The Enemy Still Active
Ned was dressed in a dark business suit, so he was not likely to be
observed from a distance, for it was a starless night. Half way to the
end of the great yard he began to wonder if the light he had seen might
not have been an hallucination.
He doubted very much if anybody was creeping about outside the fence.
The boards were close together, with scarcely a crack half an inch wide
anywhere. A light out there--
It flashed again. He was positive of it this time, and of its locality
as well. It could be nobody who had any honest business about the Swift
Construction Company's premises. It was not Koku, for ordinarily the
giant would not use an electric torch.
Ned did not know where any of the watchmen were who were acting as
sentinels. In fact, as it appeared later, three of them had been called
off their beats by Tom himself to help in some necessary task inside
the shed. The young inventor was getting ready to run the huge
locomotive out upon the yard-track.
Remembering vividly the attempt which had been made some weeks before
to blow up the Hercules 0001, it was only natural that Ned should
suspect that the flash of light he had seen revealed the presence of
some ill-conditioned person lurking just beyond the fence.
A man might be crouching there prepared to hurl an explosive bomb over
the fence when the locomotive was brought around as far as that spot.
Or was the villain foolish enough to attempt to enter the enclosure by
surmounting the fence?
Ned, keeping close to the ground, crossed the rails in the fortunate
shadow of one of the posts. There he found a place where, with his back
to a pole-prop right at this curve in the trolley system, the shadow
enfolded him completely.
Had his movements been marked by the person outside the fence? Ned
waited several long and anxious minutes for some move from out there.
Then something rather unexpected occurred. For the past ten minutes he
had forgotten about the test of the Hercules 0001 which Tom had
promised.
With a blast of its siren the huge electric locomotive burst out of the
shed and thundered around the track. It smote Ned Newton's mind
suddenly that the inventor was going to "take a chance" on this evening
and try to get some speed out of the huge machine.
The electric headlight cast a broad cone of white and dazzling light
across the yard. It suddenly struck full upon the spot where Ned Newton
crouched; but the upright against which he leaned was broad enough to
hide him completely.
Looking up at the top of the stockade at that moment of illumination,
the young financial manager of the Swift Construction Company beheld a
crawling figure nearing the wire entanglements on the summit of the
fence.
The unknown man was climbing by means of a notched pole. Ned could not
see that he bore any bulky object in his hands; indeed, he needed both
of them to aid him to climb. But the man's right hand was reaching
upward, above his head.
The Hercules 0001 came roaring on. Its cone of light passed beyond
Ned's station. In a few seconds it reached the spot, and roared on. Ned
had not made a move. It seemed to him that he could not move or speak.
The onrush of the electric locomotive all but swept the young fellow
from his feet. It had come and gone in an instant!
"He's making more than fifteen or twenty miles an hour, all right,"
muttered Ned.
Then he flashed another glance up at the figure outside the fence. The
man's cap showed above the top of the boards. He seemed to be dragging
something up to him from below--something that hung and swung around
and around a few feet from the ground.
Ned was about to dart out of concealment and hail the fellow. He was
not armed, nor could he get out of the stockade near this point. He
feared what the marauder intended, and he felt that he must frighten
him away.
"Suppose that is a bomb and he means to fling it in front of Tom's
locomotive?" thought the anxious Ned.
He again saw the stranger's right hand reach up above his head. But he
had no bomb in his hand. Ned suddenly shrieked a word of warning! It
had come to him what the man was doing and what the result of his act
would be.
The wire-cutters bit on one of the copper wires. There followed a flash
of blue flame, and the man screamed. He dropped the thing swinging
below him and involuntarily grabbed at the wires with his left hand.
He was caught, then! The crackling intermittent shocks of electric
fluid passed through his body in fiery sequence. His limbs writhed. He
mouthed horribly, and croaking gasps came from between his wide open
jaws.
The Hercules 0001 had rounded the enclosure and was coming down upon
its second lap. The cone of white radiance from the headlight fell upon
the writhing body of the victim on the wires. The locomotive siren
emitted a blast that almost deafened Ned.
The monster ground to a stop. Tom swung himself half out of the cab
window beside the controller.
"Who's that?" he yelled. Then he saw Ned below him. "Who is that
fellow?"
"No friend of yours, Tom, I believe," returned his financial manager in
a shaking voice.
"Where's Rad? Rad!" Tom shouted at the top of his voice.
"I's comm', Massa Tom," rejoined the colored man.
"Never mind coming here! Get a move on, and get to the switchboard.
Turn the current out of the fence wires.
"Yis, sir, I'll go Massa Tom," declared the old man.
"Is he a spotter, Ned?" demanded the inventor.
"He's no friend. I am going out by the gate. He's got something there
that means harm, I believe. Do you think he's killed, Tom?"
"Only ought to be. Not enough current to kill him. But he's badly
burned and--and--well! I bet he won't care to fool around the works
again."
Ned dashed away to an entrance. A watchman came running, opened the
small gate, and followed Ned into the open.
Before they arrived at the vicinity of the accident Rad had got to the
switchboard. The electricity was shut out of the stockade wires.
Ned uttered another shout. He saw the writhing body of the shocked man
fall from the stockade. When he and the watchman got to the spot the
fellow lay upon his back, groaning and sobbing; but Ned saw at once
that he was more frightened than hurt.
"Well, you did it that time!" exclaimed the young financial manager.
"And I hope you got enough."
"You--you demons!" gasped the man. "I'll have the law on you--"
"Sure you will," cackled the watchman. "You had every right in the
world to try to cut those wires, of course, and get into the yard of
the works. Sure! The judge will believe you all right."
Ned was, meanwhile, staring closely at the fallen man. Tom had come
down from the locomotive and was close to the fence.
"Who is he?" demanded the inventor. "Not O'Malley?"
Ned stepped to the fence and whispered:
"It's the other fellow. The little chap with the Vandyke. He's dressed
like a tramp, but it's the same man."
"Is he badly hurt?" demanded Tom.
"His temper is, Boss," said the watchman callously. "And say! I know
this fellow. He works for the Blatz Detective Agency. I used to work
for those folks myself. His name is Myrick--Joe Myrick."
"Ned," said Tom sternly, "go to the office and call the police. I'll
make him tell why he was here. And I'll make the Blatz people explain,
too. Hullo! what's that?"
Ned had seized the rope he had seen in Myrick's hand, and from a patch
of weeds drew a two-gallon oil-can.
"What you got there, Ned?" repeated the young inventor.
"Whatever it is, I am going to be mighty easy with it. I think this
scoundrel was trying to get it over the fence and into the way of the
locomotive."
"You can't hang anything on me," said Myrick, suddenly. "I was just
climbing up to the top of the fence to get a squint at that contraption
you've built. You can't hang anything on me."
"He's evidently feeling better," said Tom, scornfully. "Nugent, don't
let him get away from you. Go call the police, Ned. And take care of
that can until we can find out what's in it."
Later, when the police had removed Joe Myrick and the mysterious can
had been deposited in a tub of water in the open lot until its contents
could be examined, Tom said to his chum:
"I was just working up some speed on the locomotive. The speedometer
indicated fifty-five when I saw that fellow sprawling up there on the
fence. I would not have dared go much faster in any case."
"Why, you weren't half trying, Tom!" cried the delighted Ned.
"She did slide around easy, didn't she? Fifty-five on an almost
circular track is a good showing. I am not so scared as I was, my boy."
"You think that on a straight track you might accomplish what you set
out to do?"
"It looks like it. At any rate, I shall risk a trial on the H. & P. A.
tracks. I'm going to take her West. Be ready on Monday, Ned, for I
shall want you with me," declared Tom Swift.