., Why! you don't even know
if that electric locomotive is safe. Something may have already
happened to it. The freight train might be wrecked. A dozen things
might happen."

"I am not crossing any bridges before I come to them," declared Tom.
"Besides, I propose to keep in touch with the Hercules Three-Oughts-One
in a certain way--Hullo! Here it is."

"Here what is?" demanded Ned.

The Pullman conductor at that moment came in through the forward
corridor. He had a telegram in his hand, and intoned loudly as he
approached:

"Mr. Swift! Mr. Thomas Swift! Telegram for Mr. Swift."

"That is for me, Conductor," said Tom briskly, offering his card.

"All right, Mr. Swift. Just got it at Shopton. Operator said you had
boarded my car. This is railroad business, you'll notice. Have you any
reply, sir?"

Tom ripped open the envelope and unfolded the telegram. He held it so
that Ned could read, too. It was signed: "N. G. Smith, Conductor,
Number 48."

"What's that?" exclaimed Ned, reading the message.

"'Locomotive and crazy man in it all right at Lingo,'" repeated Tom
aloud, and chuckled.

"No, Conductor, there is no answer."

"Good!" exclaimed Ned. "You arranged to get reports en route from the
conductors handling the Hercules Three-Oughts-One?"

"Surest thing you know," replied Tom. "And I guess, from the wording of
this message, that the crew of Forty-eight have already found out that
Koku is not an ordinary guard."

"He's a great boy," smiled Ned. "Glad he is on the job."

Chapter XVII

The Wreck of Forty-Eight

The two chums sought their berths that night in high fettle. Even Ned
sloughed off his mood of apprehension which he had worn on boarding the
train at Shopton.

For, true to the arrangement Tom had made with the railroad people,
another reassuring telegram was brought to him before bedtime. The
second conductor responsible for the management of the Western bound
freight to which the Hercules 0001 was attached, sent back a brief
statement of the safety of the electric locomotive.

Naturally the two chums would have passed the freight and got well
ahead of it before reaching Hendrickton. But Tom had business in
Chicago, and they stayed over in that city for twenty-four hours. The
freight train went around the city, of course. But the telegrams
continued to reach Tom promptly, even at the hotel where he and Ned
stopped in the city.

Occasionally the trainmen in charge of the freight