Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive | Page 5

I was followed East, and
here to Shopton, or not doesn't much matter. I will put my proposition
up to you, and then I'll ask, if you don't want to go into it, that you keep
the business absolutely secret. I have got to put something over on
Montagne Lewis and his crowd, or throw up the sponge. That's that!"
"Go ahead, Mr. Bartholomew," observed Tom's father, encouragingly.
"To begin with, four hundred miles of our road is already electrified.
We have big power stations and supply heat and light and power to
several of the small cities tapped by the H. & P. A. It is a paying
proposition as it stands. But it is only paying because we carry the
freight traffic--all the freight traffic--of that region.
"If the H. & W. breaks in on our monopoly of that, we shall soon be so
cut down that our invested capital will not earn two per cent.--No, by
glory! not one-and-a-half per cent.--and our stock will be dished. But I
have worked out a scheme, Gentlemen, by which we can
counter-balance any dig Lewis can give us in the ribs.
"If we can extend our electrified line into and through the Pas Alos
Range our freight traffic can be handled so cheaply and so effectively
that nothing the Hendrickton & Western can do for years to come will
hurt us. Get that?"
"I get your statement, Mr. Bartholomew," said Mr. Swift. "But it is
merely a statement as yet."

"Sure. Now I will give you the particulars. We are using the Jandel
locomotives on our electrified stretch of road. You know that patent?"
"I know something about it, Mr. Bartholomew," said the younger
inventor. "I have felt some interest in the electric locomotive, though I
have done nothing practical in the matter. But I know the Jandel
patent."
"It is about the best there is--and the most recent; but it does not fill the
bill. Not for the H. & P. A., anyway," said Mr. Bartholomew, shortly.
"What does it lack?" asked Mr. Swift.
"Speed. It's got the power for heavy hauls. It could handle the freight
through the Pas Alos Range. But it would slow up our traffic so that the
shippers would at once turn to the Hendrickton & Western. You
understand that their rails do not begin to engage the grades that our
engineers thought necessary when the old H. & P. A. was built."
"I get that," said Tom briskly. "You have come here, then, to interest us
in the development of a faster but quite as powerful type of electric
locomotive as the Jandel."
"Stated to the line!" exclaimed Mr. Bartholomew, smiting the arm of
his chair with his clenched fist. "That is it, young man. You get me
exactly. And now I will go on to put my proposition to you."
"Do so, Mr. Bartholomew," murmured the old inventor, quite as much
interested as his son.
"I want you to make a study of electric motive power as applied to
track locomotives, with the idea of utilizing our power plants and
others like them, and even with the possibility in mind of the continued
use of the Jandel locomotives on our more level stretches of road.
"But I want your investigation to result in the building of locomotives
that will make a speed of two miles a minute, or as near that as possible,
on level rails, and be powerful enough to snake our heavy freight trains

through the hills and over the steep grades so rapidly that even two
engines, a pusher and a hauler, cannot beat the electric power."
"Some job, that, I'll say," murmured Tom Swift.
"Exactly. Some job. And it is the only thing that will save the H. & P.
A.," said Mr. Bartholomew decidedly. "I put it up to you Swifts. I have
heard of some of your marvelous inventions. Here is something that is
already invented. But it needs development."
"I see," said Mr. Swift, and nodded.
"It interests me," admitted Tom. "As I say, I have given some thought
to the electric locomotive."
"This is the age of speed," said Mr. Bartholomew earnestly. "Rapidity
in handling freight and kindred things will be the salvation, and the
only salvation, of many railroads. Tapping a rich territory is not enough.
The road that can offer the quickest and cheapest service is the road
that is going to keep out of a receivership. Believe me, I know!"
"You should," said Mr. Swift mildly. "Your experience should have
taught you a great deal about the railroad business."
"It has. But that knowledge is worth just nothing at all without swift
power and cheap traffic. Those are the problems today. Now, I am
going to take a chance. If it doesn't work,