ew
locomotive alone marked a forty-five mile an hour pace.

This attainment was kept quiet; not even the train crew knew what the
monster had done when they reached the summit of the mountain. But Mr.
Bartholomew, who rode with Tom and Ned in the cab, had held his own
watch on the test and compared it every minute with the speedometer.

"I am satisfied that you are going to do more than I had really hoped,
Mr. Swift," the railroad president said at the end of the run. "Already
you could drive this locomotive at a two-mile-a-minute clip on level
rails, I am sure. Keep at it! Nobody will be more delighted than I
shall be if you pull down that hundred thousand dollars' bonus."

"That's a fine way to talk, sir," cried Ned, with enthusiasm.

"I mean every word of it, Mr. Newton. The money is his as soon as he
makes good."

Both Tom and his financial manager left the president's office in a
satisfied state of mind.

"Great news to send home, Tom," remarked Ned, when they were alone.

"Righto, Ned. My father will be glad to hear it."

"And what about Mary?" And Ned poked his chum in the ribs.

"I guess she'll be glad too," Tom replied, his face reddening.

That night Tom sent word to Mary and also a telegram, in code, to his
father, saying the prospects were now bright for a quick finish of the
task that had brought him West.

Chapter XXI

The Open Switch

Meanwhile the work of electrifying another division of the Hendrickton
& Pas Alos Railroad had been pushed to completion. As Mr. Bartholomew
had in the first place stated, the road controlled water rights in the
hills which would supply any number of electric power stations, and his
enemies could not shut his road off from these waterfalls.

Tom had not warned his faithful servant, the giant Koku, to watch out
for Andy O'Malley in particular; the inventor knew that the giant would
be as cautious about any stranger as could be wished. But personally
Tom was amazed that either O'Malley or some other henchman of the
president of the Hendrickton & Western did not make an attempt to
injure the electric locomotive.

"Perhaps Mr. Bartholomew's police are really of some good," said Ned
Newton, when his chum mentioned his surprise on this point. "Has Koku
seen nobody lurking about at night?"

"He certainly has not seen the man he calls 'Big Feet,'" chuckled Tom.
"If he had spotted O'Malley, there certainly would have been an
explosion."

"Tell you what,"