The power station charged the trolley cables with an abundance of current, and the Hercules 0001 made a splendid trip.
"Bless my cuff-links!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed 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 b.u.mper 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 b.u.mper 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 b.u.mper 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 b.u.mper 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.