c 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 t