Three sharp whistles from the locomotive seemed to indicate, on the part of its driver, an acceptance of the challenge. In answer Tom gave three toots of his own horn and the race was on.
No better speedway could have been devised for a test of the comparative powers of the fast freight and Tom Swift's House on Wheels than the concrete highway and the steel track along which the respective machines were now rushing. There was not another automobile in sight along a stretch of several miles, and no other train on the railroad. It seemed to have been made to order.
"Think you've got a chance, Tom?" yelled Ned. It was necessary to yell, for the puffing, panting locomotive was so close that its exhaust almost drowned one's voice. Nor was the House on Wheels altogether quiet, for there was a subdued rumble and roar at its present high speed which made talking anything but easy.
"I've got a good chance!" answered Tom, with a grim tightening of his lips as his hands grasped more firmly the steering wheel. "I'm going to beat this baby."
"It's a fast freight, Tom, the fruit express. It has the right of way over everything except passenger trains. It's the crack freight of this road and makes almost as good time as some of the through passenger trains."
"Can't help that," replied the young inventor. "I'm not going to sit back and take his smoke!"
Indeed, there seemed to be little danger of this. For though the freight had crept up on the House on Wheels when she was gaining headway, the two machines were not long on even terms before Tom's House began to pull away.
But if he thought to gain an easy victory, he was mistaken. A quick glance showed that the fireman was busy shoveling coal under the boiler of the freight engine. Out belched volumes of black smoke and the increased staccato of the exhaust showed that not only was the throttle being opened wider but that the link motion was being taken up, making a corresponding quicker cut off of steam at one end of the cylinders and a duplicate fast expulsion on the other end.
"She's creeping up on us, Tom," observed Ned, looking back when, after a little run, they had distanced the freight.
"We've got to expect that. But I've got something in reserve yet. Though I daren't let the House out for all she's worth, I can still get the accelerator down a few notches without damage. The race isn't over yet."