drivers will be driven by a twin-motor geared to the axles
through a system of flexible spring drive. Remember, I have got
to obtain both speed as well as power in this locomotive, for it
is being built to pull a passenger train--a fast cross-continent
express--to compete with the best passenger equipment in the
country."

"Bless my combination ticket!" murmured Mr. Damon. "You have
picked out some task, and no mistake, Tom Swift."

"He'll do it," cried Ned, with his usual optimism when Tom had
once started on any experimental work. "Of course he will. Just
as she stands there now, only half put together, I would be
willing to bet a farm that she is a better locomotive than the
Jandel patent."

"Three cheers!" laughed Tom. "Ned is as enthusiastic as usual.
But believe me, friends, we are not going to turn out a better
locomotive than the Jandel without both thought and work."

His friends' enthusiasm was heartening, however. No doubt of
that. He never let them into his experiment room, any more than
he allowed his workmen in there. Aside from his own father,
nobody really knew what Tom Swift was doing behind that always-
locked door.

The huge structure of the locomotive was set up on the driving
wheels and leading and trailing trucks by Tom's chief foreman and
a picked crew. Just such another locomotive had never been seen
anywhere about Shopton. Naturally the men at work on the monster