quickest and cheapest service is the road that is going to keep
out of a receivership. Believe me, I know!"

"You should," said Mr. Swift mildly. "Your experience should
have taught you a great deal about the railroad business."

"It has. But that knowledge is worth just nothing at all
without swift power and cheap traffic. Those are the problems
today. Now, I am going to take a chance. If it doesn't work, my
road is dished in any case. So I feel that the desperate chance
is the only chance."

"What is that?" asked Tom Swift, sitting forward in his chair.
"I, for one, feel so much interested that I will do anything in
reason to find the answer to your traffic problem."

"That's the boy!" ejaculated Richard Bartholomew. "I will give
it to you in a few words. If you will experiment with the
electric locomotive idea, to develop speed and power over and
above the Jandel patent, and will give me the first call on the
use of any patents you may contrive, I will put up twenty-five
thousand dollars in cash which shall be yours whether I can make
use of a thing you invent or not."

"Any time limit in this agreement, Mr. Bartholomew?" asked Tom,
making a few notes on a scratch pad before him on the library
table.

"What do you say to three months?"