Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive | Page 6

my road is dished in any case.
So I feel that the desperate chance is the only chance."
"What is that?" asked Tom Swift, sitting forward in his chair. "I, for
one, feel so much interested that I will do anything in reason to find the
answer to your traffic problem."
"That's the boy!" ejaculated Richard Bartholomew. "I will give it to you
in a few words. If you will experiment with the electric locomotive idea,
to develop speed and power over and above the Jandel patent, and will
give me the first call on the use of any patents you may contrive, I will
put up twenty-five thousand dollars in cash which shall be yours

whether I can make use of a thing you invent or not."
"Any time limit in this agreement, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom,
making a few notes on a scratch pad before him on the library table.
"What do you say to three months?"
"Make it six, if you can," Tom said with continued briskness. "It
interests me. I'll do my best. And I want you to get your money's
worth."
"All right. Make it six," said Mr. Bartholomew. "But the quicker you
dig something up, the better for me. Now, that is the first part of my
proposition."
"All right, sir. And the second?"
"If you succeed in showing me that you can build and operate an
electric locomotive that will speed two miles a minute on a level track
and will get a heavy drag over the mountain grades, as I said, as surely
as two engines of the coal-burning or oil-burning type, I will pay you a
hundred thousand dollars bonus, besides buying all the engines you can
build of this new type for the first two years. I've got to have first call;
but the hundred thousand will be yours free and clear, and the price of
the locomotives you build can be adjusted by any court of agreement
that you may suggest."
Tom Swift's face glowed. He realized that this offer was not only
generous, but that it made it worth his while dropping everything else
he had in hand and devoting his entire time and thought for even six
mouths to the proposition of developing the electric locomotive.
He looked at his father and nodded. Mr. Swift said, calmly:
"We take you on that offer, Mr. Bartholomew. Tom has the facts on
paper, and we will hand it to Mr. Newton, our financial manager, in the
morning. If you will remain in town for twenty- four hours, the contract
can be signed."

"Suits me," declared. Richard Bartholomew, rising quickly from his
chair. "I confess I hoped you would take me up quite as promptly as
you have. I want to get back West again.
"We will see you in the office of the company at two o'clock
tomorrow," said Tom Swift confidently.
"Better than good! And now, if that trailer that I am pretty sure
Montagne Lewis sent after me does not get wise to the subject of our
talk, it may be a slick job we have done and will do. I admit I am rather
afraid of the enemy. You Swifts must keep your plans in utter
darkness."
After a little talk on more ordinary affairs, Mr. Bartholomew took his
departure. It was getting late in the evening, and Tom Swift had an
engagement. While old Rad, their colored servant, was helping him on
with his coat preparatory to Tom's leaving the house, his father called
from the library:
"Got those notes in a safe place, Tom?"
"Safest in the world, Dad," his son replied. But he did not go into
details. Tom considered the "safest place in the world" just then was his
own wallet, which was tucked into an inside pocket of his vest "I'm
going to see Mary Nestor, Father," said Tom, as he went to the front
door and opened it.
He halted a moment with the knob of the door in his hand. The porch
was deep in shadows, but he thought he had seen something move
there.
"That you, Koku?" asked Tom in an ordinary voice. Sometimes his
gigantic servant wandered about the house at night. He was a strange
person, and he had a good many thoughts in his savage brain that even
his young master did not understand.
There was no reply to Tom's question, so he walked down the steps and
out at the gate. It was not a long distance to the Nestor house, and the

air was brisk and keen, in spite of the fact that threatening clouds
masked the stars.
Two blocks from the house he came to a high wall which separated the
street from the grounds of an old dwelling. Tom suddenly noticed that
the usual