Mr. Wakefield Damon frequently came to the shops, for he was
not alone very friendly with the Swifts, but he was greatly
interested in Tom's new invention.

"If it goes as good as what you did for my chicken run," he
declared, chuckling, "bless my dampers! you'll beat all the
electric locomotives in the market."

"That is easy, perhaps," said Tom smiling. "There are not many
in the market at the present time. But I don't know what mine
will be. This is going to be some job."

"Bless my flues and clinkers!" cried Mr. Damon, "you are not
losing hope, Tom Swift? Look what you did for my chicken run. And
believe me, that entanglement will give a shock that makes a man
stand right up and shake."

"Have you tried it yourself?" asked Tom.

"No. But my servant did. I saw him through the window of my
study doing some kind of a shimmy with the shovel. Thought he'd
gone crazy. Then I saw what he had done. It was early in the
morning and I hadn't turned the current off, and he had put one
hand against the wires. When he dropped the shovel as I told him
to, bless my plyers and nippers! he was all right."

"The current would not seriously hurt him," said Tom. "I was
careful about that."