taking up the work where former experimenters ended theirs. Why
shouldn't I find the right combination to bring about a
two-miles-a-minute drive?"

"Oh, Tom!" cried Mary, with clasped hands, "I hope you do."

"I hope I do, too," said Tom, grimly. "At least, if trying will
bring it, success is going to come my way."



Chapter XIV

Speed


More than four months had passed since the contract had been
signed, when Tom made his first yard-test of the Hercules 0001.
For a month nothing had been seen or heard of Andy O'Malley,
whose identity as the spy, set by Montagne Lewis to cripple Tom's
attempt to help the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad, had been
determined beyond any doubt.

The private inquiry agent that Tom had engaged to find O'Malley
had been unsuccessful in his work. The spy had disappeared from
Shopton and the vicinity. Nevertheless, the inventor did not for
a moment overlook the possibility that the enemy might again
strike.

Every night the electric current was turned into the wires that