Chapter II
Trouble Starts
The fact that he was stopped by a footpad smote Tom Swift's mind as nota particularly surprising adventure. He had heard that several of thatgentry had been plying their trade about the outskirts of the town. Toa degree he was prepared for this sudden event.
Then there flashed into Tom's mind the thought of what Mr. RichardBartholomew had said regarding the spy he believed had followed himfrom the West. Could it be possible that some hired thug sent byMontagne Lewis and his crooked crowd of financiers considered that TomSwift 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 thrillingones--since, as a youth, he was first introduced to the reader in theinitial volume of this series, entitled "Tom Swift and His MotorCycle." His first experiences as an inventor, coached by his father,who had spent his life in the experimental laboratory and workshop, wasmade possible by his purchase from Mr. Wakefield Damon, now one of hisclosest friends, of a broken-down motor cycle.
Through a series of inventions, some of them of a marvelous kind, TomSwift, 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 SwiftAmong the Fire Fighters," he had engaged in the invention of anexplosive bomb carrying flame-quenching chemicals that would, in time,revolutionize fire-fighting in tall buildings.
The matter that Mr. Richard Bartholomew, the railroad magnate, hadbrought to Tom's and his father's attention had deeply interested theyoung inventor. Thought of the electric locomotive, the development ofwhich the railroad president stated was the only salvation of thefinances of the H. & P. A., had so held Tom's attention as he walkedalong the street that being stopped in this sudden way was even morestartling than such an incident might ordinarily have been.
Tom was a muscular young fellow; but a club held over one's head by aburly thug would have shaken the courage of anybody. Dark as it wasunder the archway the young fellow saw that the bulk of the man wasmuch greater than his own.
"That's right, sonny," said the stranger, in a sneering tone. "You gotjust the right idea. When I say 'Stick 'em up' I mean it. Never take achance. Ah--ah!"
The fellow ripped open Tom's overcoat, almost tearing the buttons off.Another masterful jerk and his victim's jacket was likewise partedwidely. He did not lower the club for an instant. He thrust his lefthand into the V-shaped parting of the young fellow's vest.
It was then that Tom was convinced of what the fellow was after. Heremembered the notes he had made regarding the contract that was to besigned on the morrow between the Swift Construction Company andPresident Richard Bartholomew of the H. & P. A. Railroad. Heremembered, too, the figure he thought he had seen in the dark porch ofthe house as he so recently left it.
Mr. Bartholomew had considered it very possible that he was being spiedupon. 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 wouldallow their henchman to go too far to obtain information of therailroad president's intentions. This fellow was merely attempting tofrighten him.
A sense of relief came to Tom Swift's assistance. He opened his lips tospeak and could the thug have seen his face more clearly in the dark hewould have been aware of the fact that the young inventor smiled.
The fellow's groping hand entered between Tom's vest and his shirt. Thecoarse fingers seized upon Tom's wallet. Nobody likes to be robbed, nomatter whether the loss is great or small. There was not much money inthe 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 coatpocket. He made no attempt to take anything else from the younginventor.
"Now, beat it!" commanded the fellow. "Don't look back and don't run orholler. Just keep moving--in the way you were headed before. Vamoose."
More than ever was Tom assured that the man was from the West. Hisspeech savored of Mexican phrases and slang terms used mainly byWestern citizens. And his abrupt and masterly manner and speech aidedin this supposition. Tom Swift stayed not to utter a word. It was truehe was not so frightened as he had at first been. But he was quite surethat this man was no person to contend with under present conditions.
He strode away along the sidewalk toward the far corner of the wallthat surrounded this estate. Shopton had not many of such importantdwellings as this behind the wall. Its residential section was made upfor the most part of mechanics' homes and such plain but substantialhouses as his father's.
Prospering as the Swifts had during the last few years, neither Tom norhis father had thought their plain old house too poor or humble for acontinued residence. Tom was glad to make money, but the inventions hehad made it by were vastly more important to his mind than what hemight obtain by any lavish expenditure of his growing fortune.
This matter of the electric locomotive that had been brought to hisattention by the Western railroad magnate had instantly interested theyoung inventor. The possibility of there being a clash of interests inthe matter, and the point Mr. Bartholomew made of his enemies seekingto thwart his hope of keeping the H. & P. A. upon a solid financialfooting, were phases of the affair that likewise concerned the youngfellow'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 wasplanning to do. They would naturally suspect that his trip East tovisit the Swift Construction Company was no idle jaunt.
Tom had turned so many fortunate and important problems of inventioninto certainties that the name of the Swift Construction Company wasbroadly known, not alone throughout the United States but in severalforeign countries. Montagne Lewis, whom Tom knew to be both a powerfuland an unscrupulous financier, might be sure that Mr. Bartholomew'svisit to Shopton and to the young inventor and his father was of suchimportance that he would do well through his henchmen to learn theparticulars 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 thatpromptly, to set about the discovery of Mr. Bartholomew's reason forvisiting the Swifts.
Without doubt the man had slunk about the Swift house and had peeredinto one of the library windows while the interview was proceeding. Hehad observed Tom making notes on the scratch pad and judged correctlythat those notes dealt with the subject under discussion between thevisitor from the West and the Swifts.
He had likewise seen Tom thrust the paper into his wallet and thewallet into his inside vest pocket. Instead of dogging Mr.Bartholomew's footsteps after that gentleman left the Swift house, theman had waited for the appearance of Tom. When he was sure that theyoung fellow was preparing to walk out, and the direction he was tostroll, the thug had run ahead and ensconced himself in the archway onthis dark block.
All these things were plain enough. The notes Tom had taken regardingthe offer Mr. Bartholomew had made for the development of the electriclocomotive might, under some circumstances, be very important. Atleast, the highwayman evidently thought them such. But Tom had anotherthought about that.
One thing the young inventor was convinced about, as he strode brisklyaway from the scene of the hold-up: There was going to be trouble. Ithad already begun.
Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive; Or, Two Miles a Minute on the Rails Page 2
