me necessary task inside
the shed. The young inventor was getting ready to run the huge
locomotive out upon the yard-track.

Remembering vividly the attempt which had been made some weeks before
to blow up the Hercules 0001, it was only natural that Ned should
suspect that the flash of light he had seen revealed the presence of
some ill-conditioned person lurking just beyond the fence.

A man might be crouching there prepared to hurl an explosive bomb over
the fence when the locomotive was brought around as far as that spot.
Or was the villain foolish enough to attempt to enter the enclosure by
surmounting the fence?

Ned, keeping close to the ground, crossed the rails in the fortunate
shadow of one of the posts. There he found a place where, with his back
to a pole-prop right at this curve in the trolley system, the shadow
enfolded him completely.

Had his movements been marked by the person outside the fence? Ned
waited several long and anxious minutes for some move from out there.
Then something rather unexpected occurred. For the past ten minutes he
had forgotten about the test of the Hercules 0001 which Tom had
promised.

With a blast of its siren the huge electric locomotive burst out of the
shed and thundered around the track. It smote Ned Newton's mind
suddenly that the inventor was going to "take a chance" on this evening
and try to get some speed out of the huge machine.

The electric headlight cast a broad cone of white and dazzling light
across the yard. It suddenly struck full upon the spot where Ned Newton
crouched; but the upright against which he leaned was broad enough to
hide him completely.

Looking up at the top of the stockade at that moment of illumination,
the young financial manager of the Swift Construction Company beheld a
crawling figure nearing the wire entanglements on the summit of the
fence.

The unknown man was climbing by means of a notched pole. Ned could not
see that he bore any bulky object in his hands; indeed, he needed both
of them to aid him to climb. But the man's right hand was reaching
upward, above his head.

The Hercules 0001 came roaring on. Its cone of light passed beyond
Ned's station. In a few seconds it reached the spot, and roared on. Ned
had not made a move. It seemed to him that he could not move or speak.

The onrush of the electric locomotive all but swept the young fellow
from his feet. It had come and gone in an instant!

"He's making more than fif