ed Ned. "You'll have to wait till you can get the
locomotive out there on the H. & P. A. tracks before you get a fair
speed-test."

"And suppose instead of a triumph it is a fiasco?" Tom said,
doubtfully. "I tell you straight, Ned: I never was so uncertain about
the outcome of one of my inventions since I began dabbling with
motive-power."

"We could build several miles of straight track in the waste ground
behind the works," Ned said, thoughtfully.

"Not a chance! There is neither time nor money for such work. Besides,
I should have to rebuild my transforming station if I supplied longer
conduit wires with current."

"You don't really consider that you have failed, do you, Tom?" and
Ned's anxiety made his voice sound very woeful indeed.

"I tell you that my belief doesn't satisfy me. I hate to go West
without being sure--positive. I want to know! I have tried the
locomotive out in the yard half a dozen times. It runs like a fine
watch. There doesn't seem to be a thing the matter with it now. But
what speed can I attain?"

"I don't see but you'll have to risk it, Tom."

"I mean to give her one more test. I'll run her out tonight when there
is nobody about but the watchmen--and you, if you want to come. I'll
arrange with the Electric Company for all the current they can spare.
By ginger! I've got to take some risk."

"By the way, Tom," said his chum, "did it ever strike you as odd that
that private detective agency never got any trace of O'Malley?"

"Well, he's gone away. We needn't worry about him. Maybe the detective
wasn't very smart, at that."

"And yet he was here in town after you put the inquiry on foot. I saw
him in the bank. He came there occasionally. And either he, or somebody
he hired, placed that bomb in the locomotive."

"All those being facts, what of it?"

"Besides, there was that other fellow--the man with the Vandyke beard.
Might be a shyster lawyer, or something of the kind. He wasn't spotted,
either."

"To tell the truth, I didn't bother to give the Detective Agency the
description of that fellow, although you gave it to me," and Tom
laughed. "I must confess that I depend more upon my man-trap electric
wires to protect the invention than I do on the private inquiry agent."

"It's funny, just the same. If I had another job for a detective I
should not submit it to the Blatz Agency," grumbled Ned.

"I fancy Montagne Lewis and his crowd called off their Wild West
gunman," said Tom.