CHAPTER XXII – Tom Swift and His Elec­tric Loco­mo­tive begins at a moment of near dis­as­ter as Her­cules 0001 lurch­es unex­pect­ed­ly onto a sid­ing due to a mis­aligned switch. The abrupt diver­sion leads to a rough but con­trolled stop, avoid­ing a full derail­ment by Tom’s quick reac­tion. The jolt dam­ages the locomotive’s front end, but the more urgent issue isn’t mechan­i­cal. A fig­ure had been seen tam­per­ing with the switch moments before the inci­dent. As the dust set­tles, Koku, Tom’s loy­al and tow­er­ing assis­tant, leaps from the cab in pur­suit of the flee­ing sabo­teur. It becomes clear that this is no ran­dom event—it is the work of Andy O’Mal­ley, a known oper­a­tive of Mon­tagne Lewis, whose sab­o­tage cam­paign against Tom’s elec­tric loco­mo­tive project has become more brazen.

Tom wastes no time. Leav­ing Ned New­ton to inspect the dam­aged pilot, he grabs his coat and races after Koku, whose long strides have already put dis­tance between them. The chase leads across rough ter­rain, wind­ing through scrub­by hills and into a nar­row gul­ly. Tom, though agile, strug­gles to match Koku’s sheer speed and strength. The fugi­tive, agile and clear­ly famil­iar with the ter­rain, darts ahead but can­not shake his pur­suers. Ned, a few steps behind Tom, urges cau­tion. But Tom knows this chase isn’t about ego or vengeance—it’s about stop­ping a pat­tern of delib­er­ate attacks aimed at dis­cred­it­ing his inven­tion and steal­ing indus­tri­al secrets. If O’Mal­ley escapes now, more dam­age could fol­low.

As the pur­suit inten­si­fies, Koku final­ly clos­es the gap. With sur­pris­ing grace, the giant lunges for­ward and tack­les the man to the ground. A strug­gle ensues, but it’s brief. Tom arrives just in time to see Koku rise, one mas­sive hand grip­ping O’Malley’s col­lar. The sabo­teur spits threats and denials, but the evidence—his pres­ence near the switch, the tim­ing, and his known connections—condemns him more than any con­fes­sion. Tom checks O’Mal­ley for injuries, ensur­ing the cap­ture wasn’t unnec­es­sar­i­ly rough. Then, with O’Mal­ley in tow, they begin the walk back toward the sid­ing. The moment is a vic­to­ry, but also a sober­ing reminder of how high the stakes have become.

Return­ing to the loco­mo­tive, Tom finds Ned secur­ing tools and assess­ing the front-end dam­age. The pilot is dent­ed, and one cou­pling is mis­aligned, but the Her­cules 0001 remains struc­tural­ly sound. The real vic­to­ry is that no pas­sen­gers were injured, and no freight lost. More impor­tant­ly, a key sabo­teur has been stopped. Tom ques­tions O’Mal­ley on the spot, hop­ing to extract infor­ma­tion about Mon­tagne Lewis’s broad­er plan. The man remains eva­sive, claim­ing igno­rance. Yet his ner­vous glances and clenched jaw betray him. Tom sus­pects Lewis was tar­get­ing this test run specif­i­cal­ly, hop­ing to spark fail­ure in front of prospec­tive buy­ers and rail­road offi­cials. It was an attack not just on a machine, but on an idea.

Tom con­tacts the local author­i­ties by tele­graph, inform­ing them of O’Malley’s cap­ture and request­ing trans­port. While wait­ing, he and Ned dis­cuss pre­ven­tive upgrades—more secure switch mon­i­tor­ing, faster fail-safes, and expand­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tions along the rail line. Each inci­dent becomes fuel for bet­ter design. As inven­tors, they refuse to be derailed by sab­o­tage. Instead, each set­back sharp­ens their focus. Tom’s belief in elec­tric loco­mo­tion remains unshak­en. In fact, it grows stronger. With every threat over­come, he gets clos­er to prov­ing that inno­va­tion, when cou­pled with courage, is unstop­pable.

As the sun dips below the ridge­line and the loco­mo­tive is eased back onto the main track, there’s a sense of earned calm. Tom watch­es the hori­zon, his thoughts still rac­ing, already map­ping out improve­ments to both hard­ware and process. Koku, silent but alert, keeps watch on O’Malley, who sits with his back to a rail, hands bound and head low­ered. The mis­sion is far from over, but progress has been made. What this chap­ter reveals isn’t just a moment of action—it’s the resilience behind inven­tion, the will­ing­ness to defend progress, and the trust shared among friends bound by a com­mon pur­pose. In the world Tom Swift inhab­its, suc­cess is nev­er given—it is chased, caught, and defend­ed.