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 Vand.y.k.e beard and eyegla.s.ses. 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 Ma.s.sa Tom dat time.
O"Malley is de man what"s been spyin" on Ma.s.sa 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--"