as just sunrise. Long arms of rosy light reached
down the mountain side to linger on the tracks and what was strewed
across them. A glance assured the two young fellows from the East that
it was a bad smash indeed.

Several of the rear boxcars were slung athwart the passenger tracks.
The passenger train that had been ahead of the Pullman train on which
Tom and Ned rode, had been badly beaten in all along its side. Scarcely
a whole window was left on the inner side of the five cars. But those
cars were not derailed. It was merely some of the freight cars that
retarded the further progress of the transcontinental flyer. A derrick
car must be brought up to lift away the debris before the fast train
could move on.

Tom and Ned walked forward along the length of the wreck. Suddenly the
anxious young inventor seized Ned's arm.

"Glory be!" he ejaculated. "It's topside up, anyway."

"The Hercules Three-Oughts-One?" gasped Ned.

"That's what it is!"

Tom quickened his pace, and his financial manager followed close upon
his heels. The forward end of Forty-eight had not left the track and
the electric locomotive stood upright upon the rails, being near the
head end of the train.

"If this wreck was intentional, and aimed at your invention, Tom,"
whispered Ned Newton, "it did not result as the wreckers expected."

Tom scouted the idea suggested by his chum. And in a few moments they
learned from a railroad employee that a broken flange on a boxcar wheel
had caused the wreck.

"So that disposes of your suspicion, Ned," said Tom, approaching the
huge electric locomotive.

"Hey, gents!" exclaimed another railroad man, one of the crew of the
wrecked freight. "Better keep away from that locomotive."

"What's the matter with it?" Ned asked, curiously.

"Got some kind of an aborigine caged up in it. You put your hand on any
part of it and he's likely to jump out and bite your hand off, or
something. Believe me, he's some savage."

Both Tom and Ned burst into laughter. The former went forward to the
door of the cab and knocked in a peculiar way. It was a signal that the
giant recognized instantly.

"Master!" Koku cried from inside the cab. "Master! Him come in?"

"No, Koku," said Tom. "I'm not coming in. Are you all right?"

"Yes. Koku all right. Him come out?"

"No, no!" laughed Tom. "You are not at your journey's end yet, Koku.
Keep on the job a while longer."

"Sure. Koku stay here forever, if Master say so."