Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive; Or, Two Miles a Minute on the Rails

by Victor Appleton

  Chapter XVIII

  On the Hendrickton & Pas Alos

  The transcontinental was delayed three hours by the strewn wreckage ofthe rear of Number Forty-eight. When she went on the two young fellowsfrom Shopton gazed anxiously at the Hercules 0001, which stood betweentwo 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 AndyO'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 thederailed 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 anythingelse, 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 upthe track from this coach, and he lit out in a hurry. There stood theThree-Oughts-One, and there were we. He knew we would raise a hue andcry 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 abulldog's!"

  "You said it. I'm afraid of that man. I shall not have a moment's peaceuntil 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 thingsup. You are not afraid of the speed matter now, are you?" demanded Nedconfidently.

  "I can be sure of nothing until after the tests," said Tom, shaking hishead. "Remember, Ned, that I have set out to accomplish what was neverdone before--to drive a locomotive over the rails at two miles aminute. 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 alaugh. "If I was as sure of all else as I am of Koku, we'd have plainsailing before us."

  Two days later Tom Swift and Ned Newton were ushered into the privateoffice 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, hadbecome established at the best hotel in the rapidly growing Westernmunicipality, and had seen something of the town itself during thehours 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 eyessuddenly 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. Therailroad magnate at once became confidential.

  "Nothing happened on the way?" he asked, pointedly. "There was afreight 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 railroadpresident. "But, of course, we can't be sure. Anyhow, it is just aswell if your servant, Mr. Swift, keeps close watch still upon thatlocomotive."

  "He will," said Tom, nodding. "He is down there in the yard with theHercules 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 hisinvention. And he confessed that thus far his tests of the locomotivehad 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 asto 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 myimprovements over the Jandel patents are worthy. I know I have a verypowerful locomotive. But that is not enough."

  "We have got to shoot our trains through the Pas Alos Range faster thantrains were ever shot over the grades before, or we have failed," saidMr. Bartholomew, with decision.

  "But--" began Ned; but Tom put up an arresting hand and his financialmanager ceased speaking.

  "I have not forgotten the details of our contract, Mr. Bartholomew," hesaid, 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 trythe locomotive out on the tracks of the H. & P. A. in any case. TheHercules Three-Oughts-One has been dragged a long distance, and hasbeen through at least one wreck. I want to see if she is all rightbefore I test her officially."

  "I'll arrange that for you," said Mr. Bartholomew, briskly, puttingaway his papers. "I will go with you, too, and take a look at themarvel."

  "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 greatas it really is."

  "Everything must be proved," Tom said, cautiously. "If it was afinancial problem, Mr. Bartholomew, believe me it would be Ned whodisplayed caution. But I have seldom built anything that could not--andhas not--later been improved."

  "You do not consider your electric locomotive, then, a completedinvention?" asked Mr. Bartholomew, as the three walked down the yard.

  "I have too much experience to say it is perfect," returned Tom. "I canscarcely 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 Ihave failed, I shall monkey with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One quite alittle 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 asuccess of your invention, you are welcome to try it out on the tracksof the H. & P. A. for another six months."

  "All right," Tom said, smiling. "Now, there is the HerculesThree-Oughts-One, Mr. Bartholomew. And there is Koku looking longinglythrough the window."

  In fact, the giant, the moment he saw Tom, ran to unbar and open thedoor of the cab on that side.

  "Master! If no let Koku out, Koku go amuck--crazy! No can breathe inhere! 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 yourheels."

  No sooner had the inventor spoken than the giant leaped from the opendoor of the locomotive and dashed away along the cinder path as thoughhe actually had to run away. Tom burst into a laugh, as he watched thegiant 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'tunderstand, Mr. Bartholomew, what it means to that big fellow to behoused in for so many days, and unable to kick a free limb. I bet heruns 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 pol
iceif they tackle Koku right now," he said. "He'd lay out about a dozenordinary men without half trying. But, ordinarily, he is the mostmild-mannered fellow who ever lived."

  "He will come back, if he is let alone, as harmless as a kitten," Tomobserved. "And when I am not with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One, andwhile I continue making my tests, Koku will be on guard. You might tellyour police force, Mr. Bartholomew, to let him alone. Now come aboardand 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 mechanicaleducation. He might not be a genius in mechanics as Tom Swift was, buthe could follow the latter's explanations regarding the improvements inthe electrical equipment of this new type of locomotive.

  "I don't know what your speed tests will show, Mr. Swift," said therailroad president, with added enthusiasm. "But if those parts will dowhat you say they have already done, you've got the Jandels beat amile! I'm for you, strong. Yes, sir! like your friend, Newton, here, Ibelieve 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 theuncertainties 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 theelectrified system of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railway, and thepantagraphs of the huge locomotive for the first time came intoconnection with the twin conductor trolleys which overhung the rails.

  Ned accompanied Tom as assistant. Koku was allowed by the inventor toroam about the hills as much as he pleased during the hours in whichhis master was engaged with the Hercules 0001. Tom did not think anyharm would come to Koku, and he knew that the giant would enjoyimmensely a free foot in such a wild country. The two young fellows,dressed in working suits of overall stuff, spent long hours in the cabof the electric locomotive. Their try-outs had to be made for the mostpart on sidetracks and freight switches, some miles outsideHendrickton, where the invention would not be in the way of regulartraffic.

  Speed on level tracks had been raised in one test to over ninety-fivemiles an hour and Mr. Bartholomew cheered wildly from the cab of a hugeMallet that paced Tom's locomotive on a parallel track. No steamlocomotive had ever made such fast time.

  But Tom was after something bigger than this. He wanted to show thepresident of the H. & P. A. that the Hercules 0001 could drag a loadover the Pas Alos Range at a pace never before gained by anymountain-hog.

  Therefore he coaxed the electric locomotive out into the hills, somehundred or more miles from headquarters. He had to keep in touch withthe train dispatcher's office, of course; the new machine had often totake a sidetrack. Nor was much of this hilly right-of-way electrified.The Jandels locomotive had been found to be a failure on the sharpgrades; so the extension of the trolley system had been abandoned.

  But there was one steep grade between Hammon and Cliff City that hadbeen completed. The current could be fed to the cables over thisstretch of track, and for a week Tom used this long and steep gradejust as much as he could, considering of course the demands of theregular traffic.

  The telegraph operator at Half Way (merely a name for a station, forthere was not a habitation in sight) thrust his long upper-length outof the telegraph office window one afternoon and waved a "highball" tothe waiting electric locomotive on the sidetrack.

  "Dispatcher says you can have Track Number Two West till thefour-thirteen, westbound, is due. I'll slip the operator at Cliff Citythe 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 thisoperator and his mate to watch out for the western-bound flyer thatwould begin its climb of the grade at Hammon less than half an hourhence.

  The electric locomotive was coaxed out across the switch. Tom wasearnestly inspecting the more delicate parts of the mechanism while Ned(and proud he was to do it) handled the levers. Once on the main linehe moved the controller forward. The machine began to pick up speed.

  The drumming of the wheels over the rail joints became a singlenote--an increasing roar of sound. The electric locomotive shot up thegrade. The arrow on the speedometer crept around the dial and Ned's eyewas more often fastened on that than it was on the glistening twinrails which mounted the grade.

  Black-green hemlock and spruce bordered the right of way on eitherhand. Their shadows made the tunnel through the forest almost dark. ButTom had not seen fit to turn on the headlight.

  "How is she making out?" asked the inventor, coming to look over hischum's shoulder.

  "It's great, Tom!" breathed Ned Newton, his eyes glistening. "She eatsthis grade up."

  "And it's within a narrow fraction of a two per cent.," said theinventor proudly. "She takes it without a jar--Hold on! What's thatahead?"

  The locomotive had traveled ten miles or more from Half Way. Thesummit of the grade was not far ahead. But the forest shut out all viewof the station at Cliff City and the structures that stood near it.

  Right across the steel ribbons on which the hercules 0001 ran, Tom hadseen something which brought the question to his lips. Ned Newton sawit too, and he shouted aloud:

  "Tree down! A log fallen, Tom!"

  He did not lose completely his self-control. But he grabbed the leverswith 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 wasjammed. The locomotive quickly came to a halt. Then, before Tom couldget to the open door, the wheels began spinning in reverse and thegreat Hercules 0001 began the descent of the steep grade, utterlyunmanageable!