out, Tom, I'd climb over the stockade to get in."

"You'd better not," Tom told him, dryly. "If you tried that
you'd get a worse shock than any chicken thief will get that
tries to steal your buff Orpingtons."



Chapter XIII

Hopes and Fears


Tom climbed into the huge cab of the electric locomotive. In
fact, the cab was the most of it, for every part of the mechanism
save the drivers was covered by the eighty-odd foot structure.
From the peak of the pilot to the rear bumper the length was
ninety feet and some inches.

As Tom slid the monster out upon the yard track the small crowd
cheered. At least, the locomotive had the power to move, and to
the unknowing ones, at least, that seemed a great and wonderful
thing.

What they saw was apparently a box-car--like a mail coach, only
with more high windows--ten feet wide, its roof more than
fourteen feet from the rails, its locked pantagraph adding two
feet more to its height.

Just what was in the cab--the water and oil tanks, the steam-