s?"

"I fancy it didn't take much daring on Mr. Damon's part," and Tom
actually chuckled. "A big crook isn't any more important in our eyes
than a little crook. We've got your henchman, O'Malley--"

"And you'd better let him go. I'm telling you," snarled Lewis. "I'll
ruin you in this country, Tom Swift. I've got influence--"

"You won't have much after this thing comes out. And believe me, I mean
to spread it abroad. I've got nothing to win or lose from you, Mr.
Lewis. As for O'Malley, I'll put him behind the bars for a good long
term."

"You'll do a lot--"

"More than you think," said Tom. "Koku!" The giant had pitched
O'Malley, who was still senseless, into the cab, and now was coming up
behind Lewis.

"Yes, Master," said the giant.

"Get him!"

"Yes, Master," said Koku, and to Lewis' startled amazement, the next
instant he was in the hands of the giant!

He screamed and threatened, and even kicked, to no avail. When he was
pitched into the electric locomotive he was held under the threat of
Mr. Damon's ammonia pistol until Tom and Ned and the giant entered and
the door was shut. Then Koku proceeded to tie both the prisoners by
wrist and ankle while the others examined the mechanism of the Hercules
0001.

The pantagraph had been torn off the trolley wires when the locomotive
had gone on the siding. But now Tom climbed to the roof of the
locomotive, and with Koku's aid managed to set the rear pantagraph at
such an angle that its wheels caught the trolley cables again, and once
more the current was pumped into the Hercules 0001.

Tom tried out the several parts of the mechanism and found that,
despite the jar of the collision, nothing was really injured.

"I built this thing to withstand hard usage," he declared with pride.
"The Swift Hercules Electric Locomotives will not be built for parlor
ornaments. She is going to run into Hendrickton under her own power, in
spite of a smashed cows catcher and target lights."

"Is nothing really injured, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon. "Bless my dinner
set! I thought everything had gone to smash when she hit that bumper."

"She will be as good as new in a week," declared Tom, with conviction.

This prophecy of the young inventor proved to be true. A week from that
day the public test of the electric locomotive on the Hendrickton & Pas
Alos Railroad was held. A picked delegation of railroad men was present
to observe and marvel, with Mr. Bartholomew; but Montagne Lewis, t