Ned looked at the substantially bound box and smiled faintly.
“Some chest, I’ll say,” he observed. “And when you get all your patent papers and blue prints and other drawings in it, Tom, it will be a regular chest of secrets.”
“So you observed before, Ned. And let me add, the chest of secrets will be a mighty valuable one.”
Ned went off and a few minutes later Koku came in, grinning broadly to think that he was needed to help his master. With ease he moved the heavy chest and its valuable contents to a small room opening out of the main office where Tom worked.
“Nobody but Koku move ’um big box like that!” exclaimed the giant a bit proudly when the transfer had been made.
“Better not let Rad hear you say that,” chuckled Tom.
“Pooh! Rad! Blow ’um head over ’um’s ears!” grunted the giant.
That evening Tom and his father discussed the accusation against Mr. Newton, though as they had heard few particulars there was little that could be said except that unbounded faith in him was expressed.
Tom was in his office early the next morning—much earlier than usual, in fact, for he wanted to work on a new idea in regard to his plan for stopping trains automatically so that collisions or other accidents would be avoided. It was Tom’s hope that this invention could eventually be applied to his powerful electric locomotive, about which details have been given in another volume.
Tom was soon deep in a mass and maze of figures, computing the power needed to stop such an immense force as was represented by his big electric machine. He was considering a wireless attachment to bring automatically into play the stopping force when Eradicate shuffled into the room. The colored man was chuckling.