capped the stockade of the Swift Construction Company enclosure.
Koku beat a path around the enclosure at night, getting such
short sleep as he seemed to need in the forenoon.

"Dat crazy cannibal," grumbled Rad, "got it in his haid dat
he's gwine to he'p Massa Tom by walkin' out o' nights like he was
dis here Western, de great sprinter, Ma lawsy me! Koku ain't got
brains enough to fill up a hic'ry nut shell. Dat he ain't."

Nothing anybody else could do for Tom ever satisfied Rad. The
colored man fully believed that he was the only person really
necessary for Tom's success and peace of mind. In fact, Rad
thought that even Ned Newton's duties as financial manager of the
firm were scarcely of as much importance.

When he heard that Tom was going West, after a time, with the
electric locomotive, to try it out on the tracks of the
H. & P. A., Rad was quite sure that if he did not go along, the
test would not come out right.

"O' course yo'll need me, Massa Tom," he said, confidently.
"Couldn't git along widout me nohow. Yo' knows, sir, I allus has
to go 'long wid yo' to fix things."

"Don't you think father will need you here, Rad?" Tom asked the
faithful old fellow. "You're getting old--"

"Me gittin' old?" cried, the colored man. "Huh! Yo' don't know
'bout dis here chile. I don't purpose ever to git old. I been
gray-haided since befo' yo' was born; but I ain't old yit!"