholomew East +and was engaged by Montagne Lewis to interfere with any attempt the +president of the H. & P. A. might make to pull his railroad out of the +financial quagmire into which it was rapidly sinking, Tom would have +preferred to have the spy not suspect that he had been identified after +his fiasco of the previous evening. + +For if this Western looking fellow was Andy O'Malley, whose name had +been mentioned by the railroad man, he was the person who had robbed +Tom of his wallet and had afterward attempted reprisal upon the young +inventor because the robbery had resulted in no gain to the robber. + +Of course, the fellow had been unable to read Tom's shorthand notes of +the agreement that he had discussed with Mr. Bartholomew. Just what the +nature of that agreement was, would be a matter of interest to the +spy's employer. + +Having failed in this attempt to learn something which was not his +business, the spy might make other and more serious attempts to learn +the particulars of the agreement between the railroad president and the +Swifts. Tom was sorry that the fellow had now been forewarned that his +identity as the spy and footpad was known to Tom and his friends. + +Koku had made a bad mess of it. But Tom determined to say nothing to +his father regarding the discovery he had made. He did not want to +worry Mr. Swift. He meant, however, to redouble precautions at the +Swift Construction Company against any stranger getting past the +stockade gates. + +Arrived at Mr. Damon's home in Waterfield, Tom got quickly to work on +the little job he had come to do for his old friend. Of course, Tom +might have sent two of his mechanics from the works down here to +electrify the barbed wire entanglements that Mr. Damon had erected +around his chicken run. But the young inventor knew that his eccentric +friend would not consider the job done right unless Tom attended to it +personally. + +"Bless my cracked corn and ground bone mixture!" ejaculated the chicken +fancier. "We'll show these night-prowlers what's what, I guess. One of +my neighbors was robbed last night. And I would have been if I hadn't +set a watch while I drove over to see you, Tom. Bless my spurs and +hackles! but these thieves are getting bold." + +"We'll fix 'em," said Tom, cheerfully, while Koku brought the tools and +wire to the hen run. "After we link up your supply of the current with +this wire fence it will be an unhappy chicken burglar who interferes +with it." + +"That was an unhappy fellow who got your charge of ammonia last +evening," whispered Mr. Damon. "Heard anything more of him?" + +"I think I have seen him. But Koku spoiled everything by trying to eat +him up," and Tom laughingly related what had occurred on the way from +Shopton. + +"Bless my boots!" said Mr. Damon. "You'd better see the police, Tom." + +"What for?" + +"Why, they ought to know about such a fellow lurking about Shopton. If +he followed that Western railroad president here--" + +"We'll hope that he will follow Mr. Bartholomew away again," chuckled +Tom. "Mr. Bartholomew won't stay over today. When that chap finds he +has gone he probably will consider that there is no use in his +bothering me any further." + +Whether Tom believed this statement or not, he was destined to realize +his mistake within a very short time. At least, the fact that he was +being spied upon and that the enemy meant him anything but good, seemed +proved beyond a doubt that very week. + +Having done the little job for Mr. Damon, Tom allowed no other outside +matter to take up his attention. He shut himself into his private +experimental workshop and laboratory at the works each day. He did not +even come out for lunch, letting Rad bring him down some sandwiches and +a thermos bottle of cool milk. + +"The young boss is milling over something new," the men said, and +grinned at each other. They were proud of Tom and faithful to his +interests. + +Time was when there had been traitors in the works; but unfaithful +hands had been weeded out. There was not a man who drew a pay envelope +from the Swift Construction Company who would not have done his best to +save Tom and his father trouble. Such a thing as a strike, or labor +troubles of any kind, was not thought of there. + +So Tom knew that whatever he did, or whatever plans he drew, in his +private room, he was safely guarded. Yet he always took a portfolio +home with him at night, for after dinner he frequently continued his +work of the day. Naturally during this first week he did not get far in +any problem connected with the proposed electric locomotive. There +were, however, rough drafts and certain schedules that had to do with +the matter jotted down. + +It was almost twelve at night. Tom had sat up in his own room after his +father had retired, and after the household was still. + +Eradicate was in bed and snoring under the roof, Tom knew. Just where +Koku was, it would have been hard to tell. Although a fine and +penetrating rain was falling, the giant might be roaming about the +waste land surrounding the stockade of the works. The elements had no +terrors for him. + +Tom locked his portfolio and stepped into his bathroom to wash his +hands before retiring. Before he snapped on the electric light over the +basin he chanced to glance through the newly set windowpane which had +replaced the one Rad had shattered in escaping threatened impalement on +Koku's spear. + +Although the clouds were thick and the rain was falling, there was a +certain humid radiance upon the roof of the porch under the bathroom +window. At least, the wet roof glistened so that any moving figure on +or beyond it was visible. + +"What's that?" muttered Tom, and he sank down lower than the sill and +crept slowly to the window. He merely raised himself until his eyes +were on a level with the sill. + +Coming up over the edge of the porch roof was a bulky figure. It was +so dimly outlined at first that Tom could scarcely be sure that it was +that of a man. + +However, it was not possible that any creature but a man would be able +to mount the lattice supporting the honeysuckle vines and so creep out +upon the porch roof. Once making secure his footing, the enemy in the +dark approached directly the bathroom window at which Tom crouched. + + + + +Chapter IX + +Where was Koku? + + +Tom reached up swiftly and pushed over the lever that locked the two +window sashes. In doing this he set his own patent burglar alarm. If +that lever was turned back again, or broken, the buzzers would be set +ringing all over the house, and in Koku's room over the garage. + +He did not believe that the marauder on the roof of the porch could +have seen the flash of his shirt-sleeved arm. But he took no chance of +being observed from outside by rising to his feet. + +On his hands and knees he crept away from the window, and out of the +bathroom. Once there, he stood up, grabbed the portfolio, and without +coat or vest and as he was, dashed out of the bedroom. He had been +positive that nobody but himself was astir in the big house, and he was +right. + +He did not punch the light button when he entered the library. He knew +where to put his hand upon an electric torch in the table drawer, and +he gained possession of this. + +Then he went to the safe and twirled the knob and watched the indicator +find the four numbers which were the "open sesame" to the burglar and +fire-proof door. + +He flung the portfolio into the inner compartment, closed both doors, +and twirled the combination-knob. Then Tom tiptoed to the foot of the +front stairs to listen. He could hear no sound from above. + +He did not want his father to be startled, if the enemy did break in; +and he knew that old Rad, awakened out of a sound sleep, would be worse +than useless at such a time. + +After all, the giant, Koku, was his main dependence under these +circumstances. Tom crept to the outer door, opened it carefully, and +slipped out, letting the spring lock click behind him. For the first +time he realized that he was in his shirt and trousers and wore only +felt slippers on his feet. + +But he was locked out now. He had no key. He must run the risk of the +fine rain and the chill of the night air. + +He stepped off the end of the porch and ran around the house. It was +to the roof of the rear porch that the marauder had climbed. But peer +as he might from down in the yard, Tom could see no moving figure up +there near the bathroom window. It was pitch dark against the wall of +the house. + +He turned to glance up at the window of the sleeping room over the +garage where Koku was supposed to spend the night. But Tom knew the +giant was seldom there during the dark hours. He was as much of a +night-prowler as a wildcat or an owl. + +There was no light there in any case. But Koku did not use a light +much. He could see in the dark, like a wild animal. Tom did not want to +call him. If he must have Koku's help, he would have to climb the +stairs to his bedside. The giant always aroused as wide awake as at +noonday. + +But while the young inventor hesitated a sudden, but muffled, snap--the +breaking of metal--sounded. Tom knew instantly the direction from which +the sound came. + +Although he could see nothing up there at the bathroom window because +of the rain and the deep shadow, he knew that the snapping sound meant +the severing of the window lock that he had so recently closed. Some +instrument had been forced under the bottom of the lower sash and +pressure enough been brought to bear to break the thin steel lever. + +On the heels of this sound came another. A muffled buzzing somewhere in +the house--again! again! And then, startlingly clear from the room over +the garage, the burglar alarm went off in Koku's chamber. + +"It's all off now!" gasped Tom, and he ran to the foot of the +honeysuckle ladder up which he knew the enemy had climbed to get to the +roof of the porch. "If he comes down I'll have him!" muttered Tom, +staring up into the mist and gloom. + +"Fo' de lawsy's sake! 'Tain't mawnin', is it?" Rad's sleepy voice was +heard to announce. "No, it's da'k as--" And the voice trailed off into +silence. + +"Tom! Tom!" the young fellow heard his aroused father shouting. + +Tom knew that his father was in no danger. In fact Mr. Swift's voice +did not even betray apprehension. It was to the garage Tom looked for +an explosion. But none came. + +If Koku was up there the prolonged buzzing of the alarm did not awake +him. Therefore he could not be there. Tom realized that if the burglar +was to be taken the whole affair fell upon his shoulders. + +"And I've got my hands full, if it is the fellow with the big feet that +we saw on the Waterfield Road the other day," muttered the young +inventor. + +Nothing stirred on the porch roof. Moment after moment slipped by. Tom +began to grow more than amazed. He was worried. What would happen next? + +His father had not cried out again. Stepping around to the end of the +roofed porch, Tom saw a light in Mr. Swift's room. Rad had evidently +gone to sleep again. It would take more than an intermittent buzzer to +rouse fully that colored man. + +"When old Morpheus has a strangle hold on Rad, Gabriel's trump would +scarcely awaken him," Tom muttered. + +What had become of the enemy? If it was an ordinary burglar he would +have feared the electric alarm instantly. The buzzers were still +working. But there was no sign of the man who had set them off at the +bathroom window. + +Suddenly Tom heard a door slam. It was from the front of the house. Had +his father come downstairs to look around and see what the matter was? + +The young fellow started around the house on a run. He heard heavy +bootsoles spurning the gravel of the path to the front gate. He arrived +at the far corner of the house in time to see a man dash through the +gateway and run down the street, disappearing finally into the +fast-driving rain. + +"Fooled me! He went in and right through and down the stairs! Out the +front door!" gasped Tom. "Did he get anything? I wonder!" + +He sprang up to the front porch and tried the door. It was locked +again, of course. Should he ring the bell and get Rad or his father +down to the door? + +And then, of a sudden, the principal mystery of all this affair bit +into Tom Swift's mind. The burglar had made his escape. He could +relieve his father's anxiety later. It was his own puzzlement of mind +that he first wished to ease. + +Where was Koku? + +Even had the giant been circling the stockade around the shops he +surely must have come up to the home premises by this time. His keen +ears could not fail to hear the buzzers. They were still going and +would go until the switch was turned. + +If the giant was in his room--Tom turned suddenly and started on a run +for the rear premises. He still carried the hand-lamp and it lit his +way into the garage door and up the narrow stairway. He shot the round +beam of the lamp into Koku's room. + +He had been obliged to have an iron bedstead made to order for the +giant. It stood against one wall of the room. The buzzer was snarling +like a huge bumblebee above the head of the couch. Below it sprawled +the giant, eyes tightly closed and mouth slightly ajar. From the lips +of Koku were emitted sounds worthy of Rad Sampson in his deepest +slumbers! + +"Asleep?" gasped Tom, stepping cat-like into the room. + +And then he was suddenly aware of a sickish, heavy odor in the chamber. +The window had been closed. But it was something more than stale air +that Tom smelled. + +A folded cloth lay on the floor beside the couch. The young fellow saw +at once that it had been originally placed over the giant's face, but +had slid off. And lucky for Koku that it had been dislodged! + +"Chloroform!" muttered Tom. "He's drugged. It is no wonder he did not +hear the burglar alarm." + +In any event, the incident made one deep impression on Tom's mind. The +spies who he believed were working for the Hendrickton & Western +Railroad and its owner, Montagne Lewis, were desperate men. Tom could +not believe that the fellow with the big feet was alone in Shopton and +was unaided in his attempts to find out what Tom was doing. + +This attempt to burglarize the house betrayed the caliber of the enemy. +In chloroforming Koku he had taken the risk of murdering the giant. +Only the fact that the pad of saturated cloth had fallen off Koku's +face had, perhaps, saved the man from suffocation. + +Tom did not tell the giant when he aroused what the matter with him +was. Koku was ill enough! He was wrenched by interior spasms that +seemed almost to tear his huge body to pieces. + +"What done got into dat big lump o' bone an' grizzle?" demanded +Eradicate. "He looks like, he swallowed a volcano, and it just got to +wo'kin' right. My lawsy!" + +"He is a sick man, all right," admitted Tom. "Looks like he wouldn't +try to stab me to deaf wid no spear no mo'," went on Rad, inclined to +approve of Koku's sufferings. + +"If he died you'd be mighty sorry, old man," declared Tom, sternly. + +"Sho' would. Be a mighty hard job to bury him," was the callous +response. + +Just the same, the crotchety old colored man began to hop around in +lively fashion with hot water, and later with coffee and other +stimulants; and he nursed Koku all day as though he were a big baby. + +Koku, who had never been ill before in his life, was inclined to lay +the trouble to an evil genius of some kind. Perhaps, in spite of his +half-civilized state, he was still a devil-worshiper. At any rate, he +had a vital respect for the forces of evil. + +Naturally he considered this unknown and unexpected misery he suffered +the result of malignant influences of some kind. Tom did not want him +to suspect that the man with the big feet had any possible part in the +mystery. Had Koku suspected this, and had he got his hands on the spy, +the latter could never have been successfully used in that sort of work +again. In all probability he would have said that he had had enough. + +Meanwhile Tom made a point of considering each step he took alone +thereafter with particular care. He had a bodyguard--usually the giant +after the latter had recovered--between the works and the house. He did +not bring home any more the schedules or drawings connected with the +electric locomotive that he proposed to have built and to test inside +the stockade of the Swift Construction Company. + +He even put a private detective to work on the matter of finding a man +named Andy O'Malley who might be lurking around Shopton. He had a +pretty clear description of the fellow, for he had not only seen him +once, face to face by daylight, but Tom had written to the president of +the H. & P. A. and had got from that gentleman a clear picture in words +of the spy whom Mr. Bartholomew believed was working in the interests +of Montagne Lewis. + +"If O'Malley appears in Shopton, look out. He is a bad character. He is +not only a notorious gunman, with several warrants out for him in these +parts, but he is a cruel and desperate man in any event. The minute you +mark him, have him arrested and telegraph me. We'll get him extradited +and put him through for ten years or more right in this county." The +private investigator, however, as the weeks went by, could not find any +man who filled O'Malley's description. + +Meanwhile Tom Swift had got what he called "a lead" and was working day +and night upon the invention that he believed might make even the +Jandel people respectful, if not a bit envious. + +First of all Tom had arranged to have built all around inside the +stockade a track of rails heavy enough to stand the wear and tear of +the heaviest locomotive built. Meanwhile the various parts of his +locomotive were being built in several shops, but would be shipped to +the Swift Construction Company and assembled in Tom's try-out shed. + +Great secrecy was of course maintained. Aside from the fact that the +new invention had something to do with electric motive power, nobody +about the shops could say what the new industry portended. Save, of +course, the Swifts themselves, Ned Newton, and Mr. Damon, who was the +Swifts' closest friend and sometimes had furnished additional capital +for Tom's experiments. + +There was a thing that Mr. Damon furnished Tom at this time that proved +in the end to be of much importance. Before Tom had seized upon this +idea of his eccentric friend, and had made proper use of it, something +happened that came near to wrecking utterly Tom's invention and +completely putting an end to Tom himself as an inventor. + + + + +Chapter X + +A Strange Conversation + + +Mr. Wakefield Damon frequently came to the shops, for he was not alone +very friendly with the Swifts, but he was greatly interested in Tom's +new invention. + +"If it goes as good as what you did for my chicken run," he declared, +chuckling, "bless my dampers! you'll beat all the electric locomotives +in the market." + +"That is easy, perhaps," said Tom smiling. "There are not many in the +market at the present time. But I don't know what mine will be. This is +going to be some job." + +"Bless my flues and clinkers!" cried Mr. Damon, "you are not losing +hope, Tom Swift? Look what you did for my chicken run. And believe me, +that entanglement will give a shock that makes a man stand right up and +shake." + +"Have you tried it yourself?" asked Tom. + +"No. But my servant did. I saw him through the window of my study doing +some kind of a shimmy with the shovel. Thought he'd gone crazy. Then I +saw what he had done. It was early in the morning and I hadn't turned +the current off, and he had put one hand against the wires. When he +dropped the shovel as I told him to, bless my plyers and nippers! he +was all right." + +"The current would not seriously hurt him," said Tom. "I was careful +about that." + +"It killed two tomcats," said Mr. Damon. "I certainly was glad of that, +for those two ash-barrel cats kept the whole neighborhood awake. Bless +my claws and whiskers! how those two cats did use to yell. But when one +tried to climb the wires and the other sprang on him, it was all over! +That is, all over but the burial party." + +Mr. Damon was on the ground when the mechanical equipment and a part of +the electrical equipment of the new locomotive arrived and was set up +in the erection shed. The length of the machine was what first +impressed Ned Newton as well as Mr. Damon. + +"Bless my yardstick!" exclaimed the eccentric man, "it's as long as a +gossip's tongue. What a monster it will be!" + +"How long is it, Tom?" asked Ned Newton. + +"When completed, and standing on its drivers and bogie truck and +trailer truck, from cow-catcher to rear bumper it will be a few inches +over ninety feet. And that is slightly longer than the biggest electric +locomotive so far built. But length does not so much enter into the +value of the machine. I would have it built more compactly if I could." + +"What is the horsepower?" asked Mr. Damon. + +"I figure on forty-four hundred horsepower. The power must be received +from a three thousand-volt direct-current trolley. There are twelve +driving-wheels, as you can see. Each pair of drivers will be driven by +a twin-motor geared to the axles through a system of flexible spring +drive. Remember, I have got to obtain both speed as well as power in +this locomotive, for it is being built to pull a passenger train--a +fast cross-continent express--to compete with the best passenger +equipment in the country." + +"Bless my combination ticket!" murmured Mr. Damon. "You have picked out +some task, and no mistake, Tom Swift." + +"He'll do it," cried Ned, with his usual optimism when Tom had once +started on any experimental work. "Of course he will. Just as she +stands there now, only half put together, I would be willing to bet a +farm that she is a better locomotive than the Jandel patent." + +"Three cheers!" laughed Tom. "Ned is as enthusiastic as usual. But +believe me, friends, we are not going to turn out a better locomotive +than the Jandel without both thought and work." + +His friends' enthusiasm was heartening, however. No doubt of that. He +never let them into his experiment room, any more than he allowed his +workmen in there. Aside from his own father, nobody really knew what +Tom Swift was doing behind that always-locked door. + +The huge structure of the locomotive was set up on the driving wheels +and leading and trailing trucks by Tom's chief foreman and a picked +crew. Just such another locomotive had never been seen anywhere about +Shopton. Naturally the men at work on the monster began to speak of it +outside the works. + +Not that they betrayed any secrets regarding the locomotive. In fact, +as yet none of them knew anything about what Tom intended to do with +the big machine. But the story soon circulated that Tom Swift, the +young inventor, was about to show all the previous builders of electric +locomotives how such machines should be built. + +It was even whispered that Tom's objective was a two-mile-a-minute +locomotive. And when this was publicly known the information was not +long in seeping to the ears of certain men who had been keeping as +close a watch as they dared on the Swift Construction Company and the +activities of Tom himself. + +Ned Newton went to the bank one Friday for money for the payroll of the +working and clerical force of the Swift Company. It was an errand he +never relegated to any employee. + +Ned had once worked himself in the bank, and naturally he knew many of +its employees as well as the officials. With his back to the general +waiting room, he sat at the vice president's desk discussing some minor +matter. Only a railing divided the vice president's enclosure from the +long settee on which waiting customers of the bank were seated. + +Ned knew that there were two men directly behind him, whispering +together; but he paid no attention to them until he heard this phrase: + +"It's time to explode in just five hours; then good-night to that +invention, whatever it is." + +This statement might mean almost anything--or nothing. Ordinarily Ned +Newton might not have paid any consideration to the words. But +"invention" was a term that he could not overlook. His mind then was +fixed upon Tom's invention almost as closely as the mind of the young +inventor himself. + +Ned turned around slowly, as though idly, indeed, and tried to see the +faces of the two men behind him. One was a small, neatly dressed man of +professional appearance. He wore a Vandyke beard and eyeglasses. The +other's face Ned could not see; but as they both rose just then and +strolled toward the door of the bank he could observe that the fellow +was big and burly. + +Ned wheeled to his friend, the vice president, and asked: + +"Who are those men, Mr. Stanley? Do you know them?" + +The pair were just going out through the revolving door. The vice +president craned his neck for a look at them. + +"Don't know the small man, Ned. But the other is named O'Malley, I +believe. Somebody introduced him here and he gets a check cashed +occasionally. Not a customer of the bank." + +At that moment the name "O'Malley" did not mean anything to Ned Newton. +But he bade his friend good-bye and went out after the two men. They +had disappeared. + +Rad was in the electric runabout, waiting for him. The words spoken by +O'Malley (Ned thought it must have been he who spoke of the invention +because of his deep voice) continued to disturb Ned's thought. + +"Rad," he said, as he got into the runabout, "did you ever hear the +name O'Malley?" + +"Sure has," declared the colored man. "And it's a bad name and a bad +man owns it." + +"Do you mean that?" exclaimed the financial manager of the Swift +Construction Company, with increasing apprehension. "Who is he?" + +"Why, Mr. Newton, don't you 'member dat man?" + +"Who is he?" repeated Ned. + +"Dat Andy O'Malley is de one what tried to hold up Massa Tom dat time. +O'Malley is de man what's been spyin' on Massa Tom--" + +"Great grief!" exclaimed Ned, breaking in with excitement. "I'll drive +as fast as I can, Rad. There is something wrong at the works, I do +believe!" + +"What's wrong, Mr. Ned?" demanded Rad. "We just come from dere, and +everyt'ing was all right." + +"I just heard something that O'Malley said. I want to get back in a +hurry. I believe that scoundrel is attempting to blow up Tom's +locomotive. We've got to get to the works just as quick as we can." + + + + +Chapter XI + +Touch and Go + + +The mechanical equipment of the new locomotive was now complete and Tom +was establishing the electrical equipment as rapidly as possible. He +not only acted as overseer of this work, but in overalls and jumper he +was doing a good share of the work himself. + +The weight of the electrical equipment when it was finally set up was +not far from two hundred thousand pounds. Altogether, when the oil, +sand, and water tanks were filled, the great machine would weigh two +hundred and eighty-five tons--a monster indeed! + +"She is going to take a lot of current to run her," said Tom to his +father, who was standing by. "When I come to arrange with the Shopton +Electric Company for power, it's a question if they can give me all I +need. And I must have plenty of current to make sure that my motors +fill the bill." + +"As your tests will be made in the daytime, the company should be able +to furnish the power you need," rejoined Mr. Swift. "At night, of +course, when they must furnish so much light as well as power, it might +be difficult for them to give you the proper current." + +"Forty-four hundred horsepower is a big demand," went on Tom. "I've +got to have at least a three-thousand-volt direct-current to feed my +motors. I will soon have to take up the matter with the Electric +Company." + +The heavy work of setting the electrical parts of the locomotive had +been finished the day previous, and the track-derrick was removed. Tom +was engaged in adjusting the more delicate parts of the equipment and +had merely stepped down from the cab to speak to Mr. Swift. + +Now he climbed back into the interior of the great machine which, in a +general way, looked like a box car. An electric locomotive has not much +of the appearance of a steam engine. The machinery is all boxed in and +the entire floor of the locomotive is above even the drivers. + +These six pairs of driving wheels were about seventy inches in +diameter, while the diameter of the leading and following truck-wheels +was but half that number of inches. + +Mr. Swift had turned away from the locomotive when Tom put his head out +of the door again. + +"Do you hear that, father?" he demanded in a puzzled tone. + +"Hear what, Tom?" asked the old inventor, looking up. + +"That ticking sound? I declare, I'd think it was one of those +death-watch beetles had got in here. Sounds like a big watch ticking. I +can't make it out." + +"Where is it? What is it?" repeated Mr. Swift. "I hear nothing down +here on the floor of the shed." + +"Well, it gets me," muttered Tom, and disappeared again. In a moment he +called out: "Say, you fellows! who left his bundle of overalls in here? +Better take 'em out to be manicured. Whose are these?" + +Two or three of the mechanics working near looked up from their tasks. +Mr. Swift turned back to the door of the cab again. + +"What is the matter now, Tom?" he asked, in added curiosity. + +"That bundle, Dad." + +Tom once more appeared and addressed the workmen: "Whose bundle of +dirty overalls is this in here? Come and take 'em away. They shouldn't +have been left here." + +"Why, Mr. Tom," said the foreman who was near, "I didn't see any soiled +overalls in there when I left last evening. Any of you fellows," he +asked the group of hands, "know anything about any overalls?" + +"The bundle is here all right. Pushed back against the third series +motors. Come up here, one of you fellows--" + +Suddenly there was a noise at the end of the shed where the door to the +offices lay. Two figures burst through from the glass doors and charged +down the lanes between the lathes and cranes. Ned Newton led, Rad +Sampson, his face a mouse-gray with fear, followed. + +"Massa Tom! Massa Tom!" shouted the colored man. "Look out fo' de bomb! +Look out fo' de bomb!" + +The foreman sprang toward the high door of the locomotive where Tom +stood, staring out. The young inventor, quick as his mind usually +functioned, did not understand at all what Eradicate meant. + +"There's something wrong in there, Mr. Tom!" shouted the foreman. "Come +down, sir, and let me get up there and see what it is." + +But Mr. Barton Swift grasped the meaning of what was going on more +quickly than anybody else. Tom's father, Tom frequently said, had spent +so many years investigating chemical and mechanical mysteries that he +saw more clearly and more exactly into and through most problems than +other people. + +His raised voice now cut through the rumble of machinery and all the +other noises of the shop. Even Rad Sampson's delirious cry was dwarfed +by Mr. Swift's sharp tone: + +"Tom! The ticking of that watch! That means danger!" + +The declaration seemed to rip away a curtain from Tom's thoughts. +Perhaps Rad's cry about "de bomb" aided the young inventor to +understand the peril that threatened. + +The faint ticking sound that had begun to annoy him during the past few +minutes betrayed the nature of the threatening peril. Tom swung back +from the open doorway of the locomotive cab, reached in to the space +between the motors, and seized the bundle of overall stuff that he had +previously spied. + +He knew instantly that the rapid ticking came from that bundle. It +could be nothing but a time bomb. He had heard of such things and, +indeed, had seen one before, an infernal machine which, set like an +alarm clock, would go off at a certain time. That indicated time might +be an hour hence, or might be within a few seconds! Ned Newton, almost +at the spot, shouted to Tom when the latter reappeared with the bundle +in his hands: + +"Get down out of that, Tom Swift! Quick! For your life!" + +But Tom was cool enough now. He saw his father's white, strained face +at one side and the young inventor could even smile at him. Behind the +foreman was set a barrel of water in which tools were cooled and +tempered. + +"Stoop, McAvoy!" Tom shouted, and tossed the bundle from him. + +Had the infernal machine exploded in midair Tom would not have been +surprised. But McAvoy dodged, Rad clapped his hands over his ears, and, +even Ned Newton halted like a bird-dog at point. + +The bundle splashed into the barrel of water. It sank to the bottom. +There was no explosion. When a few seconds had passed the group of +excited men began to relax. The barrel was carried carefully to a +neighboring field. + +"Fo' de lawsy sake!" gasped Rad, and got a full breath again. + +"That was touch and go, sure enough," muttered Ned Newton. + +"Those overalls sure went to the wash, Boss," declared the foreman. +"What was in 'em? And who put 'em in the cab up there?" + +But Tom dropped down the ladder and went to his father. Their hands +sought each other and gripped, hard. + +"Better not tell Mary about this," whispered Tom. "She's worried enough +as it is." + +"Right, Tom," agreed the old inventor. "From this time on we cannot be +too careful. If there proves to be an infernal machine in that package +we may be sure that we are dealing with desperate men. We've got to +keep our eyes open." + +"Wide open," added Ned. + +"I'll say we have," said Tom. + + + + +Chapter XII + +The Try-Out Day Arrives + + +It did not need Ned Newton's story of what he had overheard at the bank +to prove that an attempt had been made to blow to pieces Tom Swift's +electric locomotive before even it had been tested. + +An examination of the water-soaked package in the open yard of the +shops of the Swift Construction Company, proved that there was enough +explosive in the bomb to blow the shed itself to pieces. But the +stopping of the clockwork attachment of course made the bomb harmless. + +"The main thing to be explained," Tom said, when he and his father and +Ned discussed the particulars of the affair, "is not who did it, or +what it was done for. Those are comparatively easy questions to answer." + +"Yes," agreed Ned. "O'Malley did it, or caused it to be done; and it +was an attempt to balk Mr. Bartholomew and the H, & P. A. rather than +a direct attack upon the Swift Construction Company." + +"I am afraid, however," remarked Mr. Swift, "that Tom has aroused the +personal antagonism of this spy from the West. We must not overlook +that." + +"I don't," replied the young inventor. "O'Malley has it in for me. No +doubt of that. But he could not be sure that I would be hurt by the +explosion he arranged for." + +"True," said his father. + +"The attempt was against my invention. And O'Malley was doubtless urged +to destroy the locomotive that I am building because my success will +aid Mr. Bartholomew and his railroad." + +"Quite agreed," said Ned. "But--" + +"But the important question," interrupted Tom, "is this: How did the +bomb get into the interior of the electric locomotive? That is the +first and most important problem. Its having been done once warns us +that it can be done again until our system of guarding the works is +changed." + +"We have five watchmen on the job at night, and the gates are never +opened in the daytime to anybody for any purpose without a pass," +declared Ned. "I don't see how that fellow got in here with the time +bomb." + +"Exactly. It shows that there is a fault in our system somewhere," said +Tom grimly. "We cannot surround the place at night with an armed guard. +It would cost too much. Even Koku cannot be everywhere. And I have +reason to know that he was wandering about the stockade last night as +usual." + +"The fellow was pretty sharp to slip by," Ned observed. + +"The stockade is no mean barrier, especially with the rows of barbed +wire at the top," said Mr. Swift. + +"Barbed wire! That's it!" exclaimed Tom. It was just here that Mr. +Damon's idea for guarding his prize buff Orpingtons came into play in +Tom's scheme of things. "Barbed wire doesn't seem to keep out spies," +he added slowly. "But believe me, something else will!" + +For Tom to think of a thing was to start action without delay. +Immediately he called a gang from the shops and set them to work +stringing copper wire along the top of the stockade. + +He was sure that the man who had set the time bomb in place had got +into the enclosure over the fence. If he tried the same trick again he +was very apt to have the surprise of his life! + +Each night when the shops closed and the watchmen went on duty, a +current of electricity was turned into those copper wires entwined with +the barbed wire entanglement at the top of the stockade that would +certainly double up any marauder who sought to get over the top. + +However, no further attempt was made against Tom's peace of mind and +against his invention during the immediate weeks that followed. The +young inventor was so closely engaged in his work that he scarcely left +the house or the confines of the shops. Even Mary Nestor saw very +little of him. + +But Mary realized fully that at such a time as this Tom must give all +his thought and energy to the task in hand. She was proud of Tom's +ability and took a deep interest in his inventions. + +"I want to see the test when you try the locomotive, Tom," she told +him, when she came to the shops the first time to look at the monster +locomotive. "What a wonderful thing it is!" + +"Its wonder is yet to be proved," rejoined the young inventor. "I +believe I've got the right idea; but nothing is sure as yet." + +In addition to his mechanical contrivances inside the locomotive, Tom +had to arrange for an increased supply of electric power to drive the +huge machine around the track that was being built inside the stockade. + +A regular station had to be built for receiving the electricity in a +100,000-volt alternating current and delivering it to the locomotive in +a 3,000-volt direct current. Therefore, this station had two functions +to perform--reducing the voltage and changing the current from +alternating to direct. + +The reduction of the voltage was accomplished as follows: The +100,000-volt alternating current was received through an oil switch and +was conveyed to a high-tension current distributor made up of three +lines of copper tubing, thus forming the source of power for this +station. + +From the current distributor the current was conducted through other +oil switches to the transformers--entering at 100,000 volts and +emerging at 2,300 volts. Then the current was conducted from the +transformers through switches to the motor-generator sets and became +the power employed to operate them. + +The motor generator consisted of one alternating current motor driving +two direct current generators. The motor Tom established in his station +was of the 60-cycle synchronous type, which means that the current +changes sixty times each second. + +There were two sets, each generating a 1,500 or 2,000 volt direct +current; and the two generators being permanently connected, delivered +a combined direct current of 3,000 volts--as high a direct voltage +current, Tom knew, as had ever been adopted for railroad work. The +current voltage for ordinary street railway work is 550 volts. + +"I could run even this big machine," Tom explained to Ned Newton, "with +a much lighter current. But out there on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +line the transforming stations deliver this high voltage to the +locomotives. I want to test mine under similar conditions." + +"This is going to be an expensive test, Tom," said Ned, grumbling a +little. "The cost-sheets are running high." + +"We are aiming at a big target," returned the inventor. "You've got to +bait with something bigger than sprats to catch a whale, Ned." + +"Humph! Suppose you don't catch the whale after all?" + +"Don't lose hope," returned Tom, calmly. "I am going after this whale +right, believe me! This is one of the biggest contracts--if not the +very biggest--we ever tackled." + +"It looks as if the expense account would run the highest," admitted +the financial manager. + +"All right. Maybe that is so. But I'll spend the last cent I've got to +perfect this patent. I am going to beat the Jandels if it is humanly +possible to do so." + +"I can only hope you will, Tom. Why, this track and the overhead +trolley equipment is going to cost a small fortune. I had no idea when +you signed that contract with Mr. Bartholomew that so much money would +have to be spent in merely the experimental stage of the thing." + +Ned Newton possessed traits of caution that could not be gainsaid. That +was one thing that made him such a successful financial manager for the +Swift Company. He watched expenditures as closely now as he had when +the business was upon a much more limited footing. + +The rails laid along the inside of the stockade made a two-mile track, +as well ballasted as any regular railroad right of way. In addition the +overhead equipment was costly. + +To eliminate any possibility of the trolley wire breaking, a strong +steel cable, called a catenary, was slung just above the trolley wire. +To this catenary the trolley wire was suspended by hangers at short +intervals. + +These cables were strung from brackets so that a single row of poles +could be used, save at the curves, at which cross-span construction was +used. The trolley wire itself was of the 4/0 size, and was the largest +diameter copper wire ever employed for railroad purposes. + +Several weeks had now passed since the great locomotive had been +assembled in the erection shed and the cab of the locomotive completed. +It really was a monster machine, and any stranger coming into the place +and seeing it for the first time must have marveled at the grim power +suggested by the mere bulk of the structure. + +When the day of the first test arrived Tom allowed only his most +intimate friends to be present. Mary Nestor accompanied Mr. Swift into +the shops at the time appointed, and she was as excited over the +outcome of the test as Tom himself. + +Ned Newton and the mechanical force of the shops knocked off work to +become spectators at the exhibition. The only other outsider was Mr. +Damon. + +"Bless my alternating current!" cried the eccentric gentleman. "I +would not miss this for the world. If you tried to shut me out, Tom, +I'd climb over the stockade to get in." + +"You'd better not," Tom told him, dryly. "If you tried that you'd get a +worse shock than any chicken thief will get that tries to steal your +buff Orpingtons." + + + + +Chapter XIII + +Hopes and Fears + + +Tom climbed into the huge cab of the electric locomotive. In fact, the +cab was the most of it, for every part of the mechanism save the +drivers was covered by the eighty-odd foot structure. From the peak of +the pilot to the rear bumper the length was ninety feet and some inches. + +As Tom slid the monster out upon the yard track the small crowd +cheered. At least, the locomotive had the power to move, and to the +unknowing ones, at least, that seemed a great and wonderful thing. + +What they saw was apparently a box-car--like a mail coach, only with +more high windows--ten feet wide, its roof more than fourteen feet from +the rails, its locked pantagraph adding two feet more to its height. + +Just what was in the cab--the water and oil tanks, the steam-heating +boiler to supply heat and hot water to the train the monster was to +draw, the motors and the many other mechanical contrivances--was hidden +from the spectators. + +In fact, since completing the electrical equipment of the Hercules +0001, as Tom had named the locomotive, the young inventor had allowed +nobody inside the cab, any more than he allowed visitors inside his +private workshop. Even Mr. Swift did not know all the results of Tom's +experimental work. In a general way the older inventor knew the trend +of his son's attempts, but the details and the results of Tom's +experiments, the latter told to nobody. + +But as the huge locomotive rolled into the yard and followed the more +or less circular track inside the yard fence, it was plain to all of +the onlookers that the motive-power was there all right! Just what +speed could be coaxed from the feed-cable overhead was another question. + +Nor did Tom Swift try for much speed on this first test of the Hercules +0001. He went around the two-mile track several times before bringing +his machine to a stop near the crowd of onlookers. He came to the open +door of the cab. + +"One thing is sure, Tom!" shouted Ned. "It do move!" + +"Bless my slippery skates!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "it slides right +along, Tom. You've done it, my boy--you've done it!" + +"It looks good from where I stand, my son," said Mr. Barton Swift. + +It was Mary who suspected that Tom was not wholly satisfied--as yet, at +least--with the test of the Hercules 0001. She cried: + +"Tom! is it all right?" + +"Nothing is ever all right--that is, not perfect--in this old world, I +guess, Mary," returned the young inventor. "But I am not discouraged. +As Ned says, the old contraption 'do move.' How fast she'll move is +another thing." + +"What time did you make?" asked Mr. Swift. + +"Not above fifteen miles an hour." + +"Whew!" whistled Ned dolefully. "That is a long way from--" + +Tom made an instant motion and Ned's careless lips were sealed. It was +not generally known among the men the speed which Tom hoped to obtain +with his new invention. + +"It is a wide shoot at the target, that is true," Tom said, soberly. +"But remember I cannot test it for speed on this short and almost +circular track. Right at the start, however, I see that something about +the power-feed must be changed." + +"What is that?" asked Mary, curiously. + +"I have only had rigged here one trolley wire. There must be two +attached alternately to the catenary cable. Such a form of twin +conductor trolley will permit the collection of a heavy current through +the twin contact of the pantagraph with the two trolley wires, and +should assure a sparkless collection of the current at any speed. You +noticed that when I took the sharper curves there was an aerial +exhibition. I want to do away with the fireworks." + +The fact that the Hercules 0001 was a going and apparently powerful +draught engine satisfied most of the onlookers that Tom Swift was on +the road to final and overwhelming success. The mechanics, indeed, saw +no reason why the locomotive could not be run right out of the yard on +the freight track and coupled to the first train going West. Of course, +the Hercules 0001 could not be delivered to the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +under its own power. + +When the locomotive was run back into the shed and stood once more on +the erection track, Tom confessed to Mary and Ned, while Mr. Damon and +Mr. Swift were looking through the huge cab, that he was not at all +pleased with the action of the machine. + +"I have the best equipment of any electric locomotive on the rails +today. I am sure of that," he said. "The Hercules Three-Oughts-One is +not as long as those electric locomotives of the C. M. &. St. P. But +that's all right. I have built mine more compactly and, properly +geared, it should have all the power of either the Baldwin-Westinghouse +or the Jandel locomotive." + +"Then, Tom dear, what is wrong?" cried Mary. + +"Speed. That is what troubles me. Have I got anything like the speed I +am aiming for?" + +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Ned Newton. "Some speed, boy!" + +"And must you have such great speed, Tom?" repeated Mary. + +"That is in my contract. Not only that, but to be of much use to the H. +& P. A. this locomotive must have such speed--or mighty near it. Of +course, under ordinary conditions, two miles a minute for a locomotive +and train of heavy freights would burn up the track--maybe melt the +flanges and throw everything out of gear." + +"Why try for it, then?" demanded Mary. + +"It is the power suggested by the possession of such speed that we want +in the Hercules Three-Oughts-One. That two miles a minute is a fiction +of the imagination, cannot be claimed. It is possible. It is humanly +possible. It is coming." + +"Then you must be the fellow to first accomplish it, Tom Swift," Ned +declared. + +"Of course, if anybody can do it, you can, Tom," agreed the girl +complacently. + +"Thanks--many, many thanks," laughed the young inventor. "I'd be able +to harness the sun and stars, and put a surcingle around the moon if I +came up to my friends' opinion of my ability. + +"Nevertheless, two-miles-a-minute is my objective point, and I do not +believe it is visionary. Consider the motor-cycle. Ninety miles an hour +has long been possible with that, and some tests have shown a speed of +over a hundred and ten. That is not far from my mark. + +"Some Mallet locomotives of the oil-burning type have achieved from +eighty-five to ninety-five miles an hour with a heavy load behind them. +They are very powerful machines. The Mogul mountain climbers are +powerful, too, although they are not built for speed. + +"The electric Goliaths built for the C. M. & St. P., and the Jandels, +are both very speedy under certain conditions. The former has a maximum +speed of sixty-five miles and the Jandel slightly faster." + +"But that is only half what that Mr. Bartholomew demands of your +invention, Tom!" Mary cried. + +"That is a fact. I must reach twice sixty miles an hour, anyway, to +meet his demand and gain that hundred thousand bonus. But I have the +advantage of a knowledge of all that has been done before my time in +the matter of electrical locomotive construction." + +"The world do move," repeated Ned. "You believe that you have the edge +on all the other inventors?" + +"Along the line of this development--yes," said Tom. "I am taking up +the work where former experimenters ended theirs. Why shouldn't I find +the right combination to bring about a two-miles-a-minute drive?" + +"Oh, Tom!" cried Mary, with clasped hands, "I hope you do." + +"I hope I do, too," said Tom, grimly. "At least, if trying will bring +it, success is going to come my way." + + + + +Chapter XIV + +Speed + + +More than four months had passed since the contract had been signed, +when Tom made his first yard-test of the Hercules 0001. For a month +nothing had been seen or heard of Andy O'Malley, whose identity as the +spy, set by Montagne Lewis to cripple Tom's attempt to help the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad, had been determined beyond any doubt. + +The private inquiry agent that Tom had engaged to find O'Malley had +been unsuccessful in his work. The spy had disappeared from Shopton and +the vicinity. Nevertheless, the inventor did not for a moment overlook +the possibility that the enemy might again strike. + +Every night the electric current was turned into the wires that capped +the stockade of the Swift Construction Company enclosure. Koku beat a +path around the enclosure at night, getting such short sleep as he +seemed to need in the forenoon. + +"Dat crazy cannibal," grumbled Rad, "got it in his haid dat he's gwine +to he'p Massa Tom by walkin' out o' nights like he was dis here +Western, de great sprinter, Ma lawsy me! Koku ain't got brains enough +to fill up a hic'ry nut shell. Dat he ain't." + +Nothing anybody else could do for Tom ever satisfied Rad. The colored +man fully believed that he was the only person really necessary for +Tom's success and peace of mind. In fact, Rad thought that even Ned +Newton's duties as financial manager of the firm were scarcely of as +much importance. + +When he heard that Tom was going West, after a time, with the electric +locomotive, to try it out on the tracks of the H. & P. A., Rad was +quite sure that if he did not go along, the test would not come out +right. + +"O' course yo'll need me, Massa Tom," he said, confidently. "Couldn't +git along widout me nohow. Yo' knows, sir, I allus has to go 'long wid +yo' to fix things." + +"Don't you think father will need you here, Rad?" Tom asked the +faithful old fellow. "You're getting old--" + +"Me gittin' old?" cried, the colored man. "Huh! Yo' don't know 'bout +dis here chile. I don't purpose ever to git old. I been gray-haided +since befo' yo' was born; but I ain't old yit!" + +Mr. Damon chanced to be present at this conversation, and he was highly +amused, yet somewhat impressed, too, by the colored man's statement. + +"Bless my own antiquity!" he exclaimed. "I agree with Rad, Tom. It's +us old fellows who know what to do when an emergency of any kind +arises. Experience teaches more than inspiration." + +"Oh," said Tom, laughing, "I do not deny the value of old friends at +any stage of the game." + +"Bless my roving nature! I am glad to hear you say that. For I tell you +right now, Tom, I want to be out there when you make your final test of +the locomotive." + +"Do you mean that you will go West when I take out the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One?" cried Tom. + +"It's just what I want to do. Bless my traveling bag, Tom! I mean to be +present at your final triumph." + +"What will happen to your buff Orpingtons while you are gone?" asked +the young inventor, gravely. + +"I have got my servant trained to look after those chickens," declared +Mr. Damon. "And this invention of yours is really more important than +even my buff Orpingtons." + +"Just the same," remarked Tom to his eccentric friend, when Rad had +left the room. "I've got to fix it so that Eradicate stays at home with +father. He doesn't really know how old and broken he is--poor fellow." + +"His heart is green, Tom. That's what is the matter with Rad." + +"He is a loyal old fellow. But I shall take Koku with me, not Rad," and +the young inventor spoke decidedly. "And that is going to trouble poor +Rad a lot." + +The prospect of going West, however, was not the main subject of Tom's +thoughts at this time. As the weeks passed and the end of the six +months of experiment came nearer, the inventor was more and more +troubled by the principal difficulty which had from the first +confronted him. Speed. + +That was the mark he had set himself. A maximum speed of two miles a +minute on a level track for the Hercules 0001. With the speed already +attained by both steam and electric locomotives in the more recent +past, this was by no means an impossible attainment, as Tom quite well +knew. + +But he became convinced that the conditions under which he labored made +it impossible for him to be positive of just how great a speed on a +straight, level track his invention would attain. + +There was no electrified stretch of railroad near Shopton on which the +Hercules 0001 might be tested. The track inside the Swift Company's +enclosure did not offer the conditions the inventor needed. He felt +balked. + +"I believe I have hit the right idea in my improvements on the Jandel +patents," he told Ned Newton when they were discussing the matter. "But +believing is one thing. Knowing is another!" + +"Theoretically it works out all right, I suppose?" questioned Ned. + +"Quite. I can prove on paper that I've got the speed. But that isn't +enough. You can see that." + +"Impossible to be sure on the trackage already built here, Tom?" + +"I haven't dared give her all she'll take," grumbled Tom. "If I did, I +fear she'd jump the rails and I'd have a wreck on my hands." + +"And maybe kill yourself!" exclaimed Ned. "You want to have a care." + +"Oh, that's all right! I've taken risks before. I don't want to risk +the safety of the locomotive, which is more important. That machine has +cost us a lot of money." + +"I'll say so!" agreed Ned. "You'll have to wait till you can get the +locomotive out there on the H. & P. A. tracks before you get a fair +speed-test." + +"And suppose instead of a triumph it is a fiasco?" Tom said, +doubtfully. "I tell you straight, Ned: I never was so uncertain about +the outcome of one of my inventions since I began dabbling with +motive-power." + +"We could build several miles of straight track in the waste ground +behind the works," Ned said, thoughtfully. + +"Not a chance! There is neither time nor money for such work. Besides, +I should have to rebuild my transforming station if I supplied longer +conduit wires with current." + +"You don't really consider that you have failed, do you, Tom?" and +Ned's anxiety made his voice sound very woeful indeed. + +"I tell you that my belief doesn't satisfy me. I hate to go West +without being sure--positive. I want to know! I have tried the +locomotive out in the yard half a dozen times. It runs like a fine +watch. There doesn't seem to be a thing the matter with it now. But +what speed can I attain?" + +"I don't see but you'll have to risk it, Tom." + +"I mean to give her one more test. I'll run her out tonight when there +is nobody about but the watchmen--and you, if you want to come. I'll +arrange with the Electric Company for all the current they can spare. +By ginger! I've got to take some risk." + +"By the way, Tom," said his chum, "did it ever strike you as odd that +that private detective agency never got any trace of O'Malley?" + +"Well, he's gone away. We needn't worry about him. Maybe the detective +wasn't very smart, at that." + +"And yet he was here in town after you put the inquiry on foot. I saw +him in the bank. He came there occasionally. And either he, or somebody +he hired, placed that bomb in the locomotive." + +"All those being facts, what of it?" + +"Besides, there was that other fellow--the man with the Vandyke beard. +Might be a shyster lawyer, or something of the kind. He wasn't spotted, +either." + +"To tell the truth, I didn't bother to give the Detective Agency the +description of that fellow, although you gave it to me," and Tom +laughed. "I must confess that I depend more upon my man-trap electric +wires to protect the invention than I do on the private inquiry agent." + +"It's funny, just the same. If I had another job for a detective I +should not submit it to the Blatz Agency," grumbled Ned. + +"I fancy Montagne Lewis and his crowd called off their Wild West +gunman," said Tom. "In any case, every attempt he made to bother us +turned out a fizzle. I am not, however, forgetting precautions, my boy." + +Ned Newton realized that his chum had determined to make this night +test of the electric locomotive the pivotal trial of the whole affair. +He came back to the works after dinner and was let in by the office +watchman at about nine o'clock. + +"Mr. Tom here yet?" he asked the man. + +"Yes, Mr. Newton. The young boss didn't go home to supper, even. That +colored man brought something down for him, and he's in the shed yet." + +"Rad is here, you mean?" + +"Yes, sir. At least, he didn't go out this way, and we watchmen have +instructions to let nobody in or out by the yard gates at night." + +"I'll say Tom is being careful," thought Ned, as he stepped out through +the runway toward the erection shed. + +Before he reached the entrance to the huge shed, however, Ned chanced +to look down the enclosure. There were several arc lights burning, but +even these only furnished a dim illumination for the whole yard. + +He supposed that four watchmen were tramping their several beats along +the inside of the stockade and close to the trolley-track. But when he +saw an instant gleam of light down there, close to the ground, Ned did +not believe that it was the flash of a torch in the hand of any sentry. + +"Funny," he muttered. "That's outside the fence, or I'm much mistaken. +I wonder now--" + +He turned from the door of the shed, left the runway, and began walking +toward the distant point at which he had seen the mysterious flash of +light. + + + + +Chapter XV + +The Enemy Still Active + + +Ned was dressed in a dark business suit, so he was not likely to be +observed from a distance, for it was a starless night. Half way to the +end of the great yard he began to wonder if the light he had seen might +not have been an hallucination. + +He doubted very much if anybody was creeping about outside the fence. +The boards were close together, with scarcely a crack half an inch wide +anywhere. A light out there-- + +It flashed again. He was positive of it this time, and of its locality +as well. It could be nobody who had any honest business about the Swift +Construction Company's premises. It was not Koku, for ordinarily the +giant would not use an electric torch. + +Ned did not know where any of the watchmen were who were acting as +sentinels. In fact, as it appeared later, three of them had been called +off their beats by Tom himself to help in some necessary task inside +the shed. The young inventor was getting ready to run the huge +locomotive out upon the yard-track. + +Remembering vividly the attempt which had been made some weeks before +to blow up the Hercules 0001, it was only natural that Ned should +suspect that the flash of light he had seen revealed the presence of +some ill-conditioned person lurking just beyond the fence. + +A man might be crouching there prepared to hurl an explosive bomb over +the fence when the locomotive was brought around as far as that spot. +Or was the villain foolish enough to attempt to enter the enclosure by +surmounting the fence? + +Ned, keeping close to the ground, crossed the rails in the fortunate +shadow of one of the posts. There he found a place where, with his back +to a pole-prop right at this curve in the trolley system, the shadow +enfolded him completely. + +Had his movements been marked by the person outside the fence? Ned +waited several long and anxious minutes for some move from out there. +Then something rather unexpected occurred. For the past ten minutes he +had forgotten about the test of the Hercules 0001 which Tom had +promised. + +With a blast of its siren the huge electric locomotive burst out of the +shed and thundered around the track. It smote Ned Newton's mind +suddenly that the inventor was going to "take a chance" on this evening +and try to get some speed out of the huge machine. + +The electric headlight cast a broad cone of white and dazzling light +across the yard. It suddenly struck full upon the spot where Ned Newton +crouched; but the upright against which he leaned was broad enough to +hide him completely. + +Looking up at the top of the stockade at that moment of illumination, +the young financial manager of the Swift Construction Company beheld a +crawling figure nearing the wire entanglements on the summit of the +fence. + +The unknown man was climbing by means of a notched pole. Ned could not +see that he bore any bulky object in his hands; indeed, he needed both +of them to aid him to climb. But the man's right hand was reaching +upward, above his head. + +The Hercules 0001 came roaring on. Its cone of light passed beyond +Ned's station. In a few seconds it reached the spot, and roared on. Ned +had not made a move. It seemed to him that he could not move or speak. + +The onrush of the electric locomotive all but swept the young fellow +from his feet. It had come and gone in an instant! + +"He's making more than fifteen or twenty miles an hour, all right," +muttered Ned. + +Then he flashed another glance up at the figure outside the fence. The +man's cap showed above the top of the boards. He seemed to be dragging +something up to him from below--something that hung and swung around +and around a few feet from the ground. + +Ned was about to dart out of concealment and hail the fellow. He was +not armed, nor could he get out of the stockade near this point. He +feared what the marauder intended, and he felt that he must frighten +him away. + +"Suppose that is a bomb and he means to fling it in front of Tom's +locomotive?" thought the anxious Ned. + +He again saw the stranger's right hand reach up above his head. But he +had no bomb in his hand. Ned suddenly shrieked a word of warning! It +had come to him what the man was doing and what the result of his act +would be. + +The wire-cutters bit on one of the copper wires. There followed a flash +of blue flame, and the man screamed. He dropped the thing swinging +below him and involuntarily grabbed at the wires with his left hand. + +He was caught, then! The crackling intermittent shocks of electric +fluid passed through his body in fiery sequence. His limbs writhed. He +mouthed horribly, and croaking gasps came from between his wide open +jaws. + +The Hercules 0001 had rounded the enclosure and was coming down upon +its second lap. The cone of white radiance from the headlight fell upon +the writhing body of the victim on the wires. The locomotive siren +emitted a blast that almost deafened Ned. + +The monster ground to a stop. Tom swung himself half out of the cab +window beside the controller. + +"Who's that?" he yelled. Then he saw Ned below him. "Who is that +fellow?" + +"No friend of yours, Tom, I believe," returned his financial manager in +a shaking voice. + +"Where's Rad? Rad!" Tom shouted at the top of his voice. + +"I's comm', Massa Tom," rejoined the colored man. + +"Never mind coming here! Get a move on, and get to the switchboard. +Turn the current out of the fence wires. + +"Yis, sir, I'll go Massa Tom," declared the old man. + +"Is he a spotter, Ned?" demanded the inventor. + +"He's no friend. I am going out by the gate. He's got something there +that means harm, I believe. Do you think he's killed, Tom?" + +"Only ought to be. Not enough current to kill him. But he's badly +burned and--and--well! I bet he won't care to fool around the works +again." + +Ned dashed away to an entrance. A watchman came running, opened the +small gate, and followed Ned into the open. + +Before they arrived at the vicinity of the accident Rad had got to the +switchboard. The electricity was shut out of the stockade wires. + +Ned uttered another shout. He saw the writhing body of the shocked man +fall from the stockade. When he and the watchman got to the spot the +fellow lay upon his back, groaning and sobbing; but Ned saw at once +that he was more frightened than hurt. + +"Well, you did it that time!" exclaimed the young financial manager. +"And I hope you got enough." + +"You--you demons!" gasped the man. "I'll have the law on you--" + +"Sure you will," cackled the watchman. "You had every right in the +world to try to cut those wires, of course, and get into the yard of +the works. Sure! The judge will believe you all right." + +Ned was, meanwhile, staring closely at the fallen man. Tom had come +down from the locomotive and was close to the fence. + +"Who is he?" demanded the inventor. "Not O'Malley?" + +Ned stepped to the fence and whispered: + +"It's the other fellow. The little chap with the Vandyke. He's dressed +like a tramp, but it's the same man." + +"Is he badly hurt?" demanded Tom. + +"His temper is, Boss," said the watchman callously. "And say! I know +this fellow. He works for the Blatz Detective Agency. I used to work +for those folks myself. His name is Myrick--Joe Myrick." + +"Ned," said Tom sternly, "go to the office and call the police. I'll +make him tell why he was here. And I'll make the Blatz people explain, +too. Hullo! what's that?" + +Ned had seized the rope he had seen in Myrick's hand, and from a patch +of weeds drew a two-gallon oil-can. + +"What you got there, Ned?" repeated the young inventor. + +"Whatever it is, I am going to be mighty easy with it. I think this +scoundrel was trying to get it over the fence and into the way of the +locomotive." + +"You can't hang anything on me," said Myrick, suddenly. "I was just +climbing up to the top of the fence to get a squint at that contraption +you've built. You can't hang anything on me." + +"He's evidently feeling better," said Tom, scornfully. "Nugent, don't +let him get away from you. Go call the police, Ned. And take care of +that can until we can find out what's in it." + +Later, when the police had removed Joe Myrick and the mysterious can +had been deposited in a tub of water in the open lot until its contents +could be examined, Tom said to his chum: + +"I was just working up some speed on the locomotive. The speedometer +indicated fifty-five when I saw that fellow sprawling up there on the +fence. I would not have dared go much faster in any case." + +"Why, you weren't half trying, Tom!" cried the delighted Ned. + +"She did slide around easy, didn't she? Fifty-five on an almost +circular track is a good showing. I am not so scared as I was, my boy." + +"You think that on a straight track you might accomplish what you set +out to do?" + +"It looks like it. At any rate, I shall risk a trial on the H. & P. A. +tracks. I'm going to take her West. Be ready on Monday, Ned, for I +shall want you with me," declared Tom Swift. + + + + +Chapter XVI + +Off for the West + + +Of course, as Tom supposed they would, the Blatz Detective Agency +denied that Joe Myrick, their one-time operative, had been engaged +through their bureau either to spy upon the Swift Construction Company +or to injure Tom's invention of the electric locomotive. + +Nevertheless, three points were indisputable: Myrick had been caught +spying; in his possession was a can of explosive which could be set off +by concussion; and it was a fact that to Myrick had been first +entrusted the matter of hunting for Andy O'Malley when Tom had put the +search for the Westerner up to the Blatz people. + +"He played traitor both to you, Mr. Swift, and to our agency," declared +Blatz to Tom. "I wash my hands of him. I hope the police send him away +for life!" + +"He'll go to prison all right," said Tom, confidently. "But the main +point is that one of your operatives fell down on a simple job. I +wanted that Andy O'Malley traced. He's out of the way, now, of course. +If you had put an honest man to work for me, O'Malley would be behind +the bars himself." + +"Some doubt of that, Mr. Swift," grumbled Blatz. + +"Why?" + +"Where's your evidence that this O'Malley was connected with the +attempt to blow up your locomotive the first time? Mr. Newton's +testimony would need corroboration." + +"Never mind that," rejoined the young inventor, with a smile. "I'd +have him for highway robbery. I recognized him. He robbed me of a +wallet. Guess we could put O'Malley away for awhile on that charge. And +by the time he got out again my job for that Western railroad would be +completed." + +"Humph! Nothing personal in your going after the fellow, then?" queried +the head of the detective agency. + +"No. But I frankly confess that I am afraid of O'Malley. He is +undoubtedly in the employ of men who will pay him well if he wrecks my +invention. But there really is no personal grudge between O'Malley and +me. At least, I feel no particular enmity against the fellow." + +There was a pause. + +"If you say so we will give you a couple of good men as bodyguards on +your trip West," suggested Blatz, licking his lips hungrily. + +"As good men as Myrick?" retorted Tom, rather scornfully. "No, thank +you. Just make your bill out to the Swift Construction Company to date, +and a check will be sent you the first of the month. I will take my own +precautions hereafter." + +And those precautions Tom considered sufficient. When the Hercules 0001 +was towed out of the enclosure belonging to the Swift Construction +Company early on Monday morning, each door and window of the huge cab +was barred and locked. Inside the cab rode Koku, the giant. + +Koku had his orders to allow nobody to enter the Hercules 0001 until +Tom or Ned Newton came to relieve him of his responsibility as guard. +The giant had a swinging cot to sleep on and sufficient food--of a +kind--to last him for a fortnight if necessary. + +He was not armed, for Tom did not often trust him with weapons. The +young inventor, however, did not expect that any armed force would +attack the electric locomotive. + +If Montagne Lewis desired to wreck the new invention which might mean +so much to Mr. Bartholomew and the H. & P. A., he surely would not +allow his hirelings to attack openly the locomotive while it was en +route. + +On the other hand, Tom did not really believe that Andy O'Malley would +attempt any reprisal against him personally. Of course, the Western +desperado might feel himself abused by Tom, especially in the matter of +Tom's use of his ammonia pistol. + +But that had happened months ago. O'Malley had undoubtedly been hired +by Mr. Bartholomew's enemies to obtain knowledge of the contract signed +between the young inventor and the railroad president; and later it was +certain that the spy had tried his best to wreck the electric +locomotive. + +As for any personal assault so many weeks after O'Malley had clashed +with him Tom Swift did not expect it. With Ned in his company on this +journey to Hendrickton, the young inventor had good reason to consider +that he was perfectly safe. + +Mary Nestor and Mr. Swift came to the station to see the two young men +off on Monday evening. Mary had heard about the second attempt made to +blow up the Hercules 0001 and she begged Tom to take every precaution +while he was in the West. + +"You will be in the enemy's country out there, Tom dear," she warned +him. "You won't be careless?" + +"I know I shall be mighty busy," he told her, laughing. "I'll let Ned +play watch-dog. And you know, his is a cautious soul, Mary." + +"I've every confidence in Ned's faithfulness," the girl said, still +with anxious tone. "But those men who are trying to ruin Mr. +Bartholomew's road will stop at nothing. I must hear from you +frequently, Tom, or I shall worry myself ill." + +"Don't lose your courage, Mary," rejoined the inventor, more gravely. +"I do not think they will attack me personally again. Remember that +Koku is on the job, as well as Ned. And Mr. Damon declares he will +follow us West very shortly," and again Tom chuckled. + +"Even Mr. Damon may be a help to you, Tom," declared Mary, warmly. "At +least, he is completely devoted to you." + +"So is Rad Sampson," said Tom, with a little grimace. "I certainly had +my hands full convincing him that father needed him here at home. At +that, Rad is pretty warm over the fact that I sent Koku on with the +locomotive. If anything should chance to happen to my invention, +Eradicate Sampson is going to shout 'I told you so!' all over the shop." + +Mary dabbed her eyes a little with her handkerchief, and Tom patted her +shoulder. + +"Don't worry, Mary," he said more cheerfully. "There won't a thing +happen to me out there at Hendrickton. I'll keep the wires hot with +telegrams. And I'll write to both you and father, and give you the full +particulars of how we get along. You'll keep your eye on father, Mary, +won't you?" + +"You may be sure of that," said the girl. "I will not leave him +entirely to the care of Rad," and she tried hard to smile again. But +it was a difficult matter. + +Such a parting as this is always hard to endure. Tom wrung his father's +hand and warned him to be careful of his health. The train came along +and the two young men boarded it with their personal luggage. + +They had a flash of the two faces--that of Mr. Swift's and Mary's +blooming countenance--as the express started again, and then the +outlook from the Pullman coach showed them the fast-receding environs +of Shopton. + +"We're on our way, my boy," said Tom to his chum. + +"We certainly are," said Ned, thoughtfully. "I wonder what the outcome +of the trip will be? It may not be all plain sailing." + +"Don't croak," rejoined the young inventor, with a grin. + +"I don't see how you can appear so cheerful. Why! you don't even know +if that electric locomotive is safe. Something may have already +happened to it. The freight train might be wrecked. A dozen things +might happen." + +"I am not crossing any bridges before I come to them," declared Tom. +"Besides, I propose to keep in touch with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One +in a certain way--Hullo! Here it is." + +"Here what is?" demanded Ned. + +The Pullman conductor at that moment came in through the forward +corridor. He had a telegram in his hand, and intoned loudly as he +approached: + +"Mr. Swift! Mr. Thomas Swift! Telegram for Mr. Swift." + +"That is for me, Conductor," said Tom briskly, offering his card. + +"All right, Mr. Swift. Just got it at Shopton. Operator said you had +boarded my car. This is railroad business, you'll notice. Have you any +reply, sir?" + +Tom ripped open the envelope and unfolded the telegram. He held it so +that Ned could read, too. It was signed: "N. G. Smith, Conductor, +Number 48." + +"What's that?" exclaimed Ned, reading the message. + +"'Locomotive and crazy man in it all right at Lingo,'" repeated Tom +aloud, and chuckled. + +"No, Conductor, there is no answer." + +"Good!" exclaimed Ned. "You arranged to get reports en route from the +conductors handling the Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" + +"Surest thing you know," replied Tom. "And I guess, from the wording of +this message, that the crew of Forty-eight have already found out that +Koku is not an ordinary guard." + +"He's a great boy," smiled Ned. "Glad he is on the job." + + + + +Chapter XVII + +The Wreck of Forty-Eight + + +The two chums sought their berths that night in high fettle. Even Ned +sloughed off his mood of apprehension which he had worn on boarding the +train at Shopton. + +For, true to the arrangement Tom had made with the railroad people, +another reassuring telegram was brought to him before bedtime. The +second conductor responsible for the management of the Western bound +freight to which the Hercules 0001 was attached, sent back a brief +statement of the safety of the electric locomotive. + +Naturally the two chums would have passed the freight and got well +ahead of it before reaching Hendrickton. But Tom had business in +Chicago, and they stayed over in that city for twenty-four hours. The +freight train went around the city, of course. But the telegrams +continued to reach Tom promptly, even at the hotel where he and Ned +stopped in the city. + +Occasionally the trainmen in charge of the freight mentioned Koku. His +eccentric behavior doubtless somewhat puzzled the railroaders. + +"That's all right," chuckled Ned. "Let them think Koku is dangerous if +they want to. That O'Malley person believed he was!" + +"I'll say so!" replied Tom. "The way he ran when Koku started after him +that time on the Waterfield Road seemed to prove that he didn't want to +mix with Koku." + +"If he--or other spies--learns that Koku is with the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, it ought to warn them away from the locomotive." + +This was Ned's final speech before getting into his berth. He, as well +as Tom, slept quite as calmly on this first night out of Chicago as +they had before. + +They knew exactly where the electric locomotive was. It was on the same +road as this train they were traveling in, and, although on a different +track, it was not many miles ahead. In fact, if the two trains kept to +schedule, the transcontinental passenger train would pass the freight +in question about five o'clock in the morning. + +It lacked half an hour of that time when the Pullman train came +suddenly to a jolting stop. Both Tom and Ned were awakened with the +rest of the passengers in their coach. + +Heads were poked out between curtains all along the aisle and a chorus +of more or less excited voices demanded: + +"What's the matter?" + +"Nothin's the matter wid dis train, gen'lemens an' ladies," came in the +porter's important voice. "Jest nothin' at all's happened. It's done +happened up ahead of us, das all." + +"Well, what has happened ahead of us, George?" asked Ned. + +"Jest another train, Boss, been splatterin' itself all ober de right of +way. We sort o' bein' held up, das all," replied the porter. + +"That's good news--for us," said Ned, preparing to climb back into his +berth. But he halted where he was when he heard his chum ask: + +"What train left the track, George?" + +"A freight train, sah. Yes, sah. Number Forty-eight. She jumped de +rails, side-swiped de accommodation dat was holdin' us back, and has +jest done spread herself all over de right of way." + +"My goodness!" gasped Ned. + +"Hear that, Ned?" exclaimed Tom. "Scramble into your clothes, boy. The +Hercules Three-Oughts-One is hitched to Forty-eight." + +"Suppose she's off the track?" murmured Ned. + +"It's lucky if she isn't smashed to matchwood," groaned Tom, and almost +immediately left the Pullman coach on the run. + +Ned was not far behind him. When they reached the cinder path beside +the freight train it was just sunrise. Long arms of rosy light reached +down the mountain side to linger on the tracks and what was strewed +across them. A glance assured the two young fellows from the East that +it was a bad smash indeed. + +Several of the rear boxcars were slung athwart the passenger tracks. +The passenger train that had been ahead of the Pullman train on which +Tom and Ned rode, had been badly beaten in all along its side. Scarcely +a whole window was left on the inner side of the five cars. But those +cars were not derailed. It was merely some of the freight cars that +retarded the further progress of the transcontinental flyer. A derrick +car must be brought up to lift away the debris before the fast train +could move on. + +Tom and Ned walked forward along the length of the wreck. Suddenly the +anxious young inventor seized Ned's arm. + +"Glory be!" he ejaculated. "It's topside up, anyway." + +"The Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" gasped Ned. + +"That's what it is!" + +Tom quickened his pace, and his financial manager followed close upon +his heels. The forward end of Forty-eight had not left the track and +the electric locomotive stood upright upon the rails, being near the +head end of the train. + +"If this wreck was intentional, and aimed at your invention, Tom," +whispered Ned Newton, "it did not result as the wreckers expected." + +Tom scouted the idea suggested by his chum. And in a few moments they +learned from a railroad employee that a broken flange on a boxcar wheel +had caused the wreck. + +"So that disposes of your suspicion, Ned," said Tom, approaching the +huge electric locomotive. + +"Hey, gents!" exclaimed another railroad man, one of the crew of the +wrecked freight. "Better keep away from that locomotive." + +"What's the matter with it?" Ned asked, curiously. + +"Got some kind of an aborigine caged up in it. You put your hand on any +part of it and he's likely to jump out and bite your hand off, or +something. Believe me, he's some savage." + +Both Tom and Ned burst into laughter. The former went forward to the +door of the cab and knocked in a peculiar way. It was a signal that the +giant recognized instantly. + +"Master!" Koku cried from inside the cab. "Master! Him come in?" + +"No, Koku," said Tom. "I'm not coming in. Are you all right?" + +"Yes. Koku all right. Him come out?" + +"No, no!" laughed Tom. "You are not at your journey's end yet, Koku. +Keep on the job a while longer." + +"Sure. Koku stay here forever, if Master say so." + +"Forever is a long word, Koku," said Tom, more seriously. "I'll tell +you when to open the door. I'll be at the end of the journey to meet +you." + +"It all right if Master say so. But Koku no like to travel in box," +grumbled the giant. + +Tom turned from the electric locomotive to see Ned staring across the +tracks at a man who was talking to several of the train crew of the +side-swiped accommodation train. That train was about to be moved on +under its own power. None of the wreckage of the freight interfered +with the progress of the accommodation. + +Tom stepped to Ned's side and touched his arm. "Who is he?" the +inventor asked. + +The man who had attracted Ned's attention and now held Tom's interest +as well was a solid looking man with gray hair and a dyed mustache. He +was chewing on a long and black cigar, and he spoke to the train hands +with authority. + +"Well, why can't you find him?" he wanted to know in a hoarse and +arrogant voice. + +"Who is he?" asked Tom again in Ned's ear. + +"I've seen him somewhere. Or else I've seen somebody that looks like +him. Maybe I've seen his picture. He's somebody of importance." + +"He thinks he is," rejoined the young inventor, with some disdain. + +In answer to something one of the railroad men said the important +looking individual uttered an oath and added: + +"There's nobody been killed then? He's just missing? He was sitting in +the coach ahead of me. I saw him just before the wreck. You know +O'Malley yourself. Do you mean to say you haven't seen him, Conductor?" + +"I assure you he disappeared like smoke, sir," said the passenger +conductor. "I haven't an idea what became of him." + +"Humph! If you see him, send him to me," and the solid man stepped +heavily aboard the nearest coach and disappeared inside. + +Tom and Ned stared at each other with wondering gaze. O'Malley! The +spy who had represented Montagne Lewis and the Hendrickton & Western +Railroad in the East. + +"What do you know about that?" demanded Ned, wonderingly. + +"Hold on!" exclaimed Tom. He sprang across the rails after the +conductor of the accommodation train that was just starting on. "Let +me ask you a question." + +"Yes, sir?" replied the conductor + +"Who was that man who just spoke to you?" "That man? Why, I thought +everybody out this way knew Montagne Lewis. That is his name, sir--and +a big man he is. Yes, sir," and the conductor, giving the watching +engineer of his train the "highball," caught the hand-rail of the car +and swung himself aboard as the train started. + + + + +Chapter XVIII + +On the Hendrickton & Pas Alos + + +The transcontinental was delayed three hours by the strewn wreckage of +the rear of Number Forty-eight. When she went on the two young fellows +from Shopton gazed anxiously at the Hercules 0001, which stood between +two gondolas in the forward end of the freight train. + +"Just by luck nothing happened to it," muttered Ned. + +"Just luck," agreed Tom Swift. "It was a shock to me to learn that Andy +O'Malley was right there on the spot when the accident happened." + +"And his employer, too," added Ned. "For we must admit that Mr. +Montagne Lewis is the man who sicked O'Malley on to you." + +"True." + +"And they were both in the accommodation that was sideswiped by the +derailed cars of Number Forty-eight." + +"That, likewise is a fact," said Tom, nodding quickly. + +"But what puzzles me, as it seemed to puzzle Lewis, more than anything +else, is what became of O'Malley?" + +"I guess I can see through that knot-hole," Tom rejoined. + +"Yes?" + +"I bet O'Malley got a squint at me--or perhaps at you--as we walked up +the track from this coach, and he lit out in a hurry. There stood the +Three-Oughts-One, and there were we. He knew we would raise a hue and +cry if we saw him in the vicinity of my locomotive." + +"I bet that's the truth, Tom." + +"I know it. He didn't even have time to warn his employer. By the way, +Ned, what a brute that Montagne Lewis looks to be." + +"I believe you! I remember having seen his photograph in a magazine. +Oh, he's some punkins, Tom." + +"And just as wicked as they make 'em, I bet! Face just as pleasant as a +bulldog's!" + +"You said it. I'm afraid of that man. I shall not have a moment's peace +until you have handed the Hercules Three-Oughts-One over to Mr. +Bartholomew and got his acceptance." + +"If I do," murmured Tom. + +"Of course you will, if that Lewis or his henchmen don't smash things +up. You are not afraid of the speed matter now, are you?" demanded Ned +confidently. + +"I can be sure of nothing until after the tests," said Tom, shaking his +head. "Remember, Ned, that I have set out to accomplish what was never +done before--to drive a locomotive over the rails at two miles a +minute. It's a mighty big undertaking." + +"Of course it will come out all right. If Koku is faithful----" + +"That is the smallest 'if' in the category," Tom interposed, with a +laugh. "If I was as sure of all else as I am of Koku, we'd have plain +sailing before us." + +Two days later Tom Swift and Ned Newton were ushered into the private +office of the president of the H. & P. A. at the Hendrickton terminal. +The two young fellows from the East had got in the night before, had +become established at the best hotel in the rapidly growing Western +municipality, and had seen something of the town itself during the +hours before midnight. + +Now they were ready for business, and very important business, too. + +Mr. Richard Bartholomew sat up in his desk chair and his keen eyes +suddenly sparkled when he saw his visitors and recognized them. + +"I did not expect you so soon. Your locomotive arrived yesterday, Mr. +Swift. How are you, Mr. Newton?" + +He motioned for them to take chairs. His secretary left the room. The +railroad magnate at once became confidential. + +"Nothing happened on the way?" he asked, pointedly. "There was a +freight wreck, I understand?" + +"And we chanced to be right at hand when that happened," said Tom. + +"So was your friend, Mr. Lewis," remarked Ned Newton. + +"You don't mean to say that Montagne Lewis--" + +"Was there. And Andy O'Malley," put in Tom. + +Then he detailed the incident, as far as he and Ned knew the details, +to Mr. Bartholomew, who listened with close attention. + +"Well, it might merely have been a coincidence," murmured the railroad +president. "But, of course, we can't be sure. Anyhow, it is just as +well if your servant, Mr. Swift, keeps close watch still upon that +locomotive." + +"He will," said Tom, nodding. "He is down there in the yard with the +Hercules Three-Oughts-One, and I mean to keep Koku right on the job." + +"Good! Let's go down and look at her," Mr. Bartholomew said, eagerly. + +But first Tom wanted to go into the theoretical particulars of his +invention. And he confessed that thus far his tests of the locomotive +had not been altogether satisfactory. + +"I have got to have a clear track on a stretch of your own line here, +Mr. Bartholomew, and under certain conditions, before I can be sure as +to just how much speed I can get out of the machine." + +"Speed is the essential point, Mr. Swift," said the railroad man, +seriously. + +"That is what I have been telling Ned," Tom rejoined. "I believe my +improvements over the Jandel patents are worthy. I know I have a very +powerful locomotive. But that is not enough." + +"We have got to shoot our trains through the Pas Alos Range faster than +trains were ever shot over the grades before, or we have failed," said +Mr. Bartholomew, with decision. + +"But--" began Ned; but Tom put up an arresting hand and his financial +manager ceased speaking. + +"I have not forgotten the details of our contract, Mr. Bartholomew," he +said, quietly. "Two-miles-a-minute is the target I have aimed for. +Whether I have hit it or not, well, time will show. I have got to try +the locomotive out on the tracks of the H. & P. A. in any case. The +Hercules Three-Oughts-One has been dragged a long distance, and has +been through at least one wreck. I want to see if she is all right +before I test her officially." + +"I'll arrange that for you," said Mr. Bartholomew, briskly, putting +away his papers. "I will go with you, too, and take a look at the +marvel." + +"And a marvel it is," grumbled Ned. "Don't let him fool you, Mr. +Bartholomew. Tom never does consider what he's done as being as great +as it really is." + +"Everything must be proved," Tom said, cautiously. "If it was a +financial problem, Mr. Bartholomew, believe me it would be Ned who +displayed caution. But I have seldom built anything that could not--and +has not--later been improved." + +"You do not consider your electric locomotive, then, a completed +invention?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, as the three walked down the yard. + +"I have too much experience to say it is perfect," returned Tom. "I can +scarcely believe, even, that it is going to suit you, Mr. Bartholomew, +even if the speed test is as promising as I hope it may be." + +"Humph!" + +"But before I shall be willing to throw up the sponge and say that I +have failed, I shall monkey with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One quite a +little on your tracks." + +"Your six months isn't up yet," said Mr. Bartholomew, more cheerfully. +"And it doesn't matter if it is. If you see any chance of making a +success of your invention, you are welcome to try it out on the tracks +of the H. & P. A. for another six months." + +"All right," Tom said, smiling. "Now, there is the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, Mr. Bartholomew. And there is Koku looking longingly +through the window." + +In fact, the giant, the moment he saw Tom, ran to unbar and open the +door of the cab on that side. + +"Master! If no let Koku out, Koku go amuck--crazy! No can breathe in +here! No can eat! No can sleep!" + +"The poor fellow!" ejaculated Ned. + +"What's the matter with him?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, curiously. + +"Get out, if you want to, Koku. I'll stay by while you kick up your +heels." + +No sooner had the inventor spoken than the giant leaped from the open +door of the locomotive and dashed away along the cinder path as though +he actually had to run away. Tom burst into a laugh, as he watched the +giant disappear beyond the strings of freight cars. + +"What is the matter with him?" repeated the railroad president. + +"He's got the cramp all right," laughed Tom Swift. "You don't +understand, Mr. Bartholomew, what it means to that big fellow to be +housed in for so many days, and unable to kick a free limb. I bet he +runs ten miles before he stops." + +"The police will arrest him," said the railroad man. + +It was then Ned's turn to chuckle. "I am sorry for your railroad police +if they tackle Koku right now," he said. "He'd lay out about a dozen +ordinary men without half trying. But, ordinarily, he is the most +mild-mannered fellow who ever lived." + +"He will come back, if he is let alone, as harmless as a kitten," Tom +observed. "And when I am not with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One, and +while I continue making my tests, Koku will be on guard. You might tell +your police force, Mr. Bartholomew, to let him alone. Now come aboard +and let me show you what I have been trying to do." + +They spent two hours inside the cab of the great locomotive. Mr. +Richard Bartholomew was possessed of no small degree of mechanical +education. He might not be a genius in mechanics as Tom Swift was, but +he could follow the latter's explanations regarding the improvements in +the electrical equipment of this new type of locomotive. + +"I don't know what your speed tests will show, Mr. Swift," said the +railroad president, with added enthusiasm. "But if those parts will do +what you say they have already done, you've got the Jandels beat a +mile! I'm for you, strong. Yes, sir! like your friend, Newton, here, I +believe that you have hit the right track. You are going to triumph." + +But Tom's triumph did not come at once. He knew more about the +uncertainties of mechanical contrivances than did either Mr. +Bartholomew or Ned Newton. + +The very next day the Hercules 0001 was got out upon a section of the +electrified system of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railway, and the +pantagraphs of the huge locomotive for the first time came into +connection with the twin conductor trolleys which overhung the rails. + +Ned accompanied Tom as assistant. Koku was allowed by the inventor to +roam about the hills as much as he pleased during the hours in which +his master was engaged with the Hercules 0001. Tom did not think any +harm would come to Koku, and he knew that the giant would enjoy +immensely a free foot in such a wild country. The two young fellows, +dressed in working suits of overall stuff, spent long hours in the cab +of the electric locomotive. Their try-outs had to be made for the most +part on sidetracks and freight switches, some miles outside +Hendrickton, where the invention would not be in the way of regular +traffic. + +Speed on level tracks had been raised in one test to over ninety-five +miles an hour and Mr. Bartholomew cheered wildly from the cab of a huge +Mallet that paced Tom's locomotive on a parallel track. No steam +locomotive had ever made such fast time. + +But Tom was after something bigger than this. He wanted to show the +president of the H. & P. A. that the Hercules 0001 could drag a load +over the Pas Alos Range at a pace never before gained by any +mountain-hog. + +Therefore he coaxed the electric locomotive out into the hills, some +hundred or more miles from headquarters. He had to keep in touch with +the train dispatcher's office, of course; the new machine had often to +take a sidetrack. Nor was much of this hilly right-of-way electrified. +The Jandels locomotive had been found to be a failure on the sharp +grades; so the extension of the trolley system had been abandoned. + +But there was one steep grade between Hammon and Cliff City that had +been completed. The current could be fed to the cables over this +stretch of track, and for a week Tom used this long and steep grade +just as much as he could, considering of course the demands of the +regular traffic. + +The telegraph operator at Half Way (merely a name for a station, for +there was not a habitation in sight) thrust his long upper-length out +of the telegraph office window one afternoon and waved a "highball" to +the waiting electric locomotive on the sidetrack. + +"Dispatcher says you can have Track Number Two West till the +four-thirteen, westbound, is due. I'll slip the operator at Cliff City +the news and he'll be on the lookout for you as well as me, Mr. Swift. +Go to it." + +Every man on the system was interested, and most of them enthusiastic, +about Tom's invention. The latter knew that he could depend upon this +operator and his mate to watch out for the western-bound flyer that +would begin its climb of the grade at Hammon less than half an hour +hence. + +The electric locomotive was coaxed out across the switch. Tom was +earnestly inspecting the more delicate parts of the mechanism while Ned +(and proud he was to do it) handled the levers. Once on the main line +he moved the controller forward. The machine began to pick up speed. + +The drumming of the wheels over the rail joints became a single +note--an increasing roar of sound. The electric locomotive shot up the +grade. The arrow on the speedometer crept around the dial and Ned's eye +was more often fastened on that than it was on the glistening twin +rails which mounted the grade. + +Black-green hemlock and spruce bordered the right of way on either +hand. Their shadows made the tunnel through the forest almost dark. But +Tom had not seen fit to turn on the headlight. + +"How is she making out?" asked the inventor, coming to look over his +chum's shoulder. + +"It's great, Tom!" breathed Ned Newton, his eyes glistening. "She eats +this grade up." + +"And it's within a narrow fraction of a two per cent.," said the +inventor proudly. "She takes it without a jar--Hold on! What's that +ahead?" + +The locomotive had traveled ten miles or more from Half Way. The +summit of the grade was not far ahead. But the forest shut out all view +of the station at Cliff City and the structures that stood near it. + +Right across the steel ribbons on which the hercules 0001 ran, Tom had +seen something which brought the question to his lips. Ned Newton saw +it too, and he shouted aloud: + +"Tree down! A log fallen, Tom!" + +He did not lose completely his self-control. But he grabbed the levers +with less care than he should. He tried to yank two of them at once, +and, in doing so, he fouled the brakes! + +He had shut off connection with the current. But the brake control was +jammed. The locomotive quickly came to a halt. Then, before Tom could +get to the open door, the wheels began spinning in reverse and the +great Hercules 0001 began the descent of the steep grade, utterly +unmanageable! + + + + +Chapter XIX + +Peril, The Mother of Invention + + +Tom Swift's first thought was one of thankfulness. Thankfulness that he +did not have a drag of fifty or sixty steel gondolas or the like to add +their weight to the down-pull. The locomotive's own weight of +approximately two hundred and seventy tons was enough. + +For when the inventor pushed Ned aside and tried to handle the +controllers properly, he found them unmanageable. There was not a +chance of freeing them and getting power on the brakes. The Hercules +0001 was backing down the mountain side with a speed that was +momentarily increasing, and without a chance of retarding it! + +The young inventor at that moment of peril, knew no more what to do to +avert disaster than Ned Newton himself. + +It flashed across his mind, however, that others beside themselves were +in peril because of this accident. The fast express from the East that +should pass Half Way at four-thirteen, might already be climbing the +hill from Hammon. Hammon, at the foot of the grade, was twenty-five +miles away. Nor was the track straight. + +If the operator at Half Way did not see the runaway locomotive and +telephone the danger to the foot of the grade, when the Hercules 0001 +came tearing down the track it might ram something in the Hammon yard, +if it did not actually collide with the approaching westbound express. + +Such an emergency as this is likely either to numb the brains of those +entangled in the peril or excite them to increased activity. Ned Newton +was apparently stunned by the catastrophe. Tom's brain never worked +more clearly. + +He seized the siren lever and set it at full, so that the blast called +up continuous echoes in the forest as the locomotive plunged down the +incline. He ran to the door again, on the side where Half Way station +lay, and hung out to signal the operator who had so recently given him +right of way on this stretch of mountain road. + +"We're going to smash! We're going to smash!" groaned Ned Newton. + +Tom read these words on his chum's lips, rather than heard them, for +the roar of the descending locomotive drowned every other sound. Tom +waved an encouraging hand, but did not reply audibly. + +Meanwhile his brain was working as fast as ever it had. He had +instantly comprehended all the danger of the situation. But in addition +he appreciated the fact that such an accident as this might happen at +any time to this or any other locomotive he might build. + +Automatic brakes were all right. If there had been a good drag of cars +behind the Hercules 0001, on which the compressed air brakes might have +been set, the present manifest peril might have been obliterated. The +brakes on the cars would have stopped the whole train. + +But to halt this huge monster when alone, on the grade, was another +matter. Once the locomotive brake lever was jammed, as in this case, +there was no help for the huge machine. It had to ride to the foot of +the grade--if it did not chance to hit something on the way! + +And with this realization of both the imminent peril and the need of +averting it, to Tom's active brain came the germ of an idea that he +determined to put into force, if he lived through this accident, on +each and every electric locomotive that he might in the future build. + +This monster, flying faster and faster down the mountain side, was a +menace to everything in its track. There might be almost anything in +the way of rolling stock on the section between Half Way and Hammon at +the foot of the grade. If this thunderbolt of wood and steel collided +with any other train, with the force and weight gathered by its plunge +down the mountain, it would drive through such obstruction like a +projectile from Tom's own big cannon. + +Tom realized this fact. He knew that whatever object the Hercules 0001 +might strike, that object would be shattered and scattered all about +the right of way. What might happen to the runaway was another matter. +But the inventor believed that the electric locomotive would be less +injured than anything with which it came into collision. + +At any rate, thought of the peril to himself and his invention had +secondary consideration in Tom Swift's mind. It was what the monster +which he could not control might do to other rolling stock of the H. & +P. A. that rasped the young fellow's mind. + +The grade above Half Way had few curves. Tom soon caught the first +glimpse of the station. Would the operator hear the roar of the +descending runaway and understand what had happened? + +He leaned far out from the open doorway and waved his cap madly. He +began to shout a warning, although he saw not a soul about the station +and knew very well that his voice was completely drowned by the voice +of the siren and the drumming of the great wheels. + +Suddenly the tousled head of the operator popped out of his window. He +saw the coming locomotive, the drivers smoking! + +To be a good railroad man one has to have his wits about him. To be a +good operator at a backwoods station one has to have two sets of +wits--one set to tell what to do in an emergency, the other to listen +and apprehend the voice of the sounder. + +This Half Way man was good. He knew better than to try the telegraph +instrument. He grabbed the telephone receiver and jiggled the hook up +and down on the standard while the Hercules 0001 roared past the +station. + +It did not need Tom's frantically waving cap to warn him what had +happened. And he remembered clearly the fact of the expected westbound +flyer. + +"Hammon? Get me? This is Half Way. That derned electric hog has sprung +something and is coming down, lickity-split! + +"Yes! Clear your yard! Where's Number Twenty-eight? Good! Side her, or +she'll be ditched. Get me?" + +The voice at the other end of the wire exploded into indignant +vituperation. Then silence. The Half Way operator had done his +best--his all. He ran out upon the platform. The electric locomotive +had disappeared behind the woods, but the roar of its wheels and the +shrill voice of its siren echoed back along the line. + +The sound faded into insignificance. The operator went back into his +hut and stayed close by the telephone instrument for the next ten +minutes to learn the worst. + +If the operator's nerves were tense, what about those of Tom Swift and +his chum? Ned staggered to the door and clung to Tom's arm. He shrilled +into the latter's ear: + +"Shall we jump?" + +"I don't see any soft spots," returned Tom, grimly. "There aren't any +life nets along this line." + +Ned Newton was frightened, and with good reason. But if his chum was +equally terrified he did not show it. He continued to lean from the +open door to peer down the grade as the Hercules 0001 drove on. + +Around curve after curve they flew. It entered Ned's tortured mind that +if his chum had wanted speed, he was getting it now! He realized that +two miles a minute was a mere bagatelle to the pace now accomplished by +the runaway locomotive. + + + + +Chapter XX + +The Result + + +As Ned Newton, fumbling at the controls when he saw the fallen tree +across the tracks, had jammed the brakes, the station master at Hammon, +at the bottom of this long grade on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos, had +stepped out to the blackboard in the barnlike waiting room and scrawled +with a bit of chalk: + +"No. 28--Westbound--due 3:38 is 15 m. late." + + +The fact, thus given to the general public or to such of it as might be +interested, averted what would have been a terrible catastrophe. + +The fast express was late. When the babbling voice of the Half Way +operator over the telephone warned Hammon of the coming of the runaway +electric locomotive, there was time to shift switches at the head of +the yard so that, when Number Twenty-eight came roaring in, she was +shunted on to a far track and flagged for a stop before she hit the +bumper. + +Thirty seconds later, from the west, the Hercules 0001 roared down the +grade and shot into the cleared west track in a halo of smoke and dust. +Speed! No runaway had ever traveled faster and kept the rails. The +story of the incident was embalmed in railroad history, and no history +is so full of vivid incident as that of the rail. + +When the first relay of excited railroad men reached the electric +locomotive after it had stopped on the long level, even Ned Newton had +pulled himself together and could look out upon the world with some +measure of calmness. Tom Swift was making certain notes and draughting +a curious little diagram upon a page of his notebook. + +"What happened to you, Mr. Swift?" was the demand of the first arrival. + +"Oh, my foot slipped," said the young inventor, and they got nothing +more out of him than that. + +But to Ned, after the crowd had gone, the inventor said: + +"Ned, my boy, they used to say that necessity was the mother of +invention. Therefore a loaf of bread was considered the maternal parent +of the locomotive. I've got one that will beat that." + +"Whew!" gasped Ned. "How can you? I haven't got my breath back yet." + +"It is peril that is the mother of invention," Tom went on, still +jotting down his notes. "Believe me! that jolt gave me a new idea--an +important idea. Suppose that operator at Half Way had been out back +somewhere, and had not seen or heard us flash by?" + +"Well, suppose he had? What's the answer?" sighed Ned. + +"Like enough we would have rammed something down here." + +"And I hardly understand even now why we didn't do just that," muttered +his chum, with a shake of his head. + +"Wake up, Ned! It's all over," laughed Tom. "While it was happening I +admit I was guessing just as hard as you were about the finish. But--" + +"Your recovery is better," grumbled his friend. "I'm scared yet." + +"And it might happen again--" + +"No--not--ever!" exclaimed Ned. "I shall never touch those controllers +again. I'll drive your airscout, or your fastest automobile, or +anything like that. But me and this electric locomotive have parted +company for good. Yes, sir!" + +"All right. It wasn't your fault. It might happen to any +motor-engineer. And the very fact that it can happen has given me my +idea. I tell you that danger is the mother of invention." + +"As far as I am concerned, it can be father and grandparents into the +bargain," Ned declared, with a smile. + +"Wake up!" cried his friend again. "I have got a dandy idea. I wouldn't +have missed that trip for anything." + +"You are crazy," interrupted Ned. "Suppose we had bumped something?" + +"But we didn't bump anything, except my brain tank. An idea bumped it, +I tell you. I am going to eliminate any such peril as that here-after." + +"You mean you are going to make it impossible for this locomotive ever +to slide down such a hill again if the brakes won't work? Humph! +Meanwhile I will go out and make the nearest water-fall begin to run +upward." + +"Don't scoff. I do not mean just what you mean." + +"I bet you don't!" + +"But although I cannot be sure that a locomotive will never again fall +downhill," said Tom patiently, "I'm going to fix it so that warning +need not be given by some operator along the line. The engineer must +be able to send warning of his accident, both up and down the road." + +"Huh? How are you going to do that?" demanded Ned. + +"Wireless telephone. I may make some improvements on the present +models; but it is practicable. It has been used on submarines and +cruisers, and lately its practicability has been proved in the forestry +service. + +"Every one of these electric locomotives I turn out will be supplied +with wireless sets. The expense of making certain telegraph offices +along the line into receiving stations will be small. I am going to +take that up with Mr. Bartholomew at once. And I am going to fix these +brake controls so that nobody need ball them up again." + +If, out of such a desperate adventure, Tom could bring to fruition +really worthwhile improvements in relation to his invention, Ned +acknowledged the value of the incident. Just the same, he had a +personal objection to having any part in a similar experience. + +He was brave, but he could not forget danger. Tom seemed to throw the +effect of that terrible ride off his mind almost instantly. Ned dreamed +of it at night! + +However, from that time things seemed to go with a rush. Mr. +Bartholomew approved of the young inventor's suggestion regarding the +use of the wireless telephone as a method of averting a certain quality +of danger in the use of the proposed monster locomotive. The railroad +man was convinced that Tom's ideas were finally to culminate in +success, and he was ready to spend money, much money, in pushing on the +work. + +It was not long before a private test of the Hercules 0001 up the grade +from Hammon to Cliff City showed Mr. Bartholomew that the speed he had +required in his contract was attainable. With a drag fully as heavy as +any two locomotives had been able to get over the same sector, the new +locomotive alone marked a forty-five mile an hour pace. + +This attainment was kept quiet; not even the train crew knew what the +monster had done when they reached the summit of the mountain. But Mr. +Bartholomew, who rode with Tom and Ned in the cab, had held his own +watch on the test and compared it every minute with the speedometer. + +"I am satisfied that you are going to do more than I had really hoped, +Mr. Swift," the railroad president said at the end of the run. "Already +you could drive this locomotive at a two-mile-a-minute clip on level +rails, I am sure. Keep at it! Nobody will be more delighted than I +shall be if you pull down that hundred thousand dollars' bonus." + +"That's a fine way to talk, sir," cried Ned, with enthusiasm. + +"I mean every word of it, Mr. Newton. The money is his as soon as he +makes good." + +Both Tom and his financial manager left the president's office in a +satisfied state of mind. + +"Great news to send home, Tom," remarked Ned, when they were alone. + +"Righto, Ned. My father will be glad to hear it." + +"And what about Mary?" And Ned poked his chum in the ribs. + +"I guess she'll be glad too," Tom replied, his face reddening. + +That night Tom sent word to Mary and also a telegram, in code, to his +father, saying the prospects were now bright for a quick finish of the +task that had brought him West. + + + + +Chapter XXI + +The Open Switch + + +Meanwhile the work of electrifying another division of the Hendrickton +& Pas Alos Railroad had been pushed to completion. As Mr. Bartholomew +had in the first place stated, the road controlled water rights in the +hills which would supply any number of electric power stations, and his +enemies could not shut his road off from these waterfalls. + +Tom had not warned his faithful servant, the giant Koku, to watch out +for Andy O'Malley in particular; the inventor knew that the giant would +be as cautious about any stranger as could be wished. But personally +Tom was amazed that either O'Malley or some other henchman of the +president of the Hendrickton & Western did not make an attempt to +injure the electric locomotive. + +"Perhaps Mr. Bartholomew's police are really of some good," said Ned +Newton, when his chum mentioned his surprise on this point. "Has Koku +seen nobody lurking about at night?" + +"He certainly has not seen the man he calls 'Big Feet,'" chuckled Tom. +"If he had spotted O'Malley, there certainly would have been an +explosion." + +"Tell you what," Ned said reflectively, "the longer Lewis keeps off +you, the more suspicious I should be." + +"You think he is a bad citizen, do you?" + +"And then some, as the boys say out here," replied Ned. "I wouldn't +trust that man any farther than I would a nest of hornets or a shedding +rattlesnake." + +"I am inclined to believe, with you, Ned, that Lewis is hatching up +something and is keeping mighty whist about it. I sounded Mr. +Bartholomew on the idea and he, too, is puzzled." + +"I guess he knows that hombre," grumbled Ned. + +"Mr. Bartholomew admits that several roads have sent representatives to +make inquiries about my locomotive. They have got wind of it, and, +after all, most railroads work in unison. What means progress for one +is progress for all." + +"That same rule does not seem to apply in the case of the H. & P. A. +and the H. & W.," remarked Ned. + +"No. They are out and out rivals. And Lewis and his gang have done this +road dirt--no two ways about that. But when I am convinced that my +locomotive has got all the speed and power contracted for, Mr. +Bartholomew wants to invite a bunch of his brother railroaders to see +the tests--to ride in the Hercules Three-Oughts-One, in fact." + +"How about it? You going to agree? Suppose they have some inventive +sharp along who will be able to steal some of your mechanical +contrivances--in his head, I mean," and Ned seemed quite suddenly +anxious. + +"I had thought of that. But before the test I shall send my blueprints +to Washington. Our patent attorney there has already filed tentative +plans and applied for certain patents that I consider completed. Don't +fret. I'll make it impossible for anybody to steal our patents legally." + +"Yes! But illegally?" + +"That we cannot help in any case, and you know it," Tom said. "If some +road tries to build anything like the Hercules Three-Oughts-One for the +first two years without arranging with the Swift Construction Company, +you know that that railroad can be made to suffer in the courts, and +you are the boy, Ned, to put them over the jumps for it." + +"Sure," grumbled his chum. "It's always up to me to save the day." + +"Exactly," chuckled Tom. "And in your character of life saver, do look +out for anybody who looks suspicious hanging about the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One. I'll take care of rival inventors. You and Koku keep +your eyes peeled for the H. & W. spies. Especially for that Andy +O'Malley. I feel that he will again show up. Maybe by 'the pricking of +my thumb' as Macbeth's witch used to remark." + +Every day save Sunday the electric locomotive had some kind of try-out. +On a level track Tom was sure of his monster invention's qualities; but +in the hills, at a distance from the Hendrickton terminal, it was +another matter. + +The grades were steep; but the road was well ballasted. There was +plenty of power. He saw the Jandel locomotives hurry back and forth +with the local trains and realized that this rival invention was by no +means to be despised. + +It was at about this time, too, that Mr. Damon appeared in Hendrickton. +Early one forenoon, when Tom and Ned were preparing to take the +Hercules 0001 out of the yard, and Koku was going to his lodgings to +get a little sleep, Tom's eccentric friend came across the tracks, +waving his cane at Tom. + +"Bless my frogs and switch-targets!" he ejaculated, "I've walked a mile +from that station to get here. Where are you going with that big +contraption? How does it work? Does it make all the speed you want, Tom +Swift? Bless my rails and sleepers!' + +"We're going about a hundred miles out on the road to a good, stiff +grade," Tom told him, having shaken hands in welcome. "If you want to, +get aboard." + +"They haven't blown you up yet, or otherwise wrecked the locomotive," +remarked Mr. Damon, grinning broadly. "I'll have to write right back to +your father--and to a certain young lady who shows a remarkable +interest in your welfare--that you are all right." + +"They should already be sure of that," laughed Tom. "Ned and I have +kept the post-office department and the telegraph company very busy." + +"They are waiting for my report," announced Mr. Damon, with confidence. +"And I am waiting for yours. Tell me, Tom: Is the locomotive a success?" + +"It's going to be," declared the inventor, with decision. + +"Bless my trolley wires!" cried Mr. Damon, "I am glad to hear that. +Then you will surely pull down the extra hundred thousand dollars?" + +"I believe I shall fulfill every clause of the contract Mr. Bartholomew +and I signed," said Tom. + +"Then it's more than a success!" cried his friend. "You have invented +another marvel, Tom Swift!" + +"Marvel or not," rejoined Tom, "I believe that the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One will top anything so far built in the way of electric +locomotives." + +"Hurrah!" cried Mr. Damon. "Bless my controller! But your father and +Mary Nestor will be glad to hear that!" + +Mr. Damon was quite as much interested in this invention as he always +was in anything the young inventor worked upon. When he had once seen +the Hercules 0001 work on an up-grade he was doubly enthusiastic. To +his sanguine mind the locomotive was already completed. He could see no +possibility of failure. + +Tom, however, had to prove to his own satisfaction the success of every +detail of his invention before he was willing to tell Mr. Bartholomew +that he was ready for a public test. Mr. Damon, nor even Ned, could +scarcely see the reason for Tom's caution. + +Tom's favorite try-out grade was between Hammon and Cliff City. He +could obtain a right of way order from the train dispatcher on that +grade, sometimes of an hour's duration. He often snaked a load of +gondolas or cattle cars up the grade, relieving both the puller and +pusher steam locomotive. By this time the H. & P. A. system had +stopped using the Jandel machines on any grades. They had proved their +lack of power for such work. + +"But the Hercules Three-Oughts-One shows at every test that it has the +kick," Mr. Damon cried. + +In his enthusiasm he was out every day with Tom and Ned. And sometimes +Koku remained in the cab during the trial runs as well. + +On one such occasion Tom had drawn a heavy train over the mountain, +taking it down the grade beyond Cliff City to Panboro in the farther +valley. This was over a newly built stretch of the electrified road. +The power station charged the trolley cables with an abundance of +current, and the Hercules 0001 made a splendid trip. + +"Bless my cuff-links!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, his rosy face one beaming +smile. "You couldn't expect to do better than this. You save one +locomotive on the haul, and you beat the schedule ten minutes, so that +you had to lay by to get right of way into the yard here. Why linger +longer, Tom?" + +"I agree with Mr. Damon," Ned said. "It seems to work perfectly. And +you have, I believe, established your required speed." + +"Can't be too perfect," said the young inventor, smiling. "But I will +tell Mr. Bartholomew when we get back that he can set his time for the +big test whenever he pleases. I have already sent our patent attorney +in Washington the final blueprints. Now, if nothing happens--" + +"Bless my stickpin!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "What can happen now that the +locomotive is practically perfect?" + +That question was answered in one way, and a most startling way, within +the hour. Tom got right of way back over the mountain and pushed the +electric locomotive up-grade at almost top speed. He drew no train on +this occasion, and the speed made by the Hercules 0001 was really +remarkable. + +They topped the rise at Cliff City and got orders from the dispatcher +to proceed on the time of Number Eighty-seven, which chanced to be +late. With that release Tom might have made the entire distance of a +hundred and ten miles to Hendrickton had it not been for the +accident--the unexpected something that so often happens in the +railroad business. + +Tom was a careful driver; the chatter of Ned and Mr. Damon did not take +the inventor's mind off his business for one instant. He was quite +alert at his window, looking ahead, as Koku was at the open doorway of +the cab. + +Not a mile outside of Cliff City, and on this eastbound side of the +right of way, was a long siding and a shipping point for timber. It was +sometimes a busy point; but at this time of year there were no +lumbermen about and no activities in the adjacent forest. + +The Hercules 0001 came spinning along from the Cliff City yards, and +Tom Swift gave scarcely a glance to the joint of the switch ahead. He +had been over it so many times of late, and knew that it was always +locked. The railroad did not even keep a man here at this season. + +Suddenly Koku emitted a wild yell. He startled everybody else in the +cab, as he flung his huge body more than half out of the doorway and +prepared to jump--or so it seemed. + +Ned shrieked a warning to the big fellow. Mr. Damon began to bless +everything in sight. But it was Tom, quite as excited as his friends, +who understood what Koku shouted: + +"Big Feet! Big Feet! I see um Big Feet, Master!" + +The next moment he threw himself from the rapidly moving locomotive. He +might have been killed easily enough. But fortunately he landed feet +first in the drift beside the rails, and remained upright as he slid +down into the ditch. + +Tom, glancing ahead again, saw the flash of a man in a checked Mackinaw +running up through the open wood and away from the right of way. He +could not be sure of Andy O'Malley's figure at that distance; but he +could be pretty confident of Koku's identification. + +And then, with a shock that gripped and almost paralyzed his mind, Tom +saw again the switch ahead of the pilot of the Hercules 0001. The +switch was open, and at the speed the electric locomotive had attained, +if she did not jump the rails, it seemed scarcely possible that she +could be stopped before hitting the bumper at the end of the siding! + + + + +Chapter XXII + +A Desperate Chase + + +These moments were fraught with peril, and not alone peril to the huge +machine that Tom Swift had built, but peril to those who remained in +the cab of the electric locomotive, as her forward trucks struck the +open switch. + +There was a mighty jerk that brought a shout from Ned Newton's lips and +a grunt from Mr. Damon. Tom clung to his swivel-seat, staring ahead. + +The pilot of the electric locomotive shot over on the siding; the +forward trucks followed, then the great drivers. The whole locomotive +swerved into the siding, but for several breathless seconds Tom was not +at all sure that the monster would not jump the rails and head into the +ditch! + +Meanwhile his gaze measured the speed of that flying figure in the +Mackinaw as it scuttled up the slope through the open grove of hard +wood and pine. He could not at first see Koku, but he knew the giant +was headed for the fugitive, whether the latter proved to be Andy +O'Malley or not. + +Tom's gaze flashed to what lay ahead of the electric locomotive. As it +seemed to joggle back into balance, gain its uprightness, as it were, +the inventor saw the great, log-braced bumper between the two rails at +the end of the siding. With what force would the locomotive hit that +obstruction? + +Until the trailers were over the switch Tom dared not give her the +brakes. To lock the brake shoes upon the wheels might easily throw the +locomotive off the rails. But the instant he felt the tail of the long +locomotive swerve off the switch he jabbed the compressed air lever and +the wild shriek of the brake shoes answered to his effort. + +Then the bumper was but a few yards ahead. The electric locomotive was +bound to collide with it. And under the speed at which it had been +running, now scarcely reduced by half, the collision was apt to be a +tragic happening! + +Weeks of effort might be ruined in that moment! If the crash was +serious, thousands of dollars might be lost! In truth, Tom Swift +apprehended the possibility of a disaster, the complete results of +which might put the test of his invention forward for weeks--perhaps +for months. + +Nor could he do a thing to avert the disaster. He had reversed and set +the brakes immediately after the last wheel of the trailer was on the +siding. Nothing more could he do as the great electric locomotive bore +down upon the solid timber at the far end of this short track. + +Those few seconds, as the locked wheels slid toward the end of the +siding, were about as hard to bear as any experience the young inventor +had ever gone through. It was not so much the peril of the accident, it +was the possibility of what might happen to the locomotive. + +Within those few moments, however, Tom considered more than the safety +of his companions and himself, and more than the peril of wreck to his +locomotive. He considered the schedule of the trains on this division +of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos and remembered all those that might be +within this sector at this time. + +If the locomotive smashed into the bumper with force enough to wreck +the structure, would some approaching train on the westbound track not +be endangered? + +The thought was parent to Tom's act before the collision occurred. With +a single swift motion he reached for the signaling apparatus which he +had established in connection with his wireless telephone. + +Just the moment before the head of the locomotive rammed that seemingly +immovable barrier at the end of the siding there flashed into the air +from Tom's annunciator the code word agreed upon announcing a wreck, +and the number of the sector on which the electric locomotive was then +running. + +The next moment the crash occurred. + +Tom had leaped up with a shout of warning. "Hang on!" was his cry. But +when the locomotive had struck and rebounded Ned, from far down the +aisle of the locomotive, wanted to know in a very peevish tone what he +should have hung on to? + +"My elbows!" he groaned. "I've skinned 'em, and my back has got a twist +in it like the Irishman thought he had when he put on his overalls +hind-side to. What's happened?" + +"Bless my radiolite!" growled Mr. Damon. "My watch crystal is broken +all to finders, if you want to know. Bless my shock-absorbers! you +won't do this locomotive a bit of good, Tom Swift, if you stop it so +abruptly." + +"And that's the surest word you ever said," responded Tom, hurrying to +the door. "I don't know what's broken, but we're still on the rails. +The most immediate thing to learn, is the where-abouts of the fellow +who did this." + +"Who opened the switch?" cried Ned. + +"I believe it was Andy O'Malley. Come on, Ned! Koku is after him and I +don't want him to tear O'Malley apart before I get there." + +"O'Malley has got powerful interests behind him, and it might go hard +with Koku if he injured the spy and some of these Westerners caught +him," suggested Mr. Damon. + +"They ought to thank Koku for manhandling the fellow--if he does," said +Ned. + +"As a matter of fact," replied Tom, "Koku will merely hold to the +fellow until we get there. But my giant's strength is enormous, and he +does not always know the strength of his grasp. He might hurt the +fellow. Come on," and Tom leaped from the doorway of the electric +locomotive. + +Ned leaped down the ladder after his chum. + +"Which way did they go?" he asked. + +"Across the ditch and up the hill," said Tom. "Mr. Damon!" he called +back to that eccentric man, "will you please remain there and watch the +locomotive?" + +"I certainly will. And I'm armed, too," shouted Mr. Damon. "Don't fear +for this locomotive, Tom. I am right on the job." + +Tom waved his hand in reply, leaped the ditch, and started up through +the wood. Ned was close behind him, and the two young men ran as hard +as they could in the direction Tom had seen Andy O'Malley, followed by +the giant, running. + +In places the earth was slippery with pine needles, and the ground was +elsewhere rough. Therefore the chums did not make much speed in running +after the giant and his quarry. But Tom was sure of the direction in +which the two had disappeared, and he and Ned kept doggedly on. + +They went over the crest of the hill and lost sight of the siding and +the locomotive. Here was a sharp descent into a gulch, and some rods +away, in the bottom of this gully, the young fellows obtained their +first sight of Koku. He was still running with mighty strides and was +evidently within sight of the man he had set out after in such haste. + +"Hey! Koku!" shouted Tom Swift. + +The giant's hearing was of the keenest. He glanced back and raised his +arm in greeting. But he did not slacken his pace. + +"He must see O'Malley, Tom," cried Ned Newton. + +"I am sure he does. And I want to get there about as soon as Koku grabs +the fellow," panted Tom. + +"He'll maul O'Malley unmercifully," said Ned. + +"I don't want Koku to injure him," admitted Tom, and he increased his +own stride as he plunged down into the gully. + +The young inventor distanced his chum within the next few moments. Tom +ran like a deer. He reached the bottom of the gully and kept on after +Koku's crashing footsteps. At every jump, too, he began to shout to the +giant: + +"Koku! Hold him!" + +The giant's voice boomed back through the heavy timber: "I catch him! I +hold him for Master! I break all um bones! Wait till Koku catch him!" + +"Hold him, Koku!" yelled Tom again. "Be careful and don't hurt him till +I get there!" + +He could not see what the giant was doing. The timber was thicker down +here. It might be that the giant would seize the man roughly. His zeal +in Tom's cause was great, and, of course, his strength was enormous. + +Yet Tom did not want to call the giant off the trail. Andy O'Malley +must be captured at this time. He had done enough, too much, indeed, in +attempting the ruin of Tom's plans. Before the matter went any further +the young inventor was determined that Montagne Lewis' spy should be +put where he would be able to do no more harm. + +But he did not want the man permanently injured. He knew now that Koku +was so wildly excited that he might set upon O'Malley as he would upon +an enemy in his own country. + +"Koku! Stop! Wait for me!" Tom finally shouted. + +Now the young inventor got no reply from the giant. Had the latter got +so far ahead that he no longer heard his master's command? + +Tom pounded on, working his legs like pistons, putting every last ounce +of energy he possessed into his effort. This was indeed a desperate +chase. + + + + +Chapter XXIII + +Mr. Damon at Bay + + +Mr. Wakefield Damon was a very odd and erratic gentleman, but he did +not lack courage. He was much more disturbed by the possible injury to +Tom Swift's invention by this collision with the bumper at the end of +the timber siding than he had been by his own danger at the time of the +accident. + +He did not understand enough about the devices Tom had built in the +forward end of the locomotive cab to understand, by any casual +examination, if they were at all injured. But when he climbed down +beside the track he saw at once that the forward end of the locomotive +had received more than a little injury. + +The pilot, or cow-catcher, looked more like an iron cobweb than it did +like anything else. The wheels of the forward trucks had not left the +track, but the impact of the heavy locomotive with the bumper had been +so great that the latter was torn from its foundations. A little more +and the electric locomotive would have shot off the end of the rails +into the ditch. + +While Mr. Damon was examining the front of the locomotive, and Tom and +Ned remained absent, he suddenly observed a group of men hurrying out +of the forest on the other side of the H. & P. A. right of way. They +were not railroad men--at least, they were not dressed in uniform--but +they were drawn immediately to the locomotive. + +The leader of the party was a squarely built man with a determined +countenance and a heavy mustache much blacker than his iron gray hair. +He was a bullying looking man, and he strode around the rear of the +locomotive and came forward just as though he was confident of boarding +the machine by right. + +Mr. Damon, knowing himself in the wilderness and not liking the +appearance of this group of strangers, had retired at once to the cab, +and now stood in the doorway. + +"Where's that young fool Swift?" growled the man with the dyed +mustache, looking up at Mr. Damon and laying one hand upon the rail +beside the ladder. + +"Don't know any such person," declared Mr. Damon promptly. + +"You don't know Tom Swift?" cried the man. + +"Oh! That's another matter," said Mr. Damon coolly. "I don't know any +fool named Swift, either young or old. Bless my blinkers! I should say +not." + +"Isn't he here?" demanded the man, gruffly. + +"Tom Swift isn't here just now--no." + +"I'm coming up," announced the stranger, and started to put his foot on +the first rung of the iron ladder. + +"You're not," said Mr. Damon, promptly. + +"What's that?" ejaculated the man. + +"You only think you are coming up here. But you are not. Bless my +fortune telling cards!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I should say not." + +At this point the black-mustached man began to splutter words and +threats so fast that nobody could quite understand him. Mr. Damon, +however, did not shrink in the least. He stood adamant in the doorway +of the cab. + +Finding little relief in bad language, the enemy made another attempt +to climb up. For one thing, he was physically brave. He did not call on +his companions to go where he feared to. + +"I'll show you!" he bawled, and scrambled up the rungs of the ladder. + +Mr. Damon did show him. He drew from some pocket a black object with a +bulb and a long barrel. Somebody below on the cinder path shouted: + +"Look out, boss he's got a gun!" + +At that moment the marauder reached out to seize Mr. Damon's coat. Then +the object in Mr. Damon's hand spat a fine spray into the florid face +of the enemy! + +"Whoo! Achoo! By gosh!" bawled the big man, and he fell back screaming +other ejaculations. + +"Bless my face and eyes!" cried Mr. Damon. "What did I tell you? And +you other fellows want to notice it. Tom Swift isn't here just at this +precise moment; but he is guarding his locomotive just the same. He +invented this ammonia pistol, and I should say it was effectual. Do +you?" + +The eccentric man was shrewd enough now to keep behind the jamb of the +cab door. For some of these fellows, he realized, might be armed with +more deadly weapons than his own. + +"Hey, Mr. Lewis!" cried one big fellow, "d'you want we should get that +fellow for you?" + +"I want to know how badly that blamed thing is smashed," replied the +big man with the dyed mustache savagely. "Where's O'Malley?" + +"O'Malley's lit out, Boss, like I told you. That giant and them other +fellows is after him." + +"Break into that cab! Oh! My eyes! I'll kill that old fool! Break a +way in there--What's that?" + +In pain as he was, his other senses were alert. He was first to hear +the screeching whistle of the on-coming freight. + +"Think they got wind of this so quick?" demanded Montagne Lewis, for it +was he. "Are they sending help from Cliff City?" + +"It's a regular freight," returned one of his men. + +"She's comm' a-whizzin'," added another. "Right down the eastbound +track. If the crew see us--" + +"Wait!" commanded Lewis. "Isn't that switch open?" + +"You bet it is, Boss." + +"Let it be, then," cried the chief plotter. "Let 'em run into it. That +freight will smash up this electric locomotive more completely than we +could possibly do it. Stand away, men, and let her go!" + +A sharp curve in the right of way hid the siding, as well as the open +switch into it, from the gaze of the engineer who held the throttle of +the coming freight. His locomotive drew a string of empties, eastbound, +and having had a heavy pull of it coming up the grade to Cliff City, as +soon as he had got the highball from the yardmaster there, he had "let +her out," and was now coming to the head of the down grade to Hammon at +high speed. + +As it chanced, the wireless receiving station of Tom's new telephone +system was not yet completed at Cliff City. The news of the wreck of +the Hercules 0001 and her position had not been relayed to the master +of the Cliff City yards. + +That employee of the H. & P. A. had taken a chance in letting the +string of empties through his block. He knew the electric locomotive +was somewhere ahead, but he thought it would be making its usual time +and would have already passed Half Way. + +But the situation was serious. The freight was coming along at top +speed and the switch into the siding was still open. Montagne Lewis and +his crew of ruffians might well stand back and let what seemed sure to +happen, happen! The driving freight must do more harm to Tom Swift's +invention than they could have hoped to do with the sledges and bars +they had brought with them to the spot. + +Mr. Wakefield Damon had shown his courage already. He would have been +glad to do more to save Tom's locomotive from further injury, but he +did not realize what was threatening. He did not hear the shriek of the +freight engine's whistle. + + + + +Chapter XXIV + +Putting the Enemy to Flight + + +The pilot and headlight of the freight locomotive came around the turn +and the freight thundered on toward the switch. Seeing the group of men +standing by the stalled electric locomotive, and the locomotive itself +in the clear of the siding, the driver of the freight did not suppose +the switch was open. Nobody who was not a criminal would have stood by +idly in such an emergency and let the freight run into an open switch. + +Therefore, for the first minute, the coming engineer did not observe +his danger. Lewis and his gang stared at the head of the freight and +did nothing. They had moved hastily back from the siding so as to be +clear of the wreckage. Mr. Damon was in the front of the cab of +Hercules 0001 and had no idea of the approaching menace. + +But of a sudden a loud shout echoed through the wood. Tom Swift came +over the ridge and started toward his invention at top speed. From that +height he saw the freight train coming, he observed the men standing at +the siding, and he recognized Montagne Lewis, roughly as the railroad +magnate was dressed. + +Instantly Tom realized what was about to happen--what would surely +occur--and he saw what must be done if the utter wreck of his +locomotive was to be averted. Yelling at the top of his voice, he +leaped down the slope. + +"That's Swift!" shouted Lewis. "Stop him!" But the men he had hired to +do his wicked work fell back instead of trying to halt the young +inventor. It was not Tom's appearance that made them quail. Over the +ridge there appeared a second figure--and a more fearful or threatening +apparition none of them had ever before seen! + +Koku came running with the limp body of Andy O'Malley slung over his +shoulder like a bag of meal. The fellows knew it was Andy from his +dress. + +The giant came down the slope after Tom as though he wore the +seven-league boots. The fellows Lewis had hired to wreck the electric +locomotive shrank back from before both Tom and the giant. + +"Get him!" yelled the half blinded Lewis again. + +"Get your grandmother!" bawled one of the men suddenly. "Good-night!" + +He turned tail and ran, disappearing almost instantly into the thicker +woods. And his mates, after a moment of wavering, sped after him. Lewis +was left alone, quite helpless because of the ammonia fumes. + +As a matter of fact not all of O'Malley's predicament was due to Koku. +The rascal, exhausted by his run and half blind through fright and +rage, had stumbled, fallen, and struck his head on a root, which +rendered him unconscious. + +This, of course, Lewis and his ruffians did not know. All the men of +the railroad president's gang saw was the gigantic Koku coming along in +great strides, bearing the unconscious O'Malley, who was a burly +fellow, as though he were a featherweight. No wonder they fled from +such a monster. + +Tom had reached the switch, and he was several seconds ahead of the +freight locomotive. The engineer saw the open switch then; but he was +too late to stop his train. + +Going into reverse, however, helped some. Tom seized the switch lever +and threw it over, locking it in place, just as the forward trucks +thundered upon the joint. The train swept by in safety, and the +engineer leaned from his cab window to wave a grateful hand at the +young inventor. + +Neither the engineer nor the crew of the freight understood the meaning +of the scene at the timber siding. All they learned was that Tom Swift +had saved the freight from a possible wreck. + +The young inventor turned sharply from the switch and motioned with his +hand to Koku. + +"Throw that fellow into the cab, Koku," he commanded. + +The giant did as he was told, just as Ned Newton came panting to the +spot. + +"Did they do any harm, Tom?" he cried. Then he saw Montagne Lewis +standing by, and he seized his chum's arm. "Do you see what I see, +Tom?" he demanded, earnestly. + +"I guess we both see the same snake," rejoined his chum. "And I mean to +scotch it." + +"Montagne Lewis!" murmured Ned. "And we've got his chief tool." + +Tom said nothing to his chum, but he approached Lewis with determined +mien. + +"I can see something has happened to you, Mr. Lewis, and I can guess +what it is. The effect of that ammonia will blow away after a time. Ask +your friend, Andy O'Malley. He knows all about it, for he sampled it +back East, in Shopton." + +"I'm going to get square for this, young man," growled the railroad +magnate. "You know who I am. And that fellow in the cab knew me, too. +How dared he shoot that stuff into my face and eyes?" + +"I fancy it didn't take much daring on Mr. Damon's part," and Tom +actually chuckled. "A big crook isn't any more important in our eyes +than a little crook. We've got your henchman, O'Malley--" + +"And you'd better let him go. I'm telling you," snarled Lewis. "I'll +ruin you in this country, Tom Swift. I've got influence--" + +"You won't have much after this thing comes out. And believe me, I mean +to spread it abroad. I've got nothing to win or lose from you, Mr. +Lewis. As for O'Malley, I'll put him behind the bars for a good long +term." + +"You'll do a lot--" + +"More than you think," said Tom. "Koku!" The giant had pitched +O'Malley, who was still senseless, into the cab, and now was coming up +behind Lewis. + +"Yes, Master," said the giant. + +"Get him!" + +"Yes, Master," said Koku, and to Lewis' startled amazement, the next +instant he was in the hands of the giant! + +He screamed and threatened, and even kicked, to no avail. When he was +pitched into the electric locomotive he was held under the threat of +Mr. Damon's ammonia pistol until Tom and Ned and the giant entered and +the door was shut. Then Koku proceeded to tie both the prisoners by +wrist and ankle while the others examined the mechanism of the Hercules +0001. + +The pantagraph had been torn off the trolley wires when the locomotive +had gone on the siding. But now Tom climbed to the roof of the +locomotive, and with Koku's aid managed to set the rear pantagraph at +such an angle that its wheels caught the trolley cables again, and once +more the current was pumped into the Hercules 0001. + +Tom tried out the several parts of the mechanism and found that, +despite the jar of the collision, nothing was really injured. + +"I built this thing to withstand hard usage," he declared with pride. +"The Swift Hercules Electric Locomotives will not be built for parlor +ornaments. She is going to run into Hendrickton under her own power, in +spite of a smashed cows catcher and target lights." + +"Is nothing really injured, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon. "Bless my dinner +set! I thought everything had gone to smash when she hit that bumper." + +"She will be as good as new in a week," declared Tom, with conviction. + +This prophecy of the young inventor proved to be true. A week from that +day the public test of the electric locomotive on the Hendrickton & Pas +Alos Railroad was held. A picked delegation of railroad men was present +to observe and marvel, with Mr. Bartholomew; but Montagne Lewis, the +president of the H. & W., was not one of those who attended. + +Of course, Lewis soon got out of jail on bail. But the accusation +against him was a serious one. His guilt would be proved by his own +employee, Andy O'Malley, who was in a hospital for the time being. + +O'Malley had got enough. He had turned State's evidence and implicated +his employer. Influential and wealthy as Lewis was, he could not escape +trial with O'Malley when the time came. + +"One thing sure, Lewis has got all he wants. He isn't likely to try any +more crooked work against the H. & P. A.," Mr. Bartholomew said. "I can +thank you for that, Tom Swift, as well as for your invention. You +have saved the day for my railroad." + +"You can thank Koku," chuckled Tom. "If he hadn't spied and identified +'Big Feet,' we might not have caught O'Malley, and, through O'Malley, +implicated Montagne Lewis. You give Koku a new suit of clothes, Mr. +Bartholomew, and we will call it square. But be sure and have the +pattern of the goods loud enough." + +This conversation took place while the party of guests was gathering to +board Mr. Bartholomew's private car, attached to the Hercules 0001. Mr. +Damon was one of the guests and so was Ned Newton. Tom took into the +cab a crew of H. & P. A. men who would hereafter drive the huge +locomotive and take care of her. + +The semaphore signal dropped and the electric locomotive started as +quietly as a baby going to sleep! There was not a jar as the train +moved off the siding and over the switches to the main line. + +The dispatcher had arranged a clear road for them. Tom knew that he had +a free track ahead of him--a level of ninety-odd miles to the Hammon +yards. As he passed the Hendrickton shops he touched the siren lever +for a moment, and the shrill voice of the Hercules 0001 bade the town +good-bye. + +The next minute the visitors in the private car grabbed out their +split-second watches and began to murmur. The electric locomotive had +begun to travel! + + + + +Chapter XXV + +Speed and Success + + +"What town is that?" + +"Looks like a splotch of paint on a board fence, we went by so quick." + +"I've lost count, Bartholomew. Where are we?" + +Ned Newton listened to these comments from the visiting railroad men +with delight. In reply to a question of his neighbor, the grinning +financial manager of the Swift Construction Company paid: + +"No, sir. That isn't a picket fence. It's the telegraph poles you see, +and they are no nearer together than on another railroad. But we're +going some." + +"Bless my railroad stock!" shouted Mr. Damon, "I should say we were." + +The electric locomotive and the private car were hurled toward the Pas +Alos Range at a speed that almost frightened some of the guests. + +"Three-quarters of an hour!" gasped one man as they began to see the +outskirts of Hammon. "And ninety-six miles? Great Scott, Bartholomew! +that's over two miles a minute!" + +"That is the speed we set out to get," Mr. Richard Bartholomew said, +with quite as much pride as though he had done it all himself. + +But it had been his suggestion and his money that had accomplished this +wonder. Tom Swift was willing to give the railroad president his share +of the fame. + +The train scarcely slackened speed at Hammon, for Tom got the signal +announcing a clear track ahead, and he bucked the grade with all the +power he could get from the feed wires. This hill, so well known to him +now, was surmounted at a slightly decreased speed; but it was a +wonderful display of power after all. + +They went down the other side to Panboro and there linked up with an +eastbound freight that the Hercules 0001 snatched over the mountain to +Hammon at a pace slightly exceeding forty-five miles an hour--at least +twice the speed that any two oil-burning locomotives could attain. As +for the Jandels, they were not in the same class at all with Tom +Swift's locomotive! + +"Bless my speedometer!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, when the train pulled down +and stopped again at the Hendrickton terminal. "This is the greatest +test of speed and power I ever heard of. Why, a coal burner or an oil +burner isn't in it with this Hercules locomotive! What do you say, Mr. +Bartholomew?" + +"I'll say I am satisfied--completely and thoroughly satisfied, Mr. +Damon," said the president of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad +frankly. "Mr. Swift has fulfilled his contract in every particular." + +An hour later the young inventor and his two friends were in conference +with Mr. Bartholomew over a new contract. The bonus of a hundred +thousand dollars would be paid at once to the Swift Construction +Company. But as the elder Swift's name would be needed on the new +contract for the building of other Hercules locomotives, Tom had an +idea. + +"We won't send the papers East for father to sign," he said. "I want +him to see the locomotive in real action. And I know where he can +borrow a private car and come out here in comfort. Rad can come with +him." + +"Bless my valentines!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I bet somebody else will +come too." + +Mr. Damon must have been a prophet, for a fortnight later, when the +borrowed car got in to the Hendrickton terminal at the tail of the +transcontinental flyer, Tom Swift saw first of all Mary Nestor's rosy +face on the platform of the car. + +"Tom! are you all right?" she cried, beaming down upon the young +inventor. + +"No. Half of me is left," he said, grinning up at her. "You look great, +Mary!" + +"Do you think so?" she cried, dimpling. "Well, if anybody should ask +you, Mr. Tom Swift, you look very good to me." + +"Don't make me swell all up, Mary," he laughed. "How's father?" + +"Splendid! And Rad--" + +"Eradicate Sampson is sho' 'nough puffectly all right," broke in the +voice of the old colored man, eager to make himself heard and seen. +"Here I is, Massa Tom. What dat lizard doin' here? Ain't he a sight?" + +The old man had caught sight of Koku in the wonderful new suit Mr. +Bartholomew had ordered made for the giant. A Navajo blanket had +nothing on that suit for a mixture of colors, and Koku strutted like a +turkey-gobbler. + +"My lawsy!" gasped Rad again, "he's as purty as a sunset. Is dat de way +de tailors out here build a man up? Sure's yo live, Massa Tom, I needs +a new suit of clo'es myself." + +And before he got away from Hendrickton, Rad Sampson sported a suit off +the same piece of goods as that of Koku's. Otherwise there might have +been a lasting feud between the giant and the Swift's ancient serving +man. + +Mr. Barton Swift had stood the easy journey in the private car very +well. Before he would sign the contract that Mr. Bartholomew offered, +he wished to see for himself just how good his son's invention was. + +They made another test from Hendrickton to Panboro, over the "official +route," as Ned called it. The time made by Hercules 0001 was even a +little better than before. + +That the invention was well nigh perfect, and that it could do even +more than Mr. Bartholomew had hoped or Tom had claimed, was Mr. Swift's +conviction. + +"Tom," he said to his son, "you have done a wonderful thing. Not only +have you completed a marvelous invention and gained thereby a lot of +money, and more in prospect, but you have aided in the world's progress +to no small degree. + +"Speed in transportation is the big problem before the world of +commerce today. To move goods from point to point safely and cheaply, +as well as rapidly, is the great task of this age. We are entering the +Age of Speed. The railroads must solve the problem to compete with +motor-truck traffic and fast boats on the lakes and rivers of our land. + +"You have, by your invention, shoved the clock of progress forward. I +am proud of you, my boy. I know now that, no matter what may happen to +me, you will make an enviable mark in the world of invention. + +"You have done much before for the Government in time of stress. But +war engines of any kind are not worthy examples of inventive genius +beside such a thing as this. + +"It is the inventions of peace, rather than those of war, that stand +for human progress." + +Coming back over the mountain, Mary Nestor rode in the cab with Tom. +She sat on the swivel stool, in fact, and handled the controls for part +of the way. But she gave up the driver's place to Tom before they +reached the timber siding east of Cliff City. + +"I cannot go by that place without a shudder," Mary said to the +inventor. "Ned and Mr. Damon told me all about that accident. Suppose +you had been killed, Tom!" + +"I see I'll have to build an invention that will make that impossible," +chuckled the young fellow. + +"Make what impossible?" + +"Some invention that will make it positively certain that no matter +what I do or where I go, nothing can harm me. Nothing else will suit +you, Mary, I plainly see." + +"Well," returned the girl, smiling fondly at him. "I admit that would +satisfy me completely!" + + + + + +This Isn't ALL! + + +Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made in +this book? + +Would you like to read other stories continuing their adventures and +experiences, or other books quite as entertaining by the same author? + +On the reverse side of the wrapper which comes with this book, you will +find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the same store +where you got this book. + + +Don't throw away the Wrapper + +Use it as a handy catalog of the books you want some day to have. But +in case you do mislay it, write to the Publishers for a complete +catalog. + + +THE TOM SWIFT SERIES + +By VICTOR APPLETON + +Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers. + Every Volume Complete in Itself. +Every boy possesses some form of inventive genius. Tom Swift is a +bright, ingenious boy and his inventions and adventures make the most +interesting kind of reading. + + TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP + TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE + TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS + TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER + TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE + TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER + TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY + TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA + TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON + TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP + TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL + TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS + TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH + TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS + TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING BOAT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT OIL GUSHER + TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHEST OF SECRETS + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRLINE EXPRESS + + + + +THE DON STURDY SERIES + +By VICTOR APPLETON + +Individual Colored Wrappers and Text illustrations by WALTER S. ROGERS + +Every Volume Complete in Itself + +In company with his uncles, one a mighty hunter and the other a noted +scientist, Don Sturdy travels far and wide, gaining much useful +knowledge and meeting many thrilling adventures. + +DON STURDY ON THE DESERT OF MYSTERY; + Or, Autoing in the Land of the Caravans. + +An engrossing tale of the Sahara Desert, of encounters with wild +animals and crafty Arabs. + +DON STURDY WITH THE BIG SNAKE HUNTERS; + Or, Lost in the Jungles of the Amazon. + +Don's uncle, the hunter, took an order for some of the biggest snakes +to be found in South America--to be delivered alive! The filling of +that order brought keen excitement to the boy. + +DON STURDY IN THE TOMBS OF GOLD; + Or, The Old Egyptian's Great Secret. + +A fascinating tale of exploration and adventure in the Valley of Kings +in Egypt. Once the whole party became lost in the maze of cavelike +tombs far underground. + +DON STURDY ACROSS THE NORTH POLE; + Or, Cast Away in the Land of Ice. + +Don and his uncles joined an expedition bound by air across the north +pole. A great polar blizzard nearly wrecks the airship. + +DON STURDY IN THE LAND OF VOLCANOES; + Or, The Trail of the Ten Thousand Smokes. + +An absorbing tale of adventures among the volcanoes of Alaska in a +territory but recently explored. A story that will make Don dearer to +his readers than ever. + + + + +THE RADIO BOYS SERIES (Trademark Registered) + +By ALLEN CHAPMAN + +Author of the "Railroad Series," Etc. Individual Colored Wrappers. +Illustrated. Every Volume Complete in Itself. + +A new series for boys giving full details of radio work, both in +sending and receiving--telling how small and large amateur sets can be +made and operated, and how some boys got a lot of fun and adventure out +of what they did. Each volume from first to last is so thoroughly +fascinating, so strictly up-to-date and accurate, we feel sure all lads +will peruse them with great delight. + +Each volume has a Foreword by Jack Binns, the well-known radio expert. + +THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS; + Or, Winning the Ferberton Prize. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT; + Or, The Messsage That Saved the Ship. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT THE SENDING STATION; + Or, Making Good in the Wireless Room. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS; + Or, The Midnight Call for Assistance. + +THE RADIO BOYS TRAILING A VOICE; + Or, Solving a Wireless Mystery. + +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE FOREST RANGERS; + Or, The Great Fire on Spruce Mountain. + +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE ICEBERG PATROL; + Or, Making Safe the Ocean Lanes. + +RADIO BOYS WITH THE FLOOD FIGHTERS; + Or, Saving the City in the Valley. + + + +THE RAILROAD SERIES + +By ALLEN CHAPMAN + +Author of the "Radio Boys," Etc. + +Uniform Style of Binding. Illustrated. + +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + + +In this line of books there is revealed the whole workings of a great +American railroad system. There are adventures in abundance--railroad +wrecks, dashes through forest fires, the pursuit of a "wildcat" +locomotive, the disappearance of a pay car with a large sum of money on +board--but there is much more than this--the intense rivalry among +railroads and railroad men, the working out of running schedules, the +getting through "on time" in spite of all obstacles, and the +manipulation of railroad securities by evil men who wish to rule or +ruin. + +RALPH OF THE ROUND HOUSE; + Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man. + +RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER; + Or, Clearing the Track. + +RALPH ON THE ENGINE; + Or, The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail. + +RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS; + Or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer. + +RALPH, THE TRAIN DISPATCHER; + Or, the Mystery of the Pay Car. + +RALPH ON THE ARMY TRAIN; + Or, The Young Railroader's Most Daring Exploit. + +RALPH ON THE MIDNIGHT FLYER; + Or, The Wreck at Shadow Valley. + +RALPH AND THE MISSING MAIL POUCH; + Or, The Stolen Government Bonds. + + + + +THE RIDDLE CLUB BOOKS By ALICE DALE HARDY + +Individual Colored Wrappers. Attractively Illustrated. Every Volume +Complete in Itself. + +Here is as ingenious a series of books for little folks as has ever +appeared since "Alice in Wonderland." The idea of the Riddle books is a +little group of children--three girls and three boys decide to form a +riddle club. Each book is full of the adventures and doings of these +six youngsters, but as an added attraction each book is filled with a +lot of the best riddles you ever heard. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT HOME + +An absorbing tale that all boys and girls will enjoy reading. How the +members of the club fixed up a clubroom in the Larue barn, and how +they, later on, helped solve a most mysterious happening, and how one +of the members won a valuable prize, is told in a manner to please +every young reader. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB IN CAMP + +The club members went into camp on the edge of a beautiful lake. Here +they had rousing good times swimming, boating and around the campfire. +They fell in with a mysterious old man known as The Hermit of Triangle +Island. Nobody knew his real name or where he came from until the +propounding of a riddle solved these perplexing questions. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS + +This volume takes in a great number of winter sports, including skating +and sledding and the building of a huge snowman. It also gives the +particulars of how the club treasurer lost the dues entrusted to his +care and what the melting of the great snowman revealed. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT SUNRISE BEACH + +This volume tells how the club journeyed to the seashore and how they +not only kept up their riddles but likewise had good times on the sand +and on the water. Once they got lost in a fog and are marooned on an +island. Here they made a discovery that greatly pleased the folks at +home. + + + + +THE HONEY BUNCH BOOKS + +By HELEN LOUISE THORNDYKE Individual Colored Wrappers and Text +Illustrations Drawn by + +WALTER S. ROGERS + + +A new line of fascinating tales for little girls. Honey Bunch is a +dainty, thoughtful little girl, and to know her is to take her to your +heart at once. + +HONEY BUNCH: JUST A LITTLE GIRL + +Happy days at home, helping mamma and the washerlady. And Honey Bunch +helped the house painters too--or thought she did. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE CITY + +What wonderful sights Honey Bunch saw when she went to visit her +cousins in New York! And she got lost in a big hotel and wandered into +a men's convention! + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM + +Can you remember bow the farm looked the first time you visited it? How +big the cows and horses were, and what a roomy place to play in the +barn proved to be? + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE SEASHORE + +Honey Bunch soon got used to the big waves and thought playing in the +sand great fun. And she visited a merry-go-round, and took part in a +seaside pageant. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST LITTLE GARDEN + +It was great sport to dig and to plant with one's own little garden +tools. But best of all was when Honey Bunch won a prize at the flower +show. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS IN CAMP + +It was a great adventure for Honey Bunch when she journeyed to Camp +Snapdragon. It was wonderful to watch the men erect the tent, and +wonderful to live in it and have good times on the shore and in the +water. + + + + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES + +By LAURA LEE HOPE + +Author of the "Bobbsey Twins," "Bunny Brown" Series, Etc. + +Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers. + +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + + +These tales take in the various adventures participated in by several +bright, up-to-date girls who love outdoor life. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE; + Or, Camping and Tramping for Fun and Health. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE; + Or, The Stirring Cruise of the Motor Boat Gem. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR; + Or, The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP; + Or, Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA; + Or, Wintering in the Sunny South. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW; + Or, The Box That Was Found in the Sand. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND; + Or, A Cave and What it Contained. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE; + Or, Doing Their Bit for Uncle Sam. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE; + Or, Doing Their Best For the Soldiers. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT; + Or, A Wreck and A Rescue. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE; + Or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLE; + Or, The Girl Miner of Gold Run. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AROUND THE CAMPFIRE; + Or, The Old Maid of the Mountains. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON CAPE COD; + Or, Sally Ann of Lighthouse Rock. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tom Swift and his Electric Locomotive, by +Victor Appleton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SWIFT AND ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE *** + +***** This file should be named 1364.txt or 1364.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/6/1364/ + +Produced by Anthony Matonac + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +The Etext was prepared for Project Gutenberg by Anthony Matonac + + + + + +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE +or +Two Miles a Minute on the Rails + + + +By +VICTOR APPLETON + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + I A TEMPTING OFFER + + II TROUBLE STARTS + + III TOM SWIFT'S FRIENDS + + IV MUCH TO THINK ABOUT + + V BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS + + VI THE CONTRACT SIGNED + + VII THE MAN WITH BIG FEET + + VIII AN ENEMY IN THE DARK + + IX WHERE WAS KOKU? + + X A STRANGE CONVERSATION + + XI TOUCH AND GO + + XII THE TRY-OUT DAY ARRIVES + + XIII HOPES AND FEARS + + XIV SPEED + + XV THE ENEMY STILL ACTIVE + + XVI OFF FOR THE WEST + + XVII THE WRECK OF FORTY-EIGHT + +XVIII ON THE HENDRICKTON & PAS ALOS + + XIX PERIL, THE MOTHER OF INVENTION + + XX THE RESULT + + XXI THE OPEN SWITCH + + XXII A DESPERATE CHASE + +XXIII MR. DAMON AT BAT + + XXIV PUTTING THE ENEMY TO FLIGHT + + XXV SPEED AND SUCCESS + + + + +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE + + + +Chapter I + +A Tempting Offer + + +"An electric locomotive that can make two miles a minute over a +properly ballasted roadbed might not be an impossibility," said +Mr. Barton Swift ruminatively. "It is one of those things that +are coming," and he flashed his son, Tom Swift, a knowing smile. +It had been a topic of conversation between them before the +visitor from the West had been seated before the library fire and +had sampled one of the elder Swift's good cigars. + +"It is not only a future possibility," said the latter +gentleman, shrugging his shoulders. "As far as the Hendrickton +and Pas Alos Railroad Company goes, a two mile a minute gait--not +alone on a level track but through the Pas Alos Range--is an +immediate necessity. It's got to be done now, or our stock will +be selling on the curb for about two cents a share." + +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom +Swift earnestly, and staring at the big-little man before the +fire. + +Mr. Richard Bartholomew was just that--a "big-little man." In +the railroad world, both in construction and management, he had +made an enviable name for himself. + +He had actually built up the Hendrickton and Pas Alos from a +narrow-gauge, "jerkwater" road into a part of a great cross- +continent system that tapped a wonderfully rich territory on both +sides of the Pas Alos Range. + +For some years the H. & P. A. had a monopoly of that territory. +Now, as Mr. Bartholomew intimated, it was threatened with such +rivalry from another railroad and other capitalists, that the +H. & P. A. was being looked upon in the financial market as a +shaky investment. + +But Tom Swift repeated: + +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" + +Mr. Bartholomew, who was a little man physically, rolled around +in his chair to face the young fellow more directly. His own eyes +sparkled in the firelight. His olive face was flushed. + +"That is much nearer the truth, young man," he said, somewhat +harshly because of his suppressed emotion, "than I want people at +large to suspect. As I have told your father, I came here to put +all my cards on the table; but I expect the Swift Construction +Company to take anything I may say as said in confidence." + +"We quite understand that, Mr. Bartholomew," said the elder +Swift, softly. "You can speak freely. Whether we do business or +not, these walls are soundproof, and Tom and I can forget, or +remember, as we wish. Of course if we take up any work for you, +we must confide to a certain extent in our close associates and +trusted mechanics." + +"Humph!" grunted the visitor, turning restlessly again in his +chair. Then he said: "I agree as the necessity of that last +statement; but I can only hope that these walls are soundproof." + +"What's that?" demanded Tom, rather sharply. He was a bright +looking young fellow with an alert air and a rather humorous +smile. His father was a semi-invalid; but Tom possessed all the +mental vigor and muscular energy that a young man should have. He +had not neglected his Athletic development while he made the best +use of his mental powers. + +"Believe me," said the visitor, quite as harshly as before, "I +begin to doubt the solidity of all walls. I know that I have been +watched, and spied upon, and that eavesdroppers have played hob +with our affairs. + +"Of late, there has been little planned in the directors' room +of the H. & P. A. that has not seeped out and aided the enemy in +foreseeing our moves." + +"The enemy?" repeated Mr. Swift, with mild surprise. + +"That's it exactly! The enemy!" replied Mr. Bartholomew +shortly. "The H. & P. A. has got the fight of its life on its +hands. We had a hard enough time fighting nature and the elements +when we laid the first iron for the road a score of years ago. +Now I am facing a fight that must grow fiercer and fiercer as +time goes on until either the H. & P. A. smashes the opposition, +or the enemy smashes it." + +"What enemy is this you speak of?" asked Tom, much interested. + +"The proposed Hendrickton & Western. A new road, backed by new +capital, and to be officered and built by new men in the +construction and railroad game. + +"Montagne Lewis--you've heard of him, I presume--is at the head +of the crowd that have bought the little old Hendrickton & +Western, lock, stock and barrel. + +"They have franchises for extending the road. In the old days +the legislatures granted blanket franchises that allowed any +group of moneyed men to engage in any kind of business as side +issues to railroading. Montagne Lewis and his +crowd have got a 'plenty-big' franchise. + +"They have begun laying iron. It parallels, to a certain +extent, our own line. Their surveyors were smarter than the men +who laid out the H. & P. A. I admit it. Besides, the country out +there is developed more than it was a score of years ago when I +took hold. + +"All this enters into the fight between Montagne Lewis and me. +But there is something deeper," said the little man, with almost +a snarl, as he thrashed about again in his chair. "I beat +Montagne Lewis at one big game years ago. He is a man who never +forgets--and who never hesitates to play dirty politics if he has +to, to bring about his own ends. + +"I know that I have been watched. I know that I was followed on +this trip East. He has private detectives on my track +continually. And worse. All the gunmen of the old and wilder West +are not dead. There's a fellow named Andy O'Malley--well, never +mind him. The game at present is to keep anybody in Lewis's +employ from getting wise to why I came to see you." + +"What you say is interesting," Mr. Swift here broke in quietly. +"But I have already been puzzled by what you first said. Just why +have you come to us--to Tom and me--in reference to your railroad +difficulties?" + +"And this suggestion you have made," added Tom, "about a +possible electric locomotive of a faster type than has, ever yet +been put on the rails?" + +"That is it, exactly," replied Bartholomew, sitting suddenly +upright in his chair. "We want faster electric motor power than +has ever yet been invented. We have got to have it, or the +H. & P. A. might as well be scrapped and the whole territory out +there handed over to Montagne Lewis and his H. & W. That is the +sum total of the matter, gentlemen. If the Swift Construction +Company cannot help us, my railroad is going to be junk in about +three years from this beautiful evening." + +His emphasis could not fail to impress both the elder and the +younger Swift. They looked at each other, and the interest +displayed upon the father's countenance was reflected upon the +features of the son. + +If there was anything Tom Swift liked it was a good fight. The +clash of diverse interests was the breath of life to the young +fellow. And for some years now, always connected in some way +with the development of his inventive genius, he had been +entangled in battles both of wits and physical powers. Here was +the suggestion of something that would entail a struggle of both +brain and brawn. + +"Sounds good," muttered Tom, gazing at the railroad magnate +with considerable admiration. + +"Let us hear all about it," Mr. Swift said to Bartholomew. +"Whether we can help you or not, we're interested." + +"All right," replied the visitor again. "Whether I was followed +East, and here to Shopton, or not doesn't much matter. I will put +my proposition up to you, and then I'll ask, if you don't want to +go into it, that you keep the business absolutely secret. I have +got to put something over on Montagne Lewis and his crowd, or +throw up the sponge. That's that!" + +"Go ahead, Mr. Bartholomew," observed Tom's father, +encouragingly. + +"To begin with, four hundred miles of our road is already +electrified. We have big power stations and supply heat and light +and power to several of the small cities tapped by the H. & P. A. +It is a paying proposition as it stands. But it is only paying +because we carry the freight traffic--all the freight traffic--of +that region. + +"If the H. & W. breaks in on our monopoly of that, we shall +soon be so cut down that our invested capital will not earn two +per cent.--No, by glory! not one-and-a-half per cent.--and our +stock will be dished. But I have worked out a scheme, Gentlemen, +by which we can counter-balance any dig Lewis can give us in the +ribs. + +"If we can extend our electrified line into and through the Pas +Alos Range our freight traffic can be handled so cheaply and so +effectively that nothing the Hendrickton & Western can do for +years to come will hurt us. Get that?" + +"I get your statement, Mr. Bartholomew," said Mr. Swift. "But +it is merely a statement as yet." + +"Sure. Now I will give you the particulars. We are using the +Jandel locomotives on our electrified stretch of road. You know +that patent?" + +"I know something about it, Mr. Bartholomew," said the younger +inventor. "I have felt some interest in the electric locomotive, +though I have done nothing practical in the matter. But I know +the Jandel patent." + +"It is about the best there is--and the most recent; but it +does not fill the bill. Not for the H. & P. A., anyway," said Mr. +Bartholomew, shortly. + +"What does it lack?" asked Mr. Swift. + +"Speed. It's got the power for heavy hauls. It could handle the +freight through the Pas Alos Range. But it would slow up our +traffic so that the shippers would at once turn to the +Hendrickton & Western. You understand that their rails do not +begin to engage the grades that our engineers thought necessary +when the old H. & P. A. was built." + +"I get that," said Tom briskly. "You have come here, then, to +interest us in the development of a faster but quite as powerful +type of electric locomotive as the Jandel." + +"Stated to the line!" exclaimed Mr. Bartholomew, smiting the +arm of his chair with his clenched fist. "That is it, young man. +You get me exactly. And now I will go on to put my proposition to +you." + +"Do so, Mr. Bartholomew," murmured the old inventor, quite as +much interested as his son. + +"I want you to make a study of electric motive power as applied +to track locomotives, with the idea of utilizing our power plants +and others like them, and even with the possibility in mind of +the continued use of the Jandel locomotives on our more level +stretches of road. + +"But I want your investigation to result in the building of +locomotives that will make a speed of two miles a minute, or as +near that as possible, on level rails, and be powerful enough to +snake our heavy freight trains through the hills and over the +steep grades so rapidly that even two engines, a pusher and a +hauler, cannot beat the electric power." + +"Some job, that, I'll say," murmured Tom Swift. + +"Exactly. Some job. And it is the only thing that will save the +H. & P. A.," said Mr. Bartholomew decidedly. "I put it up to you +Swifts. I have heard of some of your marvelous inventions. Here +is something that is already invented. But it needs development." + +"I see," said Mr. Swift, and nodded. + +"It interests me," admitted Tom. "As I say, I have given some +thought to the electric locomotive." + +"This is the age of speed," said Mr. Bartholomew earnestly. +"Rapidity in handling freight and kindred things will be the +salvation, and the only salvation, of many railroads. Tapping a +rich territory is not enough. The road that can offer the +quickest and cheapest service is the road that is going to keep +out of a receivership. Believe me, I know!" + +"You should," said Mr. Swift mildly. "Your experience should +have taught you a great deal about the railroad business." + +"It has. But that knowledge is worth just nothing at all +without swift power and cheap traffic. Those are the problems +today. Now, I am going to take a chance. If it doesn't work, my +road is dished in any case. So I feel that the desperate chance +is the only chance." + +"What is that?" asked Tom Swift, sitting forward in his chair. +"I, for one, feel so much interested that I will do anything in +reason to find the answer to your traffic problem." + +"That's the boy!" ejaculated Richard Bartholomew. "I will give +it to you in a few words. If you will experiment with the +electric locomotive idea, to develop speed and power over and +above the Jandel patent, and will give me the first call on the +use of any patents you may contrive, I will put up twenty-five +thousand dollars in cash which shall be yours whether I can make +use of a thing you invent or not." + +"Any time limit in this agreement, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom, +making a few notes on a scratch pad before him on the library +table. + +"What do you say to three months?" + +"Make it six, if you can," Tom said with continued briskness. +"It interests me. I'll do my best. And I want you to get your +money's worth." + +"All right. Make it six," said Mr. Bartholomew. "But the +quicker you dig something up, the better for me. Now, that is the +first part of my proposition." + +"All right, sir. And the second?" + +"If you succeed in showing me that you can build and operate an +electric locomotive that will speed two miles a minute on a level +track and will get a heavy drag over the mountain grades, as I +said, as surely as two engines of the coal-burning or oil-burning +type, I will pay you a hundred thousand dollars bonus, besides +buying all the engines you can build of this new type for the +first two years. I've got to have first call; but the hundred +thousand will be yours free and clear, and the price of the +locomotives you build can be adjusted by any court of agreement +that you may suggest." + +Tom Swift's face glowed. He realized that this offer was not +only generous, but that it made it worth his while dropping +everything else he had in hand and devoting his entire time and +thought for even six mouths to the proposition of developing the +electric locomotive. + +He looked at his father and nodded. Mr. Swift said, calmly: + +"We take you on that offer, Mr. Bartholomew. Tom has the facts +on paper, and we will hand it to Mr. Newton, our financial +manager, in the morning. If you will remain in town for twenty- +four hours, the contract can be signed." + +"Suits me," declared. Richard Bartholomew, rising quickly from +his chair. "I confess I hoped you would take me up quite as +promptly as you have. I want to get back West again. + +"We will see you in the office of the company at two o'clock +tomorrow," said Tom Swift confidently. + +"Better than good! And now, if that trailer that I am pretty +sure Montagne Lewis sent after me does not get wise to the +subject of our talk, it may be a slick job we have done and will +do. I admit I am rather afraid of the enemy. You Swifts must keep +your plans in utter darkness." + +After a little talk on more ordinary affairs, Mr. Bartholomew +took his departure. It was getting late in the evening, and Tom +Swift had an engagement. While old Rad, their colored servant, +was helping him on with his coat preparatory to Tom's leaving the +house, his father called from the library: + +"Got those notes in a safe place, Tom?" + +"Safest in the world, Dad," his son replied. But he did not go +into details. Tom considered the "safest place in the world" just +then was his own wallet, which was tucked into an inside pocket +of his vest "I'm going to see Mary Nestor, Father," said Tom, as +he went to the front door and opened it. + +He halted a moment with the knob of the door in his hand. The +porch was deep in shadows, but he thought he had seen something +move there. + +"That you, Koku?" asked Tom in an ordinary voice. Sometimes his +gigantic servant wandered about the house at night. He was a +strange person, and he had a good many thoughts in his savage +brain that even his young master did not understand. + +There was no reply to Tom's question, so he walked down the +steps and out at the gate. It was not a long distance to the +Nestor house, and the air was brisk and keen, in spite of the +fact that threatening clouds masked the stars. + +Two blocks from the house he came to a high wall which +separated the street from the grounds of an old dwelling. Tom +suddenly noticed that the usual street lights on this block had +been extinguished--blown out by the wind, perhaps. + +Involuntarily he quickened his steps. He reached the archway in +the wall. Here was the gate dividing the private grounds from the +street. As he strode into the shadow of this place a voice +suddenly halted Tom Swift. + +"Hands up! Put 'em up and don't be slow about it!" A bulky +figure loomed in the dark. Tom saw the highwayman's club poised +threateningly over his head. + + + +Chapter II + +Trouble Starts + + +The fact that he was stopped by a footpad smote Tom Swift's +mind as not a particularly surprising adventure. He had heard +that several of that gentry had been plying their trade about the +outskirts of the town. To a degree he was prepared for this +sudden event. + +Then there flashed into Tom's mind the thought of what Mr. +Richard Bartholomew had said regarding the spy he believed had +followed him from the West. Could it be possible that some hired +thug sent by Montagne Lewis and his crooked crowd of financiers +considered that Tom Swift had obtained information from the +president of the H. & P. A. that might do his employers signal +service? + +Tom Swift had fallen in with many adventures--and some quite +thrilling ones--since, as a youth, he was first introduced to the +reader in the initial volume of this series, entitled "Tom Swift +and His Motor Cycle." His first experiences as an inventor, +coached by his father, who had spent his life in the experimental +laboratory and workshop, was made possible by his purchase from +Mr. Wakefield Damon, now one of his closest friends, of a broken- +down motor cycle. + +Through a series of inventions, some of them of a marvelous +kind, Tom Swift, aided by his father, had forged ahead, building +motor boats, airships, submarines, monoplanes, motion picture +cameras, searchlights, cannons, photo-telephones, war tanks. Of +late, as related in "Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters," he had +engaged in the invention of an explosive bomb carrying flame- +quenching chemicals that would, in time, revolutionize fire- +fighting in tall buildings. + +The matter that Mr. Richard Bartholomew, the railroad magnate, +had brought to Tom's and his father's attention had deeply +interested the young inventor. Thought of the electric +locomotive, the development of which the railroad president +stated was the only salvation of the finances of the H. & P. A., +had so held Tom's attention as he walked along the street that +being stopped in this sudden way was even more startling than +such an incident might ordinarily have been. + +Tom was a muscular young fellow; but a club held over one's +head by a burly thug would have shaken the courage of anybody. +Dark as it was under the archway the young fellow saw that the +bulk of the man was much greater than his own. + +"That's right, sonny," said the stranger, in a sneering tone. +"You got just the right idea. When I say 'Stick 'em up' I mean +it. Never take a chance. Ah--ah!" + +The fellow ripped open Tom's overcoat, almost tearing the +buttons off. Another masterful jerk and his victim's jacket was +likewise parted widely. He did not lower the club for an instant. +He thrust his left hand into the V-shaped parting of the young +fellow's vest. + +It was then that Tom was convinced of what the fellow was +after. He remembered the notes he had made regarding the contract +that was to be signed on the morrow between the Swift +Construction Company and President Richard Bartholomew of the +H. & P. A. Railroad. He remembered, too, the figure he thought he +had seen in the dark porch of the house as he so recently left +it. + +Mr. Bartholomew had considered it very possible that he was +being spied upon. This was one of the spies--a Westerner, as his +speech betrayed. But Tom was suddenly less fearful than he had +been when first attacked. + +It did not seem possible to him that Mr. Bartholomew's enemies +would allow their henchman to go too far to obtain information of +the railroad president's intentions. This fellow was merely +attempting to frighten him. + +A sense of relief came to Tom Swift's assistance. He opened his +lips to speak and could the thug have seen his face more clearly +in the dark he would have been aware of the fact that the young +inventor smiled. + +The fellow's groping hand entered between Tom's vest and his +shirt. The coarse fingers seized upon Tom's wallet. Nobody likes +to be robbed, no matter whether the loss is great or small. There +was not much money in the wallet, nor anything that could be +turned into money by a thief. + +These facts enabled Tom, perhaps, to bear his loss with some +fortitude. The highwayman drew forth the wallet and thrust it +into his own coat pocket. He made no attempt to take anything +else from the young inventor. + +"Now, beat it!" commanded the fellow. "Don't look back and +don't run or holler. Just keep moving--in the way you were headed +before. Vamoose." + +More than ever was Tom assured that the man was from the West. +His speech savored of Mexican phrases and slang terms used mainly +by Western citizens. And his abrupt and masterly manner and +speech aided in this supposition. Tom Swift stayed not to utter a +word. It was true he was not so frightened as he had at first +been. But he was quite sure that this man was no person to +contend with under present conditions. + +He strode away along the sidewalk toward the far corner of the +wall that surrounded this estate. Shopton had not many of such +important dwellings as this behind the wall. Its residential +section was made up for the most part of mechanics' homes and +such plain but substantial houses as his father's. + +Prospering as the Swifts had during the last few years, neither +Tom nor his father had thought their plain old house too poor or +humble for a continued residence. Tom was glad to make money, but +the inventions he had made it by were vastly more important to +his mind than what he might obtain by any lavish expenditure of +his growing fortune. + +This matter of the electric locomotive that had been brought to +his attention by the Western railroad magnate had instantly +interested the young inventor. The possibility of there being a +clash of interests in the matter, and the point Mr. Bartholomew +made of his enemies seeking to thwart his hope of keeping the H. +& P. A. upon a solid financial footing, were phases of the affair +that likewise concerned the young fellow's thought. + +Now he was sure that Mr. Bartholomew was right. The enemies of +the H. & P. A. were determined to know all that the railroad +president was planning to do. They would naturally suspect that +his trip East to visit the Swift Construction Company was no idle +jaunt. + +Tom had turned so many fortunate and important problems of +invention into certainties that the name of the Swift +Construction Company was broadly known, not alone throughout the +United States but in several foreign countries. Montagne Lewis, +whom Tom knew to be both a powerful and an unscrupulous +financier, might be sure that Mr. Bartholomew's visit to Shopton +and to the young inventor and his father was of such importance +that he would do well through his henchmen to learn the +particulars of the interview. + +Tom remembered Mr. Bartholomew's mention of a name like Andy +O'Malley. This was probably the man who had done all that he +could, and that promptly, to set about the discovery of Mr. +Bartholomew's reason for visiting the Swifts. + +Without doubt the man had slunk about the Swift house and had +peered into one of the library windows while the interview was +proceeding. He had observed Tom making notes on the scratch pad +and judged correctly that those notes dealt with the subject +under discussion between the visitor from the West and the +Swifts. + +He had likewise seen Tom thrust the paper into his wallet and +the wallet into his inside vest pocket. Instead of dogging Mr. +Bartholomew's footsteps after that gentleman left the Swift +house, the man had waited for the appearance of Tom. When he was +sure that the young fellow was preparing to walk out, and the +direction he was to stroll, the thug had run ahead and ensconced +himself in the archway on this dark block. + +All these things were plain enough. The notes Tom had taken +regarding the offer Mr. Bartholomew had made for the development +of the electric locomotive might, under some circumstances, be +very important. At least, the highwayman evidently thought them +such. But Tom had another thought about that. + +One thing the young inventor was convinced about, as he strode +briskly away from the scene of the hold-up: There was going to be +trouble. It had already begun. + + + +Chapter III + +Tom Swift's Friends + + +Tom was still walking swiftly when he arrived in sight of Mary +Nestor's home. He was so filled with excitement both because of +the hold-up and the new scheme that Mr. Richard Bartholomew had +brought to him from the West, that he could keep neither to +himself. He just had to tell Mary! + +Mary Nestor was a very pretty girl, and Tom thought she was +just about right in every particular. Although he had been about +a good deal for a young fellow and had seen girls everywhere, +none of them came up to Mary. None of them held Tom's interest +for a minute but this girl whom he had been around with for years +and whom he had always confided in. + +As for the girl herself, she considered Tom Swift the very +nicest young man she had ever seen. He was her beau-ideal of +what a young man should be. And she entered enthusiastically into +the plans for everything that Tom Swift was interested in. + +Mary was excited by the story Tom told her in the Nestor +sitting room. The idea of the electric locomotive she saw, of +course, was something that might add to Tom's laurels as an +inventor. But the other phase of the evening's adventure--"Tom, +dear!" she murmured with no little disturbance of mind. "That man +who stopped you! He is a thief, and a dangerous man! I hate to +think of your going home alone." + +"He's got what he was after," chuckled Tom. "Is it likely he +will bother me again?" + +"And you do not seem much worried about it," she cried, in +wonder. + +"Not much, I confess, Mary," said Tom, and grinned. + +"But if, as you suppose, that man was working for Mr. +Bartholomew's enemies + +"I am convinced that he was, for he did not rob me of my watch +and chain or loose money. And he could have done so easily. I +don't mind about the old wallet. There was only five dollars in +it." + +"But those notes you said you took of Mr. Bartholomew's offer?" + +"Oh, yes," chuckled Tom again. "Those notes. Well, I may as +well explain to you, Mary, and not try to puzzle you any longer. +But that highwayman is sure going to be puzzled a long, long +time." + +"What do you mean, Tom?" + +"Those notes were jotted down in my own brand of shorthand. +Such stenographic notes would scarcely be readable by anybody +else. Ho, ho! When that bold, bad hold-up gent turns the notes +over to Montagne Lewis, or whoever his principal is, there will +be a sweet time." + +"Oh, Tom! isn't that fun?" cried Mary, likewise much amused. + +"I can remember everything we said there in the library," Tom +continued. "I'll see Ned tonight on my way home from here, and he +will draw a contract the first thing in the morning." + +"You are a smart fellow, Tom!" said Mary, her laughter trilling +sweetly. + +"Many thanks, Ma'am! Hope I prove your compliment true. This +two-mile-a-minute stunt--" + +"It seems wonderful," breathed Mary. + +"It sure will be wonderful if we can build a locomotive that +will do such fancy lacework as that," observed Tom eagerly. "It +will be a great stunt!" + +"A wonderful invention, Tom." + +"More wonderful than Mr. Bartholomew knows," agreed the young +fellow. "An electric locomotive with both great speed and great +hauling power is what more than one inventor has been aiming at +for two or three decades. Ever since Edison and Westinghouse +began their experiments, in truth." + +"Is the locomotive they are using out there a very marvelous +machine?" asked the girl, with added interest. + +"No more marvelous than the big electric motors that drag the +trains into New York City, for instance, through the tunnels. +Steam engines cannot be used in those tunnels for obvious, as +well as legal, reasons. They are all wonderful machines, using +third-rail power. + +"But that Jandel patent that Mr. Bartholomew is using out there +on the H. & P. A. is probably the highest type of such motors. It +is up to us to beat that. Fortunately I got a pass into the +Jandel shops a few months ago and I studied at first hand the +machine Mr. Bartholomew is using." + +"Isn't that great!" cried Mary. + +"Well, it helps some. I at least know in a general way the +'how' of the construction of the Jandel locomotive. It is simple +enough. Too simple by far, I should say, to get both speed and +power. We'll see," and he nodded his head thoughtfully. + +Tom did not stay long with the girl, for it was already late in +the evening when he had arrived at her house. As he got up to +depart Mary's anxiety for his safety revived. + +"I wish you would take care now, Tom. Those men may hound you." + +"What for?" chuckled the young inventor. "They have the notes +they wanted." + +"But that very thing--the fact that you fooled them--will make +them more angry. Take care." + +"I have a means of looking out for myself, after all," said Tom +quietly, seeing that he must relieve her mind. "I let that fellow +get away with my wallet; but I won't let him hurt me. Don't +fear." + +She had opened the door. The lamplight fell across porch and +steps, and in a broad white band even to the gate and sidewalk. +There was a motor-car slowing down right before the open gate. + +"Who's this?" queried Tom, puzzled. + +A sharp voice suddenly was raised in an exclamatory explosion. + +"Bless my breakshoes! is that Tom Swift? Just the chap I was +looking for. Bless my mileage-book! this saves me time and +money." + +"Why, it's Mr. Wakefield Damon," Mary cried, with something +like relief in her tones. "You can ride home in his car, Tom." + +"All right, Mary. Don't be afraid for me," replied Tom Swift, +and ran down the walk to the waiting car. + +"Bless my vest buttons! Tom Swift, my heart swells when I see +you--" + +"And is like to burst off the said vest buttons?" chuckled the +young fellow, stepping in beside his eccentric friend who blessed +everything inanimate in his florid speech. + +"I am delighted to catch you--although, of course," and Tom +knew the gentleman's eyes twinkled, "I could have no idea that +you were over here at Mary's, Tom." + +"Of course not," rejoined the young inventor calmly. "Seeing +that I only come to see her just as often as I get a chance." + +"Bless my memory tablets! is that the fact?" chuckled Mr. +Damon. "Anyway, I wanted to see you so particularly that I drove +over in my car tonight--" + +"Wait a minute," said Tom, hastily. "Is this important?" + +"I think so, Tom." + +"Let me get something else off of my mind first, then, Mr. +Damon," Tom Swift said quickly. "Drive around by Ned's house, +will you, please? Ned Newton's. After I speak a minute with him I +will be at your service. + +"Surely, Tom; surely," agreed the gentleman. + +The automobile had been running slowly. Mr. Damon knew the +streets of Shopton very well, and he headed around the next +corner. As the car turned, a figure bounded out of the shadow +near the house line. Two long strides, and the man was on the +running board of the car upon the side where Tom Swift sat. Again +an ugly club was raised above the young fellow's head. + +"You're the smart guy!" croaked the coarse voice Tom had heard +before. "Think you can bamboozle me, do you? Up with 'em!" + +"Bless my spark-plug!" gasped Mr. Wakefield Damon. + +Either from nervousness or intention, he jerked the steering +wheel so that the car made a sudden leap away from the curb. The +figure of the stranger swayed. + +Instantly Tom Swift struck the man's arm up higher and from +under his own coat appeared something that bulked like a pistol +in his right hand. He had intimated to Mary Nestor that he +carried something with which to defend himself from highwaymen if +he chose to. This invention, his ammonia gun, now came into play. + +"Bless my failing eyesight!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, as he shot +the motor-car ahead again in a straight line. + +The man who had accosted Tom so fiercely fell off the running +board and rolled into the gutter, screaming and choking from the +fumes from Tom's gun. + +"Drive on!" commanded the young inventor. "If he keeps +bellowing like that the police will pick him up. I guess he will +let us alone here-after." + +"Bless my short hairs and long ones!" chuckled Mr. Damon. "You +are the coolest young fellow, Tom, that I ever saw. That man must +have been a highwayman. And it is of some of those gentry that I +drove over to Shopton this evening to talk to you about." + + + +Chapter IV + +Much to Think About + + +Although it was now nearing ten o'clock on this eventful +evening, Tom knew that he would find Ned Newton at home. When Mr. +Damon's car stopped before the house there was a light in Ned's +room and the front door opened almost as soon as Tom rang. Mr. +Damon left the car and entered with the young inventor at his +invitation. + +"What's up?" was Ned's greeting, looking at the two curiously +as he ushered them in. "I see this isn't entirely a social call," +and he laughed as he shook the older man's hand. + +"Bless my particular star!" exclaimed the latter excitedly. "Of +all the thrilling adventures that anybody ever got into, it is +this Tom Swift who cooks them up! Why, Newton! do you know that +we have been held up by a highwayman within two blocks of this +very house?" + +"And that of course was Tom's fault?" suggested Ned, still +smiling. + +"It wouldn't have happened if he had not been with me," said +Mr. Damon. + +"I am curious," said Ned, as they seated themselves. "Who was +the footpad? What drew his attention to you two? Tell me about +it." + +"Bless my suspender buckles!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "You tell +him, Tom. I don't understand it myself, yet." + +"I think I can explain. But whatever I tell you both, you must +hold in secret. Father and I have been entrusted with some +private information tonight and I am going to take you, Ned, and +Mr. Damon, into the business in a confidential way." + +"Let's have it," begged Newton. "Anything to do with the +works?" + +"It is," answered Tom gravely. "We are going to take up a +proposition that promises big things for the Swift Construction +Company." + +"A big thing financially?" + +"I'll say so. And it looks as though we were mixing into a +conspiracy that may breed trouble in more ways than one." + +Tom went on to sketch briefly the situation of the Hendrickton +& Pas Alos Railroad as brought to the attention of the Swifts by +the railroad's president. First of all his two listeners were +deeply interested in the proposition Mr. Richard Bartholomew had +made the inventors. Ned Newton jotted down briefly the agreement +to be incorporated in the contract to be drawn and signed, by the +Swift Construction Company and the president of the H. & P. A. +road. + +"This looks like a big thing for the company, Tom," the young +manager said with enthusiasm, while Mr. Damon listened to it all +with mouth and eyes open. + +"Bless my watch-charm!" murmured the latter. "An electric +locomotive that can travel two miles a minute? Whew!" + +"Sounds like a big order, Tom," added Ned, seriously. + +"It is a big order. I am not at all sure it can be done," +agreed Tom, thoughtfully. "But under the terms Mr. Bartholomew +offers it is worth trying, don't you think?" + +"That twenty-five thousand dollars is as good as yours anyway," +declared his chum with finality. "I'll see there is no loophole +in the contract and the money must be placed in escrow so that +there can be no possibility of our losing that. The promise of a +hundred thousand dollars must he made binding as well." + +"I know you will look out for those details, Ned," Tom said +with a wave of his hand. + +"That is what I am here for," agreed the financial manager. +"Now, what else? I fancy the building of such a locomotive looks +feasible to you and your father or you would not go into it." + +"But two miles a minute!" murmured Mr. Damon again. "Bless my +prize pumpkins!" + +"The idea of speed enters into it, yes," said Tom thoughtfully. +"In fact electric motor power has always been based on speed, and +on cheapness of moving all kinds of traffic. + +"Look here!" he exclaimed earnestly, "what do you suppose the +first people to dabble in electrically driven vehicles were +aiming at? The motor-car? The motor boat? Trolley cars? All those +single motor sort of things? Not much they weren't!" + +"Bless my glove buttons!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, dragging off his +gauntlets as he spoke. "I don't get you at all, Tom! What do you +mean?" + +"I mean to say that the first experiments in the use of +electricity as a motive power were along the electrification of +the steam locomotive. Everybody realized that if a motor could be +built powerful enough and speedy enough to drag a heavy freight +or passenger train over the ordinary railroad right of way, the +cost of railroad operation would be enormously decreased. + +"Coal costs money--heaps of money now. Oil costs even more. But +even with a third-rail patent, a locomotive successfully built to +do the work of the great Moguls and mountain climbers of the last +two decades, and electrically driven, will make a great +difference on the credit side of any rails road's books." + +"Right-o!" exclaimed Ned. "I can see that." + +"That was the object of the first experiments in electric +motive power," repeated Tom. "And it continues to be the big +problem in electricity. The Jandel locomotive is undoubtedly the +last word so far as the construction of an electric locomotive is +concerned. But it falls down in speed and power. I thought so +myself when I saw that locomotive and looked over the results of +its work. And this Mr. Bartholomew has assured father and me this +evening that it is a fact. + +"It has a record of a mile a minute on a level or easy grade; +but it can't show goods when climbing a real hill. It slows up +both freight and passenger traffic on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +road. That range of hills is too much for it. + +"So the Swift Construction Company is going to step in," +concluded the young inventor eagerly. "I believe we can do it. +I've the nucleus of an idea in my head. I never had a problem put +up to me, Ned and Mr. Damon, that interested me more. So why +shouldn't I go at it? Besides, I have dad to advise me." + +"That's right," agreed Ned. "Why shouldn't you? And with such a +contract as you have been offered--" + +"Bless my bootsoles!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, getting up and +tramping about the room in his excitement. "I thought the trolley +cars that run between Shopton and Waterfield were about the +fastest things on rails." + +"Not much. The trolley car is a narrow and prescribed manner of +using electricity for motive power. The motor runs but one car-- +or one and a trailer, at most," said Tom. "As I have pointed out, +the problem is to build a machine that will transmit power enough +to draw the enormous weight of a loaded freight train, and that +over steep grades. + +"A motor for each car is a costly matter. That is why trolley +car companies, no matter how many passengers their cars carry, +are so often on the verge of financial disaster. The margin of +profit is too narrow. + +"But if you can get a locomotive built that will drag a hundred +cars! Ah! how does that sound?" demanded Tom. "See the +difference?" + +"Bless my volts and amperes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "I should +say I do! Why, Tom, you make the problem as plain as plain can +be." + +"In theory," supplemented Ned Newton, although he meant to +suggest no doubt of his chum's ability to solve almost any +problem. + +"You've hit it," said Tom promptly. "I only have a theory so +far regarding such a locomotive. But to the inventor the theory +always must come first. You understand that, Ned?" + +"I not only appreciate that fact," said his chum warmly; "but I +believe that you are the fellow to show something definite along +the line of an improved electric locomotive. But, whether you can +reach the high mark set by the president of that railroad--" + +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Mr. Damon in agreement. "Bless +my wind-gauge! It doesn't seem possible!" + +Tom Swift shrugged his shoulders. "It is the impossible that +inventors have to overcome. If we experimenters believed in the +impossible little would be done in this world, to advance +mechanical science at least. Every invention was impossible until +the chap who put it through built his first working model." + +"That's understood, old boy," said Ned, already busily +scratching off the form of the contract he proposed to show the +company's legal advisers early in the morning. + +When he had read over the notes he had made Tom O.K.'d them. +"That is about as I had the items set down myself on the sheet +that fellow stole from me." + +"Wait!" exclaimed Ned, as Tom arose from his chair. "Do you +know what strikes me after your telling me about your second +hold-up?" + +"What's that?" asked his chum. + +"Are you sure that was the same fellow who stole your wallet?" + +"Quite sure." + +"Then his second attack on you proves that he got wise to the +fact that your notes were in shorthand. He had a chance to study +them while you visited with Mary Nestor." + +"Like enough." + +"I wonder if it doesn't prove that the fellow has somebody in +cahoots with him right here in Shopton?" ruminated Ned. + +"Bless my spare tire!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, who had already +started for the door but now turned back. + +"That's an idea, Ned," agreed Tom Swift. "It would seem that he +had consulted with some superior," said the young manager of the +Swift Construction Company. "This hold-up man may be from the +West; but perhaps he did not follow Bartholomew alone." + +"I'd like to know who the other fellow is," said Tom +thoughtfully. "I would know the man who attacked me, both by his +bulk and his voice. + +"Me, too," put in Mr. Damon. "Bless my indicator! I'd know the +scoundrel if I met him again." + +"The thing to do," said Ned Newton confidently, "is to identify +the man who robbed you tonight as soon as possible and then, if +he hangs around Shopton, to mark well anybody he associates +with." + +"Perhaps they will not bother me any more," said Tom, rather +carelessly. + +"And perhaps they will," grumbled Mr. Damon. "Bless my self- +starter! they may try something mean again this very night. Come +on, Tom. I want to run you home. And on the way, I tell you, I've +got something to put up to you myself. It may not promise a small +fortune like this electric locomotive business; but bless my +barbed wire fence! my trouble has more than a little to do with +footpads, too." + +He led the way out of the house and to the motor car again. In +a minute he had started his engine, and Tom, jumping in beside +him, was borne away toward his own home. + + + +Chapter V + +Barbed Wire Entanglements + + +"This gets us to your particular trouble, Mr. Damon," Tom Swift +said, while the motor car was rolling along. "You intimated that +you had something to consult me about." + +"Bless my windshield! I should say I had," exclaimed the +eccentric gentleman, swinging around a corner at rather a fast +clip. + +"And has it to do with highwaymen?" asked Tom, much amused. + +"Some of the same gentry, Tom," declared Mr. Damon. "I haven't +any peace of my life, I really haven't!" + +"Who is troubling you, sir?" + +"Why, what nonsense that is, to ask that!" ejaculated the +gentleman. "If I knew who they were I wouldn't ask odds of +anybody. I'd go after them. As it is, I've left my servant with a +gun loaded with rock-salt watching for them now." + +"Burglars?" exclaimed Tom, with real interest. + +"Chicken-house burglars! That's the kind of burglars they are," +growled Mr. Damon. "Two or three times they have tried to get my +prize buff Orpingtons. Last night they got me out of bed twice +fooling around the chicken house and yard. Other neighbors have +lost their hens already. I don't mean to lose mine. Want you to +help me, Tom." + +"Is that all that is worrying you, Mr. Damon?" laughed the +young fellow. + +"Bless my radiator! isn't that enough?" + +"I know you set your clock by those buff Orpingtons," agreed +Tom. + +"That's right. That ten-months cockerel, Blue Ribbon Junior, +never fails to crow at three-thirty-three to the minute. Bless my +combs and spurs; a wonderful bird!" + +"But let's see how I can help you regarding the chicken +thieves," Tom said, as they sighted the lights of the Swift house +beyond the long stockade fence that surrounded the Construction +Company's premises. + +"You know I have a barbed wire entanglement around the whole +yard and hen-house. I don't take any more chances than I can +help. Those prize huff Orpingtons are a great temptation to +chicken lovers--both blond and brunette," and in spite of his +anxiety, Mr. Damon could chuckle at his own joke. "Even your old +Eradicate's friend fell for chickens, you know" + +"And Rad promptly cured him of the disease," laughed Tom. + +"And I'm trying to cure these others. I've charged my shotgun +with rock-saltÄas he did. My servant has orders to shoot anybody +who tampers with my chicken house tonight. + +"But bless my shirt!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "I'll never be able +to sleep comfortably until I know that no thief can get at my +buff Orpingtons. I want you to fix it so I can sleep in peace, +Tom." + +He slowed to a stop in front of the Swift's door. Tom stared at +his eccentric friend questioningly. + +"Bless my gaiters!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "don't you see what I +want? And your head already full of this electrified locomotive +you are going to build?" + +"Hush!" murmured Tom, with his hand upon his companion's arm. +"But what do you want me to do?" + +"I want you to fix it so that I can turn a current of +electricity into that barbed wire chicken fence at night that +will shock any thief that touches the wires. Not kill 'em--though +they ought to be killed!" declared the eccentric man. "But shock +'em aplenty. Can't you do it for me, Tom Swift?" + +"Of course it can be done," said the young fellow. "You use +electricity in your house. There is a feed cable in the street. +We will have to change your lighting switch for another. Fix it +with the Electric Supply Company. It will cost you more--" + +"Bless my pocketbook! I don't care how much it costs. It will +be ample satisfaction to see just one low-down chicken thief +squirming on those wires. + +Tom laughed again. He meant to help his friend; but he did not +propose to rig the wires so that anybody, even a chicken thief, +would be seriously injured by the electric current passing +through the strands. + +"I'll come down to Waterfield tomorrow in the electric runabout +and fix things up for you. Get a permit from the Electric Supply +Company early in the morning. Tell them I will rig the thing +myself. They can send their inspector afterward." + +"That's fine, Tom! What--Ugh! what's this? Another footpad?" + +Out of the darkness beside the fence a bulky figure started. +For a moment Tom thought it was the same man who had attacked him +twice. Then the very size of this new assailant proved that +suspicion to be unfounded. + +"Koku!" exclaimed Tom. "What's the matter with you, Koku?" + +The huge and only half-tamed giant gained the side of the car +in seemingly a single stride. In the dark they could not see his +face, but his voice distinctly showed excitement. + +"Master come good. 'Cause there be enemy. Koku find--Koku +kill!" + +"Bless my magnifying glass!" ejaculated Mr. Damon. "That fellow +is the most bloodthirsty individual that I ever saw." + +"All in his bringing up," chuckled Tom who knew, as the saying +is, that Koku's bark was a deal worse than his bite. "Killing and +maiming his enemies used to be Koku's principal job. But he has +his orders now. He doesn't kill anybody without consulting me +first." + +"Bless my buttons!" murmured Mr. Damon. "That is certainly a +good thing too. What's the matter with him now?" + +That is exactly what Tom himself wanted to know. He had dropped +a hand upon the arm of the giant as he stood beside the car. + +"Who is the enemy, Koku?" he asked. + +"Not know, Master. See him footmarks. Follow him footmarks. Not +find. When do find--kill!" + +"That is, after first obtaining my permission," said Tom dryly. + +"It is so," agreed the imperturbable Koku. "See! Show Master +footmarks. Him look in at window. See! Koku have got the wonder +lamp." + +He flashed the electric torch in his hand. He left the car and +strode into the yard. Tom followed him, and Mr. Damon's curiosity +brought him along. + +The giant pointed the ray of the flashlight at the ground below +the porch. Several footprints --the marks of boots at least +number twelve in size--were imbedded in the soil. Koku went +around the house to the other side, following repeated marks of +the same boots. + +"How came you to find them, Koku?" asked Tom softly. + +"Me look. All around stockade," and he waved a generous gesture +with his free hand including the fence about the works. "Enemy +may come. Anytime he come. Now he come." + +"Bless my slippery shoes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who had hard +work to keep up both physically and mentally with the giant. +"What does he mean + +"Koku has always had it in his head," explained Tom, "that we +built that fence about the works to keep out enemies. And, to +tell the truth, we did! But all that is over--" + +"Is it?" asked Mr. Damon pointedly. "Enemy here," added Koku, +flashing the lamplight upon the footprints on the ground. + +"Those bootmarks," added Mr. Damon, "are doubtless those of +that fellow who jumped upon the running board of the car." + +"Humph! And who robbed me of my wallet," added Tom musingly. +"Well, it might be. And, if so, Koku is right. The enemy has +come." + +"Me kill!" exclaimed the giant, stretching himself to his full +height. + +"We'll consider the killing later," said Tom, who well knew his +influence with this big fellow. "You are forbidden to kill +anybody, or chase anybody away from here, until I have a talk +with them. Enemy or not--understand?" + +"Me understand," said Koku in his deep voice. "Master say--me +do." + +"Just the same," Tom said, aside to Mr. Damon, "there has been +somebody around here. I guess Mr. Bartholomew was right. He is +being spied upon. And now that we Swifts are going to try to do +something for him, we are likely to be spied upon too." + +"Bless my statue of Nathan Hale!" murmured the eccentric +gentleman. "I believe you. And you've been already attacked twice +by some thug! You are positively in danger, Tom." + +"I don't know about that. Save that the fellow who robbed me +was sore because I fooled him. Naturally he might like to get +square about those shorthand notes. He knows no more now about +Mr. Bartholomew's business with us than he did before he held me +up." + +"That is a fact," agreed Mr. Damon. + +"And that brings me to another warning, Mr. Damon," added Tom +earnestly, as his friend climbed into the motor car again. "Keep +all that has happened, and all that I told you and Ned about the +H. & P. A. railroad, to yourself." + +"Surely! Surely!" + +"If Mr. Bartholomew's rivals continue to keep their spies +hanging around the works here, we'll handle them properly. Trust +Koku for that," and Tom chuckled. + +"And don't forget my barbed wire entanglements," put in Mr. +Damon, starting his engine. "I want to fix those chicken +thieves.'' + +"All right. I'll be over tomorrow," promised Tom Swift. + +Then he stood a minute on the curb and looked after the +disappearing lights of Mr. Damon's car. The latter's problem +dovetailed, after all, into this discovery of possible marauders +lurking about the Swift premises. Koku had made no mistake in +bringing his attention to the matter of the footprints. Tom had +seen somebody dodging into the darkness outside the house when he +had come out on his way to visit Mary Nestor. + +"And sure as taxes," muttered Tom, as he finally turned toward +the front door again, "the fellow who twice attacked me this +evening wore the boots the prints of which Koku found. + +"Those fellows, whoever they are, whether Montagne Lewis and +his associates, or not, have bitten off several mouthfuls that +they may be unable to chew. Anyhow, before they get through they +may learn something about the Swifts that they never knew +before." + + + +Chapter VI + +The Contract Signed + + +Tom Swift went to bed that night without the least fear that +the man who had twice attacked him in the streets of Shopton +would be able to trouble him unless he went abroad again. Koku +was on guard. + +The giant whom Tom had brought home from one of his distant +wanderings was wholly devoted to his master. Koku never had, and +he never would, become entirely civilized. + +He was naturally a born tracker of men. For generations his +people had lived amid the alarms of threat and attack. He could +not be made to understand how so many "tribes," as he called +them, of civilized men could live in anything like harmony. + +That somebody should prowl about the Swift house at night with +a desire to rob his young master or injure him, did not surprise +Koku in the least. He accepted the fact of the marauder's +presence as quite the expected thing. + +But the man who had robbed Tom and later tried to repay him for +playing what appeared to be a practical joke on the robber, did +not trouble the Swift premises with his presence before morning. +Koku, thrusting Eradicate Sampson aside and striding to his +bedroom to report this fact, was what awoke Tom at eight o'clock. + +"Hey! What you want, tromping in here for, man?" demanded old +Rad angrily. "An' totin' that spear, too. Where you t'ink yo' is? +In de jungle again? Go 'way, chile!" + +Both Rad and Koku were rapidly outliving the sudden friendship +of Rad's sick days, when it was thought he might be blind for +life, and were dropping back into their old ways of bickering and +rivalry for Tom's attention. + +"I report to the Master," declared the giant, in his deep +voice. + +"You tell me, I tell him," Rad said pompously. "No need yo' +'sturbing Massa Tom at dis hour." + +"Koku go in!" declared the giant sternly. + +"Jes' stay out dere on de stair an' res' yo'self," said Rad. + +Koku lost his temper with old Rad. There was a feud between +them, although deep in their hearts they really were fond of each +other. But the two were jealous of each other's services to young +Tom Swift. + +Suddenly Tom heard the old negro utter a frightened squeal. The +door which had been only ajar, burst inward and banged against +the door-stop with a mighty smash. + +Rad went through the big bedroom like a chocolate-colored +streak, entered Tom's bathroom, and the next moment there was the +sound of crashing glass as Eradicate Sampson went through the +lower sash of the window, headfirst, out upon the roof of the +porch! + +"What do you mean by this?" shouted Tom, sitting up in bed. + +Koku paused in the doorway, bulking almost to the top of the +door. His right arm was drawn back, displaying his mighty biceps, +and he poised a ten foot spear with a copper head that he had +seized from a nest of such implements which was a decoration of +the lower hall. + +Had the giant ever flung that spear at poor Rad's back, half +the length of the staff might have passed through his body. +Little wonder that the colored man, having roused the giant's +rage to such a pitch, had given small consideration to the order +of his going, but had gone at once! + +"You want to scare Rad out of half a year's growth?" Tom +pursued sternly, slipping out of bed and reaching for his robe +and slippers. "And he's broken that window to smithereens." + +"Koku come make report, Master," said the giant. + +"You go put that spear back where you found it and come up +properly," commanded the young fellow, with difficulty hiding his +amusement. "Go on now!" + +He shuffled into the bathroom while the giant disappeared. He +peered out of the broken window. It was a wonder Rad had not +carried the sash with him! The broken glass was scattered all +about the roof of the porch and the old colored man lay groaning +there. + +"What did you do this for, Eradicate?" demanded Tom. "You act +worse than a ten-year-old boy." + +"I's done killed, Massa Tom!" groaned Rad with confidence. "I's +blood from haid to foot!" + +There was a scratch on his bald crown from which a few drops of +blood flowed. But with all his terror, Eradicate had put both +arms over his head when he made his dive through the window, and +he really was very little injured. + +"Come in here," repeated Tom. "Fix something over this broken +window so that I can take my bath. And then go and put something +on that scratch. Don't you know better yet, than to cross Koku +when he is excited?" + +"Dat crazy ol' cannibal!" spat out Rad viciously. "I'll fix him +yet. I'll pizen his rations, dat's what I'll do." + +"You wouldn't be so bad as that, Rad!" + +"Well, mebbe not," said the colored man, crawling in through +the bathroom window. "It would take too much pizen, anyway, to +kill that giant. Take as much as dey has to give an el'phant to +kill it. Anyways, I's bound to fix him proper some time, yet." + +These quarrels between Eradicate and Koku were intermittent. +They almost always arose, too, because of the desire of the two +servants to wait upon Tom or his father. They were very jealous +of each other, and their clashes afforded Tom and his friends a +good deal of amusement. + +While the young inventor was in his bath the giant strode back +into the bedroom, out of which Rad had scurried by another door, +and proceeded to report the result of his night watch about the +premises. + +He had not much to tell. In fact, after Tom had gone into the +house Koku had seen nobody lurking about at all. The fact +remained that, earlier in the evening, somebody had made a close +surveillance of the Swift house, but the mysterious marauder had +not come back. + +"All right, Koku. Keep your eyes open. I expect that enemy may +return sometime. Too bad," he added to himself, "that I didn't +get a better look at him." + +"Koku know him next time," declared the giant. + +"Why! you didn't even see him this time," cried Tom. + +"See him boots. See marks him boots make. Know him boots. +Waugh!" + +"'Waugh!' yourself," returned Tom, shaking his head. "You are +altogether too sure, Koku. You couldn't tell a man from his +bootprints in the mud." + +"Koku know," said the giant, just as confidently. "Wait. Him +catch--see--show Master." + +"Don't you go to grabbing every stranger who comes around the +house or the works for a spy, and make me trouble. Remember now." + +Koku nodded gravely and went away. When he met Rad suddenly in +the hall with Mr. Swift's breakfast tray, the giant said "boo!" +and almost cost the old colored man the loss of the tray. + +"Dat big el'phant ought to be livin' in a barn," declared Rad. +"Look at dat spear he come near runnin' me t'rough wid! If he +had, yo' could ha' driv a tipcart full o' rubbish in after it. +Lawsy me!" + +But an hour later when Tom and his father started for the +offices of the Swift Construction Company down the street, Rad +and Koku were sitting before an enormous breakfast in the back +kitchen and chatting together as companionably as ever. + +The old inventor and his son arrived at the offices of the +Swift Construction Company not long ahead of Mr. Richard +Bartholomew. Tom had merely found time to read over the contract +that had been jointly prepared by Ned Newton and the firm's legal +advisers, before the railroad man came. + +"No getting out of the provisions of that paper, Tom," Ned had +whispered, when he saw Mr. Bartholomew coming into the outer +office. "Is this your man + +"Yes." + +"A sharp looking little fellow," commented Ned. "But even if he +were bent on tricking us, this contract would hold him. He is +solvent and so is his road--as yet. If it has a bad name in the +market that is more because of slander by the Montagne Lewis +crowd than from any real cause. I've found that out this +morning." + +"Faithful Nero!" chuckled Tom. "Aren't going to let the Swifts +get done, are you?" + +"Not if I can help it," declared Ned Newton emphatically. + +A clerk brought Mr. Bartholomew into the private office and he +was introduced to Newton. If he considered the financial manager +of the Swift Construction Company very young for his responsible +position, after he had read the contract he felt considerable +respect for Ned Newton. + +"You've got me here, young man, hard and fast," Mr. Bartholomew +said. "If I was inclined to want to wriggle out, I see no chance +of it. But I don't. You have set forth here exactly my meaning +and intent. I want your best efforts in this matter, Mr. Swift, +and if you give them to me I'll foot the bill as agreed." + +"You've got me interested, I confess," said Tom. "By the way, +were your friends following you when you came here this morning?" + +"My friends?" repeated Mr. Bartholomew, for a moment puzzled. + +"The spy that you mentioned," said Tom, smiling. + +"That Andy O'Malley?" exclaimed Bartholomew. "Haven't spotted +him today." + +"He spotted me last night," said Tom grimly, and proceeded to +relate what had happened. + +"You fooled 'em that time, young man!" exclaimed the railroad +president, with satisfaction. "I am convinced that Montagne Lewis +is behind it. Look out for these fellows when you get to work, +Mr. Swift. They will stop at nothing. I tell you that the fight +is on between the Hendrickton & Pas Alos and the Hendrickton & +Western. I have either got to break them or they will break me." + +"You seem very sure that there is a conspiracy against you, Mr. +Bartholomew," said the senior Swift reflectively. + +"I am sure," was the reply. "And I am likewise sure that this +scheme of electrification of my road through the Pas Alos Range is +the only salvation for my railroad." + +"I should call it a big contract," Ned Newton said, +thoughtfully. + +"You have said it! But it is not a visionary scheme I have in +mind. You must know--you Swifts--how successful such an +electrification through the Rockies has been made by the Chicago, +Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway." + +"I've looked that up," confessed Tom, with enthusiasm. "That +was a great piece of work." + +"It is. It is. But I hope for even a greater outcome of your +experiments, Mr. Swift. Of course, I do not expect to compete +with that great road. They had millions to spend, and they spent +them. Those Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives the Chicago, +Milwaukee & St. Paul built in nineteen hundred and nineteen are +wonderful machines. They have got forty-two freight locomotives, +fifteen passenger locomotives and four switchers of that new +type. + +"The Jandel patent that my road uses is, in some degree, the +equal of those Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives. At least, our +machines equal the C., M. & St. P. on our level road. They can +reach a mile-a-minute gait. But when it comes to speed and pull +on steep grades--Ah! that is where they fail." + +"You will have to get power in the hills for your stations," +suggested Tom, thoughtfully. + +"I know that. I know where the power is coming from. I gathered +those waterfalls in years ago. Lewis and his crowd can't shut me +off from them. But I have got to have a speedier and more +powerful type of electric locomotive than has ever yet been built +to protect the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad from any rivalry. + +"I am looking to you Swifts to give me that. I am risking this +twenty-five thousand dollars upon your succeeding. And I am +offering you the hundred thousand dollars bonus for the right to +purchase the first successful locomotives that can be built +covered by your patents. Is it plain?" + +"It is eminently satisfactory," said Mr. Swift, quietly. + +"I will do my very best," agreed Tom, warmly. "There isn't a +thing the matter with the agreement," declared Ned Newton, with +confidence. "Gentlemen, sign on the dotted line." + +Five minutes later the twin contracts were in force. One went +into the safe of the Swift Construction Company. The other, Mr. +Richard Bartholomew bore away with him. + + + +Chapter VII + +The Man with Big Feet + + +The consultation in the private office of the Swift +Construction Company after the departure of Mr. Richard +Bartholomew between the two Swifts and Ned Newton had more to do +with a vision of the future than with mere present finances. + +"I expect you know just about how you are going to work on this +new invention, Tom?" suggested the financial manager, and Tom's +chum. + +"Haven't the first idea," rejoined the young inventor, +promptly. + +"What do you mean?" ejaculated Ned. "You talked just now as +though you knew all about electric locomotives." + +"I know a good deal about those that have been built, both +under the Jandel patent and those built for the Chicago, +Milwaukee & St. Paul in the great Philadelphia shops. + +"But when you ask me if I know how I am going to improve on +those patents so as to make my locomotive twice as speedy and +quite as powerful as those other locomotives--well, I've got to +tell you flat that I have not as yet got the first idea." + +"Humph!" grumbled Ned. "You say it coolly enough." + +"No use getting all heated up about it," returned his friend. +"I have got to consider the situation first. I must look over the +field of electrical invention as applied to motive power. I must +study things out." + +"I don't just see myself," Ned Newton remarked thoughtfully, +"why there should be such a great need for the electrification of +locomotives, anyway. Those great mountain-hogs that draw most of +the mountain railroad trains are very powerful, aren't they? And +they are speedy." + +"Locomotives that use coal or oil have been developed about as +far as they can be," said Mr. Swift, quietly. "A successful +electric locomotive has many advantages over the old-time +engine." + +"What are those advantages?" asked the business manager, +quickly. "I confess, I do not understand the matter, Mr. Swift." + +"For instance," proceeded the old gentleman, "there is the coal +question alone. Coal is rising in price. It is bulky. Using +electricity as motive power for railroads will do away with fuel +trains, tenders, coal handling, water, and all that. Of course, +Mr. Bartholomew will generate his electricity from water power-- +the cheapest power on earth." + +"Humph! I've got my answer right now," said Ned Newton. "If +there is no other good reason, this is sufficient." + +"There are plenty of others," drawled Tom, smiling. "Good ones. +For instance, heat or cold has nothing to do with the even +running of an electric locomotive. It can bore right through a +snowbank--a thing a steam engine can't do. It runs at an even +speed. Really, grade should have nothing to do with its speed. +There is a fault somewhere in the construction of the Jandel +machine or the H. & P. A. would have little trouble with those +locomotives on its grades. + +"Then, all you have to do to start an electrified locomotive is +to turn a handswitch. No stoking or water-boiling. Does away with +the fireboy. One man runs it!" + +"Why!" cried Ned, "I never stopped to think of all these +things." + +"No ashes to dump," went on Tom. "No flues to clean, no boilers +to inspect, and none to wear out. And they say that on the +Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, at least, their freight +locomotives handle twice the load of a steam locomotive at a +greatly reduced cost." + +"Sounds fine. Don't wonder Mr. Bartholomew is eager to +electrify his entire tine." + +"On the side of passenger traffic," continued Tom Swift, "the +electric locomotive is smokeless, noiseless, dirtless, and +doesn't jerk the coaches in either stopping or starting. And in +addition, the electric locomotive is much easier on track and +roadbed than the old 'iron horse' driven by steam generated +either from coal or oil." + +"It is a great field for your talents, Tom!" cried Ned, warmly. + +"It is a big job," admitted Tom, and he said this with modesty. +"I don't know what I may be able to do--if anything. I would not +feel right in taking Mr. Bartholomew's twenty-five thousand +dollars for nothing." + +"Quite right, my boy," said Mr. Swift, approvingly. + +"Never mind that," said the financial manager, rather grimly. +"It was his own offer and his risk. That twenty-five thousand +comes to our account." + +Tom laughed. "All business, Ned, aren't you? But there is more +than business for the Swift Construction Company in this. Our +reputation for fair dealing as well as for inventive powers is +linked up with this contract. + +"I want to show the Jandel people--to say nothing of the bigger +firms--that the Swifts are to be reckoned with when it comes to +electric invention. Other roads will be electrifying their lines +as fast as it is proved that the electric-driven locomotive has +the bulge on the steam-driven. + +"In the case of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos there are very steep +grades to overcome. Supposedly an electric motor-drive should +achieve the same speed on a hill as on the level. But there is +the weight of the train to be counted on. + +"The H. & P. A. has a two per cent. grade in more than one +place. Mr. Bartholomew confessed as much to me last night. The +electric-driven locomotive of the powerful freight type, which +the Jandel people built for Mr. Bartholomew, can make about +sixteen miles an hour on those grades, although they can hit it +up to thirty miles an hour on level track. + +"His passenger locomotives turn off a mile a minute and more, +on the level road; but they can not climb those steep grades at a +much livelier pace than the freight engines. That is why he is +talking about two-mile-a-minute locomotives. He must get a mighty +speedy locomotive, for both freight and passenger service, to +keep ahead of Montagne Lewis's rival road, the Hendrickton & +Western." + +"You don't suppose it can be done, do you?" demanded Ned. "The +two-mile-a-minute locomotive, I mean, Tom." + +"That is the target I am to aim for," returned his friend, +soberly. "At any rate, I hope to improve on the type of +locomotive Mr. Bartholomew is now using, so that the hundred +thousand dollars bonus will come our way as well as this first +twenty-five thousand." + +"That wouldn't pay for one engine, would it?" cried Ned. + +"Nor is it expected to. The bonus has nothing to do with +payment for any model, or patent, or anything of the kind. To +tell you the truth, Ned, I understand those big locomotives used +by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul cost them about one hundred +and twelve thousand dollars each." + +"Whew! Some price, I'll tell the world!" murmured the youthful +financial manager of the Swift Construction Company. + +When the conference was over, and Tom had been through the +workshop to overlook several little jobs that were in process of +completion by his trusted mechanics, it was lunch time. He left +word that he would not be back that day, for this new task he was +to attack was not to be approached with any haphazard thought. + +Tom knew quite as well as his father knew that the idea of +improving the Jandel patent on electric locomotives was no small +thing. The Jandel people had claimed that their patent was the +very last word in electric motor-power. And Tom was quite willing +to acknowledge that in some ways this claim was true. + +But in invention, especially in the field of electric +invention, what is the last word today may be ancient history +tomorrow. + +It was because this field is so broad and the possibility of +improvement in every branch of electrical science so exciting, +that Tom had accepted Mr. Bartholomew's challenge with such +eagerness. + +Tom went back to the house for lunch, and as he joined his +father in the dining room he remarked to Eradicate: + +"I want the electric runabout brought around after lunch. I am +going to Waterfield. Tell Koku, will you, Rad?" + +"Tell that crazy fellow?" demanded the old colored man +heatedly. "Why should I tell him, Massa Tom? Ain't I able to +bring dat runabout out o' de garbarge? Shore I is!" + +"You can't do everything, Rad," said Tom, soberly. "That is +humanly impossible." + +"But dat Koku can't do nothin' right. Dat's inhumanly possible, +Massa Tom." + +"Give him a chance, Rad. I have to take Koku with me this +afternoon. You must give your attention to the house and to +father." + +"Huh! Umm!" grunted Eradicate. + + Rad was jealous of anybody who waited on Tom besides himself. +Yet he was proud of responsibility, too. He teetered between the +pride of being in charge at home and accompanying his young +master, and finally replied: + +"Well, in course, you ain't going to be gone long, Massa Tom. +And yo' father does like to get his nap undisturbed. And he'll +want his pot o' tea afterwards. So I'll let dat irresponsible +Koku go wid yo'. But yo' got to watch him, Massa Tom. Dat giant +don't know what he's about half de time." + +As Koku was not within hearing to challenge that statement, +things went all right. When Tom came out of the house after +eating, he found his very fast car waiting for him, with the +giant standing beside it at the curb. + +"Get in at the back, Koku," said Tom. "I am going to take you +with me." + +"Master is much wise," said Koku. "That man with big feet will +not hurt Master while Koku is with him." + +To tell the truth Tom had quite forgotten the supposed spy that +had attacked him the night before. He needed Koku for a purpose +other than that of bodyguard. But he made no comment upon the +giant's remark. + +They stopped at one of the gates of the works, and Tom +instructed Koku to bring out and put into the car certain boxes +and tools that he wished to take with him. Then he drove on, +taking the road to Waterfield. + +This way led through farmlands and patches of woods, a rough +country in part. A mile out of the limits of Shopton the road +edged a deep valley, the sidehill sparsely wooded. + +Almost at once, and where there was not a dwelling in sight, +they saw a figure tramping in the road ahead, a big man, roughly +dressed, and wearing a broad-brimmed hat. Somehow, his appearance +made Tom reduce speed and he hesitated to pass the pedestrian. + +The man did not hear the runabout at first; or, at least, he +did not look over his shoulder. He strode on heavily, but +rapidly. Suddenly the young inventor heard the giant behind him +emit a hissing breath. + +"Master!" whispered the giant. + +"What's up now?" demanded Tom, but without glancing around. + +"The big feet!" exclaimed Koku. + +The giant's own feet were shod with difficulty in civilized +footgear, but compared with his other physical dimensions his +feet did not seem large. The man ahead wore coarse boots which +actually looked too big for him! Koku started up in the back of +the car as the latter drew nearer to the stranger. + +The man looked back at last and Tom gained a clear view of his +features--roughly carved, dark as an Indian's, and holding a grim +expression in repose that of itself was far from breeding +confidence. In a moment, too, the expression changed into one of +active emotion. The man glared at the young inventor with +unmistakable malevolence. + +"Master!" hissed Koku again. "The big feet!" The fellow must +have seen Koku's face and understood the giant's expression. In a +flash he turned and leaped out of the roadway. The sidehill was +steep and broken here, but he went down the slope in great +strides and with every appearance of wishing to evade the two in +the motor-car. + +The giant's savage war cry followed the fugitive. Koku leaped +from the moving car. Tom yelled: + +"Stop it, Koku! You don't know that that is the man." + +"The big feet!" repeated the giant. "Master see the red mud +dried on Big Feet's boots? That mud from Master's garden." + +Again Koku uttered his savage cry, and in strides twice the +length of those of the running man, started on the latter's +trail. + + + +Chapter VIII + +An Enemy in the Dark + + +The situation offered suggestions of trouble that stung Tom to +immediate action. The impetuousness of his giant often resulted +in difficulties which the young inventor would have been glad to +escape. + +Now Koku was following just the wrong path. Tom Swift knew it. + +"Koku, you madman!" he shouted after the huge native. "Come +back here! Hear me? Back!" + +Koku hesitated. He shot a wondering look over his shoulder, but +his long legs continued to carry him down the slope after the +dark-faced stranger. + +"Come back, I say!" shouted Tom again. "Have I got to come +after you? Koku! If you don't mind what you're told I'll send you +back to your own country and you'll have to eat snakes and +lizards, as you used to. Come here!" + +Whether it was because of this threat of a change of diet, +which Koku now abhorred, or the fact that he had really become +somewhat disciplined and that he fairly worshiped Tom, the giant +stopped. The man with the big shoes disappeared behind a hedge of +low trees. + +"Get back up here!" ejaculated Tom sternly. "I'll never take +you away from the house with me again if you don't obey me." + +"Master!" ejaculated the giant, slowly approaching. "That Big +Feet--" + +"I don't care if he made those footprints in the yard last +night or not. I don't want him touched. I didn't even want him to +know that we guessed he had been sneaking about the house. +Understand?" + +"Of a courseness," grumbled Koku. "Koku understand everything +Master say." + +"Well, you don't act as though you did. Next time when I want +any help I may have to bring Rad with me." + +"Oh, no, Master! Not that old man. He don't know how to help +Master. Koku do just what Master say." + +"Like fun you do," said Tom, still apparently very angry with +the simple-minded giant. "Get back into the car and sit still, if +you can, until we get to Mr. Damon's house." Then to himself he +added: "I don't blame that fellow, whoever he is, for lighting +out. I bet he's running yet!" + +He knew that Koku would say nothing regarding the incident. The +giant had wonderful powers of silence! He sometimes went days +without speaking even to Rad. And that was one of the sources of +irritation between the voluble colored man and the giant. + +"'Tain't human," Rad often said, "for nobody to say nothin' as +much as dat Koku does. Why, lawsy me! if he was tongue-tied an' +speechless, an' a deaf an' dumb mute, he couldn't say nothin' +more obstreperously dan he does--no sir! 'Tain't human." + +So Tom had not to warn the giant not to chatter about meeting +the stranger on the road to Waterfield. If that person with dried +red mud on his boots was the spy who had followed Mr. Richard +Bartholomew East and was engaged by Montagne Lewis to interfere +with any attempt the president of the H. & P. A. might make to +pull his railroad out of the financial quagmire into which it was +rapidly sinking, Tom would have preferred to have the spy not +suspect that he had been identified after his fiasco of the +previous evening. + +For if this Western looking fellow was Andy O'Malley, whose +name had been mentioned by the railroad man, he was the person +who had robbed Tom of his wallet and had afterward attempted +reprisal upon the young inventor because the robbery had resulted +in no gain to the robber. + +Of course, the fellow had been unable to read Tom's shorthand +notes of the agreement that he had discussed with Mr. +Bartholomew. Just what the nature of that agreement was, would be +a matter of interest to the spy's employer. + +Having failed in this attempt to learn something which was not +his business, the spy might make other and more serious attempts +to learn the particulars of the agreement between the railroad +president and the Swifts. Tom was sorry that the fellow had now +been forewarned that his identity as the spy and footpad was +known to Tom and his friends. + +Koku had made a bad mess of it. But Tom determined to say +nothing to his father regarding the discovery he had made. He did +not want to worry Mr. Swift. He meant, however, to redouble +precautions at the Swift Construction Company against any +stranger getting past the stockade gates. + +Arrived at Mr. Damon's home in Waterfield, Tom got quickly to +work on the little job he had come to do for his old friend. Of +course, Tom might have sent two of his mechanics from the works +down here to electrify the barbed wire entanglements that Mr. +Damon had erected around his chicken run. But the young inventor +knew that his eccentric friend would not consider the job done +right unless Tom attended to it personally. + +"Bless my cracked corn and ground bone mixture!" ejaculated the +chicken fancier. "We'll show these night-prowlers what's what, I +guess. One of my neighbors was robbed last night. And I would +have been if I hadn't set a watch while I drove over to see you, +Tom. Bless my spurs and hackles! but these thieves are getting +bold." + +"We'll fix 'em," said Tom, cheerfully, while Koku brought the +tools and wire to the hen run. "After we link up your supply of +the current with this wire fence it will be an unhappy chicken +burglar who interferes with it." + +"That was an unhappy fellow who got your charge of ammonia last +evening," whispered Mr. Damon. "Heard anything more of him?" + +"I think I have seen him. But Koku spoiled everything by trying +to eat him up," and Tom laughingly related what had occurred on +the way from Shopton. + +"Bless my boots!" said Mr. Damon. "You'd better see the police, +Tom." + +"What for?" + +"Why, they ought to know about such a fellow lurking about +Shopton. If he followed that Western railroad president here--" + +"We'll hope that he will follow Mr. Bartholomew away again," +chuckled Tom. "Mr. Bartholomew won't stay over today. When that +chap finds he has gone he probably will consider that there is no +use in his bothering me any further." + +Whether Tom believed this statement or not, he was destined to +realize his mistake within a very short time. At least, the fact +that he was being spied upon and that the enemy meant him +anything but good, seemed proved beyond a doubt that very week. + +Having done the little job for Mr. Damon, Tom allowed no other +outside matter to take up his attention. He shut himself into his +private experimental workshop and laboratory at the works each +day. He did not even come out for lunch, letting Rad bring him +down some sandwiches and a thermos bottle of cool milk. + +"The young boss is milling over something new," the men said, +and grinned at each other. They were proud of Tom and faithful to +his interests. + +Time was when there had been traitors in the works; but +unfaithful hands had been weeded out. There was not a man who +drew a pay envelope from the Swift Construction Company who would +not have done his best to save Tom and his father trouble. Such a +thing as a strike, or labor troubles of any kind, was not thought +of there. + +So Tom knew that whatever he did, or whatever plans he drew, in +his private room, he was safely guarded. Yet he always took a +portfolio home with him at night, for after dinner he frequently +continued his work of the day. Naturally during this first week +he did not get far in any problem connected with the proposed +electric locomotive. There were, however, rough drafts and +certain schedules that had to do with the matter jotted down. + +It was almost twelve at night. Tom had sat up in his own room +after his father had retired, and after the household was still. + +Eradicate was in bed and snoring under the roof, Tom knew. Just +where Koku was, it would have been hard to tell. Although a fine +and penetrating rain was falling, the giant might be roaming +about the waste land surrounding the stockade of the works. The +elements had no terrors for him. + +Tom locked his portfolio and stepped into his bathroom to wash +his hands before retiring. Before he snapped on the electric +light over the basin he chanced to glance through the newly set +windowpane which had replaced the one Rad had shattered in +escaping threatened impalement on Koku's spear. + +Although the clouds were thick and the rain was falling, there +was a certain humid radiance upon the roof of the porch under the +bathroom window. At least, the wet roof glistened so that any +moving figure on or beyond it was visible, + +"What's that?" muttered Tom, and he sank down lower than the +sill and crept slowly to the window. He merely raised himself +until his eyes were on a level with the sill. + +Coming up over the edge of the porch roof was a bulky figure. +It was so dimly outlined at first that Tom could scarcely be sure +that it was that of a man. + +However, it was not possible that any creature but a man would +be able to mount the lattice supporting the honeysuckle vines and +so creep out upon the porch roof. Once making secure his footing, +the enemy in the dark approached directly the bathroom window at +which Tom crouched. + + + +Chapter IX + +Where was Koku? + + +Tom reached up swiftly and pushed over the lever that locked +the two window sashes. In doing this he set his own patent +burglar alarm. If that lever was turned back again, or broken, +the buzzers would be set ringing all over the house, and in +Koku's room over the garage. + +He did not believe that the marauder on the roof of the porch +could have seen the flash of his shirt-sleeved arm. But he took +no chance of being observed from outside by rising to his feet. + +On his hands and knees he crept away from the window, and out +of the bathroom. Once there, he stood up, grabbed the portfolio, +and without coat or vest and as he was, dashed out of the +bedroom. He had been positive that nobody but himself was astir +in the big house, and he was right. + +He did not punch the light button when he entered the library. +He knew where to put his hand upon an electric torch in the table +drawer, and he gained possession of this. + +Then he went to the safe and twirled the knob and watched the +indicator find the four numbers which were the "open sesame" to +the burglar and fire-proof door. + +He flung the portfolio into the inner compartment, closed both +doors, and twirled the combination-knob. Then Tom tiptoed to the +foot of the front stairs to listen. He could hear no sound from +above. + +He did not want his father to be startled, if the enemy did +break in; and he knew that old Rad, awakened out of a sound +sleep, would be worse than useless at such a time. + +After all, the giant, Koku, was his main dependence under these +circumstances. Tom crept to the outer door, opened it carefully, +and slipped out, letting the spring lock click behind him. For +the first time he realized that he was in his shirt and trousers +and wore only felt slippers on his feet. + +But he was locked out now. He had no key. He must run the risk +of the fine rain and the chill of the night air. + +He stepped. off the end of the porch and ran around the house. +It was to the roof of the rear porch that the marauder had +climbed. But peer as he might from down in the yard, Tom could +see no moving figure up there near the bathroom window. It was +pitch dark against the wall of the house. + +He turned to glance up at the window of the sleeping room over +the garage where Koku was supposed to spend the night. But Tom +knew the giant was seldom there during the dark hours. He was as +much of a night-prowler as a wildcat or an owl. + +There was no light there in any case. But Koku did not use a +light much. He could see in the dark, like a wild animal. Tom did +not want to call him. If he must have Koku's help, he would have +to climb the stairs to his bedside. The giant always aroused as +wide awake as at noonday. + +But while the young inventor hesitated a sudden, but muffled, +snap--the breaking of metal--sounded. Tom knew instantly the +direction from which the sound came. + +Although he could see nothing up there at the bathroom window +because of the rain and the deep shadow, he knew that the +snapping sound meant the severing of the window lock that he had +so recently closed. Some instrument had been forced under the +bottom of the lower sash and pressure enough been brought to bear +to break the thin steel lever. + +On the heels of this sound came another. A muffled buzzing +somewhere in the house--again! again! And then, startlingly clear +from the room over the garage, the burglar alarm went off in +Koku's chamber. + +"It's all off now!" gasped Tom, and he ran to the foot of the +honeysuckle ladder up which he knew the enemy had climbed to get +to the roof of the porch. "If he comes down I'll have him!" +muttered Tom, staring up into the mist and gloom. + +"Fo' de lawsy's sake! 'Tain't mawnin', is it?" Rad's sleepy +voice was heard to announce. "No, it's da'k as--" And the voice +trailed off into silence. + +"Tom! Tom!" the young fellow heard his aroused father shouting. + +Tom knew that his father was in no danger. In fact Mr. Swift's +voice did not even betray apprehension. It was. to the garage Tom +looked for an explosion. But none came. + +If Koku was up there the prolonged buzzing of the alarm did not +awake him. Therefore he could not be there. Tom realized that if +the burglar was to be taken the whole affair fell upon his +shoulders. + +"And I've got my hands full, if it is the fellow with the big +feet that we saw on the Waterfield Road the other day," muttered +the young inventor. + +Nothing stirred on the porch roof. Moment after moment slipped +by. Tom began to grow more than amazed. He was worried. What +would happen next? + +His father had not cried out again. Stepping around to the end +of the roofed porch, Tom saw a light in Mr. Swift's room. Rad had +evidently gone to sleep again. It would take more than an +intermittent buzzer to rouse fully that colored man. + +"When old Morpheus has a strangle hold on Rad, Gabriel's trump +would scarcely awaken him," Tom muttered. + +What had become of the enemy? If it was an ordinary burglar he +would have feared the electric alarm instantly. The buzzers were +still working. But there was no sign of the man who had set them +off at the bathroom window. + +Suddenly Tom heard a door slam. It was from the front of the +house. Had his father come downstairs to look around and see what +the matter was? + +The young fellow started around the house on a run. He heard +heavy bootsoles spurning the gravel of the path to the front +gate. He arrived at the far corner of the house in time to see a +man dash through the gateway and run down the street, +disappearing finally into the fast-driving rain. + +"Fooled me! He went in and right through and down the stairs! +Out the front door!" gasped Tom. "Did he get anything? I wonder!" + +He sprang up to the front porch and tried the door. It was +locked again, of course. Should he ring the bell and get Rad or +his father down to the door? + +And then, of a sudden, the principal mystery of all this affair +bit into Tom Swift's mind. The burglar had made his escape. He +could relieve his father's anxiety later. It was his own +puzzlement of mind that he first wished to ease. + +Where was Koku? + +Even had the giant been circling the stockade around the shops +he surely must have come up to the home premises by this time. +His keen ears could not fail to hear the buzzers. They were still +going and would go until the switch was turned. + +If the giant was in his room--Tom turned suddenly and started +on a run for the rear premises. He still carried the hand-lamp +and it lit his way into the garage door and up the narrow +stairway. He shot the round beam of the lamp into Koku's room. + +He had been obliged to have an iron bedstead made to order for +the giant. It stood against one wall of the room. The buzzer was +snarling like a huge bumblebee above the head of the couch. +Below it sprawled the giant, eyes tightly closed and mouth +slightly ajar. From the lips of Koku were emitted sounds worthy +of Rad Sampson in his deepest slumbers! + +"Asleep?" gasped Tom, stepping cat-like into the room. + +And then he was suddenly aware of a sickish, heavy odor in the +chamber. The window had been closed. But it was something more +than stale air that Tom smelled. + +A folded cloth lay on the floor beside the couch. The young +fellow saw at once that it had been originally placed over the +giant's face, but had slid off. And lucky for Koku that it had +been dislodged! + +"Chloroform!" muttered Tom. "He's drugged. It is no wonder he +did not hear the burglar alarm." + +In any event, the incident made one deep impression on Tom's +mind. The spies who he believed were working for the Hendrickton +& Western Railroad and its owner, Montagne Lewis, were desperate +men. Tom could not believe that the fellow with the big feet was +alone in Shopton and was unaided in his attempts to find out what +Tom was doing. + +This attempt to burglarize the house betrayed the caliber of +the enemy. In chloroforming Koku he had taken the risk of +murdering the giant. Only the fact that the pad of saturated +cloth had fallen off Koku's face had, perhaps, saved the man from +suffocation. + +Tom did not tell the giant when he aroused what the matter with +him was. Koku was ill enough! He was wrenched by interior spasms +that seemed almost to tear his huge body to pieces. + +"What done got into dat big lump o' bone an' grizzle?" demanded +Eradicate. "He looks like, he swallowed a volcano, and it just +got to wo'kin' right. My lawsy!" + +"He is a sick man, all right," admitted Tom. "Looks like he +wouldn't try to stab me to deaf wid no spear no mo'," went on +Rad, inclined to approve of Koku's sufferings. + +"If he died you'd be mighty sorry, old man," declared Tom, +sternly. + +"Sho' would. Be a mighty hard job to bury him," was the callous +response. + +Just the same, the crotchety old colored man began to hop +around in lively fashion with hot water, and later with coffee +and other stimulants; and he nursed Koku all day as though he +were a big baby. + +Koku, who had never been ill before in his life, was inclined +to lay the trouble to an evil genius of some kind. Perhaps, in +spite of his half-civilized state, he was still a devil- +worshiper. At any rate, he had a vital respect for the forces of +evil. + +Naturally he considered this unknown and unexpected misery he +suffered the result of malignant influences of some kind. Tom did +not want him to suspect that the man with the big feet had any +possible part in the mystery. Had Koku suspected this, and had he +got his hands on the spy, the latter could never have been +successfully used in that sort of work again. In all probability +he would have said that he had had enough. + +Meanwhile Tom made a point of considering each step he took +alone thereafter with particular care. He had a bodyguard-- +usually the giant after the latter had recovered--between the +works and the house. He did not bring home any more the schedules +or drawings connected with the electric locomotive that he +proposed to have built and to test inside the stockade of the +Swift Construction Company. + +He even put a private detective to work on the matter of +finding a man named Andy O'Malley who might be lurking around +Shopton. He had a pretty clear description of the fellow, for he +had not only seen him once, face to face by daylight, but Tom had +written to the president of the H. & P. A. and had got from that +gentleman a clear picture in words of the spy whom Mr. +Bartholomew believed was working in the interests of Montagne +Lewis. + +"If O'Malley appears in Shopton, look out. He is a bad +character. He is not only a notorious gunman, with several +warrants out for him in these parts, but he is a cruel and +desperate man in any event. The minute you mark him, have him +arrested and telegraph me. We'll get him extradited and put him +through for ten years or more right in this county." The private +investigator, however, as the weeks went by, could not find any +man who filled O'Malley's description. + +Meanwhile Tom Swift had got what he called "a lead" and was +working day and night upon the invention that he believed might +make even the Jandel people respectful, if not a bit envious. + +First of all Tom had arranged to have built all around inside +the stockade a track of rails heavy enough to stand the wear and +tear of the heaviest locomotive built. Meanwhile the various +parts of his locomotive were being built in several shops, but +would be shipped to the Swift Construction Company and assembled +in Tom's try-out shed. + +Great secrecy was of course maintained. Aside from the fact +that the new invention had something to do with electric motive +power, nobody about the shops could say what the new industry +portended. Save, of course, the Swifts themselves, Ned Newton, +and Mr. Damon, who was the Swifts' closest friend and sometimes +had furnished additional capital for Tom's experiments. + +There was a thing that Mr. Damon furnished Tom at this time +that proved in the end to be of much importance. Before Tom had +seized upon this idea of his eccentric friend, and had made +proper use of it, something happened that came near to wrecking +utterly Tom's invention and completely putting an end to Tom +himself as an inventor. + + + +Chapter X + +A Strange Conversation + + +Mr. Wakefield Damon frequently came to the shops, for he was +not alone very friendly with the Swifts, but he was greatly +interested in Tom's new invention. + +"If it goes as good as what you did for my chicken run," he +declared, chuckling, "bless my dampers! you'll beat all the +electric locomotives in the market." + +"That is easy, perhaps," said Tom smiling. "There are not many +in the market at the present time. But I don't know what mine +will be. This is going to be some job." + +"Bless my flues and clinkers!" cried Mr. Damon, "you are not +losing hope, Tom Swift? Look what you did for my chicken run. And +believe me, that entanglement will give a shock that makes a man +stand right up and shake." + +"Have you tried it yourself?" asked Tom. + +"No. But my servant did. I saw him through the window of my +study doing some kind of a shimmy with the shovel. Thought he'd +gone crazy. Then I saw what he had done. It was early in the +morning and I hadn't turned the current off, and he had put one +hand against the wires. When he dropped the shovel as I told him +to, bless my plyers and nippers! he was all right." + +"The current would not seriously hurt him," said Tom. "I was +careful about that." + +"It killed two tomcats," said Mr. Damon. "I certainly was glad +of that, for those two ash-barrel cats kept the whole +neighborhood awake. Bless my claws and whiskers! how those two +cats did use to yell. But when one tried to climb the wires and +the other sprang on him, it was all over! That is, all over but +the burial party." + +Mr. Damon was on the ground when the mechanical equipment and a +part of the electrical equipment of the new locomotive arrived +and was set up in the erection shed. The length of the machine +was what first impressed Ned Newton as well as Mr. Damon. + +"Bless my yardstick!" exclaimed the eccentric +man, it's as long as a gossip's tongue. What a +monster it will he!" + +"How long is it, Tom?" asked Ned Newton. + +"When completed, and standing on its drivers and bogie truck and +trailer truck, from cow-catcher to rear bumper it will be a few +inches over ninety feet. And that is slightly longer than the +biggest electric locomotive so far built. But length does not so +much enter into the value of the machine. I would have it built +more compactly if I could." + +"What is the horsepower?" asked Mr. Damon. + +"I figure on forty-four hundred horsepower. The power must be +received from a three thousand-volt direct-current trolley. +There are twelve driving-wheels, as you can see. Each pair of +drivers will be driven by a twin-motor geared to the axles +through a system of flexible spring drive. Remember, I have got +to obtain both speed as well as power in this locomotive, for it +is being built to pull a passenger train--a fast cross-continent +express--to compete with the best passenger equipment in the +country." + +"Bless my combination ticket!" murmured Mr. Damon. "You have +picked out some task, and no mistake, Tom Swift." + +"He'll do it," cried Ned, with his usual optimism when Tom had +once started on any experimental work. "Of course he will. Just +as she stands there now, only half put together, I would be +willing to bet a farm that she is a better locomotive than the +Jandel patent." + +"Three cheers!" laughed Tom. "Ned is as enthusiastic as usual. +But believe me, friends, we are not going to turn out a better +locomotive than the Jandel without both thought and work." + +His friends' enthusiasm was heartening, however. No doubt of +that. He never let them into his experiment room, any more than +he allowed his workmen in there. Aside from his own father, +nobody really knew what Tom Swift was doing behind that always- +locked door. + +The huge structure of the locomotive was set up on the driving +wheels and leading and trailing trucks by Tom's chief foreman and +a picked crew. Just such another locomotive had never been seen +anywhere about Shopton. Naturally the men at work on the monster +began to speak of it outside the works. + +Not that they betrayed any secrets regarding the locomotive. In +fact, as yet none of them knew anything about what Tom intended +to do with the big machine. But the story soon circulated that +Tom Swift, the young inventor, was about to show all the previous +builders of electric locomotives how such machines should be +built. + +It was even whispered that Tom's objective was a two-mile-a- +minute locomotive. And when this was publicly known the +information was not long in seeping to the ears of certain men +who had been keeping as close a watch as they dared on the Swift +Construction Company and the activities of Tom himself. + +Ned Newton went to the bank one Friday for money for the +payroll of the working and clerical force of the Swift Company. +It was an errand he never relegated to any employee. + +Ned had once worked himself in the bank, and naturally he knew +many of its employees as well as the officials. With his back to +the general waiting room, he sat at the vice president's desk +discussing some minor matter. Only a railing divided the vice +president's enclosure from the long settee on which waiting +customers of the bank were seated. + +Ned knew that there were two men directly behind him, +whispering together; but he paid no attention to them until he +heard this phrase: + +"It's time to explode in just five hours; then good-night to +that invention, whatever it is." + +This statement might mean almost anything--or nothing. +Ordinarily Ned Newton might not have paid any consideration to +the words. But "invention" was a term that he could not over- +look. His mind then was fixed upon Tom's invention almost as +closely as the mind of the young inventor himself. + +Ned turned around slowly, as though idly, indeed, and tried to +see the faces of the two men behind him. One was a small, neatly +dressed man of professional appearance. He wore a Vandyke beard +and eyeglasses. The other's face Ned could not see; but as they +both rose just then and strolled toward the door of the bank he +could observe that the fellow was big and burly. + +Ned wheeled to his friend, the vice president, and asked: + +"Who are those men, Mr. Stanley? Do you know them?" + +The pair were just going out through the revolving door. The +vice president craned his neck for a look at them. + +"Don't know the small man, Ned. But the other is named +O'Malley, I believe. Somebody introduced him here and he gets a +check cashed occasionally. Not a customer of the bank." + +At that moment the name "O'Malley" did not mean anything to Ned +Newton. But he bade his friend good-bye and went out after the +two men. They had disappeared. + +Rad was in the electric runabout, waiting for him. The words +spoken by O'Malley (Ned thought it must have been he who spoke of +the invention because of his deep voice) continued to disturb +Ned's thought. + +"Rad," he said, as he got into the runabout, "did you ever +hear the name O'Malley?" + +"Sure has," declared the colored man. "And it's a bad name and +a bad man owns it." + +"Do you mean that?" exclaimed the financial manager of the +Swift Construction Company, with increasing apprehension. "Who is +he?" + +"Why, Mr. Newton, don't you 'member dat man?" + +"Who is he?" repeated Ned. + +"Dat Andy O'Malley is de one what tried to hold up Massa Tom +dat time. O'Malley is de man what's been spyin' on Massa Tom--" + +"Great grief!" exclaimed Ned, breaking in with excitement. +"I'll drive as fast as I can, Rad. There is something wrong at +the works, I do believe!" + +"What's wrong, Mr. Ned?" demanded Rad. "We just come from dere, +and everyt'ing was all right." + +"I just heard something that O'Malley said. I want to get back +in a hurry. I believe that scoundrel is attempting to blow up +Tom's locomotive. We've got to get to the works just as quick as +we can." + + + +Chapter XI + +Touch and Go + + +The mechanical equipment of the new locomotive was now complete +and Tom was establishing the electrical equipment as rapidly as +possible. He not only acted as overseer of this work, but in +overalls and jumper he was doing a good share of the work +himself. + +The weight of the electrical equipment when it was finally set +up was not far from two hundred thousand pounds. Altogether, when +the oil, sand, and water tanks were filled, the great machine +would weigh two hundred and eighty-five tons--a monster indeed! + +"She is going to take a lot of current to run her," said Tom to +his father, who was standing by. "When I come to arrange with the +Shopton Electric Company for power, it's a question if they can +give me all I need. And I must have plenty of current to make +sure that my motors till the bill." + +"As your tests will be made in the daytime, the company should +be able to furnish the power you need," rejoined Mr. Swift. "At +night, of course, when they must furnish so much light as well as +power, it might be difficult for them to give you the proper +current." + +"Forty-four hundred horsepower is a big demand," went on Tom. +"I've got to have at least a three-thousand-volt direct-current +to feed my motors. I will soon have to take up the matter with +the Electric Company." + +The heavy work of setting the electrical parts of the +locomotive had been finished the day previous, and the track- +derrick was removed. Tom was engaged in adjusting the more +delicate parts of the equipment and had merely stepped down from +the cab to speak to Mr. Swift. + +Now he climbed back into the interior of the great machine +which, in a general way, looked like a box car. An electric +locomotive has not much of the appearance of a steam engine. The +machinery is all boxed in and the entire floor of the locomotive +is above even the drivers. + +These six pairs of driving wheels were about seventy inches in +diameter, while the diameter of the leading and following truck- +wheels was but half that number of inches. + +Mr. Swift had turned away from the locomotive when Tom put his +head out of the door again. + +"Do you hear that, father?" he demanded in a puzzled tone. + +"Hear what, Tom?" asked the old inventor, looking up. + +"That ticking sound? I declare, I'd think it was one of those +death-watch beetles had got in here. Sounds like a big watch +ticking. I can't make it out." + +"Where is it? What is it?" repeated Mr. Swift. "I hear nothing +down here on the floor of the shed." + +"Well, it gets me," muttered Tom, and disappeared again. In a +moment he called out: "Say, you fellows! who left his bundle of +overalls in here? Better take 'em out to be manicured. Whose are +these?" + +Two or three of the mechanics working near looked up from their +tasks. Mr. Swift turned back to the door of the cab again. + +"What is the matter now, Tom?" he asked, in added curiosity. + +"That bundle, Dad." + +Tom once more appeared and addressed the workmen: "Whose bundle +of dirty overalls is this in here? Come and take 'em away. They +shouldn't have been left here." + +"Why, Mr. Tom," said the foreman who was near, "I didn't see +any soiled overalls in there when I left last evening. Any of you +fellows," he asked the group of hands, "know anything about any +overalls?" + +"The bundle is here all right. Pushed back against the third +series motors. Come up here, one of you fellows + +Suddenly there was a noise at the end of the shed where the +door to the offices lay. Two figures burst through from the glass +doors and charged down the lanes between the lathes and cranes. +Ned Newton led, Rad Sampson, his face a mouse-gray with fear, +followed. + +"Massa Tom! Massa Tom!" shouted the colored man. "Look out fo' +de bomb! Look out fo' de bomb!" + +The foreman sprang toward the high door of the locomotive where +Tom stood, staring out. The young inventor, quick as his mind +usually functioned, did not understand at all what Eradicate +meant. + +"There's something wrong in there, Mr. Tom!" shouted the +foreman. "Come down, sir, and let me get up there and see what it +is." + +But Mr. Barton Swift grasped the meaning of what was going on +more quickly than anybody else. Tom's father, Tom frequently +said, had spent so many years investigating chemical and +mechanical mysteries that he saw more clearly and more exactly +into and through most problems than other people. + +His raised voice now cut through the rumble of machinery and +all the other noises of the shop. Even Rad Sampson's delirious +cry was dwarfed by Mr. Swift's sharp tone: + +"Tom! The ticking of that watch! That means danger!" + +The declaration seemed to rip away a curtain from Tom's +thoughts. Perhaps Rad's cry about "de bomb" aided the young +inventor to understand the peril that threatened. + +The faint ticking sound that had begun to annoy him during the +past few minutes betrayed the nature of the threatening peril. +Tom swung back from the open doorway of the locomotive cab, +reached in to the space between the motors, and seized the bundle +of overall stuff that he had previously spied. + +He knew instantly that the rapid ticking came from that bundle. +It could be nothing but a time bomb. He had heard of such things +and, indeed, had seen one before, an infernal machine which, set +like an alarm clock, would go off at a certain time. That +indicated time might be an hour hence, or might be within a few +seconds! Ned Newton, almost at the spot, shouted to Tom when the +latter reappeared with the bundle in his hands: + +"Get down out of that, Tom Swift! Quick! For your life!" + +But Tom was cool enough now. He saw his father's white, +strained face at one side and the young inventor could even smile +at him. Behind the foreman was set a barrel of water in which +tools were cooled and tempered. + +"Stoop, McAvoy!" Tom shouted, and tossed the bundle from him. + +Had the infernal machine exploded in midair Tom would not have +been surprised. But McAvoy dodged, Rad clapped his hands over his +ears, and, even Ned Newton halted like a bird-dog at point. + +The bundle splashed into the barrel of water. It sank to the +bottom. There was no explosion. When a few seconds had passed the +group of excited men began to relax. The barrel was carried +carefully to a neighboring field. + +"Fo' de lawsy sake!" gasped Rad, and got a full breath again. + +"That was touch and go, sure enough," muttered Ned Newton. + +"Those overalls sure went to the wash, Boss," declared the +foreman. "What was in 'em? And who put 'em in the cab up there?" + +But Tom dropped down the ladder and went to his father. Their +hands sought each other and gripped, hard. + +"Better not tell Mary about this," whispered Tom. "She's +worried enough as it is." + +"Right, Tom," agreed the old inventor. "From this time on we +cannot be too careful. If there proves to be an infernal machine +in that package we may be sure that we are dealing with desperate +men. We've got to keep our eyes open." + +"Wide open," added Ned. + +"I'll say we have," said Tom. + + + +Chapter XII + +The Try-Out Day Arrives + + +It did not need Ned Newton's story of what he had overheard at +the bank to prove that an attempt had been made to blow to pieces +Tom Swift's electric locomotive before even it had been tested. + +An examination of the water-soaked package in the open yard of +the shops of the Swift Construction Company, proved that there +was enough explosive in the bomb to blow the shed itself to +pieces. But the stopping of the clockwork attachment of course +made the bomb harmless. + +"The main thing to be explained," Tom said, when he and his +father and Ned discussed the particulars of the affair, "is not +who did it, or what it was done for. Those are comparatively easy +questions to answer." + +"Yes," agreed Ned. "O'Malley did it, or caused it to be done; +and it was an attempt to balk Mr. Bartholomew and the H, & P. A. +rather than a direct attack upon the Swift Construction Company." + +"I am afraid, however," remarked Mr. Swift, "that Tom has +aroused the personal antagonism of this spy from the West. We +must not overlook that." + +"I don't," replied the young inventor. "O'Malley has it in for +me. No doubt of that. But he could not be sure that I would be +hurt by the explosion he arranged for." + +"True," said his father. + +"The attempt was against my invention. And O'Malley was +doubtless urged to destroy the locomotive that I am building +because my success will aid Mr. Bartholomew and his railroad." + +"Quite agreed," said Ned. "But--" + +"But the important question," interrupted Tom, "is this: How +did the bomb get into the interior of the electric locomotive? +That is the first and most important problem. Its having been +done once warns us that it can be done again until our system of +guarding the works is changed." + +"We have five watchmen on the job at night, and the gates are +never opened in the daytime to anybody for any purpose without a +pass," declared Ned. "I don't see how that fellow got in here +with the time bomb." + +"Exactly. It shows that there is a fault in our system +somewhere," said Tom grimly. "We cannot surround the place at +night with an armed guard. It would cost too much. Even Koku +cannot be everywhere. And I have reason to know that he was +wandering about the stockade last night as usual." + +"The fellow was pretty sharp to slip by," Ned observed. + +"The stockade is no mean barrier, especially with the rows of +barbed wire at the top," said Mr. Swift. + +"Barbed wire! That's it!" exclaimed Tom. It was just here that +Mr. Damon's idea for guarding his prize buff Orpingtons came into +play in Tom's scheme of things. "Barbed wire doesn't seem to keep +out spies," he added slowly. "But believe me, something else +will!" + +For Tom to think of a thing was to start action without delay. +Immediately he called a gang from the shops and set them to work +stringing copper wire along the top of the stockade. + +He was sure that the man who had set the time bomb in place had +got into the enclosure over the fence. If he tried the same trick +again he was very apt to have the surprise of his life! + +Each night when the shops closed and the watchmen went on duty, +a current of electricity was turned into those copper wires +entwined with the barbed wire entanglement at the top of the +stockade that would certainly double up any marauder who sought +to get over the top. + +However, no further attempt was made against Tom's peace of +mind and against his invention during the immediate weeks that +followed. The young inventor was so closely engaged in his work +that he scarcely left the house or the confines of the shops. +Even Mary Nestor saw very little of him. + +But Mary realized fully that at such a time as this Tom must +give all his thought and energy to the task in hand. She was +proud of Tom's ability and took a deep interest in his +inventions. + +"I want to see the test when you try the locomotive, Tom," she +told him, when she came to the shops the first time to look at +the monster locomotive. "What a wonderful thing it is!" + +"Its wonder is yet to be proved," rejoined the young inventor. +"I believe I've got the right idea; but nothing is sure as yet." + +In addition to his mechanical contrivances inside the +locomotive, Tom had to arrange for an increased supply of +electric power to drive the huge machine around the track that +was being built inside the stockade. + +A regular station had to be built for receiving the electricity +in a 100,000-volt alternating current and delivering it to the +locomotive in a 3,000-volt direct current. Therefore, this +station had two functions to perform--reducing the voltage and +changing the current from alternating to direct. + +The reduction of the voltage was accomplished as follows: The +100,000-volt alternating current was received through an oil +switch and was conveyed to a high-tension current distributor +made up of three lines of copper tubing, thus forming the source +of power for this station. + +From the current distributor the current was conducted through +other oil switches to the transformers--entering at 100,000 volts +and emerging at 2,300 volts. Then the current was conducted from +the transformers through switches to the motor-generator sets and +became the power employed to operate them. + +The motor generator consisted of one alternating current motor +driving two direct current generators. The motor Tom established +in his station was of the 60-cycle synchronous type, which means +that the current changes sixty times each second. + +There were two sets, each generating a 1,500 or 2,000 volt +direct current; and the two generators being permanently +connected, delivered a combined direct current of 3,000 volts--as +high a direct voltage current, Tom knew, as had ever been adopted +for railroad work. The current voltage for ordinary street +railway work is 550 volts. + +"I could run even this big machine," Tom explained to Ned +Newton, "with a much lighter current. But out there on the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos line the transforming stations deliver this +high voltage to the locomotives. I want to test mine under +similar conditions." + +"This is going to be an expensive test, Tom," said Ned, +grumbling a little. "The cost-sheets are running high." + +"We are aiming at a big target," returned the inventor. "You've +got to bait with something bigger than sprats to catch a whale, +Ned." + +"Humph! Suppose you don't catch the whale after all?" + +"Don't lose hope," returned Tom, calmly. "I am going after this +whale right, believe me! This is one of the biggest contracts--if +not the very biggest--we ever tackled." + +"It looks as if the expense account would run the highest," +admitted the financial manager. + +"All right. Maybe that is so. But I'll spend the last cent I've +got to perfect this patent. I am going to beat the Jandels if it +is humanly possible to do so." + +"I can only hope you will, Tom. Why, this track and the +overhead trolley equipment is going to cost a small fortune. I +had no idea when you signed that contract with Mr. Bartholomew +that so much money would have to be spent in merely the +experimental stage of the thing." + +Ned Newton possessed traits of caution that could not be +gainsaid. That was one thing that made him such a successful +financial manager for the Swift Company. He watched expenditures +as closely now as he had when the business was upon a much more +limited footing. + +The rails laid along the inside of the stockade made a two-mile +track, as well ballasted as any regular railroad right of way. In +addition the overhead equipment was costly. + +To eliminate any possibility of the trolley wire breaking, a +strong steel cable, called a catenary, was slung just above the +trolley wire. To this catenary the trolley wire was suspended by +hangers at short intervals. + +These cables were strung from brackets so that a single row of +poles could be used, save at the curves, at which cross-span +construction was used. The trolley wire itself was of the 4/0 +size, and was the largest diameter copper wire ever employed for +railroad purposes. + +Several weeks had now passed since the great locomotive had +been assembled in the erection shed and the cab of the locomotive +completed. It really was a monster machine, and any stranger +coming into the place and seeing it for the first time must have +marveled at the grim power suggested by the mere bulk of the +structure. + +When the day of the first test arrived Tom allowed only his +most intimate friends to be present. Mary Nestor accompanied Mr. +Swift into the shops at the time appointed, and she was as +excited over the outcome of the test as Tom himself. + +Ned Newton and the mechanical force of the +shops knocked off work to become spectators at the exhibition. +The only other outsider was Mr. Damon. + +"Bless my alternating current!" cried the eccentric gentleman. +"I would not miss this for the world. If you tried to shut me +out, Tom, I'd climb over the stockade to get in." + +"You'd better not," Tom told him, dryly. "If you tried that +you'd get a worse shock than any chicken thief will get that +tries to steal your buff Orpingtons." + + + +Chapter XIII + +Hopes and Fears + + +Tom climbed into the huge cab of the electric locomotive. In +fact, the cab was the most of it, for every part of the mechanism +save the drivers was covered by the eighty-odd foot structure. +From the peak of the pilot to the rear bumper the length was +ninety feet and some inches. + +As Tom slid the monster out upon the yard track the small crowd +cheered. At least, the locomotive had the power to move, and to +the unknowing ones, at least, that seemed a great and wonderful +thing. + +What they saw was apparently a box-car--like a mail coach, only +with more high windows--ten feet wide, its roof more than +fourteen feet from the rails, its locked pantagraph adding two +feet more to its height. + +Just what was in the cab--the water and oil tanks, the steam- +heating boiler to supply heat and hot water to the train the +monster was to draw, the motors and the many other mechanical +contrivances--was hidden from the spectators. + +In fact, since completing the electrical equipment of the +Hercules 0001, as Tom had named the locomotive, the young +inventor had allowed nobody inside the cab, any more than he +allowed visitors inside his private workshop. Even Mr. Swift did +not know all the results of Tom's experimental work. In a general +way the older inventor knew the trend of his son's attempts, but +the details and the results of Tom's experiments, the latter told +to nobody. + +But as the huge locomotive rolled into the yard and followed +the more or less circular track inside the yard fence, it was +plain to all of the onlookers that the motive-power was there all +right! Just what speed could be coaxed from the feed-cable +overhead was another question. + +Nor did Tom Swift try for much speed on this first test of the +Hercules 0001. He went around the two-mile track several times +before bringing his machine to a stop near the crowd of +onlookers. He came to the open door of the cab. + +"One thing is sure, Tom!" shouted Ned. "It do move!" + +"Bless my slippery skates!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "it slides +right along, Tom. You've done it, my boy--you've done it!" + +"It looks good from where I stand, my son,~ said Mr. Barton +Swift. + +It was Mary who suspected that Tom was not wholly satisfied--as +yet, at least--with the test of the Hercules 0001. She cried: + +"Tom! is it all right?" + +"Nothing is ever all right--that is, not perfect --in this old +world, I guess, Mary," returned the young inventor. "But I am not +discouraged. As Ned says, the old contraption 'do move.' How fast +she'll move is another thing." + +"What time did you make?" asked Mr. Swift. + +"Not above fifteen miles an hour." + +"Whew!" whistled Ned dolefully. "That is a long way from--" + +Tom made an instant motion and Ned's careless lips were sealed. +It was not generally known among the men the speed which Tom +hoped to obtain with his new invention. + +"It is a wide shoot at the target, that is true," Tom said, +soberly. "But remember I cannot test it for speed on this short +and almost circular track. Right at the start, however, I see +that something about the power-feed must be changed." + +"What is that?" asked Mary, curiously. + +"I have only had rigged here one trolley wire. There must be +two attached alternately to the catenary cable. Such a form of +twin conductor trolley will permit the collection of a heavy +current through the twin contact of the pantagraph with the two +trolley wires, and should assure a sparkless collection of the +current at any speed. You noticed that when I took the sharper +curves there was an aerial exhibition. I want to do away with the +fireworks." + +The fact that the Hercules 0001 was a going and apparently +powerful draught engine satisfied most of the onlookers that Tom +Swift was on the road to final and overwhelming success. The +mechanics, indeed, saw no reason why the locomotive could not be +run right out of the yard on the freight track and coupled to the +first train going West. Of course, the Hercules 0001 could not be +delivered to the Hendrickton & Pas Alos under its own power. + +When the locomotive was run back into the shed and stood once +more on the erection track, Tom confessed to Mary and Ned, while +Mr. Damon and Mr. Swift were looking through the huge cab, that +he was not at all pleased with the action of the machine. + +"I have the best equipment of any electric locomotive on the +rails today. I am sure of that," he said. "The Hercules Three- +Oughts-One is not as long as those electric locomotives of the +C. M. &. St. P. But that's all right. I have built mine more +compactly and, properly geared, it should have all the power of +either the Baldwin-Westinghouse or the Jandel locomotive." + +"Then, Tom dear, what is wrong?" cried Mary. + +"Speed. That is what troubles me. Have I got anything like the +speed I am aiming for?" + +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Ned Newton. "Some speed, boy!" + +"And must you have such great speed, Tom?" repeated Mary. + +"That is in my contract. Not only that, but to be of much use +to the H. & P. A. this locomotive must have such speed--or mighty +near it. Of course, under ordinary conditions, two miles a minute +for a locomotive and train of heavy freights would burn up the +track--maybe melt the flanges and throw everything out of gear." + +"Why try for it, then?" demanded Mary. + +"It is the power suggested by the possession of such speed that +we want in the Hercules Three-Oughts-One. That two miles a minute +is a fiction of the imagination, cannot be claimed. It is +possible. It is humanly possible. It is coming." + +"Then you must be the fellow to first accomplish it, Tom +Swift," Ned declared. + +"Of course, if anybody can do it, you can, Tom," agreed the +girl complacently. + +"Thanks--many, many thanks," laughed the young inventor. "I'd +be able to harness the sun and stars, and put a surcingle around +the moon if I came up to my friends' opinion of my ability. + +"Nevertheless, two-miles-a-minute is my objective point, and I +do not believe it is visionary. Consider the motor-cycle. Ninety +miles an hour has long been possible with that, and some tests +have shown a speed of over a hundred and ten. That is not far +from my mark. + +"Some Mallet locomotives of the oil-burning type have achieved +from eighty-five to ninety-five miles an hour with a heavy load +behind them. They are very powerful machines. The Mogul mountain +climbers are powerful, too, although they are not built for +speed. + +"The electric Goliaths built for the C. M. & St. P., and the +Jandels, are both very speedy under certain conditions. The +former has a maximum speed of sixty-five miles and the Jandel +slightly faster." + +"But that is only half what that Mr. Bartholomew demands of +your invention, Tom!" Mary cried. + +"That is a fact. I must reach twice sixty miles an hour, +anyway, to meet his demand and gain that hundred thousand bonus. +But I have the advantage of a knowledge of all that has been done +before my time in the matter of electrical locomotive +construction." + +"The world do move," repeated Ned. "You believe that you have +the edge on all the other inventors?" + +"Along the line of this development--yes," said Tom. "I am +taking up the work where former experimenters ended theirs. Why +shouldn't I find the right combination to bring about a +two-miles-a-minute drive?" + +"Oh, Tom!" cried Mary, with clasped hands, "I hope you do." + +"I hope I do, too," said Tom, grimly. "At least, if trying will +bring it, success is going to come my way." + + + +Chapter XIV + +Speed + + +More than four months had passed since the contract had been +signed, when Tom made his first yard-test of the Hercules 0001. +For a month nothing had been seen or heard of Andy O'Malley, +whose identity as the spy, set by Montagne Lewis to cripple Tom's +attempt to help the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad, had been +determined beyond any doubt. + +The private inquiry agent that Tom had engaged to find O'Malley +had been unsuccessful in his work. The spy had disappeared from +Shopton and the vicinity. Nevertheless, the inventor did not for +a moment overlook the possibility that the enemy might again +strike. + +Every night the electric current was turned into the wires that +capped the stockade of the Swift Construction Company enclosure. +Koku beat a path around the enclosure at night, getting such +short sleep as he seemed to need in the forenoon. + +"Dat crazy cannibal," grumbled Rad, "got it in his haid dat +he's gwine to he'p Massa Tom by walkin' out o' nights like he was +dis here Western, de great sprinter, Ma lawsy me! Koku ain't got +brains enough to fill up a hic'ry nut shell. Dat he ain't." + +Nothing anybody else could do for Tom ever satisfied Rad. The +colored man fully believed that he was the only person really +necessary for Tom's success and peace of mind. In fact, Rad +thought that even Ned Newton's duties as financial manager of the +firm were scarcely of as much importance. + +When he heard that Tom was going West, after a time, with the +electric locomotive, to try it out on the tracks of the +H. & P. A., Rad was quite sure that if he did not go along, the +test would not come out right. + +"O' course yo'll need me, Massa Tom," he said, confidently. +"Couldn't git along widout me nohow. Yo' knows, sir, I allus has +to go 'long wid yo' to fix things." + +"Don't you think father will need you here, Rad?" Tom asked the +faithful old fellow. "You're getting old--" + +"Me gittin' old?" cried, the colored man. "Huh! Yo' don't know +'bout dis here chile. I don't purpose ever to git old. I been +gray-haided since befo' yo' was born; but I ain't old yit!" + +Mr. Damon chanced to be present at this conversation, and he +was highly amused, yet somewhat impressed, too, by the colored +man's statement. + +"Bless my own antiquity!" he exclaimed. "I agree with Rad, Tom. +It's us old fellows who know what to do when an emergency of any +kind arises. Experience teaches more than inspiration." + +"Oh," said Tom, laughing, "I do not deny the value of old +friends at any stage of the game." + +"Bless my roving nature! I am glad to hear you say that. For I +tell you right now, Tom, I want to be out there when you make +your final test of the locomotive." + +"Do you mean that you will go West when I take out the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One?" cried Tom. + +"It's just what I want to do. Bless my traveling bag, Tom! I +mean to be present at your final triumph." + +"What will happen to your buff Orpingtons while you are gone?" +asked the young inventor, gravely. + +"I have got my servant trained to look after those chickens," +declared Mr. Damon. "And this invention of yours is really more +important than even my buff Orpingtons." + +"Just the same," remarked Tom to his eccentric friend, when Rad +had left the room,. "I've got to fix it so that Eradicate stays +at home with father. He doesn't really know how old and broken he +is--poor fellow." + +"His heart is green, Tom. That's what is the matter with Rad." + +"He is a loyal old fellow. But I shall take Koku with me, not +Rad," and the young inventor spoke decidedly. "And that is going +to trouble poor Rad a lot." + +The prospect of going West, however, was not the main subject +of Tom's thoughts at this time. As the weeks passed and the end +of the six months of experiment came nearer, the inventor was +more and more troubled by the principal difficulty which had from +the first confronted him. Speed. + +That was the mark he had set himself. A maximum speed of two +miles a minute on a level track for the Hercules 0001. With the +speed already attained by both steam and electric locomotives in +the more recent past, this was by no means an impossible +attainment, as Tom quite well knew. + +But he became convinced that the conditions under which he +labored made it impossible for him to be positive of just how +great a speed on a straight, level track his invention would +attain. + +There was no electrified stretch of railroad near Shopton on +which the Hercules 0001 might be tested. The track inside the +Swift Company's enclosure did not offer the conditions the +inventor needed. He felt balked. + +"I believe I have hit the right idea in my improvements on the +Jandel patents," he told Ned Newton when they were discussing the +matter. "But believing is one thing. Knowing is another!" + +"Theoretically it works out all right, I suppose?" questioned +Ned. + +"Quite. I can prove on paper that I've got the speed. But that +isn't enough. You can see that." + +"Impossible to be sure on the trackage already built here, +Tom?" + +"I haven't dared give her all she'll take," grumbled Tom. "If I +did, I fear she'd jump the rails and I'd have a wreck on my +hands." + +"And maybe kill yourself!" exclaimed Ned. "You want to have a +care." + +"Oh, that's all right! I've taken risks before. I don't want to +risk the safety of the locomotive, which is more important. That +machine has cost us a lot of money." + +"I'll say so!" agreed Ned. "You'll have to wait till you can +get the locomotive out there on the H. & P. A. tracks before you +get a fair speed-test." + +"And suppose instead of a triumph it is a fiasco?" Tom said, +doubtfully. "I tell you straight, Ned: I never was so uncertain +about the outcome of one of my inventions since I began dabbling +with motiveÄpower." + +"We could build several miles of straight track in the waste +ground behind the works," Ned said, thoughtfully. + +"Not a chance! There is neither time nor money for such work. +Besides, I should have to rebuild my transforming station if I +supplied longer conduit wires with current." + +"You don't really consider that you have failed, do you, Tom?" +and Ned's anxiety made his voice sound very woeful indeed. + +"I tell you that my belief doesn't satisfy me. I hate to go +West without being sure--positive. I want to know! I have tried +the locomotive out in the yard half a dozen times. It runs like a +fine watch. There doesn't seem to be a thing the matter with it +now. But what speed can I attain?" + +"I don't see but you'll have to risk it, Tom." + +"I mean to give her one more test. I'll run her out tonight +when there is nobody about but the watchmen--and you, if you want +to come. I'll arrange with the Electric Company for all the +current they can spare. By ginger! I've got to take some risk." + +"By the way, Tom," said his chum, "did it ever strike you as +odd that that private detective agency never got any trace of +O'Malley?" + +"Well, he's gone away. We needn't worry about him. Maybe the +detective wasn't very smart, at that." + +"And yet he was here in town after you put the inquiry on foot. +I saw him in the bank. He came there occasionally. And either he, +or somebody he hired, placed that bomb in the locomotive." + +"All those being facts, what of it?" + +"Besides, there was that other fellow--the man with the Vandyke +beard. Might be a shyster lawyer, or something of the kind. He +wasn't spotted, either." + +"To tell the truth, I didn't bother to give the Detective +Agency the description of that fellow, although you gave it to +me," and Tom laughed. "I must confess that I depend more upon my +man-trap electric wires to protect the invention than I do on the +private inquiry agent." + +"It's funny, just the same. If I had another job for a +detective I should not submit it to the Blatz Agency," grumbled +Ned. + +"I fancy Montagne Lewis and his crowd called off their Wild +West gunman," said Tom. "In any case, every attempt he made to +bother us turned out a fizzle. I am not, however, forgetting +precautions, my boy." + +Ned Newton realized that his chum had determined to make this +night test of the electric locomotive the pivotal trial of the +whole affair. He came back to the works after dinner and was let +in by the office watchman at about nine o'clock. + +"Mr. Tom here yet?" he asked the man. + +"Yes, Mr. Newton. The young boss didn't go home to supper, +even. That colored man brought something down for him, and he's +in the shed yet." + +"Rad is here, you mean?" + +"Yes, sir. At least, he didn't go out this way, and we watchmen +have instructions to let nobody in or out by the yard gates at +night." + +"I'll say Tom is being careful," thought Ned, as he stepped out +through the runway toward the erection shed. + +Before he reached the entrance to the huge shed, however, Ned +chanced to look down the enclosure. There were several arc lights +burning, but even these only furnished a dim illumination for the +whole yard. + +He supposed that four watchmen were tramping their several +beats along the inside of the stockade and close to the trolley- +track. But when he saw an instant gleam of light down there, +close to the ground, Ned did not believe that it was the flash of +a torch in the hand of any sentry. + +"Funny," he muttered. "That's outside the fence, or I'm much +mistaken. I wonder now--" + +He turned from the door of the shed, left the runway, and began +walking toward the distant point at which he had seen the +mysterious flash of light. + + + +Chapter XV + +The Enemy Still Active + + +Ned was dressed in a dark business suit, so he was not likely +to be observed from a distance, for it was a starless night. Half +way to the end of the great yard he began to wonder if the light +he had seen might not have been an hallucination. + +He doubted very much if anybody was creeping about outside the +fence. The boards were close together, with scarcely a crack half +an inch wide anywhere. A light out there-- + +It flashed again. He was positive of it this time, and of its +locality as well. It could be nobody who had any honest business +about the Swift Construction Company's premises. It was not Koku, +for ordinarily the giant would not use an electric torch. + +Ned did not know where any of the watchmen were who were acting +as sentinels. In fact, as it appeared later, three of them had +been called off their beats by Tom himself to help in some +necessary task inside the shed. The young inventor was getting +ready to run the huge locomotive out upon the yard-track. + +Remembering vividly the attempt which had been made some weeks +before to blow up the Hercules 0001, it was only natural that Ned +should suspect that the flash of light he had seen revealed the +presence of some ill-conditioned person lurking just beyond the +fence. + +A man might be crouching there prepared to hurl an explosive +bomb over the fence when the locomotive was brought around as far +as that spot. Or was the villain foolish enough to attempt to +enter the enclosure by surmounting the fence? + +Ned, keeping close to the ground, crossed the rails in the +fortunate shadow of one of the posts. There he found a place +where, with his back to a pole-prop right at this curve in the +trolley system, the shadow enfolded him completely. + +Had his movements been marked by the person outside the fence? +Ned waited several long and anxious minutes for some move from +out there. Then something rather unexpected occurred. For the +past ten minutes he had forgotten about the test of the Hercules +0001 which Tom had promised. + +With a blast of its siren the huge electric locomotive burst +out of the shed and thundered around the track. It smote Ned +Newton's mind suddenly that the inventor was going to "take a +chance" on this evening and try to get some speed out of the huge +machine. + +The electric headlight cast a broad cone of white and dazzling +light across the yard. It suddenly struck full upon the spot +where Ned Newton crouched; but the upright against which he +leaned was broad enough to hide him completely. + +Looking up at the top of the stockade at that moment of +illumination, the young financial manager of the Swift +Construction Company beheld a crawling figure nearing the wire +entanglements on the summit of the fence. + +The unknown man was climbing by means of a notched pole. Ned +could not see that he bore any bulky object in his hands; indeed, +he needed both of them to aid him to climb. But the man's right +hand was reaching upward, above his head. + +The Hercules 0001 came roaring on. Its cone of light passed +beyond Ned's station. In a few seconds it reached the spot, and +roared on. Ned had not made a move. It seemed to him that he +could not move or speak. + +The onrush of the electric locomotive all but swept the young +fellow from his feet. It had come and gone in an instant! + +"He's making more than fifteen or twenty miles an hour, all +right," muttered Ned. + +Then he flashed another glance up at the figure outside the +fence. The man's cap showed above the top of the boards. He +seemed to be dragging something up to him from below--something +that hung and swung around and around a few feet from the ground. + +Ned was about to dart out of concealment and hail the fellow. +He was not armed, nor could he get out of the stockade near this +point. He feared what the marauder intended, and he felt that he +must frighten him away. + +"Suppose that is a bomb and he means to fling it in front of +Tom's locomotive?" thought the anxious Ned. + +He again saw the stranger's right hand reach up above his head. +But he had no bomb in his hand. Ned suddenly shrieked a word of +warning! It had come to him what the man was doing and what the +result of his act would be. + +The wire-cutters bit on one of the copper wires. There followed +a flash of blue flame, and the man screamed. He dropped the thing +swinging below him and involuntarily grabbed at the wires with +his left hand. + +He was caught, then! The crackling intermittent shocks of +electric fluid passed through his body in fiery sequence. His +limbs writhed. He mouthed horribly, and croaking gasps came from +between his wide open jaws. + +The Hercules 0001 had rounded the enclosure and was coming down +upon its second lap. The cone of white radiance from the +headlight fell upon the writhing body of the victim on the wires. +The locomotive siren emitted a blast that almost deafened Ned. + +The monster ground to a stop. Tom swung himself half out of the +cab window beside the controller. + +"Who's that?" he yelled. Then he saw Ned below him. "Who is +that fellow?" + +"No friend of yours, Tom, I believe," returned his financial +manager in a shaking voice. + +"Where's Rad? Rad!" Tom shouted at the top of his voice. + +"I's comm', Massa Tom," rejoined the colored man. + +"Never mind coming here! Get a move on, and get to the +switchboard. Turn the current out of the fence wires. + +"Yis, sir, I'll go Massa Tom," declared the old man. + +"Is he a spotter, Ned?" demanded the inventor. + +"He's no friend. I am going out by the gate. He's got something +there that means harm, I believe. Do you think he's killed, Tom?" + +"Only ought to be. Not enough current to kill him. But he's +badly burned and--and--well! I bet he won't care to fool around +the works again." + +Ned dashed away to an entrance. A watchman came running, opened +the small gate, and followed Ned into the open. + +Before they arrived at the vicinity of the accident Rad had got +to the switchboard. The electricity was shut out of the stockade +wires. + +Ned uttered another shout. He saw the writhing body of the +shocked man fall from the stockade. When he and the watchman got +to the spot the fellow lay upon his back, groaning and sobbing; +but Ned saw at once that he was more frightened than hurt. + +"Well, you did it that time!" exclaimed the young financial +manager. "And I hope you got enough." + +"You--you demons!" gasped the man. "I'll have the law on you--" + +"Sure you will," cackled the watchman. "You had every right in +the world to try to cut those wires, of course, and get into the +yard of the works. Sure! The judge will believe you all right." + +Ned was, meanwhile, staring closely at the fallen man. Tom had +come down from the locomotive and was close to the fence. + +"Who is he?" demanded the inventor. "Not O'Malley?" + +Ned stepped to the fence and whispered: + +"It's the other fellow. The little chap with the Vandyke. He's +dressed like a tramp, but it's the same man." + +"Is he badly hurt?" demanded Tom. + +"His temper is, Boss," said the watchman callously. "And say! I +know this fellow. He works for the Blatz Detective Agency. I used +to work for those folks myself. His name is Myrick--Joe Myrick." + +"Ned," said Tom sternly, "go to the office and call the police. +I'll make him tell why he was here. And I'll make the Blatz +people explain, too. Hullo! what's that?" + +Ned had seized the rope he had seen in Myrick's hand, and from +a patch of weeds drew a two-gallon oil-can. + +"What you got there, Ned?" repeated the young inventor. + +"Whatever it is, I am going to be mighty easy with it. I think +this scoundrel was trying to get it over the fence and into the +way of the locomotive." + +"You can't hang anything on me," said Myrick, suddenly. "I was +just climbing up to the top of the fence to get a squint at that +contraption you've built. You can't hang anything on me." + +"He's evidently feeling better," said Tom, scornfully. "Nugent, +don't let him get away from you. Go call the police, Ned. And +take care of that can until we can find out what's in it." + +Later, when the police had removed Joe Myrick and the +mysterious can had been deposited in a tub of water in the open +lot until its contents could be examined, Tom said to his chum: + +"I was just working up some speed on the locomotive. The +speedometer indicated fifty-five when I saw that fellow sprawling +up there on the fence. I would not have dared go much faster in +any case." + +"Why, you weren't half trying, Tom!" cried the delighted Ned. + +"She did slide around easy, didn't she? Fifty-five on an almost +circular track is a good showing. I am not so scared as I was, my +boy." + +"You think that on a straight track you might accomplish what +you set out to do?" + +"It looks like it. At any rate, I shall risk a trial on the +H. & P. A. tracks. I'm going to take her West. Be ready on +Monday, Ned, for I shall want you with me," declared Tom Swift. + + + +Chapter XVI + +Off for the West + + +Of course, as Tom supposed they would, the Blatz Detective +Agency denied that Joe Myrick, their one-time operative, had been +engaged through their bureau either to spy upon the Swift +Construction Company or to injure Tom's invention of the electric +locomotive. + +Nevertheless, three points were indisputable: Myrick had been +caught spying; in his possession was a can of explosive which +could be set off by concussion; and it was a fact that to Myrick +had been first entrusted the matter of hunting for Andy O'Malley +when Tom had put the search for the Westerner up to the Blatz +people. + +"He played traitor both to you, Mr. Swift, and to our agency," +declared Blatz to Tom. "I wash my hands of him. I hope the police +send him away for life!" + +"He'll go to prison all right," said Tom, confidently. "But the +main point is that one of your operatives fell down on a simple +job. I wanted that Andy O'Malley traced. He's out of the way, +now, of course. If you had put an honest man to work for me, +O'Malley would be behind the bars himself." + +"Some doubt of that, Mr. Swift," grumbled Blatz. + +"Why?" + +"Where's your evidence that this O'Malley was connected with +the attempt to blow up your locomotive the first time? Mr. +Newton's testimony would need corroboration." + +"Never mind that," rejoined the young inventor, with a smile. +"I'd have him for highway robbery. I recognized him. He robbed me +of a wallet. Guess we could put O'Malley away for awhile on that +charge. And by the time he got out again my job for that Western +railroad would be completed." + +"Humph! Nothing personal in your going after the fellow, then?" +queried the head of the detective agency. + +"No. But I frankly confess that I am afraid of O'Malley. He is +undoubtedly in the employ of men who will pay him well if he +wrecks my invention. But there really is no personal grudge +between O'Malley and me. At least, I feel no particular enmity +against the fellow." + +There was a pause. + +"If you say so we will give you a couple of good men as +bodyguards on your trip West," suggested Blatz, licking his lips +hungrily. + +"As good men as Myrick?" retorted Tom, rather scornfully. "No, +thank you. Just make your bill out to the Swift Construction +Company to date, and a check will be sent you the first of the +month. I will take my own precautions hereafter." + +And those precautions Tom considered sufficient. When the +Hercules 0001 was towed out of the enclosure belonging to the +Swift Construction Company early on Monday morning, each door and +window of the huge cab was barred and locked. Inside the cab rode +Koku, the giant. + +Koku had his orders to allow nobody to enter the Hercules 0001 +until Tom or Ned Newton came to relieve him of his responsibility +as guard. The giant had a swinging cot to sleep on and sufficient +food--of a kind--to last him for a fortnight if necessary. + +He was not armed, for Tom did not often trust him with weapons. +The young inventor, however, did not expect that any armed force +would attack the electric locomotive. + +If Montagne Lewis desired to wreck the new invention which +might mean so much to Mr. Bartholomew and the H. & P. A., he +surely would not allow his hirelings to attack openly the +locomotive while it was en route. + +On the other hand, Tom did not really believe that Andy +O'Malley would attempt any reprisal against him personally. Of +course, the Western desperado might feel himself abused by Tom, +especially in the matter of Tom's use of his ammonia pistol. + +But that had happened months ago. O'Malley had undoubtedly been +hired by Mr. Bartholomew's enemies to obtain knowledge of the +contract signed between the young inventor and the railroad +president; and later it was certain that the spy had tried his +best to wreck the electric locomotive. + +As for any personal assault so many weeks after O'Malley had +clashed with him Tom Swift did not expect it. With Ned in his +company on this journey to Hendrickton, the young inventor had +good reason to consider that he was perfectly safe. + +Mary Nestor and Mr. Swift came to the station to see the two +young men off on Monday evening. Mary had heard about the second +attempt made to blow up the Hercules 0001 and she begged Tom to +take every precaution while he was in the West. + +"You will be in the enemy's country out there, Tom dear," she +warned him. "You won't be careless?" + +"I know I shall be mighty busy," he told her, laughing. "I'll +let Ned play watch-dog. And you know, his is a cautious soul, +Mary." + +"I've every confidence in Ned's faithfulness," the girl said, +still with anxious tone. "But those men who are trying to ruin +Mr. Bartholomew's road will stop at nothing. I must hear from you +frequently, Tom, or I shall worry myself ill." + +"Don't lose your courage, Mary," rejoined the inventor, more +gravely. "I do not think they will attack me personally again. +Remember that Koku is on the job, as well as Ned. And Mr. Damon +declares he will follow us West very shortly," and again Tom +chuckled. + +"Even Mr. Damon may be a help to you, Tom," declared Mary, +warmly. "At least, he is completely devoted to you." + +"So is Rad Sampson," said Tom, with a little grimace. "I +certainly had my hands full convincing him that father needed him +here at home. At that, Rad is pretty warm over the fact that I +sent Koku on with the locomotive. If anything should chance to +happen to my invention, Eradicate Sampson is going to shout 'I +told you so!' all over the shop." + +Mary dabbed her eyes a little with her handkerchief, and Tom +patted her shoulder. + +"Don't worry, Mary," he said more cheerfully. "There won't a +thing happen to me out there at Hendrickton. I'll keep the wires +hot with telegrams. And I'll write to both you and father, and +give you the full particulars of how we get along. You'll keep +your eye on father, Mary, won't you?" + +"You may be sure of that," said the girl. "I will not leave him +entirely to the care of Rad," and she tried hard to smile again. +But it was a difficult matter. + +Such a parting as this is always hard to endure. Tom wrung his +father's hand and warned him to be careful of his health. The +train came along and the two young men boarded it with their +personal luggage. + +They had a flash of the two faces--that of Mr. Swift's and +Mary's blooming countenance--as the express started again, and +then the outlook from the Pullman coach showed them the fast- +receding environs of Shopton. + +"We're on our way, my boy," said Tom to his chum. + +"We certainly are," said Ned, thoughtfully. "I wonder what the +outcome of the trip will be? It may not be all plain sailing." + +"Don't croak," rejoined the young inventor, with a grin. + +"I don't see how you can appear so cheerful., Why! you don't +even know if that electric locomotive is safe. Something may have +already happened to it. The freight train might be wrecked. A +dozen things might happen." + +"I am not crossing any bridges before I come to them," declared +Tom. "Besides, I propose to keep in touch with the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One in a certain way--Hullo! Here it is." + +"Here what is?" demanded Ned. + +The Pullman conductor at that moment came in through the +forward corridor. He had a telegram in his hand, and intoned +loudly as he approached: + +"Mr. Swift! Mr. Thomas Swift! Telegram for Mr. Swift." + +"That is for me, Conductor," said Tom briskly, offering his +card. + +"All right, Mr. Swift. Just got it at Shopton. Operator said +you had boarded my car. This is railroad business, you'll notice. +Have you any reply, sir?" + +Tom ripped open the envelope and unfolded the telegram. He held +it so that Ned could read, too. It was signed: "N. G. Smith, +Conductor, Number 48." + +"What's that?" exclaimed Ned, reading the message. + +"'Locomotive and crazy man in it all right at Lingo,'" repeated +Tom aloud, and chuckled. + +"No, Conductor, there is no answer." + +"Good!" exclaimed Ned. "You arranged to get reports en route +from the conductors handling the Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" + +"Surest thing you know," replied Tom. "And I guess, from the +wording of this message, that the crew of Forty-eight have +already found out that Koku is not an ordinary guard." + +"He's a great boy," smiled Ned. "Glad he is on the job." + + + +Chapter XVII + +The Wreck of Forty-Eight + + +The two chums sought their berths that night in high fettle. +Even Ned sloughed off his mood of apprehension which he had worn +on boarding the train at Shopton. + +For, true to the arrangement Tom had made with the railroad +people, another reassuring telegram was brought to him before +bedtime. The second conductor responsible for the management of +the Western bound freight to which the Hercules 0001 was +attached, sent back a brief statement of the safety of the +electric locomotive. + +Naturally the two chums would have passed the freight and got +well ahead of it before reaching Hendrickton. But Tom had +business in Chicago, and they stayed over in that city for +twenty-four hours. The freight train went around the city, of +course. But the telegrams continued to reach Tom promptly, even +at the hotel where he and Ned stopped in the city. + +Occasionally the trainmen in charge of the freight mentioned +Koku. His eccentric behavior doubtless somewhat puzzled the +railroaders. + +"That's all right," chuckled Ned. "Let them think Koku is +dangerous if they want to. That O'Malley person believed he was!" + +"I'll say so!" replied Tom. "The way he ran when Koku started +after him that time on the Waterfield Road seemed to prove that +he didn't want to mix with Koku." + +"If he--or other spies--learns that Koku is with the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, it ought to warn them away from the +locomotive." + +This was Ned's final speech before getting into his berth. He, +as well as Tom, slept quite as calmly on this first night out of +Chicago as they had before. + +They knew exactly where the electric locomotive was. It was on +the same road as this train they were traveling in, and, although +on a different track, it was not many miles ahead. In fact, if +the two trains kept to schedule, the transcontinental passenger +train would pass the freight in question about five o'clock in +the morning. + +It lacked half an hour of that time when the Pullman train came +suddenly to a jolting stop. Both Tom and Ned were awakened with +the rest of the passengers in their coach. + +Heads were poked out between curtains all along the aisle and a +chorus of more or less excited voices demanded: + +"What's the matter?" + +"Nothin's the matter wid dis train, gen'lemens an' ladies," +came in the porter's important voice. "Jest nothin' at all's +happened. It's done happened up ahead of us, das all." + +"Well, what has happened ahead of us, George?" asked Ned. + +"Jest another train, Boss, been splatterin' itself all ober de +right of way. We sort o' bein' held up, das all," replied the +porter. + +"That's good news--for us," said Ned, preparing to climb back +into his berth. But he halted where he was when he heard his chum +ask: + +"What train left the track, George?" + +"A freight train, sah. Yes, sah. Number Forty-eight. She jumped +de rails, side-swiped de accommodation dat was holdin' us back, +and has jest done spread herself all over de right of way." + +"My goodness!" gasped Ned. + +"Hear that, Ned?" exclaimed Tom. "Scramble into your clothes, +boy. The Hercules Three-Oughts-One is hitched to Forty-eight." + +"Suppose she's off the track?" murmured Ned. + +"It's lucky if she isn't smashed to matchwood," groaned Tom, +and almost immediately left the Pullman coach on the run. + +Ned was not far behind him. When they reached the cinder path +beside the freight train it was just sunrise. Long arms of rosy +light reached down the mountain side to linger on the tracks and +what was strewed across them. A glance assured the two young +fellows from the East that it was a bad smash indeed. + +Several of the rear boxcars were slung athwart the passenger +tracks. The passenger train that had been ahead of the Pullman +train on which Tom and Ned rode, had been badly beaten in all +along its side. Scarcely a whole window was left on the inner +side of the five cars. But those cars were not derailed. It was +merely some of the freight cars that retarded the further +progress of the transcontinental flyer. A derrick car must be +brought up to lift away the debris before the fast train could +move on. + +Tom and Ned walked forward along the length of the wreck. +Suddenly the anxious young inventor seized Ned's arm. + +"Glory be!" he ejaculated. "It's topside up, anyway." + +"The Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" gasped Ned. + +"That's what it is!" + +Tom quickened his pace, and his financial manager followed +close upon his heels. The forward end of Forty-eight had not left +the track and the electric locomotive stood upright upon the +rails, being near the head end of the train. + +"If this wreck was intentional, and aimed at your invention, +Tom," whispered Ned Newton, "it did not result as the wreckers +expected." + +Tom scouted the idea suggested by his chum. And in a few +moments they learned from a railroad employee that a broken +flange on a boxcar wheel had caused the wreck. + +"So that disposes of your suspicion, Ned," said Tom, +approaching the huge electric locomotive. + +"Hey, gents!" exclaimed another railroad man, one of the crew +of the wrecked freight. "Better keep away from that locomotive." + +"What's the matter with it?" Ned asked, curiously. + +"Got some kind of an aborigine caged up in it. You put your +hand on any part of it and he's likely to jump out and bite your +hand off, or something. Believe me, he's some savage." + +Both Tom and Ned burst into laughter. The former went forward +to the door of the cab and knocked in a peculiar way. It was a +signal that the giant recognized instantly. + +"Master!" Koku cried from inside the cab. "Master! Him come +in?" + +"No, Koku," said Tom. "I'm not coming in. Are you all right?" + +"Yes. Koku all right. Him come out?" + +"No, no!" laughed Tom. "You are not at your journey's end yet, +Koku. Keep on the job a while longer." + +"Sure. Koku stay here forever, if Master say so." + +"Forever is a long word, Koku," said Tom, more seriously. "I'll +tell you when to open the door. I'll be at the end of the journey +to meet you." + +"It all right if Master say so. But Koku no like to travel in +box," grumbled the giant. + +Tom turned from the electric locomotive to see Ned staring +across the tracks at a man who was talking to several of the +train crew of the side-swiped accommodation train. That train was +about to be moved on under its own power. None of the wreckage of +the freight interfered with the progress of the accommodation. + +Tom stepped to Ned's side and touched his arm. "Who is he?" the +inventor asked. + +The man who had attracted Ned's attention and now held Tom's +interest as well was a solid looking man with gray hair and a +dyed mustache. He was chewing on a long and black cigar, and he +spoke to the train hands with authority. + +"Well, why can't you find him?" he wanted to know in a hoarse +and arrogant voice. + +"Who is he?" asked Tom again in Ned's ear. + +"I've seen him somewhere. Or else I've seen somebody that looks +like him. Maybe I've seen his picture. He's somebody of +importance." + +"He thinks he is," rejoined the young inventor, with some +disdain. + +In answer to something one of the railroad men said the +important looking individual uttered an oath and added: + +"There's nobody been killed then? He's just missing? He was +sitting in the coach ahead of me. I saw him just before the +wreck. You know O'Malley yourself. Do you mean to say you haven't +seen him, Conductor?" + +"I assure you he disappeared like smoke, sir," said the +passenger conductor. "I haven't an idea what became of him." + +"Humph! If you see him, send him to me, and the solid man +stepped heavily aboard the nearest coach and disappeared inside. + +Tom and Ned stared at each other with wondering gaze. O'Malley! +The spy who had represented Montagne Lewis and the Hendrickton & +Western Railroad in the East. + +"What do you know about that?" demanded Ned, wonderingly. + +"Hold on!" exclaimed Tom. He sprang across the rails after the +conductor of the accommodation train that was just starting on. +"Let me ask you a question." + +"Yes, sir?" replied the conductor + +"Who was that man who just spoke to you?" "That man? Why, I +thought everybody out this way knew Montagne Lewis. That is his +name, sir--and a big man he is. Yes, sir," and the conductor, +giving the watching engineer of his train the "highball," caught +the hand-rail of the car and swung himself aboard as the train +started. + + + +Chapter XVIII + +On the Hendrickton & Pas Alos + + +The transcontinental was delayed three hours by the strewn +wreckage of the rear of Number Forty-eight. When she went on the +two young fellows from Shopton gazed anxiously at the Hercules +0001, which stood between two gondolas in the forward end of the +freight train. + +"Just by luck nothing happened to it," muttered Ned. + +"Just luck," agreed Tom Swift. "It was a shock to me to learn +that Andy O'Malley was right there on the spot when the accident +happened." + +"And his employer, too," added Ned. "For we must admit that Mr. +Montagne Lewis is the man who sicked O'Malley on to you." "True." + +"And they were both in the accommodation that was sideswiped by +the derailed cars of Number Forty-eight." + +"That, likewise is a fact," said Tom, nodding quickly. + +"But what puzzles me, as it seemed to puzzle Lewis, more than +anything else, is what became of O'Malley?" + +"I guess I can see through that knot-hole," Tom rejoined. + +"Yes?" + +"I bet O'Malley got a squint at me--or perhaps at you--as we +walked up the track from this coach, and he lit out in a hurry. +There stood the Three-Oughts-One, and there were we. He knew we +would raise a hue and cry if we saw him in the vicinity of my +locomotive." + +"I bet that's the truth, Tom." + +"I know it. He didn't even have time to warn his employer. By +the way, Ned, what a brute that Montagne Lewis looks to be." + +"I believe you! I remember having seen his photograph in a +magazine. Oh, he's some punkins, Tom." + +"And just as wicked as they make 'em, I bet! Face just as +pleasant as a bulldog's!" + +"You said it. I'm afraid of that man. I shall not have a +moment's peace until you have handed the Hercules Three-Oughts- +One over to Mr. Bartholomew and got his acceptance." + +"If I do," murmured Tom. + +"Of course you will, if that Lewis or his henchmen don't smash +things up. You are not afraid of the speed matter now, are you?" +demanded Ned confidently. + +"I can be sure of nothing until after the tests," said Tom, +shaking his head. "Remember, Ned, that I have set out to +accomplish what was never done before--to drive a locomotive over +the rails at two miles a minute. It's a mighty big undertaking." + +"Of course it will come out all right. If Koku is faithful + +"That is the smallest 'if' in the category," Tom interposed, +with a laugh. "If I was as sure of all else as I am of Koku, we'd +have plain sailing before us." + +Two days later Tom Swift and Ned Newton were ushered into the +private office of the president of the H. & P. A. at the +Hendrickton terminal. The two young fellows from the East had got +in the night before, had become established at the best hotel in +the rapidly growing Western municipality, and had seen something +of the town itself during the hours before midnight. + +Now they were ready for business, and very important business, +too. + +Mr. Richard Bartholomew sat up in his desk chair and his keen +eyes suddenly sparkled when he saw his visitors and recognized +them. + +"I did not expect you so soon. Your locomotive arrived +yesterday, Mr. Swift. How are you, Mr. Newton?" + +He motioned for them to take chairs. His secretary left the +room. The railroad magnate at once became confidential. + +"Nothing happened on the way?" he asked, pointedly. "There was +a freight wreck, I understand?" + +"And we chanced to be right at hand when that happened," said +Tom. + +"So was your friend, Mr. Lewis," remarked Ned Newton. + +"You don't mean to say that Montagne Lewis--" + +"Was there. And Andy O'Malley," put in Tom. + +Then he detailed the incident, as far as he and Ned knew the +details, to Mr. Bartholomew, who listened with close attention. + +"Well, it might merely have been a coincidence," murmured the +railroad president. "But, of course, we can't be sure. Anyhow, it +is just as well if your servant, Mr. Swift, keeps close watch +still upon that locomotive." + +"He will," said Tom, nodding. "He is down there in the yard +with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One, and I mean to keep Koku right +on the job." + +"Good! Let's go down and look at her," Mr. Bartholomew said, +eagerly. + +But first Tom wanted to go into the theoretical particulars of +his invention. And he confessed that thus far his tests of the +locomotive had not been altogether satisfactory. + +"I have got to have a clear track on a stretch of your own line +here, Mr. Bartholomew, and under certain conditions, before I can +be sure as to just how much speed I can get out of the machine." + +"Speed is the essential point, Mr. Swift," said the railroad +man, seriously. + +"That is what I have been telling Ned," Tom rejoined. "I +believe my improvements over the Jandel patents are worthy. I +know I have a very powerful locomotive. But that is not enough." + +"We have got to shoot our trains through the Pas Alos Range +faster than trains were ever shot over the grades before, or we +have failed," said Mr. Bartholomew, with decision. + +"But--" began Ned; but Tom put up an arresting hand and his +financial manager ceased speaking. + +"I have not forgotten the details of our contract, Mr. +Bartholomew," he said, quietly. "Two-miles-a-minute is the target +I have aimed for. Whether I have hit it or not, well, time will +show. I have got to try the locomotive out on the tracks of the +H. & P. A. in any case. The Hercules Three-Oughts-One has been +dragged a long distance, and has been through at least one wreck. +I want to see if she is all right before I test her officially." + +"I'll arrange that for you," said Mr. Bartholomew, briskly, +putting away his papers. "I will go with you, too, and take a +look at the marvel." + +"And a marvel it is," grumbled Ned. "Don't let him fool you, +Mr. Bartholomew. Tom never does consider what he's done as being +as great as it really is." + +"Everything must be proved," Tom said, cautiously. "If it was a +financial problem, Mr. Bartholomew, believe me it would be Ned +who displayed caution. But I have seldom built anything that +could not--and has not--later been improved." + +"You do not consider your electric locomotive, then, a +completed invention?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, as the three walked +down the yard. + +"I have too much experience .to say it is perfect," returned +Tom. "I can scarcely believe, even, that it is going to suit you, +Mr. Bartholomew, even if the speed test is as promising as I hope +it may be." + +"Humph!" + +"But before I shall be willing to throw up the sponge and say +that I have failed, I shall monkey with the Hercules Three- +Oughts-One quite a little on your tracks." + +"Your six months isn't up yet," said Mr. Bartholomew, more +cheerfully. "And it doesn't matter if it is. If you see any +chance of making a success of your invention, you are welcome to +try it out on the tracks of the H. & P. A. for another six +months." + +"All right," Tom said, smiling. "Now, there is the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, Mr. Bartholomew. And there is Koku looking +longingly through the window." + +In fact, the giant, the moment he saw Tom, ran to unbar and +open the door of the cab on that side. + +"Master! If no let Koku out, Koku go amuck -Äcrazy! No can +breathe in here! No can eat! No can sleep!" + +"The poor fellow!" ejaculated Ned. + +"What's the matter with him?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, curiously. + +"Get out, if you want to, Koku. I'll stay by while you kick up +your heels." + +No sooner had the inventor spoken than the giant leaped from +the open door of the locomotive and dashed away along the cinder +path as though he actually had to run away. Tom burst into a +laugh, as he watched the giant disappear beyond the strings of +freight cars. + +"What is the matter with him?" repeated the railroad president. + +"He's got the cramp all right," laughed Tom Swift. "You don't +understand, Mr. Bartholomew, what it means to that big fellow to +be housed in for so many days, and unable to kick a free limb. I +bet he runs ten miles before he stops." + +"The police will arrest him," said the railroad man. + +It was then Ned's turn to chuckle. "I am sorry for your +railroad police if they tackle Koku right now," he said. "He'd +lay out about a dozen ordinary men without half trying. But, +ordinarily, he is the most mild-mannered fellow who ever lived." + +"He will come back, if he is let alone, as harmless as a +kitten," Tom observed. "And when I am not with the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, and while I continue making my tests, Koku will +be on guard. You might tell your police force, Mr. Bartholomew, +to let him alone. Now come aboard and let me show you what I have +been trying to do." + +They spent two hours inside the cab of the great locomotive. +Mr. Richard Bartholomew was possessed of no small degree of +mechanical education. He might not be a genius in mechanics as +Tom Swift was, but he could follow the latter's explanations +regarding the improvements in the electrical equipment of this +new type of locomotive. + +"I don't know what your speed tests will show, Mr. Swift," said +the railroad president, with added enthusiasm. "But if those +parts will do what you say they have already done, you've got the +Jandels beat a mile! I'm for you, strong. Yes, sir! like your +friend, Newton, here, I believe that you have hit the right +track. You are going to triumph." + +But Tom's triumph did not come at once. He knew more about the +uncertainties of mechanical contrivances than did either Mr. +Bartholomew or Ned Newton. + +The very next day the Hercules 0001 was got out upon a section +of the electrified system of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railway, +and the pantagraphs of the huge locomotive for the first time +came into connection with the twin conductor trolleys which +overhung the rails. + +Ned accompanied Tom as assistant. Koku was allowed by the +inventor to roam about the hills as much as he pleased during the +hours in which his master was engaged with the Hercules 0001. Tom +did not think any harm would come to Koku, and he knew that the +giant would enjoy immensely a free foot in such a wild country. +The two young fellows, dressed in working suits of overall stuff, +spent long hours in the cab of the electric locomotive. Their +try-outs had to be made for the most part on sidetracks and +freight switches, some miles outside Hendrickton, where the +invention would not be in the way of regular traffic. + +Speed on level tracks had been raised in one test to over +ninety-five miles an hour and Mr. Bartholomew cheered wildly from +the cab of a huge Mallet that paced Tom's locomotive on a +parallel track. No steam locomotive had ever made such fast time. + +But Tom was after something bigger than this. He wanted to show +the president of the H. & P. A. that the Hercules 0001 could drag +a load over the Pas Alos Range at a pace never before gained by +any mountain-hog. + +Therefore he coaxed the electric locomotive out into the hills, +some hundred or more miles from headquarters. He had to keep in +touch with the train dispatcher's office, of course; the new +machine had often to take a sidetrack. Nor was much of this hilly +right-of-way electrified. The Jandels locomotive had been found +to be a failure on the sharp grades; so the extension of the +trolley system had been abandoned. + +But there was one steep grade between Hammon and Cliff City +that had been completed. The current could be fed to the cables +over this stretch of track, and for a week Tom used this long and +steep grade just as much as he could, considering of course the +demands of the regular traffic. + +The telegraph operator at Half Way (merely a name for a +station, for there was not a habitation in sight) thrust his long +upper-length out of the telegraph office window one afternoon and +waved a "highball" to the waiting electric locomotive on the +sidetrack. + +"Dispatcher says you can have Track Number +Two West till the four-thirteen, westbound, is due. I'll slip the +operator at Cliff City the news and he'll be on the lookout for +you as well as me, Mr. Swift. Go to it." + +Every man on the system was interested, and most of them +enthusiastic, about Tom's invention. The latter knew that he +could depend upon this operator and his mate to watch out for the +western-bound flyer that would begin its climb of the grade at +Hammon less than half an hour hence. + +The electric locomotive was coaxed out across the switch. Tom +was earnestly inspecting the more delicate parts of the mechanism +while Ned (and proud he was to do it) handled the levers. Once on +the main line he moved the controller forward. The machine began +to pick up speed. + +The drumming of the wheels over the rail joints became a single +note--an increasing roar of sound. The electric locomotive shot +up the grade. The arrow on the speedometer crept around the dial +and Ned's eye was more often fastened on that than it was on the +glistening twin rails which mounted the grade. + +Black-green hemlock and spruce bordered the right of way on +either hand. Their shadows made the tunnel through the forest +almost dark. But Tom had not seen fit to turn on the headlight. + +"How is she making out?" asked the inventor, coming to look +over his chum's shoulder. + +"It's great, Tom!" breathed Ned Newton, his eyes glistening. +"She eats this grade up." + +And it's within a narrow fraction of a two per cent.," said the +inventor proudly. "She takes it without a jar--Hold on! What's +that ahead?" + +The locomotive had traveled ten miles or more from Half Way. +The summit of the grade was not far ahead. But the forest shut +out all view of the station at Cliff City and the structures that +stood near it. + +Right across the steel ribbons on which the hercules 0001 ran, +Tom had seen something which brought the question to his lips. +Ned Newton saw it too, and he shouted aloud: + +"Tree down! A log fallen, Tom!" + +He did not lose completely his self-control. But he grabbed the +levers with less care than he should. He tried to yank two of +them at once, and, in doing so, he fouled the brakes! + +He had shut off connection with the current. But the brake +control was jammed. The locomotive quickly came to a halt. Then, +before Tom could get to the open door, the wheels began spinning +in reverse and the great Hercules 0001 began the descent of the +steep grade, utterly unmanageable! + + + +Chapter XIX + +Peril, The Mother of Invention + + +Tom Swift's first thought was one of thankfulness. Thankfulness +that he did not have a drag of fifty or sixty steel gondolas or +the like to add their weight to the down-pull. The locomotive's +own weight of approximately two hundred and seventy tons was +enough. + +For when the inventor pushed Ned aside and tried to handle the +controllers properly, he found them unmanageable. There was not a +chance of freeing them and getting power on the brakes. The +Hercules 0001 was hacking down the mountain side with a speed +that was momentarily increasing, and without a chance of +retarding it! + +The young inventor at that moment of peril, knew no more what +to do to avert disaster than Ned Newton himself. + +It flashed across his mind, however, that others beside +themselves were in peril because of this accident. The fast +express from the East that should pass Half Way at four-thirteen, +might already be climbing the hill from Hammon. Hammon, at the +foot of the grade, was twenty-five miles away. Nor was the track +straight. + +If the operator at Half Way did not see the runaway locomotive +and telephone the danger to the foot of the grade, when the +Hercules 0001 came tearing down the track it might ram something +in the Hammon yard, if it did not actually collide with the +approaching westbound express. + +Such an emergency as this is likely either to numb the brains +of those entangled in the peril or excite them to increased +activity. Ned Newton was apparently stunned by the catastrophe. +Tom's brain never worked more clearly. + +He seized the siren lever and set it at full, so that the blast +called up continuous echoes in the forest as the locomotive +plunged down the incline. He ran to the door again, on the side +where Half Way station lay, and hung out to signal the operator +who had so recently given him right of way on this stretch of +mountain road. + +"We're going to smash! We're going to smash!" groaned Ned +Newton. + +Tom read these words on his chum's lips, rather than heard +them, for the roar of the descending locomotive drowned every +other sound. Tom waved an encouraging hand, but did not reply +audibly. + +Meanwhile his brain was working as fast as ever it had. He had +instantly comprehended all the danger of the situation. But in +addition he appreciated the fact that such an accident as this +might happen at any time to this or any other locomotive he might +build. + +Automatic brakes were all right. If there had been a good drag +of cars behind the Hercules 0001, on which the compressed air +brakes might have been set, the present manifest peril might have +been obliterated. The brakes on the cars would have stopped the +whole train. + +But to halt this huge monster when alone, on the grade, was +another matter. Once the locomotive brake lever was jammed, as in +this case, there was no help for the huge machine. It had to ride +to the foot of the grade--if it did not chance to hit something +on the way! + +And with this realization of both the imminent peril and the +need of averting it, to Tom's active brain came the germ of an +idea that he determined to put into force, if he lived through +this accident, on each and every electric locomotive that he +might in the future build. + +This monster, flying faster and faster down the mountain side, +was a menace to everything in its track. There might be almost +anything in the way of rolling stock on the section between Half +Way and Hammon at the foot of the grade. If this thunderbolt of +wood and steel collided with any other train, with the force and +weight gathered by its plunge down the mountain, it would drive +through such obstruction like a projectile from Tom's own big +cannon. + +Tom realized this fact. He knew that whatever object the +Hercules 0001 might strike, that object would be shattered and +scattered all about the right of way. What might happen to the +runaway was another matter. But the inventor believed that the +electric locomotive would be less injured than anything with +which it came into collision. + +At any rate, thought of the peril to himself and his invention +had secondary consideration in Tom Swift's mind. It was what the +monster which he could not control might do to other rolling +stock of the H. & P. A. that rasped the young fellow's mind. + +The grade above Half Way had few curves. Tom soon caught the +first glimpse of the station. Would the operator hear the roar of +the descending runaway and understand what had happened? + +He leaned far out from the open doorway and waved his cap +madly. He began to shout a warning, although he saw not a soul +about the station and knew very well that his voice was +completely drowned by the voice of the siren and the drumming of +the great wheels. + +Suddenly the tousled head of the operator popped out of his +window. He saw the coming locomotive, the drivers smoking! + +To be a good railroad man one has to have his wits about him. +To be a good operator at a backwoods station one has to have two +sets of wits--one set to tell what to do in an emergency, the +other to listen and apprehend the voice of the sounder. + +This Half Way man was good. He knew better than to try the +telegraph instrument. He grabbed the telephone receiver and +jiggled the hook up and down on the standard while the Hercules +0001 roared past the station. + +It did not need Tom's frantically waving cap to warn him what +had happened. And he remembered clearly the fact of the expected +westbound flyer. + +"Hammon? Get me? This is Half Way. That derned electric hog has +sprung something and is coming down, lickity-split! + +"Yes! Clear your yard! Where's Number Twenty-eight? Good! Side +her, or she'll be ditched. Get me?" + +The voice at the other end of the wire exploded into indignant +vituperation. Then silence. The Half Way operator had done his +best--his all. He ran out upon the platform. The electric +locomotive had disappeared behind the woods, but the roar of its +wheels and the shrill voice of its siren echoed back along the +line. + +The sound faded into insignificance. The operator went back +into his hut and stayed close by the telephone instrument for the +next ten minutes to learn the worst. + +If the operator's nerves were tense, what about those of Tom +Swift and his chum? Ned staggered to the door and clung to Tom's +arm. He shrilled into the latter's ear: + +"Shall we jump?" + +"I don't see any soft spots," returned Tom, grimly. "There +aren't any life nets along this line." + +Ned Newton was frightened, and with good reason. But if his +chum was equally terrified he did not show it. He continued to +lean from the open door to peer down the grade as the Hercules +0001 drove on. + +Around curve after curve they flew. It entered Ned's tortured +mind that if his chum had wanted speed, he was getting it now! He +realized that two miles a minute was a mere bagatelle to the pace +now accomplished by the runaway locomotive. + + + +Chapter XX + +The Result + + +As Ned Newton, fumbling at the controls when he saw the fallen +tree across the tracks, had jammed the brakes, the station master +at Hammon, at the bottom of this long grade on the Hendrickton & +Pas Alos, had stepped out to the blackboard in the barnlike +waiting room and scrawled with a bit of chalk: + + +"No. 28--Westbound--due 3:38 is is 15 m. late." + + +The fact, thus given to the general public or to such of it as +might be interested, averted what would have been a terrible +catastrophe. + +The fast express was late. When the babbling voice of the Half +Way operator over the telephone warned Hammon of the coming of +the runaway electric locomotive, there was time to shift switches +at the head of the yard so that, when Number Twenty-eight came +roaring in, she was shunted on to a far track and flagged for a +stop before she hit the bumper. + +Thirty seconds later, from the west, the Hercules 0001 roared +down the grade and shot into the cleared west track in a halo of +smoke and dust. Speed! No runaway had ever traveled faster and +kept the rails. The story of the incident was embalmed in +railroad history, and no history is so full of vivid incident as +that of the rail. + +When the first relay of excited railroad men reached the +electric locomotive after it had stopped on the long level, even +Ned Newton had pulled himself together and could look out upon +the world with some measure of calmness. Tom Swift was making +certain notes and draughting a curious little diagram upon a page +of his notebook. + +"What happened to you, Mr. Swift?" was the demand of the first +arrival. + +"Oh, my foot slipped," said the young inventor, and they got +nothing more out of him than that. + +But to Ned, after the crowd had gone, the inventor said: + +"Ned, my boy, they used to say that necessity was the mother of +invention. Therefore a loaf of bread was considered the maternal +parent of the locomotive. I've got one that will beat that." + +"Whew!" gasped Ned. "How can you? I haven't got my breath back +yet." + +"It is peril that is the mother of invention," Tom went on, +still jotting down his notes. "Believe me! that jolt gave me a +new idea--an important idea. Suppose that operator at Half Way +had been out back somewhere, and had not seen or heard us flash +by?" + +"Well, suppose he had? What's the answer?" sighed Ned. + +"Like enough we would have rammed something down here." + +"And I hardly understand even now why we didn't do just that," +muttered his chum, with a shake of his head. + +"Wake up, Ned! It's all over," laughed Tom. "While it was +happening I admit I was guessing just as hard as you were about +the finish. But--" + +"Your recovery is better," grumbled his friend. "I'm scared +yet." + +"And it might happen again--" + +"No--not--ever!" exclaimed Ned. "I shall never touch those +controllers again. I'll drive your airscout, or your fastest +automobile, or anything like that. But me and this electric +locomotive have parted company for good. Yes, sir!" + +"All right. It wasn't your fault. It might happen to any motor- +engineer. And the very fact that it can happen has given me my +idea. I tell you that danger is the mother of invention." + +"As far as I am concerned, it can be father and grandparents +into the bargain," Ned declared, with a smile. + +"Wake up!" cried his friend again. "I have got a dandy idea. I +wouldn't have missed that trip for anything + +"You are crazy," interrupted Ned. "Suppose we had bumped +something?" + +"But we didn't bump anything, except my brain tank. An idea +bumped it, I tell you. I am going to eliminate any such peril as +that here-after." + +"You mean you are going to make it impossible for this +locomotive ever to slide down such a hill again if the brakes +won't work? Humph! Meanwhile I will go out and make the nearest +water-fall begin to run upward." + +"Don't scoff. I do not mean just what you mean." + +"I bet you don't!" + +"But although I cannot be sure that a locomotive will never +again fall downhill," said Tom patiently, "I'm going to fix it so +that warning need not be given by some operator along the line. +The engineer must be able to send warning of his accident, both +up and down the road." + +"Huh? How are you going to do that?" demanded Ned. + +"Wireless telephone. I may make some improvements on the +present models; but it is practicable. It has been used on +submarines and cruisers, and lately its practicability has been +proved in the forestry service. + +"Every one of these electric locomotives I turn out will be +supplied with wireless sets. The expense of making certain +telegraph offices along the line into receiving stations will be +small. I am going to take that up with Mr. Bartholomew at once. +And I am going to fix these brake controls so that nobody need +ball them up again." + +If, out of such a desperate adventure, Tom could bring to +fruition really worthwhile improvements in relation to his +invention, Ned acknowledged the value of the incident. Just the +same, he had a personal objection to having any part in a similar +experience. + +He was brave, but he could not forget danger. Tom seemed to +throw the effect of that terrible ride off his mind almost +instantly. Ned dreamed of it at night! + +However, from that time things seemed to go with a rush. Mr. +Bartholomew approved of the young inventor's suggestion regarding +the use of the wireless telephone as a method of averting a +certain quality of danger in the use of the proposed monster +locomotive. The railroad man was convinced that Tom's ideas were +finally to culminate in success, and he was ready to spend money, +much money, in pushing on the work. + +It was not long before a private test of the Hercules 0001 up +the grade from Hammon to Cliff City showed Mr. Bartholomew that +the speed he had required in his contract was attainable. With a +drag fully as heavy as any two locomotives had been able to get +over the same sector, the new locomotive alone marked a forty- +five mile an hour pace. + +This attainment was kept quiet; not even the train crew knew +what the monster had done when they reached the summit of the +mountain. But Mr. Bartholomew, who rode with Tom and Ned in the +cab, had held his own watch on the test and compared it every +minute with the speedometer. + +"I am satisfied that you are going to do more than I had really +hoped, Mr. Swift," the railroad president said at the end of the +run. "Already you could drive this locomotive at a two-mile-a- +minute clip on level rails, I am sure. Keep at it! Nobody will be +more delighted than I shall be if you pull down that hundred +thousand dollars' bonus." + +"That's a fine way to talk, sir," cried Ned, with enthusiasm. + +"I mean every word of it, Mr. Newton. The money is his as soon +as he makes good." + +Both Tom and his financial manager left the president's office +in a satisfied state of mind. + +"Great news to send home, Tom," remarked Ned, when they were +alone. + +"Righto, Ned. My father will be glad to hear it." + +"And what about Mary?" And Ned poked his chum in the ribs. + +"I guess she'll he glad too," Tom replied, his face reddening. + +That night Tom sent word to Mary and also a telegram, in code, +to his father, saying the prospects were now bright for a quick +finish of the task that had brought him West. + + + +Chapter XXI + +The Open Switch + + +Meanwhile the work of electrifying another division of the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad had been pushed to completion. As +Mr. Bartholomew had in the first place stated, the road +controlled water rights in the hills which would supply any +number of electric power stations, and his enemies could not shut +his road off from these waterfalls. + +Tom had not warned his faithful servant, the giant Koku, to +watch out for Andy O'Malley in particular; the inventor knew that +the giant would be as cautious about any stranger as could be +wished. But personally Tom was amazed that either O'Malley or +some other henchman of the president of the Hendrickton & Western +did not make an attempt to injure the electric locomotive. + +"Perhaps Mr. Bartholomew's police are really of some good," +said Ned Newton, when his chum mentioned his surprise on this +point. "Has Koku seen nobody lurking about at night?" + +"He certainly has not seen the man he calls 'Big Feet,'" +chuckled Tom. "If he had spotted O'Malley, there certainly would +have been an explosion." + +"Tell you what," Ned said reflectively, "the longer Lewis keeps +off you, the more suspicious I should be." + +"You think he is a bad citizen, do you?" + +"And then some, as the boys say out here," replied Ned. "I +wouldn't trust that man any farther than I would a nest of +hornets or a shedding rattlesnake." + +"I am inclined to believe, with you, Ned, that Lewis is +hatching up something and is keeping mighty whist about it. I +sounded Mr. Bartholomew on the idea and he, too, is puzzled." + +"I guess he knows that hombre," grumbled Ned. + +"Mr. Bartholomew admits that several roads have sent +representatives to make inquiries about my locomotive. They have +got wind of it, and, after all, most railroads work in unison. +What means progress for one is progress for all." + +"That same rule does not seem to apply in the case of the +H. & P. A. and the H. & W.," remarked Ned. + +"No. They are out and out rivals. And Lewis and his gang have +done this road dirt--no two ways about that. But when I am +convinced that my locomotive has got all the speed and power +contracted for, Mr. Bartholomew wants to invite a bunch of his +brother railroaders to see the tests--to ride in the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, in fact." + +"How about it? You going to agree? Suppose they have some +inventive sharp along who will be able to steal some of your +mechanical contrivances--in his head, I mean," and Ned seemed +quite suddenly anxious. + +"I had thought of that. But before the test I shall send my +blueprints to Washington. Our patent attorney there has already +filed tentative plans and applied for certain patents that I +consider completed. Don't fret. I'll make it impossible for +anybody to steal our patents legally." + +"Yes! But illegally?" + +"That we cannot help in any case, and you know it," Tom said. +"If some road tries to build anything like the Hercules Three- +Oughts-One for the first two years without arranging with the +Swift Construction Company, you know that that railroad can be +made to suffer in the courts, and you are the boy, Ned, to put +them over the jumps for it." + +"Sure," grumbled his chum. "It's always up to me to save the +day." + +"Exactly," chuckled Tom. "And in your character of life saver, +do look out for anybody who looks suspicious hanging about the +Hercules Three-Oughts-One. I'll take care of rival inventors. You +and Koku keep your eyes peeled for the H. & W. spies. Especially +for that Andy O'Malley. I feel that he will again show up. Maybe +by 'the pricking of my thumb' as Macbeth's witch used to remark." + +Every day save Sunday the electric locomotive had some kind of +try-out. On a level track Tom was sure of his monster invention's +qualities; but in the hills, at a distance from the Hendrickton +terminal, it was another matter. + +The grades were steep; but the road was well ballasted. There +was plenty of power. He saw the Jandel locomotives hurry back and +forth with the local trains and realized that this rival +invention was by no means to be despised. + +It was at about this time, too, that Mr. Damon appeared in +Hendrickton. Early one forenoon, when Tom and Ned were preparing +to take the Hercules 0001 out of the yard, and Koku was going to +his lodgings to get a little sleep, Tom's eccentric friend came +across the tracks, waving his cane at Tom. + +"Bless my frogs and switch-targets!" he ejaculated, "I've +walked a mile from that station to get here. Where are you going +with that big contraption? How does it work? Does it make all the +speed you want, Tom Swift? Bless my rails and sleepers!' + +"We're going about a hundred miles out on the road to a good, +stiff grade," Tom told him, having shaken hands in welcome. "If +you want to, get aboard." + +"They haven't blown you up yet, or otherwise wrecked the +locomotive," remarked Mr. Damon, grinning broadly. "I'll have to +write right back to your father--and to a certain young lady who +shows a remarkable interest in your welfare--that you are all +right." + +"They should already be sure of that," laughed Tom. "Ned and I +have kept the post-office department and the telegraph company +very busy." + +"They are waiting for my report," announced Mr. Damon, with +confidence. "And I am waiting for yours. Tell me, Tom: Is the +locomotive a success + +"It's going to be," declared the inventor, with decision. + +"Bless my trolley wires!" cried Mr. Damon, "I am glad to hear +that. Then you will surely pull down the extra hundred thousand +dollars?" + +"I believe I shall fulfill every clause of the contract Mr. +Bartholomew and I signed," said Tom. + +"Then it's more than a success!" cried his friend. "You have +invented another marvel, Tom Swift!" + +"Marvel or not," rejoined Tom, "I believe that the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One will top anything so far built in the way of +electric locomotives." + +"Hurrah!" cried Mr. Damon. "Bless my controller! But your +father and Mary Nestor will be glad to hear that!" + +Mr. Damon was quite as much interested in this invention as he +always was in anything the young inventor worked upon. When he +had once seen the Hercules 0001 work on an up-grade he was doubly +enthusiastic. To his sanguine mind the locomotive was already +completed. He could see no possibility of failure. + +Tom, however, had to prove to his own satisfaction the success +of every detail of his invention before he was willing to tell +Mr. Bartholomew that he was ready for a public test. Mr. Damon, +nor even Ned, could scarcely see the reason for Tom's caution. + +Tom's favorite try-out grade was between Hammon and Cliff City. +He could obtain a right of way order from the train dispatcher on +that grade, sometimes of an hour's duration. He often snaked a +load of gondolas or cattle cars up the grade, relieving both the +puller and pusher steam locomotive. By this time the H. & P. A. +system had stopped using the Jandel machines on any grades. They +had proved their lack of power for such work + +"But the Hercules Three-Oughts-One shows at every test that it +has the kick," Mr. Damon cried. + +In his enthusiasm he was out every day with Tom and Ned. And +sometimes Koku remained in the cab during the trial runs as well. + +On one such occasion Tom had drawn a heavy train over the +mountain, taking it down the grade beyond Cliff City to Panboro +in the farther valley. This was over a newly built stretch of the +electrified road. The power station charged the trolley cables +with an abundance of current, and the Hercules 0001 made a +splendid trip. + +"Bless my cuff-links!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, his rosy face one +beaming smile. "You couldn't expect to do better than this. You +save one locomotive on the haul, and you beat the schedule ten +minutes, so that you had to lay by to get right of way into the +yard here. Why linger longer, Tom?" + +"I agree with Mr. Damon," Ned said. "It seems to work +perfectly. And you have, I believe, established your required +speed." + +"Can't be too perfect," said the young inventor, smiling. "But +I will tell Mr. Bartholomew when we get back that he can set his +time for the big test whenever he pleases. I have already sent +our patent attorney in Washington the final blueprints. Now, if +nothing happens--" + +"Bless my stickpin!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "What can happen now +that the locomotive is practically perfect?" + +That question was answered in one way, and a most startling +way, within the hour. Tom got right of way back over the mountain +and pushed the electric locomotive up-grade at almost top speed. +He drew no train on this occasion, and the speed made by the +Hercules 0001 was really remarkable. + +They topped the rise at Cliff City and got orders from the +dispatcher to proceed on the time of Number Eighty-seven, which +chanced to be late. With that release Tom might have made the +entire distance of a hundred and ten miles to Hendrickton had it +not been for the accident--the unexpected something that so often +happens in the railroad business. + +Tom was a careful driver; the chatter of Ned and Mr. Damon did +not take the inventor's mind off his business for one instant. He +was quite alert at his window, looking ahead, as Koku was at the +open doorway of the cab. + +Not a mile outside of Cliff City, and on this eastbound side of +the right of way, was a long siding and a shipping point for +timber. It was sometimes a busy point; but at this time of year +there were no lumbermen about and no activities in the adjacent +forest. + +The Hercules 0001 came spinning along from the Cliff City +yards, and Tom Swift gave scarcely a glance to the joint of the +switch ahead. He had been over it so many times of late, and knew +that it was always locked. The railroad did not even keep a man +here at this season. + +Suddenly Koku emitted a wild yell. He startled everybody else +in the cab, as he flung his huge body more than half out of the +doorway and prepared to jump--or so it seemed. + +Ned shrieked a warning to the big fellow. Mr. Damon began to +bless everything in sight. But it was Tom, quite as excited as +his friends, who understood what Koku shouted: + +"Big Feet! Big Feet! I see um Big Feet, Master!" + +The next moment he threw himself from the rapidly moving +locomotive. He might have been killed easily enough. But +fortunately he landed feet first in the drift beside the rails, +and remained upright as he slid down into the ditch. + +Tom, glancing ahead again, saw the flash of a man in a checked +Mackinaw running up through the open wood and away from the right +of way. He could not be sure of Andy O'Malley's figure at that +distance; but he could be pretty confident of Koku's +identification. + +And then, with a shock that gripped and almost paralyzed his +mind, Tom saw again the switch ahead of the pilot of the Hercules +0001. The switch was open, and at the speed the electric +locomotive had attained, if she did not jump the rails, it seemed +scarcely possible that she could be stopped before hitting the +bumper at the end of the siding! + + + +Chapter XXII + +A Desperate Chase + + +These moments were fraught with peril, and not alone peril to +the huge machine that Tom Swift had built, but peril to those who +remained in the cab of the electric locomotive, as her forward +trucks struck the open switch. + +There was a mighty jerk that brought a shout from Ned Newton's +lips and a grunt from Mr. Damon. Tom clung to his swivel-seat, +staring ahead. + +The pilot of the electric locomotive shot over on the siding; +the forward trucks followed, then the great drivers. The whole +locomotive swerved into the siding, but for several breathless +seconds Tom was not at all sure that the monster would not jump +the rails and head into the ditch! + +Meanwhile his gaze measured the speed of that flying figure in +the Mackinaw as it scuttled up the slope through the open grove +of hard wood and pine. He could not at first see Koku, but he +knew the giant was headed for the fugitive, whether the latter +proved to be Andy O'Malley or not. + +Tom's gaze flashed to what lay ahead of the electric +locomotive. As it seemed to joggle back into balance, gain its +uprightness, as it were, the inventor saw the great, log-braced +bumper between the two rails at the end of the siding. With what +force would the locomotive hit that obstruction? + +Until the trailers were over the switch Tom dared not give her +the brakes. To lock the brake shoes upon the wheels might easily +throw the locomotive off the rails. But the instant he felt the +tail of the long locomotive swerve off the switch he jabbed the +compressed air lever and the wild shriek of the brake shoes +answered to his effort. + +Then the bumper was but a few yards ahead. The electric +locomotive was bound to collide with it. And under the speed at +which it had been running, now scarcely reduced by half, the +collision was apt to be a tragic happening! + +Weeks of effort might be ruined in that moment! If the crash +was serious, thousands of dollars might be lost! In truth, Tom +Swift apprehended the possibility of a disaster, the complete +results of which might put the test of his invention forward for +weeks--perhaps for months. + +Nor could he do a thing to avert the disaster. He had reversed +and set the brakes immediately after the last wheel of the +trailer was on the siding. Nothing more could he do as the great +electric locomotive bore down upon the solid timber at the far +end of this short track. + +Those few seconds, as the locked wheels slid toward the end of +the siding, were about as hard to bear as any experience the +young inventor had ever gone through. It was not so much the +peril of the accident, it was the possibility of what might +happen to the locomotive. + +Within those few moments, however, Tom considered more than the +safety of his companions and himself, and more than the peril of +wreck to his locomotive. He considered the schedule of the trains +on this division of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos and remembered all +those that might be within this sector at this time. + +If the locomotive smashed into the bumper with force enough to +wreck the structure, would some approaching train on the +westbound track not be endangered? + +The thought was parent to Tom's act before the collision +occurred. With a single swift motion he reached for the signaling +apparatus which he had established in connection with his +wireless telephone. + +Just the moment before the head of the locomotive rammed that +seemingly immovable barrier at the end of the siding there +flashed into the air from Tom's annunciator the code word agreed +upon announcing a wreck, and the number of the sector on which +the electric locomotive was then running. + +The next moment the crash occurred. + +Tom had leaped up with a shout of warning. "Hang on!" was his +cry. But when the locomotive had struck and rebounded Ned, from +far down the aisle of the locomotive, wanted to know in a very +peevish tone what he should have hung on to? + +"My elbows!" he groaned. "I've skinned 'em, and my back has got +a twist in it like the Irishman thought he had when he put on his +overalls hind-side to. What's happened?" + +"Bless my radiolite!" growled Mr. Damon. "My watch crystal is +broken all to finders, if you want to know. Bless my shock- +absorbers! you won't do this locomotive a bit of good, Tom Swift, +if you stop it so abruptly." + +"And that's the surest word you ever said" responded Tom, +hurrying to the door. "I don't know what's broken, but we're +still on the rails. The most immediate thing to learn, is the +where-abouts of the fellow who did this." + +"Who opened the switch?" cried Ned. + +"I believe it was Andy O'Malley. Come on, Ned! Koku is after +him and I don't want him to tear O'Malley apart before I get +there." + +"O'Malley has got powerful interests behind him, and it might +go hard with Koku if he injured the spy and some of these +Westerners caught him," suggested Mr. Damon. + +"They ought to thank Koku for manhandling the fellow--if he +does," said Ned. + +"As a matter of fact," replied Tom, "Koku will merely hold to +the fellow until we get there. But my giant's strength is +enormous, and he does not always know the strength of his grasp. +he might hurt the fellow. Come on," and Tom leaped from the +doorway of the electric locomotive. + +Ned leaped down the ladder after his chum. + +"Which way did they go?" he asked. + +"Across the ditch and up the hill," said Tom. "Mr. Damon!" he +called back to that eccentric man, "will you please remain there +and watch the locomotive?" + +"I certainly will. And I'm armed, too," shouted Mr. Damon. +"Don't fear for this locomotive, Tom. I am right on the job." + +Tom waved his hand in reply, leaped the ditch, and started up +through the wood. Ned was close behind him, and the two young men +ran as hard as they could in the direction Tom had seen Andy +O'Malley, followed by the giant, running. + +In places the earth was slippery with pine needles, and the +ground was elsewhere rough. Therefore the chums did not make much +speed in running after the giant and his quarry. But Tom was sure +of the direction in which the two had disappeared, and he and Ned +kept doggedly on. + +They went over the crest of the hill and lost sight of the +siding and the locomotive. Here was a sharp descent into a gulch, +and some rods away, in the bottom of this gully, the young +fellows obtained their first sight of Koku. He was still running +with mighty strides and was evidently within sight of the man he +had set out after in such haste. + +"Hey! Koku!" shouted Tom Swift. + +The giant's hearing was of the keenest. He glanced back and +raised his arm in greeting. But he did not slacken his pace. + +"He must see O'Malley, Tom," cried Ned Newton. + +"I am sure he does. And I want to get there about as soon as +Koku grabs the fellow," panted Tom. + +"He'll maul O'Malley unmercifully," said Ned. + +"I don't want Koku to injure him," admitted Tom, and he +increased his own stride as he plunged down into the gully. + +The young inventor distanced his chum within the next few +moments. Tom ran like a deer. He reached the bottom of the gully +and kept on after Koku's crashing footsteps. At every jump, too, +he began to shout to the giant: + +"Koku! Hold him!" + +The giant's voice boomed back through the heavy timber: "I +catch him! I hold him for Master! I break all um bones! Wait till +Koku catch him!" + +"Hold him, Koku!" yelled Tom again. "Be careful and don't hurt +him till I get there!" + +He could not see what the giant was doing. The timber was +thicker down here. It might be that the giant would seize the man +roughly. His zeal in Tom's cause was great, and, of course, his +strength was enormous. + +Yet Tom did not want to call the giant off the trail. Andy +O'Malley must be captured at this time. He had done enough, too +much, indeed, in attempting the ruin of Tom's plans. Before the +matter went any further the young inventor was determined that +Montagne Lewis' spy should be put where he would be able to do no +more harm. + +But he did not want the man permanently injured. He knew now +that Koku was so wildly excited that he might set upon O'Malley +as he would upon an enemy in his own country. + +"Koku! Stop! Wait for me!" Tom finally shouted. + +Now the young inventor got no reply from the giant. Had the +latter got so far ahead that he no longer heard his master's +command? + +Tom pounded on, working his legs like pistons, putting every +last ounce of energy he possessed into his effort. This was +indeed a desperate chase. + + + +Chapter XXIII + +Mr. Damon at Bay + + +Mr. Wakefield Damon was a very odd and erratic gentleman, but +he did not lack courage. He was much more disturbed by the +possible injury to Tom Swift's invention by this collision with +the bumper at the end of the timber siding than he had been by +his own danger at the time of the accident. + +He did not understand enough about the devices Tom had built in +the forward end of the locomotive cab to understand, by any +casual examination, if they were at all injured. But when he +climbed down beside the track he saw at once that the forward end +of the locomotive had received more than a little injury. + +The pilot, or cow-catcher, looked more like an iron cobweb than +it did like anything else. The wheels of the forward trucks had +not left the track, but the impact of the heavy locomotive with +the bumper had been so great that the latter was torn from its +foundations. A little more and the electric locomotive would have +shot off the end of the rails into the ditch. + +While Mr. Damon was examining the front of the locomotive, and +Tom and Ned remained absent, he suddenly observed a group of men +hurrying out of the forest on the other side of the H. & P. A. +right of way. They were not railroad men--at least, they were not +dressed in uniform--but they were drawn immediately to the +locomotive. + +The leader of the party was a squarely built man with a +determined countenance and a heavy mustache much blacker than his +iron gray hair. He was a bullying looking man, and he strode +around the rear of the locomotive and came forward just as though +he was confident of boarding the machine by right. + +Mr. Damon, knowing himself in the wilderness and not liking the +appearance of this group of strangers, had retired at once to the +cab, and now stood in the doorway. + +"Where's that young fool Swift?" growled the man with the dyed +mustache, looking up at Mr. Damon and laying one hand upon the +rail beside the ladder. + +"Don't know any such person," declared Mr. Damon promptly. + +"You don't know Tom Swift?" cried the man. + +"Oh! That's another matter," said Mr. Damon coolly. "I don't +know any fool named Swift, either young or old. Bless my +blinkers! I should say not." + +"Isn't he here?" demanded the man, gruffly. + +"Tom Swift isn't here just now--no." + +"I'm coming up," announced the stranger, and started to put his +foot on the first rung of the iron ladder. + +"You're not," said Mr. Damon, promptly. + +"What's that?" ejaculated the man. + +"You only think you are coming up here. But you are not. Bless +my fortune telling cards!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I should say +not." + +At this point the black-mustached man began to splutter words +and threats so fast that nobody could quite understand him. Mr. +Damon, however, did not shrink in the least. He stood adamant in +the doorway of the cab. + +Finding little relief in bad language, the enemy made another +attempt to climb up. For one thing, he was physically brave. He +did not call on his companions to go where he feared to. + +"I'll show you!" he bawled, and scrambled up the rungs of the +ladder. + +Mr. Damon did show him. He drew from some pocket a black object +with a bulb and a long barrel. Somebody below on the cinder path +shouted: + +"Look out, boss lie's got a gun!" + +At that moment the marauder reached out to seize Mr. Damon's +coat. Then the object in Mr. Damon's hand spat a fine spray into +the florid face of the enemy! + +"Whoo! Achoo! By gosh!" bawled the big man, and he fell back +screaming other ejaculations. + +"Bless my face and eyes!" cried Mr. Damon. "What did I tell +you? And you other fellows want to notice it. Tom Swift isn't +here just at this precise moment; but he is guarding his +locomotive just the same. He invented this ammonia pistol, and I +should say it was effectual. Do you?" + +The eccentric man was shrewd enough now to keep behind the jamb +of the cab door. For some of these fellows, he realized, might be +armed with more deadly weapons than his own. + +"Hey, Mr. Lewis!" cried one big fellow, "d'you want we should +get that fellow for you?" + +"I want to know how badly that blamed thing is smashed," +replied the big man with the dyed mustache savagely. "Where's +O'Malley?" + +"O'Malley's lit out, Boss, like I told you. That giant and them +other fellows is after him." + +"Break into that cab! Oh! My eyes! I'll kill that old fool! +Break a way in there--What's that?" + +In pain as he was, his other senses were alert. He was first to +hear the screeching whistle of the on-coming freight. + +"Think they got wind of this so quick?" demanded Montagne +Lewis, for it was he. "Are they sending help from Cliff City?" + +"It's a regular freight," returned one of his men. + +"She's comm' a-whizzin'," added another. "Right down the +eastbound track. If the crew see us--" + +"Wait!" commanded Lewis. "Isn't that switch open?" + +"You bet it is, Boss." + +"Let it be, then," cried the chief plotter. "Let 'em run into +it. That freight will smash up this electric locomotive more +completely than we could possibly do it. Stand away, men, and let +her go!" + +A sharp curve in the right of way hid the siding, as well as +the open switch into it, from the gaze of the engineer who held +the throttle of the coming freight. His locomotive drew a string +of empties, eastbound, and having had a heavy pull of it coming +up the grade to Cliff City, as soon as he had got the highball +from the yardmaster there, he had "let her out," and was now +coming to the head of the down grade to Hammon at high speed. + +As it chanced, the wireless receiving station of Tom's new +telephone system was not yet completed at Cliff City. The news of +the wreck of the Hercules 0001 and her position had not been +relayed to the master of the Cliff City yards. + +That employee of the H. & P. A. had taken a chance in letting +the string of empties through his block. He knew the electric +locomotive was somewhere ahead, but he thought it would be making +its usual time and would have already passed Half Way. + +But the situation was serious. The freight was coming along at +top speed and the switch into the siding was still open. Montagne +Lewis and his crew of ruffians might well stand back and let what +seemed sure to happen, happen! The driving freight must do more +harm to Tom Swift's invention than they could have hoped to do +with the sledges and bars they had brought with them to the spot. + +Mr. Wakefield Damon had shown his courage already. He would +have been glad to do more to save Tom's locomotive from further +injury, but he did not realize what was threatening. He did not +hear the shriek of the freight engine's whistle. + + + +Chapter XXIV + +Putting the Enemy to Flight + + +The pilot and headlight of the freight locomotive came around +the turn and the freight thundered on toward the switch. Seeing +the group of men standing by the stalled electric locomotive, and +the locomotive itself in the clear of the siding, the driver of +the freight did not suppose the switch was open. Nobody who was +not a criminal would have stood by idly in such an emergency and +let the freight run into an open switch. + +Therefore, for the first minute, the coming engineer did not +observe his danger. Lewis and his gang stared at the head of the +freight and did nothing. They had moved hastily back from the +siding so as to be clear of the wreckage. Mr. Damon was in the +front of the cab of Hercules 0001 and had no idea of the +approaching menace. + +But of a sudden a loud shout echoed through the wood. Tom Swift +came over the ridge and started toward his invention at top +speed. From that height he saw the freight train coming, he +observed the men standing at the siding, and he recognized +Montagne Lewis, roughly as the railroad magnate was dressed. + +Instantly Tom realized what was about to happen--what would +surely occur--and he saw what must be done if the utter wreck of +his locomotive was to be averted. Yelling at the top of his +voice, he leaped down the slope. + +"That's Swift!" shouted Lewis. "Stop him!" But the men he had +hired to do his wicked work fell back instead of trying to halt +the young inventor. It was not Tom's appearance that made them +quail. Over the ridge there appeared a second figure--and a more +fearful or threatening apparition none of them had ever before +seen! + +Koku came running with the limp body of Andy O'Malley slung +over his shoulder like a bag of meal. The fellows knew it was +Andy from his dress. + +The giant came down the slope after Tom as though he wore the +seven-league boots. The fellows Lewis had hired to wreck the +electric locomotive shrank back from before both Tom and the +giant. + +"Get him!" yelled the half blinded Lewis again. + +"Get your grandmother!" bawled one of the men suddenly. "Good- +night!" + +He turned tail and ran, disappearing almost instantly into the +thicker woods. And his mates, after a moment of wavering, sped +after him. Lewis was left alone, quite helpless because of the +ammonia fumes. + +As a matter of fact not all of O'Malley's predicament was due +to Koku. The rascal, exhausted by his run and half blind through +fright and rage, had stumbled, fallen, and struck his head on a +root, which rendered him unconscious. + +This, of course, Lewis and his ruffians did not know. All the +men of the railroad president's gang saw was the gigantic Koku +coming along in great strides, bearing the unconscious O'Malley, +who was a burly fellow, as though he were a featherweight. No +wonder they fled from such a monster. + +Tom had reached the switch, and he was several seconds ahead of +the freight locomotive. The engineer saw the open switch then; +but he was too late to stop his train. + +Going into reverse, however, helped some. Tom seized the switch +lever and threw it over, locking it in place, just as the forward +trucks thundered upon the joint. The train swept by in safety, +and the engineer leaned from his cab window to wave a grateful +hand at the young inventor. + +Neither the engineer nor the crew of the freight understood the +meaning of the scene at the timber siding. All they learned was +that Tom Swift had saved the freight from a possible wreck. + +The young inventor turned sharply from the switch and motioned +with his hand to Koku. + +"Throw that fellow into the cab, Koku," he commanded. + +The giant did as he was told, just as Ned Newton came panting +to the spot. + +"Did they do any harm, Tom?" he cried. Then he saw Montagne +Lewis standing by, and he seized his chum's arm. "Do you see what +I see, Tom?" he demanded, earnestly. + +"I guess we both see the same snake," rejoined his chum. "And +I mean to scotch it." + +"Montagne Lewis!" murmured Ned. "And we've got his chief tool." + +Tom said nothing to his chum, hut he approached Lewis with +determined mien. + +"I can see something has happened to you, Mr. Lewis, and I can +guess what it is. The effect of that ammonia will blow away after +a time. Ask your friend, Andy O'Malley. He knows all about it, +for he sampled it back East, in Shopton." + +"I'm going to get square for this, young man," growled the +railroad magnate. "You know who I am. And that fellow in the cab +knew me, too. How dared he shoot that stuff into my face and +eyes?" + +"I fancy it didn't take much daring on Mr. Damon's part," and +Tom actually chuckled. "A big crook isn't any more important in +our eyes than a little crook. We've got your henchman, +O'Malley--" + +"And you'd better let him go. I'm telling you," snarled Lewis. +"I'll ruin you in this country, Tom Swift. I've got influence--" + +"You won't have much after this thing comes out. And believe +me, I mean to spread it abroad. I've got nothing to win or lose +from you, Mr. Lewis. As for O'Malley, I'll put him behind the +bars for a good long term." + +"You'll do a lot--" + +"More than you think," said Tom. "Koku!" The giant had pitched +O'Malley, who was still senseless, into the cab, and now was +coming up behind Lewis. + +"Yes, Master," said the giant. + +"Get him!" + +"Yes, Master," said Koku, and to Lewis' startled amazement, the +next instant he was in the hands of the giant! + +He screamed and threatened, and even kicked, to no avail. When +he was pitched into the electric locomotive he was held under the +threat of Mr. Damon's ammonia pistol until Tom and Ned and the +giant entered and the door was shut. Then Koku proceeded to tie +both the prisoners by wrist and ankle while the others examined +the mechanism of the Hercules 0001. + +The pantagraph had been torn off the trolley wires when the +locomotive had gone on the siding. But now Tom climbed to the +roof of the locomotive, and with Koku's aid managed to set the +rear pantagraph at such an angle that its wheels caught the +trolley cables again, and once more the current was pumped into +the Hercules 0001. + +Tom tried out the several parts of the mechanism and found +that, despite the jar of the collision, nothing was really +injured. + +"I built this thing to withstand hard usage," he declared with +pride. "The Swift Hercules Electric Locomotives will not be built +for parlor ornaments. She is going to run into Hendrickton under +her own power, in spite of a smashed cows catcher and target +lights." + +"Is nothing really injured, Tom?" asked Mr, Damon. "Bless my +dinner set! I thought everything had gone to smash when she hit +that bumper." + +"She will be as good as new in a week," declared Tom, with +conviction. + +This prophecy of the young inventor proved to be true. A week +from that day the public test of the electric locomotive on the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad was held. A picked delegation of +railroad men was present to observe and marvel, with Mr. +Bartholomew; but Montagne Lewis, the president of the H. & W., +was not one of those who attended. + +Of course, Lewis soon got out of jail on bail. But the +accusation against him was a serious one. His guilt would be +proved by his own employee, Andy O'Malley, who was in a hospital +for the time being. + +O'Malley had got enough. He had turned State's evidence and +implicated his employer. Influential and wealthy as Lewis was, +he could not escape trial with O'Malley when the time came. + +"One thing sure, Lewis has got all he wants. He isn't likely to +try any more crooked work against the H. & P. A.," Mr. +Bartholomew said. "I can thank you for that, Torn. Swift, as well +as for your invention. You have saved the day for my railroad." + +"You can thank Koku," chuckled Tom. "If he hadn't spied and +identified 'Big Feet,' we might not have caught O'Malley, and, +through O'Malley, implicated Montagne Lewis. You give Koku a new +suit of clothes, Mr. Bartholomew, and we will call it square. But +be sure and have the pattern of the goods loud enough." + +This conversation took place while the party of guests was +gathering to board Mr. Bartholomew's private car, attached to the +Hercules 0001. Mr. Damon was one of the guests and so was Ned +Newton. Tom took into the cab a crew of H. & P. A. men who would +hereafter drive the huge locomotive and take care of her. + +The semaphore signal dropped and the electric locomotive +started as quietly as a baby going to sleep! There was not a jar +as the train moved off the siding and over the switches to the +main line. + +The dispatcher had arranged a clear road for them. Tom knew +that he had a free track ahead of him--a level of ninety-odd +miles to the Hammon yards. As he passed the Hendrickton shops he +touched the siren lever for a moment, and the shrill voice of the +Hercules 0001 bade the town good-bye. + +The next minute the visitors in the private car grabbed out +their split-second watches and began to murmur. The electric +locomotive had begun to travel! + + + +Chapter XXV + +Speed and Success + + +"What town is that?" + +"Looks like a splotch of paint on a board fence, we went by so +quick." + +"I've lost count, Bartholomew. Where are we?" + +Ned Newton listened to these comments from the visiting +railroad men with delight. In reply to a question of his +neighbor, the grinning financial manager of the Swift +Construction Company paid: + +"No, sir. That isn't a picket fence. It's the telegraph poles +you see, and they are no nearer together than on another +railroad. But we're going some." + +"Bless my railroad stock!" shouted Mr. Damon, "I should say we +were." + +The electric, locomotive and the private car were hurled toward +the Pas Alos Range at a speed that almost frightened some of the +guests. + +"Three-quarters of an hour!" gasped one man as they began to +see the outskirts of Hammon. "And ninety-six miles? Great Scott, +Bartholomew! that's over two miles a minute!" + +"That is the speed we set out to get," Mr. Richard Bartholomew +said, with quite as much pride as though he had done it all +himself. + +But it had been his suggestion and his money that had +accomplished this wonder. Tom Swift was willing to give the +railroad president his share of the fame. + +The train scarcely slackened speed at Hammon, for Tom got the +signal announcing a clear track ahead, and he bucked the grade +with all the power he could get from the feed wires. This hill, +so well known to him now, was surmounted at a slightly decreased +speed; but it was a wonderful display of power after all. + +They went down the other side to Panboro and there linked up +with an eastbound freight that the Hercules 0001 snatched over +the mountain to Hammon at a pace slightly exceeding forty-five +miles an hour--at least twice the speed that any two oil-burning +locomotives could attain. As for the Jandels, they were not in +the same class at all with Tom Swift's locomotive! + +"Bless my speedometer!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, when the train +pulled down and stopped again at the Hendrickton terminal. "This +is the greatest test of speed and power I ever heard of. Why, a +coal burner or an oil burner isn't in it with this Hercules +locomotive! What do you say, Mr. Bartholomew?" + +"I'll say I am satisfied--completely and thoroughly satisfied, +Mr. Damon," said the president of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +Railroad frankly. "Mr. Swift has fulfilled his contract in every +particular." + +An hour later the young inventor and his two friends were in +conference with Mr. Bartholomew over a new contract. The bonus of +a hundred thousand dollars would be paid at once to the Swift +Construction Company. But as the elder Swift's name would be +needed on the new contract for the building of other Hercules +locomotives, Tom had an idea. + +"We won't send the papers East for father to sign," he said. "I +want him to see the locomotive in real action. And I know where +he can borrow a private car and come out here in comfort. Rad can +come with him." + +"Bless my valentines!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I bet somebody +else will come too." + +Mr. Damon must have been a prophet, for a fortnight later, when +the borrowed car got in to the Hendrickton terminal at the tail +of the transcontinental flyer, Tom Swift saw first of all Mary +Nestor's rosy face on the platform of the car. + +"Tom! are you all right?" she cried, beaming down upon the +young inventor. + +"No. Half of me is left," he said, grinning up at her. "You +look great, Mary!" + +"Do you think so?" she cried, dimpling. "Well, if anybody +should ask you, Mr. Tom Swift, you look very good to me." + +"Don't make me swell all up, Mary," he laughed. "How's father?" + +"Splendid! And Rad--" + +"Eradicate Sampson is sho' 'nough puffectly all right," broke +in the voice of the old colored man, eager to make himself heard +and seen. "Here I is, Massa Tom. What dat lizard doin' here? +Ain't he a sight?" + +The old man had caught sight of Koku in the wonderful new suit +Mr. Bartholomew had ordered made for the giant. A Navajo blanket +had nothing on that suit for a mixture of colors, and Koku +strutted like a turkey-gobbler. + +"My lawsy!" gasped Rad again, "he's as purty as a sunset. Is +dat de way de tailors out here build a man up? Sure's yo live, +Massa Tom, I needs a new suit of clo'es myself." + +And before he got away from Hendrickton, Rad Sampson sported a +suit off the same piece of goods as that of Koku's. Otherwise +there might have been a lasting feud between the giant and the +Swift's ancient serving man. + +Mr. Barton Swift had stood the easy journey in the private car +very well. Before he would sign the contract that Mr. Bartholomew +offered, he wished to see for himself just how good his son's +invention was. + +They made another test from Hendrickton to Panboro, over the +"official route," as Ned called it. The time made by Hercules +0001 was even a little better than before. + +That the invention was well nigh perfect, and that it could do +even more than Mr. Bartholomew had hoped or Tom had claimed, was +Mr. Swift's conviction. + +"Tom," he said to his son, "you have done a wonderful thing. +Not only have you completed a marvelous invention and gained +thereby a lot of money, and more in prospect, but you have aided +in the world's progress to no small degree. + +"Speed in transportation is the big problem before the world of +commerce today. To move goods from point to point safely and +cheaply, as well as rapidly, is the great task of this age. We +are entering the Age of Speed. The railroads must solve the +problem to compete with motor-truck traffic and fast boats on the +lakes and rivers of our land. + +"You have, by your invention, shoved the clock of progress +forward. I am proud of you, my boy. I know now that, no matter +what may happen to me, you will make an enviable mark in the +world of invention. + +"You have done much before for the Government in time of +stress. But war engines of any kind are not worthy examples of +inventive genius beside such a thing as this. + +"It is the inventions of peace, rather than those of war, that +stand for human progress." + +Coming back over the mountain, Mary Nestor rode in the cab with +Tom. She sat on the swivel stool, in fact, and handled the +controls for part of the way. But she gave up the driver's place +to Tom before they reached the timber siding east of Cliff City. + +"I cannot go by that place without a shudder," Mary said to the +inventor. "Ned and Mr. Damon told me all about that accident. +Suppose you had been killed, Tom!" + +"I see I'll have to build an invention that will make that +impossible," chuckled the young fellow. "Make what impossible?" + +"Some invention that will make it positively certain that no +matter what I do or where I go, nothing can harm me. Nothing else +will suit you, Mary, I plainly see." + +"Well," returned the girl, smiling fondly at him. "I admit that +would satisfy me completely!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext: Tom Swift And His Electric Locomotive + + + + + +This Isn't ALL! + + +Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have +made in this book? + +Would you like to read other stories continuing their +adventures and experiences, or other books quite as entertaining +by the same author? + +On the reverse side of the wrapper which comes with this book, +you will find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at +the same store where you got this book. + + +Don't throw away the Wrapper + +Use it as a handy catalog of the books you want some day to have. +But in case you do mislay it, write to the Publishers for a +complete catalog. + + +THE TOM SWIFT SERIES +By VICTOR APPLETON + +Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers. + Every Volume Complete in Itself. +Every boy possesses some form of inventive genius. Tom Swift is +a bright, ingenious boy and his inventions and adventures make +the most interesting kind of reading. + +TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE +TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP +TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE +TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS +TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE +TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE +TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER +TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON +TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP +TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL +TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS +TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT +TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH +TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS +TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE +TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING BOAT +TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT OIL GUSHER +TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHEST OF SECRETS +TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRLINE EXPRESS + + + + +THE DON STURDY SERIES +By VICTOR APPLETON + +Individual Colored Wrappers and Text illustrations by +WALTER S. ROGERS + +Every Volume Complete in Itself + +In company with his uncles, one a mighty hunter and the other a +noted scientist, Don Sturdy travels far and wide, gaining much +useful knowledge and meeting many thrilling adventures. + +DON STURDY ON THE DESERT OF MYSTERY; +Or, Autoing in the Land of the Caravans. + +An engrossing tale of the Sahara Desert, of encounters with +wild animals and crafty Arabs. + +DON STURDY WITH THE BIG SNAKE HUNTERS; +Or, Lost in the Jungles of the Amazon. + +Don's uncle, the hunter, took an order for some of the biggest +snakes to be found in South America--to be delivered alive! The +filling of that order brought keen excitement to the boy. + +DON STURDY IN THE TOMBS OF GOLD; +Or, The Old Egyptian's Great Secret. + +A fascinating tale of exploration and adventure in the Valley +of Kings in Egypt. Once the whole party became lost in the maze +of cavelike tombs far underground. + +DON STURDY ACROSS THE NORTH POLE; +Or, Cast Away in the Land of Ice. + +Don and his uncles joined an expedition bound by air across the +north pole. A great polar blizzard nearly wrecks the airship. + +DON STURDY IN THE LAND OF VOLCANOES; +Or, The Trail of the Ten Thousand Smokes. + +An absorbing tale of adventures among the volcanoes of Alaska +in a territory but recently explored. A story that will make Don +dearer to his readers than ever. + + + + +THE RADIO BOYS SERIES +(Trademark Registered) +By ALLEN CHAPMAN + +Author of the "Railroad Series," Etc. +Individual Colored Wrappers. Illustrated. +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + +A new series for boys giving full details of radio work, both +in sending and receiving--telling how small and large amateur +sets can be made and operated, and how some boys got a lot of fun +and adventure out of what they did. Each volume from first to +last is so thoroughly fascinating, so strictly up-to-date and +accurate, we feel sure all lads will peruse them with great +delight. + +Each volume has a Foreword by Jack Binns, the well-known radio +expert. + +THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS; +Or, Winning the Ferberton Prize. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT; +Or, The Messsage That Saved the Ship. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT THE SENDING STATION; +Or, Making Good in the Wireless Room. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS; +Or, The Midnight Call for Assistance. + +THE RADIO BOYS TRAILING A VOICE; +Or, Solving a Wireless Mystery. + +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE FOREST RANGERS; +Or, The Great Fire on Spruce Mountain. + +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE ICEBERG PATROL; +Or, Making Safe the Ocean Lanes. + +RADIO BOYS WITH THE FLOOD FIGHTERS; +Or, Saving the City in the Valley. + + + +THE RAILROAD SERIES +By ALLEN CHAPMAN + +Author of the "Radio Boys," Etc. +Uniform Style of Binding. Illustrated. +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + + +In this line of books there is revealed the whole workings of a +great American railroad system. There are adventures in +abundance--railroad wrecks, dashes through forest fires, the +pursuit of a "wildcat" locomotive, the disappearance of a pay car +with a large sum of money on board--but there is much more than +this--the intense rivalry among railroads and railroad men, the +working out of running schedules, the getting through "on time" +in spite of all obstacles, and the manipulation of railroad +securities by evil men who wish to rule or ruin. + +RALPH OF THE ROUND HOUSE; +Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man. + +RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER; +Or, Clearing the Track. + +RALPH ON THE ENGINE; +Or, The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail. + +RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS; +Or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer. + +RALPH, THE TRAIN DISPATCHER; +Or, the Mystery of the Pay Car. + +RALPH ON THE ARMY TRAIN; +Or, The Young Railroader's Most Daring Exploit. + +RALPH ON THE MIDNIGHT FLYER; +Or, The Wreck at Shadow Valley. + +RALPH AND THE MISSING MAIL POUCH; +Or, The Stolen Government Bonds. + + + + +THE RIDDLE CLUB BOOKS +By ALICE DALE HARDY + +Individual Colored Wrappers. Attractively Illustrated. +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + +Here is as ingenious a series of books for little folks as has +ever appeared since "Alice in Wonderland." The idea of the Riddle +books is a little group of children--three girls and three boys +decide to form a riddle club. Each book is full of the adventures +and doings of these six youngsters, but as an added attraction +each book is filled with a lot of the best riddles you ever +heard. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT HOME + +An absorbing tale that all boys and girls will enjoy reading. +How the members of the club fixed up a clubroom in the Larue +barn, and how they, later on, helped solve a most mysterious +happening, and how one of the members won a valuable prize, is +told in a manner to please every young reader. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB IN CAMP + +The club members went into camp on the edge of a beautiful +lake. Here they had rousing good times swimming, boating and +around the campfire. They fell in with a mysterious old man known +as The Hermit of Triangle Island. Nobody knew his real name or +where be came from until the propounding of a riddle solved these +perplexing questions. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS + +This volume takes in a great number of winter sports, including +skating and sledding and the building of a huge snowman. It also +gives the particulars of how the club treasurer lost the dues +entrusted to his care and what the melting of the great snowman +revealed. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT SUNRISE BEACH + +This volume tells how the club journeyed to the seashore and +how they not only kept up their riddles but likewise had good +times on the sand and on the water. Once they got lost in a fog +and are marooned on an island. Here they made a discovery that +greatly pleased the folks at home. + + + + +THE HONEY BUNCH BOOKS + +By HELEN LOUISE THORNDYKE +Individual Colored Wrappers and Text Illustrations Drawn by + +WALTER S. ROGERS + + +A new line of fascinating tales for little girls. Honey Bunch +is a dainty, thoughtful little girl, and to know her is to take +her to your heart at once. + +HONEY BUNCH: JUST A LITTLE GIRL + +Happy days at home, helping mamma and the washerlady. And Honey +Bunch helped the house painters too--or thought she did. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE CITY + +What wonderful sights Honey Bunch saw when she went to visit +her cousins in New York! And she got lost in a big hotel and +wandered into a men's convention! + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM + +Can you remember bow the farm looked the first time you visited +it? How big the cows and horses were, and what a roomy place to +play in the barn proved to be? + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE SEASHORE + +Honey Bunch soon got used to the big waves and thought playing +in the sand great fun. And she visited a merry-go-round. and took +part in a seaside pageant. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST LITTLE GARDEN + +It was great sport to dig and to plant with one's own little +garden tools. But best of all was when Honey Bunch won a prize at +the flower show. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS IN CAMP + +It was a great adventure for Honey Bunch when she journeyed to +Camp Snapdragon. It was wonderful to watch the men erect the +tent, and wonderful to live in it and have good times on the +shore and in the water. + + + + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES + +of the By LAURA LEE HOPE +Author "Bobbsey Twins," "Bunny Brown" Series, Etc. + +Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers. + +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + + +These tales take in the various adventures participated in by +several bright, up-to-date girls who love outdoor life. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE; +Or, Camping and Tramping for Fun and Health. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE; +Or, The Stirring Cruise of the Motor Boat Gem. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR; +Or, The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP; +Or, Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA; +Or, Wintering in the Sunny South. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW; +Or, The Box That Was Found in the Sand. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND; +Or, A Cave and What it Contained. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE; +Or, Doing Their Bit for Uncle Sam. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE; +Or, Doing Their Best For the Soldiers. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT; +Or, A Wreck and A Rescue. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE; +Or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLE; +Or, The Girl Miner of Gold Run. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AROUND THE CAMPFIRE; +Or, The Old Maid of the Mountains. + +THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON CAPE COD; +Or, Sally Ann of Lighthouse Rock. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext: Tom Swift And His Electric Locomotive + diff --git a/old/old/25tom10.zip b/old/old/25tom10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d1611ac --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/25tom10.zip diff --git a/old/old/25tom10h.htm b/old/old/25tom10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2571bb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/25tom10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7410 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> +<TITLE>The Project Gutenberg etext of Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive</TITLE> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<meta name="author" content="Victor Appleton"> +</HEAD> +<BODY> +<P> +<h2 align="center">The Project Gutenberg etext of <a href="#start">Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive</a></h2> +<h3>#25 in our series by Victor Appleton</h3> + +<PRE> +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. 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The HTML +conversion was by Greg Weeks. + +<P> +<H2>Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive</H2> + +<P> +or<BR> +Two Miles a Minute on the Rails + +<P> +by Victor Appleton + +<P> +<H3>Contents</H3> +<P> +<A HREF="#I">I A Tempting Offer</A><BR> +<A HREF="#II">II Trouble Starts</A><BR> +<A HREF="#III">III Tom Swift's Friends</A><BR> +<A HREF="#IV">IV Much To Think About</A><BR> +<A HREF="#V">V Barbed Wire Entanglements</A><BR> +<A HREF="#VI">VI The Contract Signed</A><BR> +<A HREF="#VII">VII The Man With Big Feet</A><BR> +<A HREF="#VIII">VIII An Enemy In The Dark</A><BR> +<A HREF="#IX">IX Where Was Koku?</A><BR> +<A HREF="#X">X A Strange Conversation</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XI">XI Touch And Go</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XII">XII The Try-Out Day Arrives</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XIII">XIII Hopes And Fears</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XIV">XIV Speed</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XV">XV The Enemy Still Active</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XVI">XVI Off For The West</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XVII">XVII The Wreck Of Forty-Eight</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XVIII">XVIII On The Hendrickton & Pas Alos</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XIX">XIX Peril, The Mother Of Invention</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XX">XX The Result</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XXI">XXI The Open Switch</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XXII">XXII A Desperate Chase</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XXIII">XXIII Mr. Damon At Bat</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XXIV">XXIV Putting The Enemy To Flight</A><BR> +<A HREF="#XXV">XXV Speed And Success</A> + + +<P> +<A NAME="I"></A> +<H3>Chapter I A Tempting Offer</H3> + + +<P> +"An electric locomotive that can make two miles a minute over a +properly ballasted roadbed might not be an impossibility," said +Mr. Barton Swift ruminatively. "It is one of those things that +are coming," and he flashed his son, Tom Swift, a knowing smile. +It had been a topic of conversation between them before the +visitor from the West had been seated before the library fire and +had sampled one of the elder Swift's good cigars. + +<P> +"It is not only a future possibility," said the latter +gentleman, shrugging his shoulders. "As far as the Hendrickton +and Pas Alos Railroad Company goes, a two mile a minute gait--not +alone on a level track but through the Pas Alos Range--is an +immediate necessity. It's got to be done now, or our stock will +be selling on the curb for about two cents a share." + +<P> +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom +Swift earnestly, and staring at the big-little man before the +fire. + +<P> +Mr. Richard Bartholomew was just that--a "big-little man." In +the railroad world, both in construction and management, he had +made an enviable name for himself. + +<P> +He had actually built up the Hendrickton and Pas Alos from a +narrow-gauge, "jerkwater" road into a part of a great cross-continent +system that tapped a wonderfully rich territory on both sides of the +Pas Alos Range. + +<P> +For some years the H. & P. A. had a monopoly of that territory. +Now, as Mr. Bartholomew intimated, it was threatened with such +rivalry from another railroad and other capitalists, that the +H. & P. A. was being looked upon in the financial market as a +shaky investment. + +<P> +But Tom Swift repeated: + +<P> +"You do not mean just that, do you, Mr. Bartholomew?" + +<P> +Mr. Bartholomew, who was a little man physically, rolled around +in his chair to face the young fellow more directly. His own eyes +sparkled in the firelight. His olive face was flushed. + +<P> +"That is much nearer the truth, young man," he said, somewhat +harshly because of his suppressed emotion, "than I want people at +large to suspect. As I have told your father, I came here to put +all my cards on the table; but I expect the Swift Construction +Company to take anything I may say as said in confidence." + +<P> +"We quite understand that, Mr. Bartholomew," said the elder +Swift, softly. "You can speak freely. Whether we do business or +not, these walls are soundproof, and Tom and I can forget, or +remember, as we wish. Of course if we take up any work for you, +we must confide to a certain extent in our close associates and +trusted mechanics." + +<P> +"Humph!" grunted the visitor, turning restlessly again in his +chair. Then he said: "I agree as the necessity of that last +statement; but I can only hope that these walls are soundproof." + +<P> +"What's that?" demanded Tom, rather sharply. He was a bright +looking young fellow with an alert air and a rather humorous +smile. His father was a semi-invalid; but Tom possessed all the +mental vigor and muscular energy that a young man should have. He +had not neglected his Athletic development while he made the best +use of his mental powers. + +<P> +"Believe me," said the visitor, quite as harshly as before, "I +begin to doubt the solidity of all walls. I know that I have been +watched, and spied upon, and that eavesdroppers have played hob +with our affairs." + +<P> +"Of late, there has been little planned in the directors' room +of the H. & P. A. that has not seeped out and aided the enemy in +foreseeing our moves." + +<P> +"The enemy?" repeated Mr. Swift, with mild surprise. + +<P> +"That's it exactly! The enemy!" replied Mr. Bartholomew +shortly. "The H. & P. A. has got the fight of its life on its +hands. We had a hard enough time fighting nature and the elements +when we laid the first iron for the road a score of years ago. +Now I am facing a fight that must grow fiercer and fiercer as +time goes on until either the H. & P. A. smashes the opposition, +or the enemy smashes it." + +<P> +"What enemy is this you speak of?" asked Tom, much interested. + +<P> +"The proposed Hendrickton & Western. A new road, backed by new +capital, and to be officered and built by new men in the +construction and railroad game." + +<P> +"Montagne Lewis--you've heard of him, I presume--is at the head +of the crowd that have bought the little old Hendrickton & +Western, lock, stock and barrel." + +<P> +"They have franchises for extending the road. In the old days +the legislatures granted blanket franchises that allowed any +group of moneyed men to engage in any kind of business as side +issues to railroading. Montagne Lewis and his +crowd have got a 'plenty-big' franchise." + +<P> +"They have begun laying iron. It parallels, to a certain +extent, our own line. Their surveyors were smarter than the men +who laid out the H. & P. A. I admit it. Besides, the country out +there is developed more than it was a score of years ago when I +took hold." + +<P> +"All this enters into the fight between Montagne Lewis and me. +But there is something deeper," said the little man, with almost +a snarl, as he thrashed about again in his chair. "I beat +Montagne Lewis at one big game years ago. He is a man who never +forgets--and who never hesitates to play dirty politics if he has +to, to bring about his own ends." + +<P> +"I know that I have been watched. I know that I was followed on +this trip East. He has private detectives on my track +continually. And worse. All the gunmen of the old and wilder West +are not dead. There's a fellow named Andy O'Malley--well, never +mind him. The game at present is to keep anybody in Lewis's +employ from getting wise to why I came to see you." + +<P> +"What you say is interesting," Mr. Swift here broke in quietly. +"But I have already been puzzled by what you first said. Just why +have you come to us--to Tom and me--in reference to your railroad +difficulties?" + +<P> +"And this suggestion you have made," added Tom, "about a +possible electric locomotive of a faster type than has, ever yet +been put on the rails?" + +<P> +"That is it, exactly," replied Bartholomew, sitting suddenly +upright in his chair. "We want faster electric motor power than +has ever yet been invented. We have got to have it, or the +H. & P. A. might as well be scrapped and the whole territory out +there handed over to Montagne Lewis and his H. & W. That is the +sum total of the matter, gentlemen. If the Swift Construction +Company cannot help us, my railroad is going to be junk in about +three years from this beautiful evening." + +<P> +His emphasis could not fail to impress both the elder and the +younger Swift. They looked at each other, and the interest +displayed upon the father's countenance was reflected upon the +features of the son. + +<P> +If there was anything Tom Swift liked it was a good fight. The +clash of diverse interests was the breath of life to the young +fellow. And for some years now, always connected in some way +with the development of his inventive genius, he had been +entangled in battles both of wits and physical powers. Here was +the suggestion of something that would entail a struggle of both +brain and brawn. + +<P> +"Sounds good," muttered Tom, gazing at the railroad magnate +with considerable admiration. + +<P> +"Let us hear all about it," Mr. Swift said to Bartholomew. +"Whether we can help you or not, we're interested." + +<P> +"All right," replied the visitor again. "Whether I was followed +East, and here to Shopton, or not doesn't much matter. I will put +my proposition up to you, and then I'll ask, if you don't want to +go into it, that you keep the business absolutely secret. I have +got to put something over on Montagne Lewis and his crowd, or +throw up the sponge. That's that!" + +<P> +"Go ahead, Mr. Bartholomew," observed Tom's father, +encouragingly. + +<P> +"To begin with, four hundred miles of our road is already +electrified. We have big power stations and supply heat and light +and power to several of the small cities tapped by the H. & P. A. +It is a paying proposition as it stands. But it is only paying +because we carry the freight traffic--all the freight traffic--of +that region." + +<P> +"If the H. & W. breaks in on our monopoly of that, we shall +soon be so cut down that our invested capital will not earn two +per cent--No, by glory! not one-and-a-half per cent--and our +stock will be dished. But I have worked out a scheme, Gentlemen, +by which we can counter-balance any dig Lewis can give us in the +ribs." + +<P> +"If we can extend our electrified line into and through the Pas +Alos Range our freight traffic can be handled so cheaply and so +effectively that nothing the Hendrickton & Western can do for +years to come will hurt us. Get that?" + +<P> +"I get your statement, Mr. Bartholomew," said Mr. Swift. "But +it is merely a statement as yet." + +<P> +"Sure. Now I will give you the particulars. We are using the +Jandel locomotives on our electrified stretch of road. You know +that patent?" + +<P> +"I know something about it, Mr. Bartholomew," said the younger +inventor. "I have felt some interest in the electric locomotive, +though I have done nothing practical in the matter. But I know +the Jandel patent." + +<P> +"It is about the best there is--and the most recent; but it +does not fill the bill. Not for the H. & P. A., anyway," said Mr. +Bartholomew, shortly. + +<P> +"What does it lack?" asked Mr. Swift. + +<P> +"Speed. It's got the power for heavy hauls. It could handle the +freight through the Pas Alos Range. But it would slow up our +traffic so that the shippers would at once turn to the +Hendrickton & Western. You understand that their rails do not +begin to engage the grades that our engineers thought necessary +when the old H. & P. A. was built." + +<P> +"I get that," said Tom briskly. "You have come here, then, to +interest us in the development of a faster but quite as powerful +type of electric locomotive as the Jandel." + +<P> +"Stated to the line!" exclaimed Mr. Bartholomew, smiting the +arm of his chair with his clenched fist. "That is it, young man. +You get me exactly. And now I will go on to put my proposition to +you." + +<P> +"Do so, Mr. Bartholomew," murmured the old inventor, quite as +much interested as his son. + +<P> +"I want you to make a study of electric motive power as applied +to track locomotives, with the idea of utilizing our power plants +and others like them, and even with the possibility in mind of +the continued use of the Jandel locomotives on our more level +stretches of road." + +<P> +"But I want your investigation to result in the building of +locomotives that will make a speed of two miles a minute, or as +near that as possible, on level rails, and be powerful enough to +snake our heavy freight trains through the hills and over the +steep grades so rapidly that even two engines, a pusher and a +hauler, cannot beat the electric power." + +<P> +"Some job, that, I'll say," murmured Tom Swift. + +<P> +"Exactly. Some job. And it is the only thing that will save the +H. & P. A.," said Mr. Bartholomew decidedly. "I put it up to you +Swifts. I have heard of some of your marvelous inventions. Here +is something that is already invented. But it needs development." + +<P> +"I see," said Mr. Swift, and nodded. + +<P> +"It interests me," admitted Tom. "As I say, I have given some +thought to the electric locomotive." + +<P> +"This is the age of speed," said Mr. Bartholomew earnestly. +"Rapidity in handling freight and kindred things will be the +salvation, and the only salvation, of many railroads. Tapping a +rich territory is not enough. The road that can offer the +quickest and cheapest service is the road that is going to keep +out of a receivership. Believe me, I know!" + +<P> +"You should," said Mr. Swift mildly. "Your experience should +have taught you a great deal about the railroad business." + +<P> +"It has. But that knowledge is worth just nothing at all +without swift power and cheap traffic. Those are the problems +to-day. Now, I am going to take a chance. If it doesn't work, my +road is dished in any case. So I feel that the desperate chance +is the only chance." + +<P> +"What is that?" asked Tom Swift, sitting forward in his chair. +"I, for one, feel so much interested that I will do anything in +reason to find the answer to your traffic problem." + +<P> +"That's the boy!" ejaculated Richard Bartholomew. "I will give +it to you in a few words. If you will experiment with the +electric locomotive idea, to develop speed and power over and +above the Jandel patent, and will give me the first call on the +use of any patents you may contrive, I will put up twenty-five +thousand dollars in cash which shall be yours whether I can make +use of a thing you invent or not." + +<P> +"Any time limit in this agreement, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom, +making a few notes on a scratch pad before him on the library +table. + +<P> +"What do you say to three months?" + +<P> +"Make it six, if you can," Tom said with continued briskness. +"It interests me. I'll do my best. And I want you to get your +money's worth." + +<P> +"All right. Make it six," said Mr. Bartholomew. "But the +quicker you dig something up, the better for me. Now, that is the +first part of my proposition." + +<P> +"All right, sir. And the second?" + +<P> +"If you succeed in showing me that you can build and operate an +electric locomotive that will speed two miles a minute on a level +track and will get a heavy drag over the mountain grades, as I +said, as surely as two engines of the coal-burning or oil-burning +type, I will pay you a hundred thousand dollars bonus, besides +buying all the engines you can build of this new type for the +first two years. I've got to have first call; but the hundred +thousand will be yours free and clear, and the price of the +locomotives you build can be adjusted by any court of agreement +that you may suggest." + +<P> +Tom Swift's face glowed. He realized that this offer was not +only generous, but that it made it worth his while dropping +everything else he had in hand and devoting his entire time and +thought for even six mouths to the proposition of developing the +electric locomotive. + +<P> +He looked at his father and nodded. Mr. Swift said, calmly: + +<P> +"We take you on that offer, Mr. Bartholomew. Tom has the facts on +paper, and we will hand it to Mr. Newton, our financial manager, in +the morning. If you will remain in town for twenty-four hours, the +contract can be signed." + +<P> +"Suits me," declared. Richard Bartholomew, rising quickly from +his chair. "I confess I hoped you would take me up quite as +promptly as you have. I want to get back West again." + +<P> +"We will see you in the office of the company at two o'clock +to-morrow," said Tom Swift confidently. + +<P> +"Better than good! And now, if that trailer that I am pretty +sure Montagne Lewis sent after me does not get wise to the +subject of our talk, it may be a slick job we have done and will +do. I admit I am rather afraid of the enemy. You Swifts must keep +your plans in utter darkness." + +<P> +After a little talk on more ordinary affairs, Mr. Bartholomew +took his departure. It was getting late in the evening, and Tom +Swift had an engagement. While old Rad, their colored servant, +was helping him on with his coat preparatory to Tom's leaving the +house, his father called from the library: + +<P> +"Got those notes in a safe place, Tom?" + +<P> +"Safest in the world, Dad," his son replied. But he did not go +into details. Tom considered the "safest place in the world" just +then was his own wallet, which was tucked into an inside pocket +of his vest "I'm going to see Mary Nestor, Father," said Tom, as +he went to the front door and opened it. + +<P> +He halted a moment with the knob of the door in his hand. The +porch was deep in shadows, but he thought he had seen something +move there. + +<P> +"That you, Koku?" asked Tom in an ordinary voice. Sometimes his +gigantic servant wandered about the house at night. He was a +strange person, and he had a good many thoughts in his savage +brain that even his young master did not understand. + +<P> +There was no reply to Tom's question, so he walked down the +steps and out at the gate. It was not a long distance to the +Nestor house, and the air was brisk and keen, in spite of the +fact that threatening clouds masked the stars. + +<P> +Two blocks from the house he came to a high wall which +separated the street from the grounds of an old dwelling. Tom +suddenly noticed that the usual street lights on this block had +been extinguished--blown out by the wind, perhaps. + +<P> +Involuntarily he quickened his steps. He reached the archway in +the wall. Here was the gate dividing the private grounds from the +street. As he strode into the shadow of this place a voice +suddenly halted Tom Swift. + +<P> +"Hands up! Put 'em up and don't be slow about it!" A bulky +figure loomed in the dark. Tom saw the highwayman's club poised +threateningly over his head. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="II"></A> +<H3>Chapter II Trouble Starts</H3> + + +<P> +The fact that he was stopped by a footpad smote Tom Swift's +mind as not a particularly surprising adventure. He had heard +that several of that gentry had been plying their trade about the +outskirts of the town. To a degree he was prepared for this +sudden event. + +<P> +Then there flashed into Tom's mind the thought of what Mr. +Richard Bartholomew had said regarding the spy he believed had +followed him from the West. Could it be possible that some hired +thug sent by Montagne Lewis and his crooked crowd of financiers +considered that Tom Swift had obtained information from the +president of the H. & P. A. that might do his employers signal +service? + +<P> +Tom Swift had fallen in with many adventures--and some quite thrilling +ones--since, as a youth, he was first introduced to the reader in the initial +volume of this series, entitled "Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle." His first +experiences as an inventor, coached by his father, who had spent his life in +the experimental laboratory and workshop, was made possible by his purchase +from Mr. Wakefield Damon, now one of his closest friends, of a broken-down +motor cycle. + +<P> +Through a series of inventions, some of them of a marvelous kind, Tom +Swift, aided by his father, had forged ahead, building motor boats, +airships, submarines, monoplanes, motion picture cameras, +searchlights, cannons, photo-telephones, war tanks. Of late, as +related in "Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters," he had engaged in the +invention of an explosive bomb carrying flame-quenching chemicals that +would, in time, revolutionize fire-fighting in tall buildings. + +<P> +The matter that Mr. Richard Bartholomew, the railroad magnate, +had brought to Tom's and his father's attention had deeply +interested the young inventor. Thought of the electric +locomotive, the development of which the railroad president +stated was the only salvation of the finances of the H. & P. A., +had so held Tom's attention as he walked along the street that +being stopped in this sudden way was even more startling than +such an incident might ordinarily have been. + +<P> +Tom was a muscular young fellow; but a club held over one's +head by a burly thug would have shaken the courage of anybody. +Dark as it was under the archway the young fellow saw that the +bulk of the man was much greater than his own. + +<P> +"That's right, sonny," said the stranger, in a sneering tone. +"You got just the right idea. When I say 'Stick 'em up' I mean +it. Never take a chance. Ah--ah!" + +<P> +The fellow ripped open Tom's overcoat, almost tearing the +buttons off. Another masterful jerk and his victim's jacket was +likewise parted widely. He did not lower the club for an instant. +He thrust his left hand into the V-shaped parting of the young +fellow's vest. + +<P> +It was then that Tom was convinced of what the fellow was +after. He remembered the notes he had made regarding the contract +that was to be signed on the morrow between the Swift +Construction Company and President Richard Bartholomew of the +H. & P. A. Railroad. He remembered, too, the figure he thought he +had seen in the dark porch of the house as he so recently left +it. + +<P> +Mr. Bartholomew had considered it very possible that he was +being spied upon. This was one of the spies--a Westerner, as his +speech betrayed. But Tom was suddenly less fearful than he had +been when first attacked. + +<P> +It did not seem possible to him that Mr. Bartholomew's enemies +would allow their henchman to go too far to obtain information of +the railroad president's intentions. This fellow was merely +attempting to frighten him. + +<P> +A sense of relief came to Tom Swift's assistance. He opened his +lips to speak and could the thug have seen his face more clearly +in the dark he would have been aware of the fact that the young +inventor smiled. + +<P> +The fellow's groping hand entered between Tom's vest and his +shirt. The coarse fingers seized upon Tom's wallet. Nobody likes +to be robbed, no matter whether the loss is great or small. There +was not much money in the wallet, nor anything that could be +turned into money by a thief. + +<P> +These facts enabled Tom, perhaps, to bear his loss with some +fortitude. The highwayman drew forth the wallet and thrust it +into his own coat pocket. He made no attempt to take anything +else from the young inventor. + +<P> +"Now, beat it!" commanded the fellow. "Don't look back and +don't run or holler. Just keep moving--in the way you were headed +before. Vamoose." + +<P> +More than ever was Tom assured that the man was from the West. +His speech savored of Mexican phrases and slang terms used mainly +by Western citizens. And his abrupt and masterly manner and +speech aided in this supposition. Tom Swift stayed not to utter a +word. It was true he was not so frightened as he had at first +been. But he was quite sure that this man was no person to +contend with under present conditions. + +<P> +He strode away along the sidewalk toward the far corner of the +wall that surrounded this estate. Shopton had not many of such +important dwellings as this behind the wall. Its residential +section was made up for the most part of mechanics' homes and +such plain but substantial houses as his father's. + +<P> +Prospering as the Swifts had during the last few years, neither +Tom nor his father had thought their plain old house too poor or +humble for a continued residence. Tom was glad to make money, but +the inventions he had made it by were vastly more important to +his mind than what he might obtain by any lavish expenditure of +his growing fortune. + +<P> +This matter of the electric locomotive that had been brought to +his attention by the Western railroad magnate had instantly +interested the young inventor. The possibility of there being a +clash of interests in the matter, and the point Mr. Bartholomew +made of his enemies seeking to thwart his hope of keeping the H. +& P. A. upon a solid financial footing, were phases of the affair +that likewise concerned the young fellow's thought. + +<P> +Now he was sure that Mr. Bartholomew was right. The enemies of +the H. & P. A. were determined to know all that the railroad +president was planning to do. They would naturally suspect that +his trip East to visit the Swift Construction Company was no idle +jaunt. + +<P> +Tom had turned so many fortunate and important problems of +invention into certainties that the name of the Swift +Construction Company was broadly known, not alone throughout the +United States but in several foreign countries. Montagne Lewis, +whom Tom knew to be both a powerful and an unscrupulous +financier, might be sure that Mr. Bartholomew's visit to Shopton +and to the young inventor and his father was of such importance +that he would do well through his henchmen to learn the +particulars of the interview. + +<P> +Tom remembered Mr. Bartholomew's mention of a name like Andy +O'Malley. This was probably the man who had done all that he +could, and that promptly, to set about the discovery of Mr. +Bartholomew's reason for visiting the Swifts. + +<P> +Without doubt the man had slunk about the Swift house and had +peered into one of the library windows while the interview was +proceeding. He had observed Tom making notes on the scratch pad +and judged correctly that those notes dealt with the subject +under discussion between the visitor from the West and the +Swifts. + +<P> +He had likewise seen Tom thrust the paper into his wallet and +the wallet into his inside vest pocket. Instead of dogging Mr. +Bartholomew's footsteps after that gentleman left the Swift +house, the man had waited for the appearance of Tom. When he was +sure that the young fellow was preparing to walk out, and the +direction he was to stroll, the thug had run ahead and ensconced +himself in the archway on this dark block. + +<P> +All these things were plain enough. The notes Tom had taken +regarding the offer Mr. Bartholomew had made for the development +of the electric locomotive might, under some circumstances, be +very important. At least, the highwayman evidently thought them +such. But Tom had another thought about that. + +<P> +One thing the young inventor was convinced about, as he strode +briskly away from the scene of the hold-up: There was going to be +trouble. It had already begun. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="III"></A> +<H3>Chapter III Tom Swift's Friends</H3> + + +<P> +Tom was still walking swiftly when he arrived in sight of Mary +Nestor's home. He was so filled with excitement both because of +the hold-up and the new scheme that Mr. Richard Bartholomew had +brought to him from the West, that he could keep neither to +himself. He just had to tell Mary! + +<P> +Mary Nestor was a very pretty girl, and Tom thought she was +just about right in every particular. Although he had been about +a good deal for a young fellow and had seen girls everywhere, +none of them came up to Mary. None of them held Tom's interest +for a minute but this girl whom he had been around with for years +and whom he had always confided in. + +<P> +As for the girl herself, she considered Tom Swift the very +nicest young man she had ever seen. He was her beau-ideal of +what a young man should be. And she entered enthusiastically into +the plans for everything that Tom Swift was interested in. + +<P> +Mary was excited by the story Tom told her in the Nestor +sitting room. The idea of the electric locomotive she saw, of +course, was something that might add to Tom's laurels as an +inventor. But the other phase of the evening's adventure--"Tom, +dear!" she murmured with no little disturbance of mind. "That man +who stopped you! He is a thief, and a dangerous man! I hate to +think of your going home alone." + +<P> +"He's got what he was after," chuckled Tom. "Is it likely he +will bother me again?" + +<P> +"And you do not seem much worried about it," she cried, in +wonder. + +<P> +"Not much, I confess, Mary," said Tom, and grinned. + +<P> +"But if, as you suppose, that man was working for Mr. +Bartholomew's enemies--" + +<P> +"I am convinced that he was, for he did not rob me of my watch +and chain or loose money. And he could have done so easily. I +don't mind about the old wallet. There was only five dollars in +it." + +<P> +"But those notes you said you took of Mr. Bartholomew's offer?" + +<P> +"Oh, yes," chuckled Tom again. "Those notes. Well, I may as +well explain to you, Mary, and not try to puzzle you any longer. +But that highwayman is sure going to be puzzled a long, long +time." + +<P> +"What do you mean, Tom?" + +<P> +"Those notes were jotted down in my own brand of shorthand. +Such stenographic notes would scarcely be readable by anybody +else. Ho, ho! When that bold, bad hold-up gent turns the notes +over to Montagne Lewis, or whoever his principal is, there will +be a sweet time." + +<P> +"Oh, Tom! isn't that fun?" cried Mary, likewise much amused. + +<P> +"I can remember everything we said there in the library," Tom +continued. "I'll see Ned to-night on my way home from here, and he +will draw a contract the first thing in the morning." + +<P> +"You are a smart fellow, Tom!" said Mary, her laughter trilling +sweetly. + +<P> +"Many thanks, Ma'am! Hope I prove your compliment true. This +two-mile-a-minute stunt--" + +<P> +"It seems wonderful," breathed Mary. + +<P> +"It sure will be wonderful if we can build a locomotive that +will do such fancy lacework as that," observed Tom eagerly. "It +will be a great stunt!" + +<P> +"A wonderful invention, Tom." + +<P> +"More wonderful than Mr. Bartholomew knows," agreed the young +fellow. "An electric locomotive with both great speed and great +hauling power is what more than one inventor has been aiming at +for two or three decades. Ever since Edison and Westinghouse +began their experiments, in truth." + +<P> +"Is the locomotive they are using out there a very marvelous +machine?" asked the girl, with added interest. + +<P> +"No more marvelous than the big electric motors that drag the +trains into New York City, for instance, through the tunnels. +Steam engines cannot be used in those tunnels for obvious, as +well as legal, reasons. They are all wonderful machines, using +third-rail power." + +<P> +"But that Jandel patent that Mr. Bartholomew is using out there +on the H. & P. A. is probably the highest type of such motors. It +is up to us to beat that. Fortunately I got a pass into the +Jandel shops a few months ago and I studied at first hand the +machine Mr. Bartholomew is using." + +<P> +"Isn't that great!" cried Mary. + +<P> +"Well, it helps some. I at least know in a general way the +'how' of the construction of the Jandel locomotive. It is simple +enough. Too simple by far, I should say, to get both speed and +power. We'll see," and he nodded his head thoughtfully. + +<P> +Tom did not stay long with the girl, for it was already late in +the evening when he had arrived at her house. As he got up to +depart Mary's anxiety for his safety revived. + +<P> +"I wish you would take care now, Tom. Those men may hound you." + +<P> +"What for?" chuckled the young inventor. "They have the notes +they wanted." + +<P> +"But that very thing--the fact that you fooled them--will make +them more angry. Take care." + +<P> +"I have a means of looking out for myself, after all," said Tom +quietly, seeing that he must relieve her mind. "I let that fellow +get away with my wallet; but I won't let him hurt me. Don't +fear." + +<P> +She had opened the door. The lamplight fell across porch and +steps, and in a broad white band even to the gate and sidewalk. +There was a motor-car slowing down right before the open gate. + +<P> +"Who's this?" queried Tom, puzzled. + +<P> +A sharp voice suddenly was raised in an exclamatory explosion. + +<P> +"Bless my breakshoes! is that Tom Swift? Just the chap I was +looking for. Bless my mileage-book! this saves me time and +money." + +<P> +"Why, it's Mr. Wakefield Damon," Mary cried, with something +like relief in her tones. "You can ride home in his car, Tom." + +<P> +"All right, Mary. Don't be afraid for me," replied Tom Swift, +and ran down the walk to the waiting car. + +<P> +"Bless my vest buttons! Tom Swift, my heart swells when I see +you--" + +<P> +"And is like to burst off the said vest buttons?" chuckled the +young fellow, stepping in beside his eccentric friend who blessed +everything inanimate in his florid speech. + +<P> +"I am delighted to catch you--although, of course," and Tom +knew the gentleman's eyes twinkled, "I could have no idea that +you were over here at Mary's, Tom." + +<P> +"Of course not," rejoined the young inventor calmly. "Seeing +that I only come to see her just as often as I get a chance." + +<P> +"Bless my memory tablets! is that the fact?" chuckled Mr. +Damon. "Anyway, I wanted to see you so particularly that I drove +over in my car to-night--" + +<P> +"Wait a minute," said Tom, hastily. "Is this important?" + +<P> +"I think so, Tom." + +<P> +"Let me get something else off of my mind first, then, Mr. +Damon," Tom Swift said quickly. "Drive around by Ned's house, +will you, please? Ned Newton's. After I speak a minute with him I +will be at your service." + +<P> +"Surely, Tom; surely," agreed the gentleman. + +<P> +The automobile had been running slowly. Mr. Damon knew the +streets of Shopton very well, and he headed around the next +corner. As the car turned, a figure bounded out of the shadow +near the house line. Two long strides, and the man was on the +running board of the car upon the side where Tom Swift sat. Again +an ugly club was raised above the young fellow's head. + +<P> +"You're the smart guy!" croaked the coarse voice Tom had heard +before. "Think you can bamboozle me, do you? Up with 'em!" + +<P> +"Bless my spark-plug!" gasped Mr. Wakefield Damon. + +<P> +Either from nervousness or intention, he jerked the steering +wheel so that the car made a sudden leap away from the curb. The +figure of the stranger swayed. + +<P> +Instantly Tom Swift struck the man's arm up higher and from +under his own coat appeared something that bulked like a pistol +in his right hand. He had intimated to Mary Nestor that he +carried something with which to defend himself from highwaymen if +he chose to. This invention, his ammonia gun, now came into play. + +<P> +"Bless my failing eyesight!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, as he shot +the motor-car ahead again in a straight line. + +<P> +The man who had accosted Tom so fiercely fell off the running +board and rolled into the gutter, screaming and choking from the +fumes from Tom's gun. + +<P> +"Drive on!" commanded the young inventor. "If he keeps +bellowing like that the police will pick him up. I guess he will +let us alone here-after." + +<P> +"Bless my short hairs and long ones!" chuckled Mr. Damon. "You +are the coolest young fellow, Tom, that I ever saw. That man must +have been a highwayman. And it is of some of those gentry that I +drove over to Shopton this evening to talk to you about." + + + +<P> +<A NAME="IV"></A> +<H3>Chapter IV Much to Think About</H3> + + +<P> +Although it was now nearing ten o'clock on this eventful +evening, Tom knew that he would find Ned Newton at home. When Mr. +Damon's car stopped before the house there was a light in Ned's +room and the front door opened almost as soon as Tom rang. Mr. +Damon left the car and entered with the young inventor at his +invitation. + +<P> +"What's up?" was Ned's greeting, looking at the two curiously +as he ushered them in. "I see this isn't entirely a social call," +and he laughed as he shook the older man's hand. + +<P> +"Bless my particular star!" exclaimed the latter excitedly. "Of +all the thrilling adventures that anybody ever got into, it is +this Tom Swift who cooks them up! Why, Newton! do you know that +we have been held up by a highwayman within two blocks of this +very house?" + +<P> +"And that of course was Tom's fault?" suggested Ned, still +smiling. + +<P> +"It wouldn't have happened if he had not been with me," said +Mr. Damon. + +<P> +"I am curious," said Ned, as they seated themselves. "Who was +the footpad? What drew his attention to you two? Tell me about +it." + +<P> +"Bless my suspender buckles!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "You tell +him, Tom. I don't understand it myself, yet." + +<P> +"I think I can explain. But whatever I tell you both, you must +hold in secret. Father and I have been entrusted with some +private information to-night and I am going to take you, Ned, and +Mr. Damon, into the business in a confidential way." + +<P> +"Let's have it," begged Newton. "Anything to do with the +works?" + +<P> +"It is," answered Tom gravely. "We are going to take up a +proposition that promises big things for the Swift Construction +Company." + +<P> +"A big thing financially?" + +<P> +"I'll say so. And it looks as though we were mixing into a +conspiracy that may breed trouble in more ways than one." + +<P> +Tom went on to sketch briefly the situation of the Hendrickton +& Pas Alos Railroad as brought to the attention of the Swifts by +the railroad's president. First of all his two listeners were +deeply interested in the proposition Mr. Richard Bartholomew had +made the inventors. Ned Newton jotted down briefly the agreement +to be incorporated in the contract to be drawn and signed, by the +Swift Construction Company and the president of the H. & P. A. +road. + +<P> +"This looks like a big thing for the company, Tom," the young +manager said with enthusiasm, while Mr. Damon listened to it all +with mouth and eyes open. + +<P> +"Bless my watch-charm!" murmured the latter. "An electric +locomotive that can travel two miles a minute? Whew!" + +<P> +"Sounds like a big order, Tom," added Ned, seriously. + +<P> +"It is a big order. I am not at all sure it can be done," +agreed Tom, thoughtfully. "But under the terms Mr. Bartholomew +offers it is worth trying, don't you think?" + +<P> +"That twenty-five thousand dollars is as good as yours anyway," +declared his chum with finality. "I'll see there is no loophole +in the contract and the money must be placed in escrow so that +there can be no possibility of our losing that. The promise of a +hundred thousand dollars must he made binding as well." + +<P> +"I know you will look out for those details, Ned," Tom said +with a wave of his hand. + +<P> +"That is what I am here for," agreed the financial manager. +"Now, what else? I fancy the building of such a locomotive looks +feasible to you and your father or you would not go into it." + +<P> +"But two miles a minute!" murmured Mr. Damon again. "Bless my +prize pumpkins!" + +<P> +"The idea of speed enters into it, yes," said Tom thoughtfully. +"In fact electric motor power has always been based on speed, and +on cheapness of moving all kinds of traffic." + +<P> +"Look here!" he exclaimed earnestly, "what do you suppose the +first people to dabble in electrically driven vehicles were +aiming at? The motor-car? The motor boat? Trolley cars? All those +single motor sort of things? Not much they weren't!" + +<P> +"Bless my glove buttons!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, dragging off his +gauntlets as he spoke. "I don't get you at all, Tom! What do you +mean?" + +<P> +"I mean to say that the first experiments in the use of +electricity as a motive power were along the electrification of +the steam locomotive. Everybody realized that if a motor could be +built powerful enough and speedy enough to drag a heavy freight +or passenger train over the ordinary railroad right of way, the +cost of railroad operation would be enormously decreased." + +<P> +"Coal costs money--heaps of money now. Oil costs even more. But +even with a third-rail patent, a locomotive successfully built to +do the work of the great Moguls and mountain climbers of the last +two decades, and electrically driven, will make a great +difference on the credit side of any rails road's books." + +<P> +"Right-o!" exclaimed Ned. "I can see that." + +<P> +"That was the object of the first experiments in electric +motive power," repeated Tom. "And it continues to be the big +problem in electricity. The Jandel locomotive is undoubtedly the +last word so far as the construction of an electric locomotive is +concerned. But it falls down in speed and power. I thought so +myself when I saw that locomotive and looked over the results of +its work. And this Mr. Bartholomew has assured father and me this +evening that it is a fact." + +<P> +"It has a record of a mile a minute on a level or easy grade; +but it can't show goods when climbing a real hill. It slows up +both freight and passenger traffic on the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +road. That range of hills is too much for it." + +<P> +"So the Swift Construction Company is going to step in," +concluded the young inventor eagerly. "I believe we can do it. +I've the nucleus of an idea in my head. I never had a problem put +up to me, Ned and Mr. Damon, that interested me more. So why +shouldn't I go at it? Besides, I have dad to advise me." + +<P> +"That's right," agreed Ned. "Why shouldn't you? And with such a +contract as you have been offered--" + +<P> +"Bless my bootsoles!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, getting up and +tramping about the room in his excitement. "I thought the trolley +cars that run between Shopton and Waterfield were about the +fastest things on rails." + +<P> +"Not much. The trolley car is a narrow and prescribed manner of using +electricity for motive power. The motor runs but one car--or one and a +trailer, at most," said Tom. "As I have pointed out, the problem is to +build a machine that will transmit power enough to draw the enormous +weight of a loaded freight train, and that over steep grades." + +<P> +"A motor for each car is a costly matter. That is why trolley +car companies, no matter how many passengers their cars carry, +are so often on the verge of financial disaster. The margin of +profit is too narrow." + +<P> +"But if you can get a locomotive built that will drag a hundred +cars! Ah! how does that sound?" demanded Tom. "See the +difference?" + +<P> +"Bless my volts and amperes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "I should +say I do! Why, Tom, you make the problem as plain as plain can +be." + +<P> +"In theory," supplemented Ned Newton, although he meant to +suggest no doubt of his chum's ability to solve almost any +problem. + +<P> +"You've hit it," said Tom promptly. "I only have a theory so +far regarding such a locomotive. But to the inventor the theory +always must come first. You understand that, Ned?" + +<P> +"I not only appreciate that fact," said his chum warmly; "but I +believe that you are the fellow to show something definite along +the line of an improved electric locomotive. But, whether you can +reach the high mark set by the president of that railroad--" + +<P> +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Mr. Damon in agreement. "Bless +my wind-gauge! It doesn't seem possible!" + +<P> +Tom Swift shrugged his shoulders. "It is the impossible that +inventors have to overcome. If we experimenters believed in the +impossible little would be done in this world, to advance +mechanical science at least. Every invention was impossible until +the chap who put it through built his first working model." + +<P> +"That's understood, old boy," said Ned, already busily +scratching off the form of the contract he proposed to show the +company's legal advisers early in the morning. + +<P> +When he had read over the notes he had made Tom O.K.'d them. +"That is about as I had the items set down myself on the sheet +that fellow stole from me." + +<P> +"Wait!" exclaimed Ned, as Tom arose from his chair. "Do you +know what strikes me after your telling me about your second +hold-up?" + +<P> +"What's that?" asked his chum. + +<P> +"Are you sure that was the same fellow who stole your wallet?" + +<P> +"Quite sure." + +<P> +"Then his second attack on you proves that he got wise to the +fact that your notes were in shorthand. He had a chance to study +them while you visited with Mary Nestor." + +<P> +"Like enough." + +<P> +"I wonder if it doesn't prove that the fellow has somebody in +cahoots with him right here in Shopton?" ruminated Ned. + +<P> +"Bless my spare tire!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, who had already +started for the door but now turned back. + +<P> +"That's an idea, Ned," agreed Tom Swift. "It would seem that he +had consulted with some superior," said the young manager of the +Swift Construction Company. "This hold-up man may be from the +West; but perhaps he did not follow Bartholomew alone." + +<P> +"I'd like to know who the other fellow is," said Tom +thoughtfully. "I would know the man who attacked me, both by his +bulk and his voice." + +<P> +"Me, too," put in Mr. Damon. "Bless my indicator! I'd know the +scoundrel if I met him again." + +<P> +"The thing to do," said Ned Newton confidently, "is to identify +the man who robbed you to-night as soon as possible and then, if +he hangs around Shopton, to mark well anybody he associates +with." + +<P> +"Perhaps they will not bother me any more," said Tom, rather +carelessly. + +<P> +"And perhaps they will," grumbled Mr. Damon. "Bless my self-starter! +they may try something mean again this very night. Come on, Tom. I +want to run you home. And on the way, I tell you, I've got something +to put up to you myself. It may not promise a small fortune like this +electric locomotive business; but bless my barbed wire fence! my +trouble has more than a little to do with footpads, too." + +<P> +He led the way out of the house and to the motor car again. In +a minute he had started his engine, and Tom, jumping in beside +him, was borne away toward his own home. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="V"></A> +<H3>Chapter V Barbed Wire Entanglements</H3> + + +<P> +"This gets us to your particular trouble, Mr. Damon," Tom Swift +said, while the motor car was rolling along. "You intimated that +you had something to consult me about." + +<P> +"Bless my windshield! I should say I had," exclaimed the +eccentric gentleman, swinging around a corner at rather a fast +clip. + +<P> +"And has it to do with highwaymen?" asked Tom, much amused. + +<P> +"Some of the same gentry, Tom," declared Mr. Damon. "I haven't +any peace of my life, I really haven't!" + +<P> +"Who is troubling you, sir?" + +<P> +"Why, what nonsense that is, to ask that!" ejaculated the +gentleman. "If I knew who they were I wouldn't ask odds of +anybody. I'd go after them. As it is, I've left my servant with a +gun loaded with rock-salt watching for them now." + +<P> +"Burglars?" exclaimed Tom, with real interest. + +<P> +"Chicken-house burglars! That's the kind of burglars they are," +growled Mr. Damon. "Two or three times they have tried to get my +prize buff Orpingtons. Last night they got me out of bed twice +fooling around the chicken house and yard. Other neighbors have +lost their hens already. I don't mean to lose mine. Want you to +help me, Tom." + +<P> +"Is that all that is worrying you, Mr. Damon?" laughed the +young fellow. + +<P> +"Bless my radiator! isn't that enough?" + +<P> +"I know you set your clock by those buff Orpingtons," agreed +Tom. + +<P> +"That's right. That ten-months cockerel, Blue Ribbon Junior, +never fails to crow at three-thirty-three to the minute. Bless my +combs and spurs; a wonderful bird!" + +<P> +"But let's see how I can help you regarding the chicken +thieves," Tom said, as they sighted the lights of the Swift house +beyond the long stockade fence that surrounded the Construction +Company's premises. + +<P> +"You know I have a barbed wire entanglement around the whole +yard and hen-house. I don't take any more chances than I can +help. Those prize huff Orpingtons are a great temptation to +chicken lovers--both blond and brunette," and in spite of his +anxiety, Mr. Damon could chuckle at his own joke. "Even your old +Eradicate's friend fell for chickens, you know." + +<P> +"And Rad promptly cured him of the disease," laughed Tom. + +<P> +"And I'm trying to cure these others. I've charged my shotgun +with rock-salt, as he did. My servant has orders to shoot anybody +who tampers with my chicken house to-night." + +<P> +"But bless my shirt!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "I'll never be able +to sleep comfortably until I know that no thief can get at my +buff Orpingtons. I want you to fix it so I can sleep in peace, +Tom." + +<P> +He slowed to a stop in front of the Swift's door. Tom stared at +his eccentric friend questioningly. + +<P> +"Bless my gaiters!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "don't you see what I +want? And your head already full of this electrified locomotive +you are going to build?" + +<P> +"Hush!" murmured Tom, with his hand upon his companion's arm. +"But what do you want me to do?" + +<P> +"I want you to fix it so that I can turn a current of +electricity into that barbed wire chicken fence at night that +will shock any thief that touches the wires. Not kill 'em--though +they ought to be killed!" declared the eccentric man. "But shock +'em aplenty. Can't you do it for me, Tom Swift?" + +<P> +"Of course it can be done," said the young fellow. "You use +electricity in your house. There is a feed cable in the street. +We will have to change your lighting switch for another. Fix it +with the Electric Supply Company. It will cost you more--" + +<P> +"Bless my pocketbook! I don't care how much it costs. It will +be ample satisfaction to see just one low-down chicken thief +squirming on those wires." + +<P> +Tom laughed again. He meant to help his friend; but he did not +propose to rig the wires so that anybody, even a chicken thief, +would be seriously injured by the electric current passing +through the strands. + +<P> +"I'll come down to Waterfield to-morrow in the electric runabout +and fix things up for you. Get a permit from the Electric Supply +Company early in the morning. Tell them I will rig the thing +myself. They can send their inspector afterward." + +<P> +"That's fine, Tom! What--Ugh! what's this? Another footpad?" + +<P> +Out of the darkness beside the fence a bulky figure started. +For a moment Tom thought it was the same man who had attacked him +twice. Then the very size of this new assailant proved that +suspicion to be unfounded. + +<P> +"Koku!" exclaimed Tom. "What's the matter with you, Koku?" + +<P> +The huge and only half-tamed giant gained the side of the car +in seemingly a single stride. In the dark they could not see his +face, but his voice distinctly showed excitement. + +<P> +"Master come good. 'Cause there be enemy. Koku find--Koku +kill!" + +<P> +"Bless my magnifying glass!" ejaculated Mr. Damon. "That fellow +is the most bloodthirsty individual that I ever saw." + +<P> +"All in his bringing up," chuckled Tom who knew, as the saying +is, that Koku's bark was a deal worse than his bite. "Killing and +maiming his enemies used to be Koku's principal job. But he has +his orders now. He doesn't kill anybody without consulting me +first." + +<P> +"Bless my buttons!" murmured Mr. Damon. "That is certainly a +good thing too. What's the matter with him now?" + +<P> +That is exactly what Tom himself wanted to know. He had dropped +a hand upon the arm of the giant as he stood beside the car. + +<P> +"Who is the enemy, Koku?" he asked. + +<P> +"Not know, Master. See him footmarks. Follow him footmarks. Not +find. When do find--kill!" + +<P> +"That is, after first obtaining my permission," said Tom dryly. + +<P> +"It is so," agreed the imperturbable Koku. "See! Show Master +footmarks. Him look in at window. See! Koku have got the wonder +lamp." + +<P> +He flashed the electric torch in his hand. He left the car and +strode into the yard. Tom followed him, and Mr. Damon's curiosity +brought him along. + +<P> +The giant pointed the ray of the flashlight at the ground below +the porch. Several footprints--the marks of boots at least +number twelve in size--were imbedded in the soil. Koku went +around the house to the other side, following repeated marks of +the same boots. + +<P> +"How came you to find them, Koku?" asked Tom softly. + +<P> +"Me look. All around stockade," and he waved a generous gesture +with his free hand including the fence about the works. "Enemy +may come. Anytime he come. Now he come." + +<P> +"Bless my slippery shoes!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who had hard +work to keep up both physically and mentally with the giant. +"What does he mean?" + +<P> +"Koku has always had it in his head," explained Tom, "that we +built that fence about the works to keep out enemies. And, to +tell the truth, we did! But all that is over--" + +<P> +"Is it?" asked Mr. Damon pointedly. "Enemy here," added Koku, +flashing the lamplight upon the footprints on the ground. + +<P> +"Those bootmarks," added Mr. Damon, "are doubtless those of +that fellow who jumped upon the running board of the car." + +<P> +"Humph! And who robbed me of my wallet," added Tom musingly. +"Well, it might be. And, if so, Koku is right. The enemy has +come." + +<P> +"Me kill!" exclaimed the giant, stretching himself to his full +height. + +<P> +"We'll consider the killing later," said Tom, who well knew his +influence with this big fellow. "You are forbidden to kill +anybody, or chase anybody away from here, until I have a talk +with them. Enemy or not--understand?" + +<P> +"Me understand," said Koku in his deep voice. "Master say--me +do." + +<P> +"Just the same," Tom said, aside to Mr. Damon, "there has been +somebody around here. I guess Mr. Bartholomew was right. He is +being spied upon. And now that we Swifts are going to try to do +something for him, we are likely to be spied upon too." + +<P> +"Bless my statue of Nathan Hale!" murmured the eccentric +gentleman. "I believe you. And you've been already attacked twice +by some thug! You are positively in danger, Tom." + +<P> +"I don't know about that. Save that the fellow who robbed me +was sore because I fooled him. Naturally he might like to get +square about those shorthand notes. He knows no more now about +Mr. Bartholomew's business with us than he did before he held me +up." + +<P> +"That is a fact," agreed Mr. Damon. + +<P> +"And that brings me to another warning, Mr. Damon," added Tom +earnestly, as his friend climbed into the motor car again. "Keep +all that has happened, and all that I told you and Ned about the +H. & P. A. railroad, to yourself." + +<P> +"Surely! Surely!" + +<P> +"If Mr. Bartholomew's rivals continue to keep their spies +hanging around the works here, we'll handle them properly. Trust +Koku for that," and Tom chuckled. + +<P> +"And don't forget my barbed wire entanglements," put in Mr. +Damon, starting his engine. "I want to fix those chicken +thieves." + +<P> +"All right. I'll be over to-morrow," promised Tom Swift. + +<P> +Then he stood a minute on the curb and looked after the +disappearing lights of Mr. Damon's car. The latter's problem +dovetailed, after all, into this discovery of possible marauders +lurking about the Swift premises. Koku had made no mistake in +bringing his attention to the matter of the footprints. Tom had +seen somebody dodging into the darkness outside the house when he +had come out on his way to visit Mary Nestor. + +<P> +"And sure as taxes," muttered Tom, as he finally turned toward +the front door again, "the fellow who twice attacked me this +evening wore the boots the prints of which Koku found." + +<P> +"Those fellows, whoever they are, whether Montagne Lewis and +his associates, or not, have bitten off several mouthfuls that +they may be unable to chew. Anyhow, before they get through they +may learn something about the Swifts that they never knew +before." + + + +<P> +<A NAME="VI"></A> +<H3>Chapter VI The Contract Signed</H3> + + +<P> +Tom Swift went to bed that night without the least fear that +the man who had twice attacked him in the streets of Shopton +would be able to trouble him unless he went abroad again. Koku +was on guard. + +<P> +The giant whom Tom had brought home from one of his distant +wanderings was wholly devoted to his master. Koku never had, and +he never would, become entirely civilized. + +<P> +He was naturally a born tracker of men. For generations his +people had lived amid the alarms of threat and attack. He could +not be made to understand how so many "tribes," as he called +them, of civilized men could live in anything like harmony. + +<P> +That somebody should prowl about the Swift house at night with +a desire to rob his young master or injure him, did not surprise +Koku in the least. He accepted the fact of the marauder's +presence as quite the expected thing. + +<P> +But the man who had robbed Tom and later tried to repay him for +playing what appeared to be a practical joke on the robber, did +not trouble the Swift premises with his presence before morning. +Koku, thrusting Eradicate Sampson aside and striding to his +bedroom to report this fact, was what awoke Tom at eight o'clock. + +<P> +"Hey! What you want, tromping in here for, man?" demanded old +Rad angrily. "An' totin' that spear, too. Where you t'ink yo' is? +In de jungle again? Go 'way, chile!" + +<P> +Both Rad and Koku were rapidly outliving the sudden friendship +of Rad's sick days, when it was thought he might be blind for +life, and were dropping back into their old ways of bickering and +rivalry for Tom's attention. + +<P> +"I report to the Master," declared the giant, in his deep +voice. + +<P> +"You tell me, I tell him," Rad said pompously. "No need yo' +'sturbing Massa Tom at dis hour." + +<P> +"Koku go in!" declared the giant sternly. + +<P> +"Jes' stay out dere on de stair an' res' yo'self," said Rad. + +<P> +Koku lost his temper with old Rad. There was a feud between +them, although deep in their hearts they really were fond of each +other. But the two were jealous of each other's services to young +Tom Swift. + +<P> +Suddenly Tom heard the old negro utter a frightened squeal. The +door which had been only ajar, burst inward and banged against +the door-stop with a mighty smash. + +<P> +Rad went through the big bedroom like a chocolate-colored +streak, entered Tom's bathroom, and the next moment there was the +sound of crashing glass as Eradicate Sampson went through the +lower sash of the window, headfirst, out upon the roof of the +porch! + +<P> +"What do you mean by this?" shouted Tom, sitting up in bed. + +<P> +Koku paused in the doorway, bulking almost to the top of the +door. His right arm was drawn back, displaying his mighty biceps, +and he poised a ten foot spear with a copper head that he had +seized from a nest of such implements which was a decoration of +the lower hall. + +<P> +Had the giant ever flung that spear at poor Rad's back, half +the length of the staff might have passed through his body. +Little wonder that the colored man, having roused the giant's +rage to such a pitch, had given small consideration to the order +of his going, but had gone at once! + +<P> +"You want to scare Rad out of half a year's growth?" Tom +pursued sternly, slipping out of bed and reaching for his robe +and slippers. "And he's broken that window to smithereens." + +<P> +"Koku come make report, Master," said the giant. + +<P> +"You go put that spear back where you found it and come up +properly," commanded the young fellow, with difficulty hiding his +amusement. "Go on now!" + +<P> +He shuffled into the bathroom while the giant disappeared. He +peered out of the broken window. It was a wonder Rad had not +carried the sash with him! The broken glass was scattered all +about the roof of the porch and the old colored man lay groaning +there. + +<P> +"What did you do this for, Eradicate?" demanded Tom. "You act +worse than a ten-year-old boy." + +<P> +"I's done killed, Massa Tom!" groaned Rad with confidence. "I's +blood from haid to foot!" + +<P> +There was a scratch on his bald crown from which a few drops of +blood flowed. But with all his terror, Eradicate had put both +arms over his head when he made his dive through the window, and +he really was very little injured. + +<P> +"Come in here," repeated Tom. "Fix something over this broken +window so that I can take my bath. And then go and put something +on that scratch. Don't you know better yet, than to cross Koku +when he is excited?" + +<P> +"Dat crazy ol' cannibal!" spat out Rad viciously. "I'll fix him +yet. I'll pizen his rations, dat's what I'll do." + +<P> +"You wouldn't be so bad as that, Rad!" + +<P> +"Well, mebbe not," said the colored man, crawling in through +the bathroom window. "It would take too much pizen, anyway, to +kill that giant. Take as much as dey has to give an el'phant to +kill it. Anyways, I's bound to fix him proper some time, yet." + +<P> +These quarrels between Eradicate and Koku were intermittent. +They almost always arose, too, because of the desire of the two +servants to wait upon Tom or his father. They were very jealous +of each other, and their clashes afforded Tom and his friends a +good deal of amusement. + +<P> +While the young inventor was in his bath the giant strode back +into the bedroom, out of which Rad had scurried by another door, +and proceeded to report the result of his night watch about the +premises. + +<P> +He had not much to tell. In fact, after Tom had gone into the +house Koku had seen nobody lurking about at all. The fact +remained that, earlier in the evening, somebody had made a close +surveillance of the Swift house, but the mysterious marauder had +not come back. + +<P> +"All right, Koku. Keep your eyes open. I expect that enemy may +return sometime. Too bad," he added to himself, "that I didn't +get a better look at him." + +<P> +"Koku know him next time," declared the giant. + +<P> +"Why! you didn't even see him this time," cried Tom. + +<P> +"See him boots. See marks him boots make. Know him boots. +Waugh!" + +<P> +"'Waugh!' yourself," returned Tom, shaking his head. "You are +altogether too sure, Koku. You couldn't tell a man from his +bootprints in the mud." + +<P> +"Koku know," said the giant, just as confidently. "Wait. Him +catch--see--show Master." + +<P> +"Don't you go to grabbing every stranger who comes around the +house or the works for a spy, and make me trouble. Remember now." + +<P> +Koku nodded gravely and went away. When he met Rad suddenly in +the hall with Mr. Swift's breakfast tray, the giant said "boo!" +and almost cost the old colored man the loss of the tray. + +<P> +"Dat big el'phant ought to be livin' in a barn," declared Rad. +"Look at dat spear he come near runnin' me t'rough wid! If he +had, yo' could ha' driv a tipcart full o' rubbish in after it. +Lawsy me!" + +<P> +But an hour later when Tom and his father started for the +offices of the Swift Construction Company down the street, Rad +and Koku were sitting before an enormous breakfast in the back +kitchen and chatting together as companionably as ever. + +<P> +The old inventor and his son arrived at the offices of the +Swift Construction Company not long ahead of Mr. Richard +Bartholomew. Tom had merely found time to read over the contract +that had been jointly prepared by Ned Newton and the firm's legal +advisers, before the railroad man came. + +<P> +"No getting out of the provisions of that paper, Tom," Ned had +whispered, when he saw Mr. Bartholomew coming into the outer +office. "Is this your man?" + +<P> +"Yes." + +<P> +"A sharp looking little fellow," commented Ned. "But even if he +were bent on tricking us, this contract would hold him. He is +solvent and so is his road--as yet. If it has a bad name in the +market that is more because of slander by the Montagne Lewis +crowd than from any real cause. I've found that out this +morning." + +<P> +"Faithful Nero!" chuckled Tom. "Aren't going to let the Swifts +get done, are you?" + +<P> +"Not if I can help it," declared Ned Newton emphatically. + +<P> +A clerk brought Mr. Bartholomew into the private office and he +was introduced to Newton. If he considered the financial manager +of the Swift Construction Company very young for his responsible +position, after he had read the contract he felt considerable +respect for Ned Newton. + +<P> +"You've got me here, young man, hard and fast," Mr. Bartholomew +said. "If I was inclined to want to wriggle out, I see no chance +of it. But I don't. You have set forth here exactly my meaning +and intent. I want your best efforts in this matter, Mr. Swift, +and if you give them to me I'll foot the bill as agreed." + +<P> +"You've got me interested, I confess," said Tom. "By the way, +were your friends following you when you came here this morning?" + +<P> +"My friends?" repeated Mr. Bartholomew, for a moment puzzled. + +<P> +"The spy that you mentioned," said Tom, smiling. + +<P> +"That Andy O'Malley?" exclaimed Bartholomew. "Haven't spotted +him to-day." + +<P> +"He spotted me last night," said Tom grimly, and proceeded to +relate what had happened. + +<P> +"You fooled 'em that time, young man!" exclaimed the railroad +president, with satisfaction. "I am convinced that Montagne Lewis +is behind it. Look out for these fellows when you get to work, +Mr. Swift. They will stop at nothing. I tell you that the fight +is on between the Hendrickton & Pas Alos and the Hendrickton & +Western. I have either got to break them or they will break me." + +<P> +"You seem very sure that there is a conspiracy against you, Mr. +Bartholomew," said the senior Swift reflectively. + +<P> +"I am sure," was the reply. "And I am likewise sure that this +scheme of electrification of my road through the Pas Alos Range is +the only salvation for my railroad." + +<P> +"I should call it a big contract," Ned Newton said, +thoughtfully. + +<P> +"You have said it! But it is not a visionary scheme I have in +mind. You must know--you Swifts--how successful such an +electrification through the Rockies has been made by the Chicago, +Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway." + +<P> +"I've looked that up," confessed Tom, with enthusiasm. "That +was a great piece of work." + +<P> +"It is. It is. But I hope for even a greater outcome of your +experiments, Mr. Swift. Of course, I do not expect to compete +with that great road. They had millions to spend, and they spent +them. Those Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives the Chicago, +Milwaukee & St. Paul built in nineteen hundred and nineteen are +wonderful machines. They have got forty-two freight locomotives, +fifteen passenger locomotives and four switchers of that new +type." + +<P> +"The Jandel patent that my road uses is, in some degree, the +equal of those Baldwin-Westinghouse locomotives. At least, our +machines equal the C., M. & St. P. on our level road. They can +reach a mile-a-minute gait. But when it comes to speed and pull +on steep grades--Ah! that is where they fail." + +<P> +"You will have to get power in the hills for your stations," +suggested Tom, thoughtfully. + +<P> +"I know that. I know where the power is coming from. I gathered +those waterfalls in years ago. Lewis and his crowd can't shut me +off from them. But I have got to have a speedier and more +powerful type of electric locomotive than has ever yet been built +to protect the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad from any rivalry." + +<P> +"I am looking to you Swifts to give me that. I am risking this +twenty-five thousand dollars upon your succeeding. And I am +offering you the hundred thousand dollars bonus for the right to +purchase the first successful locomotives that can be built +covered by your patents. Is it plain?" + +<P> +"It is eminently satisfactory," said Mr. Swift, quietly. + +<P> +"I will do my very best," agreed Tom, warmly. "There isn't a +thing the matter with the agreement," declared Ned Newton, with +confidence. "Gentlemen, sign on the dotted line." + +<P> +Five minutes later the twin contracts were in force. One went +into the safe of the Swift Construction Company. The other, Mr. +Richard Bartholomew bore away with him. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="VII"></A> +<H3>Chapter VII The Man with Big Feet</H3> + + +<P> +The consultation in the private office of the Swift +Construction Company after the departure of Mr. Richard +Bartholomew between the two Swifts and Ned Newton had more to do +with a vision of the future than with mere present finances. + +<P> +"I expect you know just about how you are going to work on this +new invention, Tom?" suggested the financial manager, and Tom's +chum. + +<P> +"Haven't the first idea," rejoined the young inventor, +promptly. + +<P> +"What do you mean?" ejaculated Ned. "You talked just now as +though you knew all about electric locomotives." + +<P> +"I know a good deal about those that have been built, both +under the Jandel patent and those built for the Chicago, +Milwaukee & St. Paul in the great Philadelphia shops." + +<P> +"But when you ask me if I know how I am going to improve on +those patents so as to make my locomotive twice as speedy and +quite as powerful as those other locomotives--well, I've got to +tell you flat that I have not as yet got the first idea." + +<P> +"Humph!" grumbled Ned. "You say it coolly enough." + +<P> +"No use getting all heated up about it," returned his friend. +"I have got to consider the situation first. I must look over the +field of electrical invention as applied to motive power. I must +study things out." + +<P> +"I don't just see myself," Ned Newton remarked thoughtfully, +"why there should be such a great need for the electrification of +locomotives, anyway. Those great mountain-hogs that draw most of +the mountain railroad trains are very powerful, aren't they? And +they are speedy." + +<P> +"Locomotives that use coal or oil have been developed about as +far as they can be," said Mr. Swift, quietly. "A successful +electric locomotive has many advantages over the old-time +engine." + +<P> +"What are those advantages?" asked the business manager, +quickly. "I confess, I do not understand the matter, Mr. Swift." + +<P> +"For instance," proceeded the old gentleman, "there is the coal +question alone. Coal is rising in price. It is bulky. Using +electricity as motive power for railroads will do away with fuel +trains, tenders, coal handling, water, and all that. Of course, +Mr. Bartholomew will generate his electricity from water power--the +cheapest power on earth." + +<P> +"Humph! I've got my answer right now," said Ned Newton. "If +there is no other good reason, this is sufficient." + +<P> +"There are plenty of others," drawled Tom, smiling. "Good ones. +For instance, heat or cold has nothing to do with the even +running of an electric locomotive. It can bore right through a +snowbank--a thing a steam engine can't do. It runs at an even +speed. Really, grade should have nothing to do with its speed. +There is a fault somewhere in the construction of the Jandel +machine or the H. & P. A. would have little trouble with those +locomotives on its grades." + +<P> +"Then, all you have to do to start an electrified locomotive is +to turn a handswitch. No stoking or water-boiling. Does away with +the fireboy. One man runs it!" + +<P> +"Why!" cried Ned, "I never stopped to think of all these +things." + +<P> +"No ashes to dump," went on Tom. "No flues to clean, no boilers +to inspect, and none to wear out. And they say that on the +Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, at least, their freight +locomotives handle twice the load of a steam locomotive at a +greatly reduced cost." + +<P> +"Sounds fine. Don't wonder Mr. Bartholomew is eager to +electrify his entire tine." + +<P> +"On the side of passenger traffic," continued Tom Swift, "the +electric locomotive is smokeless, noiseless, dirtless, and +doesn't jerk the coaches in either stopping or starting. And in +addition, the electric locomotive is much easier on track and +roadbed than the old 'iron horse' driven by steam generated +either from coal or oil." + +<P> +"It is a great field for your talents, Tom!" cried Ned, warmly. + +<P> +"It is a big job," admitted Tom, and he said this with modesty. +"I don't know what I may be able to do--if anything. I would not +feel right in taking Mr. Bartholomew's twenty-five thousand +dollars for nothing." + +<P> +"Quite right, my boy," said Mr. Swift, approvingly. + +<P> +"Never mind that," said the financial manager, rather grimly. +"It was his own offer and his risk. That twenty-five thousand +comes to our account." + +<P> +Tom laughed. "All business, Ned, aren't you? But there is more +than business for the Swift Construction Company in this. Our +reputation for fair dealing as well as for inventive powers is +linked up with this contract." + +<P> +"I want to show the Jandel people--to say nothing of the bigger +firms--that the Swifts are to be reckoned with when it comes to +electric invention. Other roads will be electrifying their lines +as fast as it is proved that the electric-driven locomotive has +the bulge on the steam-driven." + +<P> +"In the case of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos there are very steep +grades to overcome. Supposedly an electric motor-drive should +achieve the same speed on a hill as on the level. But there is +the weight of the train to be counted on." + +<P> +"The H. & P. A. has a two per cent. grade in more than one +place. Mr. Bartholomew confessed as much to me last night. The +electric-driven locomotive of the powerful freight type, which +the Jandel people built for Mr. Bartholomew, can make about +sixteen miles an hour on those grades, although they can hit it +up to thirty miles an hour on level track." + +<P> +"His passenger locomotives turn off a mile a minute and more, +on the level road; but they can not climb those steep grades at a +much livelier pace than the freight engines. That is why he is +talking about two-mile-a-minute locomotives. He must get a mighty +speedy locomotive, for both freight and passenger service, to +keep ahead of Montagne Lewis's rival road, the Hendrickton & +Western." + +<P> +"You don't suppose it can be done, do you?" demanded Ned. "The +two-mile-a-minute locomotive, I mean, Tom." + +<P> +"That is the target I am to aim for," returned his friend, +soberly. "At any rate, I hope to improve on the type of +locomotive Mr. Bartholomew is now using, so that the hundred +thousand dollars bonus will come our way as well as this first +twenty-five thousand." + +<P> +"That wouldn't pay for one engine, would it?" cried Ned. + +<P> +"Nor is it expected to. The bonus has nothing to do with +payment for any model, or patent, or anything of the kind. To +tell you the truth, Ned, I understand those big locomotives used +by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul cost them about one hundred +and twelve thousand dollars each." + +<P> +"Whew! Some price, I'll tell the world!" murmured the youthful +financial manager of the Swift Construction Company. + +<P> +When the conference was over, and Tom had been through the +workshop to overlook several little jobs that were in process of +completion by his trusted mechanics, it was lunch time. He left +word that he would not be back that day, for this new task he was +to attack was not to be approached with any haphazard thought. + +<P> +Tom knew quite as well as his father knew that the idea of +improving the Jandel patent on electric locomotives was no small +thing. The Jandel people had claimed that their patent was the +very last word in electric motor-power. And Tom was quite willing +to acknowledge that in some ways this claim was true. + +<P> +But in invention, especially in the field of electric +invention, what is the last word to-day may be ancient history +to-morrow. + +<P> +It was because this field is so broad and the possibility of +improvement in every branch of electrical science so exciting, +that Tom had accepted Mr. Bartholomew's challenge with such +eagerness. + +<P> +Tom went back to the house for lunch, and as he joined his +father in the dining room he remarked to Eradicate: + +<P> +"I want the electric runabout brought around after lunch. I am +going to Waterfield. Tell Koku, will you, Rad?" + +<P> +"Tell that crazy fellow?" demanded the old colored man +heatedly. "Why should I tell him, Massa Tom? Ain't I able to +bring dat runabout out o' de garbarge? Shore I is!" + +<P> +"You can't do everything, Rad," said Tom, soberly. "That is +humanly impossible." + +<P> +"But dat Koku can't do nothin' right. Dat's inhumanly possible, +Massa Tom." + +<P> +"Give him a chance, Rad. I have to take Koku with me this +afternoon. You must give your attention to the house and to +father." + +<P> +"Huh! Umm!" grunted Eradicate. + +<P> + Rad was jealous of anybody who waited on Tom besides himself. +Yet he was proud of responsibility, too. He teetered between the +pride of being in charge at home and accompanying his young +master, and finally replied: + +<P> +"Well, in course, you ain't going to be gone long, Massa Tom. +And yo' father does like to get his nap undisturbed. And he'll +want his pot o' tea afterwards. So I'll let dat irresponsible +Koku go wid yo'. But yo' got to watch him, Massa Tom. Dat giant +don't know what he's about half de time." + +<P> +As Koku was not within hearing to challenge that statement, +things went all right. When Tom came out of the house after +eating, he found his very fast car waiting for him, with the +giant standing beside it at the curb. + +<P> +"Get in at the back, Koku," said Tom. "I am going to take you +with me." + +<P> +"Master is much wise," said Koku. "That man with big feet will +not hurt Master while Koku is with him." + +<P> +To tell the truth Tom had quite forgotten the supposed spy that +had attacked him the night before. He needed Koku for a purpose +other than that of bodyguard. But he made no comment upon the +giant's remark. + +<P> +They stopped at one of the gates of the works, and Tom +instructed Koku to bring out and put into the car certain boxes +and tools that he wished to take with him. Then he drove on, +taking the road to Waterfield. + +<P> +This way led through farmlands and patches of woods, a rough +country in part. A mile out of the limits of Shopton the road +edged a deep valley, the sidehill sparsely wooded. + +<P> +Almost at once, and where there was not a dwelling in sight, +they saw a figure tramping in the road ahead, a big man, roughly +dressed, and wearing a broad-brimmed hat. Somehow, his appearance +made Tom reduce speed and he hesitated to pass the pedestrian. + +<P> +The man did not hear the runabout at first; or, at least, he +did not look over his shoulder. He strode on heavily, but +rapidly. Suddenly the young inventor heard the giant behind him +emit a hissing breath. + +<P> +"Master!" whispered the giant. + +<P> +"What's up now?" demanded Tom, but without glancing around. + +<P> +"The big feet!" exclaimed Koku. + +<P> +The giant's own feet were shod with difficulty in civilized +footgear, but compared with his other physical dimensions his +feet did not seem large. The man ahead wore coarse boots which +actually looked too big for him! Koku started up in the back of +the car as the latter drew nearer to the stranger. + +<P> +The man looked back at last and Tom gained a clear view of his +features--roughly carved, dark as an Indian's, and holding a grim +expression in repose that of itself was far from breeding +confidence. In a moment, too, the expression changed into one of +active emotion. The man glared at the young inventor with +unmistakable malevolence. + +<P> +"Master!" hissed Koku again. "The big feet!" The fellow must +have seen Koku's face and understood the giant's expression. In a +flash he turned and leaped out of the roadway. The sidehill was +steep and broken here, but he went down the slope in great +strides and with every appearance of wishing to evade the two in +the motor-car. + +<P> +The giant's savage war cry followed the fugitive. Koku leaped +from the moving car. Tom yelled: + +<P> +"Stop it, Koku! You don't know that that is the man." + +<P> +"The big feet!" repeated the giant. "Master see the red mud +dried on Big Feet's boots? That mud from Master's garden." + +<P> +Again Koku uttered his savage cry, and in strides twice the +length of those of the running man, started on the latter's +trail. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="VIII"></A> +<H3>Chapter VIII An Enemy in the Dark</H3> + + +<P> +The situation offered suggestions of trouble that stung Tom to +immediate action. The impetuousness of his giant often resulted +in difficulties which the young inventor would have been glad to +escape. + +<P> +Now Koku was following just the wrong path. Tom Swift knew it. + +<P> +"Koku, you madman!" he shouted after the huge native. "Come +back here! Hear me? Back!" + +<P> +Koku hesitated. He shot a wondering look over his shoulder, but +his long legs continued to carry him down the slope after the +dark-faced stranger. + +<P> +"Come back, I say!" shouted Tom again. "Have I got to come +after you? Koku! If you don't mind what you're told I'll send you +back to your own country and you'll have to eat snakes and +lizards, as you used to. Come here!" + +<P> +Whether it was because of this threat of a change of diet, +which Koku now abhorred, or the fact that he had really become +somewhat disciplined and that he fairly worshiped Tom, the giant +stopped. The man with the big shoes disappeared behind a hedge of +low trees. + +<P> +"Get back up here!" ejaculated Tom sternly. "I'll never take +you away from the house with me again if you don't obey me." + +<P> +"Master!" ejaculated the giant, slowly approaching. "That Big +Feet--" + +<P> +"I don't care if he made those footprints in the yard last +night or not. I don't want him touched. I didn't even want him to +know that we guessed he had been sneaking about the house. +Understand?" + +<P> +"Of a courseness," grumbled Koku. "Koku understand everything +Master say." + +<P> +"Well, you don't act as though you did. Next time when I want +any help I may have to bring Rad with me." + +<P> +"Oh, no, Master! Not that old man. He don't know how to help +Master. Koku do just what Master say." + +<P> +"Like fun you do," said Tom, still apparently very angry with +the simple-minded giant. "Get back into the car and sit still, if +you can, until we get to Mr. Damon's house." Then to himself he +added: "I don't blame that fellow, whoever he is, for lighting +out. I bet he's running yet!" + +<P> +He knew that Koku would say nothing regarding the incident. The +giant had wonderful powers of silence! He sometimes went days +without speaking even to Rad. And that was one of the sources of +irritation between the voluble colored man and the giant. + +<P> +"'Tain't human," Rad often said, "for nobody to say nothin' as +much as dat Koku does. Why, lawsy me! if he was tongue-tied an' +speechless, an' a deaf an' dumb mute, he couldn't say nothin' +more obstreperously dan he does--no sir! 'Tain't human." + +<P> +So Tom had not to warn the giant not to chatter about meeting +the stranger on the road to Waterfield. If that person with dried +red mud on his boots was the spy who had followed Mr. Richard +Bartholomew East and was engaged by Montagne Lewis to interfere +with any attempt the president of the H. & P. A. might make to +pull his railroad out of the financial quagmire into which it was +rapidly sinking, Tom would have preferred to have the spy not +suspect that he had been identified after his fiasco of the +previous evening. + +<P> +For if this Western looking fellow was Andy O'Malley, whose +name had been mentioned by the railroad man, he was the person +who had robbed Tom of his wallet and had afterward attempted +reprisal upon the young inventor because the robbery had resulted +in no gain to the robber. + +<P> +Of course, the fellow had been unable to read Tom's shorthand +notes of the agreement that he had discussed with Mr. +Bartholomew. Just what the nature of that agreement was, would be +a matter of interest to the spy's employer. + +<P> +Having failed in this attempt to learn something which was not +his business, the spy might make other and more serious attempts +to learn the particulars of the agreement between the railroad +president and the Swifts. Tom was sorry that the fellow had now +been forewarned that his identity as the spy and footpad was +known to Tom and his friends. + +<P> +Koku had made a bad mess of it. But Tom determined to say +nothing to his father regarding the discovery he had made. He did +not want to worry Mr. Swift. He meant, however, to redouble +precautions at the Swift Construction Company against any +stranger getting past the stockade gates. + +<P> +Arrived at Mr. Damon's home in Waterfield, Tom got quickly to +work on the little job he had come to do for his old friend. Of +course, Tom might have sent two of his mechanics from the works +down here to electrify the barbed wire entanglements that Mr. +Damon had erected around his chicken run. But the young inventor +knew that his eccentric friend would not consider the job done +right unless Tom attended to it personally. + +<P> +"Bless my cracked corn and ground bone mixture!" ejaculated the +chicken fancier. "We'll show these night-prowlers what's what, I +guess. One of my neighbors was robbed last night. And I would +have been if I hadn't set a watch while I drove over to see you, +Tom. Bless my spurs and hackles! but these thieves are getting +bold." + +<P> +"We'll fix 'em," said Tom, cheerfully, while Koku brought the +tools and wire to the hen run. "After we link up your supply of +the current with this wire fence it will be an unhappy chicken +burglar who interferes with it." + +<P> +"That was an unhappy fellow who got your charge of ammonia last +evening," whispered Mr. Damon. "Heard anything more of him?" + +<P> +"I think I have seen him. But Koku spoiled everything by trying +to eat him up," and Tom laughingly related what had occurred on +the way from Shopton. + +<P> +"Bless my boots!" said Mr. Damon. "You'd better see the police, +Tom." + +<P> +"What for?" + +<P> +"Why, they ought to know about such a fellow lurking about +Shopton. If he followed that Western railroad president here--" + +<P> +"We'll hope that he will follow Mr. Bartholomew away again," +chuckled Tom. "Mr. Bartholomew won't stay over to-day. When that +chap finds he has gone he probably will consider that there is no +use in his bothering me any further." + +<P> +Whether Tom believed this statement or not, he was destined to +realize his mistake within a very short time. At least, the fact +that he was being spied upon and that the enemy meant him +anything but good, seemed proved beyond a doubt that very week. + +<P> +Having done the little job for Mr. Damon, Tom allowed no other +outside matter to take up his attention. He shut himself into his +private experimental workshop and laboratory at the works each +day. He did not even come out for lunch, letting Rad bring him +down some sandwiches and a thermos bottle of cool milk. + +<P> +"The young boss is milling over something new," the men said, +and grinned at each other. They were proud of Tom and faithful to +his interests. + +<P> +Time was when there had been traitors in the works; but +unfaithful hands had been weeded out. There was not a man who +drew a pay envelope from the Swift Construction Company who would +not have done his best to save Tom and his father trouble. Such a +thing as a strike, or labor troubles of any kind, was not thought +of there. + +<P> +So Tom knew that whatever he did, or whatever plans he drew, in +his private room, he was safely guarded. Yet he always took a +portfolio home with him at night, for after dinner he frequently +continued his work of the day. Naturally during this first week +he did not get far in any problem connected with the proposed +electric locomotive. There were, however, rough drafts and +certain schedules that had to do with the matter jotted down. + +<P> +It was almost twelve at night. Tom had sat up in his own room +after his father had retired, and after the household was still. + +<P> +Eradicate was in bed and snoring under the roof, Tom knew. Just +where Koku was, it would have been hard to tell. Although a fine +and penetrating rain was falling, the giant might be roaming +about the waste land surrounding the stockade of the works. The +elements had no terrors for him. + +<P> +Tom locked his portfolio and stepped into his bathroom to wash +his hands before retiring. Before he snapped on the electric +light over the basin he chanced to glance through the newly set +windowpane which had replaced the one Rad had shattered in +escaping threatened impalement on Koku's spear. + +<P> +Although the clouds were thick and the rain was falling, there +was a certain humid radiance upon the roof of the porch under the +bathroom window. At least, the wet roof glistened so that any +moving figure on or beyond it was visible, + +<P> +"What's that?" muttered Tom, and he sank down lower than the +sill and crept slowly to the window. He merely raised himself +until his eyes were on a level with the sill. + +<P> +Coming up over the edge of the porch roof was a bulky figure. +It was so dimly outlined at first that Tom could scarcely be sure +that it was that of a man. + +<P> +However, it was not possible that any creature but a man would +be able to mount the lattice supporting the honeysuckle vines and +so creep out upon the porch roof. Once making secure his footing, +the enemy in the dark approached directly the bathroom window at +which Tom crouched. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="IX"></A> +<H3>Chapter IX Where was Koku?</H3> + + +<P> +Tom reached up swiftly and pushed over the lever that locked +the two window sashes. In doing this he set his own patent +burglar alarm. If that lever was turned back again, or broken, +the buzzers would be set ringing all over the house, and in +Koku's room over the garage. + +<P> +He did not believe that the marauder on the roof of the porch +could have seen the flash of his shirt-sleeved arm. But he took +no chance of being observed from outside by rising to his feet. + +<P> +On his hands and knees he crept away from the window, and out +of the bathroom. Once there, he stood up, grabbed the portfolio, +and without coat or vest and as he was, dashed out of the +bedroom. He had been positive that nobody but himself was astir +in the big house, and he was right. + +<P> +He did not punch the light button when he entered the library. +He knew where to put his hand upon an electric torch in the table +drawer, and he gained possession of this. + +<P> +Then he went to the safe and twirled the knob and watched the +indicator find the four numbers which were the "open sesame" to +the burglar and fire-proof door. + +<P> +He flung the portfolio into the inner compartment, closed both +doors, and twirled the combination-knob. Then Tom tiptoed to the +foot of the front stairs to listen. He could hear no sound from +above. + +<P> +He did not want his father to be startled, if the enemy did +break in; and he knew that old Rad, awakened out of a sound +sleep, would be worse than useless at such a time. + +<P> +After all, the giant, Koku, was his main dependence under these +circumstances. Tom crept to the outer door, opened it carefully, +and slipped out, letting the spring lock click behind him. For +the first time he realized that he was in his shirt and trousers +and wore only felt slippers on his feet. + +<P> +But he was locked out now. He had no key. He must run the risk +of the fine rain and the chill of the night air. + +<P> +He stepped off the end of the porch and ran around the house. +It was to the roof of the rear porch that the marauder had +climbed. But peer as he might from down in the yard, Tom could +see no moving figure up there near the bathroom window. It was +pitch dark against the wall of the house. + +<P> +He turned to glance up at the window of the sleeping room over +the garage where Koku was supposed to spend the night. But Tom +knew the giant was seldom there during the dark hours. He was as +much of a night-prowler as a wildcat or an owl. + +<P> +There was no light there in any case. But Koku did not use a +light much. He could see in the dark, like a wild animal. Tom did +not want to call him. If he must have Koku's help, he would have +to climb the stairs to his bedside. The giant always aroused as +wide awake as at noonday. + +<P> +But while the young inventor hesitated a sudden, but muffled, +snap--the breaking of metal--sounded. Tom knew instantly the +direction from which the sound came. + +<P> +Although he could see nothing up there at the bathroom window +because of the rain and the deep shadow, he knew that the +snapping sound meant the severing of the window lock that he had +so recently closed. Some instrument had been forced under the +bottom of the lower sash and pressure enough been brought to bear +to break the thin steel lever. + +<P> +On the heels of this sound came another. A muffled buzzing +somewhere in the house--again! again! And then, startlingly clear +from the room over the garage, the burglar alarm went off in +Koku's chamber. + +<P> +"It's all off now!" gasped Tom, and he ran to the foot of the +honeysuckle ladder up which he knew the enemy had climbed to get +to the roof of the porch. "If he comes down I'll have him!" +muttered Tom, staring up into the mist and gloom. + +<P> +"Fo' de lawsy's sake! 'Tain't mawnin', is it?" Rad's sleepy +voice was heard to announce. "No, it's da'k as--" And the voice +trailed off into silence. + +<P> +"Tom! Tom!" the young fellow heard his aroused father shouting. + +<P> +Tom knew that his father was in no danger. In fact Mr. Swift's +voice did not even betray apprehension. It was. to the garage Tom +looked for an explosion. But none came. + +<P> +If Koku was up there the prolonged buzzing of the alarm did not +awake him. Therefore he could not be there. Tom realized that if +the burglar was to be taken the whole affair fell upon his +shoulders. + +<P> +"And I've got my hands full, if it is the fellow with the big +feet that we saw on the Waterfield Road the other day," muttered +the young inventor. + +<P> +Nothing stirred on the porch roof. Moment after moment slipped +by. Tom began to grow more than amazed. He was worried. What +would happen next? + +<P> +His father had not cried out again. Stepping around to the end +of the roofed porch, Tom saw a light in Mr. Swift's room. Rad had +evidently gone to sleep again. It would take more than an +intermittent buzzer to rouse fully that colored man. + +<P> +"When old Morpheus has a strangle hold on Rad, Gabriel's trump +would scarcely awaken him," Tom muttered. + +<P> +What had become of the enemy? If it was an ordinary burglar he +would have feared the electric alarm instantly. The buzzers were +still working. But there was no sign of the man who had set them +off at the bathroom window. + +<P> +Suddenly Tom heard a door slam. It was from the front of the +house. Had his father come downstairs to look around and see what +the matter was? + +<P> +The young fellow started around the house on a run. He heard +heavy bootsoles spurning the gravel of the path to the front +gate. He arrived at the far corner of the house in time to see a +man dash through the gateway and run down the street, +disappearing finally into the fast-driving rain. + +<P> +"Fooled me! He went in and right through and down the stairs! +Out the front door!" gasped Tom. "Did he get anything? I wonder!" + +<P> +He sprang up to the front porch and tried the door. It was +locked again, of course. Should he ring the bell and get Rad or +his father down to the door? + +<P> +And then, of a sudden, the principal mystery of all this affair +bit into Tom Swift's mind. The burglar had made his escape. He +could relieve his father's anxiety later. It was his own +puzzlement of mind that he first wished to ease. + +<P> +Where was Koku? + +<P> +Even had the giant been circling the stockade around the shops +he surely must have come up to the home premises by this time. +His keen ears could not fail to hear the buzzers. They were still +going and would go until the switch was turned. + +<P> +If the giant was in his room--Tom turned suddenly and started +on a run for the rear premises. He still carried the hand-lamp +and it lit his way into the garage door and up the narrow +stairway. He shot the round beam of the lamp into Koku's room. + +<P> +He had been obliged to have an iron bedstead made to order for +the giant. It stood against one wall of the room. The buzzer was +snarling like a huge bumblebee above the head of the couch. +Below it sprawled the giant, eyes tightly closed and mouth +slightly ajar. From the lips of Koku were emitted sounds worthy +of Rad Sampson in his deepest slumbers! + +<P> +"Asleep?" gasped Tom, stepping cat-like into the room. + +<P> +And then he was suddenly aware of a sickish, heavy odor in the +chamber. The window had been closed. But it was something more +than stale air that Tom smelled. + +<P> +A folded cloth lay on the floor beside the couch. The young +fellow saw at once that it had been originally placed over the +giant's face, but had slid off. And lucky for Koku that it had +been dislodged! + +<P> +"Chloroform!" muttered Tom. "He's drugged. It is no wonder he +did not hear the burglar alarm." + +<P> +In any event, the incident made one deep impression on Tom's +mind. The spies who he believed were working for the Hendrickton +& Western Railroad and its owner, Montagne Lewis, were desperate +men. Tom could not believe that the fellow with the big feet was +alone in Shopton and was unaided in his attempts to find out what +Tom was doing. + +<P> +This attempt to burglarize the house betrayed the caliber of +the enemy. In chloroforming Koku he had taken the risk of +murdering the giant. Only the fact that the pad of saturated +cloth had fallen off Koku's face had, perhaps, saved the man from +suffocation. + +<P> +Tom did not tell the giant when he aroused what the matter with +him was. Koku was ill enough! He was wrenched by interior spasms +that seemed almost to tear his huge body to pieces. + +<P> +"What done got into dat big lump o' bone an' grizzle?" demanded +Eradicate. "He looks like, he swallowed a volcano, and it just +got to wo'kin' right. My lawsy!" + +<P> +"He is a sick man, all right," admitted Tom. "Looks like he +wouldn't try to stab me to deaf wid no spear no mo'," went on +Rad, inclined to approve of Koku's sufferings. + +<P> +"If he died you'd be mighty sorry, old man," declared Tom, +sternly. + +<P> +"Sho' would. Be a mighty hard job to bury him," was the callous +response. + +<P> +Just the same, the crotchety old colored man began to hop +around in lively fashion with hot water, and later with coffee +and other stimulants; and he nursed Koku all day as though he +were a big baby. + +<P> +Koku, who had never been ill before in his life, was inclined to lay +the trouble to an evil genius of some kind. Perhaps, in spite of his +half-civilized state, he was still a devil-worshiper. At any rate, he +had a vital respect for the forces of evil. + +<P> +Naturally he considered this unknown and unexpected misery he +suffered the result of malignant influences of some kind. Tom did +not want him to suspect that the man with the big feet had any +possible part in the mystery. Had Koku suspected this, and had he +got his hands on the spy, the latter could never have been +successfully used in that sort of work again. In all probability +he would have said that he had had enough. + +<P> +Meanwhile Tom made a point of considering each step he took alone +thereafter with particular care. He had a bodyguard--usually the giant +after the latter had recovered--between the works and the house. He +did not bring home any more the schedules or drawings connected with +the electric locomotive that he proposed to have built and to test +inside the stockade of the Swift Construction Company. + +<P> +He even put a private detective to work on the matter of +finding a man named Andy O'Malley who might be lurking around +Shopton. He had a pretty clear description of the fellow, for he +had not only seen him once, face to face by daylight, but Tom had +written to the president of the H. & P. A. and had got from that +gentleman a clear picture in words of the spy whom Mr. +Bartholomew believed was working in the interests of Montagne +Lewis. + +<P> +"If O'Malley appears in Shopton, look out. He is a bad +character. He is not only a notorious gunman, with several +warrants out for him in these parts, but he is a cruel and +desperate man in any event. The minute you mark him, have him +arrested and telegraph me. We'll get him extradited and put him +through for ten years or more right in this county." The private +investigator, however, as the weeks went by, could not find any +man who filled O'Malley's description. + +<P> +Meanwhile Tom Swift had got what he called "a lead" and was +working day and night upon the invention that he believed might +make even the Jandel people respectful, if not a bit envious. + +<P> +First of all Tom had arranged to have built all around inside +the stockade a track of rails heavy enough to stand the wear and +tear of the heaviest locomotive built. Meanwhile the various +parts of his locomotive were being built in several shops, but +would be shipped to the Swift Construction Company and assembled +in Tom's try-out shed. + +<P> +Great secrecy was of course maintained. Aside from the fact +that the new invention had something to do with electric motive +power, nobody about the shops could say what the new industry +portended. Save, of course, the Swifts themselves, Ned Newton, +and Mr. Damon, who was the Swifts' closest friend and sometimes +had furnished additional capital for Tom's experiments. + +<P> +There was a thing that Mr. Damon furnished Tom at this time +that proved in the end to be of much importance. Before Tom had +seized upon this idea of his eccentric friend, and had made +proper use of it, something happened that came near to wrecking +utterly Tom's invention and completely putting an end to Tom +himself as an inventor. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="X"></A> +<H3>Chapter X A Strange Conversation</H3> + + +<P> +Mr. Wakefield Damon frequently came to the shops, for he was +not alone very friendly with the Swifts, but he was greatly +interested in Tom's new invention. + +<P> +"If it goes as good as what you did for my chicken run," he +declared, chuckling, "bless my dampers! you'll beat all the +electric locomotives in the market." + +<P> +"That is easy, perhaps," said Tom smiling. "There are not many +in the market at the present time. But I don't know what mine +will be. This is going to be some job." + +<P> +"Bless my flues and clinkers!" cried Mr. Damon, "you are not +losing hope, Tom Swift? Look what you did for my chicken run. And +believe me, that entanglement will give a shock that makes a man +stand right up and shake." + +<P> +"Have you tried it yourself?" asked Tom. + +<P> +"No. But my servant did. I saw him through the window of my +study doing some kind of a shimmy with the shovel. Thought he'd +gone crazy. Then I saw what he had done. It was early in the +morning and I hadn't turned the current off, and he had put one +hand against the wires. When he dropped the shovel as I told him +to, bless my plyers and nippers! he was all right." + +<P> +"The current would not seriously hurt him," said Tom. "I was +careful about that." + +<P> +"It killed two tomcats," said Mr. Damon. "I certainly was glad +of that, for those two ash-barrel cats kept the whole +neighborhood awake. Bless my claws and whiskers! how those two +cats did use to yell. But when one tried to climb the wires and +the other sprang on him, it was all over! That is, all over but +the burial party." + +<P> +Mr. Damon was on the ground when the mechanical equipment and a +part of the electrical equipment of the new locomotive arrived +and was set up in the erection shed. The length of the machine +was what first impressed Ned Newton as well as Mr. Damon. + +<P> +"Bless my yardstick!" exclaimed the eccentric +man, "it's as long as a gossip's tongue. What a +monster it will he!" + +<P> +"How long is it, Tom?" asked Ned Newton. + +<P> +"When completed, and standing on its drivers and bogie truck and +trailer truck, from cow-catcher to rear bumper it will be a few +inches over ninety feet. And that is slightly longer than the +biggest electric locomotive so far built. But length does not so +much enter into the value of the machine. I would have it built +more compactly if I could." + +<P> +"What is the horsepower?" asked Mr. Damon. + +<P> +"I figure on forty-four hundred horsepower. The power must be +received from a three thousand-volt direct-current trolley. +There are twelve driving-wheels, as you can see. Each pair of +drivers will be driven by a twin-motor geared to the axles +through a system of flexible spring drive. Remember, I have got +to obtain both speed as well as power in this locomotive, for it +is being built to pull a passenger train--a fast cross-continent +express--to compete with the best passenger equipment in the +country." + +<P> +"Bless my combination ticket!" murmured Mr. Damon. "You have +picked out some task, and no mistake, Tom Swift." + +<P> +"He'll do it," cried Ned, with his usual optimism when Tom had +once started on any experimental work. "Of course he will. Just +as she stands there now, only half put together, I would be +willing to bet a farm that she is a better locomotive than the +Jandel patent." + +<P> +"Three cheers!" laughed Tom. "Ned is as enthusiastic as usual. +But believe me, friends, we are not going to turn out a better +locomotive than the Jandel without both thought and work." + +<P> +His friends' enthusiasm was heartening, however. No doubt of that. He +never let them into his experiment room, any more than he allowed his +workmen in there. Aside from his own father, nobody really knew what +Tom Swift was doing behind that always-locked door. + +<P> +The huge structure of the locomotive was set up on the driving +wheels and leading and trailing trucks by Tom's chief foreman and +a picked crew. Just such another locomotive had never been seen +anywhere about Shopton. Naturally the men at work on the monster +began to speak of it outside the works. + +<P> +Not that they betrayed any secrets regarding the locomotive. In +fact, as yet none of them knew anything about what Tom intended +to do with the big machine. But the story soon circulated that +Tom Swift, the young inventor, was about to show all the previous +builders of electric locomotives how such machines should be +built. + +<P> +It was even whispered that Tom's objective was a two-mile-a-minute +locomotive. And when this was publicly known the information was not +long in seeping to the ears of certain men who had been keeping as +close a watch as they dared on the Swift Construction Company and the +activities of Tom himself. + +<P> +Ned Newton went to the bank one Friday for money for the +payroll of the working and clerical force of the Swift Company. +It was an errand he never relegated to any employee. + +<P> +Ned had once worked himself in the bank, and naturally he knew +many of its employees as well as the officials. With his back to +the general waiting room, he sat at the vice president's desk +discussing some minor matter. Only a railing divided the vice +president's enclosure from the long settee on which waiting +customers of the bank were seated. + +<P> +Ned knew that there were two men directly behind him, +whispering together; but he paid no attention to them until he +heard this phrase: + +<P> +"It's time to explode in just five hours; then good-night to +that invention, whatever it is." + +<P> +This statement might mean almost anything--or nothing. Ordinarily Ned +Newton might not have paid any consideration to the words. But +"invention" was a term that he could not overlook. His mind then was +fixed upon Tom's invention almost as closely as the mind of the young +inventor himself. + +<P> +Ned turned around slowly, as though idly, indeed, and tried to +see the faces of the two men behind him. One was a small, neatly +dressed man of professional appearance. He wore a Vandyke beard +and eyeglasses. The other's face Ned could not see; but as they +both rose just then and strolled toward the door of the bank he +could observe that the fellow was big and burly. + +<P> +Ned wheeled to his friend, the vice president, and asked: + +<P> +"Who are those men, Mr. Stanley? Do you know them?" + +<P> +The pair were just going out through the revolving door. The +vice president craned his neck for a look at them. + +<P> +"Don't know the small man, Ned. But the other is named +O'Malley, I believe. Somebody introduced him here and he gets a +check cashed occasionally. Not a customer of the bank." + +<P> +At that moment the name "O'Malley" did not mean anything to Ned +Newton. But he bade his friend good-bye and went out after the +two men. They had disappeared. + +<P> +Rad was in the electric runabout, waiting for him. The words +spoken by O'Malley (Ned thought it must have been he who spoke of +the invention because of his deep voice) continued to disturb +Ned's thought. + +<P> +"Rad," he said, as he got into the runabout, "did you ever +hear the name O'Malley?" + +<P> +"Sure has," declared the colored man. "And it's a bad name and +a bad man owns it." + +<P> +"Do you mean that?" exclaimed the financial manager of the +Swift Construction Company, with increasing apprehension. "Who is +he?" + +<P> +"Why, Mr. Newton, don't you 'member dat man?" + +<P> +"Who is he?" repeated Ned. + +<P> +"Dat Andy O'Malley is de one what tried to hold up Massa Tom +dat time. O'Malley is de man what's been spyin' on Massa Tom--" + +<P> +"Great grief!" exclaimed Ned, breaking in with excitement. +"I'll drive as fast as I can, Rad. There is something wrong at +the works, I do believe!" + +<P> +"What's wrong, Mr. Ned?" demanded Rad. "We just come from dere, +and everyt'ing was all right." + +<P> +"I just heard something that O'Malley said. I want to get back +in a hurry. I believe that scoundrel is attempting to blow up +Tom's locomotive. We've got to get to the works just as quick as +we can." + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XI"></A> +<H3>Chapter XI Touch and Go</H3> + + +<P> +The mechanical equipment of the new locomotive was now complete +and Tom was establishing the electrical equipment as rapidly as +possible. He not only acted as overseer of this work, but in +overalls and jumper he was doing a good share of the work +himself. + +<P> +The weight of the electrical equipment when it was finally set +up was not far from two hundred thousand pounds. Altogether, when +the oil, sand, and water tanks were filled, the great machine +would weigh two hundred and eighty-five tons--a monster indeed! + +<P> +"She is going to take a lot of current to run her," said Tom to +his father, who was standing by. "When I come to arrange with the +Shopton Electric Company for power, it's a question if they can +give me all I need. And I must have plenty of current to make +sure that my motors till the bill." + +<P> +"As your tests will be made in the daytime, the company should +be able to furnish the power you need," rejoined Mr. Swift. "At +night, of course, when they must furnish so much light as well as +power, it might be difficult for them to give you the proper +current." + +<P> +"Forty-four hundred horsepower is a big demand," went on Tom. +"I've got to have at least a three-thousand-volt direct-current +to feed my motors. I will soon have to take up the matter with +the Electric Company." + +<P> +The heavy work of setting the electrical parts of the locomotive had +been finished the day previous, and the track-derrick was removed. Tom +was engaged in adjusting the more delicate parts of the equipment and +had merely stepped down from the cab to speak to Mr. Swift. + +<P> +Now he climbed back into the interior of the great machine +which, in a general way, looked like a box car. An electric +locomotive has not much of the appearance of a steam engine. The +machinery is all boxed in and the entire floor of the locomotive +is above even the drivers. + +<P> +These six pairs of driving wheels were about seventy inches in +diameter, while the diameter of the leading and following truck-wheels +was but half that number of inches. + +<P> +Mr. Swift had turned away from the locomotive when Tom put his +head out of the door again. + +<P> +"Do you hear that, father?" he demanded in a puzzled tone. + +<P> +"Hear what, Tom?" asked the old inventor, looking up. + +<P> +"That ticking sound? I declare, I'd think it was one of those +death-watch beetles had got in here. Sounds like a big watch +ticking. I can't make it out." + +<P> +"Where is it? What is it?" repeated Mr. Swift. "I hear nothing +down here on the floor of the shed." + +<P> +"Well, it gets me," muttered Tom, and disappeared again. In a +moment he called out: "Say, you fellows! who left his bundle of +overalls in here? Better take 'em out to be manicured. Whose are +these?" + +<P> +Two or three of the mechanics working near looked up from their +tasks. Mr. Swift turned back to the door of the cab again. + +<P> +"What is the matter now, Tom?" he asked, in added curiosity. + +<P> +"That bundle, Dad." + +<P> +Tom once more appeared and addressed the workmen: "Whose bundle +of dirty overalls is this in here? Come and take 'em away. They +shouldn't have been left here." + +<P> +"Why, Mr. Tom," said the foreman who was near, "I didn't see +any soiled overalls in there when I left last evening. Any of you +fellows," he asked the group of hands, "know anything about any +overalls?" + +<P> +"The bundle is here all right. Pushed back against the third +series motors. Come up here, one of you fellows." + +<P> +Suddenly there was a noise at the end of the shed where the +door to the offices lay. Two figures burst through from the glass +doors and charged down the lanes between the lathes and cranes. +Ned Newton led, Rad Sampson, his face a mouse-gray with fear, +followed. + +<P> +"Massa Tom! Massa Tom!" shouted the colored man. "Look out fo' +de bomb! Look out fo' de bomb!" + +<P> +The foreman sprang toward the high door of the locomotive where +Tom stood, staring out. The young inventor, quick as his mind +usually functioned, did not understand at all what Eradicate +meant. + +<P> +"There's something wrong in there, Mr. Tom!" shouted the +foreman. "Come down, sir, and let me get up there and see what it +is." + +<P> +But Mr. Barton Swift grasped the meaning of what was going on +more quickly than anybody else. Tom's father, Tom frequently +said, had spent so many years investigating chemical and +mechanical mysteries that he saw more clearly and more exactly +into and through most problems than other people. + +<P> +His raised voice now cut through the rumble of machinery and +all the other noises of the shop. Even Rad Sampson's delirious +cry was dwarfed by Mr. Swift's sharp tone: + +<P> +"Tom! The ticking of that watch! That means danger!" + +<P> +The declaration seemed to rip away a curtain from Tom's +thoughts. Perhaps Rad's cry about "de bomb" aided the young +inventor to understand the peril that threatened. + +<P> +The faint ticking sound that had begun to annoy him during the +past few minutes betrayed the nature of the threatening peril. +Tom swung back from the open doorway of the locomotive cab, +reached in to the space between the motors, and seized the bundle +of overall stuff that he had previously spied. + +<P> +He knew instantly that the rapid ticking came from that bundle. +It could be nothing but a time bomb. He had heard of such things +and, indeed, had seen one before, an infernal machine which, set +like an alarm clock, would go off at a certain time. That +indicated time might be an hour hence, or might be within a few +seconds! Ned Newton, almost at the spot, shouted to Tom when the +latter reappeared with the bundle in his hands: + +<P> +"Get down out of that, Tom Swift! Quick! For your life!" + +<P> +But Tom was cool enough now. He saw his father's white, +strained face at one side and the young inventor could even smile +at him. Behind the foreman was set a barrel of water in which +tools were cooled and tempered. + +<P> +"Stoop, McAvoy!" Tom shouted, and tossed the bundle from him. + +<P> +Had the infernal machine exploded in midair Tom would not have +been surprised. But McAvoy dodged, Rad clapped his hands over his +ears, and, even Ned Newton halted like a bird-dog at point. + +<P> +The bundle splashed into the barrel of water. It sank to the +bottom. There was no explosion. When a few seconds had passed the +group of excited men began to relax. The barrel was carried +carefully to a neighboring field. + +<P> +"Fo' de lawsy sake!" gasped Rad, and got a full breath again. + +<P> +"That was touch and go, sure enough," muttered Ned Newton. + +<P> +"Those overalls sure went to the wash, Boss," declared the +foreman. "What was in 'em? And who put 'em in the cab up there?" + +<P> +But Tom dropped down the ladder and went to his father. Their +hands sought each other and gripped, hard. + +<P> +"Better not tell Mary about this," whispered Tom. "She's +worried enough as it is." + +<P> +"Right, Tom," agreed the old inventor. "From this time on we +cannot be too careful. If there proves to be an infernal machine +in that package we may be sure that we are dealing with desperate +men. We've got to keep our eyes open." + +<P> +"Wide open," added Ned. + +<P> +"I'll say we have," said Tom. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XII"></A> +<H3>Chapter XII The Try-Out Day Arrives</H3> + + +<P> +It did not need Ned Newton's story of what he had overheard at +the bank to prove that an attempt had been made to blow to pieces +Tom Swift's electric locomotive before even it had been tested. + +<P> +An examination of the water-soaked package in the open yard of +the shops of the Swift Construction Company, proved that there +was enough explosive in the bomb to blow the shed itself to +pieces. But the stopping of the clockwork attachment of course +made the bomb harmless. + +<P> +"The main thing to be explained," Tom said, when he and his +father and Ned discussed the particulars of the affair, "is not +who did it, or what it was done for. Those are comparatively easy +questions to answer." + +<P> +"Yes," agreed Ned. "O'Malley did it, or caused it to be done; +and it was an attempt to balk Mr. Bartholomew and the H, & P. A. +rather than a direct attack upon the Swift Construction Company." + +<P> +"I am afraid, however," remarked Mr. Swift, "that Tom has +aroused the personal antagonism of this spy from the West. We +must not overlook that." + +<P> +"I don't," replied the young inventor. "O'Malley has it in for +me. No doubt of that. But he could not be sure that I would be +hurt by the explosion he arranged for." + +<P> +"True," said his father. + +<P> +"The attempt was against my invention. And O'Malley was +doubtless urged to destroy the locomotive that I am building +because my success will aid Mr. Bartholomew and his railroad." + +<P> +"Quite agreed," said Ned. "But--" + +<P> +"But the important question," interrupted Tom, "is this: How +did the bomb get into the interior of the electric locomotive? +That is the first and most important problem. Its having been +done once warns us that it can be done again until our system of +guarding the works is changed." + +<P> +"We have five watchmen on the job at night, and the gates are +never opened in the daytime to anybody for any purpose without a +pass," declared Ned. "I don't see how that fellow got in here +with the time bomb." + +<P> +"Exactly. It shows that there is a fault in our system +somewhere," said Tom grimly. "We cannot surround the place at +night with an armed guard. It would cost too much. Even Koku +cannot be everywhere. And I have reason to know that he was +wandering about the stockade last night as usual." + +<P> +"The fellow was pretty sharp to slip by," Ned observed. + +<P> +"The stockade is no mean barrier, especially with the rows of +barbed wire at the top," said Mr. Swift. + +<P> +"Barbed wire! That's it!" exclaimed Tom. It was just here that +Mr. Damon's idea for guarding his prize buff Orpingtons came into +play in Tom's scheme of things. "Barbed wire doesn't seem to keep +out spies," he added slowly. "But believe me, something else +will!" + +<P> +For Tom to think of a thing was to start action without delay. +Immediately he called a gang from the shops and set them to work +stringing copper wire along the top of the stockade. + +<P> +He was sure that the man who had set the time bomb in place had +got into the enclosure over the fence. If he tried the same trick +again he was very apt to have the surprise of his life! + +<P> +Each night when the shops closed and the watchmen went on duty, +a current of electricity was turned into those copper wires +entwined with the barbed wire entanglement at the top of the +stockade that would certainly double up any marauder who sought +to get over the top. + +<P> +However, no further attempt was made against Tom's peace of +mind and against his invention during the immediate weeks that +followed. The young inventor was so closely engaged in his work +that he scarcely left the house or the confines of the shops. +Even Mary Nestor saw very little of him. + +<P> +But Mary realized fully that at such a time as this Tom must +give all his thought and energy to the task in hand. She was +proud of Tom's ability and took a deep interest in his +inventions. + +<P> +"I want to see the test when you try the locomotive, Tom," she +told him, when she came to the shops the first time to look at +the monster locomotive. "What a wonderful thing it is!" + +<P> +"Its wonder is yet to be proved," rejoined the young inventor. +"I believe I've got the right idea; but nothing is sure as yet." + +<P> +In addition to his mechanical contrivances inside the +locomotive, Tom had to arrange for an increased supply of +electric power to drive the huge machine around the track that +was being built inside the stockade. + +<P> +A regular station had to be built for receiving the electricity +in a 100,000-volt alternating current and delivering it to the +locomotive in a 3,000-volt direct current. Therefore, this +station had two functions to perform--reducing the voltage and +changing the current from alternating to direct. + +<P> +The reduction of the voltage was accomplished as follows: The +100,000-volt alternating current was received through an oil +switch and was conveyed to a high-tension current distributor +made up of three lines of copper tubing, thus forming the source +of power for this station. + +<P> +From the current distributor the current was conducted through +other oil switches to the transformers--entering at 100,000 volts +and emerging at 2,300 volts. Then the current was conducted from +the transformers through switches to the motor-generator sets and +became the power employed to operate them. + +<P> +The motor generator consisted of one alternating current motor +driving two direct current generators. The motor Tom established +in his station was of the 60-cycle synchronous type, which means +that the current changes sixty times each second. + +<P> +There were two sets, each generating a 1,500 or 2,000 volt +direct current; and the two generators being permanently +connected, delivered a combined direct current of 3,000 volts--as +high a direct voltage current, Tom knew, as had ever been adopted +for railroad work. The current voltage for ordinary street +railway work is 550 volts. + +<P> +"I could run even this big machine," Tom explained to Ned +Newton, "with a much lighter current. But out there on the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos line the transforming stations deliver this +high voltage to the locomotives. I want to test mine under +similar conditions." + +<P> +"This is going to be an expensive test, Tom," said Ned, +grumbling a little. "The cost-sheets are running high." + +<P> +"We are aiming at a big target," returned the inventor. "You've +got to bait with something bigger than sprats to catch a whale, +Ned." + +<P> +"Humph! Suppose you don't catch the whale after all?" + +<P> +"Don't lose hope," returned Tom, calmly. "I am going after this +whale right, believe me! This is one of the biggest contracts--if +not the very biggest--we ever tackled." + +<P> +"It looks as if the expense account would run the highest," +admitted the financial manager. + +<P> +"All right. Maybe that is so. But I'll spend the last cent I've +got to perfect this patent. I am going to beat the Jandels if it +is humanly possible to do so." + +<P> +"I can only hope you will, Tom. Why, this track and the +overhead trolley equipment is going to cost a small fortune. I +had no idea when you signed that contract with Mr. Bartholomew +that so much money would have to be spent in merely the +experimental stage of the thing." + +<P> +Ned Newton possessed traits of caution that could not be +gainsaid. That was one thing that made him such a successful +financial manager for the Swift Company. He watched expenditures +as closely now as he had when the business was upon a much more +limited footing. + +<P> +The rails laid along the inside of the stockade made a two-mile +track, as well ballasted as any regular railroad right of way. In +addition the overhead equipment was costly. + +<P> +To eliminate any possibility of the trolley wire breaking, a +strong steel cable, called a catenary, was slung just above the +trolley wire. To this catenary the trolley wire was suspended by +hangers at short intervals. + +<P> +These cables were strung from brackets so that a single row of +poles could be used, save at the curves, at which cross-span +construction was used. The trolley wire itself was of the 4/0 +size, and was the largest diameter copper wire ever employed for +railroad purposes. + +<P> +Several weeks had now passed since the great locomotive had +been assembled in the erection shed and the cab of the locomotive +completed. It really was a monster machine, and any stranger +coming into the place and seeing it for the first time must have +marveled at the grim power suggested by the mere bulk of the +structure. + +<P> +When the day of the first test arrived Tom allowed only his +most intimate friends to be present. Mary Nestor accompanied Mr. +Swift into the shops at the time appointed, and she was as +excited over the outcome of the test as Tom himself. + +<P> +Ned Newton and the mechanical force of the +shops knocked off work to become spectators at the exhibition. +The only other outsider was Mr. Damon. + +<P> +"Bless my alternating current!" cried the eccentric gentleman. +"I would not miss this for the world. If you tried to shut me +out, Tom, I'd climb over the stockade to get in." + +<P> +"You'd better not," Tom told him, dryly. "If you tried that +you'd get a worse shock than any chicken thief will get that +tries to steal your buff Orpingtons." + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XIII"></A> +<H3>Chapter XIII Hopes and Fears</H3> + + +<P> +Tom climbed into the huge cab of the electric locomotive. In +fact, the cab was the most of it, for every part of the mechanism +save the drivers was covered by the eighty-odd foot structure. +From the peak of the pilot to the rear bumper the length was +ninety feet and some inches. + +<P> +As Tom slid the monster out upon the yard track the small crowd +cheered. At least, the locomotive had the power to move, and to +the unknowing ones, at least, that seemed a great and wonderful +thing. + +<P> +What they saw was apparently a box-car--like a mail coach, only +with more high windows--ten feet wide, its roof more than +fourteen feet from the rails, its locked pantagraph adding two +feet more to its height. + +<P> +Just what was in the cab--the water and oil tanks, the steam-heating +boiler to supply heat and hot water to the train the monster was to +draw, the motors and the many other mechanical contrivances--was +hidden from the spectators. + +<P> +In fact, since completing the electrical equipment of the +Hercules 0001, as Tom had named the locomotive, the young +inventor had allowed nobody inside the cab, any more than he +allowed visitors inside his private workshop. Even Mr. Swift did +not know all the results of Tom's experimental work. In a general +way the older inventor knew the trend of his son's attempts, but +the details and the results of Tom's experiments, the latter told +to nobody. + +<P> +But as the huge locomotive rolled into the yard and followed +the more or less circular track inside the yard fence, it was +plain to all of the onlookers that the motive-power was there all +right! Just what speed could be coaxed from the feed-cable +overhead was another question. + +<P> +Nor did Tom Swift try for much speed on this first test of the +Hercules 0001. He went around the two-mile track several times +before bringing his machine to a stop near the crowd of +onlookers. He came to the open door of the cab. + +<P> +"One thing is sure, Tom!" shouted Ned. "It do move!" + +<P> +"Bless my slippery skates!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "it slides +right along, Tom. You've done it, my boy--you've done it!" + +<P> +"It looks good from where I stand, my son," said Mr. Barton +Swift. + +<P> +It was Mary who suspected that Tom was not wholly satisfied--as +yet, at least--with the test of the Hercules 0001. She cried: + +<P> +"Tom! is it all right?" + +<P> +"Nothing is ever all right--that is, not perfect--in this old +world, I guess, Mary," returned the young inventor. "But I am not +discouraged. As Ned says, the old contraption 'do move.' How fast +she'll move is another thing." + +<P> +"What time did you make?" asked Mr. Swift. + +<P> +"Not above fifteen miles an hour." + +<P> +"Whew!" whistled Ned dolefully. "That is a long way from--" + +<P> +Tom made an instant motion and Ned's careless lips were sealed. +It was not generally known among the men the speed which Tom +hoped to obtain with his new invention. + +<P> +"It is a wide shoot at the target, that is true," Tom said, +soberly. "But remember I cannot test it for speed on this short +and almost circular track. Right at the start, however, I see +that something about the power-feed must be changed." + +<P> +"What is that?" asked Mary, curiously. + +<P> +"I have only had rigged here one trolley wire. There must be +two attached alternately to the catenary cable. Such a form of +twin conductor trolley will permit the collection of a heavy +current through the twin contact of the pantagraph with the two +trolley wires, and should assure a sparkless collection of the +current at any speed. You noticed that when I took the sharper +curves there was an aerial exhibition. I want to do away with the +fireworks." + +<P> +The fact that the Hercules 0001 was a going and apparently +powerful draught engine satisfied most of the onlookers that Tom +Swift was on the road to final and overwhelming success. The +mechanics, indeed, saw no reason why the locomotive could not be +run right out of the yard on the freight track and coupled to the +first train going West. Of course, the Hercules 0001 could not be +delivered to the Hendrickton & Pas Alos under its own power. + +<P> +When the locomotive was run back into the shed and stood once +more on the erection track, Tom confessed to Mary and Ned, while +Mr. Damon and Mr. Swift were looking through the huge cab, that +he was not at all pleased with the action of the machine. + +<P> +"I have the best equipment of any electric locomotive on the rails +to-day. I am sure of that," he said. "The Hercules Three-Oughts-One is +not as long as those electric locomotives of the C. M. &. St. P. But +that's all right. I have built mine more compactly and, properly +geared, it should have all the power of either the +Baldwin-Westinghouse or the Jandel locomotive." + +<P> +"Then, Tom dear, what is wrong?" cried Mary. + +<P> +"Speed. That is what troubles me. Have I got anything like the +speed I am aiming for?" + +<P> +"Two miles a minute!" breathed Ned Newton. "Some speed, boy!" + +<P> +"And must you have such great speed, Tom?" repeated Mary. + +<P> +"That is in my contract. Not only that, but to be of much use +to the H. & P. A. this locomotive must have such speed--or mighty +near it. Of course, under ordinary conditions, two miles a minute +for a locomotive and train of heavy freights would burn up the +track--maybe melt the flanges and throw everything out of gear." + +<P> +"Why try for it, then?" demanded Mary. + +<P> +"It is the power suggested by the possession of such speed that +we want in the Hercules Three-Oughts-One. That two miles a minute +is a fiction of the imagination, cannot be claimed. It is +possible. It is humanly possible. It is coming." + +<P> +"Then you must be the fellow to first accomplish it, Tom +Swift," Ned declared. + +<P> +"Of course, if anybody can do it, you can, Tom," agreed the +girl complacently. + +<P> +"Thanks--many, many thanks," laughed the young inventor. "I'd +be able to harness the sun and stars, and put a surcingle around +the moon if I came up to my friends' opinion of my ability." + +<P> +"Nevertheless, two-miles-a-minute is my objective point, and I +do not believe it is visionary. Consider the motor-cycle. Ninety +miles an hour has long been possible with that, and some tests +have shown a speed of over a hundred and ten. That is not far +from my mark." + +<P> +"Some Mallet locomotives of the oil-burning type have achieved +from eighty-five to ninety-five miles an hour with a heavy load +behind them. They are very powerful machines. The Mogul mountain +climbers are powerful, too, although they are not built for +speed." + +<P> +"The electric Goliaths built for the C. M. & St. P., and the +Jandels, are both very speedy under certain conditions. The +former has a maximum speed of sixty-five miles and the Jandel +slightly faster." + +<P> +"But that is only half what that Mr. Bartholomew demands of +your invention, Tom!" Mary cried. + +<P> +"That is a fact. I must reach twice sixty miles an hour, +anyway, to meet his demand and gain that hundred thousand bonus. +But I have the advantage of a knowledge of all that has been done +before my time in the matter of electrical locomotive +construction." + +<P> +"The world do move," repeated Ned. "You believe that you have +the edge on all the other inventors?" + +<P> +"Along the line of this development--yes," said Tom. "I am +taking up the work where former experimenters ended theirs. Why +shouldn't I find the right combination to bring about a +two-miles-a-minute drive?" + +<P> +"Oh, Tom!" cried Mary, with clasped hands, "I hope you do." + +<P> +"I hope I do, too," said Tom, grimly. "At least, if trying will +bring it, success is going to come my way." + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XIV"></A> +<H3>Chapter XIV Speed</H3> + + +<P> +More than four months had passed since the contract had been +signed, when Tom made his first yard-test of the Hercules 0001. +For a month nothing had been seen or heard of Andy O'Malley, +whose identity as the spy, set by Montagne Lewis to cripple Tom's +attempt to help the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad, had been +determined beyond any doubt. + +<P> +The private inquiry agent that Tom had engaged to find O'Malley +had been unsuccessful in his work. The spy had disappeared from +Shopton and the vicinity. Nevertheless, the inventor did not for +a moment overlook the possibility that the enemy might again +strike. + +<P> +Every night the electric current was turned into the wires that +capped the stockade of the Swift Construction Company enclosure. +Koku beat a path around the enclosure at night, getting such +short sleep as he seemed to need in the forenoon. + +<P> +"Dat crazy cannibal," grumbled Rad, "got it in his haid dat +he's gwine to he'p Massa Tom by walkin' out o' nights like he was +dis here Western, de great sprinter, Ma lawsy me! Koku ain't got +brains enough to fill up a hic'ry nut shell. Dat he ain't." + +<P> +Nothing anybody else could do for Tom ever satisfied Rad. The +colored man fully believed that he was the only person really +necessary for Tom's success and peace of mind. In fact, Rad +thought that even Ned Newton's duties as financial manager of the +firm were scarcely of as much importance. + +<P> +When he heard that Tom was going West, after a time, with the +electric locomotive, to try it out on the tracks of the +H. & P. A., Rad was quite sure that if he did not go along, the +test would not come out right. + +<P> +"O' course yo'll need me, Massa Tom," he said, confidently. +"Couldn't git along widout me nohow. Yo' knows, sir, I allus has +to go 'long wid yo' to fix things." + +<P> +"Don't you think father will need you here, Rad?" Tom asked the +faithful old fellow. "You're getting old--" + +<P> +"Me gittin' old?" cried, the colored man. "Huh! Yo' don't know +'bout dis here chile. I don't purpose ever to git old. I been +gray-haided since befo' yo' was born; but I ain't old yit!" + +<P> +Mr. Damon chanced to be present at this conversation, and he +was highly amused, yet somewhat impressed, too, by the colored +man's statement. + +<P> +"Bless my own antiquity!" he exclaimed. "I agree with Rad, Tom. +It's us old fellows who know what to do when an emergency of any +kind arises. Experience teaches more than inspiration." + +<P> +"Oh," said Tom, laughing, "I do not deny the value of old +friends at any stage of the game." + +<P> +"Bless my roving nature! I am glad to hear you say that. For I +tell you right now, Tom, I want to be out there when you make +your final test of the locomotive." + +<P> +"Do you mean that you will go West when I take out the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One?" cried Tom. + +<P> +"It's just what I want to do. Bless my traveling bag, Tom! I +mean to be present at your final triumph." + +<P> +"What will happen to your buff Orpingtons while you are gone?" +asked the young inventor, gravely. + +<P> +"I have got my servant trained to look after those chickens," +declared Mr. Damon. "And this invention of yours is really more +important than even my buff Orpingtons." + +<P> +"Just the same," remarked Tom to his eccentric friend, when Rad +had left the room,. "I've got to fix it so that Eradicate stays +at home with father. He doesn't really know how old and broken he +is--poor fellow." + +<P> +"His heart is green, Tom. That's what is the matter with Rad." + +<P> +"He is a loyal old fellow. But I shall take Koku with me, not +Rad," and the young inventor spoke decidedly. "And that is going +to trouble poor Rad a lot." + +<P> +The prospect of going West, however, was not the main subject +of Tom's thoughts at this time. As the weeks passed and the end +of the six months of experiment came nearer, the inventor was +more and more troubled by the principal difficulty which had from +the first confronted him. Speed. + +<P> +That was the mark he had set himself. A maximum speed of two +miles a minute on a level track for the Hercules 0001. With the +speed already attained by both steam and electric locomotives in +the more recent past, this was by no means an impossible +attainment, as Tom quite well knew. + +<P> +But he became convinced that the conditions under which he +labored made it impossible for him to be positive of just how +great a speed on a straight, level track his invention would +attain. + +<P> +There was no electrified stretch of railroad near Shopton on +which the Hercules 0001 might be tested. The track inside the +Swift Company's enclosure did not offer the conditions the +inventor needed. He felt balked. + +<P> +"I believe I have hit the right idea in my improvements on the +Jandel patents," he told Ned Newton when they were discussing the +matter. "But believing is one thing. Knowing is another!" + +<P> +"Theoretically it works out all right, I suppose?" questioned +Ned. + +<P> +"Quite. I can prove on paper that I've got the speed. But that +isn't enough. You can see that." + +<P> +"Impossible to be sure on the trackage already built here, +Tom?" + +<P> +"I haven't dared give her all she'll take," grumbled Tom. "If I +did, I fear she'd jump the rails and I'd have a wreck on my +hands." + +<P> +"And maybe kill yourself!" exclaimed Ned. "You want to have a +care." + +<P> +"Oh, that's all right! I've taken risks before. I don't want to +risk the safety of the locomotive, which is more important. That +machine has cost us a lot of money." + +<P> +"I'll say so!" agreed Ned. "You'll have to wait till you can +get the locomotive out there on the H. & P. A. tracks before you +get a fair speed-test." + +<P> +"And suppose instead of a triumph it is a fiasco?" Tom said, +doubtfully. "I tell you straight, Ned: I never was so uncertain +about the outcome of one of my inventions since I began dabbling +with motive-power." + +<P> +"We could build several miles of straight track in the waste +ground behind the works," Ned said, thoughtfully. + +<P> +"Not a chance! There is neither time nor money for such work. +Besides, I should have to rebuild my transforming station if I +supplied longer conduit wires with current." + +<P> +"You don't really consider that you have failed, do you, Tom?" +and Ned's anxiety made his voice sound very woeful indeed. + +<P> +"I tell you that my belief doesn't satisfy me. I hate to go +West without being sure--positive. I want to know! I have tried +the locomotive out in the yard half a dozen times. It runs like a +fine watch. There doesn't seem to be a thing the matter with it +now. But what speed can I attain?" + +<P> +"I don't see but you'll have to risk it, Tom." + +<P> +"I mean to give her one more test. I'll run her out to-night +when there is nobody about but the watchmen--and you, if you want +to come. I'll arrange with the Electric Company for all the +current they can spare. By ginger! I've got to take some risk." + +<P> +"By the way, Tom," said his chum, "did it ever strike you as +odd that that private detective agency never got any trace of +O'Malley?" + +<P> +"Well, he's gone away. We needn't worry about him. Maybe the +detective wasn't very smart, at that." + +<P> +"And yet he was here in town after you put the inquiry on foot. +I saw him in the bank. He came there occasionally. And either he, +or somebody he hired, placed that bomb in the locomotive." + +<P> +"All those being facts, what of it?" + +<P> +"Besides, there was that other fellow--the man with the Vandyke +beard. Might be a shyster lawyer, or something of the kind. He +wasn't spotted, either." + +<P> +"To tell the truth, I didn't bother to give the Detective +Agency the description of that fellow, although you gave it to +me," and Tom laughed. "I must confess that I depend more upon my +man-trap electric wires to protect the invention than I do on the +private inquiry agent." + +<P> +"It's funny, just the same. If I had another job for a +detective I should not submit it to the Blatz Agency," grumbled +Ned. + +<P> +"I fancy Montagne Lewis and his crowd called off their Wild +West gunman," said Tom. "In any case, every attempt he made to +bother us turned out a fizzle. I am not, however, forgetting +precautions, my boy." + +<P> +Ned Newton realized that his chum had determined to make this +night test of the electric locomotive the pivotal trial of the +whole affair. He came back to the works after dinner and was let +in by the office watchman at about nine o'clock. + +<P> +"Mr. Tom here yet?" he asked the man. + +<P> +"Yes, Mr. Newton. The young boss didn't go home to supper, +even. That colored man brought something down for him, and he's +in the shed yet." + +<P> +"Rad is here, you mean?" + +<P> +"Yes, sir. At least, he didn't go out this way, and we watchmen +have instructions to let nobody in or out by the yard gates at +night." + +<P> +"I'll say Tom is being careful," thought Ned, as he stepped out +through the runway toward the erection shed. + +<P> +Before he reached the entrance to the huge shed, however, Ned +chanced to look down the enclosure. There were several arc lights +burning, but even these only furnished a dim illumination for the +whole yard. + +<P> +He supposed that four watchmen were tramping their several beats along +the inside of the stockade and close to the trolley-track. But when he +saw an instant gleam of light down there, close to the ground, Ned did +not believe that it was the flash of a torch in the hand of any +sentry. + +<P> +"Funny," he muttered. "That's outside the fence, or I'm much +mistaken. I wonder now--" + +<P> +He turned from the door of the shed, left the runway, and began +walking toward the distant point at which he had seen the +mysterious flash of light. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XV"></A> +<H3>Chapter XV The Enemy Still Active</H3> + + +<P> +Ned was dressed in a dark business suit, so he was not likely +to be observed from a distance, for it was a starless night. Half +way to the end of the great yard he began to wonder if the light +he had seen might not have been an hallucination. + +<P> +He doubted very much if anybody was creeping about outside the +fence. The boards were close together, with scarcely a crack half +an inch wide anywhere. A light out there-- + +<P> +It flashed again. He was positive of it this time, and of its +locality as well. It could be nobody who had any honest business +about the Swift Construction Company's premises. It was not Koku, +for ordinarily the giant would not use an electric torch. + +<P> +Ned did not know where any of the watchmen were who were acting +as sentinels. In fact, as it appeared later, three of them had +been called off their beats by Tom himself to help in some +necessary task inside the shed. The young inventor was getting +ready to run the huge locomotive out upon the yard-track. + +<P> +Remembering vividly the attempt which had been made some weeks +before to blow up the Hercules 0001, it was only natural that Ned +should suspect that the flash of light he had seen revealed the +presence of some ill-conditioned person lurking just beyond the +fence. + +<P> +A man might be crouching there prepared to hurl an explosive +bomb over the fence when the locomotive was brought around as far +as that spot. Or was the villain foolish enough to attempt to +enter the enclosure by surmounting the fence? + +<P> +Ned, keeping close to the ground, crossed the rails in the +fortunate shadow of one of the posts. There he found a place +where, with his back to a pole-prop right at this curve in the +trolley system, the shadow enfolded him completely. + +<P> +Had his movements been marked by the person outside the fence? +Ned waited several long and anxious minutes for some move from +out there. Then something rather unexpected occurred. For the +past ten minutes he had forgotten about the test of the Hercules +0001 which Tom had promised. + +<P> +With a blast of its siren the huge electric locomotive burst +out of the shed and thundered around the track. It smote Ned +Newton's mind suddenly that the inventor was going to "take a +chance" on this evening and try to get some speed out of the huge +machine. + +<P> +The electric headlight cast a broad cone of white and dazzling +light across the yard. It suddenly struck full upon the spot +where Ned Newton crouched; but the upright against which he +leaned was broad enough to hide him completely. + +<P> +Looking up at the top of the stockade at that moment of +illumination, the young financial manager of the Swift +Construction Company beheld a crawling figure nearing the wire +entanglements on the summit of the fence. + +<P> +The unknown man was climbing by means of a notched pole. Ned +could not see that he bore any bulky object in his hands; indeed, +he needed both of them to aid him to climb. But the man's right +hand was reaching upward, above his head. + +<P> +The Hercules 0001 came roaring on. Its cone of light passed +beyond Ned's station. In a few seconds it reached the spot, and +roared on. Ned had not made a move. It seemed to him that he +could not move or speak. + +<P> +The onrush of the electric locomotive all but swept the young +fellow from his feet. It had come and gone in an instant! + +<P> +"He's making more than fifteen or twenty miles an hour, all +right," muttered Ned. + +<P> +Then he flashed another glance up at the figure outside the +fence. The man's cap showed above the top of the boards. He +seemed to be dragging something up to him from below--something +that hung and swung around and around a few feet from the ground. + +<P> +Ned was about to dart out of concealment and hail the fellow. +He was not armed, nor could he get out of the stockade near this +point. He feared what the marauder intended, and he felt that he +must frighten him away. + +<P> +"Suppose that is a bomb and he means to fling it in front of +Tom's locomotive?" thought the anxious Ned. + +<P> +He again saw the stranger's right hand reach up above his head. +But he had no bomb in his hand. Ned suddenly shrieked a word of +warning! It had come to him what the man was doing and what the +result of his act would be. + +<P> +The wire-cutters bit on one of the copper wires. There followed +a flash of blue flame, and the man screamed. He dropped the thing +swinging below him and involuntarily grabbed at the wires with +his left hand. + +<P> +He was caught, then! The crackling intermittent shocks of +electric fluid passed through his body in fiery sequence. His +limbs writhed. He mouthed horribly, and croaking gasps came from +between his wide open jaws. + +<P> +The Hercules 0001 had rounded the enclosure and was coming down +upon its second lap. The cone of white radiance from the +headlight fell upon the writhing body of the victim on the wires. +The locomotive siren emitted a blast that almost deafened Ned. + +<P> +The monster ground to a stop. Tom swung himself half out of the +cab window beside the controller. + +<P> +"Who's that?" he yelled. Then he saw Ned below him. "Who is +that fellow?" + +<P> +"No friend of yours, Tom, I believe," returned his financial +manager in a shaking voice. + +<P> +"Where's Rad? Rad!" Tom shouted at the top of his voice. + +<P> +"I's comm', Massa Tom," rejoined the colored man. + +<P> +"Never mind coming here! Get a move on, and get to the +switchboard. Turn the current out of the fence wires." + +<P> +"Yis, sir, I'll go Massa Tom," declared the old man. + +<P> +"Is he a spotter, Ned?" demanded the inventor. + +<P> +"He's no friend. I am going out by the gate. He's got something +there that means harm, I believe. Do you think he's killed, Tom?" + +<P> +"Only ought to be. Not enough current to kill him. But he's +badly burned and--and--well! I bet he won't care to fool around +the works again." + +<P> +Ned dashed away to an entrance. A watchman came running, opened +the small gate, and followed Ned into the open. + +<P> +Before they arrived at the vicinity of the accident Rad had got +to the switchboard. The electricity was shut out of the stockade +wires. + +<P> +Ned uttered another shout. He saw the writhing body of the +shocked man fall from the stockade. When he and the watchman got +to the spot the fellow lay upon his back, groaning and sobbing; +but Ned saw at once that he was more frightened than hurt. + +<P> +"Well, you did it that time!" exclaimed the young financial +manager. "And I hope you got enough." + +<P> +"You--you demons!" gasped the man. "I'll have the law on you--" + +<P> +"Sure you will," cackled the watchman. "You had every right in +the world to try to cut those wires, of course, and get into the +yard of the works. Sure! The judge will believe you all right." + +<P> +Ned was, meanwhile, staring closely at the fallen man. Tom had +come down from the locomotive and was close to the fence. + +<P> +"Who is he?" demanded the inventor. "Not O'Malley?" + +<P> +Ned stepped to the fence and whispered: + +<P> +"It's the other fellow. The little chap with the Vandyke. He's +dressed like a tramp, but it's the same man." + +<P> +"Is he badly hurt?" demanded Tom. + +<P> +"His temper is, Boss," said the watchman callously. "And say! I +know this fellow. He works for the Blatz Detective Agency. I used +to work for those folks myself. His name is Myrick--Joe Myrick." + +<P> +"Ned," said Tom sternly, "go to the office and call the police. +I'll make him tell why he was here. And I'll make the Blatz +people explain, too. Hullo! what's that?" + +<P> +Ned had seized the rope he had seen in Myrick's hand, and from +a patch of weeds drew a two-gallon oil-can. + +<P> +"What you got there, Ned?" repeated the young inventor. + +<P> +"Whatever it is, I am going to be mighty easy with it. I think +this scoundrel was trying to get it over the fence and into the +way of the locomotive." + +<P> +"You can't hang anything on me," said Myrick, suddenly. "I was +just climbing up to the top of the fence to get a squint at that +contraption you've built. You can't hang anything on me." + +<P> +"He's evidently feeling better," said Tom, scornfully. "Nugent, +don't let him get away from you. Go call the police, Ned. And +take care of that can until we can find out what's in it." + +<P> +Later, when the police had removed Joe Myrick and the +mysterious can had been deposited in a tub of water in the open +lot until its contents could be examined, Tom said to his chum: + +<P> +"I was just working up some speed on the locomotive. The +speedometer indicated fifty-five when I saw that fellow sprawling +up there on the fence. I would not have dared go much faster in +any case." + +<P> +"Why, you weren't half trying, Tom!" cried the delighted Ned. + +<P> +"She did slide around easy, didn't she? Fifty-five on an almost +circular track is a good showing. I am not so scared as I was, my +boy." + +<P> +"You think that on a straight track you might accomplish what +you set out to do?" + +<P> +"It looks like it. At any rate, I shall risk a trial on the +H. & P. A. tracks. I'm going to take her West. Be ready on +Monday, Ned, for I shall want you with me," declared Tom Swift. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XVI"></A> +<H3>Chapter XVI Off for the West</H3> + + +<P> +Of course, as Tom supposed they would, the Blatz Detective +Agency denied that Joe Myrick, their one-time operative, had been +engaged through their bureau either to spy upon the Swift +Construction Company or to injure Tom's invention of the electric +locomotive. + +<P> +Nevertheless, three points were indisputable: Myrick had been +caught spying; in his possession was a can of explosive which +could be set off by concussion; and it was a fact that to Myrick +had been first entrusted the matter of hunting for Andy O'Malley +when Tom had put the search for the Westerner up to the Blatz +people. + +<P> +"He played traitor both to you, Mr. Swift, and to our agency," +declared Blatz to Tom. "I wash my hands of him. I hope the police +send him away for life!" + +<P> +"He'll go to prison all right," said Tom, confidently. "But the +main point is that one of your operatives fell down on a simple +job. I wanted that Andy O'Malley traced. He's out of the way, +now, of course. If you had put an honest man to work for me, +O'Malley would be behind the bars himself." + +<P> +"Some doubt of that, Mr. Swift," grumbled Blatz. + +<P> +"Why?" + +<P> +"Where's your evidence that this O'Malley was connected with +the attempt to blow up your locomotive the first time? Mr. +Newton's testimony would need corroboration." + +<P> +"Never mind that," rejoined the young inventor, with a smile. +"I'd have him for highway robbery. I recognized him. He robbed me +of a wallet. Guess we could put O'Malley away for awhile on that +charge. And by the time he got out again my job for that Western +railroad would be completed." + +<P> +"Humph! Nothing personal in your going after the fellow, then?" +queried the head of the detective agency. + +<P> +"No. But I frankly confess that I am afraid of O'Malley. He is +undoubtedly in the employ of men who will pay him well if he +wrecks my invention. But there really is no personal grudge +between O'Malley and me. At least, I feel no particular enmity +against the fellow." + +<P> +There was a pause. + +<P> +"If you say so we will give you a couple of good men as +bodyguards on your trip West," suggested Blatz, licking his lips +hungrily. + +<P> +"As good men as Myrick?" retorted Tom, rather scornfully. "No, +thank you. Just make your bill out to the Swift Construction +Company to date, and a check will be sent you the first of the +month. I will take my own precautions hereafter." + +<P> +And those precautions Tom considered sufficient. When the +Hercules 0001 was towed out of the enclosure belonging to the +Swift Construction Company early on Monday morning, each door and +window of the huge cab was barred and locked. Inside the cab rode +Koku, the giant. + +<P> +Koku had his orders to allow nobody to enter the Hercules 0001 +until Tom or Ned Newton came to relieve him of his responsibility +as guard. The giant had a swinging cot to sleep on and sufficient +food--of a kind--to last him for a fortnight if necessary. + +<P> +He was not armed, for Tom did not often trust him with weapons. +The young inventor, however, did not expect that any armed force +would attack the electric locomotive. + +<P> +If Montagne Lewis desired to wreck the new invention which +might mean so much to Mr. Bartholomew and the H. & P. A., he +surely would not allow his hirelings to attack openly the +locomotive while it was en route. + +<P> +On the other hand, Tom did not really believe that Andy +O'Malley would attempt any reprisal against him personally. Of +course, the Western desperado might feel himself abused by Tom, +especially in the matter of Tom's use of his ammonia pistol. + +<P> +But that had happened months ago. O'Malley had undoubtedly been +hired by Mr. Bartholomew's enemies to obtain knowledge of the +contract signed between the young inventor and the railroad +president; and later it was certain that the spy had tried his +best to wreck the electric locomotive. + +<P> +As for any personal assault so many weeks after O'Malley had +clashed with him Tom Swift did not expect it. With Ned in his +company on this journey to Hendrickton, the young inventor had +good reason to consider that he was perfectly safe. + +<P> +Mary Nestor and Mr. Swift came to the station to see the two +young men off on Monday evening. Mary had heard about the second +attempt made to blow up the Hercules 0001 and she begged Tom to +take every precaution while he was in the West. + +<P> +"You will be in the enemy's country out there, Tom dear," she +warned him. "You won't be careless?" + +<P> +"I know I shall be mighty busy," he told her, laughing. "I'll +let Ned play watch-dog. And you know, his is a cautious soul, +Mary." + +<P> +"I've every confidence in Ned's faithfulness," the girl said, +still with anxious tone. "But those men who are trying to ruin +Mr. Bartholomew's road will stop at nothing. I must hear from you +frequently, Tom, or I shall worry myself ill." + +<P> +"Don't lose your courage, Mary," rejoined the inventor, more +gravely. "I do not think they will attack me personally again. +Remember that Koku is on the job, as well as Ned. And Mr. Damon +declares he will follow us West very shortly," and again Tom +chuckled. + +<P> +"Even Mr. Damon may be a help to you, Tom," declared Mary, +warmly. "At least, he is completely devoted to you." + +<P> +"So is Rad Sampson," said Tom, with a little grimace. "I +certainly had my hands full convincing him that father needed him +here at home. At that, Rad is pretty warm over the fact that I +sent Koku on with the locomotive. If anything should chance to +happen to my invention, Eradicate Sampson is going to shout 'I +told you so!' all over the shop." + +<P> +Mary dabbed her eyes a little with her handkerchief, and Tom +patted her shoulder. + +<P> +"Don't worry, Mary," he said more cheerfully. "There won't a +thing happen to me out there at Hendrickton. I'll keep the wires +hot with telegrams. And I'll write to both you and father, and +give you the full particulars of how we get along. You'll keep +your eye on father, Mary, won't you?" + +<P> +"You may be sure of that," said the girl. "I will not leave him +entirely to the care of Rad," and she tried hard to smile again. +But it was a difficult matter. + +<P> +Such a parting as this is always hard to endure. Tom wrung his +father's hand and warned him to be careful of his health. The +train came along and the two young men boarded it with their +personal luggage. + +<P> +They had a flash of the two faces--that of Mr. Swift's and Mary's +blooming countenance--as the express started again, and then the +outlook from the Pullman coach showed them the fast-receding environs +of Shopton. + +<P> +"We're on our way, my boy," said Tom to his chum. + +<P> +"We certainly are," said Ned, thoughtfully. "I wonder what the +outcome of the trip will be? It may not be all plain sailing." + +<P> +"Don't croak," rejoined the young inventor, with a grin. + +<P> +"I don't see how you can appear so cheerful., Why! you don't +even know if that electric locomotive is safe. Something may have +already happened to it. The freight train might be wrecked. A +dozen things might happen." + +<P> +"I am not crossing any bridges before I come to them," declared +Tom. "Besides, I propose to keep in touch with the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One in a certain way--Hullo! Here it is." + +<P> +"Here what is?" demanded Ned. + +<P> +The Pullman conductor at that moment came in through the +forward corridor. He had a telegram in his hand, and intoned +loudly as he approached: + +<P> +"Mr. Swift! Mr. Thomas Swift! Telegram for Mr. Swift." + +<P> +"That is for me, Conductor," said Tom briskly, offering his +card. + +<P> +"All right, Mr. Swift. Just got it at Shopton. Operator said +you had boarded my car. This is railroad business, you'll notice. +Have you any reply, sir?" + +<P> +Tom ripped open the envelope and unfolded the telegram. He held +it so that Ned could read, too. It was signed: "N. G. Smith, +Conductor, Number 48." + +<P> +"What's that?" exclaimed Ned, reading the message. + +<P> +"'Locomotive and crazy man in it all right at Lingo,'" repeated +Tom aloud, and chuckled. + +<P> +"No, Conductor, there is no answer." + +<P> +"Good!" exclaimed Ned. "You arranged to get reports en route +from the conductors handling the Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" + +<P> +"Surest thing you know," replied Tom. "And I guess, from the +wording of this message, that the crew of Forty-eight have +already found out that Koku is not an ordinary guard." + +<P> +"He's a great boy," smiled Ned. "Glad he is on the job." + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XVII"></A> +<H3>Chapter XVII The Wreck of Forty-Eight</H3> + + +<P> +The two chums sought their berths that night in high fettle. +Even Ned sloughed off his mood of apprehension which he had worn +on boarding the train at Shopton. + +<P> +For, true to the arrangement Tom had made with the railroad +people, another reassuring telegram was brought to him before +bedtime. The second conductor responsible for the management of +the Western bound freight to which the Hercules 0001 was +attached, sent back a brief statement of the safety of the +electric locomotive. + +<P> +Naturally the two chums would have passed the freight and got +well ahead of it before reaching Hendrickton. But Tom had +business in Chicago, and they stayed over in that city for +twenty-four hours. The freight train went around the city, of +course. But the telegrams continued to reach Tom promptly, even +at the hotel where he and Ned stopped in the city. + +<P> +Occasionally the trainmen in charge of the freight mentioned +Koku. His eccentric behavior doubtless somewhat puzzled the +railroaders. + +<P> +"That's all right," chuckled Ned. "Let them think Koku is +dangerous if they want to. That O'Malley person believed he was!" + +<P> +"I'll say so!" replied Tom. "The way he ran when Koku started +after him that time on the Waterfield Road seemed to prove that +he didn't want to mix with Koku." + +<P> +"If he--or other spies--learns that Koku is with the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, it ought to warn them away from the +locomotive." + +<P> +This was Ned's final speech before getting into his berth. He, +as well as Tom, slept quite as calmly on this first night out of +Chicago as they had before. + +<P> +They knew exactly where the electric locomotive was. It was on +the same road as this train they were traveling in, and, although +on a different track, it was not many miles ahead. In fact, if +the two trains kept to schedule, the transcontinental passenger +train would pass the freight in question about five o'clock in +the morning. + +<P> +It lacked half an hour of that time when the Pullman train came +suddenly to a jolting stop. Both Tom and Ned were awakened with +the rest of the passengers in their coach. + +<P> +Heads were poked out between curtains all along the aisle and a +chorus of more or less excited voices demanded: + +<P> +"What's the matter?" + +<P> +"Nothin's the matter wid dis train, gen'lemens an' ladies," +came in the porter's important voice. "Jest nothin' at all's +happened. It's done happened up ahead of us, das all." + +<P> +"Well, what has happened ahead of us, George?" asked Ned. + +<P> +"Jest another train, Boss, been splatterin' itself all ober de +right of way. We sort o' bein' held up, das all," replied the +porter. + +<P> +"That's good news--for us," said Ned, preparing to climb back +into his berth. But he halted where he was when he heard his chum +ask: + +<P> +"What train left the track, George?" + +<P> +"A freight train, sah. Yes, sah. Number Forty-eight. She jumped +de rails, side-swiped de accommodation dat was holdin' us back, +and has jest done spread herself all over de right of way." + +<P> +"My goodness!" gasped Ned. + +<P> +"Hear that, Ned?" exclaimed Tom. "Scramble into your clothes, +boy. The Hercules Three-Oughts-One is hitched to Forty-eight." + +<P> +"Suppose she's off the track?" murmured Ned. + +<P> +"It's lucky if she isn't smashed to matchwood," groaned Tom, +and almost immediately left the Pullman coach on the run. + +<P> +Ned was not far behind him. When they reached the cinder path +beside the freight train it was just sunrise. Long arms of rosy +light reached down the mountain side to linger on the tracks and +what was strewed across them. A glance assured the two young +fellows from the East that it was a bad smash indeed. + +<P> +Several of the rear boxcars were slung athwart the passenger +tracks. The passenger train that had been ahead of the Pullman +train on which Tom and Ned rode, had been badly beaten in all +along its side. Scarcely a whole window was left on the inner +side of the five cars. But those cars were not derailed. It was +merely some of the freight cars that retarded the further +progress of the transcontinental flyer. A derrick car must be +brought up to lift away the debris before the fast train could +move on. + +<P> +Tom and Ned walked forward along the length of the wreck. +Suddenly the anxious young inventor seized Ned's arm. + +<P> +"Glory be!" he ejaculated. "It's topside up, anyway." + +<P> +"The Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" gasped Ned. + +<P> +"That's what it is!" + +<P> +Tom quickened his pace, and his financial manager followed +close upon his heels. The forward end of Forty-eight had not left +the track and the electric locomotive stood upright upon the +rails, being near the head end of the train. + +<P> +"If this wreck was intentional, and aimed at your invention, +Tom," whispered Ned Newton, "it did not result as the wreckers +expected." + +<P> +Tom scouted the idea suggested by his chum. And in a few +moments they learned from a railroad employee that a broken +flange on a boxcar wheel had caused the wreck. + +<P> +"So that disposes of your suspicion, Ned," said Tom, +approaching the huge electric locomotive. + +<P> +"Hey, gents!" exclaimed another railroad man, one of the crew +of the wrecked freight. "Better keep away from that locomotive." + +<P> +"What's the matter with it?" Ned asked, curiously. + +<P> +"Got some kind of an aborigine caged up in it. You put your +hand on any part of it and he's likely to jump out and bite your +hand off, or something. Believe me, he's some savage." + +<P> +Both Tom and Ned burst into laughter. The former went forward +to the door of the cab and knocked in a peculiar way. It was a +signal that the giant recognized instantly. + +<P> +"Master!" Koku cried from inside the cab. "Master! Him come +in?" + +<P> +"No, Koku," said Tom. "I'm not coming in. Are you all right?" + +<P> +"Yes. Koku all right. Him come out?" + +<P> +"No, no!" laughed Tom. "You are not at your journey's end yet, +Koku. Keep on the job a while longer." + +<P> +"Sure. Koku stay here forever, if Master say so." + +<P> +"Forever is a long word, Koku," said Tom, more seriously. "I'll +tell you when to open the door. I'll be at the end of the journey +to meet you." + +<P> +"It all right if Master say so. But Koku no like to travel in +box," grumbled the giant. + +<P> +Tom turned from the electric locomotive to see Ned staring +across the tracks at a man who was talking to several of the +train crew of the side-swiped accommodation train. That train was +about to be moved on under its own power. None of the wreckage of +the freight interfered with the progress of the accommodation. + +<P> +Tom stepped to Ned's side and touched his arm. "Who is he?" the +inventor asked. + +<P> +The man who had attracted Ned's attention and now held Tom's +interest as well was a solid looking man with gray hair and a +dyed mustache. He was chewing on a long and black cigar, and he +spoke to the train hands with authority. + +<P> +"Well, why can't you find him?" he wanted to know in a hoarse +and arrogant voice. + +<P> +"Who is he?" asked Tom again in Ned's ear. + +<P> +"I've seen him somewhere. Or else I've seen somebody that looks +like him. Maybe I've seen his picture. He's somebody of +importance." + +<P> +"He thinks he is," rejoined the young inventor, with some +disdain. + +<P> +In answer to something one of the railroad men said the +important looking individual uttered an oath and added: + +<P> +"There's nobody been killed then? He's just missing? He was +sitting in the coach ahead of me. I saw him just before the +wreck. You know O'Malley yourself. Do you mean to say you haven't +seen him, Conductor?" + +<P> +"I assure you he disappeared like smoke, sir," said the +passenger conductor. "I haven't an idea what became of him." + +<P> +"Humph! If you see him, send him to me," and the solid man +stepped heavily aboard the nearest coach and disappeared inside. + +<P> +Tom and Ned stared at each other with wondering gaze. O'Malley! +The spy who had represented Montagne Lewis and the Hendrickton & +Western Railroad in the East. + +<P> +"What do you know about that?" demanded Ned, wonderingly. + +<P> +"Hold on!" exclaimed Tom. He sprang across the rails after the +conductor of the accommodation train that was just starting on. +"Let me ask you a question." + +<P> +"Yes, sir?" replied the conductor + +<P> +"Who was that man who just spoke to you?" + + +<p> +"That man? Why, I thought everybody out this way knew Montagne Lewis. That is +his name, sir--and a big man he is. Yes, sir," and the conductor, giving the +watching engineer of his train the "highball," caught the hand-rail of the car +and swung himself aboard as the train started. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XVIII"></A> +<H3>Chapter XVIII On the Hendrickton & Pas Alos</H3> + + +<P> +The transcontinental was delayed three hours by the strewn +wreckage of the rear of Number Forty-eight. When she went on the +two young fellows from Shopton gazed anxiously at the Hercules +0001, which stood between two gondolas in the forward end of the +freight train. + +<P> +"Just by luck nothing happened to it," muttered Ned. + +<P> +"Just luck," agreed Tom Swift. "It was a shock to me to learn +that Andy O'Malley was right there on the spot when the accident +happened." + +<P> +"And his employer, too," added Ned. "For we must admit that Mr. +Montagne Lewis is the man who sicked O'Malley on to you." "True." + +<P> +"And they were both in the accommodation that was sideswiped by +the derailed cars of Number Forty-eight." + +<P> +"That, likewise is a fact," said Tom, nodding quickly. + +<P> +"But what puzzles me, as it seemed to puzzle Lewis, more than +anything else, is what became of O'Malley?" + +<P> +"I guess I can see through that knot-hole," Tom rejoined. + +<P> +"Yes?" + +<P> +"I bet O'Malley got a squint at me--or perhaps at you--as we +walked up the track from this coach, and he lit out in a hurry. +There stood the Three-Oughts-One, and there were we. He knew we +would raise a hue and cry if we saw him in the vicinity of my +locomotive." + +<P> +"I bet that's the truth, Tom." + +<P> +"I know it. He didn't even have time to warn his employer. By +the way, Ned, what a brute that Montagne Lewis looks to be." + +<P> +"I believe you! I remember having seen his photograph in a +magazine. Oh, he's some punkins, Tom." + +<P> +"And just as wicked as they make 'em, I bet! Face just as +pleasant as a bulldog's!" + +<P> +"You said it. I'm afraid of that man. I shall not have a moment's +peace until you have handed the Hercules Three-Oughts-One over to +Mr. Bartholomew and got his acceptance." + +<P> +"If I do," murmured Tom. + +<P> +"Of course you will, if that Lewis or his henchmen don't smash +things up. You are not afraid of the speed matter now, are you?" +demanded Ned confidently. + +<P> +"I can be sure of nothing until after the tests," said Tom, +shaking his head. "Remember, Ned, that I have set out to +accomplish what was never done before--to drive a locomotive over +the rails at two miles a minute. It's a mighty big undertaking." + +<P> +"Of course it will come out all right. If Koku is faithful." + +<P> +"That is the smallest 'if' in the category," Tom interposed, +with a laugh. "If I was as sure of all else as I am of Koku, we'd +have plain sailing before us." + +<P> +Two days later Tom Swift and Ned Newton were ushered into the +private office of the president of the H. & P. A. at the +Hendrickton terminal. The two young fellows from the East had got +in the night before, had become established at the best hotel in +the rapidly growing Western municipality, and had seen something +of the town itself during the hours before midnight. + +<P> +Now they were ready for business, and very important business, +too. + +<P> +Mr. Richard Bartholomew sat up in his desk chair and his keen +eyes suddenly sparkled when he saw his visitors and recognized +them. + +<P> +"I did not expect you so soon. Your locomotive arrived +yesterday, Mr. Swift. How are you, Mr. Newton?" + +<P> +He motioned for them to take chairs. His secretary left the +room. The railroad magnate at once became confidential. + +<P> +"Nothing happened on the way?" he asked, pointedly. "There was +a freight wreck, I understand?" + +<P> +"And we chanced to be right at hand when that happened," said +Tom. + +<P> +"So was your friend, Mr. Lewis," remarked Ned Newton. + +<P> +"You don't mean to say that Montagne Lewis--" + +<P> +"Was there. And Andy O'Malley," put in Tom. + +<P> +Then he detailed the incident, as far as he and Ned knew the +details, to Mr. Bartholomew, who listened with close attention. + +<P> +"Well, it might merely have been a coincidence," murmured the +railroad president. "But, of course, we can't be sure. Anyhow, it +is just as well if your servant, Mr. Swift, keeps close watch +still upon that locomotive." + +<P> +"He will," said Tom, nodding. "He is down there in the yard +with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One, and I mean to keep Koku right +on the job." + +<P> +"Good! Let's go down and look at her," Mr. Bartholomew said, +eagerly. + +<P> +But first Tom wanted to go into the theoretical particulars of +his invention. And he confessed that thus far his tests of the +locomotive had not been altogether satisfactory. + +<P> +"I have got to have a clear track on a stretch of your own line +here, Mr. Bartholomew, and under certain conditions, before I can +be sure as to just how much speed I can get out of the machine." + +<P> +"Speed is the essential point, Mr. Swift," said the railroad +man, seriously. + +<P> +"That is what I have been telling Ned," Tom rejoined. "I +believe my improvements over the Jandel patents are worthy. I +know I have a very powerful locomotive. But that is not enough." + +<P> +"We have got to shoot our trains through the Pas Alos Range +faster than trains were ever shot over the grades before, or we +have failed," said Mr. Bartholomew, with decision. + +<P> +"But--" began Ned; but Tom put up an arresting hand and his +financial manager ceased speaking. + +<P> +"I have not forgotten the details of our contract, Mr. +Bartholomew," he said, quietly. "Two-miles-a-minute is the target +I have aimed for. Whether I have hit it or not, well, time will +show. I have got to try the locomotive out on the tracks of the +H. & P. A. in any case. The Hercules Three-Oughts-One has been +dragged a long distance, and has been through at least one wreck. +I want to see if she is all right before I test her officially." + +<P> +"I'll arrange that for you," said Mr. Bartholomew, briskly, +putting away his papers. "I will go with you, too, and take a +look at the marvel." + +<P> +"And a marvel it is," grumbled Ned. "Don't let him fool you, +Mr. Bartholomew. Tom never does consider what he's done as being +as great as it really is." + +<P> +"Everything must be proved," Tom said, cautiously. "If it was a +financial problem, Mr. Bartholomew, believe me it would be Ned +who displayed caution. But I have seldom built anything that +could not--and has not--later been improved." + +<P> +"You do not consider your electric locomotive, then, a +completed invention?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, as the three walked +down the yard. + +<P> +"I have too much experience .to say it is perfect," returned +Tom. "I can scarcely believe, even, that it is going to suit you, +Mr. Bartholomew, even if the speed test is as promising as I hope +it may be." + +<P> +"Humph!" + +<P> +"But before I shall be willing to throw up the sponge and say that I +have failed, I shall monkey with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One quite a +little on your tracks." + +<P> +"Your six months isn't up yet," said Mr. Bartholomew, more +cheerfully. "And it doesn't matter if it is. If you see any +chance of making a success of your invention, you are welcome to +try it out on the tracks of the H. & P. A. for another six +months." + +<P> +"All right," Tom said, smiling. "Now, there is the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, Mr. Bartholomew. And there is Koku looking +longingly through the window." + +<P> +In fact, the giant, the moment he saw Tom, ran to unbar and +open the door of the cab on that side. + +<P> +"Master! If no let Koku out, Koku go amuck--crazy! No can +breathe in here! No can eat! No can sleep!" + +<P> +"The poor fellow!" ejaculated Ned. + +<P> +"What's the matter with him?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, curiously. + +<P> +"Get out, if you want to, Koku. I'll stay by while you kick up +your heels." + +<P> +No sooner had the inventor spoken than the giant leaped from +the open door of the locomotive and dashed away along the cinder +path as though he actually had to run away. Tom burst into a +laugh, as he watched the giant disappear beyond the strings of +freight cars. + +<P> +"What is the matter with him?" repeated the railroad president. + +<P> +"He's got the cramp all right," laughed Tom Swift. "You don't +understand, Mr. Bartholomew, what it means to that big fellow to +be housed in for so many days, and unable to kick a free limb. I +bet he runs ten miles before he stops." + +<P> +"The police will arrest him," said the railroad man. + +<P> +It was then Ned's turn to chuckle. "I am sorry for your +railroad police if they tackle Koku right now," he said. "He'd +lay out about a dozen ordinary men without half trying. But, +ordinarily, he is the most mild-mannered fellow who ever lived." + +<P> +"He will come back, if he is let alone, as harmless as a +kitten," Tom observed. "And when I am not with the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, and while I continue making my tests, Koku will +be on guard. You might tell your police force, Mr. Bartholomew, +to let him alone. Now come aboard and let me show you what I have +been trying to do." + +<P> +They spent two hours inside the cab of the great locomotive. +Mr. Richard Bartholomew was possessed of no small degree of +mechanical education. He might not be a genius in mechanics as +Tom Swift was, but he could follow the latter's explanations +regarding the improvements in the electrical equipment of this +new type of locomotive. + +<P> +"I don't know what your speed tests will show, Mr. Swift," said +the railroad president, with added enthusiasm. "But if those +parts will do what you say they have already done, you've got the +Jandels beat a mile! I'm for you, strong. Yes, sir! like your +friend, Newton, here, I believe that you have hit the right +track. You are going to triumph." + +<P> +But Tom's triumph did not come at once. He knew more about the +uncertainties of mechanical contrivances than did either Mr. +Bartholomew or Ned Newton. + +<P> +The very next day the Hercules 0001 was got out upon a section +of the electrified system of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railway, +and the pantagraphs of the huge locomotive for the first time +came into connection with the twin conductor trolleys which +overhung the rails. + +<P> +Ned accompanied Tom as assistant. Koku was allowed by the +inventor to roam about the hills as much as he pleased during the +hours in which his master was engaged with the Hercules 0001. Tom +did not think any harm would come to Koku, and he knew that the +giant would enjoy immensely a free foot in such a wild country. +The two young fellows, dressed in working suits of overall stuff, +spent long hours in the cab of the electric locomotive. Their +try-outs had to be made for the most part on sidetracks and +freight switches, some miles outside Hendrickton, where the +invention would not be in the way of regular traffic. + +<P> +Speed on level tracks had been raised in one test to over +ninety-five miles an hour and Mr. Bartholomew cheered wildly from +the cab of a huge Mallet that paced Tom's locomotive on a +parallel track. No steam locomotive had ever made such fast time. + +<P> +But Tom was after something bigger than this. He wanted to show +the president of the H. & P. A. that the Hercules 0001 could drag +a load over the Pas Alos Range at a pace never before gained by +any mountain-hog. + +<P> +Therefore he coaxed the electric locomotive out into the hills, +some hundred or more miles from headquarters. He had to keep in +touch with the train dispatcher's office, of course; the new +machine had often to take a sidetrack. Nor was much of this hilly +right-of-way electrified. The Jandels locomotive had been found +to be a failure on the sharp grades; so the extension of the +trolley system had been abandoned. + +<P> +But there was one steep grade between Hammon and Cliff City +that had been completed. The current could be fed to the cables +over this stretch of track, and for a week Tom used this long and +steep grade just as much as he could, considering of course the +demands of the regular traffic. + +<P> +The telegraph operator at Half Way (merely a name for a +station, for there was not a habitation in sight) thrust his long +upper-length out of the telegraph office window one afternoon and +waved a "highball" to the waiting electric locomotive on the +sidetrack. + +<P> +"Dispatcher says you can have Track Number +Two West till the four-thirteen, westbound, is due. I'll slip the +operator at Cliff City the news and he'll be on the lookout for +you as well as me, Mr. Swift. Go to it." + +<P> +Every man on the system was interested, and most of them +enthusiastic, about Tom's invention. The latter knew that he +could depend upon this operator and his mate to watch out for the +western-bound flyer that would begin its climb of the grade at +Hammon less than half an hour hence. + +<P> +The electric locomotive was coaxed out across the switch. Tom +was earnestly inspecting the more delicate parts of the mechanism +while Ned (and proud he was to do it) handled the levers. Once on +the main line he moved the controller forward. The machine began +to pick up speed. + +<P> +The drumming of the wheels over the rail joints became a single +note--an increasing roar of sound. The electric locomotive shot +up the grade. The arrow on the speedometer crept around the dial +and Ned's eye was more often fastened on that than it was on the +glistening twin rails which mounted the grade. + +<P> +Black-green hemlock and spruce bordered the right of way on +either hand. Their shadows made the tunnel through the forest +almost dark. But Tom had not seen fit to turn on the headlight. + +<P> +"How is she making out?" asked the inventor, coming to look +over his chum's shoulder. + +<P> +"It's great, Tom!" breathed Ned Newton, his eyes glistening. +"She eats this grade up." + +<P> +"And it's within a narrow fraction of a two per cent," said the +inventor proudly. "She takes it without a jar--Hold on! What's +that ahead?" + +<P> +The locomotive had traveled ten miles or more from Half Way. +The summit of the grade was not far ahead. But the forest shut +out all view of the station at Cliff City and the structures that +stood near it. + +<P> +Right across the steel ribbons on which the hercules 0001 ran, +Tom had seen something which brought the question to his lips. +Ned Newton saw it too, and he shouted aloud: + +<P> +"Tree down! A log fallen, Tom!" + +<P> +He did not lose completely his self-control. But he grabbed the +levers with less care than he should. He tried to yank two of +them at once, and, in doing so, he fouled the brakes! + +<P> +He had shut off connection with the current. But the brake +control was jammed. The locomotive quickly came to a halt. Then, +before Tom could get to the open door, the wheels began spinning +in reverse and the great Hercules 0001 began the descent of the +steep grade, utterly unmanageable! + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XIX"></A> +<H3>Chapter XIX Peril, The Mother of Invention</H3> + + +<P> +Tom Swift's first thought was one of thankfulness. Thankfulness +that he did not have a drag of fifty or sixty steel gondolas or +the like to add their weight to the down-pull. The locomotive's +own weight of approximately two hundred and seventy tons was +enough. + +<P> +For when the inventor pushed Ned aside and tried to handle the +controllers properly, he found them unmanageable. There was not a +chance of freeing them and getting power on the brakes. The +Hercules 0001 was hacking down the mountain side with a speed +that was momentarily increasing, and without a chance of +retarding it! + +<P> +The young inventor at that moment of peril, knew no more what +to do to avert disaster than Ned Newton himself. + +<P> +It flashed across his mind, however, that others beside +themselves were in peril because of this accident. The fast +express from the East that should pass Half Way at four-thirteen, +might already be climbing the hill from Hammon. Hammon, at the +foot of the grade, was twenty-five miles away. Nor was the track +straight. + +<P> +If the operator at Half Way did not see the runaway locomotive +and telephone the danger to the foot of the grade, when the +Hercules 0001 came tearing down the track it might ram something +in the Hammon yard, if it did not actually collide with the +approaching westbound express. + +<P> +Such an emergency as this is likely either to numb the brains +of those entangled in the peril or excite them to increased +activity. Ned Newton was apparently stunned by the catastrophe. +Tom's brain never worked more clearly. + +<P> +He seized the siren lever and set it at full, so that the blast +called up continuous echoes in the forest as the locomotive +plunged down the incline. He ran to the door again, on the side +where Half Way station lay, and hung out to signal the operator +who had so recently given him right of way on this stretch of +mountain road. + +<P> +"We're going to smash! We're going to smash!" groaned Ned +Newton. + +<P> +Tom read these words on his chum's lips, rather than heard +them, for the roar of the descending locomotive drowned every +other sound. Tom waved an encouraging hand, but did not reply +audibly. + +<P> +Meanwhile his brain was working as fast as ever it had. He had +instantly comprehended all the danger of the situation. But in +addition he appreciated the fact that such an accident as this +might happen at any time to this or any other locomotive he might +build. + +<P> +Automatic brakes were all right. If there had been a good drag +of cars behind the Hercules 0001, on which the compressed air +brakes might have been set, the present manifest peril might have +been obliterated. The brakes on the cars would have stopped the +whole train. + +<P> +But to halt this huge monster when alone, on the grade, was +another matter. Once the locomotive brake lever was jammed, as in +this case, there was no help for the huge machine. It had to ride +to the foot of the grade--if it did not chance to hit something +on the way! + +<P> +And with this realization of both the imminent peril and the +need of averting it, to Tom's active brain came the germ of an +idea that he determined to put into force, if he lived through +this accident, on each and every electric locomotive that he +might in the future build. + +<P> +This monster, flying faster and faster down the mountain side, +was a menace to everything in its track. There might be almost +anything in the way of rolling stock on the section between Half +Way and Hammon at the foot of the grade. If this thunderbolt of +wood and steel collided with any other train, with the force and +weight gathered by its plunge down the mountain, it would drive +through such obstruction like a projectile from Tom's own big +cannon. + +<P> +Tom realized this fact. He knew that whatever object the +Hercules 0001 might strike, that object would be shattered and +scattered all about the right of way. What might happen to the +runaway was another matter. But the inventor believed that the +electric locomotive would be less injured than anything with +which it came into collision. + +<P> +At any rate, thought of the peril to himself and his invention +had secondary consideration in Tom Swift's mind. It was what the +monster which he could not control might do to other rolling +stock of the H. & P. A. that rasped the young fellow's mind. + +<P> +The grade above Half Way had few curves. Tom soon caught the +first glimpse of the station. Would the operator hear the roar of +the descending runaway and understand what had happened? + +<P> +He leaned far out from the open doorway and waved his cap +madly. He began to shout a warning, although he saw not a soul +about the station and knew very well that his voice was +completely drowned by the voice of the siren and the drumming of +the great wheels. + +<P> +Suddenly the tousled head of the operator popped out of his +window. He saw the coming locomotive, the drivers smoking! + +<P> +To be a good railroad man one has to have his wits about him. +To be a good operator at a backwoods station one has to have two +sets of wits--one set to tell what to do in an emergency, the +other to listen and apprehend the voice of the sounder. + +<P> +This Half Way man was good. He knew better than to try the +telegraph instrument. He grabbed the telephone receiver and +jiggled the hook up and down on the standard while the Hercules +0001 roared past the station. + +<P> +It did not need Tom's frantically waving cap to warn him what +had happened. And he remembered clearly the fact of the expected +westbound flyer. + +<P> +"Hammon? Get me? This is Half Way. That derned electric hog has +sprung something and is coming down, lickity-split!" + +<P> +"Yes! Clear your yard! Where's Number Twenty-eight? Good! Side +her, or she'll be ditched. Get me?" + +<P> +The voice at the other end of the wire exploded into indignant +vituperation. Then silence. The Half Way operator had done his +best--his all. He ran out upon the platform. The electric +locomotive had disappeared behind the woods, but the roar of its +wheels and the shrill voice of its siren echoed back along the +line. + +<P> +The sound faded into insignificance. The operator went back +into his hut and stayed close by the telephone instrument for the +next ten minutes to learn the worst. + +<P> +If the operator's nerves were tense, what about those of Tom +Swift and his chum? Ned staggered to the door and clung to Tom's +arm. He shrilled into the latter's ear: + +<P> +"Shall we jump?" + +<P> +"I don't see any soft spots," returned Tom, grimly. "There +aren't any life nets along this line." + +<P> +Ned Newton was frightened, and with good reason. But if his +chum was equally terrified he did not show it. He continued to +lean from the open door to peer down the grade as the Hercules +0001 drove on. + +<P> +Around curve after curve they flew. It entered Ned's tortured +mind that if his chum had wanted speed, he was getting it now! He +realized that two miles a minute was a mere bagatelle to the pace +now accomplished by the runaway locomotive. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XX"></A> +<H3>Chapter XX The Result</H3> + + +<P> +As Ned Newton, fumbling at the controls when he saw the fallen +tree across the tracks, had jammed the brakes, the station master +at Hammon, at the bottom of this long grade on the Hendrickton & +Pas Alos, had stepped out to the blackboard in the barnlike +waiting room and scrawled with a bit of chalk: + + +<P> +"No. 28--Westbound--due 3:38 is is 15 m. late." + + +<P> +The fact, thus given to the general public or to such of it as +might be interested, averted what would have been a terrible +catastrophe. + +<P> +The fast express was late. When the babbling voice of the Half +Way operator over the telephone warned Hammon of the coming of +the runaway electric locomotive, there was time to shift switches +at the head of the yard so that, when Number Twenty-eight came +roaring in, she was shunted on to a far track and flagged for a +stop before she hit the bumper. + +<P> +Thirty seconds later, from the west, the Hercules 0001 roared +down the grade and shot into the cleared west track in a halo of +smoke and dust. Speed! No runaway had ever traveled faster and +kept the rails. The story of the incident was embalmed in +railroad history, and no history is so full of vivid incident as +that of the rail. + +<P> +When the first relay of excited railroad men reached the +electric locomotive after it had stopped on the long level, even +Ned Newton had pulled himself together and could look out upon +the world with some measure of calmness. Tom Swift was making +certain notes and draughting a curious little diagram upon a page +of his notebook. + +<P> +"What happened to you, Mr. Swift?" was the demand of the first +arrival. + +<P> +"Oh, my foot slipped," said the young inventor, and they got +nothing more out of him than that. + +<P> +But to Ned, after the crowd had gone, the inventor said: + +<P> +"Ned, my boy, they used to say that necessity was the mother of +invention. Therefore a loaf of bread was considered the maternal +parent of the locomotive. I've got one that will beat that." + +<P> +"Whew!" gasped Ned. "How can you? I haven't got my breath back +yet." + +<P> +"It is peril that is the mother of invention," Tom went on, +still jotting down his notes. "Believe me! that jolt gave me a +new idea--an important idea. Suppose that operator at Half Way +had been out back somewhere, and had not seen or heard us flash +by?" + +<P> +"Well, suppose he had? What's the answer?" sighed Ned. + +<P> +"Like enough we would have rammed something down here." + +<P> +"And I hardly understand even now why we didn't do just that," +muttered his chum, with a shake of his head. + +<P> +"Wake up, Ned! It's all over," laughed Tom. "While it was +happening I admit I was guessing just as hard as you were about +the finish. But--" + +<P> +"Your recovery is better," grumbled his friend. "I'm scared +yet." + +<P> +"And it might happen again--" + +<P> +"No--not--ever!" exclaimed Ned. "I shall never touch those +controllers again. I'll drive your airscout, or your fastest +automobile, or anything like that. But me and this electric +locomotive have parted company for good. Yes, sir!" + +<P> +"All right. It wasn't your fault. It might happen to any +motor-engineer. And the very fact that it can happen has given me my +idea. I tell you that danger is the mother of invention." + +<P> +"As far as I am concerned, it can be father and grandparents +into the bargain," Ned declared, with a smile. + +<P> +"Wake up!" cried his friend again. "I have got a dandy idea. I +wouldn't have missed that trip for anything." + +<P> +"You are crazy," interrupted Ned. "Suppose we had bumped +something?" + +<P> +"But we didn't bump anything, except my brain tank. An idea +bumped it, I tell you. I am going to eliminate any such peril as +that here-after." + +<P> +"You mean you are going to make it impossible for this +locomotive ever to slide down such a hill again if the brakes +won't work? Humph! Meanwhile I will go out and make the nearest +water-fall begin to run upward." + +<P> +"Don't scoff. I do not mean just what you mean." + +<P> +"I bet you don't!" + +<P> +"But although I cannot be sure that a locomotive will never +again fall downhill," said Tom patiently, "I'm going to fix it so +that warning need not be given by some operator along the line. +The engineer must be able to send warning of his accident, both +up and down the road." + +<P> +"Huh? How are you going to do that?" demanded Ned. + +<P> +"Wireless telephone. I may make some improvements on the +present models; but it is practicable. It has been used on +submarines and cruisers, and lately its practicability has been +proved in the forestry service." + +<P> +"Every one of these electric locomotives I turn out will be +supplied with wireless sets. The expense of making certain +telegraph offices along the line into receiving stations will be +small. I am going to take that up with Mr. Bartholomew at once. +And I am going to fix these brake controls so that nobody need +ball them up again." + +<P> +If, out of such a desperate adventure, Tom could bring to +fruition really worthwhile improvements in relation to his +invention, Ned acknowledged the value of the incident. Just the +same, he had a personal objection to having any part in a similar +experience. + +<P> +He was brave, but he could not forget danger. Tom seemed to +throw the effect of that terrible ride off his mind almost +instantly. Ned dreamed of it at night! + +<P> +However, from that time things seemed to go with a rush. Mr. +Bartholomew approved of the young inventor's suggestion regarding +the use of the wireless telephone as a method of averting a +certain quality of danger in the use of the proposed monster +locomotive. The railroad man was convinced that Tom's ideas were +finally to culminate in success, and he was ready to spend money, +much money, in pushing on the work. + +<P> +It was not long before a private test of the Hercules 0001 up the +grade from Hammon to Cliff City showed Mr. Bartholomew that the speed +he had required in his contract was attainable. With a drag fully as +heavy as any two locomotives had been able to get over the same +sector, the new locomotive alone marked a forty-five mile an hour +pace. + +<P> +This attainment was kept quiet; not even the train crew knew +what the monster had done when they reached the summit of the +mountain. But Mr. Bartholomew, who rode with Tom and Ned in the +cab, had held his own watch on the test and compared it every +minute with the speedometer. + +<P> +"I am satisfied that you are going to do more than I had really hoped, +Mr. Swift," the railroad president said at the end of the +run. "Already you could drive this locomotive at a two-mile-a-minute +clip on level rails, I am sure. Keep at it! Nobody will be more +delighted than I shall be if you pull down that hundred thousand +dollars' bonus." + +<P> +"That's a fine way to talk, sir," cried Ned, with enthusiasm. + +<P> +"I mean every word of it, Mr. Newton. The money is his as soon +as he makes good." + +<P> +Both Tom and his financial manager left the president's office +in a satisfied state of mind. + +<P> +"Great news to send home, Tom," remarked Ned, when they were +alone. + +<P> +"Righto, Ned. My father will be glad to hear it." + +<P> +"And what about Mary?" And Ned poked his chum in the ribs. + +<P> +"I guess she'll he glad too," Tom replied, his face reddening. + +<P> +That night Tom sent word to Mary and also a telegram, in code, +to his father, saying the prospects were now bright for a quick +finish of the task that had brought him West. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XXI"></A> +<H3>Chapter XXI The Open Switch</H3> + + +<P> +Meanwhile the work of electrifying another division of the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad had been pushed to completion. As +Mr. Bartholomew had in the first place stated, the road +controlled water rights in the hills which would supply any +number of electric power stations, and his enemies could not shut +his road off from these waterfalls. + +<P> +Tom had not warned his faithful servant, the giant Koku, to +watch out for Andy O'Malley in particular; the inventor knew that +the giant would be as cautious about any stranger as could be +wished. But personally Tom was amazed that either O'Malley or +some other henchman of the president of the Hendrickton & Western +did not make an attempt to injure the electric locomotive. + +<P> +"Perhaps Mr. Bartholomew's police are really of some good," +said Ned Newton, when his chum mentioned his surprise on this +point. "Has Koku seen nobody lurking about at night?" + +<P> +"He certainly has not seen the man he calls 'Big Feet,'" +chuckled Tom. "If he had spotted O'Malley, there certainly would +have been an explosion." + +<P> +"Tell you what," Ned said reflectively, "the longer Lewis keeps +off you, the more suspicious I should be." + +<P> +"You think he is a bad citizen, do you?" + +<P> +"And then some, as the boys say out here," replied Ned. "I +wouldn't trust that man any farther than I would a nest of +hornets or a shedding rattlesnake." + +<P> +"I am inclined to believe, with you, Ned, that Lewis is +hatching up something and is keeping mighty whist about it. I +sounded Mr. Bartholomew on the idea and he, too, is puzzled." + +<P> +"I guess he knows that hombre," grumbled Ned. + +<P> +"Mr. Bartholomew admits that several roads have sent +representatives to make inquiries about my locomotive. They have +got wind of it, and, after all, most railroads work in unison. +What means progress for one is progress for all." + +<P> +"That same rule does not seem to apply in the case of the +H. & P. A. and the H. & W.," remarked Ned. + +<P> +"No. They are out and out rivals. And Lewis and his gang have +done this road dirt--no two ways about that. But when I am +convinced that my locomotive has got all the speed and power +contracted for, Mr. Bartholomew wants to invite a bunch of his +brother railroaders to see the tests--to ride in the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One, in fact." + +<P> +"How about it? You going to agree? Suppose they have some +inventive sharp along who will be able to steal some of your +mechanical contrivances--in his head, I mean," and Ned seemed +quite suddenly anxious. + +<P> +"I had thought of that. But before the test I shall send my +blueprints to Washington. Our patent attorney there has already +filed tentative plans and applied for certain patents that I +consider completed. Don't fret. I'll make it impossible for +anybody to steal our patents legally." + +<P> +"Yes! But illegally?" + +<P> +"That we cannot help in any case, and you know it," Tom said. "If +some road tries to build anything like the Hercules Three-Oughts-One +for the first two years without arranging with the Swift Construction +Company, you know that that railroad can be made to suffer in the +courts, and you are the boy, Ned, to put them over the jumps for it." + +<P> +"Sure," grumbled his chum. "It's always up to me to save the +day." + +<P> +"Exactly," chuckled Tom. "And in your character of life saver, +do look out for anybody who looks suspicious hanging about the +Hercules Three-Oughts-One. I'll take care of rival inventors. You +and Koku keep your eyes peeled for the H. & W. spies. Especially +for that Andy O'Malley. I feel that he will again show up. Maybe +by 'the pricking of my thumb' as Macbeth's witch used to remark." + +<P> +Every day save Sunday the electric locomotive had some kind of +try-out. On a level track Tom was sure of his monster invention's +qualities; but in the hills, at a distance from the Hendrickton +terminal, it was another matter. + +<P> +The grades were steep; but the road was well ballasted. There +was plenty of power. He saw the Jandel locomotives hurry back and +forth with the local trains and realized that this rival +invention was by no means to be despised. + +<P> +It was at about this time, too, that Mr. Damon appeared in +Hendrickton. Early one forenoon, when Tom and Ned were preparing +to take the Hercules 0001 out of the yard, and Koku was going to +his lodgings to get a little sleep, Tom's eccentric friend came +across the tracks, waving his cane at Tom. + +<P> +"Bless my frogs and switch-targets!" he ejaculated, "I've +walked a mile from that station to get here. Where are you going +with that big contraption? How does it work? Does it make all the +speed you want, Tom Swift? Bless my rails and sleepers!" + +<P> +"We're going about a hundred miles out on the road to a good, +stiff grade," Tom told him, having shaken hands in welcome. "If +you want to, get aboard." + +<P> +"They haven't blown you up yet, or otherwise wrecked the +locomotive," remarked Mr. Damon, grinning broadly. "I'll have to +write right back to your father--and to a certain young lady who +shows a remarkable interest in your welfare--that you are all +right." + +<P> +"They should already be sure of that," laughed Tom. "Ned and I +have kept the post-office department and the telegraph company +very busy." + +<P> +"They are waiting for my report," announced Mr. Damon, with +confidence. "And I am waiting for yours. Tell me, Tom, Is the +locomotive a success?" + +<P> +"It's going to be," declared the inventor, with decision. + +<P> +"Bless my trolley wires!" cried Mr. Damon, "I am glad to hear +that. Then you will surely pull down the extra hundred thousand +dollars?" + +<P> +"I believe I shall fulfill every clause of the contract Mr. +Bartholomew and I signed," said Tom. + +<P> +"Then it's more than a success!" cried his friend. "You have +invented another marvel, Tom Swift!" + +<P> +"Marvel or not," rejoined Tom, "I believe that the Hercules +Three-Oughts-One will top anything so far built in the way of +electric locomotives." + +<P> +"Hurrah!" cried Mr. Damon. "Bless my controller! But your +father and Mary Nestor will be glad to hear that!" + +<P> +Mr. Damon was quite as much interested in this invention as he +always was in anything the young inventor worked upon. When he +had once seen the Hercules 0001 work on an up-grade he was doubly +enthusiastic. To his sanguine mind the locomotive was already +completed. He could see no possibility of failure. + +<P> +Tom, however, had to prove to his own satisfaction the success +of every detail of his invention before he was willing to tell +Mr. Bartholomew that he was ready for a public test. Mr. Damon, +nor even Ned, could scarcely see the reason for Tom's caution. + +<P> +Tom's favorite try-out grade was between Hammon and Cliff City. +He could obtain a right of way order from the train dispatcher on +that grade, sometimes of an hour's duration. He often snaked a +load of gondolas or cattle cars up the grade, relieving both the +puller and pusher steam locomotive. By this time the H. & P. A. +system had stopped using the Jandel machines on any grades. They +had proved their lack of power for such work + +<P> +"But the Hercules Three-Oughts-One shows at every test that it +has the kick," Mr. Damon cried. + +<P> +In his enthusiasm he was out every day with Tom and Ned. And +sometimes Koku remained in the cab during the trial runs as well. + +<P> +On one such occasion Tom had drawn a heavy train over the +mountain, taking it down the grade beyond Cliff City to Panboro +in the farther valley. This was over a newly built stretch of the +electrified road. The power station charged the trolley cables +with an abundance of current, and the Hercules 0001 made a +splendid trip. + +<P> +"Bless my cuff-links!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, his rosy face one +beaming smile. "You couldn't expect to do better than this. You +save one locomotive on the haul, and you beat the schedule ten +minutes, so that you had to lay by to get right of way into the +yard here. Why linger longer, Tom?" + +<P> +"I agree with Mr. Damon," Ned said. "It seems to work +perfectly. And you have, I believe, established your required +speed." + +<P> +"Can't be too perfect," said the young inventor, smiling. "But +I will tell Mr. Bartholomew when we get back that he can set his +time for the big test whenever he pleases. I have already sent +our patent attorney in Washington the final blueprints. Now, if +nothing happens--" + +<P> +"Bless my stickpin!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "What can happen now +that the locomotive is practically perfect?" + +<P> +That question was answered in one way, and a most startling +way, within the hour. Tom got right of way back over the mountain +and pushed the electric locomotive up-grade at almost top speed. +He drew no train on this occasion, and the speed made by the +Hercules 0001 was really remarkable. + +<P> +They topped the rise at Cliff City and got orders from the +dispatcher to proceed on the time of Number Eighty-seven, which +chanced to be late. With that release Tom might have made the +entire distance of a hundred and ten miles to Hendrickton had it +not been for the accident--the unexpected something that so often +happens in the railroad business. + +<P> +Tom was a careful driver; the chatter of Ned and Mr. Damon did +not take the inventor's mind off his business for one instant. He +was quite alert at his window, looking ahead, as Koku was at the +open doorway of the cab. + +<P> +Not a mile outside of Cliff City, and on this eastbound side of +the right of way, was a long siding and a shipping point for +timber. It was sometimes a busy point; but at this time of year +there were no lumbermen about and no activities in the adjacent +forest. + +<P> +The Hercules 0001 came spinning along from the Cliff City +yards, and Tom Swift gave scarcely a glance to the joint of the +switch ahead. He had been over it so many times of late, and knew +that it was always locked. The railroad did not even keep a man +here at this season. + +<P> +Suddenly Koku emitted a wild yell. He startled everybody else +in the cab, as he flung his huge body more than half out of the +doorway and prepared to jump--or so it seemed. + +<P> +Ned shrieked a warning to the big fellow. Mr. Damon began to +bless everything in sight. But it was Tom, quite as excited as +his friends, who understood what Koku shouted: + +<P> +"Big Feet! Big Feet! I see um Big Feet, Master!" + +<P> +The next moment he threw himself from the rapidly moving +locomotive. He might have been killed easily enough. But +fortunately he landed feet first in the drift beside the rails, +and remained upright as he slid down into the ditch. + +<P> +Tom, glancing ahead again, saw the flash of a man in a checked +Mackinaw running up through the open wood and away from the right +of way. He could not be sure of Andy O'Malley's figure at that +distance; but he could be pretty confident of Koku's +identification. + +<P> +And then, with a shock that gripped and almost paralyzed his +mind, Tom saw again the switch ahead of the pilot of the Hercules +0001. The switch was open, and at the speed the electric +locomotive had attained, if she did not jump the rails, it seemed +scarcely possible that she could be stopped before hitting the +bumper at the end of the siding! + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XXII"></A> +<H3>Chapter XXII A Desperate Chase</H3> + + +<P> +These moments were fraught with peril, and not alone peril to +the huge machine that Tom Swift had built, but peril to those who +remained in the cab of the electric locomotive, as her forward +trucks struck the open switch. + +<P> +There was a mighty jerk that brought a shout from Ned Newton's +lips and a grunt from Mr. Damon. Tom clung to his swivel-seat, +staring ahead. + +<P> +The pilot of the electric locomotive shot over on the siding; +the forward trucks followed, then the great drivers. The whole +locomotive swerved into the siding, but for several breathless +seconds Tom was not at all sure that the monster would not jump +the rails and head into the ditch! + +<P> +Meanwhile his gaze measured the speed of that flying figure in +the Mackinaw as it scuttled up the slope through the open grove +of hard wood and pine. He could not at first see Koku, but he +knew the giant was headed for the fugitive, whether the latter +proved to be Andy O'Malley or not. + +<P> +Tom's gaze flashed to what lay ahead of the electric +locomotive. As it seemed to joggle back into balance, gain its +uprightness, as it were, the inventor saw the great, log-braced +bumper between the two rails at the end of the siding. With what +force would the locomotive hit that obstruction? + +<P> +Until the trailers were over the switch Tom dared not give her +the brakes. To lock the brake shoes upon the wheels might easily +throw the locomotive off the rails. But the instant he felt the +tail of the long locomotive swerve off the switch he jabbed the +compressed air lever and the wild shriek of the brake shoes +answered to his effort. + +<P> +Then the bumper was but a few yards ahead. The electric +locomotive was bound to collide with it. And under the speed at +which it had been running, now scarcely reduced by half, the +collision was apt to be a tragic happening! + +<P> +Weeks of effort might be ruined in that moment! If the crash +was serious, thousands of dollars might be lost! In truth, Tom +Swift apprehended the possibility of a disaster, the complete +results of which might put the test of his invention forward for +weeks--perhaps for months. + +<P> +Nor could he do a thing to avert the disaster. He had reversed +and set the brakes immediately after the last wheel of the +trailer was on the siding. Nothing more could he do as the great +electric locomotive bore down upon the solid timber at the far +end of this short track. + +<P> +Those few seconds, as the locked wheels slid toward the end of +the siding, were about as hard to bear as any experience the +young inventor had ever gone through. It was not so much the +peril of the accident, it was the possibility of what might +happen to the locomotive. + +<P> +Within those few moments, however, Tom considered more than the +safety of his companions and himself, and more than the peril of +wreck to his locomotive. He considered the schedule of the trains +on this division of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos and remembered all +those that might be within this sector at this time. + +<P> +If the locomotive smashed into the bumper with force enough to +wreck the structure, would some approaching train on the +westbound track not be endangered? + +<P> +The thought was parent to Tom's act before the collision +occurred. With a single swift motion he reached for the signaling +apparatus which he had established in connection with his +wireless telephone. + +<P> +Just the moment before the head of the locomotive rammed that +seemingly immovable barrier at the end of the siding there +flashed into the air from Tom's annunciator the code word agreed +upon announcing a wreck, and the number of the sector on which +the electric locomotive was then running. + +<P> +The next moment the crash occurred. + +<P> +Tom had leaped up with a shout of warning. "Hang on!" was his +cry. But when the locomotive had struck and rebounded Ned, from +far down the aisle of the locomotive, wanted to know in a very +peevish tone what he should have hung on to? + +<P> +"My elbows!" he groaned. "I've skinned 'em, and my back has got +a twist in it like the Irishman thought he had when he put on his +overalls hind-side to. What's happened?" + +<P> +"Bless my radiolite!" growled Mr. Damon. "My watch crystal is broken +all to finders, if you want to know. Bless my shock-absorbers! you +won't do this locomotive a bit of good, Tom Swift, if you stop it so +abruptly." + +<P> +"And that's the surest word you ever said," responded Tom, +hurrying to the door. "I don't know what's broken, but we're +still on the rails. The most immediate thing to learn, is the +where-abouts of the fellow who did this." + +<P> +"Who opened the switch?" cried Ned. + +<P> +"I believe it was Andy O'Malley. Come on, Ned! Koku is after +him and I don't want him to tear O'Malley apart before I get +there." + +<P> +"O'Malley has got powerful interests behind him, and it might +go hard with Koku if he injured the spy and some of these +Westerners caught him," suggested Mr. Damon. + +<P> +"They ought to thank Koku for manhandling the fellow--if he +does," said Ned. + +<P> +"As a matter of fact," replied Tom, "Koku will merely hold to +the fellow until we get there. But my giant's strength is +enormous, and he does not always know the strength of his grasp. +he might hurt the fellow. Come on," and Tom leaped from the +doorway of the electric locomotive. + +<P> +Ned leaped down the ladder after his chum. + +<P> +"Which way did they go?" he asked. + +<P> +"Across the ditch and up the hill," said Tom. "Mr. Damon!" he +called back to that eccentric man, "will you please remain there +and watch the locomotive?" + +<P> +"I certainly will. And I'm armed, too," shouted Mr. Damon. +"Don't fear for this locomotive, Tom. I am right on the job." + +<P> +Tom waved his hand in reply, leaped the ditch, and started up +through the wood. Ned was close behind him, and the two young men +ran as hard as they could in the direction Tom had seen Andy +O'Malley, followed by the giant, running. + +<P> +In places the earth was slippery with pine needles, and the +ground was elsewhere rough. Therefore the chums did not make much +speed in running after the giant and his quarry. But Tom was sure +of the direction in which the two had disappeared, and he and Ned +kept doggedly on. + +<P> +They went over the crest of the hill and lost sight of the +siding and the locomotive. Here was a sharp descent into a gulch, +and some rods away, in the bottom of this gully, the young +fellows obtained their first sight of Koku. He was still running +with mighty strides and was evidently within sight of the man he +had set out after in such haste. + +<P> +"Hey! Koku!" shouted Tom Swift. + +<P> +The giant's hearing was of the keenest. He glanced back and +raised his arm in greeting. But he did not slacken his pace. + +<P> +"He must see O'Malley, Tom," cried Ned Newton. + +<P> +"I am sure he does. And I want to get there about as soon as +Koku grabs the fellow," panted Tom. + +<P> +"He'll maul O'Malley unmercifully," said Ned. + +<P> +"I don't want Koku to injure him," admitted Tom, and he +increased his own stride as he plunged down into the gully. + +<P> +The young inventor distanced his chum within the next few +moments. Tom ran like a deer. He reached the bottom of the gully +and kept on after Koku's crashing footsteps. At every jump, too, +he began to shout to the giant: + +<P> +"Koku! Hold him!" + +<P> +The giant's voice boomed back through the heavy timber: "I +catch him! I hold him for Master! I break all um bones! Wait till +Koku catch him!" + +<P> +"Hold him, Koku!" yelled Tom again. "Be careful and don't hurt +him till I get there!" + +<P> +He could not see what the giant was doing. The timber was +thicker down here. It might be that the giant would seize the man +roughly. His zeal in Tom's cause was great, and, of course, his +strength was enormous. + +<P> +Yet Tom did not want to call the giant off the trail. Andy +O'Malley must be captured at this time. He had done enough, too +much, indeed, in attempting the ruin of Tom's plans. Before the +matter went any further the young inventor was determined that +Montagne Lewis' spy should be put where he would be able to do no +more harm. + +<P> +But he did not want the man permanently injured. He knew now +that Koku was so wildly excited that he might set upon O'Malley +as he would upon an enemy in his own country. + +<P> +"Koku! Stop! Wait for me!" Tom finally shouted. + +<P> +Now the young inventor got no reply from the giant. Had the +latter got so far ahead that he no longer heard his master's +command? + +<P> +Tom pounded on, working his legs like pistons, putting every +last ounce of energy he possessed into his effort. This was +indeed a desperate chase. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XXIII"></A> +<H3>Chapter XXIII Mr. Damon at Bay</H3> + + +<P> +Mr. Wakefield Damon was a very odd and erratic gentleman, but +he did not lack courage. He was much more disturbed by the +possible injury to Tom Swift's invention by this collision with +the bumper at the end of the timber siding than he had been by +his own danger at the time of the accident. + +<P> +He did not understand enough about the devices Tom had built in +the forward end of the locomotive cab to understand, by any +casual examination, if they were at all injured. But when he +climbed down beside the track he saw at once that the forward end +of the locomotive had received more than a little injury. + +<P> +The pilot, or cow-catcher, looked more like an iron cobweb than +it did like anything else. The wheels of the forward trucks had +not left the track, but the impact of the heavy locomotive with +the bumper had been so great that the latter was torn from its +foundations. A little more and the electric locomotive would have +shot off the end of the rails into the ditch. + +<P> +While Mr. Damon was examining the front of the locomotive, and +Tom and Ned remained absent, he suddenly observed a group of men +hurrying out of the forest on the other side of the H. & P. A. +right of way. They were not railroad men--at least, they were not +dressed in uniform--but they were drawn immediately to the +locomotive. + +<P> +The leader of the party was a squarely built man with a +determined countenance and a heavy mustache much blacker than his +iron gray hair. He was a bullying looking man, and he strode +around the rear of the locomotive and came forward just as though +he was confident of boarding the machine by right. + +<P> +Mr. Damon, knowing himself in the wilderness and not liking the +appearance of this group of strangers, had retired at once to the +cab, and now stood in the doorway. + +<P> +"Where's that young fool Swift?" growled the man with the dyed +mustache, looking up at Mr. Damon and laying one hand upon the +rail beside the ladder. + +<P> +"Don't know any such person," declared Mr. Damon promptly. + +<P> +"You don't know Tom Swift?" cried the man. + +<P> +"Oh! That's another matter," said Mr. Damon coolly. "I don't +know any fool named Swift, either young or old. Bless my +blinkers! I should say not." + +<P> +"Isn't he here?" demanded the man, gruffly. + +<P> +"Tom Swift isn't here just now--no." + +<P> +"I'm coming up," announced the stranger, and started to put his +foot on the first rung of the iron ladder. + +<P> +"You're not," said Mr. Damon, promptly. + +<P> +"What's that?" ejaculated the man. + +<P> +"You only think you are coming up here. But you are not. Bless +my fortune telling cards!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I should say +not." + +<P> +At this point the black-mustached man began to splutter words +and threats so fast that nobody could quite understand him. Mr. +Damon, however, did not shrink in the least. He stood adamant in +the doorway of the cab. + +<P> +Finding little relief in bad language, the enemy made another +attempt to climb up. For one thing, he was physically brave. He +did not call on his companions to go where he feared to. + +<P> +"I'll show you!" he bawled, and scrambled up the rungs of the +ladder. + +<P> +Mr. Damon did show him. He drew from some pocket a black object +with a bulb and a long barrel. Somebody below on the cinder path +shouted: + +<P> +"Look out, boss h's got a gun!" + +<P> +At that moment the marauder reached out to seize Mr. Damon's +coat. Then the object in Mr. Damon's hand spat a fine spray into +the florid face of the enemy! + +<P> +"Whoo! Achoo! By gosh!" bawled the big man, and he fell back +screaming other ejaculations. + +<P> +"Bless my face and eyes!" cried Mr. Damon. "What did I tell +you? And you other fellows want to notice it. Tom Swift isn't +here just at this precise moment; but he is guarding his +locomotive just the same. He invented this ammonia pistol, and I +should say it was effectual. Do you?" + +<P> +The eccentric man was shrewd enough now to keep behind the jamb +of the cab door. For some of these fellows, he realized, might be +armed with more deadly weapons than his own. + +<P> +"Hey, Mr. Lewis!" cried one big fellow, "d'you want we should +get that fellow for you?" + +<P> +"I want to know how badly that blamed thing is smashed," +replied the big man with the dyed mustache savagely. "Where's +O'Malley?" + +<P> +"O'Malley's lit out, Boss, like I told you. That giant and them +other fellows is after him." + +<P> +"Break into that cab! Oh! My eyes! I'll kill that old fool! +Break a way in there--What's that?" + +<P> +In pain as he was, his other senses were alert. He was first to +hear the screeching whistle of the on-coming freight. + +<P> +"Think they got wind of this so quick?" demanded Montagne +Lewis, for it was he. "Are they sending help from Cliff City?" + +<P> +"It's a regular freight," returned one of his men. + +<P> +"She's comm' a-whizzin'," added another. "Right down the +eastbound track. If the crew see us--" + +<P> +"Wait!" commanded Lewis. "Isn't that switch open?" + +<P> +"You bet it is, Boss." + +<P> +"Let it be, then," cried the chief plotter. "Let 'em run into +it. That freight will smash up this electric locomotive more +completely than we could possibly do it. Stand away, men, and let +her go!" + +<P> +A sharp curve in the right of way hid the siding, as well as +the open switch into it, from the gaze of the engineer who held +the throttle of the coming freight. His locomotive drew a string +of empties, eastbound, and having had a heavy pull of it coming +up the grade to Cliff City, as soon as he had got the highball +from the yardmaster there, he had "let her out," and was now +coming to the head of the down grade to Hammon at high speed. + +<P> +As it chanced, the wireless receiving station of Tom's new +telephone system was not yet completed at Cliff City. The news of +the wreck of the Hercules 0001 and her position had not been +relayed to the master of the Cliff City yards. + +<P> +That employee of the H. & P. A. had taken a chance in letting +the string of empties through his block. He knew the electric +locomotive was somewhere ahead, but he thought it would be making +its usual time and would have already passed Half Way. + +<P> +But the situation was serious. The freight was coming along at +top speed and the switch into the siding was still open. Montagne +Lewis and his crew of ruffians might well stand back and let what +seemed sure to happen, happen! The driving freight must do more +harm to Tom Swift's invention than they could have hoped to do +with the sledges and bars they had brought with them to the spot. + +<P> +Mr. Wakefield Damon had shown his courage already. He would +have been glad to do more to save Tom's locomotive from further +injury, but he did not realize what was threatening. He did not +hear the shriek of the freight engine's whistle. + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XXIV"></A> +<H3>Chapter XXIV Putting the Enemy to Flight</H3> + + +<P> +The pilot and headlight of the freight locomotive came around +the turn and the freight thundered on toward the switch. Seeing +the group of men standing by the stalled electric locomotive, and +the locomotive itself in the clear of the siding, the driver of +the freight did not suppose the switch was open. Nobody who was +not a criminal would have stood by idly in such an emergency and +let the freight run into an open switch. + +<P> +Therefore, for the first minute, the coming engineer did not +observe his danger. Lewis and his gang stared at the head of the +freight and did nothing. They had moved hastily back from the +siding so as to be clear of the wreckage. Mr. Damon was in the +front of the cab of Hercules 0001 and had no idea of the +approaching menace. + +<P> +But of a sudden a loud shout echoed through the wood. Tom Swift +came over the ridge and started toward his invention at top +speed. From that height he saw the freight train coming, he +observed the men standing at the siding, and he recognized +Montagne Lewis, roughly as the railroad magnate was dressed. + +<P> +Instantly Tom realized what was about to happen--what would +surely occur--and he saw what must be done if the utter wreck of +his locomotive was to be averted. Yelling at the top of his +voice, he leaped down the slope. + +<P> +"That's Swift!" shouted Lewis. "Stop him!" But the men he had +hired to do his wicked work fell back instead of trying to halt +the young inventor. It was not Tom's appearance that made them +quail. Over the ridge there appeared a second figure--and a more +fearful or threatening apparition none of them had ever before +seen! + +<P> +Koku came running with the limp body of Andy O'Malley slung +over his shoulder like a bag of meal. The fellows knew it was +Andy from his dress. + +<P> +The giant came down the slope after Tom as though he wore the +seven-league boots. The fellows Lewis had hired to wreck the +electric locomotive shrank back from before both Tom and the +giant. + +<P> +"Get him!" yelled the half blinded Lewis again. + +<P> +"Get your grandmother!" bawled one of the men suddenly. "Good-night!" + +<P> +He turned tail and ran, disappearing almost instantly into the +thicker woods. And his mates, after a moment of wavering, sped +after him. Lewis was left alone, quite helpless because of the +ammonia fumes. + +<P> +As a matter of fact not all of O'Malley's predicament was due +to Koku. The rascal, exhausted by his run and half blind through +fright and rage, had stumbled, fallen, and struck his head on a +root, which rendered him unconscious. + +<P> +This, of course, Lewis and his ruffians did not know. All the +men of the railroad president's gang saw was the gigantic Koku +coming along in great strides, bearing the unconscious O'Malley, +who was a burly fellow, as though he were a featherweight. No +wonder they fled from such a monster. + +<P> +Tom had reached the switch, and he was several seconds ahead of +the freight locomotive. The engineer saw the open switch then; +but he was too late to stop his train. + +<P> +Going into reverse, however, helped some. Tom seized the switch +lever and threw it over, locking it in place, just as the forward +trucks thundered upon the joint. The train swept by in safety, +and the engineer leaned from his cab window to wave a grateful +hand at the young inventor. + +<P> +Neither the engineer nor the crew of the freight understood the +meaning of the scene at the timber siding. All they learned was +that Tom Swift had saved the freight from a possible wreck. + +<P> +The young inventor turned sharply from the switch and motioned +with his hand to Koku. + +<P> +"Throw that fellow into the cab, Koku," he commanded. + +<P> +The giant did as he was told, just as Ned Newton came panting +to the spot. + +<P> +"Did they do any harm, Tom?" he cried. Then he saw Montagne +Lewis standing by, and he seized his chum's arm. "Do you see what +I see, Tom?" he demanded, earnestly. + +<P> +"I guess we both see the same snake," rejoined his chum. "And +I mean to scotch it." + +<P> +"Montagne Lewis!" murmured Ned. "And we've got his chief tool." + +<P> +Tom said nothing to his chum, hut he approached Lewis with +determined mien. + +<P> +"I can see something has happened to you, Mr. Lewis, and I can +guess what it is. The effect of that ammonia will blow away after +a time. Ask your friend, Andy O'Malley. He knows all about it, +for he sampled it back East, in Shopton." + +<P> +"I'm going to get square for this, young man," growled the +railroad magnate. "You know who I am. And that fellow in the cab +knew me, too. How dared he shoot that stuff into my face and +eyes?" + +<P> +"I fancy it didn't take much daring on Mr. Damon's part," and +Tom actually chuckled. "A big crook isn't any more important in +our eyes than a little crook. We've got your henchman, +O'Malley--" + +<P> +"And you'd better let him go. I'm telling you," snarled Lewis. +"I'll ruin you in this country, Tom Swift. I've got influence--" + +<P> +"You won't have much after this thing comes out. And believe +me, I mean to spread it abroad. I've got nothing to win or lose +from you, Mr. Lewis. As for O'Malley, I'll put him behind the +bars for a good long term." + +<P> +"You'll do a lot--" + +<P> +"More than you think," said Tom. "Koku!" The giant had pitched +O'Malley, who was still senseless, into the cab, and now was +coming up behind Lewis. + +<P> +"Yes, Master," said the giant. + +<P> +"Get him!" + +<P> +"Yes, Master," said Koku, and to Lewis' startled amazement, the +next instant he was in the hands of the giant! + +<P> +He screamed and threatened, and even kicked, to no avail. When +he was pitched into the electric locomotive he was held under the +threat of Mr. Damon's ammonia pistol until Tom and Ned and the +giant entered and the door was shut. Then Koku proceeded to tie +both the prisoners by wrist and ankle while the others examined +the mechanism of the Hercules 0001. + +<P> +The pantagraph had been torn off the trolley wires when the +locomotive had gone on the siding. But now Tom climbed to the +roof of the locomotive, and with Koku's aid managed to set the +rear pantagraph at such an angle that its wheels caught the +trolley cables again, and once more the current was pumped into +the Hercules 0001. + +<P> +Tom tried out the several parts of the mechanism and found +that, despite the jar of the collision, nothing was really +injured. + +<P> +"I built this thing to withstand hard usage," he declared with +pride. "The Swift Hercules Electric Locomotives will not be built +for parlor ornaments. She is going to run into Hendrickton under +her own power, in spite of a smashed cows catcher and target +lights." + +<P> +"Is nothing really injured, Tom?" asked Mr, Damon. "Bless my +dinner set! I thought everything had gone to smash when she hit +that bumper." + +<P> +"She will be as good as new in a week," declared Tom, with +conviction. + +<P> +This prophecy of the young inventor proved to be true. A week +from that day the public test of the electric locomotive on the +Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad was held. A picked delegation of +railroad men was present to observe and marvel, with Mr. +Bartholomew; but Montagne Lewis, the president of the H. & W., +was not one of those who attended. + +<P> +Of course, Lewis soon got out of jail on bail. But the +accusation against him was a serious one. His guilt would be +proved by his own employee, Andy O'Malley, who was in a hospital +for the time being. + +<P> +O'Malley had got enough. He had turned State's evidence and +implicated his employer. Influential and wealthy as Lewis was, +he could not escape trial with O'Malley when the time came. + +<P> +"One thing sure, Lewis has got all he wants. He isn't likely to +try any more crooked work against the H. & P. A.," Mr. +Bartholomew said. "I can thank you for that, Torn. Swift, as well +as for your invention. You have saved the day for my railroad." + +<P> +"You can thank Koku," chuckled Tom. "If he hadn't spied and +identified 'Big Feet,' we might not have caught O'Malley, and, +through O'Malley, implicated Montagne Lewis. You give Koku a new +suit of clothes, Mr. Bartholomew, and we will call it square. But +be sure and have the pattern of the goods loud enough." + +<P> +This conversation took place while the party of guests was +gathering to board Mr. Bartholomew's private car, attached to the +Hercules 0001. Mr. Damon was one of the guests and so was Ned +Newton. Tom took into the cab a crew of H. & P. A. men who would +hereafter drive the huge locomotive and take care of her. + +<P> +The semaphore signal dropped and the electric locomotive +started as quietly as a baby going to sleep! There was not a jar +as the train moved off the siding and over the switches to the +main line. + +<P> +The dispatcher had arranged a clear road for them. Tom knew +that he had a free track ahead of him--a level of ninety-odd +miles to the Hammon yards. As he passed the Hendrickton shops he +touched the siren lever for a moment, and the shrill voice of the +Hercules 0001 bade the town good-bye. + +<P> +The next minute the visitors in the private car grabbed out +their split-second watches and began to murmur. The electric +locomotive had begun to travel! + + + +<P> +<A NAME="XXV"></A> +<H3>Chapter XXV Speed and Success</H3> + + +<P> +"What town is that?" + +<P> +"Looks like a splotch of paint on a board fence, we went by so +quick." + +<P> +"I've lost count, Bartholomew. Where are we?" + +<P> +Ned Newton listened to these comments from the visiting +railroad men with delight. In reply to a question of his +neighbor, the grinning financial manager of the Swift +Construction Company paid: + +<P> +"No, sir. That isn't a picket fence. It's the telegraph poles +you see, and they are no nearer together than on another +railroad. But we're going some." + +<P> +"Bless my railroad stock!" shouted Mr. Damon, "I should say we +were." + +<P> +The electric, locomotive and the private car were hurled toward +the Pas Alos Range at a speed that almost frightened some of the +guests. + +<P> +"Three-quarters of an hour!" gasped one man as they began to +see the outskirts of Hammon. "And ninety-six miles? Great Scott, +Bartholomew! that's over two miles a minute!" + +<P> +"That is the speed we set out to get," Mr. Richard Bartholomew +said, with quite as much pride as though he had done it all +himself. + +<P> +But it had been his suggestion and his money that had +accomplished this wonder. Tom Swift was willing to give the +railroad president his share of the fame. + +<P> +The train scarcely slackened speed at Hammon, for Tom got the +signal announcing a clear track ahead, and he bucked the grade +with all the power he could get from the feed wires. This hill, +so well known to him now, was surmounted at a slightly decreased +speed; but it was a wonderful display of power after all. + +<P> +They went down the other side to Panboro and there linked up +with an eastbound freight that the Hercules 0001 snatched over +the mountain to Hammon at a pace slightly exceeding forty-five +miles an hour--at least twice the speed that any two oil-burning +locomotives could attain. As for the Jandels, they were not in +the same class at all with Tom Swift's locomotive! + +<P> +"Bless my speedometer!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, when the train +pulled down and stopped again at the Hendrickton terminal. "This +is the greatest test of speed and power I ever heard of. Why, a +coal burner or an oil burner isn't in it with this Hercules +locomotive! What do you say, Mr. Bartholomew?" + +<P> +"I'll say I am satisfied--completely and thoroughly satisfied, +Mr. Damon," said the president of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos +Railroad frankly. "Mr. Swift has fulfilled his contract in every +particular." + +<P> +An hour later the young inventor and his two friends were in +conference with Mr. Bartholomew over a new contract. The bonus of +a hundred thousand dollars would be paid at once to the Swift +Construction Company. But as the elder Swift's name would be +needed on the new contract for the building of other Hercules +locomotives, Tom had an idea. + +<P> +"We won't send the papers East for father to sign," he said. "I +want him to see the locomotive in real action. And I know where +he can borrow a private car and come out here in comfort. Rad can +come with him." + +<P> +"Bless my valentines!" ejaculated Mr. Damon, "I bet somebody +else will come too." + +<P> +Mr. Damon must have been a prophet, for a fortnight later, when +the borrowed car got in to the Hendrickton terminal at the tail +of the transcontinental flyer, Tom Swift saw first of all Mary +Nestor's rosy face on the platform of the car. + +<P> +"Tom! are you all right?" she cried, beaming down upon the +young inventor. + +<P> +"No. Half of me is left," he said, grinning up at her. "You +look great, Mary!" + +<P> +"Do you think so?" she cried, dimpling. "Well, if anybody +should ask you, Mr. Tom Swift, you look very good to me." + +<P> +"Don't make me swell all up, Mary," he laughed. "How's father?" + +<P> +"Splendid! And Rad--" + +<P> +"Eradicate Sampson is sho' 'nough puffectly all right," broke +in the voice of the old colored man, eager to make himself heard +and seen. "Here I is, Massa Tom. What dat lizard doin' here? +Ain't he a sight?" + +<P> +The old man had caught sight of Koku in the wonderful new suit +Mr. Bartholomew had ordered made for the giant. A Navajo blanket +had nothing on that suit for a mixture of colors, and Koku +strutted like a turkey-gobbler. + +<P> +"My lawsy!" gasped Rad again, "he's as purty as a sunset. Is +dat de way de tailors out here build a man up? Sure's yo live, +Massa Tom, I needs a new suit of clo'es myself." + +<P> +And before he got away from Hendrickton, Rad Sampson sported a +suit off the same piece of goods as that of Koku's. Otherwise +there might have been a lasting feud between the giant and the +Swift's ancient serving man. + +<P> +Mr. Barton Swift had stood the easy journey in the private car +very well. Before he would sign the contract that Mr. Bartholomew +offered, he wished to see for himself just how good his son's +invention was. + +<P> +They made another test from Hendrickton to Panboro, over the +"official route," as Ned called it. The time made by Hercules +0001 was even a little better than before. + +<P> +That the invention was well nigh perfect, and that it could do +even more than Mr. Bartholomew had hoped or Tom had claimed, was +Mr. Swift's conviction. + +<P> +"Tom," he said to his son, "you have done a wonderful thing. +Not only have you completed a marvelous invention and gained +thereby a lot of money, and more in prospect, but you have aided +in the world's progress to no small degree." + +<P> +"Speed in transportation is the big problem before the world of +commerce to-day. To move goods from point to point safely and +cheaply, as well as rapidly, is the great task of this age. We +are entering the Age of Speed. The railroads must solve the +problem to compete with motor-truck traffic and fast boats on the +lakes and rivers of our land." + +<P> +"You have, by your invention, shoved the clock of progress +forward. I am proud of you, my boy. I know now that, no matter +what may happen to me, you will make an enviable mark in the +world of invention." + +<P> +"You have done much before for the Government in time of +stress. But war engines of any kind are not worthy examples of +inventive genius beside such a thing as this." + +<P> +"It is the inventions of peace, rather than those of war, that +stand for human progress." + +<P> +Coming back over the mountain, Mary Nestor rode in the cab with +Tom. She sat on the swivel stool, in fact, and handled the +controls for part of the way. But she gave up the driver's place +to Tom before they reached the timber siding east of Cliff City. + +<P> +"I cannot go by that place without a shudder," Mary said to the +inventor. "Ned and Mr. Damon told me all about that accident. +Suppose you had been killed, Tom!" + +<P> +"I see I'll have to build an invention that will make that +impossible," chuckled the young fellow. + +<P> +"Make what impossible?" + +<P> +"Some invention that will make it positively certain that no +matter what I do or where I go, nothing can harm me. Nothing else +will suit you, Mary, I plainly see." + +<P> +"Well," returned the girl, smiling fondly at him. "I admit that +would satisfy me completely!" + +<PRE> +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive +by Victor Appleton + +************************************************************************ + +This file should be named 25tom10h.txt or 25tom10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 25tom11h.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 25tom10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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