& 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, 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