“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 Lewi
s. “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, 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 Tom Swift Megapack Page 323
