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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/28655-h.zip b/28655-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7191c82 --- /dev/null +++ b/28655-h.zip diff --git a/28655-h/28655-h.htm b/28655-h/28655-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..baa4e3f --- /dev/null +++ b/28655-h/28655-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8078 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<title> +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ralph on the Overland Express, by Allen Chapman. +</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + p {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + body {margin-left: 11%; margin-right: 10%;} + a {text-decoration: none;} + @media screen { + hr.pb {margin:30px 0; width:100%; border:none;border-top:thin dashed silver;} + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: x-small; text-align: right; position: absolute; right: 2%; padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration: none; background-color: inherit; border:1px solid #eee;} + .pncolor {color: silver;} + } + @media print { + hr.pb {border:none;page-break-after: always;} + .pagenum { display:none; } + } + h3 {text-align:center; font-weight:normal; font-size:1.2em;} + .figcenter {margin: 2em auto 2em auto; text-align: center;} + p.tp {font-size:1em;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:0em;text-align:center;} + .caption {font-size:.8em;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + hr.major {width: 65%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; clear:both;} + h2 {text-align:center; font-weight:normal; font-size:1.4em;} +</style> + +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Ralph on the Overland Express, by Allen Chapman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ralph on the Overland Express + The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer + +Author: Allen Chapman + +Release Date: May 1, 2009 [EBook #28655] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='figcenter'> +<a name='linki_1' id='linki_1'></a> +<img src='images/f0001-image.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 370px; height: 567px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center;width: 370px;'> +<span style='font-variant:small-caps;'>“An Avalanche!” declared Fogg. “Dodge—something’s coming!”</span><br /><i>Page</i> 254. <i>Ralph on the Overland Express</i>.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<hr class='pb' /> +<hr class='pb' /> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'> +<tr> + <td align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'><span style='font-size:small;'>CHAPTER</span></td> + <td></td> + <td align='right'><span style='font-size:small;'>PAGE</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>I.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>No. 999</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_I_NO999'>1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>II.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Special Passenger</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_II_A_SPECIAL_PASSENGER'>12</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>III.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>One of the Rules</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_III_ONE_OF_THE_RULES'>22</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Warning</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_IV_A_WARNING'>35</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>V.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>At Bay</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_V_AT_BAY'>43</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Four Medals</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_VI_FOUR_MEDALS'>51</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Dave Bissell, Train Boy</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_VII_DAVE_BISSELL_TRAIN_BOY'>60</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>An Astonishing Discovery</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_VIII_AN_ASTONISHING_DISCOVERY'>68</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Light of Home</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_IX_THE_LIGHT_OF_HOME'>76</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>X.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Fire!</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_X_FIRE'>88</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Master Mechanic</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XI_THE_MASTER_MECHANIC'>95</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Good Friend</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XII_A_GOOD_FRIEND'>104</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The “Black Hand”</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIII_THE_BLACK_HAND'>114</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Serious Plot</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIV_A_SERIOUS_PLOT'>123</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>“The Silvandos”</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XV_THE_SILVANDOS'>129</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Zeph Dallas and His “Mystery”</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XVI_ZEPH_DALLAS_AND_HIS_MYSTERY'>138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>In Widener’s Gap</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XVII_IN_WIDENERS_GAP'>145</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>At the Semaphore</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XVIII_AT_THE_SEMAPHORE'>153</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Boy Who Was Hazed</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIX_THE_BOY_WHO_WAS_HAZED'>160</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>“Lord Lionel Montague”</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XX_LORD_LIONEL_MONTAGUE'>171</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Archie Graham’s Invention</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXI_ARCHIE_GRAHAMS_INVENTION'>179</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Ike Slump Again</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXII_IKE_SLUMP_AGAIN'>188</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Critical Moment</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIII_A_CRITICAL_MOMENT'>195</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The New Run</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIV_THE_NEW_RUN'>203</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Mountain Division</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXV_THE_MOUNTAIN_DIVISION'>209</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Mystery</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVI_MYSTERY'>217</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Railroad President</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVII_THE_RAILROAD_PRESIDENT'>225</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Race Against Time</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVIII_A_RACE_AGAINST_TIME'>233</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Zeph Dallas Again</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIX_ZEPH_DALLAS_AGAIN'>244</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Snowbound</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXX_SNOWBOUND'>254</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXXI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Conclusion</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXI_CONCLUSION'>264</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_1' name='page_1'></a>1</span></div> +<p style='font-size:1.3em; text-align:center; margin-top:3em; margin-bottom:1em;'>RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS</p> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='CHAPTER_I_NO999' id='CHAPTER_I_NO999'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> +<h3>NO. 999</h3> +</div> +<p>“All aboard.”</p> +<p>Ralph Fairbanks swung into the cab of No. 999 +with the lever hooked up for forward motion, +and placed a firm hand on the throttle.</p> +<p>It looked as though half the working force of +the railroad, and every juvenile friend he had +ever known in Stanley Junction, had come down +to the little old depot that beautiful summer afternoon +to especially celebrate the greatest event in +his active railroad career.</p> +<p>Ralph was the youngest engineer in the service +of the Great Northern, and there was full reason +why he should center attention and interest on +this the proudest moment of his life. No. 999 +was the crack locomotive of the system, brand +new and resplendent. Its headlight was a great +glow of crystal, its metal bands and trimmings +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2' name='page_2'></a>2</span> +shone like burnished gold, and its cab was as +spick and span and neat as the private office of +the division superintendent himself.</p> +<p>No. 999 was out for a trial run—a record run, +Ralph hoped to make it. One particular car +attached to the rear of the long train was the +main object of interest. It was a new car to the +road, and its blazoned name suggested an importance +out of the ordinary—“China & Japan +Mail.”</p> +<p>This car had just come in over a branch section +by a short cut from the north. If No. 999 +could beat timetable routine half an hour and +deliver the mail to the Overland Express at +Bridgeport, two hundred miles distant, on time, +it would create a new schedule, and meant a good +contract for the Great Northern, besides a saving +of three hours’ time over the former roundabout +trip of the China & Japan Mail.</p> +<p>Ralph had exchanged jolly greetings with his +friends up to now. In an instant, however, the +sonorous, echoing “All aboard” from the conductor +way down the train was a signal for duty, +prompt and imperative. The pleasant depot +scene faded from the sight and mind of the ambitious +young railroader. He turned his strict +attention now to the cab interior, as though the +locomotive was a thing of life and intelligence. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3' name='page_3'></a>3</span></p> +<p>“Let ’er go, Ralph!”</p> +<p>John Griscom, the oldest engineer on the road, +off duty, but a privileged character on all occasions, +stepped from the gossiping crowd of +loungers at a little distance. He swung up into +the cab with the expert airiness of long usage. +His bluff, hearty face expressed admiration and +satisfaction, as his rapid eye took in the cab +layout.</p> +<p>“I’ll hold up the tender rail till we get to +crossing,” announced Griscom. “Lad, this is +front rank service all right, and I’m happy to +say that you deserve it.”</p> +<p>“Thank you, Mr. Griscom,” answered Ralph, +his face beaming at the handsome compliment. +“I don’t forget, though, that you helped some.”</p> +<p>“Oh, so, so,” declared Griscom. “I say, Fogg, +you’re named right.”</p> +<p>It was to Lemuel Fogg that Griscom spoke. +Fogg was Ralph’s fireman on the present trip. +He presented a decided contrast to the brisk, +bright engineer of No. 999. He shoveled in the +coal with a grim mutter, and slammed the fire +door shut with a vicious and unnecessary bang.</p> +<p>“What you getting at?” he growled, with a +surly eye on Griscom.</p> +<p>“Fogg—fog, see? foggy, that’s you—and +groggy, eh? Sun’s shining—why don’t you take +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4' name='page_4'></a>4</span> +it in? No slouch privilege firing this magnificent +king of the road, I’m thinking, and you ought +to think so, too.”</p> +<p>“Huh!” snapped Fogg, “it’ll be kid luck, if we +get through.”</p> +<p>“Oho! there’s where the shoe pinches, is it?” +bantered the old railroad veteran. “Come, be +fair, Fogg. You was glad to win your own spurs +when you were young.”</p> +<p>“All right, mind the try-out, you hear me!” +snorted Fogg ungraciously. “You mind your +own business.”</p> +<p>“Say,” shot out Griscom quickly, as he caught +a whiff from Fogg’s lips, “you be sure you mind +yours—and the rules,” he added, quite sternly, +“I advise you not to get too near the furnace.”</p> +<p>“Eh, why not?”</p> +<p>“Your breath might catch fire, that’s why,” +announced Griscom bluntly, and turned his back +on the disgruntled fireman.</p> +<p>Ralph had not caught this sharp cross-fire of +repartee. His mind had been intently fixed on +his task. He had started up the locomotive +slowly, but now, clearing the depot switches, he +pulled the lever a notch or two, watching carefully +ahead. As the train rounded a curve to an +air line, a series of brave hurrahs along the side +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5' name='page_5'></a>5</span> +of the track sent a thrill of pleasure through +Ralph’s frame.</p> +<p>The young engineer had only a fleeting second +or two to bestow on a little group, standing at the +rear fence of a yard backing down to the tracks. +His mother was there, gaily waving a handkerchief. +A neighbor joined in the welcome, and +half-a-dozen boys and small children with whom +Ralph was a rare favorite made the air ring with +enthusiastic cheers.</p> +<p>“Friends everywhere, lad,” spoke Griscom in +a kindly tone, and then, edging nearer to his +prime young favorite, he half-whispered: “Keep +your eye on this grouch of a Fogg.”</p> +<p>“Why, you don’t mean anything serious, Mr. +Griscom?” inquired Ralph, with a quick glance +at the fireman.</p> +<p>“Yes, I do,” proclaimed the old railroader +plainly. “He’s got it in for you—it’s the talk of +the yards, and he’s in just the right frame of mind +to bite off his own nose to spite his face. So +long.”</p> +<p>The locomotive had slowed up for crossing signals, +and Griscom got to the ground with a careless +sail through the air, waved his hand, and +Ralph buckled down to real work on No. 999.</p> +<p>He glanced at the schedule sheet and the clock. +The gauges were in fine working order. There +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span> +was not a full head of steam on as yet and the fire +box was somewhat over full, but there was a +strong draft and a twenty-mile straight run before +them, and Ralph felt they could make it easily.</p> +<p>“Don’t choke her too full, Mr. Fogg,” he remarked +to the fireman.</p> +<p>“Teach me!” snorted Fogg, and threw another +shovelful into the box already crowded, and +backed against the tender bar with a surly, defiant +face.</p> +<p>Ralph made no retort. Fogg did, indeed, know +his business, if he was only minded to attend to it. +He was somewhat set and old-fashioned in his +ways, and he had grown up in the service from +wiper.</p> +<p>Ralph recalled Griscom’s warning. It was not +pleasant to run two hundred miles with a grumpy +cab comrade. Ralph wished they had given him +some other helper. However, he reasoned that +even a crack fireman might be proud of a regular +run on No. 999, and he did not believe that Fogg +would hurt his own chances by any tactics that +might delay them.</p> +<p>The landscape drifted by swiftly and more +swiftly, as Ralph gave the locomotive full head. +A rare enthusiasm and buoyancy came into the +situation. There was something fascinating in +the breathless rush, the superb power and steadiness +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span> +of the crack machine, so easy of control +that she was a marvel of mechanical genius and +perfection.</p> +<p>Like a panorama the scenery flashed by, and +in rapid mental panorama Ralph reviewed the +glowing and stirring events of his young life, +which in a few brief months had carried him +from his menial task as an engine wiper up to the +present position which he cherished so proudly.</p> +<p>Ralph was a railroader by inheritance as well +as predilection. His father had been a pioneer +in the beginning of the Great Northern. After +he died, through the manipulations of an unworthy +village magnate named Gasper Farrington, +his widow and son found themselves at the +mercy of that heartless schemer, who held a +mortgage on their little home.</p> +<p>In the first volume of the present series, entitled +“Ralph of the Roundhouse,” it was told +how Ralph left school to earn a living and help +his self-sacrificing mother in her poverty.</p> +<p>Ralph got a job in the roundhouse, and held it, +too, despite the malicious efforts of Ike Slump, a +ne’er-do-well who tried to undermine him. Ralph +became a favorite with the master mechanic of +the road through some remarkable railroad service +in which he saved the railroad shops from +destruction by fire. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span></p> +<p>Step by step Ralph advanced, and the second +volume of this series, called “Ralph in the Switch +Tower,” showed how manly resolve, and being +right and doing right, enabled him to overcome +his enemies and compel old Farrington to release +the fraudulent mortgage. Incidentally, Ralph +made many friends. He assisted a poor waif +named Van Sherwin to reach a position of comfort +and honor, and was instrumental in aiding +a former business partner of his father, one Farwell +Gibson, to complete a short line railroad +through the woods near Dover.</p> +<p>In the third volume of the present series, entitled +“Ralph on the Engine,” was related how +our young railroad friend became an active employee +of the Great Northern as a fireman. He +made some record runs with old John Griscom, +the veteran of the road. In that volume was also +depicted the ambitious but blundering efforts of +Zeph Dallas, a farmer boy who was determined +to break into railroading, and there was told as +well the grand success of little Limpy Joe, a railroad +cripple, who ran a restaurant in an old, dismantled +box car.</p> +<p>These and other staunch, loyal friends had +rallied around Ralph with all the influence they +could exert, when after a creditable examination +Ralph was placed on the extra list as an engineer. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span></p> +<p>Van and Zeph had been among the first to +congratulate the friend to whom they owed so +much, when, after a few months’ service on accomodation +runs, it was made known that Ralph +had been appointed as engineer of No. 999.</p> +<p>It was Limpy Joe, spending a happy vacation +week with motherly, kind-hearted Mrs. Fairbanks, +who led the cheering coterie whom Ralph +had passed near his home as he left the Junction +on his present run.</p> +<p>Of his old-time enemies, Ike Slump and Mort +Bemis were in jail, the last Ralph had heard of +them. There was a gang in his home town, however, +whom Ralph had reason to fear. It was +made up of men who had tried to cripple the +Great Northern through an unjust strike. A man +named Jim Evans had been one of the leaders. +Fogg had sympathized with the strikers. Griscom +and Ralph had routed the malcontents in +a fair, open-handed battle of arguments and +blows. Fogg had been reinstated by the road, but +he had to go back on the promotion list, and his +rancor was intense when he learned that Ralph +had been chosen to a position superior to his own.</p> +<p>“They want young blood, the railroad nobs +tell it,” the disgruntled fireman had been heard +to remark in his favorite tippling place on Railroad +Street. “Humph! They’ll have blood, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span> +lots of it, if they trust the lives of passengers +and crew to a lot of kindergarten graduates.”</p> +<p>Of all this Ralph was thinking as they covered +a clear dash of twenty miles over the best stretch +of grading on the road, and with satisfaction he +noted that they had gained three minutes on the +schedule time. He whistled for a station at +which they did not stop, set full speed again +as they left the little village behind them, and +glanced sharply at Fogg.</p> +<p>The latter had not spoken a word for over +half-an-hour. He had gone about his duties in +a dogged, sullen fashion that showed the permanency +of the grouch with which old John +Griscom had charged him. Ralph had made up +his mind to leave his cab companion severely alone +until he became more reasonable. However, +there were some things about Fogg of which the +young engineer was bound to take notice, and +a new enlightenment came to Ralph’s mind as he +now glanced at his helper.</p> +<p>Fogg had slipped clumsily on the tender plate +in using the coal rake, and Ralph had marveled +at this unusual lack of steadiness of footing. +Then, twice he had gone out on the running board +on some useless errand, fumbling about in an +inexplicable way. His hot, fetid breath crossed +Ralph’s face, and the latter arrived at a definite +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span> +conclusion, and he was sorry for it. Fogg had +been “firing up” from a secret bottle ever since +they had left the Junction, and his condition was +momentarily becoming more serious and alarming.</p> +<p>They were slowing down to a stop at a water +tank as Ralph saw Fogg draw back, and under +cover of the tender lift a flask to his lips. Then +Fogg slipped it under the cushion of his seat as +he turned to get some coal.</p> +<p>He dropped the shovel, coal and all, with a +wild snort of rage, as turning towards the fire box +door he saw Ralph reach over swiftly, grab the +half empty bottle from under the cushion, and +give it a fling to the road bed, where it was +dashed into a thousand pieces.</p> +<p>Blood in his eye, uncontrollable fury in his +heart, the irrational fireman, both fists uplifted, +made a wild onslaught upon the young engineer.</p> +<p>“You impudent meddler!” he raved. “I’ll +smash you!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_II_A_SPECIAL_PASSENGER' id='CHAPTER_II_A_SPECIAL_PASSENGER'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> +<h3>A SPECIAL PASSENGER</h3> +</div> +<p>“Behave yourself,” said Ralph Fairbanks +quietly.</p> +<p>The young engineer simply gave his furious +antagonist a push with his free hand. The other +hand was on duty, and Ralph’s eyes as well. +He succeeded in bringing the locomotive to a stop +before Fogg needed any further attention.</p> +<p>The fireman had toppled off his balance and +went flat among the coal of the tender. Ralph +did not feel at all important over so easily repelling +his assailant. Fogg was in practically a +helpless condition, and a child could have disturbed +his unsteady footing.</p> +<p>With maudlin energy, however, he began to +scramble to his feet. All the time he glowered +at Ralph, and made dreadful threats of what he +was going to do to the youth for “knocking him +down.” Fogg managed to pull himself erect, but +swayed about a good deal, and then observing +that Ralph had the free use of both hands now and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span> +was posed on guard to meet any attack he might +meditate, the irate fireman stooped and seized a +big lump of coal. Ralph could hardly hope to +dodge the missile, hemmed in as he was. It was +poised for a vicious fling. Just as Fogg’s hand +went backwards to aim the projectile, it was +seized, the missile was wrested from his grasp, +and a strange voice drawled out the words:</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t waste the company’s coal that way, +if I were you.”</p> +<p>Ralph with some surprise and considerable +interest noted the intruder, who had mounted the +tender step just in time to thwart the quarrelsome +designs of Lemuel Fogg. As to the fireman, +he wheeled about, looked ugly, and then as +the newcomer laughed squarely in his face, mumbled +some incoherent remark about “two against +one,” and “fixing both of them.” Then he +climbed up on the tender to direct the water tank +spout into place.</p> +<p>“What’s the row here, anyhow?” inquired the +intruder, with a pleasant glance at Ralph, and +leaning bodily against the fireman’s seat.</p> +<p>Ralph looked him over as a cool specimen, +although there was nothing “cheeky” about the +intruder. He showed neither the sneakiness nor +the effrontery of the professional railroad beat +or ride stealer, nothwithstanding the easy, natural +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span> +way in which he made himself at home in the cab +as though he belonged there.</p> +<p>“Glad you happened along,” chirped the newcomer +airily. “I’ll keep you company as far as +Bridgeport, I guess.”</p> +<p>“Will you, now?” questioned Ralph, with a +dubious smile.</p> +<p>The lad he addressed was an open-faced, smart-looking +boy. He was well dressed and intelligent, +and suggested to Ralph the average college or +home boy. Certainly there was nothing about +him that indicated that he had to work for a +living.</p> +<p>“My name is Clark—Marvin Clark,” continued +the intruder.</p> +<p>Ralph nodded and awaited further disclosures.</p> +<p>“My father is President of the Middletown & +Western Railroad,” proceeded the stranger.</p> +<p>Ralph did not speak. He smiled slightly, and +the keen-eyed intruder noticed this and gave him +a sharp look.</p> +<p>“Old racket, eh? Too flimsy?” he propounded +with a quizzical but perfectly good-natured grin. +“I suppose they play all kinds of official relationships +and all that on you fellows, eh?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Ralph, “we do hear some pretty +extravagant stories.”</p> +<p>“I suppose so,” assented the youth calling himself +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span> +Marvin Clark. “Well, I don’t want to intrude, +but if there’s room for myself and my +credentials, I’d rather keep you company than +free pass it in the parlor coach. There you are.”</p> +<p>As the boy spoke of “credentials,” he drew an +unsealed envelope from his pocket and handed +it to Ralph. The latter received it, noting that +it bore in one corner the monogram of the Great +Northern, with “President’s office—official business” +printed under it. He withdrew the enclosure +and perused it.</p> +<p>The sheet was a letter head of the Middletown +& Western Railroad. It bore on one line in one +handwriting the name “Marvin Clark,” and beneath +it the words: “For identification,” in +another handwriting, and the flourishing signature +below “Nathaniel Clark, President.”</p> +<p>In typewriting beneath all this were the words: +“Pass on all trains, Marvin Clark,” and below +that a date and the name in writing of Mr. Robert +Grant, the President of the Great Northern, unmistakably +genuine. There were few employees +on the road who were not familiar with that +signature.</p> +<p>“All right,” said Ralph, refolding the sheet, re-inclosing +it in the envelope, and handing it back +to the stranger. “I guess that passes you anywhere +on the line.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span></p> +<p>“You see, I’ve got a sort of roaming commission,” +explained young Clark buoyantly, as +he got comfortably seated on the fireman’s +cushion. “No particular use at school, and +father wants me to learn railroading. The first +step was to run down all the lines and pick up all +the information I could. I’ve just got to put in +two months at that, and then report to family +headquarters my store of practical knowledge. +See here.”</p> +<p>Marvin Clark drew a blank from his pocket. +Some thirty of its pages he showed to Ralph were +filled with memoranda. Thus: “Aug. 22, cattle +freight, Upton to Dover. O. K. Simpson, Conductor.” +There followed like items, all signed, +forming a link of evidence that the boy had been +a passenger on all kinds of rolling stock, had +visited railroad shops, switch towers, water +stations, in fact had inspected about every active +department of several railroad lines that connected +with the Middletown & Western Railroad.</p> +<p>“That is a pretty pleasant layout, I should +say,” remarked Ralph.</p> +<p>“Oh, so, so,” replied Clark indifferently. +“Athletics is my stronghold. If I ever get money +enough—I mean if I had my own way—I’d train +for expert on everything from golf to football.”</p> +<p>“I’m pretty strong in that direction myself,” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span> +said Ralph, “but a fellow has to hustle for something +to eat.”</p> +<p>“I know what that means,” declared Clark. +“Had to help the family by peddling papers—.”</p> +<p>Clark paused and flushed. Ralph wondered +at the singular break his visitor had made. A +diversion covered the embarassment of the young +stranger and caused Ralph to momentarily forget +the incident. Fogg had swung back the water +spout, set the tender cover, and climbed down +into the cab. Then he took the side light signals +and went around to the pilot. No. 999 carried +two flags there, now to be replaced by lanterns. +Fogg came back to the cab rolling up the flags.</p> +<p>“All right,” he announced ungraciously, and +hustled Clark to one side without ceremony as the +latter abandoned his seat. Ralph gave the starting +signal and Clark edged back in the tender out of +the way.</p> +<p>The young engineer took a good look at his +fireman. The latter was muddled, it was plain +to see that, but he went about his duties with a +mechanical routine born from long experience. +Only once did he lurch towards Ralph and speak +to him, or rather hiss out the words.</p> +<p>“You’ll settle with me for your impudence yet, +young fellow. You’re a high and mighty, you +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span> +are, breaking the rules giving your friends a free +ride.”</p> +<p>Ralph did not reply. One anxiety kept him +devoted to his work—to lose no time. A glance +at the clock and schedule showed a ten minutes’ +loss, but defective or experimental firing on a new +locomotive had been responsible for that, and he +counted on making a spurt, once beyond +Plympton.</p> +<p>Marvin Clark knew his place, and Ralph liked +him for keeping it. The young fellow watched +everything going on in the cab in a shrewd, +interested fashion, but he neither got in the way +of the cross-grained Fogg, nor pestered Ralph +with questions.</p> +<p>Plympton was less than five miles ahead just +as dusk began to fall. Ralph noticed that his fireman +rustled about with a good deal of unnecessary +activity. He would fire up to the limit, as +if working off some of his vengefulness and +malice. Then he went out on the running board, +for no earthly reason that Ralph could see, and +he made himself generally so conspicuous that +young Clark leaned over and said to Ralph.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter with your fireman, anyhow—that +is, besides that load he’s got aboard?”</p> +<p>“Oh, he has his cross moods, like all of us, I +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span> +suppose,” explained Ralph, with affected indifference.</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t take him for a very pleasant comrade +at any time,” observed Clark. “It’s a wonder +he don’t take a tumble. There he is, hitching +around to the pilot. What for, I wonder?”</p> +<p>Ralph was not paying much attention to what +the cab passenger was saying. He had made up +five minutes, and his quick mind was now planning +how he would gain five more, and then +double that, to Plympton and beyond it.</p> +<p>He gave the whistle for Plympton, as, shooting +a curve, No. 999 drove a clattering pace down +the grade with the lights of the station not a +quarter-of-a-mile away. They were set for clear +tracks, as they should be. Ralph gave the lever +a hitch for a rattling dash on ten miles of clear +running. Then fairly up to the first station semaphore, +he broke out with a cry so sharp and dismayed +that young Clark echoed it in questioning +excitement.</p> +<p>“The siding!” cried Ralph, with a jerk of the +lever—“what’s the meaning of this?”</p> +<p>“Say!” echoed Clark, in a startled tone, “that’s +quick and queer!”</p> +<p>What had happened was this: No. 999 going +at full speed on clear signals had been sent to a +siding and the signals cancelled without a moment’s +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span> +warning. Under ordinary circumstances, +a train thus sidetracked would be under notified +control and run down the siding only a short +distance. Going at high speed, however, and +with a full head of steam on, Ralph realized that, +long as the siding was, he would have to work +quick and hard to check down the big locomotive +before she slid the limit, and stuck her nose +deep into the sand hill that blocked the terminus +of the rails.</p> +<p>It was quite dark now. The lights of the +station flashed by. Both hands in use to check +the locomotive and set the air brakes, Ralph leaned +slightly from the cab window and peered ahead.</p> +<p>“Shoot the sand!” he cried, almost mechanically.</p> +<p>It was a good thing that the cab passenger was +aboard and knew something about the cab equipment. +Young Clark reached the side of the +engineer’s seat in a nimble spring. His hand +located the sand valve without hesitancy.</p> +<p>Ralph uttered a short, sharp gasp. That look +ahead had scared him. He was doing all he +could to slow down, and was doing magnificently, +for the reverse action moved to a charm. Still, +he saw that after dashing fully two hundred +yards down the siding, the natural momentum +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span> +would carry the train fully one-third that distance +further.</p> +<p>“Any obstruction?” shot out his agile companion, +springing to the fireman’s seat, sticking his +head out of the window and staring ahead. +“Whew! we’re going to hit.”</p> +<p>The speaker saw what Ralph also beheld. +Dimly outlined directly in their path was a flat +car, and above it, skeletonized against the fading +sunset sky, was the framework of a derrick. A +repair or construction gondola car was straight +ahead of No. 999.</p> +<p>They seemed to be approaching it swiftly and +irresistibly. The wheels slid now, fairly locked, +there was a marked ease-down, but Ralph saw +plainly that, great or small, a collision was inevitable.</p> +<p>“Say, that fireman of yours!” shouted young +Clark—“there he goes.”</p> +<p>The locomotive was fairly upon the obstruction +now. Ralph stuck to the lever, setting his lips +firmly, a little pale, his muscles twitching slightly +under the stress of excitement and suspense.</p> +<p>“Zing!” remarked the cool comrade of the +young engineer—“we’re there!”</p> +<p>At that moment a flying form shot from the +running board of the locomotive. Lemuel Fogg +had jumped.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_III_ONE_OF_THE_RULES' id='CHAPTER_III_ONE_OF_THE_RULES'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> +<h3>ONE OF THE RULES</h3> +</div> +<p>Locomotive No. 999 landed against the +bumper of the gondola car with a sharp shock. +However, there was no crash of consequence. +The headlight radiance now flooded fully the +obstruction. Young Clark suddenly shouted:</p> +<p>“Look out!”</p> +<p>The quick-witted, keen-eyed special passenger +was certainly getting railroad training so coveted +by his magnate father. He saw the fireman shoot +through the air in his frightened jump for safety. +Lemuel Fogg landed in a muddy ditch at the +side of the tracks, up to his knees in water.</p> +<p>The sharp, warning cry of Marvin Clark was +not needed to appraise Ralph of the danger that +threatened. The jar of the collision had displaced +and upset the derrick. Ralph saw it falling +slantingly towards them. He pulled the reverse +lever, but could not get action quick enough to +entirely evade the falling derrick. It grazed the +headlight, chopping off one of its metal wings, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span> +and striking the pilot crushed in one side of the +front fender rails.</p> +<p>The young engineer gave the signal for backing +the train, and kept in motion. His purpose +was to allay any panic on the part of the passengers, +whom he knew must be alarmed by the +erratic tactics of the past few moments. Then +after thus traversing about half the distance back +to the main line, he shut off steam and whistled +for instructions.</p> +<p>“Another notch in my education,” observed +young Clark with a chuckle—“been waiting to +pass examination on a smash up.”</p> +<p>“Oh, this isn’t one,” replied Ralph. His tone +was tense, and he showed that he was disturbed. +He was too quick a thinker not to at once comprehend +the vital issue of the present incident. +With Fogg headed down the track towards him +from the ditch, trying to overtake the train, and +the conductor, lantern in hand, running to learn +what had happened, Ralph sized up the situation +with decided annoyance.</p> +<p>The action of the station man in giving the free +track signal and then at a critical moment shooting +the special onto the siding, had something +mysterious about it that Ralph could not readily +solve. The slight mishap to the locomotive and +the smashing of the derrick was not particularly +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span> +serious, but there would be a report, an investigation, +and somebody would be blamed and punished. +Ralph wanted to keep a clear slate, and +here was a bad break, right at the threshold of +his new railroad career.</p> +<p>All he thought of, however, were the delays, +all he cared for at this particular moment was to +get back to the main tracks on his way for Bridgeport, +with a chance to make up lost time. A sudden +vague suspicion flashing through his mind +added to his mental disquietude: was there a plot +to purposely cripple or delay his train, so that he +would be defeated in his efforts to make a record +run?</p> +<p>“What’s this tangle, Fairbanks?” shouted out +the conductor sharply, as he arrived breathless and +excited at the side of the cab.</p> +<p>His name was Danforth, and he was a model +employee of long experience, always very neat and +dressy in appearance and exact and systematic in +his work. Any break in routine nettled him, and +he spoke quite censuringly to the young engineer, +whom, however, he liked greatly.</p> +<p>“I’m all at sea, Mr. Danforth,” confessed Ralph +bluntly.</p> +<p>“Any damage?—I see,” muttered the conductor, +going forward a few steps and surveying the +scratched, bruised face of the locomotive. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span></p> +<p>“There’s a gondola derailed and a derrick +smashed where we struck,” reported Ralph. “I +acted on my duplicate orders, Mr. Danforth,” he +added earnestly, “and had the clear signal almost +until I passed it and shot the siding.”</p> +<p>“I don’t understand it at all,” remarked the +conductor in a troubled and irritated way. “You +had the clear signal, you say?”</p> +<p>“Positively,” answered Ralph.</p> +<p>“Any serious damage ahead?”</p> +<p>“Nothing of consequence.”</p> +<p>“Back slowly, we’ll see the station man about +this.”</p> +<p>The conductor mounted to the cab step, and +No. 999 backed slowly. As they neared the end +of the siding the train was again halted. All +down its length heads were thrust from coach +windows. There was some excitement and alarm, +but the discipline of the train hands and the young +engineer’s provision had prevented any semblance +of panic.</p> +<p>The conductor, lantern in hand, ran across the +tracks to the station. Ralph saw him engaged in +vigorous conversation with the man on duty there. +The conductor had taken out a memorandum book +and was jotting down something. The station +man with excited gestures ran inside the depot, +and the signal turned to clear tracks. Ralph +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span> +switched to the main. Then the conductor gave +the go ahead signal.</p> +<p>“That’s cool,” observed young Clark. “I +should think the conductor would give us an inkling +of how all this came about.”</p> +<p>“Oh, we’ll learn soon enough,” said Ralph. +“There will have to be an official report on this.”</p> +<p>“I’m curious. Guess I’ll go back and worm out +an explanation,” spoke Clark. “I’ll see you with +news later.”</p> +<p>As Clark left the cab on one side Fogg came up +on the other. He had been looking over the front +of the locomotive. Ralph noticed that he did not +seem to have suffered any damage from his wild +jump beyond a slight shaking up. He was wet +and spattered to the waist, however, and had lost +his cap.</p> +<p>Lemuel Fogg’s eyes wore a frightened, shifty +expression as he stepped to the tender. His face +was wretchedly pale, his hands trembled as he +proceeded to pile in the coal. Every vestige of +unsteadiness and maudlin bravado was gone. He +resembled a man who had gazed upon some +unexpected danger, and there was a half guiltiness +in his manner as if he was responsible for +the impending mishap.</p> +<p>The fireman did not speak a word, and Ralph +considered that it was no time for discussion or +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span> +explanations. The injury to the locomotive was +comparatively slight, and with a somewhat worried +glance at the clock and schedule card the +young railroader focussed all his ability and attention +upon making up for lost time.</p> +<p>Soon Ralph was so engrossed in his work that +he forgot the fireman, young Clark, the accident, +everything except that he was driving a mighty +steel steed in a race against time, with either the +winning post or defeat in view. There was a +rare pride in the thought that upon him depended +a new railway record. There was a fascinating +exhilaration in observing the new king of the road +gain steadily half a mile, one mile, two miles, +overlapping lost time.</p> +<p>A smile of joy crossed the face of the young +engineer, a great aspiration of relief and triumph +escaped his lips as No. 999 pulled into Derby +two hours later. They were twenty-one minutes +ahead of time.</p> +<p>“Mr. Fogg,” shouted Ralph across to the fireman’s +seat, “you’re a brick!”</p> +<p>It was the first word that had passed between +them since the mishap at the siding, but many a +grateful glance had the young engineer cast at his +helper. It seemed as if the shake-up at Plympton +had shaken all the nonsense out of Lemuel Fogg. +Before that it had been evident to Ralph that the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span> +fireman was doing all he could to queer the run. +He had been slow in firing and then had choked +the furnace. His movements had been suspicious +and then alarming to Ralph, but since leaving +Plympton he had acted like a different person. +Ralph knew from practical experience what good +firing was, and he had to admit that Fogg had +outdone himself in the splendid run of the last +one hundred miles. He was therefore fully in +earnest when he enthusiastically designated his +erratic helper as a “brick.”</p> +<p>It was hard for Fogg to come out from his +grumpiness and cross-grained malice quickly. +Half resentful, half shamed, he cast a furtive, +sullen look at Ralph.</p> +<p>“Humph!” he muttered, “it isn’t any brick that +did it—it was the briquettes.”</p> +<p>“The what, Mr. Fogg?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“Them,” and with contemptuous indifference +Fogg pointed to a coarse sack lying among the +coal. “New-fangled fuel. Master mechanic +wanted to make a test.”</p> +<p>“Why, yes, I heard about that,” said Ralph +quickly. “Look like baseballs. Full of pitch, oil +and sulphur, I understand. They say they urge +up the fire.”</p> +<p>“They do, they burn like powder. They are +great steam makers, and no question,” observed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span> +Fogg. “Won’t do for a regular thing, though.”</p> +<p>“No?” insinuated Ralph attentively, glad to +rouse his grouchy helper from his morose mood.</p> +<p>“Not a bit of it.”</p> +<p>“Why not?”</p> +<p>“Used right along, they’d burn out any crown +sheet. What’s more, wait till you come to clean +up—the whole furnace will be choked with +cinders.”</p> +<p>“I see,” nodded Ralph, and just then they +rounded near Macon for a fifteen minutes wait.</p> +<p>As Fogg went outside with oil can and waste +roll, Mervin Clark came into the cab.</p> +<p>“Glad to get back where it’s home like,” he sang +out in his chirp, brisk way. “Say, Engineer Fairbanks, +that monument of brass buttons and gold +cap braid is the limit. Discipline? why, he works +on springs and you have to touch a button to +make him act. I had to chum with the brakeman +to find out what’s up.”</p> +<p>“Something is up, then?” inquired Ralph a +trifle uneasily.</p> +<p>“Oh, quite. The conductor has been writing a +ten-page report on the collision. It’s funny, but +the station man at Plympton––”</p> +<p>“New man, isn’t he?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“Just transferred to Plympton yesterday mornin’,” +explained Clark. “Well, he swears that your +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span> +front signals were special at the curves and flashed +green just as you neared the semaphore.”</p> +<p>“Absurd!” exclaimed Ralph.</p> +<p>“That’s what the conductor says, too,” said +Clark. “He told the station agent so. They +nearly had a fight. ‘Color blind!’ he told the +station agent and challenged him to find green +lights on No. 999 if he could. The station man +was awfully rattled and worried. He says he +knew a special was on the list, but being new to +this part of the road he acted on Rule 23 when +he saw the green lights. He sticks to that, says +that he will positively swear to it. He says he +knows some one will be slated, but it won’t be +him.”</p> +<p>“What does the conductor say?” inquired +Ralph.</p> +<p>“He says Rule 23 doesn’t apply, as the white +lights prove. If there was any trickery or any +mistake, then it’s up to the fireman, not to the +engineer.”</p> +<p>At that moment, happening to glance past +Clark, the young engineer caught sight of Lemuel +Fogg. The latter, half crouching near a drive +wheel, was listening intently. The torch he carried +illuminated a pale, twitching face. His eyes +were filled with a craven fear, and Ralph tried to +imagine what was passing through his mind. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span></p> +<p>There was something mysterious about Fogg’s +actions, yet Ralph accepted the theory of the conductor +that the station man had made a careless +blunder or was color blind.</p> +<p>“You see, it isn’t that the smash up amounts +to much,” explained Clark, “but it might have, +see?”</p> +<p>“Yes, I see,” replied Ralph thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“Then again,” continued Clark, “the conductor +says that it delayed a test run, and there’s a +scratched locomotive and a busted construction +car.”</p> +<p>“I’m thankful that no one was hurt,” said +Ralph earnestly.</p> +<p>When the next start was made, Fogg was taciturn +and gloomy-looking, but attended strictly +to his duty. Ralph voted him to be a capital fireman +when he wanted to be. As an hour after +midnight they spurted past Hopeville forty minutes +to the good, he could not help shouting over +a delighted word of commendation to Fogg.</p> +<p>“I said you were a brick, Mr. Fogg,” he +observed. “You’re more than that—you’re a +wonder.”</p> +<p>Fogg’s face momentarily lighted up. It looked +as if he was half minded to come out of his shell +and give some gracious response, but instantly the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span> +old sullenness settled down over his face, accompanied +by a gloomy manner that Ralph could not +analyze. He half believed, however, that Fogg +was a pretty good fellow at heart, had started +out to queer the run, and was now sorry and +ashamed that he had betrayed his weakness for +drink.</p> +<p>“Maybe he is genuinely sorry for his tantrums,” +reflected Ralph, “and maybe our narrow +escape at the siding has sobered him into common +sense.”</p> +<p>What the glum and gruff fireman lacked of +comradeship, the young passenger made up in +jolly good cheer. He was interested in everything +going on. He found opportunity to tell Ralph +several rattling good stories, full of incident and +humor, of his amateur railroad experiences, and +the time was whiled away pleasantly for these two +acquaintances.</p> +<p>Ralph could not repress a grand, satisfied +expression of exultation as No. 999 glided gracefully +into the depot at Bridgeport, over forty-seven +minutes ahead of time.</p> +<p>The station master and the assistant superintendent +of the division came up to the cab +instantly, the latter with his watch in his hand.</p> +<p>“Worth waiting for, this, Fairbanks,” he called +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span> +out cheerily—he was well acquainted with the +young railroader, for Ralph had fired freights to +this point over the Great Northern once regularly +for several weeks. “I’ll send in a bouncing +good report with lots of pleasure.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” said Ralph. “We’ve demonstrated, +anyhow.”</p> +<p>“You have, Fairbanks,” returned the official +commendingly.</p> +<p>“Only, don’t lay any stress on my part of it,” +said Ralph. “Any engineer could run such a +superb monarch of the rail as No. 999. If you +don’t tell them how much the experiment +depended on our good friend, Fogg, here, I will +have to, that’s all.”</p> +<p>The fireman flushed. His eyes had a momentary +pleased expression, and he glanced at Ralph, +really grateful. He almost made a move as if to +heartily shake the hand of his unselfish champion.</p> +<p>“You’re too modest, Fairbanks,” laughed the +assistant superintendent, “but we’ll boost Fogg, +just as he deserves. It’s been a hard, anxious +run, I’ll warrant. We’ve got a relief crew coming, +so you can get to bed just as soon as you +like.”</p> +<p>The passenger coaches were soon emptied of +the through passengers. A local engineer, fireman +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span> +and brakeman took charge of the train to +switch the China & Japan Mail car over to another +track, ready to hitch on to the Overland express, +soon to arrive, sidetrack the other coaches, and +take No. 999 to the roundhouse.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_IV_A_WARNING' id='CHAPTER_IV_A_WARNING'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<h3>A WARNING</h3> +</div> +<p>Ralph doffed his working clothes, washed up at +the tender spigot, and joined Clark, who stood +waiting for him on the platform. Fogg, without +tidying up, in a sort of tired, indifferent way was +already some distance down the platform. Ralph +hurried after him.</p> +<p>“Six-fifteen to-night, Mr. Fogg, isn’t it?” spoke +Ralph, more to say something than anything else.</p> +<p>“That’s right,” returned Fogg curtly.</p> +<p>“Griscom directed me to a neat, quiet lodging +house,” added Ralph. “Won’t you join me?”</p> +<p>“Can’t—got some friends waiting for me,” +responded the fireman.</p> +<p>Ralph followed him seriously and sadly with +his eyes. Fogg was making for Railroad Row, +with its red saloon signs, and Ralph felt sorry +for him.</p> +<p>“See here,” spoke Clark, as they walked along +together, “headed for a bunk, I suppose?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” answered Ralph. “John Griscom, that’s +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span> +our veteran engineer, and a rare good friend of +mine, told me about a cheap, comfortable lodging +house to put up at. It’s some distance from +the depot, but I believe I shall go there.”</p> +<p>“Good idea,” approved Clark. “I’ve been in +some of those railroad men’s hotels yonder, and +they’re not very high toned—nor clean.”</p> +<p>“What’s your program?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“Got to sleep, I suppose, so, if I’m not too much +of a bore and it’s pleasing to you, I’ll try the place +your friend recommends.”</p> +<p>“I shall be delighted,” answered Ralph.</p> +<p>Within half-an-hour both tired lads tumbled +into their beds in rooms adjoining in a private +house about half a mile from the depot. Ralph +stretched himself luxuriously, as he rested after +the turmoil and labor of what he considered the +most arduous day in his railroad career.</p> +<p>The young engineer awoke with the bright sun +shining in his face and was out of bed in a jiffy. +These lay-over days had always been prized by +the young railroader, and he planned to put the +present one to good use. He went to the closed +door communicating with the next room and +tapped on it.</p> +<p>“Hey, there!” he hailed briskly, “time to get +up,” then, no response coming, he opened the door +to find the apartment deserted. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span></p> +<p>“An early bird, it seems,” observed Ralph. +“Probably gone for breakfast.”</p> +<p>John Griscom had told Ralph all about the +house he was in, and the young engineer soon +located the bathroom and took a vigorous cold +plunge that made him feel equal to the task of +running a double-header special. Ralph had just +dressed when Marvin Clark came bustling into the +room.</p> +<p>“Twenty minutes for breakfast!” hailed the +volatile lad. “I’ve been up an hour.”</p> +<p>“You didn’t take a two hundred mile run, or +you wouldn’t be up for four,” challenged Ralph.</p> +<p>“Guess that’s so,” admitted Clark. “Well, here +we are. I’ve been out prospecting.”</p> +<p>“What for?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“A good restaurant.”</p> +<p>“Found one?”</p> +<p>“A dandy—wheat cakes with honey, prime +country sausages and Mocha, all for twenty +cents.”</p> +<p>“Good,” commended Ralph. “We’ll take air +line for that right away.”</p> +<p>Clark chattered like a magpie as they proceeded +to the street. It was evident that he had +taken a great fancy to Ralph. The latter liked +him in return. For the son of a wealthy railroad +magnate, Clark was decidedly democratic. The +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span> +one subject he seemed glad to avoid was any reference +to his direct family and friends.</p> +<p>He was full of life, and Ralph found him very +entertaining. Some bad breaks in grammar +showed, indeed, that he had not amounted to much +at school. Some of his adventures also suggested +that the presence and power of money had not +always been at his command. Ralph noticed some +inconsistencies in his stories here and there, but +Clark rattled on so fast and jumped so briskly +from one subject to another, that it was hard +work to check him up.</p> +<p>As they reached the porch of the house Clark +gave Ralph a deterring touch with his hand.</p> +<p>“Just wait a minute, will you?” he spoke.</p> +<p>“Why what for?” inquired Ralph in some +surprise.</p> +<p>“I want to find out something before we go +out into the street,” and the speaker glided down +the walk to the gate, peered down the street, and +then beckoned to his companion.</p> +<p>“Come on,” he hailed. “They’re still there, +though,” he added, his tones quite impressive.</p> +<p>“Who is there?” asked Ralph.</p> +<p>“Just dally at the gate here and take a look past +the next street corner—near where there’s an +alley, see?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span></p> +<p>“That crowd of boys?” questioned Ralph, following +his companion’s direction.</p> +<p>“Yes, that gang of hoodlums,” responded Clark +bluntly, “for that is what they are.”</p> +<p>“And how are we interested in them?” inquired +Ralph.</p> +<p>“We’re not, but they may become interested in +us.”</p> +<p>“Indeed?”</p> +<p>“Mightily, if I don’t mistake my cue,” asserted +Clark.</p> +<p>“You are pretty mysterious,” hinted Ralph, +half-smiling.</p> +<p>“Well, I’ll explain. Those fellows are laying +for you.”</p> +<p>“Laying for me?” repeated Ralph vaguely.</p> +<p>“That’s it.”</p> +<p>“Why? They don’t know me, and I don’t +know them.”</p> +<p>“Not much acquainted at Bridgeport, eh?”</p> +<p>“Only casually. I’ve laid over here several +times when I was firing on the fast freight. I +know a few railroad men, that’s all.”</p> +<p>“Ever hear of Billy Bouncer?”</p> +<p>“I never did.”</p> +<p>“Then I’m the first one to enlighten you. +When I went out to find a restaurant I passed that +crowd you see. I noticed that they drew together +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span> +and scanned me pretty closely. Then I heard +one of them say, ‘That’s not Fairbanks.’ ‘Yes, it +is, didn’t he come out of the place we’re watching?’ +said another. ‘Aw, let up,’ spoke a third +voice. ‘Billy Bouncer will know, and we don’t +want to spoil his game. He’ll be here soon.’”</p> +<p>“That’s strange,” said Ralph musingly.</p> +<p>“What are you going to do about it?” inquired +Clark.</p> +<p>“Oh, I’m not at all alarmed,” replied Ralph, +“barely interested, that’s all. We’ll walk by the +crowd and see if they won’t throw some further +light on the subject.”</p> +<p>“Tell you, Fairbanks,” said Clark quite seriously, +“I’m putting two and two together.”</p> +<p>“Well,” laughed Ralph, “that makes four—go +ahead.”</p> +<p>“More than four—a regular mob. That crowd, +as I said, for some reason is laying for you. +What’s the answer? They have been put up to +it by some one. You know, you told me incidentally +that you had some enemies on account of +the big boost you’ve got in the service. You said, +too, that your friend, Engineer Griscom, warned +you on just that point. I haven’t said much so +far, but the actions of that grouch fireman of +yours, Fogg, looked decidedly queer and suspicious +to me.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span></p> +<p>Ralph made no comment on this. He had his +own ideas on the subject, but did not feel warranted +in fully expressing them.</p> +<p>“I believe that Fogg started out on your run +yesterday to queer it. Why he changed tactics +later, I can’t tell. Maybe he was scared by the +smash-up on the siding. Anyhow, I never saw +such mortal malice in the face of any man as that +I saw in his when I came aboard No. 999. This +crowd down the street is evidently after you. +Some one has put them up to it.”</p> +<p>“Oh, you can’t mean Fogg!” exclaimed Ralph.</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” replied Clark.</p> +<p>“I can’t believe that he would plot against me +that far,” declared Ralph.</p> +<p>“A malicious enemy will do anything to reach +his ends,” said Clark. “Doesn’t he want you +knocked out? Doesn’t he want your place? +What would suit his plans better than to have you +so mauled and battered, that you couldn’t show up +for the return trip to Stanley Junction this afternoon? +Are you going past that crowd?”</p> +<p>“I certainly shall not show the white feather by +going out of my way,” replied Ralph.</p> +<p>“Well, if that’s your disposition, I’m at your +call if they tackle us,” announced Clark.</p> +<p>They proceeded down the street, and Ralph as +they advanced had a good view of the crowd, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span> +which, according to the views of his companion, +was laying in wait for him. There were about +fifteen of them, ranging from selfish-faced lads +of ten or so up to big, hulking fellows of twenty. +They represented the average city gang of idlers +and hoodlums. They were hanging around the +entrance to the alley as if waiting for some mischief +to turn up. Ralph noticed a rustling among +them as he was observed. They grouped +together. He fancied one or two of them pointed +at him, but there was no further indication of +belligerent attention as he and Clark approached +nearer to the crowd.</p> +<p>“I fancy Billy Bouncer, whoever he is, hasn’t +arrived yet,” observed Clark.</p> +<p>Just then one of the mob set up a shout.</p> +<p>“Hi there, Wheels!” he hailed, and some additional +jeers went up from his fellows. Their +attention seemed directed across the street, and +Ralph and Clark glanced thither.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_V_AT_BAY' id='CHAPTER_V_AT_BAY'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> +<h3>AT BAY</h3> +</div> +<p>A queer-looking boy about eighteen years of +age was proceeding slowly down the pavement. +He was stockily built, and had an unusually massive +head and great broad shoulders. He was a +boy who would be remarked about almost anywhere. +His hair was long, and this gave him a +somewhat leonine aspect.</p> +<p>The hat of this boy was pushed far back on +his head, and his eyes were fixed and his attention +apparently deeply absorbed upon an object he +held in his hand. This was a thin wooden rod +with two cardboard wheels attached to it. These +he would blow, causing them to revolve rapidly. +Then he would study their gyrations critically, +wait till they had run down, and then repeat the +maneuver.</p> +<p>His side coat pockets were bulging, one with a +lot of papers. From the other protruded what +seemed to be a part of a toy, or some real mechanical +device having also wheels in its construction. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span></p> +<p>“Well, there’s a queer make-up!” observed +Clark in profound surprise.</p> +<p>“He is certainly eccentric in his appearance,” +said Ralph. “I wonder who he can be.”</p> +<p>“No, what he can be,” corrected Clark, “for +he’s an odd genius of some kind, I’ll wager.”</p> +<p>The object of their interest and curiosity had +heard the derisive hail from across the street. +He halted dead short, stared around him like a +person abruptly aroused from a dream, traced the +call to its source, thrust the device with which he +had been experimenting into his pocket, and fixing +his eyes on his mockers, started across the street. +The hoodlum crowd nudged one another, blinked, +winked, and looked as if expecting developments +of some fun. The object of their derision looked +them over in a calculating fashion.</p> +<p>“Did any one here speak to me?” he asked.</p> +<p>“No, Wheels—it was the birdies calling you!” +hooted a jocose voice.</p> +<p>“You sort of suggest something, somehow,” +drawled the lad in an abstracted, groping way. +“Yes, certainly, let me see. What is it? Ah, perhaps +I’ve made a memorandum of it.”</p> +<p>The lad poked into several vest pockets. Finally +he unearthed a card which seemed to be all written +over, and he ran his eye down this. The crowd +chuckled at the profound solemnity of his manner. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45' name='page_45'></a>45</span></p> +<p>“H’m,” observed the boy designated as +“Wheels.” “Let me see. ‘Get shoes mended.’ +No, that isn’t it. I have such a bad memory. +‘Order some insulated wire.’ No, that’s for an +uptown call. ‘Buy Drummond on Superheated +Steam.’ That’s for the bookstore. Ah, here we +have it. ‘Kick Jim Scroggins.’ Who’s Jim? +Aha! you young villain, I remember you well +enough now,” and with an activity which could +scarcely be anticipated from so easy-going an individual, +Wheels made a dive for a big hulking fellow +on the edge of the crowd. He chased him a +few feet, and planted a kick that lifted the yelling +hoodlum a foot from the ground. Then, calmly +taking out a pencil, he crossed off the memorandum—“Kick +Jim Scroggins”—gave the crowd a +warning glance, and proceeded coolly down the +sidewalk, resuming his occupation with the contrivance +he had placed in his pocket.</p> +<p>The gang of loafers had drawn back. A sight +of the massive arms and sledge hammer fists of +the young giant they had derided, and his prompt +measures with one of their cronies, dissuaded +them from any warlike move.</p> +<p>“Whoop!” commented Clark in an exultant +undertone, and he fairly leaned against his companion +in a paroxysm of uncontrollable laughter. +“Quick, nifty and entertaining, that! Say Engineer +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46' name='page_46'></a>46</span> +Fairbanks, I don’t know who that fellow +Wheels is, but I’d be interested and proud to make +his acquaintance. Now steam up and air brake +ready, while we pass the crossing!”</p> +<p>“Passing the crossing,” as Clark designated it, +proved, however, to be no difficult proceeding. +The crowd of hoodlums had got a set-back from +the boy with the piston-rod arm, it seemed. They +scanned Ralph and Clark keenly as they passed +by, but made no attempt to either hail or halt +them.</p> +<p>“We’ve run the gauntlet this time,” remarked +Clark. “Hello—four times!”</p> +<p>The vigilant companion of the young engineer +was glancing over his shoulder as he made this +sudden and forcible remark.</p> +<p>“Four times what?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“That fireman of yours.”</p> +<p>“Mr. Fogg?”</p> +<p>“Yes.”</p> +<p>“What about him?”</p> +<p>“Say,” replied Clark, edging close to Ralph, +“just take a careless backward look, will you? +About half the square down on the opposite side +of the street you’ll see Fogg.”</p> +<p>“Why such caution and mystery?” propounded +Ralph.</p> +<p>“I’ll tell you later. See him?” inquired Clark, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span> +as Ralph followed out the suggestion he had +made.</p> +<p>Ralph nodded assentingly. He had made out +Fogg as Clark had described. The fireman was +walking along in the direction they were proceeding. +There was something stealthy and sinister +in the way in which he kept close to the buildings +lining the sidewalk.</p> +<p>“That’s four times I’ve noticed Fogg in this +vicinity this morning,” reported Clark. “I discovered +him opposite the lodging house when I +first came out this morning. When I came back +he was skulking in an open entry, next door. +When we left the house together I saw him a +block away, standing behind a tree. Now he bobs +up again.”</p> +<p>“I can’t understand his motive,” said Ralph +thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“I can,” declared Clark with emphasis.</p> +<p>“What’s your theory?”</p> +<p>“It’s no theory at all, it’s a dead certainty,” +insisted Clark. “Your fireman and that gang of +hoodlums hitch together in some way, you mark +my words. Well, let it slide for a bit. I’m hungry +as a bear, and here’s the restaurant.”</p> +<p>It was a neat and inviting place, and with appetizing +zeal the two boys entered and seated themselves +at a table and gave their order for wheat +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span> +cakes with honey and prime country sausages. +Just as the waiter brought in the steaming meal, +Clark, whose face was toward the street, said:</p> +<p>“Fogg just passed by, and there goes the crowd +of boys. I’m thinking they’ll give us a chance to +settle our meal, Engineer Fairbanks!”</p> +<p>“All right,” responded Ralph quietly, “if that’s +the first task of the day, we’ll be in trim to tackle +it with this fine meal as a foundation.”</p> +<p>Their youthful, healthy appetites made a feast +of the repast. Clark doubled his order, and Ralph +did full credit to all the things set before him.</p> +<p>“I was thinking,” he remarked, as they paid +their checks at the cashier’s counter, “that we +might put in the day looking around the town.”</p> +<p>“Why, yes,” assented his companion approvingly, +“that is, if you’re going to let me keep with +you.”</p> +<p>“Why not?” smiled Ralph. “You seem to +think I may need a guardian.”</p> +<p>“I’ve got nothing to do but put in the time, +and get a signed voucher from you that I did so +in actual railroad service and in good company,” +explained Clark. “I think I will go back to Stanley +Junction on your return run, if it can be +arranged.”</p> +<p>“It is arranged already, if you say so,” said +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span> +Ralph. “We seem to get on together pretty well, +and I’m glad to have you with me.”</p> +<p>“Now, that’s handsome, Engineer Fairbanks!” +replied Clark. “There’s some moving picture +shows in town here, open after ten o’clock, and +there’s a mechanics’ library with quite a museum +of railroad contrivances. We’ve got time to take +it all in. Come on. Unless that crowd stops us, +we’ll start the merry program rolling. No one +in sight,” the youth continued, as they stepped into +the street and he glanced its length in both directions. +“Have the enemy deserted the field, or are +they lying in ambush for us?”</p> +<p>They linked arms and sauntered down the pavement. +They had proceeded nearly two squares, +when, passing an alley, both halted summarily.</p> +<p>“Hello! here’s business, I guess,” said Clark, +and he and Ralph scanned closely the group they +had passed just before the breakfast meal.</p> +<p>The hoodlum gang had suddenly appeared from +the alleyway, and forming a circle, surrounded +them. There was an addition to their ranks. +Ralph noted this instantly. He was a rowdy-looking +chunk of a fellow, and the swing of his +body, the look on his face and the expression in +his eyes showed that he delighted in thinking himself +a “tough customer.” Backed by his comrades, +who looked vicious and expectant, he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span> +marched straight up to Ralph, who did not flinch a +particle.</p> +<p>“You look like Fairbanks to me—Fairbanks, +the engineer,” he observed, fixing a glance upon +Ralph meant to dismay.</p> +<p>“Yes, that is my name,” said Ralph quietly.</p> +<p>“Well,” asserted the big fellow, “I’ve been looking +for you, and I’m going to whip the life out of +you.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51' name='page_51'></a>51</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_VI_FOUR_MEDALS' id='CHAPTER_VI_FOUR_MEDALS'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<h3>FOUR MEDALS</h3> +</div> +<p>Marvin Clark stepped promptly forward at +the announcement of the overgrown lout, who +had signified his intention of whipping the young +engineer of No. 999. Clark had told Ralph that +athletics was his strong forte. He looked it as +he squared firmly before the bully.</p> +<p>“Going to wallop somebody, are you?” spoke +Clark cooly. “Watch the system-cylinder”—and +the speaker gave to his arms a rotary motion so +rapid that it was fairly dizzying, “or piston rods,” +and one fist met the bulging breast of the fellow +with a force that sent him reeling backwards several +feet.</p> +<p>“Hey, there! you keep out of this, if you don’t +want to be massacreed!” spoke a voice at Clark’s +elbow, and he was seized by several of the rowdy +crowd and forced back from the side of Ralph.</p> +<p>“Hands off!” shouted Clark, and he cleared a +circle about him with a vigorous sweep of his +arms. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52' name='page_52'></a>52</span></p> +<p>“Don’t you mix in a fair fight, then,” warned a +big fellow in the crowd, threateningly.</p> +<p>“Ah, it’s going to be a fair fight, is it?” +demanded Clark.</p> +<p>“Yes, it is.”</p> +<p>“I’ll see to it that it is,” remarked Clark briefly.</p> +<p>The fellow he had dazed with his rapid-fire +display of muscle had regained his poise, and was +now again facing the young engineer.</p> +<p>“Understand?” he demanded, hunching up his +shoulders and staring viciously at Ralph. “I’m +Billy Bouncer.”</p> +<p>“Are you?” said Ralph simply.</p> +<p>“I am, and don’t you forget it. I happen to +have got a tip from my uncle, John Evans, of +Stanley Junction. I guess you know him.”</p> +<p>“I do,” announced Ralph bluntly, “and if you +are as mean a specimen of a boy as he is of a man, +I’m sorry for you.”</p> +<p>“What?” roared the young ruffian, raising his +fists. “Do you see that?” and he put one out, +doubled up.</p> +<p>“I do, and it’s mighty dirty, I can tell you.”</p> +<p>“Insult me, do you? I guess you don’t know +who I am. Champion, see?—light-weight champion +of this burg, and I wear four medals, and +here they are,” and Bouncer threw back his coat +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span> +and vauntingly displayed four gleaming silver +discs pinned to his vest.</p> +<p>“If you had four more, big as cartwheels, I +don’t see how I would be interested,” observed +Ralph.</p> +<p>“You don’t?” yelled Bouncer, hopping mad at +failing to dazzle this new opponent with an acquisition +that had awed his juvenile cohorts and +admirers. “Why, I’ll grind you to powder! +Strip.”</p> +<p>With this Bouncer threw off his coat, and there +was a scuffle among his minions to secure the +honor of holding it.</p> +<p>“I don’t intend to strip,” remarked Ralph, “and +I don’t want to strike you, but you’ve got to open +a way for myself and my friend to go about our +business, or I’ll knock you down.”</p> +<p>“You’ll––Fellows, hear him!” shrieked +Bouncer, dancing from foot to foot. “Oh, you +mincemeat! up with your fists! It’s business +now.”</p> +<p>The young engineer saw that it was impossible +to evade a fight. The allusion of Bouncer to Jim +Evans was enlightening. It explained the animus +of the present attack.</p> +<p>If Lemuel Fogg had been bent on queering the +special record run to Bridgeport out of jealousy, +Evans, a former boon companion of the fireman, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span> +had it in for Ralph on a more malicious basis. +The young railroader knew that Evans was capable +of any meanness or cruelty to pay him back +for causing his arrest as an incendiary during the +recent railroad strike on the Great Northern.</p> +<p>There was no doubt but what Evans had +advised his graceless nephew of the intended visit +of Ralph to Bridgeport. During the strike Evans +had maimed railroad men and had been guilty of +many other cruel acts of vandalism. Ralph +doubted not that the plan was to have his precious +nephew “do” him in a way that he would not be +able to make the return trip with No. 999.</p> +<p>The young engineer was no pugilist, but he +knew how to defend himself, and he very quickly +estimated the real fighting caliber of his antagonist. +He saw at a glance that Billy Bouncer was +made up of bluff and bluster and show. The +hoodlum made a great ado of posing and exercising +his fists in a scientific way. He was so +stuck up over some medal awards at amateur +boxing shows, that he was wasting time in displaying +his “style.”</p> +<p>“Are you ready?” demanded Bouncer, doing a +quickstep and making a picturesque feint at his +opponent.</p> +<p>“Let me pass,” said Ralph.</p> +<p>“Wow, when I’ve eaten you up, maybe!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span></p> +<p>“Since you will have it, then,” observed Ralph +quietly, “take that for a starter.”</p> +<p>The young engineer struck out once—only once, +but he had calculated the delivery and effect of +the blow to a nicety. There was a thud as his +fist landed under the jaw of the bully, so quickly +and so unexpectedly that the latter did not have +time to put up so much as a pretense of a +protection.</p> +<p>Back went Billy Bouncer, his teeth rattling, and +down went Billy Bouncer on a backward slide. +His head struck a loose paving brick. He moaned +and closed his eyes.</p> +<p>“Four—medals!” he voiced faintly.</p> +<p>“Come on, Clark,” said Ralph.</p> +<p>He snatched the arm of his new acquaintance +and tried to force his way to the alley opening. +Thus they proceeded a few feet, but only a few. +A hush had fallen over Bouncer’s friends, at the +amazing sight of their redoubtable champion gone +down in inglorious defeat, but only for a moment. +One of the largest boys in the group rallied the +disorganized mob.</p> +<p>“Out with your smashers!” he shouted. “Don’t +let them get away!”</p> +<p>Ralph pulled, or rather forced his companion +back against two steps with an iron railing, leading +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span> +to the little platform of the alley door of a +building fronting on the street.</p> +<p>“No show making a break,” he continued in +rapid tones. “Look at the cowards!”</p> +<p>At the call of their new leader, the crowd to its +last member whipped out their weapons. They +were made of some hard substance like lead, and +incased in leather. They were attached to the +wrist by a long loop, which enabled their possessors +to strike a person at long range, the object of +the attack having no chance to resist or defend +himself.</p> +<p>“Grab the railing,” ordered Clark, whom Ralph +was beginning to recognize as a quick-witted fellow +in an emergency. “Now then, keep side by +side—any tactics to hold them at bay or drive +them off.”</p> +<p>The two friends had secured quite a tactical +position, and they proceeded to make the most of +it. The mob with angry yells made for them +direct. They jostled one another in their eager +malice to strike a blow. They crowded close to +the steps, and their ugly weapons shot out from +all directions.</p> +<p>One of the weapons landed on Ralph’s hand +grasping the iron railing, and quite numbed and +almost crippled it. A fellow used his weapon as +a missile, on purpose or by mistake. At all events, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span> +it whirled from his hand through the air, and +striking Clark’s cheek, laid it open with quite a +ghastly wound. Clark reached over and snatched +a slungshot from the grasp of another of the +assaulting party. He handed it quickly to his +companion.</p> +<p>“Use it for all it’s worth,” he suggested rapidly. +“Don’t let them down us, or we’re goners.”</p> +<p>As he spoke, Clark, nettled with pain, balanced +himself on the railing and sent both feet flying +into the faces of the onpressing mob. These +tactics were wholly unexpected by the enemy. +One of their number went reeling back, his nose +nearly flattened to his face.</p> +<p>“Rush ’em!” shouted the fellow frantically.</p> +<p>Half-a-dozen of his cohorts sprang up the steps. +They managed to grab Ralph’s feet. Now it was +a pull and a clutch. Ralph realized that if he +ever got down into the midst of that surging mob, +or under their feet, it would be all over with him.</p> +<p>“It’s all up with us!” gasped Clark with a +startled stare down the alley. “Fogg, Lemuel +Fogg!”</p> +<p>The heart of the young engineer sank somewhat +as he followed the direction of his companion’s +glance. Sure enough, the fireman of No. 999 had +put in an appearance on the scene.</p> +<p>“He’s coming like a cyclone!” said Clark. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span></p> +<p>Fogg was a rushing whirlwind of motion. He +was bareheaded, and he looked wild and uncanny. +Somewhere he had picked up a long round clothes +pole or the handle to some street worker’s outfit. +With this he was making direct for the crowd +surrounding Ralph and Clark. Just then a slungshot +blow drove the latter to his knees. Two of the +crowd tried to kick at his face. Ralph was nerved +up to desperate action now. He caught the +uplifted foot of one of the vandals and sent him +toppling. The other he knocked flat with his fist, +but overpowering numbers massed for a headlong +rush on the beleaguered refugees.</p> +<p>“Swish—thud! swish!” Half blinded by a +blow dealt between the eyes by a hurling slungshot, +the young engineer could discern a break in +the program, the appearance of a new element that +startled and astonished him. He had expected to +see the furious Fogg join the mob and aid them +in finishing up their dastardly work. Instead, like +some madman, Fogg had waded into the ranks of +the group, swinging his formidable weapon like a +flail. It rose, it fell, it swayed from side to side, +and its execution was terrific.</p> +<p>The fireman mowed down the amazed and scattering +forces of Billy Bouncer as if they were +rows of tenpins. He knocked them flat, and then +he kicked them. It was a marvel that he did not +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span> +cripple some of them, for, his eyes glaring, his +muscles bulging to the work, he acted like some +fairly irresponsible being.</p> +<p>Within two minutes’ time the last one of the +mob had vanished into the street. Flinging the +pole away from him, Fogg began looking for +his cap, which had blown off his head as he came +rushing down the alley at cyclone speed.</p> +<p>Clark stared at the fireman in petrified wonder. +Ralph stood overwhelmed with uncertainty and +amazement.</p> +<p>“Mr. Fogg, I say, Mr. Fogg!” he cried, running +after the fireman and catching at his sleeve, “How—why––”</p> +<p>“Boy,” choked out Lemuel Fogg, turning a +pale, twitching face upon Ralph, “don’t say a +word to me!”</p> +<p>And then with a queer, clicking sob in his +throat, the fireman of No. 999 hastened down the +alley looking for his cap.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_VII_DAVE_BISSELL_TRAIN_BOY' id='CHAPTER_VII_DAVE_BISSELL_TRAIN_BOY'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<h3>DAVE BISSELL, TRAIN BOY</h3> +</div> +<p>“I don’t understand it at all,” exclaimed Ralph.</p> +<p>“Mad—decidedly mad,” declared young Clark. +“Whew! that was a lively tussle. All the buttons +are gone off my vest and one sleeve is torn +open clear to the shoulder, and I guess there were +only basting threads in that coat of yours, for +it’s ripped clear up the back.”</p> +<p>Clark began to pick up some scattered buttons +from the ground. His companion, however, was +looking down the alley, and he followed Fogg +with his eyes until the fireman had disappeared +into the street.</p> +<p>“You’re wondering about things,” spoke Clark. +“So am I.”</p> +<p>“I’m trying to figure out the puzzle, yes,” +admitted the young engineer. “You see, we were +both of us wrong, and we have misjudged Mr. +Fogg.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know about that,” dissented Ralph’s +companion.</p> +<p>“Why, he has helped us, instead of hurt us.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span></p> +<p>“Yes,” said Clark, “but why? It’s nonsense +to say that he didn’t start out on your trip fixed +up to put you out of business if he could do it. +It is folly, too, to think that he didn’t know that +this Billy Bouncer, relative of that old-time enemy +of yours back at Stanley Junction, Jim Evans, had +put this gang up to beat you. If that wasn’t so, +why has he been hanging around here all the +morning in a suspicious, mysterious way, and how +does he come to swoop down on the mob just in +the nick of time.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps he was planning to head off the crowd +all the time,” suggested Ralph.</p> +<p>“Not from the very start,” declared Clark positively. +“No, sir—I think he has had a fit of +remorse, and thought better of having you banged +up or crippled.”</p> +<p>“At all events, Fogg has proven a good friend +in need, and I shall not forget it soon,” observed +Ralph.</p> +<p>When they came out into the street the hoodlum +crowd had dispersed. They entered the first +tailor shop they came to and soon had their +clothing mended up.</p> +<p>“There’s a moving picture show open,” said +Clark, after they had again proceeded on their +way. “Let’s put in a half-hour or so watching +the slides.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span></p> +<p>This they did. Then they strolled down to the +shops, took in the roundhouse, got an early dinner, +and went to visit the museum at the Mechanics’ +Exchange. This was quite an institution of +Bridgeport, and generally interested railroad men. +Clark was very agreeable to the proposition made +by his companion to look over the place. They +found a fine library and a variety of drawings +and models, all along railroad lines.</p> +<p>“This suits me exactly,” declared Clark. “I +am not and never will be a practical railroader, +but I like its variety just the same. Another thing, +a fellow learns something. Say, look there.”</p> +<p>The speaker halted his companion by catching +his arm abruptly, as they turned into a small +reading room after admiring a miniature reproduction +in brass of a standard European +locomotive.</p> +<p>“Yes, I see,” nodded Ralph, with a slight smile +on his face, “our friend, Wheels.”</p> +<p>Both boys studied the eccentric youth they had +seen for the first time a few hours previous. He +occupied a seat at a desk in a remote corner of +the room. Propped up before him was a big volume +full of cuts of machinery, and he was taking +notes from it. A dozen or more smaller books +were piled up on a chair beside him.</p> +<p>Young as he was, there was a profound solemnity +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span> +and preoccupation in his methods that suggested +that he had a very old head on a juvenile +pair of shoulders. As Ralph and his companion +stood regarding the queer genius, an attendant +came up to Wheels. He touched him politely on +the shoulder, and as the lad looked up in a dazed, +absorbed way, pointed to the clock in the room.</p> +<p>“You told me to inform you when it was two +o’clock,” spoke the attendant.</p> +<p>“Did I, now?” said Wheels in a lost, distressed +sort of a way. “Dear me, what for, I wonder?” +and he passed his hand abstractedly over his forehead. +“Ah, I’ll find out.”</p> +<p>He proceeded to draw from his pocket the selfsame +memorandum he had consulted in the case of +Jim Scroggins. He mumbled over a number of +items, and evidently struck the right one at last, +for he murmured something about “catch the +noon mail with a letter to the patent office,” arose, +put on his cap, and hurriedly left the place, blissfully +wool-gathering as the fact that noon had +come and gone several hours since.</p> +<p>“I’m curious,” observed Clark, and as Wheels +left the place he followed the attendant to the +library office, and left Ralph to stroll about alone, +while he engaged the former in conversation. In +about five minutes Clark came back to Ralph with +a curious but satisfied smile on his face. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span></p> +<p>“Well, I’ve got his biography,” he announced.</p> +<p>“Whose—Wheels?”</p> +<p>“Yes.”</p> +<p>“Who is he, anyway?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“He thinks he is a young inventor.”</p> +<p>“And is he?”</p> +<p>“That’s an open question. They call him +Young Edison around here, and his right name +is Archie Graham. His father was an aeronaut +who was an expert on airships, got killed in an +accident to an aeroplane last year, and left his +son some little money. Young Graham has been +dabbling in inventions since he was quite young.”</p> +<p>“Did he really ever invent anything of consequence?” +asked Ralph.</p> +<p>“The attendant here says that he did. About +two years ago he got up a car window catch that +made quite a flurry at the shops. It was used with +good results, and the Great Northern was about +to pay Graham something for the device, when it +was learned that while he was bringing it to perfection +some one else had run across pretty nearly +the same idea.”</p> +<p>“And patented it first?”</p> +<p>“Both abroad and in this country. That of +course shut Graham out. All the same, the attendant +declares that Graham must have got the idea +fully a year before the foreign fellow did.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span></p> +<p>The boys left the place in a little while and proceeded +towards the railroad depot. Ralph had +conceived quite a liking for his volatile new +acquaintance. Clark had shown himself to be a +loyal, resourceful friend, and the young engineer +felt that he would miss his genial company if the +other did not take the return trip to Stanley Junction. +He told Clark this as they reached the +depot.</p> +<p>“That so?” smiled the latter. “Well, I’ll go +sure if you’re agreeable. I’ve got no particular +program to follow out, and I’d like to take in the +Junction. Another thing, I’m curious to see how +you come out with your friends. There’s that +smash-up on the siding at Plympton, too. Something +may come up on that where I may be of +service to you.”</p> +<p>They found the locomotive, steam up, on one of +the depot switches in charge of a special engineer. +It lacked over half an hour of leaving time. +While Clark hustled about the tender, Ralph +donned his working clothes and chattered with the +relief engineer. The latter was to run the locomotive +to the train, and Ralph walked down the +platform to put on the time.</p> +<p>“I’ve stowed my vest in a bunker in the cab,” +said Clark, by his side.</p> +<p>“That’s all right,” nodded Ralph. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span></p> +<p>“And I’m going to get some sandwiches and a +few bottles of pop for a little midnight lunch.”</p> +<p>“All right,” agreed the young engineer, as his +companion started over towards Railroad Row.</p> +<p>Lemuel Fogg had not put in an appearance up +to this time, but a few minutes later Ralph saw +him in the cab of No. 999, which he had gained +by a short cut from the street. As Ralph was +looking in the direction of the locomotive, some +one came briskly up behind him and gave him a +sharp, friendly slap on the shoulder.</p> +<p>“Hello, Ralph Fairbanks!” he hailed.</p> +<p>“Why, Dave Bissell!” said the young railroader, +turning to face and shake hands with an +old acquaintance. Dave had been a train boy on +an accommodation run at Stanley Junction about +a year previous, and had graduated into the same +line of service on the Overland Limited.</p> +<p>“I’m very glad to see you,” said Ralph; “I hear +you’ve got a great run.”</p> +<p>“Famous, Fairbanks!” declared Dave. “I’m +hearing some big things about you.”</p> +<p>“You call them big because you remember the +Junction and exaggerate home news,” insisted +Ralph.</p> +<p>“Maybe so, but I always said you’d be president +of the road some time,” began Dave, and then with +a start stared hard at young Clark, who appeared +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67' name='page_67'></a>67</span> +at that moment crossing the platform of a stationary +coach from the direction of Railroad +Row. “Why!” exclaimed Dave, “hey! hi! this +way.”</p> +<p>Clark had halted abruptly. His expressive features +were a study. As he evidently recognized +Dave, his face fell, his eyes betokened a certain +consternation, and dropping a package he carried +he turned swiftly about, jumped from the platform +and disappeared.</p> +<p>“Why” spoke Ralph, considerably surprised, +“do you know Marvin Clark?”</p> +<p>“Who?” bolted out Dave bluntly.</p> +<p>“That boy—Marvin Clark.”</p> +<p>“Marvin Clark nothing!” shouted the train boy +volubly. “That’s my cousin, Fred Porter, of +Earlville.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68' name='page_68'></a>68</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_VIII_AN_ASTONISHING_DISCOVERY' id='CHAPTER_VIII_AN_ASTONISHING_DISCOVERY'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<h3>AN ASTONISHING DISCOVERY</h3> +</div> +<p>The young engineer of No. 999 faced a new +mystery, a sharp suspicion darted through his +mind. He recalled instantly several queer breaks +that the special passenger had made in his +conversation.</p> +<p>“Your cousin, is he?” observed Ralph +thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“That’s what he is,” affirmed Dave Bissell.</p> +<p>“And his name is Fred Porter?”</p> +<p>“Always has been,” declared Dave. “Why, +something up? Humph! I can guess. Bet he’s +been up to some of his old tricks. He always was +a joker and full of mischief.”</p> +<p>“Tell me more about him,” suggested Ralph.</p> +<p>“Why, there isn’t much to tell,” said Dave. +“He and I were raised at Earlville. His parents +both died several years ago, and he wandered +around a good deal. This is the first I’ve seen of +him for over two years.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span></p> +<p>“Might you not be mistaken—facial +resemblance?”</p> +<p>“Not much,” observed Dave staunchly. “Think +I don’t recognize my own relatives? Why, didn’t +you notice how he acted?”</p> +<p>“Yes, surprised.”</p> +<p>“No, scared,” corrected Dave, “and ran away.”</p> +<p>“Why?” demanded Ralph.</p> +<p>“Well, from your seeming to know him under +another name, I should say because he is found +out. What game has he been playing on you, +Fairbanks?”</p> +<p>“He has done me more good than harm,” +evaded Ralph. “I’ve only known him since +yesterday.”</p> +<p>“Well, he has run away, that’s certain. That +bothers me. Fred Porter was never a sneak or a +coward. He was full of jolly mischief and fun, +but a better friend no fellow ever had.”</p> +<p>“He struck me that way,” said Ralph. “I hope +he’ll come back. There’s my engine coming, and +I’ll have to go on duty. Try and find him, Dave, +will you?”</p> +<p>“If I can.”</p> +<p>“And if you find him, tell him I must see him +before we leave Bridgeport.”</p> +<p>“All right.”</p> +<p>Ralph picked up the lunch package that his odd +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span> +acquaintance had dropped and moved along the +platform to where No. 999 had run. The locomotive +was backed to the coaches and the relief engineer +stepped to the platform.</p> +<p>“I say,” he projected in an undertone to Ralph, +“what’s up with Fogg?”</p> +<p>“Is there anything?” questioned Ralph +evasively.</p> +<p>“Dizzy in the headlight and wobbly in the drivers, +that’s all,” came the response, with a wink.</p> +<p>Ralph’s heart sank as he entered the cab. Its +atmosphere was freighted with the fumes of +liquor, and a single glance at the fireman convinced +him that Fogg was very far over the line +of sobriety. Ralph hardly knew how to take +Fogg. The latter nodded briefly and turned away, +pretending to occupy himself looking from the +cab window. Ralph could not resist the impulse +to try and break down the wall of reserve between +them. He stepped over to the fireman’s side and +placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.</p> +<p>“See here, Fogg,” he said in a friendly tone, +“I’ve got to say something or do something to +square accounts for your help in routing that +crowd this morning.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you speak of it!” shot out the fireman +fiercely. “It’s over and done, isn’t it? Let it +drop.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span></p> +<p>“All right,” laughed Ralph genially. “Say, I +saw a dispatch in the Bridgeport paper to-day +from Stanley Junction that ought to make you feel +pretty good.”</p> +<p>“Did?” snapped Fogg, determinedly antagonistic +and stubbornly keeping his face turned +away.</p> +<p>“Yes. It gave the list of names of those in our +district who passed an examination as school +teachers.”</p> +<p>Ralph observed that a tremor ran through the +fireman’s frame at this intelligence.</p> +<p>“Who—who was in it?” he questioned, his +voice hoarse and tense.</p> +<p>“Two from the Junction.”</p> +<p>“Two?”</p> +<p>“Yes, and the one who led with the highest +average was your daughter, Nellie.”</p> +<p>“I—I don’t deserve it!” fairly sobbed the fireman, +getting up suddenly and striving to hide his +emotion. “Boy!” and he trembled all over as he +now faced Ralph, “I’m steamed up again, as you +can plainly see. I won’t deny it, but I had to, I +couldn’t fire a mile unless I steamed up, but I’ll +say one thing with truth—I’ve got no bottle in +the cab.”</p> +<p>“That’s good, Mr. Fogg,” said Ralph.</p> +<p>“And never will have again, and you’ve seen +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span> +the last signs of the dirty stuff on me. I’m going +home to make a new start.”</p> +<p>“Heaven bless you in your new resolution, Mr. +Fogg!” cried Ralph, his own tones none too +steady.</p> +<p>“I’ll—I’ll have something to say to you after +we get home,” continued Fogg. “Just leave me +alone till then.”</p> +<p>Something was working on the mind of the +fireman, this was very plain—something for good, +Ralph fervently hoped. The young engineer took +his cue promptly. During all the trip to Stanley +Junction he avoided all conversation except commonplace +routine remarks. Up to the time of +leaving Bridgeport Ralph had waited expectantly +for some sign of the youth he had known as Marvin +Clark. Clark or Porter, his new acquaintance +did not put in an appearance, nor did Dave Bissell +return.</p> +<p>“Dave did not succeed in finding him,” decided +Ralph, as No. 999 started up. “I’m sorry.” Dave +had been pretty positive as to the identity of his +cousin, and the elusive actions of his relative +seemed to verify his recognition.</p> +<p>“Traveling under false colors, I fear,” reflected +the young engineer. “A pretty bold and difficult +imposture, I should think. Are his credentials +false or stolen? But how to explain his motive? +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span> +He doesn’t like railroading, and the system and +the vouchers he is at so much trouble to get and +preserve make this business decidedly mysterious. +If it wasn’t for those features, I would feel it +my duty to report the affair and notify the real +Marvin Clark, if there is one.”</p> +<p>Ralph had both mind and hands full during the +trip. As to Fogg, he went straight about his +duties, grimly silent and mechanically. As the +fire and vim of stimulation died down, Ralph +could see that it was with the most exhaustive +effort that his fireman kept up his nerve and +strength. Fogg was weak and panting the last +shovel full of coal he threw into the furnace, as +they sighted Stanley Junction. He was as limp +as a rag, and looked wretched as the train rolled +into the depot.</p> +<p>They ran the locomotive to the roundhouse. +Ralph went at once to the foreman’s office, while +Fogg attended to the stalling of No. 999. He +found the night watchman asleep there and no +orders on the blackboard for Fogg or himself. +This meant that they need not report before noon.</p> +<p>Ralph looked around for the fireman when he +came out of the office, but the latter had disappeared, +probably headed for home. Ralph, half-across +the turntable, halted and went over to +No. 999. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span></p> +<p>“The vest of that mysterious new acquaintance +of mine, Clark—Porter,” said Ralph—“he said +he left it in the locomotive.”</p> +<p>Ralph did not find the article in question in his +own bunker. He threw back the cover of Fogg’s +box, to discover the vest neatly folded up at the +bottom of that receptacle. With some curiosity +he looked over its pockets.</p> +<p>“Whew!” whistled Ralph, as he removed and +opened the only article it contained—a check book. +The checks were upon a bank at Newton. About +half of what the book had originally contained +had been removed. Examining the stubs, Ralph +calculated that over $1,000 had been deposited at +the bank in the name of Marvin Clark, and that +fully half that amount had been checked out.</p> +<p>“This is pretty serious,” commented the young +engineer. “It looks as if the impostor has not +only stolen Clark’s name, but his passes and his +check book as well. I don’t like the looks of +this. There’s something here I can’t figure out.”</p> +<p>Ralph placed the check book in his own pocket +and returned the vest to the box. As he did this, +he disturbed a piece of cloth used by Fogg to wipe +grease from the cab valves. Something unfamiliar +to the touch was outlined wrapped up in the +rag, and Ralph explored.</p> +<p>Two objects came into view as he opened the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span> +piece of cloth. With a great gasp the young engineer +stared at these. Then he rolled up the rag +and placed it and its contents in his pocket.</p> +<p>His face grew grave, and Ralph uttered a deep +sigh, startled and sorrowful.</p> +<p>The young engineer of No. 999 had made a +discovery so strange, so unexpected, that it fairly +took his breath away.</p> +<p>The mystery of the collision on the siding at +Plympton was disclosed.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76' name='page_76'></a>76</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_IX_THE_LIGHT_OF_HOME' id='CHAPTER_IX_THE_LIGHT_OF_HOME'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> +<h3>THE LIGHT OF HOME</h3> +</div> +<p>Ralph walked home in the quiet night in a +serious and thoughtful mood. His usually bright +face was clouded and his head bent, as though +his mind was greatly upset. As the light of home +came into view, however, with a effort he cast +aside all railroad and personal cares.</p> +<p>“Always the same dear, faithful mother,” he +murmured gratefully, as he approached the cheerful +looking cottage all alight down stairs, and hurried +his steps to greet her waiting for him on the +porch.</p> +<p>“Ralph,” she spoke anxiously, “you are not +hurt?”</p> +<p>“Hurt!” cried Ralph, “not a bit of it. Why,” +as he noticed his mother trembling all over, “what +put that into your head?”</p> +<p>“The fear that what Zeph heard downtown at +the roundhouse might be true,” replied Mrs. Fairbanks. +“There was a rumor that there had been +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77' name='page_77'></a>77</span> +a collision. Besides, I knew that some of your +enemies were watching your movements.”</p> +<p>“You must stop worrying over these foolish +notions,” said Ralph reassuringly. “We made a +successful run, and as to the enemies, they generally +get the worst of it. Men in the wrong always +do.”</p> +<p>Ralph was glad to get back to his comfortable +home. As he passed through the hallway he +noticed Zeph Dallas, asleep on the couch. Ralph +did not hail or disturb him. Young Dallas had +been at work for the friends of Ralph who operated +the Short Line Railroad up near Wilmer, +but about two weeks previous to the present time +had got tired of the dull route through the woods +and had come to Stanley Junction. The young +engineer had gotten him a job “subbing” as a +helper on a yards switch engine. Zeph had been +made welcome at the Fairbanks home, as were all +friends of Ralph, by his devoted mother.</p> +<p>“You are the best mother and the best cook in +the world,” declared Ralph, as he sat down at the +table in the cozy little dining room, before a warm +meal quickly brought from the kitchen. “Really, +mother, you are simply spoiling me, and as to +your sitting up for me this way and missing your +sleep, it is a positive imposition on you.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78' name='page_78'></a>78</span></p> +<p>His mother only smiled sweetly and proudly +upon him. Then she asked:</p> +<p>“Was it a hard trip, Ralph?”</p> +<p>“In a way,” responded Ralph. “But what made +it harder was some unpleasant developments +entirely outside of railroad routine.”</p> +<p>“That so? It never rains but it pours!” proclaimed +an intruder abruptly, and, awakened from +his sleep by the sound of voices, Zeph Dallas came +into the dining room yawning and stretching +himself.</p> +<p>“Why!” exclaimed Ralph, giving the intruder +a quick stare, “what have you ever been doing to +yourself?”</p> +<p>“Me?” grinned Zeph—“you mean that black +eye and that battered cheek?”</p> +<p>“Yes—accident?”</p> +<p>“No—incident,” corrected Zeph, with a +chuckle. “A lively one, too, I can tell you.”</p> +<p>“Fell off the engine?”</p> +<p>“No, fell against a couple of good hard human +fists. We had been sorting stray freights all the +afternoon on old dinky 97, and had sided to let a +passenger go by, when I noticed a man with a +bag and a stick picking up coal along the tracks. +Just then, a poor, ragged little fellow with a basket +came around the end of the freight doing the +same. The man thought he had a monopoly in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79' name='page_79'></a>79</span> +his line, because he was big. He jumped on the +little fellow, kicked him, hit him with his stick, +and—I was in the mix-up in just two seconds.”</p> +<p>“You should keep out of trouble, Zeph,” +advised Mrs. Fairbanks, gently.</p> +<p>“How could I, ma’am, when that little midget +was getting the worst of it?” demurred Zeph. +“Well, I pitched into the big, overgrown bully, +tooth and nail. I’m a sight, maybe. You ought +to see him! He cut for it after a good sound +drubbing, leaving his bag of coal behind him. I +gave the little fellow all the loose change I had, +filled his basket from the bag, and sent him home +happy. When I got back to the engine, Griggs, +the assistant master mechanic, was in the cab. He +said a few sharp words about discipline and the +rules of the road, and told me to get off the +engine.”</p> +<p>“Discharged, eh?”</p> +<p>“And to stay off. I’m slated, sure. Don’t +worry about it, Fairbanks; I’d got sick to death of +the job, anyway.”</p> +<p>“But what are you going to do?” inquired +Ralph gravely.</p> +<p>“Get another one, of course. I’m going to try +to get Bob Adair, the road detective, to give me +a show. That’s the line of work I like. If he +won’t, I’ll try some other town. I’m sorry, Fairbanks, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80' name='page_80'></a>80</span> +for my wages will only settle what board I +owe you, and there’s that last suit of clothes you +got for me, not paid for yet––”</p> +<p>“Don’t trouble yourself about that, Zeph,” +interrupted Ralph kindly. “You’re honest, and +you’ll pay when you can. You may keep what +money you have for a new start until you get to +work again.”</p> +<p>Zeph looked grateful. Then Ralph gave some +details of the record run to Bridgeport, there was +some general conversation, and he went to bed.</p> +<p>Ralph had asked his mother to call him at nine +o’clock in the morning, but an hour before that +time there was a tap at the door of the bedroom.</p> +<p>“Ralph, dear,” spoke up his mother, “I dislike +to disturb you, but a messenger boy has just +brought a telegram, and I thought that maybe it +was something of importance and might need +immediate attention.”</p> +<p>“That’s right, mother. I will be down stairs +in a minute,” answered the young railroader, and +he dressed rapidly and hurried down to the sitting +room, where his mother stood holding out to him +a sealed yellow envelope. Ralph tore it open. +He looked for a signature, but there was none. +It was a night message dated at Bridgeport, the +evening previous, and it ran: +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81' name='page_81'></a>81</span></p> +<p style='margin-left:1.0em; margin-right:1.0em; '>“Clark—Porter—whatever you know don’t +speak of it, or great trouble may result. Will see +you within two days.”</p> +<p>“I wonder what the next development will be?” +murmured Ralph. “‘Great trouble may result.’ +I don’t understand it at all. ‘Will see you in two +days’—then there is some explanation coming. +Clark, or whatever his real name is, must suspect +or know that his cousin, Dave Bissell, has told me +something. Well, I certainly won’t make any +move about this strange affair until Clark has +had an opportunity to straighten things out. In +the meantime, I’ve got a good deal of personal +business on my hands.”</p> +<p>Ralph was a good deal in doubt and anxious as +to his railroad career, immediate and prospective. +As has been told, his trip to Bridgeport had been +a record run. The fact that the China & Japan +Mail could be delivered on time, indicated a possibility +that the Great Northern might make a feature +of new train service. It would not, however, +be done in a day. No. 999 might be put on the +Dover branch of the Great Northern, or accomodation +service to other points, and the Overland +Express connection canceled.</p> +<p>There had been all kinds of speculation and +gossip at the dog house as to the new system +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82' name='page_82'></a>82</span> +of business expansion adopted by the Great +Northern. That road had acquired new branches +during the past year, and was becoming a big +system of itself. There was talk about a consolidation +with another line, which might enable the +road to arrange for traffic clear to the Pacific. +New splendid train service was talked of everywhere, +among the workmen, and every ambitious +railroader was looking for a handsome and substantial +promotion.</p> +<p>Ralph could not tell until he reported at the +roundhouse after twelve o’clock when and how +he would start out again. On the Bridgeport run +he was not due until the next morning. All he +was sure of was that he and Fogg were regulars +for No. 999 wherever that locomotive was +assigned, until further orders interfered. Despite +the successful record run to Bridgeport, +somebody was listed for at least a “call-down” on +account of the accident on the siding at Plympton. +Every time Ralph thought of that, he recollected +his “find” in Lemuel Fogg’s bunker, and +his face became grave and distressed.</p> +<p>“It’s bound to come out,” he reflected, as he +strolled into the neat, attractive garden after +breakfast. “Why, Mr. Griscom—I’m glad to see +you.”</p> +<p>His old railroad friend was passing the house +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83' name='page_83'></a>83</span> +on his way to the roundhouse to report for duty. +His brisk step showed that he was limited as to +time, but he paused for a moment.</p> +<p>“You got there, Fairbanks, didn’t you?” he +commented heartily. “Good. I knew you would, +but say, what about this mix-up on the signals +at Plympton?”</p> +<p>“Oh, that wasn’t much,” declared Ralph.</p> +<p>“Enough to put the master mechanic on his +mettle,” objected the veteran engineer. “He’s +going to call all hands on the carpet. Had me in +yesterday afternoon. He showed me your conductor’s +report wired from Bridgeport. It throws +all the blame on Adams, the new station man at +Plympton. The conductor declares it was all +his fault—‘color blind,’ see? Master mechanic +had Adams down there yesterday.”</p> +<p>“Surely no action is taken yet?” inquired +Ralph anxiously.</p> +<p>“No, but I fancy Adams will go. It’s a plain +case, I think. Your signals were special and clear +right of way, that’s sure. Danforth is ready to +swear to that. Adams quite as positively swears +that the green signals on the locomotive were set +on a call for the siding. He broke down and cried +like a child when it was hinted that a discharge +from the service was likely.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84' name='page_84'></a>84</span></p> +<p>“Poor fellow, I must see the master mechanic +at once,” said Ralph.</p> +<p>“You’ll have to, for your explanation goes with +him and will settle the affair. You see, it seems +that Adams had broken up his old home and gone +to the trouble and expense of moving his family +to Plympton. Now, to be let out would be a pretty +hard blow to him. Of course, though, if he is +color blind––”</p> +<p>“He is not color blind!” cried Ralph, with so +much earnestness that Griscom stared at him +strangely.</p> +<p>“Aha! so you say that, do you?” observed +the old engineer, squinting his eyes suspiciously. +“Then—Fogg. Tricks, I’ll bet!”</p> +<p>“I’ll talk to you later, Mr. Griscom,” said +Ralph.</p> +<p>“Good, I want to know, and I see you have +something to tell.”</p> +<p>The young engineer had, indeed, considerable +to tell when the time came to justify the disclosures. +He was worried as to how he should +tell it, and to whom. Ralph sat down in the +little vine-embowered summer-house in the garden, +and had a good hard spell of thought. Then, +as his hand went into his pocket and rested on +the piece of cloth with its enclosure which he had +found in Fogg’s bunker on No. 999, he started +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85' name='page_85'></a>85</span> +from his seat, a certain firm, purposeful expression +on his face.</p> +<p>“I’ve got to do it,” he said to himself, as +he went along in the direction of the home of +Lemuel Fogg. “Somebody has got to take the +responsibility of the collision. Adams, the new +station man at Plympton, is innocent of any +blame. It would be a terrible misfortune for +him to lose his job. Fogg has sickness in his +family. The truth coming out, might spoil all +the future of that bright daughter of his. As to +myself—why, if worse comes to worse, I can +find a place with my good friends on the Short +Line Railway down near Dover. I’m young, I’m +doing right in making the sacrifice, and I’m not +afraid of the future. Yes, it is a hard way for +a fellow with all the bright dreams I’ve had, but—I’m +going to do it!”</p> +<p>The young engineer had made a grand, a +mighty resolve. It was a severe struggle, a hard, +bitter sacrifice of self interest, but Ralph felt that +a great duty presented, and he faced its exactions +manfully.</p> +<p>The home of Lemuel Fogg the fireman was +about four blocks distant. As Ralph reached it, +he found a great roaring fire of brush and rubbish +burning in the side yard.</p> +<p>“A good sign, if that is a spurt of home industry +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86' name='page_86'></a>86</span> +with Fogg,” decided the young railroader. +“He’s tidying up the place. It needs it bad +enough,” and Ralph glanced critically at the disordered +yard.</p> +<p>Nobody was astir about the place. Ralph knew +that Mrs. Fogg had been very ill of late, and +that there was an infant in the house. He decided +to wait until Fogg appeared, when he +noticed the fireman way down the rear alley. +His back was to Ralph and he was carrying a +rake. Fogg turned into a yard, and Ralph started +after him calculating that the fireman was returning +the implement to a neighbor. Just as Ralph +came to the yard, the fireman came out of it.</p> +<p>At a glance the young engineer noted a change +in the face of Fogg that both surprised and +pleased him. The fireman looked fresh, bright and +happy. He was humming a little tune, and he +swung along as if on cheerful business bent, and +as if all things were coming swimmingly with +him.</p> +<p>“How are you, Mr. Fogg?” hailed Ralph.</p> +<p>The fireman changed color, a half-shamed, +half-defiant look came into his face, but he clasped +the extended hand of the young railroader and +responded heartily to its friendly pressure.</p> +<p>“I’ve got something to tell you, Fairbanks,” he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87' name='page_87'></a>87</span> +said, straightening up as if under some striving +sense of manliness.</p> +<p>“That’s all right,” nodded Ralph with a smile. +“I’m going back to the house with you, and will +be glad to have a chat with you. First, though, +I want to say something to you, so we’ll pause +here for a moment.”</p> +<p>“I’ve—I’ve made a new start,” stammered Fogg. +“I’ve buried the past.”</p> +<p>“Good!” cried Ralph, giving his companion a +hearty slap on the shoulder, “that’s just what I +was going to say to you. Bury the past—yes, +deep, fathoms deep, without another word, never +to be resurrected. To prove it, let’s first bury this. +Kick it under that ash heap yonder, Mr. Fogg, +and forget all about it. Here’s something that +belongs to you. Put it out of sight, and never +speak of it or think of it again.”</p> +<p>And Ralph handed to the fireman the package +done up in the oiling cloth that he had unearthed +from Fogg’s bunker in the cab of No. 999.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88' name='page_88'></a>88</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_X_FIRE' id='CHAPTER_X_FIRE'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> +<h3>FIRE!</h3> +</div> +<p>Lemuel Fogg gave a violent start as he received +the parcel from Ralph’s hand. His face +fell and the color deserted it. The package unrolled +in his grasp, and he let it drop to the +ground. Two square sheets of green colored +mica rolled out from the bundle.</p> +<p>“Fairbanks!” spoke the fireman hoarsely, his +lips quivering—“you know?”</p> +<p>“I surmise a great deal,” replied Ralph promptly, +“and I want to say nothing more about it.”</p> +<p>“But—”</p> +<p>“I have figured it all out. Adams, the station +man at Plympton, has a family. You are going +to turn over a leaf, I have decided to take all the +blame for the collision on the siding. I shall +see the master mechanic within an hour and settle +everything. I am going to resign my position +with the Great Northern road.”</p> +<p>The fireman’s jaws dropped at this amazing +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89' name='page_89'></a>89</span> +declaration of the young railroader. It seemed +as if for a moment he was fairly petrified at the +unexpected disclosure of the noble self-sacrifice +involved. He did not have to explain what those +two sheets of green mica signified—Ralph knew +too well. Inspired by jealousy, Lemuel Fogg had +slipped them over the white signal lights of No. 999 +as the locomotive approached Plympton, getting +the siding semaphore, and removing them +before the smash-up had come about.</p> +<p>“Never!” shouted Fogg suddenly. “Let me +tell you, Fairbanks—”</p> +<p>Before the speaker could finish the sentence +Ralph seized his arm with the startling words:</p> +<p>“Mr. Fogg, look—fire!”</p> +<p>Facing about, Lemuel Fogg uttered a frightful +cry as he discerned what had just attracted the +notice of the young engineer. The Fogg house +was in flames.</p> +<p>When Ralph had first noticed the fiercely-burning +heap of rubbish on the Fogg premises, he had +observed that it was dangerously near to the +house. It had ignited the dry light timber of the +dwelling, the whole rear part of which was now +a mass of smoke and flames.</p> +<p>“My wife—my helpless wife and the little +child!” burst from the lips of the frantic fireman +in a shrill, ringing scream. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90' name='page_90'></a>90</span></p> +<p>Ralph joined him as he ran down the alley on +a mad run. The great sweat stood out on the +bloodless face of the agonized husband and father +in knobs, his eyes wore a frenzied expression of +suspense and alarm.</p> +<p>“Save them! save them!” he shouted, as Ralph +kept pace with him.</p> +<p>“Don’t get excited, Mr. Fogg,” spoke Ralph +reassuringly. “We shall be in time.”</p> +<p>“But she cannot move—she is in the bedroom +directly over the kitchen. Oh, this is a judgment +for all my wickedness!”</p> +<p>“Be a man,” encouraged Ralph. “Here we are—let +me help you.”</p> +<p>“Up the back stairs!” cried Fogg. “They are +nearest to her.”</p> +<p>“No, no—you can never get up them,” declared +Ralph.</p> +<p>The side door of the house was open, showing +a pair of stairs, but they were all ablaze. Smoke +and sparks poured up this natural funnel fiercely. +Ralph caught at the arm of his companion +and tried to detain him, but Fogg broke away +from his grasp.</p> +<p>Ralph saw him disappear beyond the blazing +barrier. He was about to run around to the front +of the house, when he heard a hoarse cry. Driven +back by the overpowering smoke, Fogg had +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91' name='page_91'></a>91</span> +stumbled. He fell headlong down a half a dozen +steps, his head struck the lower platform, and he +rolled out upon the gravel walk, stunned.</p> +<p>Ralph quickly dragged the man out of the range +of the fire and upon the grass. He tried to arouse +Fogg, but was unsuccessful. There was no time +to lose. Seizing a half-filled bucket standing by +the well near by, Ralph deluged the head of the +insensible fireman with its contents. It did not revive +him. Ralph sped to the front of the house, +ran up on the stoop and jerked at the knob of the +front screen door.</p> +<p>It was locked, but Ralph tore it open in an instant. +A woman’s frantic screams echoed as the +young railroader dashed into the house. He was +quickly up the front stairs. At the top landing +he paused momentarily, unable to look about him +clearly because of the dense smoke that permeated +the place.</p> +<p>Those frenzied screams again ringing out +guided him down a narrow hallway to the rear +upper bedroom. The furniture in it was just +commencing to take fire. On the floor was the +fireman’s wife, a tiny babe held in one arm, while +with the other she was trying unsuccessfully to +pull herself out of range of the fire.</p> +<p>“Save me! save me!” she shrieked, as Ralph’s +form was vaguely outlined to her vision. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92' name='page_92'></a>92</span></p> +<p>“Do not be alarmed, Mrs. Fogg,” spoke Ralph +quickly—“there’s no danger.”</p> +<p>He ran to the bed, speedily pulled off a blanket +lying there, and wrapped it about the woman.</p> +<p>“Hold the child closely,” he directed, and bodily +lifted mother and babe in his strong, sinewy +arms. The young railroader staggered under his +great burden as he made for the hallway, but +never was he so glad of his early athletic training +as at this critical moment in his life.</p> +<p>It was a strenuous and perilous task getting +down the front stairs with his load, but Ralph +managed it. He carried mother and child clear +out into the garden, placed them carefully on a +rustic bench there, and then ran towards the well.</p> +<p>By this time people had come to the scene of the +fire. There were two buckets at the well. A +neighbor and the young railroader soon formed a +limited bucket brigade, but it was slow work hauling +up the water, and the flames had soon gained a +headway that made their efforts to quench them +useless.</p> +<p>Ralph organized the excited onlookers to some +system in removing what could be saved from the +burning house. In the meantime he had directed a +boy to hasten to the nearest telephone and call out +the fire department. Soon the clanging bell of the +hose cart echoed in the near distance. The rear +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93' name='page_93'></a>93</span> +part of the house had been pretty well burned +down by this time, and the front of the building +began to blaze.</p> +<p>Ralph got a light wagon from the barn of a +neighbor. A comfortable couch was made of +pillows and blankets, and Mrs. Fogg and her +child were placed on this. Ralph found no difficulty +in enlisting volunteers to haul the wagon to +his home, where his mother soon had the poor +lady and her babe in a condition of safety and +comfort. As Ralph returned to the dismantled +and still smoking Fogg home he met a neighbor.</p> +<p>“Oh, Fairbanks,” spoke this person, “you’re in +great demand up at the Foggs.”</p> +<p>“How is that?”</p> +<p>“Fogg has come to. They told him about +your saving his wife and child. He cried like a +baby at first. Then he insisted on finding you. +He’s blessing you for your noble heroism, I tell +you.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know about the noble heroism,” returned +Ralph with a smile. “Go back, will you, +and tell him I’ll see him in about an hour. Tell +him to come down to our house at once. It’s all +arranged there to make him feel at home until he +can make other arrangements.”</p> +<p>“You’re a mighty good fellow, Fairbanks” declared +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94' name='page_94'></a>94</span> +the man enthusiastically, “and everybody +knows it!”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” returned Ralph, and proceeded +on his way. As he casually looked at his watch +the young railroader quickened his steps with the +half-murmured words:</p> +<p>“And now for a tussle with the master mechanic.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95' name='page_95'></a>95</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XI_THE_MASTER_MECHANIC' id='CHAPTER_XI_THE_MASTER_MECHANIC'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> +<h3>THE MASTER MECHANIC</h3> +</div> +<p>“Want to resign, do you?”</p> +<p>“That is what I came here for, sir,” said the +young engineer of No. 999.</p> +<p>“Well, you’re too late,” and the master mechanic +of the Great Northern seemed to turn his +back on Ralph, busying himself with some papers +on his desk. He was a great, gruff fellow with +the heart of a child, but he showed it rarely. A +diamond in the rough, most of the employees of +the road were afraid of him. Not so Ralph. The +young railroader had won the respect and admiration +of the official by his loyalty and close +attention to duty. In fact, Ralph felt that the +influence of the master mechanic had been considerable +of an element in his promotion to No. 999. +He stepped nearer to the desk, managing to +face the would-be tyro.</p> +<p>“Too late, sir?” he repeated vaguely.</p> +<p>“Didn’t I say so? Get out!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96' name='page_96'></a>96</span></p> +<p>The master mechanic waved his hand, and +Ralph was a trifle surprised at what seemed a +peremptory dismissal. The moving arm of the +old railroader described a swoop, grasped the +hand of Ralph in a fervent grip, and pulling the +young engineer to almost an embrace, he said:</p> +<p>“Fairbanks, we had in our family a little boy +who died. It’s a pretty tender memory with us, +but every time I look at you I think of the dear +little fellow. He’d have been a railroader, too, if +he had lived, and the fondest wish of my heart is +that he might have been like you.”</p> +<p>“Why––” murmured the astonished Ralph.</p> +<p>The master mechanic cleared his throat and his +great hand swept the moisture from his eyes. +Then in a more practical tone he resumed:</p> +<p>“I said you was too late.”</p> +<p>“Too late for what?”</p> +<p>“Resigning. You are too late,” observed the +official, “because Lemuel Fogg has already been +here.”</p> +<p>“Then––”</p> +<p>“To tender his resignation, to tell the whole +truthful story of the collision on the siding at +Plympton. Fairbanks,” continued the master mechanic +very seriously, “you are a noble young +fellow. I know your design to bear the whole +brunt of the smash-up, in order that you might +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97' name='page_97'></a>97</span> +save your fireman and the station man down at +Plympton. As I said, Fogg was here. I never +saw a man so broken. He told me everything. +He told me of your patience, of your kindness, +your manliness. Lad, your treatment of Fogg +under those circumstances shows the mettle in you +that will make you a great man, and, what is +better still, a good man.”</p> +<p>“Thank you, sir,” said Ralph in a subdued tone, +deeply affected despite himself.</p> +<p>“For the first time in twenty years’ service,” +continued the official, “I am going to take a serious +responsibility on myself which should be +rightly shouldered by the company. The Plympton +incident is dead and buried. The three of us +must hold always the secret close. The black +mark is rubbed off the slate.”</p> +<p>“You have done right—oh, believe me, sir!” declared +Ralph earnestly. “I feel sure that Mr. +Fogg has learned a lesson that he will never forget, +and the blessings of his sick wife, of his ambitious +young daughter, will be yours.”</p> +<p>“In my desk yonder,” continued the master +mechanic, “I have his written pledge that drink +is a thing of the past with him. I told Fogg that +if ever he disappointed me in my belief that he +was a changed man, a reformed man, I would +leave the service feeling that my mistaken judgment +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98' name='page_98'></a>98</span> +did not do justice to my position with the +Great Northern. As to you, ready to sacrifice +yourself for the sake of others—you are a young +man among thousands. Drop it now—get out!” +ordered the master mechanic, with a vast show of +authority. “It’s all under seal of silence, and I +expect to see you and Fogg make a great team.”</p> +<p>“Mr. Fogg’s house has just burned down,” said +Ralph. “It would have broken him down completely, +if his discharge had been added to that +misfortune.”</p> +<p>“Burned down?” repeated the master mechanic, +in surprise and with interest. “How was that?” +and Ralph had to recite the story of the fire. He +added that he had heard Fogg had but little insurance.</p> +<p>“Wait a minute,” directed the official, and he +went into the next office. Ralph heard him dictating +something to his stenographer. Then the +typewriter clicked, and shortly afterwards the +master mechanic came into the office with a sheet +of foolscap, which he handed to Ralph. A pleased +flush came into the face of the young railroader +as he read the typewritten heading of the sheet—it +was a subscription list in behalf of Lemuel +Fogg, and headed by the signature of the master +mechanic, with “$20” after it. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99' name='page_99'></a>99</span></p> +<p>“You are a noble man!” cried Ralph irresistibly. +“No wonder it’s a joy to work for you.”</p> +<p>“Down brakes there!” laughed the big-hearted +fellow. “Don’t draw it too strong, Fairbanks. +Don’t be more liberal than you can afford now,” +he directed, as Ralph placed the paper on the desk, +and added to it his subscription for $10. “You +can tell Fogg we’re rising a few pennies for him. +I’ll circulate the subscription among the officials, +and if any plan to have the roundhouse crowd chip +in a trifle comes to your mind, why, start it down +the rails. Get out.”</p> +<p>“All right,” cried Ralph. “You’ve said that +twice, so I guess it’s time to go now.”</p> +<p>“One minute, though,” added the master mechanic. +“You and Fogg will run No. 999 on the +Tipton accommodation to-morrow. It’s a shift +berth, though. I don’t want you to go dreaming +quite yet, Fairbanks, that you’re president of the +Great Northern, and all that, but, under the hat, +I will say that you can expect a boost. We are +figuring on some big things, and I shouldn’t wonder +if a new train is soon to be announced that +will wake up some of our rivals. Get out now +for good, for I’m swamped with work here.”</p> +<p>The young engineer left the office of the master +mechanic with a very happy heart. Affairs had +turned out to his entire satisfaction, and, too, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100' name='page_100'></a>100</span> +for the benefit of those whose welfare he had +considered beyond his own. Ralph was full of +the good news he had to impart to Lemuel Fogg. +As he left the vicinity of the depot, he began to +formulate a plan in his mind for securing a subscription +from his fellow workers to aid Fogg.</p> +<p>“I say,” suddenly remarked Ralph to himself +with a queer smile, and halting in his progress, +“talk about coincidences, here is one for certain. +‘The Overland Limited,’ why, I’ve got an idea!”</p> +<p>The “Overland Limited” had been in Ralph’s +mind ever since leaving the office of the master +mechanic. There could be only one solution to +the hint that official had given of “new trains that +would wake up some of the rivals of the Great +Northern.” That road had recently bought up +two connecting lines of railroad. The China & +Japan Mail experiment—could it be a test as to +the possibility of establishing an “Overland Special?” +At all events, there was a pertinent suggestion +in the words that met the gaze of the +young engineer and caused him to halt calculatingly.</p> +<p>A newly-painted store front with clouded windows +had a placard outside bearing the announcement: +“Olympia Theatre, 10-cent show. Will +open next Saturday evening with the following +special scenes: 1—The Poor Artist. 2—London +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101' name='page_101'></a>101</span> +by Gaslight. 3—A Day on the Overland Limited.” +At the door of the store just being renovated +for a picture show stood a man, tying some +printed bills to an awning rod for passers by to +take. Ralph approached this individual.</p> +<p>“Going to open a moving picture show?” he +inquired in a friendly way.</p> +<p>“I am,” responded the show man. “Interested?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” answered Ralph.</p> +<p>“I hope the public will be. It’s a sort of experiment, +with two other shows in town. There’s +none in this locality, and they tell me I’ll do well.”</p> +<p>“I should think so,” answered Ralph. “Bright, +clean pictures will draw a good crowd.”</p> +<p>“I’d like to get the railroad men in touch with +me. They and their families could give me lots +of business. There’s that prime ‘Overland’ scene. +It’s a new and fine film.”</p> +<p>“And it has suggested something to me that +you may be glad to follow out,” spoke Ralph.</p> +<p>“And what’s that, neighbor?” inquired the +showman curiously.</p> +<p>“I’ll tell you,” responded Ralph. “There was a +fire in town to-day—one of the best-known firemen +on the road was burned out. It’s a big blow +to him, for he’s lost about all he had. There isn’t +a railroad man in Stanley Junction who would +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102' name='page_102'></a>102</span> +not be glad to help him get on his feet again. The +big fellows of the road will subscribe in a good +way, but the workers can’t spare a great deal.”</p> +<p>“I see,” nodded the man. “What are you getting +at, though?”</p> +<p>“Just this,” explained Ralph. “You get out +some special dodgers and announce your opening +night as a benefit for Lemuel Fogg, fireman. Offer +to donate fifty per cent. of the proceeds to +Fogg, and I’ll guarantee to crowd your house to +the doors.”</p> +<p>“Say!” enthused the man, slapping Ralph boisterously +on the shoulder, “you’re a natural showman. +Write me the dodger, will you, and I’ll have +it over the streets inside of twenty-four hours.”</p> +<p>“I’m better at filling in time schedules than composing +show bills,” said Ralph, “but I’ll have a try +at this one for my friend’s sake.”</p> +<p>Ralph went inside and was soon busy with blank +paper and pencil, which the showman provided. +His composition was a very creditable piece of literary +work, and the showman chuckled immensely, +and told Ralph that he could consider +himself on the free list—“with all his family.”</p> +<p>Ralph made a start for home again, but his +fixed plans were scheduled for frequent changes, +it seemed. An engineer friend, on his way to the +roundhouse, met him, and Ralph turned and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103' name='page_103'></a>103</span> +walked that way with him. He broached the subject +nearest to his heart, and soon had his companion +interested in the subscription for Lemuel +Fogg. When he parted with the man at the end +of the depot platform the latter had promised to +be responsible for great results among his fellow-workmen.</p> +<p>The young engineer now proceeded in the direction +of home. The whistle of the western accommodation, +however, just arriving, held him stationary +for a few moments, and he stood watching +the train roll into the depot with the interest ever +present with a railroader.</p> +<p>The last coach was a chair car. As the coaches +jolted to a halt, there crawled or rather rolled +from under the chair car a forlorn figure, weakened, +tattered, a stowaway delivered from a perilous +stolen ride on the trucks.</p> +<p>It was a boy; Ralph saw that at a glance. As +the depot watchman ran forward to nab this +juvenile offender against the law, the boy sat up +on the board plankway where he had landed, and +Ralph caught a sight of his face.</p> +<p>In an instant the young railroader recognized +this new arrival. It was “Wheels,” otherwise +Archie Graham, the boy inventor.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104' name='page_104'></a>104</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XII_A_GOOD_FRIEND' id='CHAPTER_XII_A_GOOD_FRIEND'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> +<h3>A GOOD FRIEND</h3> +</div> +<p>RALPH could not repress a smile at a sight of +the erratic youth. The young inventor, it seemed, +was always coming to light in some original way. +His last sensational appearance fitted in naturally +to his usual eccentric methods.</p> +<p>“Hey, there! trying to beat the railroad, eh?” +shouted the depot official officer, rushing forward +to nab the culprit.</p> +<p>“Don’t arrest him, Mr. Brooks,” spoke Ralph +quickly. “I know him; I’m interested in him. He +is no professional ride-stealer, and I am perfectly +satisfied that he never went to all that risk and discomfort +because he didn’t have the money to pay +his fare.”</p> +<p>The watchman was an old-time friend of Ralph. +He looked puzzled, but he halted in his original intention +of arresting the stowaway. Young Graham +paid no attention to anything going on about +him. He seemed occupied as usual with his own +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105' name='page_105'></a>105</span> +thoughts solely. First he dug cinders out of his +blinking eyes. Then he rubbed the coating of +grime and soot from his face, and began groping +in his pockets. Very ruefully he turned out one +particular inside coat pocket. He shook his head +in a doleful way.</p> +<p>“Gone!” he remarked. “Lost my pocket book. +Friend—a pencil, quick.”</p> +<p>These words he spoke to Ralph, beckoning him +earnestly to approach nearer.</p> +<p>“And a card, a piece of paper, anything I can +write on. Don’t delay—hurry, before I forget it.”</p> +<p>Ralph found a stub of a pencil and some railroad +blanks in his pocket, and gave them to the +young inventor. Then the latter set at work, becoming +utterly oblivious of his surroundings. For +nearly two minutes he was occupied in making +memoranda and drawing small sections of curves +and lines.</p> +<p>“All right, got it, good!” he voiced exultantly, +as he returned the pencil to Ralph and carefully +stowed the slips of paper in his pocket. Then he +arose to his feet. He smiled queerly as he gazed +down at his tattered garments and grimed and +blistered hands.</p> +<p>“Pretty looking sight, ain’t I?” he propounded +to the young engineer. “Had to do it, though. +Glad I did it. Got the actual details, see?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106' name='page_106'></a>106</span></p> +<p>“What of, may I ask?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“New idea. Save fuel, make the engine go +faster. Been figuring on it for months,” explained +the strange boy. “I live at Bridgeport.”</p> +<p>“Yes, I know,” nodded Ralph. “I saw you +there.”</p> +<p>“Did? Glad of that, too. If you feel friendly +enough, maybe you’ll advise me what to do in my +distressing plight. Stranger here, and lost my +pocketbook. It fell out of my pocket while I was +hanging on to the trucks. Not a cent.”</p> +<p>“That can be fixed all right, I think,” said +Ralph.</p> +<p>“Clothes all riddled—need a bath.”</p> +<p>“You had better come with me to the hotel, Mr. +Graham,” spoke Ralph. “I know enough about +you to be interested in you. I will vouch for you +to the hotel keeper, who will take care of you until +you hear from home.”</p> +<p>“Yes. Got money in the bank at Bridgeport,” +said Archie Graham. “As I was telling you, I’ve +struck a new idea. You know I’ve been trying to +invent something for a number of years.”</p> +<p>“Yes, I’ve heard about that, and sincerely hope +you will figure out a success.”</p> +<p>“Stick at it, anyway,” declared Archie. “Well, +at Bridgeport they take me as a joke, see? That’s +all right; I’ll show them, some day. They voted +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107' name='page_107'></a>107</span> +me a nuisance at the shops and shut me out. +Wouldn’t let me come near their engines. I had +to find out some things necessary to my inventions, +so I came on to Stanley Junction. Rode in +a coach like any other civilized being until I got +about ten miles from here—last stop.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” nodded Ralph.</p> +<p>“Well, there I stepped out of the coach and under +it. Whew! but it was an experience I’ll never +try again. All the same, I got what I was after. +I wanted to learn how many revolutions an axle +made in so many minutes. I wanted to know, too, +how a belt could be attached under a coach. I’ve +got the outlines of the facts, how to work out my +invention: ‘Graham’s Automatic Bellows Gearing.’”</p> +<p>Ralph did not ask for further details as to the +device his companion had in mind. He led a +pleasant conversation the way from the depot, and +when they reached the hotel introduced Archie to +its proprietor.</p> +<p>“This friend of mine will be all right for what +he orders, Mr. Lane,” said Ralph.</p> +<p>“Yes, I’m going to stay here some days, perhaps +a week or two,” explained the young inventor, +“so, if you’ll give me a blank check I’ll fill it for +what cash I may need. You put it through your +bank and the funds will be here to-morrow.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108' name='page_108'></a>108</span></p> +<p>Everything was arranged in a satisfactory way, +even to Archie ordering a new suit of clothes. The +youth came out temporarily from his usual profundity, +and had a real, natural boyish talk with +Ralph. The latter recited the incident of the +adventure with Billy Bouncer’s crowd at Bridgeport.</p> +<p>“Oh, that Jim Scroggins fellow,” said Archie, +with a smile. “Yes, I remember—‘kick him +Scroggins.’ You see, he had broken into my +workshop, destroyed some devices I was working +on and stole a lot of my tools. So you’re Mr. +Fairbanks? I’ve heard of you.”</p> +<p>“Ralph, you mean, Mr. Graham,” observed the +young railroader pleasantly.</p> +<p>“Then Archie, you mean,” added his eccentric +companion. “I’d like to be friends with you, for +I can see you are the right sort. You’ve done a +good deal for me.”</p> +<p>“Oh, don’t notice that.”</p> +<p>“And you can do a good deal more.”</p> +<p>“Indeed? How?”</p> +<p>“By getting me free range of your roundhouse +here. Can you?”</p> +<p>“I will be glad to do it,” answered Ralph.</p> +<p>“I hope you will,” said Archie gratefully. +“They don’t know me here, and they won’t poke +fun at me or hinder me. I’m not going to steal +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109' name='page_109'></a>109</span> +any of their locomotives. I just want to study +them.”</p> +<p>“That’s all right,” said Ralph, “I’ll see you to-morrow +and fix things for you, so you will be +welcome among my railroad friends.”</p> +<p>“You’re a royal good fellow, Mr. Ralph,” declared +the young inventor with enthusiasm, “and +I don’t know how to thank you enough.”</p> +<p>“Well, I’ve tried to do something for humanity +to-day,” reflected the young engineer brightly, as +he wended his way homewards. “It comes easy +and natural, too, when a fellow’s trying to do his +level best.”</p> +<p>Ralph found his mother bustling about at a +great rate when he reached home. The excitement +over the fire had died down. Fogg was up +at the ruins getting his rescued household belongings +to a neighborly shelter. The string of excited +friends to condole with Mrs. Fogg had +dwindled away, and the poor lady lay in comfort +and peace in the best bedroom of the house.</p> +<p>“She seems so grateful to you for having saved +her life,” Mrs. Fairbanks told Ralph, “and so +glad, she told me, that her husband had signed +the pledge, that she takes the fire quite reasonably.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” remarked Ralph, “I heard about the +pledge, and it is a blessed thing. I have other +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110' name='page_110'></a>110</span> +grand news, too. There’s a lot of good fellows +in Stanley Junction, and the Foggs won’t be long +without a shelter over their heads,” and Ralph +told his mother all about the subscription list and +the moving picture show benefit.</p> +<p>“You are a grand manager, Ralph,” said the +fond mother. “I am only too glad to do my +share in making these people welcome and comfortable.”</p> +<p>“You know how to do it, mother,” declared +Ralph, “that’s sure.”</p> +<p>“It seems as if things came about just right to +take in the Foggs,” spoke Mrs. Fairbanks. +“Limpy Joe went back to his restaurant on the +Short Line yesterday, and Zeph Dallas has left, +looking for a new job, he says, so we have plenty +of spare rooms for our guests.”</p> +<p>Ralph started for the ruined Fogg homestead +to see if he could be of any use there. He came +upon Fogg moving some furniture to the barn +of a neighbor on a hand-cart. The fireman +dropped the handles as he saw Ralph. His face +worked with vivid emotion as he grasped the +hand of the young railroader.</p> +<p>“Fairbanks,” he said, “what can I say to you +except that you have been the best friend I have +ever known!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111' name='page_111'></a>111</span></p> +<p>“Nothing, except to make up your mind that +the friendship will last if you want to suit me.”</p> +<p>“Honest—honest?” urged Fogg, the tears in +his eyes, earnestly regarding Ralph’s face. “You +don’t despise me?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, we all dislike you, Mr. Fogg!” railed +Ralph, with a hearty laugh. “The master mechanic +has such bitter animosity for you, that he’s +taking his revenge by circulating a subscription +list to help build you a new home.”</p> +<p>“Never!” gasped Fogg, overcome.</p> +<p>“What’s more,” proceeded Ralph, in the same +ironical tone, “the men down at the roundhouse +have such a deep grudge against you, that they +are following his example.”</p> +<p>“I don’t deserve it—I don’t deserve it!” murmured +the fireman.</p> +<p>“Why, even the new moving picture showman +is so anxious to throw you down, that he’s going +to give you a benefit Saturday evening.”</p> +<p>“I guess I’m the wickedest and happiest man +in the world,” said Fogg, in a subdued tone.</p> +<p>“You ought to be the happiest, after that little +memoranda you gave to the master mechanic,” +suggested Ralph.</p> +<p>“The pledge? Yes!” cried the fireman, “and +I mean to keep it, too. He told you about it?”</p> +<p>“And everything else necessary to tell,” replied +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112' name='page_112'></a>112</span> +Ralph. “It’s all settled. He says you and I +ought to make a strong team. Let’s try, hard, +Mr. Fogg.”</p> +<p>“Lad, I’ll show you!” declared Fogg solemnly.</p> +<p>“All right, then say no more about it, and let +us get these traps under cover, and get home to +enjoy a famous meal my mother is preparing for +all hands.”</p> +<p>Activity and excitement around the Fairbanks +home did not die down until long after dark. All +the afternoon and evening people came to the +house to see Fogg, to offer sympathy and practical +assistance. If the fireman needed encouragement, +he got plenty of it. He seemed to have +grown into a new man under the chastening, +and yet hopeful influences of that eventful day in +his life. Before his very eyes Ralph fancied he +saw his fireman grow in new manliness, courage +and earnestness of purpose.</p> +<p>All hands were tired enough to sleep soundly +that night. When Ralph came down stairs in the +morning, his mother told him that Fogg was up +and about already. She believed he had gone up +to the ruins to look over things in a general way. +Ralph went out to hunt up the stroller for breakfast.</p> +<p>Scarcely started from the house, he halted +abruptly, for the object of his quest was in view. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113' name='page_113'></a>113</span> +Ralph saw the fireman about half a block away. +He was facing two men whom Ralph recognized +as Hall and Wilson, two blacklisters who had +been prominent in the railroad strike.</p> +<p>One of them was gesticulating vigorously and +telling something to Fogg, while his companion +chipped in a word now and then. Suddenly something +appeared to be said that roused up the fireman. +His hand went up in the air with an angry +menacing motion. He shouted out some words +that Ralph could not hear at the distance he was +from the scene.</p> +<p>The two men seemed to remonstrate. One of +them raised his own fist menacingly. The other +crowded towards Fogg in a stealthy, suspicious +way.</p> +<p>In a flash the climax came. Swinging out his +giant hand, the fireman of No. 999 seized his +nearest opponent and gave him a fling into the +ditch. He then sprang at the other, and sent him +whirling head over heels to join his companion.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114' name='page_114'></a>114</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XIII_THE_BLACK_HAND' id='CHAPTER_XIII_THE_BLACK_HAND'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> +<h3>THE “BLACK HAND”</h3> +</div> +<p>Lemuel Fogg’s opponents scrambled to their +feet and sneaked off immediately. The fireman +turned his back upon them, and strode down the +sidewalk in the direction of the Fairbanks’ home +with a stormy and disturbed expression on his +face.</p> +<p>“Trouble, Mr. Fogg?” intimated the young railroader, +as the fireman approached him.</p> +<p>“No,” dissented Fogg vigorously, “the end of +trouble. I’m sorry to lose my temper, lad, but +those ruffians were the limit. They know my +sentiments now.”</p> +<p>“They were Hall and Wilson, I noticed,” suggested +Ralph.</p> +<p>“Yes,” returned the fireman, “and two worse unhung +rascals never walked. They came about you. +Say, Mr. Fairbanks,” continued Fogg excitedly, +“It wasn’t so bad tackling me as a sort of comrade, +considering that I had been foolish enough to +train with them once, but when they mentioned +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115' name='page_115'></a>115</span> +you—I went wild. You—after what you’ve done +for me and mine! Say––”</p> +<p>“Hold on—close the brakes,” ordered Ralph, as +his companion seemed inclined to run after his +recent adversaries and seek them out for a further +castigation. “You’ve made the brake with them—forget +them.”</p> +<p>“They had a new plot to get a black mark +against you,” went on the fireman. “I heard +them half through their plans. Then I sailed into +them.”</p> +<p>“Well, breakfast is ready,” said Ralph, “and +after that, work, so we’d better get down to +schedule.”</p> +<p>The run to which No. 999 had been apportioned +covered the Muddy Creek branch of the Great +Northern to Riverton. The train was an accommodation +and ran sixty miles. It was to leave +Stanley Junction at 9:15 A. M., arrive at terminus +at about noon, and start back for the Junction +at two o’clock.</p> +<p>Ralph left the house about eight o’clock, after +arranging to meet his fireman at the roundhouse. +He went to the hotel to see Archie Graham, and +found that youthful genius in his room figuring +out some mathematical problem at a table.</p> +<p>“Well, how are you this morning?” inquired +Ralph cheerily. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116' name='page_116'></a>116</span></p> +<p>“First-rate, except that I’m a trifle sleepy,” replied +the young inventor. “Say, I was riding under +the coaches all night long. It was dream +after dream. I believe it tired me out more than +the real thing.”</p> +<p>“You haven’t got your new clothes yet, I see,” +observed Ralph, with a glance at the tattered attire +of his new acquaintance.</p> +<p>“They are ordered,” explained Archie, “but +they won’t be here until late this afternoon.”</p> +<p>“When they do,” said Ralph, taking a card from +his pocket and writing a few lines on it, “if you +don’t want to wait till I have some leisure, take +this to Mr. Forgan, down at the roundhouse.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” said Archie.</p> +<p>“He’ll extend all the civilities to you. I hope +you may discover something of advantage.”</p> +<p>“I’ll try,” promised Archie.</p> +<p>Seeing the young inventor, reminded Ralph of +Bridgeport, and naturally he thought of the boy +he had known as Marvin Clark.</p> +<p>“He telegraphed that he would see me,” +ruminated Ralph. “I shall miss him if he comes +to Stanley Junction to-day, but he will probably +wait around for me—that is, if he comes at all. If +he doesn’t, in a day or two I shall start some kind +of an investigation as to this strange case of +double identity.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117' name='page_117'></a>117</span></p> +<p>When Ralph got to the roundhouse he found +Fogg in the doghouse chatting with his friends. +He had to tell the story of the fire over and over +again, it seemed, at each new arrival of an interested +comrade, and Ralph’s heroic share in the +incident was fully exploited. The young railroader +was overwhelmed by his loyal admirers +with congratulations. Ralph felt glad to compare +the anticipated trip with the starting out on the +first record run of No. 999, when he had a half-mad +sullen fireman for a helper.</p> +<p>As the wiper finished his work on the locomotive, +engineer and fireman got into the cab.</p> +<p>“Hello!” exclaimed Fogg sharply.</p> +<p>“Hello!” echoed his cabmate.</p> +<p>A little square strip of paper was revealed to +both, as they opened their bunkers. It was patent +that some one had sneaked into the roundhouse +and had pasted the papers there. Each slip bore +a crude outline of a human hand, drawn in pencil.</p> +<p>“Bah!” spoke Fogg, with a brush of a chisel +scraping the portraiture on his own box out of all +semblance, and then doing the same with the +picture on the reverse cover of Ralph’s bunker.</p> +<p>“What is it, Fogg?” inquired the young railroader, +to whom the ominous sketches were a +new wrinkle.</p> +<p>“Black Hand,” explained Fogg. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118' name='page_118'></a>118</span></p> +<p>“Whose—why?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“The outcast gang. It’s one of their scare +tricks. Humph! I’d like to get sight of the fellow +who thought he was doing a smart trick. +The Black Hands are supposed to warn us that +we’re doomed by the gang, see? It’s a notification +that the trouncing I gave those fellows Hall +and Wilson is a declaration of war to the knife.”</p> +<p>“Well, let it come. Aren’t we equal to it, Mr. +Fogg?”</p> +<p>“You are, for they can’t hit you hard. You’ve +made your mark,” said the fireman, somewhat +gloomily. “I’m not in the same class. I’ve had +my weak spots. Besides, it’s me they’ll be after. +Dunno, Fairbanks, maybe I’d better not be the +cause of getting you into any more trouble. Perhaps +I’d better slide for a bit into some switchyard +job.”</p> +<p>“What—scared?” cried Ralph.</p> +<p>“No, not scared,” responded Fogg soberly, +“only worried about you.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Ralph, “the master mechanic said +we were a strong team?”</p> +<p>“Ye-es.”</p> +<p>“Let’s prove to him that we are. Good-by to +the Black Hands, Mr. Fogg, they aren’t worth +thinking about.”</p> +<p>So the young railroader rallied and cheered his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119' name='page_119'></a>119</span> +comrade, and they had got beyond the turn table +and had quite forgotten the incident of the pasters, +when John Griscom mounted the cab step. He +nodded genially to both Ralph and the fireman. +Griscom knew pretty much what was going on +most of the time, and the master mechanic was +a close friend of his.</p> +<p>“Just a word, Fairbanks,” he began in a confidential +tone, and the young engineer bent over +towards him. “I don’t want to be croaking all +the time, but railroading isn’t all fun and frolic.”</p> +<p>“What’s the matter now, Mr. Griscom?” inquired +Ralph.</p> +<p>“The old strike gang is the trouble, and will be +until they’re laid out, ragtail and bobtail, dead +cold. I have a friend in a certain department of +the service here. He isn’t giving away official +business any, but he isn’t in sympathy with Hall +or Wilson. One of them sent a wire to Riverton +an hour since. It was to some one the operator +never heard of before, evidently a friend of theirs. +It mentioned 999, your name, and Fogg. The +rest of it was in cipher.”</p> +<p>“We’ve just had a Black Hand warning, here +in the cab,” said Ralph.</p> +<p>“Oh, you have?” muttered Griscom. “Then +there’s new mischief afoot. Look out for snags +at Riverton.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120' name='page_120'></a>120</span></p> +<p>Ralph realized that it wasn’t very pleasant +working under the continual menace of enemies +plotting in the dark and in a mean, desperate way. +There was nothing for it, however, but to exercise +patience, vigilance and courage.</p> +<p>“They shall never drive me from my post of +duty,” firmly decided the young railroader. “I +shall neither tire out nor scare out.”</p> +<p>Riverton was made on time and with no unpleasant +incident to mar a schedule trip. No. 999 +was run to a siding, and Ralph and Fogg had over +two hours on their hands to spend as they chose. +They had brought their lunch, and they dispatched +the best part of it in the cab. Mrs. Fairbanks had +put it up in a basket, and a two-quart fruit jar +held the cold coffee. After the repast Fogg fixed +the fire and they strolled down to the depot.</p> +<p>The station agent was an old acquaintance of +Ralph. He knew Van Sherwin, Limpy Joe and +the people up at the Short Line railroad, kept +posted on their progress pretty closely, and he had +a good deal of interesting railroad gossip to retail +to Ralph.</p> +<p>“Oh, by the way,” he observed incidentally, +after they had conversed for some time, “there +was a spruce young fellow here this morning asking +very particularly about 999 and her movements. +He mentioned your name too.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121' name='page_121'></a>121</span></p> +<p>“Who was he?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“I never saw him before. He was curious all +about your run, hung around a while and then +disappeared. I haven’t seen him since.”</p> +<p>“Describe him, won’t you?” and the station +agent did so. Ralph was sure that the stranger +was the youth he had known as Marvin Clark. +From that time on until the train got ready for +the return trip, the young railroader kept his eyes +open for a glimpse of his acquaintance with the +double identity. The latter, however, up to the +time No. 999 steamed out from Riverton, did not +put in an appearance.</p> +<p>“Well, nobody tackled us at Riverton,” observed +Ralph, as he and Fogg settled down comfortably +to their respective tasks.</p> +<p>“Better not,” retorted the fireman keenly. “I +just made a little purchase this morning, and I’m +going to stand no fooling,” and he touched his +hip pocket meaningly. “Have a swig?” he inquired +additionally, as he reached for the jar of +coffee and took a drink.</p> +<p>“Oh, I could feast on my mother’s coffee all +day,” observed Ralph as the jar was passed to +him. “Now, then, you finish it up and hand me +one of those doughnuts.”</p> +<p>The little refection seemed to add to the satisfaction +of the moment. Their run was a slow +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122' name='page_122'></a>122</span> +one, and there was little to do besides keeping +the machinery in motion. The day was warm, +but the air was balmy. The landscape was interesting, +and they seemed gliding along as in a +pleasing dream.</p> +<p>Later, when he analyzed his sensations, the +young railroader, recalling just these impressions, +knew that they were caused by artificial conditions. +Ralph relapsed into a dream—indeed, he +was amazed, he was startled to find himself opening +his eyes with difficulty, and of discovering his +fireman doubled up in his seat, fast asleep. He +tried to shout to Fogg, realizing that something +was wrong. He could not utter a word, his +tongue seemed glued to the roof of his mouth. +Ralph barely managed to slip to his feet in an +effort to arouse his cab mate.</p> +<p>“Something wrong!” ran through his mind. +A vague thrill crossed his frame as, whirling by +a landmark, a white-painted cattle guard, he +realized that he must have gone five miles without +noting distance.</p> +<p>The bridge was his next thought. Muddy +Creek was less than a mile ahead. If the draw +should be open! Wildly reaching towards the +lever, the young engineer sank to the floor a +senseless heap, while No. 999, without a guide, +dashed down the shining rails!</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123' name='page_123'></a>123</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XIV_A_SERIOUS_PLOT' id='CHAPTER_XIV_A_SERIOUS_PLOT'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> +<h3>A SERIOUS PLOT</h3> +</div> +<p>“Who stopped this train—and why?”</p> +<p>Dreamily returning to consciousness, these +were the first words that reached Ralph Fairbanks’ +rallying consciousness. They were spoken +by the conductor of the accommodation train +sharply. The locomotive was at a standstill, and, +staring wonderingly, the conductor stood by the +side of the tender.</p> +<p>“I did,” answered a prompt voice, and removing +his hand from the lever, the boy whom the +young engineer had known as Marvin Clark +drifted before his vision.</p> +<p>“Hello!” exclaimed the conductor, “I’ve seen +you before. You’re the fellow who caught the +train at Riverton just as she left—had a free +pass.”</p> +<p>“Never mind me, Mr. Conductor,” responded +the other rapidly. “I’m thinking they need some +attention,” and he pointed to the fireman, lying +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124' name='page_124'></a>124</span> +doubled up in his seat, and then to Ralph, lying +prone on the floor of the cab.</p> +<p>“Fairbanks—Fogg!” fairly shouted the conductor. +“Why, what can this mean?”</p> +<p>“Foul play, if I’m a judge,” spoke Clark definitely. +“Fairbanks! Fairbanks!” he shouted, +stooping over and lifting Ralph in his strong +arms. “Here, brace him in his seat.”</p> +<p>“Water!” gasped the young engineer in a choking +tone. “My throat is on fire! What has happened?”</p> +<p>“Nothing alarming,” answered Clark reassuringly, +“only—I’m glad I happened to be here.”</p> +<p>Ralph’s mouth and throat seemed burning up. +The water he drank only partially allayed his +frantic thirst. It was with great difficulty that +he could arouse himself from a lethargy that +seemed to completely paralyze both body and +mind. As the moments passed, however, he succeeded +in rallying into something like normal. +But as yet he was unable to fully understand just +what had happened.</p> +<p>“He needs something to stimulate him,” declared +the conductor, and stepping into the cab +he hastily ransacked the fireman’s bunker. +“Aha!”</p> +<p>His tones announced a discovery—likewise a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125' name='page_125'></a>125</span> +suspicion. He had unearthed two flasks of liquor, +one only partly filled.</p> +<p>“Not for me,” said Ralph, waving back the conductor, +who evidently was intent on administering +a stimulant. “Liquor!” he cried, suddenly bracing +up now. “Fogg never brought it aboard. It’s +some plot! Why!” he exclaimed, in sudden enlightenment, +“I see it all, clear as day.”</p> +<p>What Ralph saw, all hands in the cab soon +realized within the ensuing ten minutes. When +they had aroused Fogg, there followed animated +theory, discovery and conviction. Not one of +them doubted but that some enemy had sneaked +aboard of the locomotive while it was sidetracked +at noon at Riverton and had put some +drug in the jar of coffee. They found a suspicious +dark sediment at the bottom of the jar.</p> +<p>“Black Hands—mark it down,” observed Fogg. +“Whoever did it, also placed those flasks of liquor +in my bunker. See the label on them? They +come from a place in Riverton I never was in. +The scoundrels aimed to have us found in the cab, +just as we have been, and a report go in that the +heat and too much liquor had crippled us from +making the run.”</p> +<p>“You’ve struck it, Fogg,” assented the conductor. +“Just stow that jar and those two flasks +in a safe place. I’ll have our special agent Adair, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126' name='page_126'></a>126</span> +the road detective, find out who bought that liquor. +No need of any blabbing to the general public. +Are you able to complete the run, Fairbanks?”</p> +<p>“Certainly,” reported Ralph, exercising arms +and feet vigorously to restore their circulation. +Fogg was still dazed and weak. He had drunk +more of the coffee than Ralph. Besides, being +the older of the two, he did not shake off the +effects of the narcotic so readily as the young +engineer.</p> +<p>“I’ll help fire—I know how to,” declared Clark.</p> +<p>“You know how to stop an engine, too!” commented +the conductor. “All right, Fairbanks, +when you’re ready,” and he returned to the +coaches. Ralph extended his hand to Clark. The +latter met his glance frankly.</p> +<p>“I’ve been trying to get track of your movements +by telegraph,” said Clark. “Located your +run, and was waiting at Riverton for your train. +Got there ahead of time, and came back to the +depot just as 999 was pulling out, and caught the +last car. First, I thought I’d not show myself +until you got through with your trip. Things +got dull in those humdrum coaches, though, and +I sailed ahead to the tender, saw what was wrong, +and checked up the locomotive just beyond the +bridge. Say, if the draw had been open, we’d all +have had a bath, eh?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127' name='page_127'></a>127</span></p> +<p>“The miscreants who played this diabolical trick +ought to be severely punished,” said Ralph.</p> +<p>There was no evidence of strained relations between +the two boys. Ralph recognized that Clark +had sought him out to make an explanation. He +wondered what it would be. The present was not, +however, the time to broach the subject. There +was something very manly and reassuring in +Clark’s manner, and the young railroader believed +that when he got ready to disclose his secret, the +revelation would be an unusual and interesting +one.</p> +<p>The train was started up, soon made up the +lost time, and at 5:15 rolled into the depot at +Stanley Junction. Ralph did not feel quite as well +as usual and his fireman was pale and loggy, but +the main effects of the drug had passed off.</p> +<p>“You go straight home, Mr. Fogg,” directed +Ralph. “I will see that 999 is put to bed all +right.”</p> +<p>“I think I’ll take advantage of your kind offer, +Fairbanks,” responded Fogg. “I’m weak as a +cat, and my head is going around like an electric +turntable.”</p> +<p>Fogg started for home. Clark rode with Ralph +on the locomotive to the roundhouse. The big +engine was put into her stall. Then the boys left +the place. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128' name='page_128'></a>128</span></p> +<p>“I have something to say to you, Fairbanks,” +began Clark.</p> +<p>“I suppose so,” replied Ralph. “It must be +quite a long story, though.”</p> +<p>“It is,” admitted his companion.</p> +<p>“Then suppose we leave its recital till we are +rested a bit,” suggested Ralph. “I want you to +come up to the house and have supper. Then +we’ll adjourn to the garden and have a quiet, comfortable +chat.”</p> +<p>“That will be famous,” declared Clark. “Say, +you don’t treat an imposter like myself courteous +or anything, do you?”</p> +<p>“Are you really an imposter?” asked Ralph, +with a faint smile.</p> +<p>“I am—and a rank one.”</p> +<p>“Just one question—you are not the real Marvin +Clark?”</p> +<p>“No more than yourself.”</p> +<p>“And you are Fred Porter?”</p> +<p>“That’s it.”</p> +<p>“I thought so,” said the young engineer.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129' name='page_129'></a>129</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XV_THE_SILVANDOS' id='CHAPTER_XV_THE_SILVANDOS'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> +<h3>“THE SILVANDOS”</h3> +</div> +<p>“I declare!” exclaimed Ralph Fairbanks.</p> +<p>“For mercy’s sake!” echoed Fred Porter.</p> +<p>Both stood spellbound just within the grounds +of the Fairbanks’ home, where they had arrived. +Over towards the dividing lot line of the next +door neighbor, their eyes had lit upon an unusual +and interesting scene.</p> +<p>Two figures were in action among the branches +of the great oak tree. They were boys, and their +natural appearance was enough to attract attention. +They were leaping, springing, chasing one +another from branch to branch, with a remarkable +agility that made one think of monkeys and +next trained athletes.</p> +<p>“Who are they, anyway?” demanded Fred.</p> +<p>“They are new to me,” confessed the young +engineer.</p> +<p>The two strangers were about of an age, under +sixteen. It would puzzle one to figure out their +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130' name='page_130'></a>130</span> +nationality. Their faces were tawny, but delicate +of profile, their forms exquisitely molded. They +suggested Japanese boys. Then Ralph decided +they more resembled lithe Malay children of whom +he had seen photographs. At all events, they were +natural tree climbers. They made the most daring +leaps from frail branches. They sprung from +twigs that broke in their deft grasp, but not until +they had secured the purchase they aimed at in +the act to send them flying through the air to +some other perilous point in view. Their feats +were fairly bewildering, and as one landed on +the ground like a rubber ball and the other chased +him out of sight in the next yard, Ralph conducted +his companion into the house with these words:</p> +<p>“That’s odd enough to investigate.”</p> +<p>He did not announce his arrival to his mother, +but led Fred up to his room. As he passed that +now occupied by the Foggs, it made his heart glad +to hear the fireman crowing at the baby to the +accompaniment of a happy laugh from the fireman’s +wife.</p> +<p>“You can wash up and tidy up, Porter,” he said +to his friend. “I’ll arrange for an extra plate, +and take you down later to meet the best mother +in the world.”</p> +<p>“This is an imposition on you good people,” +declared Fred, but Ralph would not listen to him. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131' name='page_131'></a>131</span> +He went downstairs and out the front way, and +came around the house looking all about for some +trace of the two remarkable creatures he had just +seen. They had disappeared, however, as if they +were veritable wood elves. Passing the kitchen +window, the young engineer halted.</p> +<p>“Hello!” he uttered. “Zeph Dallas is back +again,” and then he listened casually, for Zeph +was speaking to his mother.</p> +<p>“Yes, Mrs. Fairbanks,” Ralph caught the +words, “I’m the bad penny that turns up regularly, +only I’ve got some good dollars this time. +On the mantel is the money I owe Ralph for the +clothes he got me.”</p> +<p>“But can you spare the money?” spoke Mrs. +Fairbanks.</p> +<p>“Sure I can, and the back board, too,” declared +Zeph, and glancing in through the open window +Ralph noted the speaker, his fingers in his vest +armholes, strutting around most grandly.</p> +<p>“I can’t understand how you came to get so +much money in two days,” spoke the lady. “You +couldn’t have earned it in that short space of time, +Zeph.”</p> +<p>“No, ma’am,” admitted Zeph, “but I’ve got it, +haven’t I? It’s honest money, Mrs. Fairbanks. +It’s an advance on my wages—expense money +and such, don’t you see?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132' name='page_132'></a>132</span></p> +<p>“Then you have secured work, Zeph?”</p> +<p>“Steady work, Mrs. Fairbanks.”</p> +<p>“What at, Zeph?”</p> +<p>“Mrs. Fairbanks,” answered the lad in a +hushed, mysterious tone of voice, “I am hired +as a detective.”</p> +<p>“You’re what?” fairly shouted Ralph through +the window.</p> +<p>“Hello! you here, are you?” cried Zeph, and +in a twinkling he had joined Ralph outside the +house. “Yes, sir,” he added, with an important +air that somewhat amused Ralph, “I’ve landed +this time. On both feet. Heart’s desire at last—I’m +a detective.”</p> +<p>Ralph had to smile. He recalled the first arrival +of honest but blundering Zeph Dallas at +Stanley Junction, a raw country bumpkin. Even +then the incipient detective fever had been manifested +by the crude farmer boy. From the confident, +self-assured tone in which Zeph now spoke, +the young railroader was forced to believe that +he had struck something tangible at last in his +favorite line.</p> +<p>“What are you detecting, Zeph?” he inquired.</p> +<p>“That’s a secret.”</p> +<p>“Indeed—and what agency are you working +for—the government?”</p> +<p>“That,” observed Zeph gravely, “is also a secret—for +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133' name='page_133'></a>133</span> +the present. See here, Ralph Fairbanks, +you’re guying me. You needn’t. Look at that.”</p> +<p>With great pride Zeph threw back his coat. It +was to reveal a star pinned to his vest.</p> +<p>“Yes,” nodded Ralph, “I see it, but it doesn’t +tell who you are.”</p> +<p>“Don’t it say ‘Special’?” demanded Zeph, with +an offended air.</p> +<p>“Yes, I see the word.”</p> +<p>“Well, then, that’s me—special secret service, +see? Of course, I don’t look much like a detective, +just common and ordinary now, but I’m +going to buy a wig and a false beard, and then +you’ll see.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Zeph!” exclaimed Ralph.</p> +<p>“All right, you keep right on laughing at me,” +said Zeph. “All the same, I’m hired. What’s +more, I’m paid. Look at that—I’ve got the job +and I’ve got the goods. That shows something, +I fancy,” and Zeph waved a really imposing roll +of bank notes before the sight of the young engineer.</p> +<p>“Your employers must think you a pretty good +man to pay you in advance,” suggested Ralph.</p> +<p>“They do, for a fact,” declared Zeph. “They +know they can depend upon me. Say, Ralph, it’s +funny the way I fell into the job. You never in +your life heard of the slick and easy way I seemed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134' name='page_134'></a>134</span> +to go rolling right against it. And the mystery, +the deadly secrets, the—the—hold on, though, I’m +violating the eth—eth—yes, ethics of the profession.”</p> +<p>“No, no—go on and tell us something about it,” +urged Ralph. “I’m interested.”</p> +<p>“Can’t. I’ve gone too far already. Sworn to +secrecy. Honestly, I’m not romancing, Ralph, +I’m working on a case that reads like a story book. +Some of the strange things going on—they fairly +stagger me. I can’t say another word just now, +but just the minute I can, you just bet I’ll tell you +all about it, Ralph Fairbanks. Say, you haven’t +seen two boys around here, have you—two tiny +fellows? I left them in the garden here. They’re +in my charge, and I mustn’t lose sight of them,” +and Zeph began looking all around the place.</p> +<p>“Two human monkeys, who make no more of +flying through the air than you or I do to run a +race?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“That’s them,” assented Zeph.</p> +<p>“They were here a few minutes ago,” advised +Ralph, “but I don’t see them just now. I wondered +who they were. The last I saw of them, +they were chasing one another over our neighbors’ +lot over there.”</p> +<p>“I must find them,” said Zeph. “They are another +of my responsibilities. I hear them.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135' name='page_135'></a>135</span></p> +<p>As Zeph spoke, there proceeded from the alley +a mellow and peculiar but very resonant whistle. +It was followed by a responsive whistle, clear as a +calliope note. Then into view dashed the two +boys for whom Zeph was looking. They were +still chasing one another, and the foremost of the +twain was making for the house. As he passed +a tree full tilt, without the least apparent exertion +he leaped up lightly, seized a branch, coiled +around it like a rubber band, and his pursuer +passed under him at full speed.</p> +<p>“This way, Kara—hey, Karo,” called out +Zeph, and the two strange lads came up to him +with a fawn-like docility, in keeping with the +mild, timid expression of their faces.</p> +<p>“Sare,” spoke one of them with a bow, and +his companion repeated the word. They both +bowed to Ralph next, and stood like obedient +children awaiting orders. Ralph was silent for +fully a minute, studying their unfamiliar make-up. +At that moment Fred Porter, having come +down stairs the front way, strolled around the +corner of the house.</p> +<p>“This is my friend, Fred Porter—Zeph—Zeph +Dallas, Porter,” introduced the young +railroader, and the two boys shook hands. Porter +became instantly interested in the two strange +lads. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136' name='page_136'></a>136</span></p> +<p>“I’m going to show you fellows something,” +said Zeph, “something mighty remarkable, something +you never saw before, and it’s going to +beat anything you ever heard of. About those +two boys. Kara!”</p> +<p>One of the two lads instantly moved to the +side of Zeph, who beckoned to him to follow +him. He led the boy ten feet away behind a +thick large bush, his back to the others.</p> +<p>“Karo,” he spoke again, and the other boy +allowed him to turn him around where he stood, +his back to the other boy.</p> +<p>“See here, Zeph,” spoke Ralph with a broad +smile, “are you going to give us a detective +demonstration of some kind, or a sleight-of-hand +demonstration?”</p> +<p>“Quit guying me, Ralph Fairbanks,” said +Zeph. “You’re always at it, but I’m going to +give you something this time that will make you +sit up and take notice, I’ll bet. Those boys +came from a good many thousand miles away—from +the other side of the world, in fact.”</p> +<p>“They look it,” observed Fred Porter.</p> +<p>“Gomera,” exclaimed Zeph.</p> +<p>“Where’s that now?” inquired Fred.</p> +<p>“It is the smallest of the Canary Islands.”</p> +<p>“Oh, that’s it!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137' name='page_137'></a>137</span></p> +<p>“And they talk without saying a word,” was +Zeph’s next amazing announcement.</p> +<p>“Whew!” commented Fred dubiously.</p> +<p>“They do. It’s that I’m going to show you. +Perhaps those boys are the only two of their +kind in the United States. They are Silvandos.”</p> +<p>“What are Silvandos, Zeph?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“Silvandos,” replied Zeph, with manifest enjoyment +of the fact that he was making a new +and mystifying disclosure, “are persons who +carry on a conversation through a whistling +language.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138' name='page_138'></a>138</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XVI_ZEPH_DALLAS_AND_HIS_MYSTERY' id='CHAPTER_XVI_ZEPH_DALLAS_AND_HIS_MYSTERY'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> +<h3>ZEPH DALLAS AND HIS “MYSTERY”</h3> +</div> +<p>“Whistling language?” repeated Fred Porter. +“Is there one?”</p> +<p>“Aha! didn’t I say I was going to show you +something you never heard of before? You bet +there is a whistling language!” chuckled Zeph—“and +I’m now about to demonstrate it to you. +You see these two boys? Well, they are natives +of Gomera, the smallest of the Canary Islands. +They were raised in a district where at times +there is no living thing within sight, and the vast +wilderness in the winding mountains is broken +only by the crimson flower of the cactus growing +in the clifts of the rock.”</p> +<p>“You talk like a literary showman, Zeph Dallas,” +declared Fred.</p> +<p>“Well, I’m telling the story as I get it, ain’t +I?” demanded Zeph in an injured tone and with +a sharp look at Fred, as if he suspected that he +was being guyed. “Anyhow, I want to explain +things so you’ll understand.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139' name='page_139'></a>139</span></p> +<p>“Go right ahead, Zeph,” insisted Ralph encouragingly, +“we’re interested.”</p> +<p>“Well, up among those big stone terraces is +the whistling race. They are able to converse +with one another at a distance of three miles.”</p> +<p>“That’s pretty strong,” observed Fred. “But +make it three miles.”</p> +<p>“A Silvando will signal a friend he knows to +be in a certain distant locality. He does it by +setting his fore fingers together at a right angle +in his mouth, just as you’ll see these two Canaries +do in a minute or two. An arrow of piercing +sounds shoots across the ravine.”</p> +<p>“Arrow is good—shoots is good!” whispered +Fred, nudging Ralph.</p> +<p>“There is a moment’s pause—” continued +Zeph.</p> +<p>“Oh, he’s read all this in some book!” declared +Fred.</p> +<p>“Then there comes a thin almost uncanny +whistle from far away. Conversation begins, +and as the sounds rise and fall, are shrill or +drawn, so they are echoed. Then comes the +ghostly reply, and then question and answer follows. +They talk—all right. Travelers say so, +and a lot of scientific fellows are now on the track +of this strange tribe to investigate them before +civilization makes of their talk a dead language. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140' name='page_140'></a>140</span> +Kara—ready!” called out Zeph to the boy at the +bush. “Karo—attention!”</p> +<p>“Sare,” answered the little fellow, his bright +twinkling eyes full of intelligence.</p> +<p>“Ask him how many!” said Zeph “—see?” +and he touched himself, the boy and Ralph and +Fred with his forefinger in turn.</p> +<p>Out rang a series of rising interrogatory +sounds. There was a pause. Then from the +boy stationed at the bush came quick responsive +toots—one, two, three, four.</p> +<p>“Tell Kara to bring you this—see, this?” and +Zeph stooped down and touched the sodded yard +with his hand. Karo whistled again. Immediately +Kara wheeled, stooped also, and was at their +side in an instant, tendering a handful of grass.</p> +<p>“Say, this is odd all right,” confessed Fred +thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“Tell Kara to climb a tree next,” spoke Zeph. +More “whistle talk,” and agile as a monkey Kara +was aloft, making dizzying whirls among the +branches of an oak nearby. “I tell you, it would +stun you to watch these little fellows at play. It’s +like a piccolo or a calliope to hear them talk—yes, +sir, talking just as knowingly as we do.”</p> +<p>“Who are they, anyway?” spoke Fred +curiously?</p> +<p>“I’ve told you—Canaries.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141' name='page_141'></a>141</span></p> +<p>“Yes, but where did you pick them up?”</p> +<p>“That’s a secret. You see,” responded Zeph, +looking duly wise and mysterious, “those boys +were imported to this country by a peculiar old +man, who wanted servants around him who +weren’t gabbing about his affairs and asking him +questions all the time. Well, he’s got them, +hasn’t he? I’m working for that man, or rather +for a friend of his. Detective work,” continued +Zeph, rather proudly. “I’ve told Ralph. These +two boys have been shut up in the house for two +months. They just pined for fresh air, and +trees—oh! trees are their stronghold. When I +started out with them they made for the first tree +like birds for a roost. I have taken them out for +an airing, and I ran down here to report to Ralph +how I was getting on, and brought them along +with me for the novelty of the thing.”</p> +<p>“Do they live near here?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“No,” answered Zeph, “we had to come by rail. +I can’t tell you where they live, but it’s on a +branch of the Great Northern. I’ve got to get +back to-night. We’ve had our supper, Ralph. +I just wanted to settle up the bills I owed you. +I’ll say good-bye to your mother and get to the +depot.”</p> +<p>Zeph and his charges trooped to the kitchen +door. Zeph spoke a few words to Mrs. Fairbanks. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142' name='page_142'></a>142</span> +His companions bowed her a polite and +graceful adieu, and Ralph accompanied their +former boarder to the street.</p> +<p>“See here, Ralph,” said Zeph to the young +engineer in parting, “I don’t want you to think +I wouldn’t tell you everything.”</p> +<p>“That’s all right, Zeph.”</p> +<p>“But honestly, I’ve solemnly agreed not to +lisp a word about what I am really about or the +people concerned in it.”</p> +<p>“That’s all right, too,” declared Ralph.</p> +<p>“I’ll say this, though,” resumed Zeph: “I’m +working on a strange and serious case. It’s no +play or fooling. I’m getting big pay. I may do +a big thing in the end, and when I do, if I do, +I’m coming straight to tell you all about it.”</p> +<p>Ralph watched Zeph and his charges disappear +down the street with a great deal of curiosity and +wonderment in his mind. A great many lively +and unusual incidents were coming to the front +recently, but this one was certainly enough out +of the ordinary to give him food for profound +thought.</p> +<p>Ralph rejoined Fred in the garden, and took +him into the house and introduced him to his +mother. Mrs. Fairbanks won the heart of the +manly young fellow, as she did the love of all of +her son’s friends. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143' name='page_143'></a>143</span></p> +<p>It was a pleasant, happy little coterie, that +which sat down at the table soon afterwards to +enjoy one of Mrs. Fairbanks’ famous meals.</p> +<p>“I’m ashamed!” declared Fred, after his seventh +hot biscuit with freshly churned butter that +made his mouth water, “but eating houses and +hotels, Mrs. Fairbanks, make a roving, homeless +fellow like me desperate, and if a third helping +of that exquisite apple sauce isn’t out of order, +I’ll have another small fish.”</p> +<p>“I’m spoiled for regular cooking, Bessie,” declared +Fogg to his wife. “Mrs. Fairbanks is +fattening us till we’ll be of no use at all.”</p> +<p>“You are all flatterers,” said Mrs. Fairbanks +warningly, but with a pleased smile.</p> +<p>“I’ll take another piece of cake, ma’am, providing +you’ll promise me the little exercise of +helping you wash the dishes afterwards,” spoke +Fred.</p> +<p>He interested the widow with his animated, +interested talk as he bustled around the kitchen, +wearing a big apron while drying the dishes. +Then when this task was completed, he and Ralph +went out to the little summer house and comfortably +seated themselves.</p> +<p>“Now then,” remarked the young railroader +with a pleasant smile, “now for your confession, +Fred.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144' name='page_144'></a>144</span></p> +<p>“No, sir,” objected his comrade vociferously, +“I’ve done nothing that’s wrong to confess. It +will be an explanation.”</p> +<p>“All right,” agreed Ralph, “open the throttle +and start the train.”</p> +<p>At that moment there was an interruption. A +chubby, undersized boy came swiftly through the +gateway. He was advancing up the steps of the +house when Ralph halted him.</p> +<p>“Hi, there, Davis!” he challenged. “What’s +wanted?”</p> +<p>“Oh, you there, Fairbanks!” responded Ned +Davis, the red-headed call boy for the roundhouse +of the Great Northern, familiarly known as +“Torchy.” “Extra orders for you and Fogg—you’re +to take out a special to-night.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145' name='page_145'></a>145</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XVII_IN_WIDENERS_GAP' id='CHAPTER_XVII_IN_WIDENERS_GAP'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> +<h3>IN WIDENER’S GAP</h3> +</div> +<p>There was always a spice of novelty and +excitement for the young engineer in running a +special. Besides that, extra orders meant pay and +a half, sometimes double pay, with twenty-four +hours’ rest after it, if the special run came after +midnight.</p> +<p>Ralph arose from his seat in the summer-house, +telling Ned Davis that Fogg and himself would +report at the roundhouse at once.</p> +<p>“You’ll have to excuse me, Porter,” he said to +his guest. “We’ll have to postpone our talk until +to-morrow.”</p> +<p>“Duty call, I see,” returned Fred. “Well, +there’s no urgency, now that I’ve found out you +don’t consider me some hideous impostor of the +old story book kind. I’ll go as far with you as +a hotel, and tell you what I have to say after this +trip.”</p> +<p>“You’ll camp right here at the Fairbanks cottage +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146' name='page_146'></a>146</span> +until I return,” peremptorily declared Ralph. +“My mother would be lonesome if there wasn’t a +boy somewhere about the house. Zeph is gone +and my other friends, and you will be good +company.”</p> +<p>“I’m only too willing, if it’s entirely agreeable,” +said Fred, and so it was settled.</p> +<p>Fogg grumbled a good deal when Ralph told +him of the extra call. He declared that he had +just succeeded in teaching the baby to say “All +aboard!” looked at the sky and predicted the +biggest storm of the season, and was cross generally +until he climbed aboard No. 999. Then +Ralph heard him talking to the well-groomed +steel steed as if it was some pet racer, and he +anxious and glad to put it through its paces.</p> +<p>“What’s the run, Fairbanks?” asked the fireman, +as Ralph returned from the roundhouse +office.</p> +<p>“Nothing very interesting. Special sleeper, +some convention crowd for Bridgeport, came in +on the north branch. We’ve got to pick our way +on our own schedule.”</p> +<p>“Huh! thought it must be a treasure train, or +the pay car at the least!” snorted Fogg contemptuously, +but thoroughly good-natured under the +surface.</p> +<p>When they backed down to the depot, Ralph +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147' name='page_147'></a>147</span> +was handed his flimsy orders. No. 999 was given +standard special lights, with the usual markers at +the rear of the sleeping car, but no one on platform +charge. The coach had a conductor, but he +barely showed himself, and went inside, where +all the curtains were drawn and passengers evidently +gone to sleep.</p> +<p>“I told you it was going to rain,” spoke Fogg, +as they cleared the limits and got ready for a +spurt. “All schedule cancelled where we can get +clear tracks, I suppose? All right, let’s see what +999 can do on slippery rails.”</p> +<p>No. 999 did famously, as she always did under +the guidance of the vigilant young engineer. +Ralph was learning a good deal lately, and his +mind was always strictly on the business of the +moment when at the throttle. He was learning +that there was a science in running a locomotive a +good deal deeper than merely operating throttle, +brake and lever automatically. There was a way +to conserve the steam energy and reserve wide-open +tactics for full pressure that he had found +out, which enabled him to spurt when the chance +came, at no cost of exhaustion later. He knew +the gauges by heart, how to utilize the exhaust, +and worked something along the line of the new +superheated steam theory.</p> +<p>The night had set in very dark and very stormy. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148' name='page_148'></a>148</span> +They had nothing to look out for, however, on +the out track except an accommodation that had +started two hours previous. No. 999 had a light +load, and she sped along without a jar. The +wires took care of her. By nine o’clock they were +twenty miles “to the good” on regular schedule +basis.</p> +<p>After that it was slower progress. The wind +had arisen to a hurricane, the rain came down in +torrents, and as they passed Winston they began +to get in among the hills, where there was a series +of intricate and dangerous curves.</p> +<p>“It’s nearly a waterspout,” observed Fogg, as +the rain swept against the cab as if driven from a +full pressure hose, and they could feel the staunch +locomotive quiver as it breasted great sweeps of +the wind. “I don’t like that,” he muttered, as a +great clump came against the cab curtain. And he +and his engineer both knew what it was from past +experience.</p> +<p>“One of those young landslides,” spoke Ralph.</p> +<p>“The second in a half-an-hour,” declared Fogg. +“It’s clear mud, but sometime in one of these +storms we’ll get a big drop of rock, and there’ll +be mischief afoot.”</p> +<p>Ralph slowed as they entered a long stretch +known as Widener’s Gap. It was a pull up hill. +Besides that, Widener was only two miles ahead, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149' name='page_149'></a>149</span> +and the curves were so sharp and frequent that +they could not catch the semaphore at any +distance.</p> +<p>Both engineer and fireman were under an +intense strain, and Ralph kept a keen lookout +from his cab window. Fogg was doing the same. +Suddenly he uttered a great shout. It was echoed +by Ralph, for there was cause for excitement.</p> +<p>“A tree!” yelled Fogg.</p> +<p>Ralph set the air and pulled the lever in a +flash. What the gleaming headlight of No. 999 +had shown, however, they were upon in a leap. +They could feel a grinding jar, but the pilot had +evidently swept the obstacle aside. They could +hear the branches sweep the top of the engine. +Then there came a warning sound.</p> +<p>Bumpety-bump,-bump-bump! The tree, uprooted +from the gap side by the rain and the +wind, had descried half a circle, it seemed, when +shifted by the pilot. Its big end had rolled under +the coach. From the feeling the young engineer +could guess what had happened.</p> +<p>“Shut her off!” shouted Fogg.</p> +<p>“The coach has jumped the track!” echoed +Ralph quickly.</p> +<p>His heart was in his mouth as he made every +exertion to bring the locomotive to a quick stop. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150' name='page_150'></a>150</span> +No. 999 acted splendidly, but it was impossible to +slow down under two hundred feet.</p> +<p>“Both trucks off—she’s toppling!” yelled Fogg, +with a backward glance.</p> +<p>Each instant Ralph waited for the crash that +would announce a catastrophe. It did not come. +The coach swayed and careened, pounding the +sleepers set on a sharp angle and tugging to part +the bumpers. Ralph closed the throttle and took +a glance backwards for the first time.</p> +<p>“The coach is safe, Mr. Fogg,” he spoke. +“Get back and see how badly the passengers are +mixed up.”</p> +<p>“There’s nothing coming behind us?” asked the +fireman.</p> +<p>“No, but tell the conductor to set the light back +as far as he can run.”</p> +<p>“Allright.”</p> +<p>“The Night Express!” gasped Ralph the next +moment, in a hushed whisper, as he caught the +faint echo of a signal whistle ahead of them in +the distance.</p> +<p>An alarming thought came into his mind. +Nothing could menace them ahead on the out +track and nothing was due behind, but the coach +attached to No. 999 stood on a tilt clear across +the in track.</p> +<p>Along those rails in ten minutes’ time, unaware +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151' name='page_151'></a>151</span> +of the obstruction, the night express would come +thundering down the grade at a forty-mile clip +around the sharp curves of Widener’s Gap.</p> +<p>“It’s 38. She’s due, entering Widener,” +breathed Ralph. “Yes,” with a glance at the cab +clock, “and just on time. Mr. Fogg,” he shouted +after his fireman, leaping to the ground, “get the +people out of that coach—38 is coming.”</p> +<p>“The Night Express,” cried Fogg hoarsely. “I +never thought of it.”</p> +<p>Ralph tore one of the rear red tender lights +from its place. He started down the out rails on +a dead run. His only hope now was of reaching +the straight open stretch past the last curve in +open view of Widener. To set the warning signal +short of that would be of no avail. No. 38 +could not possibly see it in time, coming at full +speed, to avoid a smash-up.</p> +<p>In a single minute the young engineer was +drenched to the skin. It was all that he could do +to keep from being blown from his footing. He +fairly counted the seconds as he shot forward, +sprinting to the limit on that slippery, flooded +roadbed. He could not restrain a shout of relief +and hope as he turned the last curve.</p> +<p>“Widener—38!” he gasped.</p> +<p>The station lamps were visible, a mile distant. +Somewhat nearer, a blur of white radiance amid +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152' name='page_152'></a>152</span> +the dashing rain, was the headlight of No. 38 +showing that she was coming at momentarily increasing +speed. Ralph aimed to run nearer to the +air line stretch to plant the signal. Suddenly his +feet tripped and he went headlong. The breath +seemed knocked out of his body as he landed +across the ties of the brief trestle reach, which he +had forgotten all about in his excitement. The +lantern, flung wide from his grasp, struck one rail, +smashed to pieces, and the lamp went out as it +dropped with a flare into the deep gully beneath.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153' name='page_153'></a>153</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XVIII_AT_THE_SEMAPHORE' id='CHAPTER_XVIII_AT_THE_SEMAPHORE'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +<h3>AT THE SEMAPHORE</h3> +</div> +<p>THE young engineer of No. 999 struggled to +his feet appalled. The case seemed hopeless. He +had matches in his pocket. In dry weather under +the same circumstances he might to gather up +enough dry grass and brush to build a fire between +the rails, but now, with everything soaked and +dripping this was impossible.</p> +<p>“The semaphore signal!” gasped Ralph. “Can +I reach it in time?”</p> +<p>He crossed the remainder of the trestle in desperate +leaps. Ralph calculated the distance to the +semaphore, the distance of the train, and his heart +failed him. Still he kept on. His eyes were fixed +on the lantern aloft showing open tracks for the +oncoming train. It was his star of hope. Then +as he reached it he saw that he was too late.</p> +<p>To scale the slippery timber to the staple-runners +without boot hooks would be no easy task. +To get to the first rung and ascend would consume +fully two minutes’ time. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154' name='page_154'></a>154</span></p> +<p>“What shall I do—what can I do?” panted +the young railroader in desperation.</p> +<p>Just beyond the semaphore was a symmetrical +heap of bleached blocks of rock comprising a +landmark guide for engineers. Ralph ran to it. +Groping among the gravel at its base, his fingers +frantically grasped several loose stones. He +glanced once at the glowering headlight of No. 38.</p> +<p>“If I can make it—if I can only make it!” he +voiced, and the aspiration was a kind of a wail.</p> +<p>The young engineer of No. 999 had been the +former leader of all boyish sports and exercises +in Stanley Junction. Posed as he had posed many +times in the past when he was firing at a mark, +with all his skill, he calculated aim, distance and +fling. The bull’s eye target was the lantern pendant +from the arm of the semaphore.</p> +<p>One—failed! the missile missed its intended +mark.</p> +<p>Two—a ringing yell of delight, of hope, of triumph +rang from the lips of the young engineer. +The skillfully-aimed projectile had struck the +glass of the signal, shivering it to atoms. The +wind and rain did the rest. Out went the light.</p> +<p>A sharp whistle from No. 38, the hiss of the air +brakes, and panting and exhausted, the young +engineer of No. 999 watched the Night Express +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155' name='page_155'></a>155</span> +whiz by on a lessening run and come to a stop +two hundred yards away.</p> +<p>Ralph dashed after the train, now halted +beyond the trestle. He did not heed the shout +of the brakeman already out on the tracks, but +got up to the locomotive just as the conductor, +lantern in hand, reached it.</p> +<p>“Hello!” shot out the engineer of No. 38, staring +at the figure outlined within the halo of the +conductor’s light—“Fairbanks!”</p> +<p>“Why, so it is!” exclaimed the conductor, and +it was easy for him to discern from Ralph’s sudden +appearance and breathless manner that he had +some interest, if not an active part, in the mysterious +disappearance of the semaphore signal. +“What is it, Fairbanks?”</p> +<p>Very hurriedly Ralph explained. The engineer +of No. 38 uttered a low whistle, meantime +regarding the active young railroader, whom he +well knew, with a glance of decided admiration. +Then as hurried were the further movements of +the conductor.</p> +<p>Within a very few minutes a brakeman was +speeding back to Widener to inform the man on +duty there of the condition of affairs. He +returned to report the situation in safe official +control all up and down the line. In the meantime +No 38. had moved up to the scene of the wreck. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156' name='page_156'></a>156</span> +This was done at the suggestion of Ralph, who +did not know how the passengers in the special +coach might have fared. Arrived at the scene, +however, it was soon learned that two men only +had been thrown from their beds and slightly +bruised. The rest of the passengers were only +shaken up.</p> +<p>The frightened passengers were huddled up, +drenched to the skin, at the side of the gap, for +Fogg had insisted on their taking no risk remaining +in the derailed coach.</p> +<p>“We’re stalled for three hours,” decided the +engineer of No. 38.</p> +<p>“Yes, and more than that, if the wrecking gang +is not at Virden, as we suppose,” added the +conductor.</p> +<p>The passengers of the derailed coach were +taken to shelter in a coach which backed to +Widener. There was nothing to do now for the +engineer and fireman of No. 999 but to await the +arrival of the wrecking crew. Word came finally +by messenger from the dispatcher at the station +that the same was on its way to the Gap. Inside +of two hours the coach was back on the rails, and +No. 999 moved ahead, took on transferred passengers +from No. 38, and renewed the run to Bridgeport +on a make-time schedule.</p> +<p>There had been a good many compliments for +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157' name='page_157'></a>157</span> +the young engineer from the crew of No. 38. The +conductor had expressed some gratifying expressions +of appreciation from the passengers who +had heard of Ralph’s thrilling feat at the semaphore. +The conductor of the special coach +attached to No. 999 had come up and shook hands +with Ralph, a choking hoarseness in his throat as +he remarked: “It’s a honor to railroad with such +fellows as you.” Fogg had said little. There +were many grim realities in railroading he knew +well from experience. This was only one of +them. After they started from Widener he had +given his engineer a hearty slap of the shoulder, +and with shining eyes made the remark:</p> +<p>“This is another boost for you, Fairbanks.”</p> +<p>“For No. 999, you mean,” smiled Ralph significantly. +“We’ll hope so, anyway, Mr. Fogg.”</p> +<p>Wet, grimed, cinder-eyed, but supremely satisfied, +they pulled into Bridgeport with a good record, +considering the delay at the Gap. The conductor +of the special coach laid off there. No. 999 +was to get back to Stanley Junction as best she +could and as quickly. As she cut loose from the +coach its conductor came up with an envelope.</p> +<p>“My passengers made up a little donation, Fairbanks,” +the man said. “There’s a newspaper man +among them. He’s correspondent for some daily +press association. Been writing up ‘the heroic +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158' name='page_158'></a>158</span> +dash—brave youth at the trestle—forlorn hope of +an unerring marksman’—and all that.”</p> +<p>“Oh, he’s not writing for a newspaper,” +laughed Ralph; “he’s making up a melodrama.”</p> +<p>“Well, he’ll make you famous, just the same, +and here’s some government photographs for you +lucky fellows,” added the conductor, tossing the +envelope in his hand into the cab.</p> +<p>Fogg grinned over his share of the fifty-dollar +donation and accepted it as a matter of course. +Ralph said nothing, but he was somewhat +affected. He was pleased at the recognition of +his earnest services. At the same time the exploit +of the night had shaken his nerves naturally, and +reminded him of all the perils that accompanied +a practical railroad career. A stern sense of +responsibility made him thoughtful and grave, +and he had in mind many a brave, loyal fellow +whose fame had been unheralded and unsung, +who had stuck to his post in time of danger and +had given up his life to save others.</p> +<p>No. 999 was back at Stanley Junction by eight +o’clock the next morning. When Ralph reached +home he was so tired out he did not even wait for +breakfast, but went straightway to his bed.</p> +<p>He came down the stairs in the morning bright +as a dollar, to hear his mother humming a happy +song in the dining-room, and Fred Porter softly +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159' name='page_159'></a>159</span> +accompanying with a low-toned whistle on the +veranda. The latter, waving a newspaper in his +hand, made a dash for Ralph.</p> +<p>“Look!” he exclaimed, pointing to some sensational +headlines. “They’ve got you in print with +a vengeance. A whole column about ‘the last +heroic exploit of our expert young railroader and +rising townsman—Engineer Fairbanks.’”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160' name='page_160'></a>160</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XIX_THE_BOY_WHO_WAS_HAZED' id='CHAPTER_XIX_THE_BOY_WHO_WAS_HAZED'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> +<h3>THE BOY WHO WAS HAZED</h3> +</div> +<p>“Well, Porter, proceed.”</p> +<p>Ralph gave the direction. He and Fred were +seated in the garden summer-house, settled comfortably +on benches facing each other across a +rustic table, after a good breakfast, a general restful +feeling permeating them.</p> +<p>“All right,” assented Fred. “Before I begin, +though, I wish to make a remark. The way your +mother and yourself have treated me has been just +royal—I’ll never forget it!”</p> +<p>“And never forget us,” directed the young +engineer with a warm, friendly smile. “You’ll +always find yourself welcome in this house.”</p> +<p>“That’s what gets me,” said Fred, and there +was a slight tremor and a suspicion of tears in his +voice. “Most fellows would have little to do with +an impostor, eh?”</p> +<p>“That’s a pretty hard word, Porter,” intimated +Ralph. “Just the same, I believe in you. I have +had confidence in you all along.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161' name='page_161'></a>161</span></p> +<p>“And my story won’t disturb it any,” declared +Fred. “Well, to begin—my name is not Marvin +Clark.”</p> +<p>“Of course, I know that already.”</p> +<p>“It is Fred Porter.”</p> +<p>“So you have told me.”</p> +<p>“I am an orphan, homeless. As I said when +I first came here, I have been a sort of a knockabout, +a wanderer. I have been a poor boy. The +real Marvin Clark, whose father is the real and +genuine president of the Middletown & Western +Railroad, is a rich boy. I have saved his life +when he was drowning. He likes me for that, +and there isn’t much that he wouldn’t do for me.”</p> +<p>“You deserve it,” said Ralph.</p> +<p>“Well, to make a long story short, he was a +student at the Earlville Academy. He’s a fine, +manly fellow, nothing sneaking or mean about +him. One night, though, he and his school chums +got to cutting up. They raided the town and had +a dozen fights with the village boys. One of them +was taken prisoner, a lad named Ernest Gregg. +The academy fellows decided to haze him. They +put him through an awful course of sprouts. +They ducked him in the river, scared him with +mock gunpowder explosions, and wound up by +tying him blindfolded to a switch near a railroad +track. They left him there all night. The result +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162' name='page_162'></a>162</span> +was that when little Ernest was discovered the +next morning, he was in a high fever and +delirious.”</p> +<p>“Too bad,” murmured Ralph. “I don’t think +much of your Marvin Clark.”</p> +<p>“Hold on, don’t misjudge him. He helped to +capture the enemy, as they called poor little +Gregg, but he left the crowd right after that, supposing +his chums would scare their captive a bit +and let him go. Clark had no hand whatever in +the downright persecution that sent the boy to +the hospital. It seems that some of the gunpowder +got into the eyes of the little fellow, and the +douse in the river had given him a cold. The +scare he got had nearly driven him out of his right +mind, for he was a timid little fellow. A month +later Ernest was discharged from the hospital +nearly blind, thin, pale and weakly, a mere +shadow of his former self.”</p> +<p>“Of course the academy fellows tried to make +up for all that,” suggested Ralph.</p> +<p>“They didn’t. Vacation came on, and they hied +to their homes with not a thought of the great +sorrow they had brought on their innocent victim. +They say that Clark was just furious when he +heard of it all. He laid out two of the ringleaders +and shamed them in public. He sought out +Ernest and took him to the best hotel in town. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163' name='page_163'></a>163</span> +He hired doctors, and loaded the little fellow with +comforts and luxuries.”</p> +<p>“It must have cost him something,” remarked +Ralph.</p> +<p>“What did Clark care for that? His father +was rich and gave him all the money he wanted. +He had an account at a bank, and was heir to +two aunts who doated on him and who were fabulously +rich. I never saw a fellow take to heart +the misfortunes of a poor little stranger as Clark +did. The incident seemed to have changed his +whole life. He sobered down wonderfully. He +blamed himself for the whole thing, and took the +whole responsibilities upon himself. Nearly all +the time he was with Ernest, trying to cheer him +up, hoping to find some way to make him well and +strong and happy again.”</p> +<p>“A royal good fellow, in fact, just as you said—I +see that.”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir,” declared Fred staunchly. “Well, to +continue: Clark’s father and family were going +to Europe. They had arranged for young Clark +to go with them, but he wouldn’t. Then there was +a family council. Clark had not made much progress +at school. He was fine at football, but no +good at arithmetic. In fact, he was a disappointment +to his father as a student. The old man, the +academy professor, and the family lawyer, held a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164' name='page_164'></a>164</span> +great consultation. Old man Clark came to a +stern decision. It was planned out that young +Clark should follow in the footsteps of his father +and become a railroader. A regular arrangement +was made. Clark was to have free passes everywhere. +He was to spend his entire vacation traveling +over different railroad systems, while his +folks were in Europe. Twice a week he was to +send to the family lawyer reports of his progress, +accompanied by vouchers showing that he had not +wasted the time.”</p> +<p>“I see,” nodded Ralph; “also where you come +in.”</p> +<p>“Yes, that’s easy to guess,” said Fred. “Just +at that time I happened to be on a flying visit to +Earlville, where one day I met Clark. He took +me to the hotel, where I met Ernest. I had +known young Gregg before, for he had come to +Earlville a ragged, homeless lad before I first +left, seeming to have no home or relatives, and +going to work at odd jobs around the town. Clark +told me of the fix he was in. While we were talking, +a sudden idea came to him. He became very +much excited and serious, and then made a very +strange request of me.”</p> +<p>“To assume his identity and go railroading in +his stead?” inquired Ralph, anticipating what was +coming. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165' name='page_165'></a>165</span></p> +<p>“You’ve struck it,” assented Fred; “just that.”</p> +<p>“And you accepted?”</p> +<p>“And that is why you see me here,” said Fred. +“Don’t think any the less of me, Fairbanks, for +doing it. Don’t find fault with me if I took up +the imposture for all there was in it. It’s my way—when +I go at a thing, I do so with all my—nerves. +I was Marvin Clark to the core. I took +up his name, I played his part, and say, I tried +not to disgrace his good name by one unmanly act. +He taught me to imitate his handwriting perfectly +one day. The next I was on the road, without a +mishap until I met you.”</p> +<p>“Which may not be a mishap after all,” suggested +the young engineer.</p> +<p>“I think as you do about that. I’ve come to +you for advice, and I feel sure that it will be good +advice. Now, then, to get to central motive of +Clark’s plan—a noble, grand act, a royal deed. +It was all for the sake of his little charge, Ernest +Gregg.”</p> +<p>“I can imagine that,” said Ralph.</p> +<p>“Clark could not get the little fellow out of his +mind. He had got, it seemed, a clew to some of +his relatives. He told me that only for a wicked +enemy, and if he had his rights, Ernest would be +in a position of positive wealth. He said that he +was determined to find a certain old man who +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166' name='page_166'></a>166</span> +could clear up the whole situation. He was going +to start out with Ernest to solve the secret of his +strange life, while his friends supposed that he +was following out the plan that his father had arranged. +Clark made a plan how we were to keep +track of one another, writing to certain points +we agreed upon. I started out from Earlville on +my part of the arrangement, while Clark stole out +of town with his young charge. For three weeks +I wrote regularly to him and he replied. During +the last month I have not received a word from +him, and some of my letters have come back to +me.”</p> +<p>“Then you are worried about him?” inquired +Ralph.</p> +<p>“I am, very much. You see, he spoke of an +enemy of Ernest. How do I know what may +have happened to both of them? If Clark should +disappear, see what a fix I am in, assuming his +name, spending his money. I’d have a hard time +explaining reasonably the wild, mad move Clark +made me take.”</p> +<p>“It is certainly a singular situation,” admitted +the young railroader thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“Isn’t it, now? I’ve come to you to have you +help me solve the problem. Think it over, give +me some advice. Or, one thing—you go to many +places with your railroading. You might keep +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167' name='page_167'></a>167</span> +a watch out for Clark, just as I am doing. You +might get a clew to him or run across him.”</p> +<p>“But how should I know him?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“I’m going to give you his picture.”</p> +<p>“That will help.”</p> +<p>Fred drew out a memorandum book and +selected from it a small photograph, which he presented +to Ralph. The latter saw a bright, manly +face portrayed in the picture.</p> +<p>“You keep that,” directed Fred.</p> +<p>Ralph reflected for a few moments. Then they +discussed the situation in all its bearings. There +was not much to suggest, however, on the part +of the young engineer. The most they could hope +for, he told Fred, was that one or the other of +them might by some circumstance run across the +missing Clark and his young charge.</p> +<p>“I’ve got an idea that I ought to run down a +branch line of the road I have never been over,” +suggested Fred, at the close of their animated colloquy. +“If I do, I’ll have to catch a train in an +hour. I’ll get word to you soon again, and if you +hear of anything that interests me, I’ll arrange +so that a letter or a wire will reach me if you +address it to Marvin Clark, Lake Hotel, +Wellsville.”</p> +<p>“All right,” agreed Ralph.</p> +<p>They strolled together down to the depot a little +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168' name='page_168'></a>168</span> +after that. A train from the west came in just +as the one having Fred for a passenger steamed +out. A familiar figure alighted from one of the +coaches.</p> +<p>“Here I am again,” announced Zeph Dallas, +coming up to Ralph.</p> +<p>“How are your little friends, the Canaries?” +inquired the young engineer.</p> +<p>“Safe and snug at home,” replied Zeph. +“Going up to the house?”</p> +<p>“Yes, just come in from a special trip, and I +probably have a lay-over till to-morrow. I want +to call and see a friend at the hotel for a few +moments. Then I’m at your service.”</p> +<p>When they reached the hotel, Ralph sought out +Archie Graham, to find the young inventor in his +room, engrossed in putting together some kind of +a mechanical model. The latter greeted Ralph +with effusion.</p> +<p>“I’m having the prime chance of my life,” +declared Archie. “That note of yours was the +open sesame to the roundhouse and everything +about it. The foreman made me as welcome as +a friend. I say, Fairbanks, they think a lot of +you, these railroad chums of yours.”</p> +<p>“Do they?” asked Ralph, with a modest smile. +“I’m glad they do.”</p> +<p>“I’ll show you results in a few days,” declared +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169' name='page_169'></a>169</span> +Archie, with a show of more enthusiasm than +Ralph had ever before seen him exhibit. “I’ve +got up an invention that will just about revolutionize +engineering.”</p> +<p>“You don’t say so!”</p> +<p>“Yes, I do. Only a day or two, and I’m going +to try it—you’ll hear about it, all right.”</p> +<p>Ralph did, in fact, hear about it in a very sensational +way, and within a few hours after the +interview.</p> +<p>He rejoined Zeph and they proceeded homewards. +Zeph was just as mysterious as ever +about his new employment. Ralph knew that he +was bubbling over from a pent-up lot of secrecy, +but he did not encourage his quaint friend to violate +an evident confidence reposed in him by his +employer.</p> +<p>Zeph announced that he would like to stay over +at the Fairbanks home until the next day, and was +made duly welcome. He amazed and amused +Ralph by showing him his “detective outfit,” as +he called it. It was an incongruous mass, stored +away in a flat leather case that he secreted in a +great pocket made inside his coat—a wig, false +whiskers, a pair of goggles, and a lot of other +“secret service” paraphernalia, suggested to Zeph +by reading some cheap and sensational detective +stories. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170' name='page_170'></a>170</span></p> +<p>“Well, I’ve got to get on the shadowy trail +to-day,” yawned Zeph, as he got out of bed the +next morning.</p> +<p>“Where’s the shadow, Zeph?” asked Ralph +humorously.</p> +<p>“Let you know when I find my quarry.”</p> +<p>“Ha, bad as that?” laughed Ralph.</p> +<p>“Oh, you can smile, Ralph Fairbanks,” said +Zeph resentfully. “I tell you, I’m on a mighty +important case and—say, where did you get +that?”</p> +<p>“What?”</p> +<p>“That picture!” exclaimed Zeph, picking up +from the bureau the photograph of Marvin Clark, +given to the young engineer by Fred Porter the +day previous.</p> +<p>“Oh, that picture?” said Ralph. “A friend of +mine gave it to me. He’s trying to find its original, +and hoped I could help him.”</p> +<p>“Trying to find him?” repeated Zeph with big +staring eyes. “Whew! I can do that for you.”</p> +<p>“You can?” demanded Ralph.</p> +<p>“I should say so!”</p> +<p>“Do you know the original of that picture +then?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“Sure I do—why, he’s the person who hired +me to be a detective,” was Zeph’s remarkable +reply.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171' name='page_171'></a>171</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XX_LORD_LIONEL_MONTAGUE' id='CHAPTER_XX_LORD_LIONEL_MONTAGUE'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2> +<h3>“LORD LIONEL MONTAGUE”</h3> +</div> +<p>“You can’t get on here!”</p> +<p>“But I’ve got a paus, don’t you know.”</p> +<p>“Paws? Yes, I see,” said Lemuel Fogg. +“Take ’em off the tender, son, or you’ll get a jerk +that will land you, for we’re going to start up +pretty soon.”</p> +<p>“Hawdly—I have a right here, my man—I’ve +got a paus, don’t you know.”</p> +<p>“See here, my friend, if you are bound for +Hadley, this isn’t the train.”</p> +<p>“I didn’t say Hadley, sir, I said ‘hawdly.’”</p> +<p>“He means hardly, Mr. Fogg,” put in Ralph, +“and he is trying to tell you he has a pass.”</p> +<p>“Why don’t he talk English, then?” demanded +the fireman of No. 999 contemptuously, while the +person who had aroused his dislike looked indignant +and affronted, and now, extending a card to +Ralph, climbed up into the tender.</p> +<p>He was a stranger to the engineer—a man +Ralph could not remember having seen before. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172' name='page_172'></a>172</span> +His attire was that of a conventional tourist, and +his face, words and bearing suggested the conventional +foreigner. He wore a short, stubby black +mustache and side whiskers, a monocle in one +eye, and he had a vacuous expression on his face +as of a person of immense profundity and “class.”</p> +<p>Ralph, glancing over the card, saw that it was a +pass from the master mechanic of the road, briefly +explaining that the bearer was Lord Lionel Montague, +studying up American railroad systems.</p> +<p>“We can’t offer you a seat, Lord Montague,” +spoke Ralph politely. “It’s rough work in +cramped quarters aboard a locomotive.”</p> +<p>“I have noticed it,” replied “his ludship.” “Not +so abroad, by no means, my man. In fact, on the +home lines in Lunnon, it is quite the thing, you +know, for the quality to make a fad of locomotive +parties, and the accommodations for their comfort +are quite superior to this, don’t you know.”</p> +<p>“That so?” growled Fogg, with an unpleasant +glance at the stranger. “Why, I’ve had Senators +in my cab in my time, glad to chum with the crew +and set back on the coal, jolly and homelike as +could be—as you’ll have to do, if you stay on this +engine.”</p> +<p>“Remawkably detestable person!” observed the +stranger confidentially to Ralph. “I shall ride +only a short distance—to the first stop, in fact.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173' name='page_173'></a>173</span></p> +<p>“You are welcome,” replied Ralph, “and if I +can explain anything to you, I am at your +service.”</p> +<p>“Thawnks, thawnks,” uttered the pretentious +passenger, and fixed his monocled eye on space +in a vapid way.</p> +<p>No. 999 was on schedule for the old accommodation +run to Riverton. It was nearly a week +after the interview between the young engineer +and Fred Porter recited in the last chapter. +Affairs had quited down with Ralph, and railroad +life had settled down to ordinary routine +of the usual commonplace character.</p> +<p>There had at first been considerable interest for +Ralph in the remarkable statement of Zeph Dallas +that the original of the photograph of Marvin +Clark, the son of the railroad president, was his +mysterious employer. Further than that involuntary +admission of his erratic friend, however, +Ralph could not persuade Zeph to go. Zeph +declared that he was bound by a compact of the +greatest secrecy. He insisted that there could be +no possibility of a mistake in his recognition of +the picture.</p> +<p>Ralph told him that a friend was very anxious +to find his employer, and told Zeph who his friend +was. The latter became serious, and acted quite +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174' name='page_174'></a>174</span> +disturbed when he learned that it was Fred Porter, +whom he had met several times.</p> +<p>“I’d like to tell you a whole lot, Ralph, but I +can’t do it!” Zeph had burst out. “Say, one thing, +though; I’m going to tell my employer about Fred +Porter being so anxious to see him, and you can +write to Porter and tell him that his friend is all +right and safe, if you want to. What’s that +address—I may get around to Porter myself.”</p> +<p>Ralph told Zeph. That same evening the latter +left Stanley Junction, and Ralph had not heard +from him since, nor did he receive word from +Fred. Temporarily, at least, Zeph, Fred and the +railroad president’s son, Marvin Clark, the +“Canaries” and all the peculiar mystery surrounding +them, seemed to have drifted out of the life +of the young engineer.</p> +<p>No. 999 was about ready to start on her daily +trip when the stranger designated as Lord Montague +had appeared. As he stood against the tender +bar and seemed to commune with himself on +the crudity of American locomotive cabs, Ralph +leaned from the window and hailed a friend.</p> +<p>“I say, Graham,” he observed, “you seem particularly +active and restless this morning.”</p> +<p>Ralph had reason for the remark. The young +inventor had been very little care to his sponsor +and friend during the past week. Given free +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175' name='page_175'></a>175</span> +access to the roundhouse, Archie had just about +lived there. Quiet and inoffensive, he at first had +been a butt for the jokes of the wipers and the +extras, but his good-natured patience disarmed +those who harmlessly made fun of him, and those +who maliciously persecuted him had one warning +from his sledge-hammer fists, and left him alone +afterwards.</p> +<p>On this especial morning Archie was stirred +with an unusual animation. Ralph noticed this +when he first came down to the roundhouse. The +young inventor hung around the locomotive suspiciously. +He even rode on the pilot of No. 999 +to the depot, and for the past five minutes he had +paced restlessly up and down the platform as +though the locomotive held some peculiar fascination +for him. As he now came up to the cab +at Ralph’s hail, his eye ran over the locomotive +in the most interested way in the world, and Ralph +wondered why.</p> +<p>“Call me, Fairbanks?” mumbled Archie, and +Ralph could not catch his eye.</p> +<p>“I did, Graham,” responded Ralph. “What’s +stirring you?”</p> +<p>“Why?”</p> +<p>“Chasing up 999.”</p> +<p>“Am I?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176' name='page_176'></a>176</span></p> +<p>“It looks that way; it looks to me as if you were +watching the locomotive.”</p> +<p>“She’s worth watching, isn’t she?”</p> +<p>“Yes, but you act as if you expect her to do +something.”</p> +<p>“Ha! ha!—that’s it, h’m—you see—say, wish +I could run down the line with you this morning.”</p> +<p>“We’re crowded in the cab, as you see,” +explained Ralph, “but if you want the discomfort +of balancing on the tank cover back there––”</p> +<p>“I’d dote on it—thanks, thanks,” said Archie +with a fervor that increased Ralph’s curiosity as +to his strange actions this particular morning.</p> +<p>“Got some new bee in his head?” suggested +Fogg, as Archie scrambled up over the coal. +“He’ll have a new kind of locomotive built by the +time we clear the limits—that is, in his mind.”</p> +<p>Lord Lionel Montague warmed up to Ralph the +next few minutes before starting time. He asked +a few casual questions about the mechanisms of +No. 999, and then seemed tremendously interested +in the young engineer himself.</p> +<p>“I’ve taken a fawncy to you, Mr. Fairbanks, +don’t you know,” he drawled out. “I’d like to +cultivate you, quite. I must call on you at Stanley +Junction. There’s a great deal you might tell +me of interest, don’t you see.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177' name='page_177'></a>177</span></p> +<p>“I shall be happy to be of service to you, Lord +Montague,” responded Ralph courteously.</p> +<p>He did not like the man. There was something +untrue about his shifty eye. There was a lot of +“put on” that did not strike Ralph as natural. +“His ludship” harped on the youth of Ralph. +Only veterans were intrusted with important railroad +positions in England—“didn’t he know.” +He was asking many questions about Ralph’s +juvenile friends, as if with some secret purpose, +when the train started up.</p> +<p>“Hi, up there!” Fogg challenged Archie, seated +on the tank tender top, “don’t get moving up there +and tumble off.”</p> +<p>The young inventor certainly looked as if he +was moving. His eyes were glued to the smokestack +of the locomotive, as though it possessed a +fascinating influence over him.</p> +<p>“Say, there’s some draft this morning,” +observed the fireman, half-way to the crossing, as +he threw some coal into the furnace.</p> +<p>“I should say so,” replied Ralph; “some sparks, +too, I notice.”</p> +<p>“Humph! that new patent spark arrester don’t +arrest particularly,” commented Fogg. “Queer,” +he added, with a speculative eye on the smokestack.</p> +<p>That appendage of No. 999 was shooting out +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178' name='page_178'></a>178</span> +showers of sparks like a roman candle. As she +slid the splits at the crossing and got down to real +business, the display was very noticeable.</p> +<p>“I’d say that some of our old time enemies were +doctoring the fuel, if it wasn’t that the crowd is +off the job after that last drubbing I gave Hall +and Wilson,” remarked the fireman. “I can’t +understand it. That draft is pulling the coal up +through the flues fast as I can shovel it in. +Thunder!”</p> +<p>With a yell the fireman of No. 999, as he +opened the furnace door to throw in more coal, +leaped to one side.</p> +<p>A cyclonic stream, like the sudden blast of a +volcano, poured out into the cab.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179' name='page_179'></a>179</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXI_ARCHIE_GRAHAMS_INVENTION' id='CHAPTER_XXI_ARCHIE_GRAHAMS_INVENTION'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2> +<h3>ARCHIE GRAHAM’S INVENTION</h3> +</div> +<p>The cab was suddenly filled with smoke, ashes +and steam. Something unusual had happened. +Unable to determine it all in a minute, Ralph +pulled the lever and set the air brakes.</p> +<p>Mingled with the jar and the hiss of steam there +arose a great cry—it was a vast human roar, ringing, +anguished, terrified. It proceeded from the +lips of the self-dubbed Lord Montague, and glancing +towards the tender Ralph witnessed a startling +sight.</p> +<p>The monocled, languid-aired nobleman had +struck a pose against the tender bar, and as Fogg +opened the furnace door and the fire box suddenly +belched out a sheet of flame and then a perfect +cloud of ashes, the passenger of high degree was +engulfed. Fogg, alert to his duty, after nimbly +skipping aside, had kicked the furnace door shut. +He was not quick enough, however, to prevent +what seemed to be half the contents of the furnace +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180' name='page_180'></a>180</span> +from pouring out a great cascade of ashes +as if shot from a cannon, taking the astounded and +appalled Montague squarely down his front.</p> +<p>“Murder!” he yelled, and grasped his head in +his hands to brush away the hot ashes that were +searing his face.</p> +<p>As he did so he became a new personality. His +mustache was brushed from his lip and fell to the +bottom of the cab, while its former possessor +made a mad dive to one side.</p> +<p>“Here, you chump!” cried Fogg; “do you want +to kill yourself?” and grabbing the singed and +frightened passenger, he pinned him against the +coal and held him there. In doing this he brushed +one whisker from the side of his captive’s face, +and the latter lay panting and groaning with +nearly all his fictitious make-up gone and quite all +of his nerve collapsed.</p> +<p>“What’s happened?” asked Ralph, as they +slowed down.</p> +<p>“It felt like a powder blast,” declared Fogg.</p> +<p>Archie Graham had uttered a cry of dismay—of +discovery, too, it seemed to Ralph. The young +engineer glanced at his friend perched on the top +of the tender tank. The face of the young inventor +was a study.</p> +<p>Archie acted less like a person startled than as +one surprised. He appeared to be neither shocked +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181' name='page_181'></a>181</span> +nor particularly interested. His expression was +that of one disappointed. It suddenly flashed +across Ralph, he could scarcely have told why, +that the young inventor had indeed been “inventing” +something, that something had slipped a cog, +and that he was responsible for the catastrophe +of the moment. Now Archie looked about him in +a stealthy, baffled way, as though he was anxious +to sneak away from the scene.</p> +<p>Half-blinded, sputtering and a sight, “his ludship” +struggled out of the grasp of the fireman. +His monocle was gone. His face, divested of its +hirsute appendages, Ralph observed, was a decidedly +evil face. As the train came to a halt the dismantled +passenger stepped from the cab, and +wrathfully tearing the remaining false whiskers +from place, sneaked down the tracks, seeking +cover from his discomfiture.</p> +<p>“Hi! you’ve left that nobleman face of yours +behind you,” shouted Fogg after him. “What’s +his game, Fairbanks?”</p> +<p>“It staggers me,” confessed Ralph. “Hello, +there, Graham!”</p> +<p>But the young inventor with due haste was disappearing +over the rear of the tender, as though +he was ashamed of a part in the puzzling occurrence +at the moment.</p> +<p>“Something’s wrong,” muttered Fogg, and he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182' name='page_182'></a>182</span> +opened the furnace door timidly. There was no +further outburst of ashes. “Queer,” he commented. +“It couldn’t have been powder. I +noticed a draft soon as we started. What made +it? Where is it now?”</p> +<p>“It was only when we were running fast,” submitted +Ralph.</p> +<p>The fireman leaped down to the tracks. He +inspected the locomotive from end to end. Then +he began ferretting under the engine. Ralph +watched him climb between the drivers. Strange, +muffled mutterings announced some discovery. +In a moment or two Fogg crawled out again.</p> +<p>“I vum!” he shouted. “What is this contraption?”</p> +<p>He grasped a piece of wire-netted belting, and +as he trailed out its other end, to it was attached +a queer-looking device that resembled a bellows. +Its frame was of iron, and it had a tube with a +steel nozzle.</p> +<p>“I say,” observed the young engineer, in a speculative +tone, “where did that come from?”</p> +<p>“I found its nozzle end stuck in through one +end of the draft holes in the fire box,” answered +Fogg. “This belt ran around two axles and +worked it. Who put it there?”</p> +<p>“Graham,” announced Ralph politely. “Well—well—I +understand his queer actions now. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183' name='page_183'></a>183</span> +Bring it up here,” continued Ralph, as the fireman +was about to throw it aside.</p> +<p>“The young fellow who thinks he is going to +overturn the system with his inventions? Well, +he must have done a lot of work, and it must have +taken a heap of time to fix the thing so it worked. +The belt was adjusted to a T. Say, you’d better +keep him out of the roundhouse, or he’ll experiment +on us some day in a way that may lead to +something serious.”</p> +<p>Ralph put the contrivance under his seat for +more leisurely inspection later on. He had to +smile to think of the patience, the ingenuity and +the eccentric operation of the well-meant project +of his young inventor friend. The bellows principle +of increasing the furnace draft might have +been harmless in a stationary engine. Even on +the locomotive it had shown some added suction +power while the locomotive was going ahead, but +the moment the furnace door was opened the current +of air from below sought the nearest vent. +That was why “his ludship” had retired under a +decided cloud in more ways than one.</p> +<p>When they arrived at Riverton the young engineer +made a search for both Archie and the disguised +impostor. He located neither. From +what he gathered from the conductor, Archie +had left the train at the first station after the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184' name='page_184'></a>184</span> +stop. The pretended English lord had been +noticed footing it back towards Stanley Junction.</p> +<p>The return trip was uneventful. Archie did +not put in an appearance, and Ralph fancied he +might have gone back to Bridgeport. The next +morning when Ralph reported for duty, little +Torchy, the call boy, sidled up to him in a confidential +way.</p> +<p>“Say, Mr. Fairbanks—I noticed a fellow was +on your cab on your run yesterday that I have +seen before––”</p> +<p>“Indeed,” answered Ralph curiously; “what +about him?”</p> +<p>“Nothing much, only he was around here a couple +of days ago. He pretended that he wanted to +see the inside of a roundhouse, and Mr. Forgan +sent me with him to show him about. When he +got me alone he began asking me all about you. +Then he tried to pump me about all your boy +friends. I didn’t like his looks or his actions, so +I thought I would tell you what I have.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” said Ralph. “If you ever run +against him again, tell me.”</p> +<p>“I will, sure,” responded the staunch little fellow, +who had a genuine friendship for Ralph, who +had encouraged him greatly, by initiating him into +roundhouse duties when he first came to work for +the Great Northern. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185' name='page_185'></a>185</span></p> +<p>Ralph could not fathom the possible motive of +the stranger, who apparently was somehow interested +in his doings. When they started out on +their regular run, he told Fogg what Torchy had +imparted to him. The fireman reflected speculatively +over the disclosure.</p> +<p>“I can’t understand what the fellow is up to,” +he admitted, “unless one of the gangs is up to a +new trick and has hired a stranger to work it on +us.”</p> +<p>There was a long wait at Riverton after arrival +that day. Then they were sided, and Fogg +strolled off to a restaurant. Ralph sat down on +a pile of ties at the side of the track and enjoyed +the lunch that he had brought with him from +home. He had just finished it and was about to +go to the cab and get a book on railroading to +read, when a tall, farmer-appearing fellow came +upon the scene.</p> +<p>“Say,” he drawled, “is this 999—yes, I see +it is.”</p> +<p>“All right,” nodded Ralph; “what about it?”</p> +<p>“I want to see the engineer.”</p> +<p>“I am the engineer.”</p> +<p>“Name Fairbanks?”</p> +<p>“Yes.”</p> +<p>“Well, I’m sent to you.”</p> +<p>“By whom?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186' name='page_186'></a>186</span></p> +<p>“Don’t know—never saw the boy before. He’s +a stranger in Riverton. Came up to me and gave +me a half-a-dollar to come here and deliver a message +to you.”</p> +<p>“Let me know it,” directed Ralph.</p> +<p>“Come out here on the tracks, and I’ll show you +where he said you was to come to see him. See +that old shed over beyond those freights? Well, +the boy said you was to come there.”</p> +<p>“Oh, he did?” commented Ralph musingly.</p> +<p>“Yes, he said to come alone, as it was particular. +He said you’d know when I said Martin—Martin, +oh, yes, Clark, that’s it.”</p> +<p>“Marvin Clark,” decided the young railroader +at once, and as the messenger went his way Ralph +ran to the engine cab, threw off his jacket and +then walked down the tracks. He of course +thought of Fred Porter at once. It looked as +though that individual had turned up again and +had sent for him, and Ralph was glad to hear +from him at last.</p> +<p>The building that had been pointed out to him +by the boy messenger was a storage shed for +repair tools and supplies. Ralph passed a line of +damaged freights, and reaching the shed, found +its door open. He stepped across the threshold +and peered around among the heaps of iron and +steel. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187' name='page_187'></a>187</span></p> +<p>“Is anybody here?” he inquired.</p> +<p>“Yes, two of us,” promptly responded a harsh, +familiar voice, that gave Ralph a start, for the +next instant his arms were seized, drawn behind +him, and the young engineer of No. 999 found +himself a prisoner.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188' name='page_188'></a>188</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXII_IKE_SLUMP_AGAIN' id='CHAPTER_XXII_IKE_SLUMP_AGAIN'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2> +<h3>IKE SLUMP AGAIN</h3> +</div> +<p>Ralph knew at once that he had fallen into a +trap of some kind. He struggled violently, but +it was of no avail. Two persons had slipped up +behind him, two pairs of hands were holding him +captive.</p> +<p>“Who are you?” demanded the young engineer +sharply, over his shoulder.</p> +<p>There was no response, but he was forced forward +clear back into the shed. The front door +was kicked shut. Ralph was thrown roughly +among a heap of junk. He recovered himself +quickly and faced his assailants.</p> +<p>The light in the place was dim and uncertain. +The only glazed aperture in the shed was a small +window at the rear. With considerable interest +Ralph strained his gaze in an endeavor to make +out his captors. Then in immense surprise he +recognized both.</p> +<p>“Ike Slump and Jim Evans,” he spoke aloud +involuntarily. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189' name='page_189'></a>189</span></p> +<p>“You call the roll,” observed Evans with a +sneer.</p> +<p>Ralph reflected rapidly. The last he had heard +of this precious brace of comrades, they had been +sentenced to prison for a series of bold thefts +from the railroad company. How they had gotten +free he could not decide. He fancied that they +had in some way escaped. At all events, they +were here, and the mind of the young engineer +instantly ran to one of two theories as to their +plans: Either the gang at Stanley Junction had +hired them to annoy or imperil him, or Slump and +Evans were inspired by motives of personal +revenge.</p> +<p>Ike Slump had been a trouble to Ralph when he +first began his ambitious railroad career. It was +Slump who had hated him from the start when +Ralph began his apprenticeship with the Great +Northern, as related in “Ralph of the Roundhouse.” +Ralph had detected Slump and others in +a plot to rob the railroad company of a lot of +brass journal fittings. From that time on through +nearly every stage of Ralph’s upward career, +Slump had gone steadily down the easy slope of +crime.</p> +<p>When he linked up with Evans, his superior +in years and cunning, he had several times sought +revenge against Ralph, and but for the vigilance +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190' name='page_190'></a>190</span> +and courage of the young engineer his life might +have paid the forfeit.</p> +<p>Evans acted promptly, wasting no words. He +had drawn a weapon from his pocket, and this he +handed to Slump. Then he turned a fierce, lowering +visage upon Ralph.</p> +<p>“Fairbanks,” he began, “you’re to go with us—where, +don’t matter, nor why. We owe you one, +as you’ve known for a long time, and if it wasn’t +that we’re here for the money there is in it, and +not revenge, I’d take pleasure in balancing the +months you got us in jail by crippling you so you’d +never pull another lever. This is business, though, +pure and simple. If you get hurt, you can blame +yourself. You’ve got to go with us.”</p> +<p>“Why have I?” demanded Ralph.</p> +<p>“Because we say so. There’s a man quite anxious +to see you.”</p> +<p>“Who is he?”</p> +<p>“That’s telling. He wants to ask you just one +question. A civil answer given, and you are free +as the wind. Slump, take this pistol, get up on that +pile of rails, and guard Fairbanks. If he starts +to run, shoot—understand?”</p> +<p>“I guess I do!” snarled the graceless Ike, climbing +to the top of the pile of rails. “When I think +of what this fellow has done to down me, it makes +my blood boil.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191' name='page_191'></a>191</span></p> +<p>“I’ll be back with a wagon in fifteen minutes,” +said Evans. “You take your medicine quietly, +Fairbanks, and nobody will get hurt. Try any +capers, and blame yourself.”</p> +<p>The speaker proceeded to the door of the shed, +opened it, and closed it after himself as if everything +was settled his way. Ike Slump, regarding +the captive with a venomous expression of face, +sat poising his weapon with the manner of a person +glad to have an occasion arise that would warrant +its use under the instructions given by his +partner.</p> +<p>Ralph summed up the situation and counted his +chances. It was apparent to him that only a bold, +reckless dash could avail him. There was no +chance to pounce upon and disarm the enemy, +however, and Ralph hesitated about seeking any +risks with a fellow who held him so completely at +his mercy.</p> +<p>“How does it seem?” jeered Ike, after a spell +of silence, but Ralph did not answer at once. He +had experienced no actual fear when so suddenly +seized. Now, although he could not disregard a +certain risk and menace in the custody of two of +his worst enemies, a study of the face of the youth +before him made the young railroader marvel as +to what he could find enticing in doing wrong, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192' name='page_192'></a>192</span> +he actually felt sorrow and sympathy, instead of +thinking of his own precarious situation.</p> +<p>“Slump,” spoke Ralph finally, “I am sorry for +you.”</p> +<p>“That so? Ho! ho! truly?” gibed the graceless +Ike. “What game are you up to? Don’t try +any, I warn you. You’re clever, Ralph Fairbanks, +but I’m slick. You see, the tables have turned. I +knew they would, some time.”</p> +<p>“What is it you fellows want of me, anyhow?” +ventured Ralph, hoping to induce Ike to disclose +something.</p> +<p>“Nothing to worry about,” declared Slump +carelessly. “You’ll soon know. Say, though, +Fairbanks, don’t stir the lion, don’t pull his tail.”</p> +<p>“You seem to be talking about menageries,” +observed Ralph.</p> +<p>“You’ll think you’re in one, sure enough, if you +rile Evans up. He won’t stand any fooling, you +hear me. Shut up, now. We’ll leave discussing +things till this job is over and done with. Then I +may have something to tell you on my own personal +account, see?” and Ike tried to look very +fierce and dangerous. “I’ll give you something to +think of, though. You’re going to tell a certain +man all you know about a certain fellow, and +you’re going to fix it so that the certain man can +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193' name='page_193'></a>193</span> +find the certain fellow, or you don’t run 999 for a +time to come, I’ll bet you.”</p> +<p>“Who is this certain man?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“I don’t know his name. He’s a stranger to +me.”</p> +<p>“And who is the certain fellow?”</p> +<p>“I know that one—I don’t mind telling you. +Then shut up. You’ve a way of worming things +out of people, and I’m not going to help you any—it’s +Marvin Clark.”</p> +<p>“I thought it was,” nodded the young engineer +reflectively; and then there was a spell of silence.</p> +<p>Ralph could only conjecture as to the significance +of Ike’s statement. There certainly was +some vivid interest that centered about the missing +son of the railroad president. That name, Marvin +Clark, had been used to lure Ralph to the old +shed. Now it was again employed. It took a +far flight of fancy to discern what connection +young Clark might have with these two outcasts—worse, +criminals. Ralph decided that their only +mission in any plot surrounding Clark was that of +hired intermediaries. He did not know why, but +somehow he came to the conclusion that Evans +and Slump were acting in behalf of the pretended +Lord Montague. Why and wherefore he could +not imagine, but he believed that through circumstances +now developing he would soon find out. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194' name='page_194'></a>194</span></p> +<p>Slump shifted around on the pile of rails a +good deal. They afforded anything but a comfortable +resting place. Finally he seemed to +decide that he would change his seat. He edged +along with the apparent intention of reaching a +heap of spike kegs. He never, however, took his +eye away from Ralph. Ike, too, held his weapon +at a continual menace, and gave his captive no +chance to act against him or run for the door.</p> +<p>Near the end of the pile of rails, Ike prepared +to descend backwards to the spike kegs. He +planned to do this without for an instant relaxing +his vigilance. As he reached out one foot to touch +the rails, there was an ominous grinding sound. +He had thrown his weight on one rail. The contact +pushed this out of place.</p> +<p>Once started, the whole heap began to shift. +Ralph, quite awed, saw the pile twist out of shape, +and, tumbling in their midst, was his watcher. +A scream of mortal agony rang through the old +shed, and Ike Slump landed on the floor with +half a ton of rails pinioning his lower limbs.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195' name='page_195'></a>195</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXIII_A_CRITICAL_MOMENT' id='CHAPTER_XXIII_A_CRITICAL_MOMENT'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> +<h3>A CRITICAL MOMENT</h3> +</div> +<p>If the rails under which Ike Slump lay had not +caught at their ends with other rails, his limbs +would have been crushed out of all semblance. +Ralph noted this at once, and as well the extreme +peril of the situation of the enemy who, a minute +previous had been gloating over his helplessness.</p> +<p>“Don’t move—for your life, don’t move!” +shouted Ralph, and he sprang forward in front of +the pinioned Ike Slump.</p> +<p>“I’m killed, I’m crushed to death!” bellowed +Ike. “Oh, help! help!”</p> +<p>The weapon had fallen from his hand. Both +arms wildly sawing the air, Ike shivered and +shrank like the arrant craven he was at heart.</p> +<p>“Do just as I say,” ordered the young engineer +breathlessly. “Don’t stir—don’t even breathe.”</p> +<p>Ralph had jumped to the end of the pile of +rails. His quick eye selected the one rail that was +the key of the tangle, which, directed wrong, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196' name='page_196'></a>196</span> +would sweep the mass with crushing force across +the pinioned body of Ike. The rails were short +lengths. But for this, Ralph, strong as he was, +could have done little or nothing. He got a grasp +upon the rail. Then he sung out.</p> +<p>“Slip when I lift.”</p> +<p>“I can’t,—I can’t!” wailed Ike.</p> +<p>“You’ve got to—now!”</p> +<p>Ralph gave a tug at the rail. There was an ominous +grind and quiver as the others interlocked. +He made a tremendous lift, one which strained +every sinew and started the perspiration from +every pore.</p> +<p>“I’m numbed, I’m all crushed!” snivelled Ike; +nevertheless he managed to crawl out, or rather +slip out from under the uplifted rail. He rolled +on the dirt floor of the shed, making a great ado. +It was just in time, for Ralph felt his eyes +starting from his head. He dropped the heavy +mass he had sustained and staggered back, well-nigh +overcome.</p> +<p>As his breath came back to him, Ralph glanced +particularly at Ike. The latter was completely absorbed +in his own sufferings. Ralph could discern +from the movements of his limbs that neither +of them was dislocated and apparently no bones +were broken. Still, he realized that they must be +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197' name='page_197'></a>197</span> +badly bruised and that Ike was disabled, at least +for a time.</p> +<p>“I’m going for help,” he said simply, and darted +from the shed. Ike yelled after him to protest +against desertion, but Ralph paid no attention. +He planned to get to friends while Evans was +still away, and he determined to get back with +friends by the time Evans returned.</p> +<p>Fogg was at the engine as Ralph ran along the +tracks, and one of the brakemen of the accommodation +was with him. Ralph rapidly apprized his +fireman of the situation.</p> +<p>“Slump and Evans, eh!” muttered Fogg, a deep +crinkle of belligerency crossing his forehead. “It +was Slump who stole half my chickens. As to +Evans, his mean treachery during the strike came +near getting me discharged. I thought they were +safe in jail.”</p> +<p>“So did I,” said Ralph. “They seem to have +escaped, though. Mr. Fogg, they are bad people +to have at large.”</p> +<p>“Bad! they’re of a dangerous breed, I tell you. +Simmons, hustle along with us.”</p> +<p>The fireman snatched up a furnace poker and +put down the track after Ralph, on the run. He +was the first to dart into the shed when they +reached it, and ran up against the others following, +after a swift glance about the place. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198' name='page_198'></a>198</span></p> +<p>“No one here,” he reported. “Gone—they’ve +slipped us—there’s no one in this shed.”</p> +<p>“Ah, I see,” spoke Ralph, with a look about the +place outside. “Here are wagon wheels,” and +then he cast his eye across the landscape.</p> +<p>It was so crowded with tracks, buildings and +trees beyond that he could not look far in the +distance. Ralph, however, was satisfied that +Evans, returning with the wagon, had made haste +to carry his helpless comrade to the vehicle and +get beyond reach of capture.</p> +<p>Fogg was for starting a pursuit, but Ralph convinced +him of the futility of this course, and they +returned to the locomotive. Once there, the fireman +went over the case in all its bearings. Ralph +had heretofore told him little concerning Fred +Porter and Marvin Clark. He had shown him +the photograph of the latter some days previous, +asking him to keep an eye out for its original. +Now he felt that some confidence was due his +loyal cab mate, and he recited the entire story of +what he knew and his surmises.</p> +<p>“You’ve got a square head, Fairbanks,” said +Fogg, “and I’ll rely on it every time. It’s logic +to think your way. Some fellow is mightily interested +in this young Clark. None too good is the +fellow, either, or he wouldn’t have to beat around +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199' name='page_199'></a>199</span> +the bush. No, he’s not straight, or he wouldn’t +hire such fellows as Evans and Ike Slump to help +him out.”</p> +<p>“I don’t understand it all,” confessed Ralph, +“but I can see that a good deal of mysterious interest +centers around this young Clark. I’m +going to try and get some word to Porter—and to +Zeph Dallas. They should know what’s going +on regarding Clark.”</p> +<p>The incident did not depart from the young engineer’s +mind during the return trip to Stanley +Junction, nor for several days later. With the +escape of Evans and Ike Slump, however, the +episode ended, at least for the time being. A +week and more passed by, and that precious pair +and their presumable employer, the pretended +Lord Montague, seemed to have drifted out of +existence quite as fully as had Zeph, Porter and +young Clark.</p> +<p>One morning there was an animated discussion +going on when Ralph entered the roundhouse. +He was greatly interested in it, although he did +not share in the general commotion.</p> +<p>The result of somebody’s “confidential” talk +with the division superintendent had leaked out—the +Great Northern was figuring to soon announce +its new train. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200' name='page_200'></a>200</span></p> +<p>“As I get it,” observed old John Griscom, “the +road is in for a bid on the service the Midland +Central is getting.”</p> +<p>“You don’t mean through business?” spoke an +inquiring voice.</p> +<p>“Sure, that,” assented the veteran railroader. +“We’ve beat them on the China & Japan Mail run +to Bridgeport, and now the scheme is to run the +Overland Express in from the north, catch her +up here, and cut out Bridgeport at a saving of fifty +miles on the regular western run.”</p> +<p>“Then they will have to take the Mountain +Division from Stanley Junction.”</p> +<p>“Just that, if they expect to make the time +needed,” assented Griscom. “Hey, Bill Somers,” +to a grizzled old fellow with one arm, who was +shaking his head seriously at all this confab, +“what you mooning about?”</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t take that run,” croaked Somers, “if +they gave me a solid gold engine with the tender +full of diamonds. I left an arm on that route. +Say, Dave Little and I had a construction run +over those sliding curves up and down the canyon +grades. It lasted a month. There were snowslides, +washouts, forest fires. There’s a part of +the road that’s haunted. There’s a hoodoo over +one section, where they kill a man about once a +week. Little lost his leg and his job there. My +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201' name='page_201'></a>201</span> +old arm is sleeping thereabouts in some ravine. +No Mountain Division run for me, boys!”</p> +<p>“You won’t get it, never fear,” observed a +voice.</p> +<p>“No, I know that,” retorted Somers a little +sadly, indicating his helplessness by moving his +stump of an arm, “but I pity the fellow who +does.”</p> +<p>Day by day after that there were new additions +to the fund of gossip concerning the new run. +It all interested Ralph. Nothing definite, however, +was as yet stated officially. Ralph and Fogg +continued on the accommodation, and there was +now little break in the regular routine of their +railroad experience.</p> +<p>Ralph had made a short cut across the switch +yards one morning, when a stirring episode +occurred that he was not soon to forget, nor others. +It took an expert to thread the maze of cars +in motion, trains stalled on sidings, and trains +arriving and departing.</p> +<p>It was the busiest hour of the day, and Ralph +kept his eye out sharply. He had paused for a +moment in a clear triangle formed by diverging +rails, to allow an outward bound train to clear +the switch, when a man on the lower step of the +last car waved his hand and hailed him.</p> +<p>It was the master mechanic, and Ralph was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202' name='page_202'></a>202</span> +pleased at the notice taken of him, and interested +to learn what the official wanted of him. The +master mechanic, alighting, started across the +tracks to join Ralph.</p> +<p>A train was backing on the one track between +them. Another train was moving out on the rails +still nearer to Ralph.</p> +<p>It was a scene of noise, commotion and confusion. +If the master mechanic had been a +novice in railroad routine, Ralph could not have +repressed a warning shout, for with his usual +coolness that official, timing all train movements +about him with his practiced eye, made a quick run +to clear the train backing in to the depot. He calculated +then, Ralph foresaw, to cross the tracks +along which the outgoing train was coming.</p> +<p>“He’s taking a risk—it’s a graze,” murmured +the young engineer in some trepidation.</p> +<p>The master mechanic was alert and nimble, +though past middle age. He took the chances +of a spry jump across the rails, his eye fixed on +the outgoing train, aiming to get across to Ralph +before it passed. In landing, however, he miscalculated. +The run and jump brought him to a dead +halt against a split switch. His foot drove into +the jaws of the frog as if wedged there by the +blow of a sledge-hammer.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203' name='page_203'></a>203</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXIV_THE_NEW_RUN' id='CHAPTER_XXIV_THE_NEW_RUN'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> +<h3>THE NEW RUN</h3> +</div> +<p>The young engineer stood shocked and motionless—only, +however, for the minutest fraction of +a moment. A railroad man’s life is full of sudden +surprises and situations calling for prompt, +decisive and effective action. Ralph had learned +this from experience.</p> +<p>The master mechanic was in the direct path of +the train backing into the depot. The one he had +just left and the one proceeding in the same direction +shut him in where there was no flagman or +switches. The train bearing down upon him was +on a rounding bend of rails, the locomotive not +in view, and there was no possible chance of signalling +the engineer.</p> +<p>As Ralph started forward the engine of the +outbound train passed him. He waited for one +car only to pass him. How he skimmed its rear +platform he never knew. It was a daring, reckless +spring, and he landed on the planking beyond +the rails on a dizzying slide. The next instant +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204' name='page_204'></a>204</span> +he was at the side of the imperilled railroad official.</p> +<p>“I’m caught!” gasped the master mechanic, +with a white but set face, as he recognized Ralph.</p> +<p>“Swing down!” cried the young railroader. +“It’s your only chance.”</p> +<p>The master mechanic barely suppressed a groan +as he toppled sideways. The twist to his ankle +made him wince. Ralph saw that his foot was +held as in a vise. No amount of pulling could get +him free. The train backing down was less than +thirty feet away.</p> +<p>“Hold steady,” breathed Ralph in a shaking +tone, and his hand dove for his pocket. He +recalled it all afterwards as a remarkable thing +that, standing there, a great peril hovering, there +seemed to flash through his mind a vivid photograph +of Torchy.</p> +<p>The call boy at the roundhouse was a great +friend of the young engineer. Ralph had been his +model, as was he his friend. He had loaned the +little fellow a book on railroading that had +delighted Torchy, and observing Ralph sharpening +a peg for his bumper with a decidedly blunt-edged +knife, he had begged the privilege of getting +it sharpened for him.</p> +<p>When he had returned the knife to Ralph the +day previous, Torchy declared that it was sharp +as a razor and would cut a hair in two. Ralph +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205' name='page_205'></a>205</span> +found this to be no exaggeration. In addition +Torchy had oiled the blade hinges. Now the +young engineer thought of Torchy and of the +knife as he drew it from his pocket, whipped open +its big blade and made a dive rather than a swoop +beside the body of the master mechanic.</p> +<p>“Pull back your foot!” cried Ralph, and made +a swoop. The flanges of the near truck wheels +were grinding on the edge of the rails not five +feet away. Ralph’s arm described a deft oval +movement. In one swift stroke he slit the shoe +from vamp to sole. He was conscious that the +foot of the master mechanic came free. Then +something struck Ralph, and he felt himself +tossed aside inert and unconscious by some stunning +force.</p> +<p>When he again opened his eyes Ralph caught +the vague hum of a lingo of switch pidgin, smut-faced, +blear-eyed men near by, himself stretched +at full length on sleeping car cushions on the floor +of the doghouse. He sat up promptly. There +was a momentary blur to his sight, but this quickly +passed away.</p> +<p>“Aha—only a bump—I told you so!” cried +bluff-hearted Tim Forgan, the foreman, jumping +from a bench and approaching Ralph.</p> +<p>“All right, Fairbanks?” questioned John Griscom, +coming to his side. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206' name='page_206'></a>206</span></p> +<p>“Right as a trivet,” reported Ralph, getting to +his feet. “What hit me?”</p> +<p>“The step of a coach, it seems,” explained +Forgan.</p> +<p>Ralph passed his hand over his head until it +rested on a lump and a sore spot near one ear. It +was wet and greasy where some liniment had been +applied.</p> +<p>“The master mechanic?” he asked, with a quick +memory of what had happened.</p> +<p>“Ankle wrenched,” said Griscom. “We made +him get to a surgeon on a litter. He minded +nothing but you, till he was sure that you were all +right.”</p> +<p>Ralph uttered a vast sigh of relief and satisfaction. +Forgan led him to his own special office +armchair. Half-a-dozen crowded about him, +curious for details of the accident no one of them +had witnessed.</p> +<p>Ralph gave them the particulars as he could +remember them. He asked for a drink of water, +felt of the bump again with a smiling grimace, +and arose to his feet.</p> +<p>“Same schedule, I suppose?” he inquired, starting +to go outside the doghouse and inspect the +bulletin board on which daily orders were posted.</p> +<p>“You don’t mean that you are going to make +your run to-day, Fairbanks?” asked the foreman. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207' name='page_207'></a>207</span></p> +<p>“Why not?”</p> +<p>“Used up.”</p> +<p>“Am I?” queried Ralph with a smile. “Then I +don’t know it. I fancy it was a narrow escape, +and I am grateful for it.”</p> +<p>“The master mechanic was looking for you +when he got frogged,” observed Griscom.</p> +<p>“Yes, I thought he was,” nodded Ralph.</p> +<p>“Here, Fairbanks,” broke in the foreman of +the roundhouse, “tack up this flimsy with the +rest, will you?”</p> +<p>Ralph took the tissue sheet tendered, stepped +through the open doorway into the roundhouse, +and set the sheet upon two tacks on the bulletin +board. He started to stroll over to No. 999 in +her stall.</p> +<p>“Hold on,” challenged Forgan; “that flimsy +just came in. It’s an important order. Better +read it, Fairbanks.”</p> +<p>“All right,” assented Ralph, and turning, cast +his eyes at the sheet. They distended wide, for +this is what he read:</p> +<p style='margin-left:1.0em; margin-right:1.0em; '>“No. 7, new train, Overland Express, Mountain +Division, 6.12 p. m., beginning Monday, the 15th. +Engineer: Fairbanks—Fireman: Fogg.”</p> +<p>“My!” was all that Ralph could gasp out. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208' name='page_208'></a>208</span></p> +<p>A great hearty hand, that of the old railroad +veteran, John Griscom, landed on Ralph’s shoulder +with a resounding slap.</p> +<p>“Fairbanks!” he roared in the ear of the bewildered +young engineer, “the top rung of the ladder +at last!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209' name='page_209'></a>209</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXV_THE_MOUNTAIN_DIVISION' id='CHAPTER_XXV_THE_MOUNTAIN_DIVISION'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2> +<h3>THE MOUNTAIN DIVISION</h3> +</div> +<p>“Well, lad, you’ve passed muster and got to +the head of the class!” proclaimed old John +Griscom.</p> +<p>“Oh, no,” dissented Ralph Fairbanks; “I’m just +started in to learn what real railroading means.”</p> +<p>“I’d call you a pretty apt student, then,” put in +Tim Forgan, foreman of the Stanley Junction +roundhouse.</p> +<p>“If there’s any man, boy or child in this doghouse +who says that young Fairbanks isn’t a +crackerjack, let him step right up here and take +his medicine!” vaunted Lemuel Fogg, playfully, +but with a proud look of admiration at the expert +young engineer.</p> +<p>“It’s the best part of it to know that you fellows +mean every word you say and believe in +me,” observed Ralph. “Your encouragement and +influence have boosted me up to the Overland +Express all right—I’ll try and never make you +ashamed of having backed me.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210' name='page_210'></a>210</span></p> +<p>Ralph Fairbanks felt good and showed it. His +friends shared in his emotions and sentiments, and +that made the present occasion doubly glad and +welcome. It was one of those rare moments, coming +only once in a while, when Ralph and his comrades +had an idle half hour to chat and compliment +each other in the doghouse.</p> +<p>The Overland Express had become an established +feature of the Great Northern—as little +Torchy had phrased it, “a howling success.” A +week had gone by, and now, seated in the midst of +his loyal friends, Ralph felt that he had made +good on a promotion that placed him at the top +notch of engineering service.</p> +<p>It was a big thing for a youth to gain that high +distinction—engineer of the Overland Express. +Looking back over the active, energetic career +that had led up to this, however, Ralph realized +that the climax had been reached a step at a time +through patience, perseverance and genuine hard +work. It was a proof to him that any person +following discipline and having as a motto precision +and finality, was bound to succeed. It was +a most enjoyable breathing spell to realize that +all the anxiety, dash and novelty of the experimental +trips over the Mountain Division were +past, and he now felt that he knew the route and +all its details perfectly. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211' name='page_211'></a>211</span></p> +<p>Ralph had found time to do some thinking +about his friends the past day or two. He had +seen two of them, for Van Sherwin and little +Limpy Joe had come down from the Short Line, +and had spent a pleasant day at the Fairbanks +home. Archie Graham, too, had put in an appearance. +The young inventor looked shamefaced and +distressed when he admitted all that Ralph had +guessed concerning the patent bellows—draft +improvement for locomotives.</p> +<p>“It only worked the wrong way,” explained +Archie; “next time––”</p> +<p>“Next time try it on some other railroad, +Archie,” advised Ralph. “They’re watching for +you with rifles down at the Great Northern roundhouse.”</p> +<p>“Huh!” snorted Archie contemptuously; +“they’ll be sorry when I strike some real big thing +and another line gets it. Now then, I’ve got something +brand new—the rocket danger signal.”</p> +<p>“Go right ahead experimenting with it, only +choose a spot where you won’t hurt any one,” +advised Ralph. “You’re all right, Archie,” +declared the young railroader, slapping his comrade +appreciatively on the shoulder, “only you are +too ambitious. I have no doubt that you will +some day hit something tangible. It’s a long, +patient road, though—this inventing things.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212' name='page_212'></a>212</span></p> +<p>“You bet it is,” assented Archie with force.</p> +<p>“And you attempt too grand beginnings. Take +something more simple and easy than trying to +revolutionize railroad service all at once, and +gradually work up to bigger things.”</p> +<p>“Say, there’s sense in that, an old inventor told +me the same thing,” said Archie; “but you see this +rocket danger signal of mine is a new thing. I’m +going to Bridgeport to-morrow to get some fixings +I have in my workshop there. You’ll hear +from me later, Fairbanks.”</p> +<p>Concerning Zeph, Fred Porter and Marvin +Clark the young railroader had heard nothing +since the last visit of Zeph to Stanley Junction. +Many a time he wondered what had become of +them. He had all kinds of theories as to their +continued mysterious absence, but no solution +offered as time wore on.</p> +<p>The Overland Express had not become an old +thing with Ralph. He felt that the charm and +novelty of running the crack train of the road +could never wear out. With each trip, however, +there came a feeling of growing strength and self-reliance. +Ralph had learned to handle the proposition +aptly, and he took a great pride in the time +record so far.</p> +<p>“It’s a lively run, and no mistake,” he remarked +to Fogg, as they started out from the depot that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213' name='page_213'></a>213</span> +evening. “We haven’t had any of the direful mishaps, +though, that those old doghouse croakers +predicted.”</p> +<p>“No,” admitted the fireman, but he accompanied +the word with a serious shake of the head; +“that’s to come. I’m trained enough to guess +that another frost or two will end in the season +that every railroad man dreads. Wait till the +whiskers get on the rails, lad, and a freshet or two +strikes 999. There’s some of those culverts make +me quake when I think of the big ice gorges likely +to form along Dolliver’s Creek. Oh, we’ll get +them—storms, snowslides and blockades. The +only way is to remember the usual winter warning, +‘extra caution,’ keep cool, and stick to the cab +to the last.”</p> +<p>Summer had faded into autumn, and one or two +sharp frosts had announced the near approach of +winter. The day before there had been a slight +snow flurry. A typical fall day and a moonlit night +had followed, however, and Ralph experienced the +usual pleasure as they rolled back the miles under +flying wheels. They took the sharp curves as +they ran up into the hills with a scream of triumph +from the locomotive whistle every time they +made a new grade.</p> +<p>“Waste of steam, lad, that,” observed Fogg, as +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214' name='page_214'></a>214</span> +they rounded a curve and struck down into a cut +beyond which lay the town of Fordham.</p> +<p>“Better to be safe,” responded Ralph. “There’s +a crossing right ahead where the old spur cuts in.”</p> +<p>“Yes, but who ever crosses it?” demanded the +fireman.</p> +<p>“Some one did two nights ago,” insisted Ralph. +“I’m positive that we just grazed a light wagon +crossing the roadway leading into the cut.”</p> +<p>“Then it was some stray farmer lost off his +route,” declared Fogg. “Why, that old spur has +been rusting away for over five years, to my recollection. +As to the old road beyond being a +highway, that’s nonsense. There’s no thoroughfare +beyond the end of the spur. The road ends +at a dismantled, abandoned old factory, and +nobody lives anywhere in this section.”</p> +<p>“Is that so?” Toot! toot! toot!</p> +<p>The whistle screeched out sharply. The fireman +stuck his head out of the window. Ralph +had already looked ahead.</p> +<p>“I declare!” shouted Fogg, staring hard. +“Swish—gone! But what was it we passed?”</p> +<p>Ralph did not speak. He sat still in a queer +kind of realization of what they both had just +seen, and in the retrospect. While he and his fireman +had been conversing, just ahead in the white +moonlight he had seen two human figures against +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215' name='page_215'></a>215</span> +the sky. It was a flashing glimpse only, for the +train was making a forty mile clip, but, dangling +from a tree overhanging the side of the cliff lining +the tracks on one side, he had made out two boys.</p> +<p>“The Canaries!” he murmured to himself, in +profound surprise and deep interest. “I even +heard them whistle.”</p> +<p>Ralph was so sure that the little swinging figures +he had seen were the lithe, strange creatures +who had been brought to Stanley Junction by +Zeph Dallas, that he thought about it all the rest +of the trip. He said nothing further to Fogg +about the circumstance, but he resolved to investigate +later on.</p> +<p>The young engineer tried to calculate ahead +how some day soon he could arrange to visit the +vicinity of the old Fordham spur. He was positive +that he had seen the two Canaries. Their +presence at the spur indicated that they must be +denizens of its neighborhood. This being true, +their presence might indicate the proximity of +Zeph Dallas. At least the strange young foreigners +might know what had become of the ardent +young “detective.”</p> +<p>Ralph made a good many inquiries of his fireman +as to the Fordham spur. Fogg simply knew +that it ran to an old ruined factory long since +abandoned. On the return trip Ralph kept a sharp +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216' name='page_216'></a>216</span> +lookout as they neared the cut. There was no second +appearance of the Canaries, however, nor the +next night, nor that following. The young engineer +found no opportunity of visiting the place, +but he kept his plan to do so constantly in mind.</p> +<p>It was two days later as he made the short cut +to the roundhouse about noon, that Ralph was +greeted by a new discovery that fairly took his +breath away. He had stepped aside to wait till +a locomotive with one car attached passed the +crossing. The peculiar oddness of the car at once +attracted his attention.</p> +<p>It was an old tourist car, used only on far western +railroads. He had seen its like only once or +twice before. Its inside shades were all drawn. +There was no sight of life about it. The locomotive +belonged to the northern branch of the Great +Northern, and had the right of way and was +tracked for the Mountain Division.</p> +<p>“That’s a queer layout,” soliloquized Ralph, as +the strange outfit flashed by. “Hello!”</p> +<p>The young engineer uttered a great shout. As +the car passed him he naturally glanced at its rear +platform.</p> +<p>Upon its step in solitary possession of the car +sat his long-lost friend—Zeph Dallas.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217' name='page_217'></a>217</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXVI_MYSTERY' id='CHAPTER_XXVI_MYSTERY'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> +<h3>MYSTERY</h3> +</div> +<p>Ralph Fairbanks saw Zeph Dallas distinctly +and recognized him. The latter looked up as the +young engineer uttered an irrepressible shout. He +started to wave his hand. Then he shrank down +on the car step as if seeking to hide himself.</p> +<p>Ralph stood gazing after the coach until it had +disappeared from view. From the look of things +he decided that Zeph was not casually stealing a +ride. Something about him suggested a sense of +proprietorship—a certain official aspect as if he +had a right to be where Ralph had seen him, was, +in fact, in charge of the car.</p> +<p>“A queer car—the queerest old relic I ever +saw,” mused Ralph. “I’m going to look into this +affair.”</p> +<p>“Say, Mr. Fairbanks,” spoke little Torchy as +the young engineer entered the roundhouse; “just +saw an old friend of ours.”</p> +<p>“Did you?” spoke Ralph. “You don’t mean +Zeph Dallas, do you?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218' name='page_218'></a>218</span></p> +<p>“That’s who,” nodded Torchy. “Big as life +on a single car run—and, say, such a car!”</p> +<p>“Do you know where it came from, or where it +was bound for?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“No, but I heard one of the fellows here say +it must have come over the north branch.”</p> +<p>“I thought so, too,” said Ralph, and after a +stroll about the place he went down to the dispatcher’s +office. Ralph knew the railroad routine +well, and he soon had a good friend working in +his interest. He was one of the assistants in the +office of the chief dispatcher. Ralph had loaned +him a little sum of money once when he was off on +the sick list. It had been paid back promptly, but +the man was a grateful fellow, and, under the +influence of a sense of obligation, was glad to +return the favor in any way he could.</p> +<p>“I’ll fix you out, Fairbanks,” he promised, and +he kept his word, for as Ralph sat in the doghouse +two mornings later the man came to its doorway, +peered in, and beckoned to his friend to come +outside.</p> +<p>“All right, Fairbanks,” he reported, holding a +card in his hand bearing some memoranda; “I’ve +got the tracer.”</p> +<p>“Good!” applauded Ralph.</p> +<p>“Here’s the dope—that engine and old tourist +car was a kind of a special—the craziest special, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219' name='page_219'></a>219</span> +though, that either you or I ever heard of.”</p> +<p>“Is that so?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“Listen, and see. She started on extra orders +from Brampton, the yards up on the north division. +Was chartered for a run via the Junction +to Fordham spur.”</p> +<p>“Indeed?” murmured Ralph thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“It was a plain twenty-four hours’ charter, +same as a picnic or an excursion special, but there +was only one passenger, conductor, or whatever +you might call him—a kid.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” nodded Ralph, “Zeph Dallas.”</p> +<p>“You could have knocked me down with a +feather when I found that out,” went on the man +from the dispatcher’s office, “although I didn’t +find it out until later. Yes, the train had been +rented and paid for by our old extra wiper here, +that dreamer, kicker and would-be detective, Dallas. +A pretty penny it must have cost. Where +did he get the money? Skylarking around the +country like a millionaire, and what did he pick +out that antiquated curiosity of a relic car for? +Well, it was the ‘Dallas Special,’ sure enough, and +it made its run just the same as if he was a railroad +president inspecting the lines.”</p> +<p>“I’m interested,” explained Ralph.</p> +<p>“I’m jiggergasted,” added the dispatcher; “I +got the line on their route by wire to Brampton. I +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220' name='page_220'></a>220</span> +found that the contract was to run to Fordham +spur and back to Brampton.”</p> +<p>“But what for?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“To deliver some special freight presumably,” +said the dispatcher. “At first I wondered if +things mightn’t be stirring up in a new business +way at the old factory. Thought maybe they +were going to do some blasting, and Dallas had +been hired to run through a load of giant powder. +Well, I was off in my guess.”</p> +<p>“How did you find that out?” asked Ralph.</p> +<p>“I caught the Brampton outfit on the return +trip. She had to switch here for an hour to get +the right of way north. I went over to the siding +and happened to know the engineer.”</p> +<p>“And where was Zeph?”</p> +<p>“They left him up at the spur.”</p> +<p>“H’m,” commented Ralph, feeling that Zeph +was indeed enveloping himself in a dense mist of +mystery.</p> +<p>“The engineer just grinned and haw-hawed +when I asked him about his run. He said that +Dallas had acted like a fellow on the most serious +business, the whole run through. When they got +to the spur he had them run in about two hundred +feet. Then he sat down by the side of the track, +watch in hand, solemnly waited for an hour to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221' name='page_221'></a>221</span> +pass by, and then told the engineer the trip was +ended and he was satisfied.”</p> +<p>“He didn’t explain––” began Ralph in +wonderment.</p> +<p>“Not a word. He just waved his hand grandly +good-by to the engineer, and passed out of sight. +It was a queer go—wasn’t it, now? The engineer +and fireman were dumfounded. They looked +into the car out of sheer curiosity.”</p> +<p>“And found?” pressed Ralph.</p> +<p>“Nothing.”</p> +<p>“What!”</p> +<p>“No—empty.”</p> +<p>Ralph was bewildered, and said so. The dispatcher +acknowledged the same sentiment, so had +the engineer and the fireman, he said.</p> +<p>“There you have it,” he remarked. “Queer +go, eh?”</p> +<p>“The strangest I ever heard of,” confessed +Ralph.</p> +<p>“You see, there’s no motive to trace,” observed +the dispatcher in a puzzled, baffled way. “Think +of the cost of it! Think of the mystery about +the whole affair! What is Dallas up to, and why +the spur?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” admitted the young engineer, +equally perplexed, “but I’m going to find out, +make sure of that.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222' name='page_222'></a>222</span></p> +<p>Things were certainly focusing around Fordham +spur, there was no doubt of it. That point of +the road was a decided point of interest to Ralph +every time the Overland Express neared the spur +on succeeding trips. He could only conjecture +that Zeph and the Canaries and others in whom +Zeph was interested, were located somewhere in +the vicinity. However, he caught no sight of any +person in the neighborhood of the spur as he +passed it. The thing was getting to be a worry +to the young engineer, but although he daily promised +himself he would manage some way to visit +the place, no favorable opportunity presented.</p> +<p>The run to Rockton and back had become +harder as cold weather came on. There was a call +for extra vigilance and close attention to routine. +A snowstorm caught them one night on the out +run, and Ralph found out that it was no trifle running +with blurred signals among the deep mountain +cuts. A great rain followed, then a freeze +up, then another heavy fall of snow, and the crew +of the Overland Express had a rigorous week +of it.</p> +<p>They had made the run to Rockton four hours +late on account of a broken bridge, and the next +evening when they reported at the roundhouse, +engineer and fireman found a cancelled trip +instead of readiness for their regular return run +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223' name='page_223'></a>223</span> +to Stanley Junction. The foreman was busy in +his office at the telephone, receiving continual +instructions from the dispatcher. He was sending +men and messengers in every direction. The exigencies +of the hour required blockade and wrecking +crews. The foreman looked bothered and +worried, and nodded to Ralph and Fogg in a serious +way as there was a lull at the ’phone.</p> +<p>“No run to-night, boys,” he announced. “You’d +better get back to your warm beds.”</p> +<p>“Blockade on the Mountain Division?” inquired +the fireman.</p> +<p>“Worse than that. The whole division is +annulled this Side of Fordham, and that’s over +half the run. Two bridges down, a freight wreck +at Wayne, and the mountain cuts are choked with +drifts. I doubt if you will break through for a +couple of nights.”</p> +<p>“H’m,” observed Fogg. “I fancied to-day’s +storm would shut up things.”</p> +<p>“It has. We’re half clear south, but west and +north there isn’t a wheel moving within fifty +miles.”</p> +<p>“We may as well make the best of it then, Fairbanks,” +said the fireman, “and get back to our +boarding house.”</p> +<p>The speaker started for the door and Ralph +followed him. Just then with a sudden roar of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224' name='page_224'></a>224</span> +the tempest outside the door was swept open. +Two snow-covered forms came in.</p> +<p>They were men closely muffled up, and they +paused for a moment to shake the snow from their +heavy enveloping overcoats. The foreman stared +curiously at the intruders. One of them threw +his overcoat open. Fogg grasped Ralph’s arm +with a start as he seemed to recognize the man.</p> +<p>“Hello!” he ejaculated in a sharp half whisper. +“What does this mean, Fairbanks? It’s the president +of the Great Northern.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225' name='page_225'></a>225</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXVII_THE_RAILROAD_PRESIDENT' id='CHAPTER_XXVII_THE_RAILROAD_PRESIDENT'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> +<h3>THE RAILROAD PRESIDENT</h3> +</div> +<p>As the person Fogg designated pushed back his +storm cap and came under the light of a bracket +lamp, Ralph observed that the fireman had been +correct in his surmise—it was Mr. Robert Grant, +president of the road. He busied himself removing +the snow from his garments and taking in the +warmth of the place, while his companion came +forward to the doghouse.</p> +<p>Ralph and Fogg drew to one side, curious and +interested. They now recognized the man who +had entered the roundhouse with the president as +Lane, superintendent of the Mountain Division of +the Great Northern. His manner was hurried, +worried and serious. A big load of responsibility +rested on his official shoulders, and he realized +it and showed it. He nodded brusquely to Ralph +and Fogg, and then went up to the desk where the +foreman sat. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226' name='page_226'></a>226</span></p> +<p>“Get the dispatcher’s office, Jones, and get it +quick,” he spoke tersely, and he added something +in an undertone. The foreman gave a slight start. +From the way he turned and stared at the companion +of the superintendent, Ralph could trace +that he had just been informed of his identity.</p> +<p>“Here you are,” said the foreman, after a minute +at the ’phone and handing the receiver to the +superintendent. The latter, without seating himself, +instantly called over the wire:</p> +<p>“This is Superintendent Lane. I want the chief +dispatcher.” A pause. “That you, Martin?—Yes?—Hold +the wire. The president of the road +wants to talk with you. Mr. Grant.”</p> +<p>Ralph knew the railroad president quite well. +It was a long time since he had seen him. That +was at headquarters, after Ralph and some of his +railroad friends had succeeded in rescuing a relative +of the official from a band of blackmailers. +Ralph did not believe that the president +would remember him. He was both surprised and +pleased when the official, glancing about in his +keen, quick way, smiled and mentioned his name +in greeting, nodded to Fogg, and then went up to +the foreman’s table.</p> +<p>Spread out upon this was an outline map of the +great Northern and all its branches. The foreman +had been utilizing it as an exigency chart. He had +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227' name='page_227'></a>227</span> +three pencils beside it—red, green and blue, and +these he had used to designate by a sort of railroad +signal system the condition of the lines running +out of Rockton. Red signified a wreck or +stalled train, green snow blockades, blue bridges +down and culverts under water. The map was +criss-crossed with other special marks, indicating +obstructions, flood damage and the location of +wrecking crews.</p> +<p>“As bad as that!” commented the president in a +grave tone, with a comprehensive glance over the +chart. Then he picked up the receiver.</p> +<p>“Martin, chief dispatcher,” he spoke through +the ’phone. “Give me the situation over the +Mountain Division in a nutshell.”</p> +<p>What followed took barely sixty seconds. The +information must have been as distressing as it +was definite, for Ralph noticed a deeper concern +than ever come over the serious face of the official.</p> +<p>“How’s the South Branch?” he inquired next.</p> +<p>“It’s useless, Mr. Grant,” put in the superintendent, +as the president dropped the receiver with a +disappointed and anxious sigh. After receiving +some further information he again swept his eye +over the map on the table. His fingers mechanically +followed the various divisions outlined there. +The foreman came to his side.</p> +<p>“Excuse me, Mr. Grant,” he spoke respectfully, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228' name='page_228'></a>228</span> +“but I’m in pretty close touch with conditions +along the lines. If I can explain anything––”</p> +<p>“You can. That is the old Shelby division?” +inquired the official, his finger point resting on a +line on the chart running due southeast between +the Mountain Division and the South Branch out +of Rockton.</p> +<p>“Yes, sir,” assented the foreman proudly. +“You know it has been practically abandoned +except for coal freight, since the south line was +completed. It’s used as a belt line now—transfer +at Shelby Junction.”</p> +<p>“What’s the condition.”</p> +<p>“Risky. We sent a freight over this morning. +It got through four hours late.”</p> +<p>“But it got through, you say?” spoke the official +earnestly. “Get the dispatcher again. Ask for +details on that division. Don’t lose any time.”</p> +<p>The foreman was busy at the ’phone for some +minutes. As he held the receiver suspended in his +hand, he reported to the railroad president:</p> +<p>“Snow and drifting wind reported between +here and Dunwood.”</p> +<p>“What else?”</p> +<p>“Look out for washouts and culverts and +bridges damaged by running ice and water +between Dunwood and Kingston.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229' name='page_229'></a>229</span></p> +<p>“That’s half the forty-five miles—go head.”</p> +<p>“Between Kingston and Shelby Junction water +out over the bottoms and flood coming down the +valley.”</p> +<p>“What’s on the schedule?”</p> +<p>“All schedules cancelled, not a wheel running +except on instructions from this end.”</p> +<p>“Give them,” spoke the official sharply. “Tell +the dispatcher to keep the line clear from end to +end. Wire to the stations that a special is coming +through, no stops.”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir,” assented the foreman in wonderment, +and executed the order. The official stood +by his side until he had completed the message. +Then he said:</p> +<p>“Tell the dispatcher to get Clay City, and find +out if the Midland Express over the Midland Central +left on time.”</p> +<p>“On time, sir, and their road is not much hampered,” +reported the foreman a few minutes later.</p> +<p>“All right,” nodded the official briskly. “Now +then, get out your best locomotive. Give her a +shallow caboose, and get her ready as speedily as +you can.”</p> +<p>The foreman ran out into the roundhouse. The +president took out his watch. To the infinite surprise +of Ralph he called out: +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230' name='page_230'></a>230</span></p> +<p>“This way, Fairbanks.”</p> +<p>He placed a hand on the shoulder of the young +engineer and looked him earnestly in the eye.</p> +<p>“I know you and your record,” he said. “Is +that your regular fireman?” indicating Fogg.</p> +<p>“Yes, sir, Lemuel Fogg. We’re on No. 999, +Overland Express.”</p> +<p>“Yes, yes, I know,” spoke Mr. Grant hurriedly. +“Mr. Fogg!”</p> +<p>The fireman approached promptly.</p> +<p>“My friends,” continued the official rapidly to +both. “I have got to reach Shelby station by +10.15. I must catch the Night Express on the +Midland Central at that point—without fail,” +added Mr. Grant with emphasis.</p> +<p>“Yes, sir,” nodded Fogg coolly.</p> +<p>“One minute late means the loss of a great big +fortune to the Great Northern. The minute on +time means anything in reason you two may ask, +if you make the run.”</p> +<p>“We are here to make the run, Mr. Grant, if +you say so,” observed Ralph.</p> +<p>“Sure,” supplemented Fogg, taking off his coat. +“Is that the order, sir?”</p> +<p>“I haven’t the heart to order any man on a run +a night like this,” responded the official, “but if +you mean it––” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231' name='page_231'></a>231</span></p> +<p>“Fairbanks,” shot out the fireman, all fire and +energy, “I’ll get 999 ready for your orders,” and +he was out into the roundhouse after the foreman +in a flash.</p> +<p>“Mr. Grant, you’re taking a long chance,” suggested +the division superintendent, coming up to +where the president and Ralph stood.</p> +<p>“Yes, and it must be any chances, Fairbanks,” +said the official. He was becoming more and more +excited each succeeding minute. “I’m too old a +railroader not to know what the run means. If +you start, no flinching. It’s life or death to the +Mountain Division, what you do this night.”</p> +<p>“The Mountain Division?” repeated Ralph, +mystified.</p> +<p>“Yes. It’s an official secret, but I trusted you +once. I can trust you now.” Mr. Grant drew a +folded paper from his pocket. “The president of +the Midland Central is on the Night Express, +returning from the west. The document I show +you must be signed before he reaches the city, +before midnight, or we lose the right to run over +the Mountain Division. If he once reaches the +city, interests adverse to the Great Northern will +influence him to repudiate the contract, which +only awaits his signature to make it valid. He +will sign it if I can intercept him. Can you make +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232' name='page_232'></a>232</span> +Shelby Junction, ninety miles away, in two hours +and fifteen minutes?”</p> +<p>“I will make Shelby Junction ahead of the +Night Express,” replied Ralph calmly, but with +his heart beating like a triphammer, “or I’ll go +down with 999.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233' name='page_233'></a>233</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXVIII_A_RACE_AGAINST_TIME' id='CHAPTER_XXVIII_A_RACE_AGAINST_TIME'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> +<h3>A RACE AGAINST TIME</h3> +</div> +<p>There was a thrill and fervor to the present +situation that appealed to Ralph mightily. The +brisk, animated procedure of the president of the +Great Northern had been one of excitement and +interest, and at its climax the young engineer +found himself stirred up strongly.</p> +<p>Mr. Grant smiled slightly at Ralph’s valiant +declaration. He drew the division superintendent +aside in confidential discourse, and Ralph went +to the bulletin board and began studying the routeing +of the Shelby division. Then he hurried out +into the roundhouse.</p> +<p>No. 999 was steamed up quickly. Ralph put the +cab in rapid order for a hard run. The foreman +hurried back to his office and telephoned to the +yards. When No. 999 ran out on the turntable +it was the foreman himself who opened the ponderous +outside doors.</p> +<p>“It’s some weather,” observed Fogg, as the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234' name='page_234'></a>234</span> +giant locomotive swung out into the heart of a +driving tempest.</p> +<p>The foreman directed their movements to a +track where a plug engine had just backed in with +a light caboose car. There was no air brake +attachment and the coupling was done quickly.</p> +<p>“All ready,” reported Ralph, as Mr. Grant came +up with the division superintendent.</p> +<p>The railroad president stepped to the platform +of the caboose, spoke a few words to his recent +companion in parting, and waved his hand signal-like +for the start.</p> +<p>Fogg had been over the Shelby division several +times, only once, however, on duty. He knew its +“bad spots,” and he tried to tell his engineer about +them as they steamed off the main track.</p> +<p>“There’s just three stations the whole stretch,” +he reported, “and the tracks are clear—that’s one +good point.”</p> +<p>“Yes, it is only obstruction and breakdowns we +have to look out for,” said Ralph. “Give us +plenty of steam, Mr. Fogg.”</p> +<p>“There’s heaps of fuel—a good six tons,” spoke +the fireman. “My! but the stack pulls like a blast +furnace.”</p> +<p>The cab curtains were closely fastened. It was +a terrible night. The snow came in sheets like +birdshot, a half-sleet that stung like hail as it cut +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235' name='page_235'></a>235</span> +the face. The rails were crusted with ice and the +sounds and shocks at curves and splits were ominous. +At times when they breasted the wind full +front it seemed as if a tornado was tugging at the +forlorn messenger of the night, to blow the little +train from the rails.</p> +<p>Fogg stoked the fire continuously, giving a +superabundant power that made the exhaust pop +off in a deafening hiss. They ran the first ten +miles in twelve minutes and a half. Then as they +rounded to the first station on the run, they were +surprised to receive the stop signal.</p> +<p>“That’s bad,” muttered the fireman, as they +slowed down. “Orders were for no stops, so this +must mean some kind of trouble ahead.”</p> +<p>“What’s this?” spoke Mr. Grant sharply, +appearing on the platform from the lighted +caboose. He held his watch in his hand, and his +pale face showed his anxiety and how he was evidently +counting the minutes.</p> +<p>An operator ran out from the station and +handed a tissue sheet to Ralph. The latter read +it by the light of the cab lantern. Mr. Grant +stepped down from the platform of the caboose.</p> +<p>“What is it, Fairbanks?” he asked somewhat +impatiently.</p> +<p>“There’s a great jam at the dam near Westbrook,” +reported Ralph. “Driftwood has crossed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236' name='page_236'></a>236</span> +the tracks near there, and the operator beyond +says it will be a blockade if the dam breaks.”</p> +<p>“Are you willing to risk it?” inquired the +official.</p> +<p>“That’s what we are here for,” asserted Ralph.</p> +<p>“Then don’t delay.”</p> +<p>“It’s getting worse and worse!” exclaimed +Fogg, after a half-hour’s further running.</p> +<p>Ralph never forgot that vital hour in his young +railroad experience. They were facing peril, they +were grazing death, and both knew it. The wind +was a hurricane. The snow came in great sheets +that at times enveloped them in a whirling cloud. +The wheels crunched and slid, and the pilot threw +up ice and snow in a regular cascade.</p> +<p>There was a sickening slew to the great locomotive +as they neared Westbrook. The track +dropped here to take the bridge grade, and as they +struck the trestle Fogg uttered a sharp yell and +peered ahead.</p> +<p>“We can’t stop now!” he shouted; “put on +every pound of steam, Fairbanks.”</p> +<p>Ralph was cool and collected. He gripped the +lever, his nerves set like iron, but an awed look +came into his eyes as they swept the expanse that +the valley opened up.</p> +<p>The trestle was fully half a foot under water +already, and the volume was increasing every +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237' name='page_237'></a>237</span> +moment. Fogg piled on the coal, which seemed to +burn like tinder. Twice a great jar sent him +sprawling back among the coal of the tender. The +shocks were caused by great cakes of ice or stray +timbers shooting down stream with the gathering +flood, and sliding the rails.</p> +<p>“She’s broke!” he panted in a hushed, hoarse +whisper, as they caught sight of the dam. There +was a hole in its center, and through this came +pouring a vast towering mass fully fifteen feet +high, crashing down on the bridge side of the obstruction, +shooting mammoth bergs of ice into the +air. As the sides of the dam gave way, they were +fairly half-way over the trestle. It seemed that +the roaring, swooping mass would overtake them +before they could clear the bridge.</p> +<p>The light caboose was swinging after its groaning +pilot like the tail of a kite. A whiplash sway +and quiver caused Ralph to turn his head.</p> +<p>The door of the caboose was open, and the light +streaming from within showed the railroad president +clinging to the platform railing, swaying +from side to side. He evidently realized the peril +of the moment, and stood ready to jump if a crash +came.</p> +<p>A sudden shock sent the fireman reeling back, +and Ralph was nearly thrown from his seat. The +locomotive was bumping over a floating piece of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_238' name='page_238'></a>238</span> +timber of unusual size, and toppling dangerously. +Then there came a snap. The monster engine +made a leap as if freed from some incubus.</p> +<p>“The caboose!” screamed Fogg, and Ralph felt +a shudder cross his frame. He could only risk a +flashing glance backward—the caboose was gone! +It had broken couplings, and had made a dive +down through the flood rack clear to the bottom +of the river, out of sight. Then No. 999 struck +the edge of the up grade in safety, past the danger +line, gliding along on clear tracks now.</p> +<p>Fogg stood panting for breath, clinging to his +seat, a wild horror in his eyes. Ralph uttered a +groan. His hand gripped to pull to stop, a sharp +shout thrilled through every nerve a message of +gladness and joy.</p> +<p>“Good for you—we’ve made it!”</p> +<p>The railroad president came sliding down the +diminished coal heap at the rear of the tender. +He had grasped its rear end, and had climbed over +it just as the caboose went hurtling to destruction. +The glad delight and relief in the eyes of the +young engineer revealed to the official fully his +loyal friendship. Fogg, catching sight of him, +helped him to his feet with a wild hurrah. The +fireman’s face shone with new life as he swung to +his work at the coal heap. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239' name='page_239'></a>239</span></p> +<p>“If we can only make it—oh, we’ve got to make +it now!” he shouted at Ralph.</p> +<p>There was a sharp run of nearly an hour. It +was along the lee side of a series of cuts, and the +snow was mainly massed on the opposite set of +rails. Ralph glanced at the clock.</p> +<p>“We’re ahead of calculations,” he spoke to +Fogg.</p> +<p>“We’re in for another struggle, though,” +announced the fireman. “When we strike the lowlands +just beyond Lisle, we’ll catch it harder than +ever.”</p> +<p>Ralph was reeking with perspiration, his eyes +cinder-filled and glazed with the strain of continually +watching ahead. There had not been a single +minute of relief from duty all the way from +Westbrook. They struck the lowlands. It was a +ten-mile run. First it was a great snowdrift, then +a dive across a trembling culvert. At one point +the water and slush pounded up clear across the +floor of the cab and nearly put out the fire. As +No. 999 rounded to higher grade, a tree half +blown down from the top of an embankment +grazed the locomotive, smashing the headlight and +cutting off half the smokestack clean as a knife +stroke.</p> +<p>Ralph made no stop for either inspection or +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240' name='page_240'></a>240</span> +repairs. A few minutes later an incident occurred +which made the occasion fairly bristle with new +animation and excitement.</p> +<p>Mr. Grant had sat quietly in the fireman’s seat. +Now he leaned over towards Ralph, pointing +eagerly through the side window.</p> +<p>“I see,” said Ralph above the deafening roar +of the wind and the grinding wheels, “the Night +Express.”</p> +<p>They could see the lights of the train ever and +anon across an open space where, about a mile distant, +the tracks of the Midland Central paralleled +those of the Shelby division of the Great Northern. +The young engineer again glanced at the +clock. His eye brightened, into his face came the +most extravagant soul of hope. It was dashed +somewhat as Fogg, feeding the furnace and closing +the door, leaned towards him with the words:</p> +<p>“The last shovel full.”</p> +<p>“You don’t mean it!” exclaimed Ralph.</p> +<p>The fireman swept his hand towards the empty +tender.</p> +<p>“Eight miles,” said Ralph in an anxious tone. +“With full steam we could have reached the Junction +ten minutes ahead of the Express. Will the +fire last out?”</p> +<p>“I’ll mend it some,” declared the fireman. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241' name='page_241'></a>241</span> +“Fairbanks, we might lighten the load,” he added.</p> +<p>“You mean––”</p> +<p>“The tender.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Ralph, “cut it loose,” and a minute +later the railroad president uttered a sudden cry +as the tender shot into the distance, uncoupled. +Then he understood, and smiled excitedly. And +then, as Fogg reached under his seat, pulled out a +great bundle of waste and two oil cans, and flung +them into the furnace, he realized the desperate +straits at which they had arrived and their forlorn +plight.</p> +<p>Conserving every ounce of steam, all of his +nerves on edge, the young engineer drove No. 999 +forward like some trained steed. As they rounded +a hill just outside of Shelby Junction, they could +see the Night Express steaming down its tracks, +one mile away.</p> +<p>“We’ve made it!” declared Ralph, as they came +within whistling distance of the tower at the interlocking +rails where the two lines crossed.</p> +<p>“Say,” yelled Fogg suddenly, “they’ve given the +Express the right of way.”</p> +<p>This was true. Out flashed the stop signal for +No. 999, and the white gave the “come on” to +the Night Express. There was no time to get to +the tower and try to influence the towerman to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242' name='page_242'></a>242</span> +cancel system at the behest of a railroad president.</p> +<p>“You must stop that train!” rang out the tones +of the official sharply.</p> +<p>“I’m going to,” replied Fairbanks grimly.</p> +<p>He never eased up on No. 999. Past the tower +she slid. Then a glowing let up, and then, disregarding +the lowered gates, she crashed straight +through them, reducing them to kindling wood.</p> +<p>Squarely across the tracks of the incoming train +the giant engine, battered, ice-coated, the semblance +of a brave wreck, was halted. There she +stood, a barrier to the oncoming Express.</p> +<p>Ralph jumped from his seat, reached under it, +pulled out a whole bunch of red fuses, lit them, +and leaning out from the cab flared them towards +the oncoming train, Roman-candle fashion.</p> +<p>The astonished towerman quickly changed the +semaphore signals. Her nose almost touching No. 999, +the Express locomotive panted down to a +halt.</p> +<p>“You shall hear from me, my men,” spoke the +railroad president simply, but with a great quiver +in his voice, as he leaped from the cab, ran to the +first car of the halted express and climbed to its +platform.</p> +<p>Ralph drove No. 999 across the switches. The +Express started on its way again. In what was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243' name='page_243'></a>243</span> +the proudest moment of his young life, the loyal +engineer of staunch, faithful No. 999 saw the +president of the Great Northern take off his hat +and wave it towards himself and Fogg, as if with +an enthusiastic cheer.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244' name='page_244'></a>244</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXIX_ZEPH_DALLAS_AGAIN' id='CHAPTER_XXIX_ZEPH_DALLAS_AGAIN'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> +<h3>ZEPH DALLAS AGAIN</h3> +</div> +<p>“Say—Engineer Ralph—Mr. Fairbanks!”</p> +<p>A spluttering, breathless voice halted Ralph on +his way from the depot to the roundhouse. It was +the call boy, Torchy, the young engineer ascertained, +as he waited till the excited juvenile came +up to him.</p> +<p>“What’s the trouble, Torchy?” he inquired.</p> +<p>Torchy caught his breath, but the excited flare +in his eyes did not diminish.</p> +<p>“Say!” he spluttered out; “I was looking for +you. That car, the one they use out west in Calfrancisco, +Francifornia, no, I mean Calfris—rot! +out west, anyway—tourist car.”</p> +<p>“I know, yes,” nodded Ralph.</p> +<p>“Well, you remember the queer old fossil’s special +to Fordham spur? That fellow Zeph Dallas +was on it.”</p> +<p>“I remember distinctly; go ahead.”</p> +<p>“There’s another car just like that one in the +yards now, right this minute.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245' name='page_245'></a>245</span></p> +<p>“You don’t say so? I didn’t suppose that more +than one antiquated relic of that kind was in existence,” +said Ralph.</p> +<p>“Come on and see,” invited Torchy. “This last +car must have come from the north this morning, +just like the other one did. It’s bunched up with +a lot more of the blockade runners, delayed +freight, you know, and they’ve made up a train +of it and others for the Mountain Division.”</p> +<p>Besides being intensely interested, Ralph had +time to spare. It was nearly a week after the +Shelby Junction incident. The great storm had +crippled some of the lines of the great Northern +to a fairly alarming extent. The Mountain Division +had felt the full force of the blizzard and +had suffered the most extensively. There were +parts of the division where it took several days to +repair culverts, strengthen trestles and replace +weakened patches of track. The Overland +Express missed several runs, but had got back on +fair schedule two days before. A new storm had +set in that very morning, and as Ralph followed +Torchy there were places where the drifts were +up to their knees.</p> +<p>“There you are,” announced his companion, +pausing and pointing over at a train on a siding. +“Isn’t that last car the very picture of the one +that Dallas was on?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246' name='page_246'></a>246</span></p> +<p>“Remarkably so,” assented Ralph.</p> +<p>“I’ve got to get to the roundhouse,” explained +the little fellow, turning back in his tracks. +“Thought you’d want to know about that car, +though.”</p> +<p>“I do, most emphatically,” declared Ralph, “and +greatly obliged to you for thinking of it.”</p> +<p>Ralph approached the train on the siding. It +was one of the queerest he had ever seen. There +was a motley gathering of every class of freight +cars on the line. As he passed along he noted the +destination of some of the cars. No two were +marked for the same point of delivery. It was +easy to surmise that they were victims of the +recent blockade.</p> +<p>Ralph came up to the rear car of the incongruous +train with a good deal of curiosity. It was +not the car that had made that mysterious run to +Fordham Spur with Zeph Dallas, although it +looked exactly like it. The present car was newer +and more staunch. A fresh discovery made Ralph +think hard. The car was classified as “fast +freight,” and across one end was chalked its presumable +destination.</p> +<p>“Fordham Spur,” read the young engineer. +“Queer—the same as the other car. I wonder +what’s aboard?”</p> +<p>Just like the other car, the curtains were closely +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247' name='page_247'></a>247</span> +drawn in this one. There was no sign of life +about the present car, however. Smoke curled +from a pipe coming up through its roof. No one +was visible in the immediate vicinity except a flagman +and some loiterers about a near switch shanty. +Ralph stepped to the rear platform of the car. He +placed his hand on the door knob, turned it, and +to his surprise and satisfaction the door opened +unresistingly.</p> +<p>He stepped inside, to find himself in a queer situation. +Ralph stood in the rear partitioned-off +end of the car. It resembled a homelike kitchen. +An oil stove stood on a stand, and around two +sides of the car were shelves full of canisters, +boxes and cans, a goodly array of convenient eatables. +Lying asleep across a bench was a young +colored man, who wore the cap and apron of a +dining-car cook.</p> +<p>Ralph felt that he was intruding, but his curiosity +overcame him. He stepped to the door of +the partition. Near its top was a small pane of +glass, and through this Ralph peered.</p> +<p>“I declare!” he exclaimed under his breath, and +with a great start.</p> +<p>A strange, vivid picture greeted the astonished +vision of the young railroader. If the rear part of +the tourist car had suggested a modern kitchen, +the front portion was a well-appointed living +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248' name='page_248'></a>248</span> +room. It had a stove in its center, and surrounding +this were all the comforts of a home. There +was a bed, several couches, easy chairs, two illuminated +lamps suspended from side brackets, and +the floor was covered with soft, heavy rugs.</p> +<p>Upon one of the couches lay a second colored +man, apparently a special car porter, and he, like +the cook, was fast asleep. All that Ralph had so +far seen, however, was nothing to what greeted +his sight as his eyes rested on the extreme front +of the car.</p> +<p>There, lying back in a great luxurious armchair, +was a preternaturally thin and sallow-faced man. +His pose and appearance suggested the invalid or +the convalescent. He lay as if half dozing, and +from his lips ran a heavy tube, connected with a +great glass tank at his side.</p> +<p>Such a picture the mystified Ralph had never +seen before. He could not take in its full meaning +all in a minute. His puzzled mind went groping +for some reasonable solution of the enigma. +Before he could think things out, however, there +was a sound at the rear door of the car. Some +one on the platform outside had turned the knob +and held the door about an inch ajar, and Ralph +glided towards it. Through the crack he could +see three persons plainly. Ralph viewed them +with wonderment. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249' name='page_249'></a>249</span></p> +<p>He had half anticipated running across Zeph +Dallas somewhere about the train, but never this +trio—Ike Slump, Jim Evans and the man he had +known as Lord Montague. The two latter were +standing in the snow. Ike was on the platform. +He was asking a question of the man who had +posed as a member of the English nobility:</p> +<p>“Be quick, Morris; what am I to do?”</p> +<p>Lord Montague, <i>alias</i> Morris, with a keen +glance about him, drew a heavy coupling pin from +under his coat.</p> +<p>“Take it,” he said hastily, “and get inside that +car.”</p> +<p>“Suppose there’s somebody hinders me?”</p> +<p>“Didn’t I tell you they were all asleep?” +demanded Morris. “You’ll find a man near a big +glass tank.”</p> +<p>“See here,” demurred Ike; “I don’t want to get +into any more trouble. When it comes to striking +a man with that murderous weapon––”</p> +<p>“Murderous fiddlesticks!” interrupted Morris. +“You are to hurt nobody. Smash the tank, that’s +all—run out, join us, and it’s a hundred dollars +cash on the spot, and a thousand when I get my +fortune.”</p> +<p>“Here goes, then,” announced Ike Slump, pushing +open the door, “but what you want to go to all +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250' name='page_250'></a>250</span> +this risk and trouble for to smash an old glass +tank, I can’t imagine.”</p> +<p>“You’ll know later,” muttered Morris grimly.</p> +<p>Ralph did not know what the three rascals were +up to, but he realized that it must be something +bad. Putting two and two together, thinking +back a bit of all that had occurred concerning +Zeph, the Clark boy, and the Slump crowd, he +began to fancy that tourist cars played a big part +in the programme, whatever that programme was. +The smashing of the glass tank, Morris had +announced, was worth a hundred dollars to Ike—might +lead to a fortune, he had intimated.</p> +<p>“There’s some wicked plot afoot,” decided +Ralph, “so—back you go, Ike Slump!”</p> +<p>As Ike stepped across the threshold of the car +the young engineer acted. He had grabbed the +coupling pin from Ike’s hand, dropped it, grasped +Ike next with both hands and pressed him backwards +to the platform. Ike struggled and himself +got a grip on Ralph. The latter kept forcing +his opponent backwards. Ike slipped and went +through the break in the platform railing where +the guard chain was unset, and both toppled to the +ground submerged in three feet of snow.</p> +<p>Ralph had landed on top of Ike and he held him +down, but the cries of his adversary had brought +Evans and Morris to his rescue. The former was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251' name='page_251'></a>251</span> +pouncing down upon Ralph with vicious design +in his evil face, when a new actor appeared on the +scene.</p> +<p>It was Zeph Dallas. He came running to the +spot with his arms full of packages, apparently +some supplies for the tourist car which he had just +purchased of some store on Railroad Street. +These he dropped and his hand went to his coat +pocket. The amateur detective was quite as practical +and businesslike as did he appear heroic, as +he drew out a weapon.</p> +<p>“Leave that fellow alone, stand still, or you’re +goners, both of you,” panted Zeph. “Hi! hello! +stop those men! They’re conspirers, they’re +villains!”</p> +<p>Zeph’s fierce shouts rang out like clarion notes. +They attracted the attention of the crowd around +the switch shanty, and as Evans and Morris +started on a run three or four of the railroad +loiterers started to check their flight. As Zeph +helped Ralph yank Ike Slump to his feet and drag +him along, the young engineer observed that +Evans and Morris were in the custody of the +switch shanty crowd.</p> +<p>Two men coming down the track hastened over +to the crowd. Ralph was glad to recognize them +as Bob Adair, the road detective, and one of the +yards watchmen. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_252' name='page_252'></a>252</span></p> +<p>“What’s the trouble here, Fairbanks?” inquired +Adair, with whom the young engineer was a prime +favorite and an old-time friend.</p> +<p>“Dallas will tell you,” intimated Ralph.</p> +<p>“Yes,” burst out Zeph excitedly; “I want these +three fellows arrested, Mr. Adair. They must be +locked up safe and sound, or they’ll do great +harm.”</p> +<p>“Ah—Evans? Slump?” observed Adair, recognizing +the twain who had caused the Great Northern +a great deal of trouble in the past. “They’ll +do on general principles. Who’s this other +fellow?”</p> +<p>“He’s the worst of the lot, the leader. He’s an +awful criminal,” declared Zeph with bolting eyes +and intense earnestness. “Mr. Adair, if you let +that crowd go free, you’ll do an awful wrong.”</p> +<p>“But what’s the charge?”</p> +<p>“Conspiracy. They’re trying to––”</p> +<p>“Well, come up to the police station and give +me something tangible to go on, and I’ll see that +they get what’s coming to them,” promised the +road detective.</p> +<p>“I can’t—say, see! my train. I’ve got to go +with that train, Ralph,” cried Zeph in frantic agitation. +“Try and explain, don’t let those fellows +get loose for a few hours—vast fortune—Marvin +Clark—Fred Porter—Fordham Cut—big plot!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253' name='page_253'></a>253</span></p> +<p>In a whirl of incoherency, Zeph dashed down +the tracks, for the train with the tourist car had +started up. He had just time enough to gather up +his scattered bundles and reach the platform of the +last car, as the mixed train moved out on the main +line and out of sight, leaving his astonished auditors +in a vast maze of mystery.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254' name='page_254'></a>254</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXX_SNOWBOUND' id='CHAPTER_XXX_SNOWBOUND'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2> +<h3>SNOWBOUND</h3> +</div> +<p>Chug!</p> +<p>“A snowslide!” exclaimed Ralph, in dismay.</p> +<p>“An avalanche!” declared Fogg. “Dodge—something’s +coming!”</p> +<p>With a crash both cab windows were splintered +to fragments. The young engineer of No. 999 +was nearly swept from his seat as there poured in +through the gap a volume of snow.</p> +<p>They had struck an immense snowdrift +obliquely, but the fireman’s side caught the brunt. +As the powerful locomotive dove into the drift, +the snow packed through the denuded window-frame +at the fireman’s seat like grain into a bin. +A solid block of snow was formed under the terrific +pressure of the compact. It lodged against +the coal of the tender with a power that would +probably have crushed the life out of a person +standing in the way.</p> +<p>“Whew!” shouted Fogg. “Lucky I ducked.”</p> +<p>Ralph stopped the engine, which had been going +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_255' name='page_255'></a>255</span> +slower and slower each minute of the past hour. +They had gotten about half the distance to Rockton. +Long since, however, both engineer and fireman +had fully decided that they would never make +terminus that night.</p> +<p>They had left Stanley Junction under difficulties. +The snow was deep and heavy, and there +was a further fall as they cleared the limits. There +was no wind, but the snow came down with blinding +steadiness and volume, and at Vernon they +got the stop signal.</p> +<p>The operator stated that the line ahead leading +past Fordham Cut was impassable. The passenger +was stalled ten miles away, and orders from +Rockton were to the effect that the Overland +Express should take the cut-off. This diverged +into the foothills, where there were no such deep +cuts as on the direct route, and where it was hoped +the drifts would not be so heavy.</p> +<p>Neither Ralph nor Fogg was familiar with their +new routing. For an hour they made fair progress. +Then they began to encounter trouble. +They did not run a yard that the pilot wheels were +not sunk to the rims in snow. Landmarks were +blotted out. As they found themselves blindly +trusting to the power of the giant locomotive to +forge ahead despite obstacles, they were practically +a lost train. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256' name='page_256'></a>256</span></p> +<p>It was now, as they dove bodily into a great +drift choking up an embankment cut, that they +realized that they had reached a definite angle in +their experience of the run, and were halted for +good.</p> +<p>No. 999 barely pushed her nose far enough out +of the enveloping drift, to enable Ralph by the +aid of the glaring headlight to discern other drifts +further ahead.</p> +<p>“We’re stalled, that’s dead sure,” declared +Fogg. “Signal the conductor and see what the +programme is.”</p> +<p>It was some time after the tooting signal that +the conductor put in an appearance. He did not +come along the side track. That was fairly impossible, +for it would have been sheer burrow progress. +He came over the top of the next car to the +tender, a blind baggage, and as he climbed over +the coal in the tender his lantern smashed and he +presented a pale and anxious face to the view of +the cab crew.</p> +<p>“What’s the prospects?” he inquired in a discouraged +tone.</p> +<p>“It looks like an all-night lay-over,” reported +Ralph.</p> +<p>“There’s nothing ahead, of course,” said the +conductor calculatingly. “There’s a freight due +on the in track. Behind us a freight was to come, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_257' name='page_257'></a>257</span> +provided No. 11 put out from Stanley Junction +to-night.”</p> +<p>“Which I doubt,” said Fogg.</p> +<p>“If we could back to Vernon we’d be in better +touch with something civilized,” went on the +conductor. “The wires are all down here.”</p> +<p>“I can try it,” replied Ralph, “but without a +pilot the rear car will soon come to a bump.”</p> +<p>“Give her a show, anyway,” suggested the +conductor.</p> +<p>Two minutes’ effort resulted in a dead stop. +The young engineer knew his business well enough +to understand that they were in danger of running +the train off the track.</p> +<p>“I’ll send a signal back, if a man can get back,” +decided the conductor.</p> +<p>The backing-up had left a clear brief space +before the train. Ralph took a lantern and left his +fireman in charge of the locomotive. He was +gone about ten minutes, and came back panting +and loaded down with the heavy, clinging snow.</p> +<p>“May as well bunk in right here,” ventured +Fogg.</p> +<p>“That’s it,” answered Ralph definitely. “It’s +drift after drift ahead. No use disabling the locomotive, +and we simply can’t hope to dig our way +out.”</p> +<p>The conductor came forward again looking miserable. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258' name='page_258'></a>258</span> +A red lantern had been planted as far +down the tracks as the brakeman dared to go. +The conductor and Ralph held a conversation. +Fogg, a veteran in the service, was appealed to +for a final decision.</p> +<p>“You’ve hit it,” said the fireman sagely and +with emphasis. “It’s a permanent blockage, and +our only chance is for the Great Northern to find +us out or for us to wait until the snow melts.”</p> +<p>“If this snow keeps up we’ll be buried under,” +said the conductor.</p> +<p>“Well, we’ve got to make the best of it,” +advised Fogg. “If we can make it, build a big +fire ahead there as a warning or signal, although +I don’t believe there’s much stirring at either end. +Then it’s just a question of food and warmth.”</p> +<p>“Food!” repeated the conductor, who was fat +and hearty and looked as if he never willingly +missed his meals; “where in the world are we to +get food? They cut the diner off at the Junction, +and there probably isn’t a farmhouse or station +along this dreary waste for miles.”</p> +<p>“Well, I fancy we’ll have to stand the hunger,” +said Ralph. “As to the heat, that’s an essential +we mustn’t neglect. We had better shut off the +steam pipes, keeping only a little fire in the furnace +and starting the stoves in the coaches.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259' name='page_259'></a>259</span></p> +<p>“Yes, we might last out on that plan,” nodded +the conductor, glancing over the tender.</p> +<p>Ralph pulled to a spot about two hundred feet +ahead, where the advance and retreat of the train +had cleared a space alongside the rails, and the +conductor went back to the coaches.</p> +<p>Ralph adjusted the steam pipes so they would +not freeze, and Fogg banked the fire. Then they +got to the ground with rake and shovel, and skirmished +around to see what investigation might +develop.</p> +<p>Despite the terrible weather and the insecurity +of their situation, the train crew were soon cheerily +gathering wood up beyond the embankment. +They had to dig deep for old logs, and they broke +down tree branches. Then they cleared a space +at the side of the track and started a great roaring +fire that flared high and far.</p> +<p>“Nobody will run into that,” observed Fogg +with a satisfied chuckle.</p> +<p>“And it may lead a rescue party,” suggested +Ralph.</p> +<p>Some of the men passengers strolled up to the +fire. Fear and anxiety had given way to a sense +of the novelty of the situation. Ralph assured +them that their comfort and safety would be +looked after. He promised a foraging party at +daylight in search of food supplies. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260' name='page_260'></a>260</span></p> +<p>“They’re talking about you back there in the +coaches, Fairbanks,” reported the conductor a +little later. “They know about your arrangements +for their comfort, and they’re chatting and +laughing, and taking it all in like a regular picnic.”</p> +<p>“I suppose you’ve been giving me undue credit, +you modest old hero!” laughed Ralph.</p> +<p>“Hello!” suddenly exclaimed Fogg; “now, +what is that?”</p> +<p>All hands stared far to the west. A dim red +flame lit the sky. Then it appeared in a new spot, +still far away. This was duplicated until there +were vague red pencils of light piercing the sky +from various points of the compass.</p> +<p>“It’s queer,” commented the conductor. +“Something’s in action, but what, and how?”</p> +<p>“There!” exclaimed Fogg, as suddenly seemingly +just beyond the heavy drift immediately in +front of the train the same glare was seen.</p> +<p>“Yes, and here, too!” shouted out the conductor, +jumping back.</p> +<p>Almost at his feet something dropped from +midair like a rocket, a bomb. It instantly burst +out in a vivid red flame. Ralph investigated, and +while thus engaged two more of the colored messengers, +projectiles, fireworks, whatever they +were, rained down, one about half-way down the +train, the other beyond it. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261' name='page_261'></a>261</span></p> +<p>The young engineer was puzzled at first, but he +soon made out all that theory and logic could +suggest. There was no doubt but that some one +at a distance had fired the queer little spheres, +which were made of the same material as the regular +train fuse, only these burned twice as long +as those used as railroad signals, or fully twenty +minutes.</p> +<p>“I make it out,” explained Ralph to the conductor, +“that somebody with a new-fangled device +like a Roman candle is sending out these bombs as +signals.”</p> +<p>“Then we’re not alone in our misery,” +remarked Fogg.</p> +<p>“First they went west, then they came this +way,” continued Ralph. “I should say that it +looks as if the signal is on a train stalled like us +about a mile away. I’ll soon know.”</p> +<p>Ralph got into the cab. In a minute or two No. 999 +began a series of challenge whistles that +echoed far and wide.</p> +<p>“Hark!” ordered Fogg, as they waited for a +reply.</p> +<p>“A mere peep,” reported the conductor, as a +faint whistle reached their strained hearing above +the noise of the tempest.</p> +<p>“Yes,” nodded Fogg, “I figure it out. There’s +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262' name='page_262'></a>262</span> +a train somewhere near with the locomotive nigh +dead.”</p> +<p>“If it should be the east freight stalled,” suggested +Ralph to the conductor, “you needn’t +worry about those hungry children in the coaches, +and that baby you told about wanting milk.”</p> +<p>“No, the east freight is a regular provision +train,” put in the fireman. “If we could reach +her, we’d have our pick of eatables.”</p> +<p>It was two hours later, and things had quieted +down about the snowed-in train, when a series of +shouts greeted Ralph, Fogg and the conductor, +seated on a broken log around the fire at the side +of the tracks.</p> +<p>“What’s this new windfall!” exclaimed Fogg.</p> +<p>“More signals,” echoed the conductor, staring +vaguely.</p> +<p>“Human signals, then,” supplemented Ralph. +“Well, here’s a queer arrival.”</p> +<p>Five persons came toppling down the side of the +embankment, in a string. They were tied together +at intervals along a rope. All in a mix-up, they +landed helter-skelter in the snow of the cut. They +resembled Alpine tourists, arrived on a landslide.</p> +<p>“Why, it’s Burton, fireman of the east freight!” +shouted the conductor, recognizing the first of the +five who picked himself up from the snow.</p> +<p>“That’s who!” answered the man addressed, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263' name='page_263'></a>263</span> +panting hard. “We’re stalled about a mile down +the cut. Coal given out, no steam. Saw your fire, +didn’t want to freeze to death quite, so––”</p> +<p>“We guessed that you were the Overland,” +piped in a fresh, boyish voice. “Packed up some +eatables, and here we are. How do you like my +new railroad rocket signals, Engineer Fairbanks?” +and Archie Graham, the young inventor, +picked himself up from the snow.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264' name='page_264'></a>264</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXXI_CONCLUSION' id='CHAPTER_XXXI_CONCLUSION'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> +<h3>CONCLUSION</h3> +</div> +<p>One hour after daybreak the vicinity of the +snowbound Overland Express resembled a picture, +rather than a forlorn blockade.</p> +<p>The lone adventurers who had made the trip +from the stalled freight had been a relief party +indeed. The engineer was a railroader of long +experience, and he had thought out the dilemma +of the refugees. He and his companions had +broken open a freight car and had brought each a +good load. There was coffee, sugar, crackers, +canned meats, a ham, and, what was most welcome +to anxious mothers and their babes, a whole +crate of condensed milk.</p> +<p>There never was a more jolly breakfast than +that aboard the snowbound coaches. There was +plenty to eat and to spare all around, and plenty +more at the stalled freight, everybody knew. In +front of the engine many a merry jest went the +rounds, as the train crews and some of the passengers +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265' name='page_265'></a>265</span> +broiled pieces of succulent ham on the +end of pointed twigs.</p> +<p>“You see, it was this way,” Archie Graham +explained to the young engineer of No. 999. “I +was just watching a chance for washouts or snowstorms +to get on a train diving into the danger. +Those red bombs are my invention. I shoot them +from a gun. I can send them a mile or gauge +them to go fifty feet. They ignite when they drop, +and by sending out a lot of them they are bound +to land somewhere near the train you aim at. +The engineer is bound to take notice, just as you +did, of the glare, and that’s where they beat the +fusees and save the running back of a brakeman.”</p> +<p>“Archie,” said Ralph honestly, “I believe you’re +going to hit some real invention some time.”</p> +<p>“I helped out some with my patent rocket signals +this time,” declared Archie.</p> +<p>“You did, my lad,” observed Fogg with enthusiasm, +“and the passengers know all about it, and +they’ve mentioned you in a letter they’re getting +up to the company saying how they appreciate +the intelligence—that’s Fairbanks—the courage, +ahem! that’s me, and the good-heartedness, that’s +all of us, of the two train crews.”</p> +<p>By the middle of the afternoon a snow plow +opened up the line from Rockton to the stalled +train. It was not until two mornings later, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_266' name='page_266'></a>266</span> +however, that the main line was open and Ralph and +Fogg got back to Stanley Junction.</p> +<p>Archie came on the same train. Ralph asked +him up to the house, but the young inventor said +he wanted the quiet of his hotel room to work on +his signal rocket idea, which he declared would +amount to something yet.</p> +<p>The young engineer had scarcely got in the +house after the warm, cheerful greeting of his +anxious mother, when Zeph Dallas put in an +appearance.</p> +<p>Zeph was looking exceedingly prosperous. He +wore a new, nicely-fitting suit of clothes, a modest +watch and chain, and was quite dignified and subdued, +for him.</p> +<p>“When you’ve had your breakfast, Ralph,” he +said, “I’ve got something to tell you.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” nodded Ralph, “I’m expecting to hear +a pretty long story from you, Zeph.”</p> +<p>The young engineer hurried his breakfast and +soon joined Zeph in the sitting-room.</p> +<p>“Say, Ralph,” at once observed his friend, +“you’ve done some big things in your time, but +the biggest thing you ever did was when you saw +to it that Jim Evans and Ike Slump, and most +of all, that fellow, Morris, were held as prisoners +by Adair, the road detective.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267' name='page_267'></a>267</span></p> +<p>“I fancied they deserved locking up,” remarked +Ralph.</p> +<p>“There would have been a murder if you hadn’t +seen to it,” declared Zeph. “I’ve a story to tell +that would make your hair stand on end, but it +would take a book to tell it all.”</p> +<p>“I’m here to listen, Zeph,” intimated Ralph.</p> +<p>“Yes, but I’m due to meet Mr. Adair at the jail. +He’s sent Evans and Slump back to the prison +they escaped from. I hurried on here from the +Fordham cut purposely to tell him what I wanted +done with Morris.”</p> +<p>“I say, Zeph,” rallied the young railroader, +“you seem to have a big say in such things for a +small boy.”</p> +<p>“That’s all right,” declared Zeph good-naturedly; +“I’m all here, just the same, and I’m +here for a big purpose. In a word, not to mystify +you, Ralph, for you know only half of the story, +I was hired by Marvin Clark, the son of the Middletown +& Western Railroad president, to do all +I’ve done, and I have been royally paid for it.”</p> +<p>“Then you must have done something effective,” +observed Ralph.</p> +<p>“Clark thought so, anyway. I’ll try and be +brief and to the point, so that you’ll understand +in a nutshell. You know Marvin Clark and Fred +Porter and the two Canaries?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268' name='page_268'></a>268</span></p> +<p>The young engineer nodded assentingly.</p> +<p>“Well, as I say, I ran across Clark accidentally +in my stray wanderings. He and a sickly boy +named Ernest Gregg were living in a fixed-over +building at Fordham Spur. I seemed to be just +the person Clark was waiting for. He hired me +to do some work for him. He was planning to get +the poor boy, Gregg, his rights.”</p> +<p>“Yes, I know about that,” observed Ralph.</p> +<p>“Then if you do, I can hurry over things. It +seems that when he began to look up Gregg’s +affairs, he found out that Ernest had a strange +hermit of a grandfather, named Abijah Gregg. +Ernest’s father was an only son. About five years +ago the old man discovered a terrible forgery in +which he was robbed of over ten thousand dollars. +He had reason to believe that Ernest’s +father and a man named Howard were responsible +for it. He disowned his son and all his family, +and a month later Ernest’s father died, leaving his +son a disowned and homeless outcast.”</p> +<p>“And what became of Howard?” inquired the +interested Ralph.</p> +<p>“He disappeared. Old Gregg became soured at +all humanity after that,” narrated Zeph; “the +more so because he had a profligate nephew who +turned out bad. This was the man in jail here +now.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269' name='page_269'></a>269</span></p> +<p>“Lord Lionel Montague—Morris?”</p> +<p>“Yes, Morris robbed the old man, who became +afraid of him. The old man tried to hide away +from everybody. In his wanderings he picked +up the two Canaries and settled down at the lonely +place at Fordham Cut. He was very rich, partly +paralyzed, and intended to leave his fortune to the +state, rather than have any relative benefit by it. +Well, Marvin Clark, the splendid, unselfish fellow, +got a clew to all this. He located old Abijah +Gregg. He spent just loads of money following +down points, until he discovered that the man +Howard was a broken-down invalid in New Mexico. +Clark was sick himself for a month, and +that was why Fred Porter did not hear from +him.”</p> +<p>“And later?” asked Ralph.</p> +<p>“I ran across Porter and brought him to the +Spur about a month ago. He is there now. Well, +Clark found out positively that Ernest’s father +never had a thing to do with forgery. It had +been really committed by Howard and this villain, +Morris. He got in touch with Howard in +New Mexico, who was a dying man. He found +him anxious to make what reparation he could for +a wicked deed. Old Gregg would not go to New +Mexico. Howard could only live where the air +was just right for him. The physicians said that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270' name='page_270'></a>270</span> +if he ever went to any other climate, the change +of atmosphere would kill him. With plenty of +money at his command, Clark arranged it all. The +New Mexico doctors got a tank that held an artificial +air, and Clark arranged so that Howard +could come east in a special car.”</p> +<p>“And the first tourist car that you ran empty to +the Spur?” inquired Ralph.</p> +<p>“Why, we knew that Morris was trying every +way to locate and annoy his uncle. We thought +that maybe he had got onto our plans about Howard. +We ran the dummy car to see if we were +being watched. Don’t you see, that if Morris had +succeeded in smashing the glass air tank, Howard +would have died before he could tell his story to +old Mr. Gregg.”</p> +<p>“And now?” said Ralph.</p> +<p>“The story has been told. Old Mr. Gregg is +convinced that his son was innocent of forgery. +He will take care of his grandson and make him +his heir, and young Clark, as you see, has done a +grand thing.”</p> +<p>“Yes, indeed,” assented Ralph.</p> +<p>“Howard will return to New Mexico with a +relieved conscience. I am going to the jail here +now to see Morris. If he will agree to leave the +country and never annoy his uncle again, I will +give him a certain large sum of money, as directed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271' name='page_271'></a>271</span> +by his uncle. If he doesn’t, he will be prosecuted +for the forgery.”</p> +<p>“Zeph,” observed the young railroader enthusiastically, +“you have proven yourself not only a +real detective, but a splendid lawyer, as well.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” returned Zeph, and blushed modestly; +“most everybody that gets in with you does +some kind of good in the world.”</p> +<p>It was two hours later when a messenger came +to the Fairbanks home with a letter for Ralph.</p> +<p>The young engineer flushed with pleasure as he +read a brief communication from the master +mechanic, advising him that Mr. Robert Grant, +president of the Great Northern, was at Stanley +Junction, and wished to see him for a few minutes +at the Waverly Hotel.</p> +<p>Ralph told his mother of the incident, and her +eyes followed him fondly and proudly as, arrayed +in his best, Ralph started out to keep his +appointment.</p> +<p>It was a warm welcome that the young railroader +received from the great railroad magnate. +Mr. Grant went over their mutual experiences the +night of the wild dash of the special from Rockton +to Shelby Junction.</p> +<p>“You did a most important service for the road +that night, Fairbanks,” said the railroad president; +“how much, is a secret in the archives of the company, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272' name='page_272'></a>272</span> +but I can say to you confidentially that the +Mountain Division would have passed to another +line if we had not acted in time.”</p> +<p>“I am very glad,” said Ralph modestly.</p> +<p>“I want to acknowledge that service. I am only +the president of the road,” said Mr. Grant, smiling, +and Ralph smiled, too, “so being a servant of +the road, I must act under orders. I learned that, +like all thrifty young men, you had a savings +account at the bank here. I have deposited there +the company’s check for one thousand dollars to +your account.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Mr. Grant––” began Ralph, but the railroad +president held up his hand to check the +interruption.</p> +<p>“As to Fogg,” went on Mr. Grant, “the road +has closed up the subscription in his behalf, by +giving him sufficient to rebuild his burned-down +house.”</p> +<p>Ralph’s face was aglow with pride, pleasure +and happiness.</p> +<p>“So, good-by for the present, Fairbanks,” concluded +the railroad president, grasping Ralph’s +hand warmly. “There are higher places for ambitious +young men in the service of the road, as you +know. I shall not try to influence your plans, +for I know that sheer merit will put you forward +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273' name='page_273'></a>273</span> +when you decide to advance. As to my personal +influence, that, you know, is yours to command. +For the present, however, we should regret to see +the Overland Express in other hands than those +of the youngest and the best engineer on the Great +Northern.”</p> +<p>What Mr. Grant had to say about Ralph’s +advancement came true a little later, and those +who care to follow our hero’s future career may +do so in the next story of this series, to be called, +“Ralph, the Train Dispatcher; or, The Mystery +of the Pay Car.” In that volume we shall meet +many of our old friends once more, and see what +our hero did when new difficulties confronted +him.</p> +<p>One day Ralph was surprised to receive a visit +from Marvin Clark and Fred Porter. He +received them both warmly, and soon learned that +Clark had fixed up his trouble over railroad work, +and with his parent, and had secured a good position +for Fred, so that the latter would no longer +need to lead a roving life.</p> +<p>“But I must have one more ride with you, Fairbanks,” +said Fred.</p> +<p>“And I’ll go along,” said the son of the railroad +president.</p> +<p>“With pleasure!” cried Ralph. “Come on!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_274' name='page_274'></a>274</span> +And he led the way to where No. 999 stood ready +for the next run.</p> +<p>The trip was a grand success. And here we +will, for the present, at least, say good-by to +Ralph of the Overland Express.</p> +<p style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;margin-bottom:1em'>THE END</p> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/r0001-image.png' alt='' title='' style='' /><br /> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/r0002-image.png' alt='' title='' style='' /><br /> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/r0003-image.png' alt='' title='' style='' /><br /> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/r0004-image.png' alt='' title='' style='' /><br /> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/r0005-image.png' alt='' title='' style='' /><br /> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/r0006-image.png' alt='' title='' style='' /><br /> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/r0007-image.png' alt='' title='' style='' /><br /> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/r0008-image.png' alt='' title='' style='' /><br /> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/r0009-image.png' alt='' title='' style='' /><br /> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/r0010-image.png' alt='' title='' style='' /><br /> +</div> + +<!-- generated by ppg.rb version: ppg-090430 --> +<!-- timestamp: Fri May 01 05:06:29 -0600 2009 --> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ralph on the Overland Express, by Allen Chapman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS *** + +***** This file should be named 28655-h.htm or 28655-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/5/28655/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ralph on the Overland Express + The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer + +Author: Allen Chapman + +Release Date: May 1, 2009 [EBook #28655] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "An Avalanche!" declared Fogg. "Dodge--something's coming!" +Page 254. Ralph on the Overland Express.] + + + + +RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS + +OR + +THE TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF A YOUNG ENGINEER + +BY + +ALLEN CHAPMAN + +AUTHOR OF "RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE," +"RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER," +"RALPH ON THE ENGINE," +"DAREWELL CHUMS SERIES," ETC. + +ILLUSTRATED + +NEW YORK + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +PUBLISHERS + +Made in the United States of America + + + + +THE RAILROAD SERIES + +By Allen Chapman + +12mo. Illustrated. Cloth + +RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE + Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man + +RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER + Or, Clearing the Track + +RALPH ON THE ENGINE + Or, The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail + +RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS + Or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer + +(Other Volumes in Preparation.) + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York + +Copyright, 1910, by + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +Ralph on the Overland Express + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. No. 999 1 + II. A Special Passenger 12 + III. One of the Rules 22 + IV. A Warning 35 + V. At Bay 43 + VI. Four Medals 51 + VII. Dave Bissell, Train Boy 60 + VIII. An Astonishing Discovery 68 + IX. The Light of Home 76 + X. Fire! 88 + XI. The Master Mechanic 95 + XII. A Good Friend 104 + XIII. The "Black Hand" 114 + XIV. A Serious Plot 123 + XV. "The Silvandos" 129 + XVI. Zeph Dallas and His "Mystery" 138 + XVII. In Widener's Gap 145 + XVIII. At the Semaphore 153 + XIX. The Boy Who Was Hazed 160 + XX. "Lord Lionel Montague" 171 + XXI. Archie Graham's Invention 179 + XXII. Ike Slump Again 188 + XXIII. A Critical Moment 195 + XXIV. The New Run 203 + XXV. The Mountain Division 209 + XXVI. Mystery 217 + XXVII. The Railroad President 225 + XXVIII. A Race Against Time 233 + XXIX. Zeph Dallas Again 244 + XXX. Snowbound 254 + XXXI. Conclusion 264 + + + + +RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS + +CHAPTER I + +NO. 999 + + +"All aboard." + +Ralph Fairbanks swung into the cab of No. 999 with the lever hooked up +for forward motion, and placed a firm hand on the throttle. + +It looked as though half the working force of the railroad, and every +juvenile friend he had ever known in Stanley Junction, had come down +to the little old depot that beautiful summer afternoon to especially +celebrate the greatest event in his active railroad career. + +Ralph was the youngest engineer in the service of the Great Northern, +and there was full reason why he should center attention and interest +on this the proudest moment of his life. No. 999 was the crack +locomotive of the system, brand new and resplendent. Its headlight was +a great glow of crystal, its metal bands and trimmings shone like +burnished gold, and its cab was as spick and span and neat as the +private office of the division superintendent himself. + +No. 999 was out for a trial run--a record run, Ralph hoped to make it. +One particular car attached to the rear of the long train was the main +object of interest. It was a new car to the road, and its blazoned +name suggested an importance out of the ordinary--"China & Japan +Mail." + +This car had just come in over a branch section by a short cut from +the north. If No. 999 could beat timetable routine half an hour and +deliver the mail to the Overland Express at Bridgeport, two hundred +miles distant, on time, it would create a new schedule, and meant a +good contract for the Great Northern, besides a saving of three hours' +time over the former roundabout trip of the China & Japan Mail. + +Ralph had exchanged jolly greetings with his friends up to now. In an +instant, however, the sonorous, echoing "All aboard" from the +conductor way down the train was a signal for duty, prompt and +imperative. The pleasant depot scene faded from the sight and mind of +the ambitious young railroader. He turned his strict attention now to +the cab interior, as though the locomotive was a thing of life and +intelligence. + +"Let 'er go, Ralph!" + +John Griscom, the oldest engineer on the road, off duty, but a +privileged character on all occasions, stepped from the gossiping +crowd of loungers at a little distance. He swung up into the cab with +the expert airiness of long usage. His bluff, hearty face expressed +admiration and satisfaction, as his rapid eye took in the cab layout. + +"I'll hold up the tender rail till we get to crossing," announced +Griscom. "Lad, this is front rank service all right, and I'm happy to +say that you deserve it." + +"Thank you, Mr. Griscom," answered Ralph, his face beaming at the +handsome compliment. "I don't forget, though, that you helped some." + +"Oh, so, so," declared Griscom. "I say, Fogg, you're named right." + +It was to Lemuel Fogg that Griscom spoke. Fogg was Ralph's fireman on +the present trip. He presented a decided contrast to the brisk, bright +engineer of No. 999. He shoveled in the coal with a grim mutter, and +slammed the fire door shut with a vicious and unnecessary bang. + +"What you getting at?" he growled, with a surly eye on Griscom. + +"Fogg--fog, see? foggy, that's you--and groggy, eh? Sun's shining--why +don't you take it in? No slouch privilege firing this magnificent +king of the road, I'm thinking, and you ought to think so, too." + +"Huh!" snapped Fogg, "it'll be kid luck, if we get through." + +"Oho! there's where the shoe pinches, is it?" bantered the old +railroad veteran. "Come, be fair, Fogg. You was glad to win your own +spurs when you were young." + +"All right, mind the try-out, you hear me!" snorted Fogg ungraciously. +"You mind your own business." + +"Say," shot out Griscom quickly, as he caught a whiff from Fogg's +lips, "you be sure you mind yours--and the rules," he added, quite +sternly, "I advise you not to get too near the furnace." + +"Eh, why not?" + +"Your breath might catch fire, that's why," announced Griscom bluntly, +and turned his back on the disgruntled fireman. + +Ralph had not caught this sharp cross-fire of repartee. His mind had +been intently fixed on his task. He had started up the locomotive +slowly, but now, clearing the depot switches, he pulled the lever a +notch or two, watching carefully ahead. As the train rounded a curve +to an air line, a series of brave hurrahs along the side of the track +sent a thrill of pleasure through Ralph's frame. + +The young engineer had only a fleeting second or two to bestow on a +little group, standing at the rear fence of a yard backing down to the +tracks. His mother was there, gaily waving a handkerchief. A neighbor +joined in the welcome, and half-a-dozen boys and small children with +whom Ralph was a rare favorite made the air ring with enthusiastic +cheers. + +"Friends everywhere, lad," spoke Griscom in a kindly tone, and then, +edging nearer to his prime young favorite, he half-whispered: "Keep +your eye on this grouch of a Fogg." + +"Why, you don't mean anything serious, Mr. Griscom?" inquired Ralph, +with a quick glance at the fireman. + +"Yes, I do," proclaimed the old railroader plainly. "He's got it in +for you--it's the talk of the yards, and he's in just the right frame +of mind to bite off his own nose to spite his face. So long." + +The locomotive had slowed up for crossing signals, and Griscom got to +the ground with a careless sail through the air, waved his hand, and +Ralph buckled down to real work on No. 999. + +He glanced at the schedule sheet and the clock. The gauges were in +fine working order. There was not a full head of steam on as yet and +the fire box was somewhat over full, but there was a strong draft and +a twenty-mile straight run before them, and Ralph felt they could make +it easily. + +"Don't choke her too full, Mr. Fogg," he remarked to the fireman. + +"Teach me!" snorted Fogg, and threw another shovelful into the box +already crowded, and backed against the tender bar with a surly, +defiant face. + +Ralph made no retort. Fogg did, indeed, know his business, if he was +only minded to attend to it. He was somewhat set and old-fashioned in +his ways, and he had grown up in the service from wiper. + +Ralph recalled Griscom's warning. It was not pleasant to run two +hundred miles with a grumpy cab comrade. Ralph wished they had given +him some other helper. However, he reasoned that even a crack fireman +might be proud of a regular run on No. 999, and he did not believe +that Fogg would hurt his own chances by any tactics that might delay +them. + +The landscape drifted by swiftly and more swiftly, as Ralph gave the +locomotive full head. A rare enthusiasm and buoyancy came into the +situation. There was something fascinating in the breathless rush, the +superb power and steadiness of the crack machine, so easy of control +that she was a marvel of mechanical genius and perfection. + +Like a panorama the scenery flashed by, and in rapid mental panorama +Ralph reviewed the glowing and stirring events of his young life, +which in a few brief months had carried him from his menial task as an +engine wiper up to the present position which he cherished so +proudly. + +Ralph was a railroader by inheritance as well as predilection. His +father had been a pioneer in the beginning of the Great Northern. +After he died, through the manipulations of an unworthy village +magnate named Gasper Farrington, his widow and son found themselves at +the mercy of that heartless schemer, who held a mortgage on their +little home. + +In the first volume of the present series, entitled "Ralph of the +Roundhouse," it was told how Ralph left school to earn a living and +help his self-sacrificing mother in her poverty. + +Ralph got a job in the roundhouse, and held it, too, despite the +malicious efforts of Ike Slump, a ne'er-do-well who tried to undermine +him. Ralph became a favorite with the master mechanic of the road +through some remarkable railroad service in which he saved the +railroad shops from destruction by fire. + +Step by step Ralph advanced, and the second volume of this series, +called "Ralph in the Switch Tower," showed how manly resolve, and +being right and doing right, enabled him to overcome his enemies and +compel old Farrington to release the fraudulent mortgage. +Incidentally, Ralph made many friends. He assisted a poor waif named +Van Sherwin to reach a position of comfort and honor, and was +instrumental in aiding a former business partner of his father, one +Farwell Gibson, to complete a short line railroad through the woods +near Dover. + +In the third volume of the present series, entitled "Ralph on the +Engine," was related how our young railroad friend became an active +employee of the Great Northern as a fireman. He made some record runs +with old John Griscom, the veteran of the road. In that volume was +also depicted the ambitious but blundering efforts of Zeph Dallas, a +farmer boy who was determined to break into railroading, and there was +told as well the grand success of little Limpy Joe, a railroad +cripple, who ran a restaurant in an old, dismantled box car. + +These and other staunch, loyal friends had rallied around Ralph with +all the influence they could exert, when after a creditable +examination Ralph was placed on the extra list as an engineer. + +Van and Zeph had been among the first to congratulate the friend to +whom they owed so much, when, after a few months' service on +accomodation runs, it was made known that Ralph had been appointed as +engineer of No. 999. + +It was Limpy Joe, spending a happy vacation week with motherly, +kind-hearted Mrs. Fairbanks, who led the cheering coterie whom Ralph +had passed near his home as he left the Junction on his present run. + +Of his old-time enemies, Ike Slump and Mort Bemis were in jail, the +last Ralph had heard of them. There was a gang in his home town, +however, whom Ralph had reason to fear. It was made up of men who had +tried to cripple the Great Northern through an unjust strike. A man +named Jim Evans had been one of the leaders. Fogg had sympathized with +the strikers. Griscom and Ralph had routed the malcontents in a fair, +open-handed battle of arguments and blows. Fogg had been reinstated by +the road, but he had to go back on the promotion list, and his rancor +was intense when he learned that Ralph had been chosen to a position +superior to his own. + +"They want young blood, the railroad nobs tell it," the disgruntled +fireman had been heard to remark in his favorite tippling place on +Railroad Street. "Humph! They'll have blood, and lots of it, if they +trust the lives of passengers and crew to a lot of kindergarten +graduates." + +Of all this Ralph was thinking as they covered a clear dash of twenty +miles over the best stretch of grading on the road, and with +satisfaction he noted that they had gained three minutes on the +schedule time. He whistled for a station at which they did not stop, +set full speed again as they left the little village behind them, and +glanced sharply at Fogg. + +The latter had not spoken a word for over half-an-hour. He had gone +about his duties in a dogged, sullen fashion that showed the +permanency of the grouch with which old John Griscom had charged him. +Ralph had made up his mind to leave his cab companion severely alone +until he became more reasonable. However, there were some things about +Fogg of which the young engineer was bound to take notice, and a new +enlightenment came to Ralph's mind as he now glanced at his helper. + +Fogg had slipped clumsily on the tender plate in using the coal rake, +and Ralph had marveled at this unusual lack of steadiness of footing. +Then, twice he had gone out on the running board on some useless +errand, fumbling about in an inexplicable way. His hot, fetid breath +crossed Ralph's face, and the latter arrived at a definite +conclusion, and he was sorry for it. Fogg had been "firing up" from a +secret bottle ever since they had left the Junction, and his condition +was momentarily becoming more serious and alarming. + +They were slowing down to a stop at a water tank as Ralph saw Fogg +draw back, and under cover of the tender lift a flask to his lips. +Then Fogg slipped it under the cushion of his seat as he turned to get +some coal. + +He dropped the shovel, coal and all, with a wild snort of rage, as +turning towards the fire box door he saw Ralph reach over swiftly, +grab the half empty bottle from under the cushion, and give it a fling +to the road bed, where it was dashed into a thousand pieces. + +Blood in his eye, uncontrollable fury in his heart, the irrational +fireman, both fists uplifted, made a wild onslaught upon the young +engineer. + +"You impudent meddler!" he raved. "I'll smash you!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A SPECIAL PASSENGER + + +"Behave yourself," said Ralph Fairbanks quietly. + +The young engineer simply gave his furious antagonist a push with his +free hand. The other hand was on duty, and Ralph's eyes as well. He +succeeded in bringing the locomotive to a stop before Fogg needed any +further attention. + +The fireman had toppled off his balance and went flat among the coal +of the tender. Ralph did not feel at all important over so easily +repelling his assailant. Fogg was in practically a helpless condition, +and a child could have disturbed his unsteady footing. + +With maudlin energy, however, he began to scramble to his feet. All +the time he glowered at Ralph, and made dreadful threats of what he +was going to do to the youth for "knocking him down." Fogg managed to +pull himself erect, but swayed about a good deal, and then observing +that Ralph had the free use of both hands now and was posed on guard +to meet any attack he might meditate, the irate fireman stooped and +seized a big lump of coal. Ralph could hardly hope to dodge the +missile, hemmed in as he was. It was poised for a vicious fling. Just +as Fogg's hand went backwards to aim the projectile, it was seized, +the missile was wrested from his grasp, and a strange voice drawled +out the words: + +"I wouldn't waste the company's coal that way, if I were you." + +Ralph with some surprise and considerable interest noted the intruder, +who had mounted the tender step just in time to thwart the quarrelsome +designs of Lemuel Fogg. As to the fireman, he wheeled about, looked +ugly, and then as the newcomer laughed squarely in his face, mumbled +some incoherent remark about "two against one," and "fixing both of +them." Then he climbed up on the tender to direct the water tank spout +into place. + +"What's the row here, anyhow?" inquired the intruder, with a pleasant +glance at Ralph, and leaning bodily against the fireman's seat. + +Ralph looked him over as a cool specimen, although there was nothing +"cheeky" about the intruder. He showed neither the sneakiness nor the +effrontery of the professional railroad beat or ride stealer, +nothwithstanding the easy, natural way in which he made himself at +home in the cab as though he belonged there. + +"Glad you happened along," chirped the newcomer airily. "I'll keep you +company as far as Bridgeport, I guess." + +"Will you, now?" questioned Ralph, with a dubious smile. + +The lad he addressed was an open-faced, smart-looking boy. He was well +dressed and intelligent, and suggested to Ralph the average college or +home boy. Certainly there was nothing about him that indicated that he +had to work for a living. + +"My name is Clark--Marvin Clark," continued the intruder. + +Ralph nodded and awaited further disclosures. + +"My father is President of the Middletown & Western Railroad," +proceeded the stranger. + +Ralph did not speak. He smiled slightly, and the keen-eyed intruder +noticed this and gave him a sharp look. + +"Old racket, eh? Too flimsy?" he propounded with a quizzical but +perfectly good-natured grin. "I suppose they play all kinds of +official relationships and all that on you fellows, eh?" + +"Yes," said Ralph, "we do hear some pretty extravagant stories." + +"I suppose so," assented the youth calling himself Marvin Clark. +"Well, I don't want to intrude, but if there's room for myself and my +credentials, I'd rather keep you company than free pass it in the +parlor coach. There you are." + +As the boy spoke of "credentials," he drew an unsealed envelope from +his pocket and handed it to Ralph. The latter received it, noting that +it bore in one corner the monogram of the Great Northern, with +"President's office--official business" printed under it. He withdrew +the enclosure and perused it. + +The sheet was a letter head of the Middletown & Western Railroad. It +bore on one line in one handwriting the name "Marvin Clark," and +beneath it the words: "For identification," in another handwriting, +and the flourishing signature below "Nathaniel Clark, President." + +In typewriting beneath all this were the words: "Pass on all trains, +Marvin Clark," and below that a date and the name in writing of Mr. +Robert Grant, the President of the Great Northern, unmistakably +genuine. There were few employees on the road who were not familiar +with that signature. + +"All right," said Ralph, refolding the sheet, re-inclosing it in the +envelope, and handing it back to the stranger. "I guess that passes +you anywhere on the line." + +"You see, I've got a sort of roaming commission," explained young +Clark buoyantly, as he got comfortably seated on the fireman's +cushion. "No particular use at school, and father wants me to learn +railroading. The first step was to run down all the lines and pick up +all the information I could. I've just got to put in two months at +that, and then report to family headquarters my store of practical +knowledge. See here." + +Marvin Clark drew a blank from his pocket. Some thirty of its pages he +showed to Ralph were filled with memoranda. Thus: "Aug. 22, cattle +freight, Upton to Dover. O. K. Simpson, Conductor." There followed +like items, all signed, forming a link of evidence that the boy had +been a passenger on all kinds of rolling stock, had visited railroad +shops, switch towers, water stations, in fact had inspected about +every active department of several railroad lines that connected with +the Middletown & Western Railroad. + +"That is a pretty pleasant layout, I should say," remarked Ralph. + +"Oh, so, so," replied Clark indifferently. "Athletics is my +stronghold. If I ever get money enough--I mean if I had my own +way--I'd train for expert on everything from golf to football." + +"I'm pretty strong in that direction myself," said Ralph, "but a +fellow has to hustle for something to eat." + +"I know what that means," declared Clark. "Had to help the family by +peddling papers--." + +Clark paused and flushed. Ralph wondered at the singular break his +visitor had made. A diversion covered the embarassment of the young +stranger and caused Ralph to momentarily forget the incident. Fogg had +swung back the water spout, set the tender cover, and climbed down +into the cab. Then he took the side light signals and went around to +the pilot. No. 999 carried two flags there, now to be replaced by +lanterns. Fogg came back to the cab rolling up the flags. + +"All right," he announced ungraciously, and hustled Clark to one side +without ceremony as the latter abandoned his seat. Ralph gave the +starting signal and Clark edged back in the tender out of the way. + +The young engineer took a good look at his fireman. The latter was +muddled, it was plain to see that, but he went about his duties with a +mechanical routine born from long experience. Only once did he lurch +towards Ralph and speak to him, or rather hiss out the words. + +"You'll settle with me for your impudence yet, young fellow. You're a +high and mighty, you are, breaking the rules giving your friends a +free ride." + +Ralph did not reply. One anxiety kept him devoted to his work--to lose +no time. A glance at the clock and schedule showed a ten minutes' +loss, but defective or experimental firing on a new locomotive had +been responsible for that, and he counted on making a spurt, once +beyond Plympton. + +Marvin Clark knew his place, and Ralph liked him for keeping it. The +young fellow watched everything going on in the cab in a shrewd, +interested fashion, but he neither got in the way of the cross-grained +Fogg, nor pestered Ralph with questions. + +Plympton was less than five miles ahead just as dusk began to fall. +Ralph noticed that his fireman rustled about with a good deal of +unnecessary activity. He would fire up to the limit, as if working off +some of his vengefulness and malice. Then he went out on the running +board, for no earthly reason that Ralph could see, and he made himself +generally so conspicuous that young Clark leaned over and said to +Ralph. + +"What's the matter with your fireman, anyhow--that is, besides that +load he's got aboard?" + +"Oh, he has his cross moods, like all of us, I suppose," explained +Ralph, with affected indifference. + +"I wouldn't take him for a very pleasant comrade at any time," +observed Clark. "It's a wonder he don't take a tumble. There he is, +hitching around to the pilot. What for, I wonder?" + +Ralph was not paying much attention to what the cab passenger was +saying. He had made up five minutes, and his quick mind was now +planning how he would gain five more, and then double that, to +Plympton and beyond it. + +He gave the whistle for Plympton, as, shooting a curve, No. 999 drove +a clattering pace down the grade with the lights of the station not a +quarter-of-a-mile away. They were set for clear tracks, as they should +be. Ralph gave the lever a hitch for a rattling dash on ten miles of +clear running. Then fairly up to the first station semaphore, he broke +out with a cry so sharp and dismayed that young Clark echoed it in +questioning excitement. + +"The siding!" cried Ralph, with a jerk of the lever--"what's the +meaning of this?" + +"Say!" echoed Clark, in a startled tone, "that's quick and queer!" + +What had happened was this: No. 999 going at full speed on clear +signals had been sent to a siding and the signals cancelled without a +moment's warning. Under ordinary circumstances, a train thus +sidetracked would be under notified control and run down the siding +only a short distance. Going at high speed, however, and with a full +head of steam on, Ralph realized that, long as the siding was, he +would have to work quick and hard to check down the big locomotive +before she slid the limit, and stuck her nose deep into the sand hill +that blocked the terminus of the rails. + +It was quite dark now. The lights of the station flashed by. Both +hands in use to check the locomotive and set the air brakes, Ralph +leaned slightly from the cab window and peered ahead. + +"Shoot the sand!" he cried, almost mechanically. + +It was a good thing that the cab passenger was aboard and knew +something about the cab equipment. Young Clark reached the side of the +engineer's seat in a nimble spring. His hand located the sand valve +without hesitancy. + +Ralph uttered a short, sharp gasp. That look ahead had scared him. He +was doing all he could to slow down, and was doing magnificently, for +the reverse action moved to a charm. Still, he saw that after dashing +fully two hundred yards down the siding, the natural momentum would +carry the train fully one-third that distance further. + +"Any obstruction?" shot out his agile companion, springing to the +fireman's seat, sticking his head out of the window and staring ahead. +"Whew! we're going to hit." + +The speaker saw what Ralph also beheld. Dimly outlined directly in +their path was a flat car, and above it, skeletonized against the +fading sunset sky, was the framework of a derrick. A repair or +construction gondola car was straight ahead of No. 999. + +They seemed to be approaching it swiftly and irresistibly. The wheels +slid now, fairly locked, there was a marked ease-down, but Ralph saw +plainly that, great or small, a collision was inevitable. + +"Say, that fireman of yours!" shouted young Clark--"there he goes." + +The locomotive was fairly upon the obstruction now. Ralph stuck to the +lever, setting his lips firmly, a little pale, his muscles twitching +slightly under the stress of excitement and suspense. + +"Zing!" remarked the cool comrade of the young engineer--"we're +there!" + +At that moment a flying form shot from the running board of the +locomotive. Lemuel Fogg had jumped. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ONE OF THE RULES + + +Locomotive No. 999 landed against the bumper of the gondola car with a +sharp shock. However, there was no crash of consequence. The headlight +radiance now flooded fully the obstruction. Young Clark suddenly +shouted: + +"Look out!" + +The quick-witted, keen-eyed special passenger was certainly getting +railroad training so coveted by his magnate father. He saw the fireman +shoot through the air in his frightened jump for safety. Lemuel Fogg +landed in a muddy ditch at the side of the tracks, up to his knees in +water. + +The sharp, warning cry of Marvin Clark was not needed to appraise +Ralph of the danger that threatened. The jar of the collision had +displaced and upset the derrick. Ralph saw it falling slantingly +towards them. He pulled the reverse lever, but could not get action +quick enough to entirely evade the falling derrick. It grazed the +headlight, chopping off one of its metal wings, and striking the +pilot crushed in one side of the front fender rails. + +The young engineer gave the signal for backing the train, and kept in +motion. His purpose was to allay any panic on the part of the +passengers, whom he knew must be alarmed by the erratic tactics of the +past few moments. Then after thus traversing about half the distance +back to the main line, he shut off steam and whistled for +instructions. + +"Another notch in my education," observed young Clark with a +chuckle--"been waiting to pass examination on a smash up." + +"Oh, this isn't one," replied Ralph. His tone was tense, and he showed +that he was disturbed. He was too quick a thinker not to at once +comprehend the vital issue of the present incident. With Fogg headed +down the track towards him from the ditch, trying to overtake the +train, and the conductor, lantern in hand, running to learn what had +happened, Ralph sized up the situation with decided annoyance. + +The action of the station man in giving the free track signal and then +at a critical moment shooting the special onto the siding, had +something mysterious about it that Ralph could not readily solve. The +slight mishap to the locomotive and the smashing of the derrick was +not particularly serious, but there would be a report, an +investigation, and somebody would be blamed and punished. Ralph wanted +to keep a clear slate, and here was a bad break, right at the +threshold of his new railroad career. + +All he thought of, however, were the delays, all he cared for at this +particular moment was to get back to the main tracks on his way for +Bridgeport, with a chance to make up lost time. A sudden vague +suspicion flashing through his mind added to his mental disquietude: +was there a plot to purposely cripple or delay his train, so that he +would be defeated in his efforts to make a record run? + +"What's this tangle, Fairbanks?" shouted out the conductor sharply, as +he arrived breathless and excited at the side of the cab. + +His name was Danforth, and he was a model employee of long experience, +always very neat and dressy in appearance and exact and systematic in +his work. Any break in routine nettled him, and he spoke quite +censuringly to the young engineer, whom, however, he liked greatly. + +"I'm all at sea, Mr. Danforth," confessed Ralph bluntly. + +"Any damage?--I see," muttered the conductor, going forward a few +steps and surveying the scratched, bruised face of the locomotive. + +"There's a gondola derailed and a derrick smashed where we struck," +reported Ralph. "I acted on my duplicate orders, Mr. Danforth," he +added earnestly, "and had the clear signal almost until I passed it +and shot the siding." + +"I don't understand it at all," remarked the conductor in a troubled +and irritated way. "You had the clear signal, you say?" + +"Positively," answered Ralph. + +"Any serious damage ahead?" + +"Nothing of consequence." + +"Back slowly, we'll see the station man about this." + +The conductor mounted to the cab step, and No. 999 backed slowly. As +they neared the end of the siding the train was again halted. All down +its length heads were thrust from coach windows. There was some +excitement and alarm, but the discipline of the train hands and the +young engineer's provision had prevented any semblance of panic. + +The conductor, lantern in hand, ran across the tracks to the station. +Ralph saw him engaged in vigorous conversation with the man on duty +there. The conductor had taken out a memorandum book and was jotting +down something. The station man with excited gestures ran inside the +depot, and the signal turned to clear tracks. Ralph switched to the +main. Then the conductor gave the go ahead signal. + +"That's cool," observed young Clark. "I should think the conductor +would give us an inkling of how all this came about." + +"Oh, we'll learn soon enough," said Ralph. "There will have to be an +official report on this." + +"I'm curious. Guess I'll go back and worm out an explanation," spoke +Clark. "I'll see you with news later." + +As Clark left the cab on one side Fogg came up on the other. He had +been looking over the front of the locomotive. Ralph noticed that he +did not seem to have suffered any damage from his wild jump beyond a +slight shaking up. He was wet and spattered to the waist, however, and +had lost his cap. + +Lemuel Fogg's eyes wore a frightened, shifty expression as he stepped +to the tender. His face was wretchedly pale, his hands trembled as he +proceeded to pile in the coal. Every vestige of unsteadiness and +maudlin bravado was gone. He resembled a man who had gazed upon some +unexpected danger, and there was a half guiltiness in his manner as if +he was responsible for the impending mishap. + +The fireman did not speak a word, and Ralph considered that it was no +time for discussion or explanations. The injury to the locomotive was +comparatively slight, and with a somewhat worried glance at the clock +and schedule card the young railroader focussed all his ability and +attention upon making up for lost time. + +Soon Ralph was so engrossed in his work that he forgot the fireman, +young Clark, the accident, everything except that he was driving a +mighty steel steed in a race against time, with either the winning +post or defeat in view. There was a rare pride in the thought that +upon him depended a new railway record. There was a fascinating +exhilaration in observing the new king of the road gain steadily half +a mile, one mile, two miles, overlapping lost time. + +A smile of joy crossed the face of the young engineer, a great +aspiration of relief and triumph escaped his lips as No. 999 pulled +into Derby two hours later. They were twenty-one minutes ahead of +time. + +"Mr. Fogg," shouted Ralph across to the fireman's seat, "you're a +brick!" + +It was the first word that had passed between them since the mishap at +the siding, but many a grateful glance had the young engineer cast at +his helper. It seemed as if the shake-up at Plympton had shaken all +the nonsense out of Lemuel Fogg. Before that it had been evident to +Ralph that the fireman was doing all he could to queer the run. He +had been slow in firing and then had choked the furnace. His movements +had been suspicious and then alarming to Ralph, but since leaving +Plympton he had acted like a different person. Ralph knew from +practical experience what good firing was, and he had to admit that +Fogg had outdone himself in the splendid run of the last one hundred +miles. He was therefore fully in earnest when he enthusiastically +designated his erratic helper as a "brick." + +It was hard for Fogg to come out from his grumpiness and cross-grained +malice quickly. Half resentful, half shamed, he cast a furtive, sullen +look at Ralph. + +"Humph!" he muttered, "it isn't any brick that did it--it was the +briquettes." + +"The what, Mr. Fogg?" inquired Ralph. + +"Them," and with contemptuous indifference Fogg pointed to a coarse +sack lying among the coal. "New-fangled fuel. Master mechanic wanted +to make a test." + +"Why, yes, I heard about that," said Ralph quickly. "Look like +baseballs. Full of pitch, oil and sulphur, I understand. They say they +urge up the fire." + +"They do, they burn like powder. They are great steam makers, and no +question," observed Fogg. "Won't do for a regular thing, though." + +"No?" insinuated Ralph attentively, glad to rouse his grouchy helper +from his morose mood. + +"Not a bit of it." + +"Why not?" + +"Used right along, they'd burn out any crown sheet. What's more, wait +till you come to clean up--the whole furnace will be choked with +cinders." + +"I see," nodded Ralph, and just then they rounded near Macon for a +fifteen minutes wait. + +As Fogg went outside with oil can and waste roll, Mervin Clark came +into the cab. + +"Glad to get back where it's home like," he sang out in his chirp, +brisk way. "Say, Engineer Fairbanks, that monument of brass buttons +and gold cap braid is the limit. Discipline? why, he works on springs +and you have to touch a button to make him act. I had to chum with the +brakeman to find out what's up." + +"Something is up, then?" inquired Ralph a trifle uneasily. + +"Oh, quite. The conductor has been writing a ten-page report on the +collision. It's funny, but the station man at Plympton----" + +"New man, isn't he?" inquired Ralph. + +"Just transferred to Plympton yesterday mornin'," explained Clark. +"Well, he swears that your front signals were special at the curves +and flashed green just as you neared the semaphore." + +"Absurd!" exclaimed Ralph. + +"That's what the conductor says, too," said Clark. "He told the +station agent so. They nearly had a fight. 'Color blind!' he told the +station agent and challenged him to find green lights on No. 999 if he +could. The station man was awfully rattled and worried. He says he +knew a special was on the list, but being new to this part of the road +he acted on Rule 23 when he saw the green lights. He sticks to that, +says that he will positively swear to it. He says he knows some one +will be slated, but it won't be him." + +"What does the conductor say?" inquired Ralph. + +"He says Rule 23 doesn't apply, as the white lights prove. If there +was any trickery or any mistake, then it's up to the fireman, not to +the engineer." + +At that moment, happening to glance past Clark, the young engineer +caught sight of Lemuel Fogg. The latter, half crouching near a drive +wheel, was listening intently. The torch he carried illuminated a +pale, twitching face. His eyes were filled with a craven fear, and +Ralph tried to imagine what was passing through his mind. + +There was something mysterious about Fogg's actions, yet Ralph +accepted the theory of the conductor that the station man had made a +careless blunder or was color blind. + +"You see, it isn't that the smash up amounts to much," explained +Clark, "but it might have, see?" + +"Yes, I see," replied Ralph thoughtfully. + +"Then again," continued Clark, "the conductor says that it delayed a +test run, and there's a scratched locomotive and a busted construction +car." + +"I'm thankful that no one was hurt," said Ralph earnestly. + +When the next start was made, Fogg was taciturn and gloomy-looking, +but attended strictly to his duty. Ralph voted him to be a capital +fireman when he wanted to be. As an hour after midnight they spurted +past Hopeville forty minutes to the good, he could not help shouting +over a delighted word of commendation to Fogg. + +"I said you were a brick, Mr. Fogg," he observed. "You're more than +that--you're a wonder." + +Fogg's face momentarily lighted up. It looked as if he was half minded +to come out of his shell and give some gracious response, but +instantly the old sullenness settled down over his face, accompanied +by a gloomy manner that Ralph could not analyze. He half believed, +however, that Fogg was a pretty good fellow at heart, had started out +to queer the run, and was now sorry and ashamed that he had betrayed +his weakness for drink. + +"Maybe he is genuinely sorry for his tantrums," reflected Ralph, "and +maybe our narrow escape at the siding has sobered him into common +sense." + +What the glum and gruff fireman lacked of comradeship, the young +passenger made up in jolly good cheer. He was interested in everything +going on. He found opportunity to tell Ralph several rattling good +stories, full of incident and humor, of his amateur railroad +experiences, and the time was whiled away pleasantly for these two +acquaintances. + +Ralph could not repress a grand, satisfied expression of exultation as +No. 999 glided gracefully into the depot at Bridgeport, over +forty-seven minutes ahead of time. + +The station master and the assistant superintendent of the division +came up to the cab instantly, the latter with his watch in his hand. + +"Worth waiting for, this, Fairbanks," he called out cheerily--he was +well acquainted with the young railroader, for Ralph had fired +freights to this point over the Great Northern once regularly for +several weeks. "I'll send in a bouncing good report with lots of +pleasure." + +"Thank you," said Ralph. "We've demonstrated, anyhow." + +"You have, Fairbanks," returned the official commendingly. + +"Only, don't lay any stress on my part of it," said Ralph. "Any +engineer could run such a superb monarch of the rail as No. 999. If +you don't tell them how much the experiment depended on our good +friend, Fogg, here, I will have to, that's all." + +The fireman flushed. His eyes had a momentary pleased expression, and +he glanced at Ralph, really grateful. He almost made a move as if to +heartily shake the hand of his unselfish champion. + +"You're too modest, Fairbanks," laughed the assistant superintendent, +"but we'll boost Fogg, just as he deserves. It's been a hard, anxious +run, I'll warrant. We've got a relief crew coming, so you can get to +bed just as soon as you like." + +The passenger coaches were soon emptied of the through passengers. A +local engineer, fireman and brakeman took charge of the train to +switch the China & Japan Mail car over to another track, ready to +hitch on to the Overland express, soon to arrive, sidetrack the other +coaches, and take No. 999 to the roundhouse. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A WARNING + + +Ralph doffed his working clothes, washed up at the tender spigot, and +joined Clark, who stood waiting for him on the platform. Fogg, without +tidying up, in a sort of tired, indifferent way was already some +distance down the platform. Ralph hurried after him. + +"Six-fifteen to-night, Mr. Fogg, isn't it?" spoke Ralph, more to say +something than anything else. + +"That's right," returned Fogg curtly. + +"Griscom directed me to a neat, quiet lodging house," added Ralph. +"Won't you join me?" + +"Can't--got some friends waiting for me," responded the fireman. + +Ralph followed him seriously and sadly with his eyes. Fogg was making +for Railroad Row, with its red saloon signs, and Ralph felt sorry for +him. + +"See here," spoke Clark, as they walked along together, "headed for a +bunk, I suppose?" + +"Yes," answered Ralph. "John Griscom, that's our veteran engineer, +and a rare good friend of mine, told me about a cheap, comfortable +lodging house to put up at. It's some distance from the depot, but I +believe I shall go there." + +"Good idea," approved Clark. "I've been in some of those railroad +men's hotels yonder, and they're not very high toned--nor clean." + +"What's your program?" inquired Ralph. + +"Got to sleep, I suppose, so, if I'm not too much of a bore and it's +pleasing to you, I'll try the place your friend recommends." + +"I shall be delighted," answered Ralph. + +Within half-an-hour both tired lads tumbled into their beds in rooms +adjoining in a private house about half a mile from the depot. Ralph +stretched himself luxuriously, as he rested after the turmoil and +labor of what he considered the most arduous day in his railroad +career. + +The young engineer awoke with the bright sun shining in his face and +was out of bed in a jiffy. These lay-over days had always been prized +by the young railroader, and he planned to put the present one to good +use. He went to the closed door communicating with the next room and +tapped on it. + +"Hey, there!" he hailed briskly, "time to get up," then, no response +coming, he opened the door to find the apartment deserted. + +"An early bird, it seems," observed Ralph. "Probably gone for +breakfast." + +John Griscom had told Ralph all about the house he was in, and the +young engineer soon located the bathroom and took a vigorous cold +plunge that made him feel equal to the task of running a double-header +special. Ralph had just dressed when Marvin Clark came bustling into +the room. + +"Twenty minutes for breakfast!" hailed the volatile lad. "I've been up +an hour." + +"You didn't take a two hundred mile run, or you wouldn't be up for +four," challenged Ralph. + +"Guess that's so," admitted Clark. "Well, here we are. I've been out +prospecting." + +"What for?" inquired Ralph. + +"A good restaurant." + +"Found one?" + +"A dandy--wheat cakes with honey, prime country sausages and Mocha, +all for twenty cents." + +"Good," commended Ralph. "We'll take air line for that right away." + +Clark chattered like a magpie as they proceeded to the street. It was +evident that he had taken a great fancy to Ralph. The latter liked him +in return. For the son of a wealthy railroad magnate, Clark was +decidedly democratic. The one subject he seemed glad to avoid was any +reference to his direct family and friends. + +He was full of life, and Ralph found him very entertaining. Some bad +breaks in grammar showed, indeed, that he had not amounted to much at +school. Some of his adventures also suggested that the presence and +power of money had not always been at his command. Ralph noticed some +inconsistencies in his stories here and there, but Clark rattled on so +fast and jumped so briskly from one subject to another, that it was +hard work to check him up. + +As they reached the porch of the house Clark gave Ralph a deterring +touch with his hand. + +"Just wait a minute, will you?" he spoke. + +"Why what for?" inquired Ralph in some surprise. + +"I want to find out something before we go out into the street," and +the speaker glided down the walk to the gate, peered down the street, +and then beckoned to his companion. + +"Come on," he hailed. "They're still there, though," he added, his +tones quite impressive. + +"Who is there?" asked Ralph. + +"Just dally at the gate here and take a look past the next street +corner--near where there's an alley, see?" + +"That crowd of boys?" questioned Ralph, following his companion's +direction. + +"Yes, that gang of hoodlums," responded Clark bluntly, "for that is +what they are." + +"And how are we interested in them?" inquired Ralph. + +"We're not, but they may become interested in us." + +"Indeed?" + +"Mightily, if I don't mistake my cue," asserted Clark. + +"You are pretty mysterious," hinted Ralph, half-smiling. + +"Well, I'll explain. Those fellows are laying for you." + +"Laying for me?" repeated Ralph vaguely. + +"That's it." + +"Why? They don't know me, and I don't know them." + +"Not much acquainted at Bridgeport, eh?" + +"Only casually. I've laid over here several times when I was firing on +the fast freight. I know a few railroad men, that's all." + +"Ever hear of Billy Bouncer?" + +"I never did." + +"Then I'm the first one to enlighten you. When I went out to find a +restaurant I passed that crowd you see. I noticed that they drew +together and scanned me pretty closely. Then I heard one of them say, +'That's not Fairbanks.' 'Yes, it is, didn't he come out of the place +we're watching?' said another. 'Aw, let up,' spoke a third voice. +'Billy Bouncer will know, and we don't want to spoil his game. He'll +be here soon.'" + +"That's strange," said Ralph musingly. + +"What are you going to do about it?" inquired Clark. + +"Oh, I'm not at all alarmed," replied Ralph, "barely interested, +that's all. We'll walk by the crowd and see if they won't throw some +further light on the subject." + +"Tell you, Fairbanks," said Clark quite seriously, "I'm putting two +and two together." + +"Well," laughed Ralph, "that makes four--go ahead." + +"More than four--a regular mob. That crowd, as I said, for some reason +is laying for you. What's the answer? They have been put up to it by +some one. You know, you told me incidentally that you had some enemies +on account of the big boost you've got in the service. You said, too, +that your friend, Engineer Griscom, warned you on just that point. I +haven't said much so far, but the actions of that grouch fireman of +yours, Fogg, looked decidedly queer and suspicious to me." + +Ralph made no comment on this. He had his own ideas on the subject, +but did not feel warranted in fully expressing them. + +"I believe that Fogg started out on your run yesterday to queer it. +Why he changed tactics later, I can't tell. Maybe he was scared by the +smash-up on the siding. Anyhow, I never saw such mortal malice in the +face of any man as that I saw in his when I came aboard No. 999. This +crowd down the street is evidently after you. Some one has put them up +to it." + +"Oh, you can't mean Fogg!" exclaimed Ralph. + +"I don't know," replied Clark. + +"I can't believe that he would plot against me that far," declared +Ralph. + +"A malicious enemy will do anything to reach his ends," said Clark. +"Doesn't he want you knocked out? Doesn't he want your place? What +would suit his plans better than to have you so mauled and battered, +that you couldn't show up for the return trip to Stanley Junction this +afternoon? Are you going past that crowd?" + +"I certainly shall not show the white feather by going out of my way," +replied Ralph. + +"Well, if that's your disposition, I'm at your call if they tackle +us," announced Clark. + +They proceeded down the street, and Ralph as they advanced had a good +view of the crowd, which, according to the views of his companion, +was laying in wait for him. There were about fifteen of them, ranging +from selfish-faced lads of ten or so up to big, hulking fellows of +twenty. They represented the average city gang of idlers and hoodlums. +They were hanging around the entrance to the alley as if waiting for +some mischief to turn up. Ralph noticed a rustling among them as he +was observed. They grouped together. He fancied one or two of them +pointed at him, but there was no further indication of belligerent +attention as he and Clark approached nearer to the crowd. + +"I fancy Billy Bouncer, whoever he is, hasn't arrived yet," observed +Clark. + +Just then one of the mob set up a shout. + +"Hi there, Wheels!" he hailed, and some additional jeers went up from +his fellows. Their attention seemed directed across the street, and +Ralph and Clark glanced thither. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AT BAY + + +A queer-looking boy about eighteen years of age was proceeding slowly +down the pavement. He was stockily built, and had an unusually massive +head and great broad shoulders. He was a boy who would be remarked +about almost anywhere. His hair was long, and this gave him a somewhat +leonine aspect. + +The hat of this boy was pushed far back on his head, and his eyes were +fixed and his attention apparently deeply absorbed upon an object he +held in his hand. This was a thin wooden rod with two cardboard wheels +attached to it. These he would blow, causing them to revolve rapidly. +Then he would study their gyrations critically, wait till they had run +down, and then repeat the maneuver. + +His side coat pockets were bulging, one with a lot of papers. From the +other protruded what seemed to be a part of a toy, or some real +mechanical device having also wheels in its construction. + +"Well, there's a queer make-up!" observed Clark in profound surprise. + +"He is certainly eccentric in his appearance," said Ralph. "I wonder +who he can be." + +"No, what he can be," corrected Clark, "for he's an odd genius of some +kind, I'll wager." + +The object of their interest and curiosity had heard the derisive hail +from across the street. He halted dead short, stared around him like a +person abruptly aroused from a dream, traced the call to its source, +thrust the device with which he had been experimenting into his +pocket, and fixing his eyes on his mockers, started across the street. +The hoodlum crowd nudged one another, blinked, winked, and looked as +if expecting developments of some fun. The object of their derision +looked them over in a calculating fashion. + +"Did any one here speak to me?" he asked. + +"No, Wheels--it was the birdies calling you!" hooted a jocose voice. + +"You sort of suggest something, somehow," drawled the lad in an +abstracted, groping way. "Yes, certainly, let me see. What is it? Ah, +perhaps I've made a memorandum of it." + +The lad poked into several vest pockets. Finally he unearthed a card +which seemed to be all written over, and he ran his eye down this. The +crowd chuckled at the profound solemnity of his manner. + +"H'm," observed the boy designated as "Wheels." "Let me see. 'Get +shoes mended.' No, that isn't it. I have such a bad memory. 'Order +some insulated wire.' No, that's for an uptown call. 'Buy Drummond on +Superheated Steam.' That's for the bookstore. Ah, here we have it. +'Kick Jim Scroggins.' Who's Jim? Aha! you young villain, I remember +you well enough now," and with an activity which could scarcely be +anticipated from so easy-going an individual, Wheels made a dive for a +big hulking fellow on the edge of the crowd. He chased him a few feet, +and planted a kick that lifted the yelling hoodlum a foot from the +ground. Then, calmly taking out a pencil, he crossed off the +memorandum--"Kick Jim Scroggins"--gave the crowd a warning glance, and +proceeded coolly down the sidewalk, resuming his occupation with the +contrivance he had placed in his pocket. + +The gang of loafers had drawn back. A sight of the massive arms and +sledge hammer fists of the young giant they had derided, and his +prompt measures with one of their cronies, dissuaded them from any +warlike move. + +"Whoop!" commented Clark in an exultant undertone, and he fairly +leaned against his companion in a paroxysm of uncontrollable laughter. +"Quick, nifty and entertaining, that! Say Engineer Fairbanks, I don't +know who that fellow Wheels is, but I'd be interested and proud to +make his acquaintance. Now steam up and air brake ready, while we pass +the crossing!" + +"Passing the crossing," as Clark designated it, proved, however, to be +no difficult proceeding. The crowd of hoodlums had got a set-back from +the boy with the piston-rod arm, it seemed. They scanned Ralph and +Clark keenly as they passed by, but made no attempt to either hail or +halt them. + +"We've run the gauntlet this time," remarked Clark. "Hello--four +times!" + +The vigilant companion of the young engineer was glancing over his +shoulder as he made this sudden and forcible remark. + +"Four times what?" inquired Ralph. + +"That fireman of yours." + +"Mr. Fogg?" + +"Yes." + +"What about him?" + +"Say," replied Clark, edging close to Ralph, "just take a careless +backward look, will you? About half the square down on the opposite +side of the street you'll see Fogg." + +"Why such caution and mystery?" propounded Ralph. + +"I'll tell you later. See him?" inquired Clark, as Ralph followed out +the suggestion he had made. + +Ralph nodded assentingly. He had made out Fogg as Clark had described. +The fireman was walking along in the direction they were proceeding. +There was something stealthy and sinister in the way in which he kept +close to the buildings lining the sidewalk. + +"That's four times I've noticed Fogg in this vicinity this morning," +reported Clark. "I discovered him opposite the lodging house when I +first came out this morning. When I came back he was skulking in an +open entry, next door. When we left the house together I saw him a +block away, standing behind a tree. Now he bobs up again." + +"I can't understand his motive," said Ralph thoughtfully. + +"I can," declared Clark with emphasis. + +"What's your theory?" + +"It's no theory at all, it's a dead certainty," insisted Clark. "Your +fireman and that gang of hoodlums hitch together in some way, you mark +my words. Well, let it slide for a bit. I'm hungry as a bear, and +here's the restaurant." + +It was a neat and inviting place, and with appetizing zeal the two +boys entered and seated themselves at a table and gave their order for +wheat cakes with honey and prime country sausages. Just as the waiter +brought in the steaming meal, Clark, whose face was toward the street, +said: + +"Fogg just passed by, and there goes the crowd of boys. I'm thinking +they'll give us a chance to settle our meal, Engineer Fairbanks!" + +"All right," responded Ralph quietly, "if that's the first task of the +day, we'll be in trim to tackle it with this fine meal as a +foundation." + +Their youthful, healthy appetites made a feast of the repast. Clark +doubled his order, and Ralph did full credit to all the things set +before him. + +"I was thinking," he remarked, as they paid their checks at the +cashier's counter, "that we might put in the day looking around the +town." + +"Why, yes," assented his companion approvingly, "that is, if you're +going to let me keep with you." + +"Why not?" smiled Ralph. "You seem to think I may need a guardian." + +"I've got nothing to do but put in the time, and get a signed voucher +from you that I did so in actual railroad service and in good +company," explained Clark. "I think I will go back to Stanley Junction +on your return run, if it can be arranged." + +"It is arranged already, if you say so," said Ralph. "We seem to get +on together pretty well, and I'm glad to have you with me." + +"Now, that's handsome, Engineer Fairbanks!" replied Clark. "There's +some moving picture shows in town here, open after ten o'clock, and +there's a mechanics' library with quite a museum of railroad +contrivances. We've got time to take it all in. Come on. Unless that +crowd stops us, we'll start the merry program rolling. No one in +sight," the youth continued, as they stepped into the street and he +glanced its length in both directions. "Have the enemy deserted the +field, or are they lying in ambush for us?" + +They linked arms and sauntered down the pavement. They had proceeded +nearly two squares, when, passing an alley, both halted summarily. + +"Hello! here's business, I guess," said Clark, and he and Ralph +scanned closely the group they had passed just before the breakfast +meal. + +The hoodlum gang had suddenly appeared from the alleyway, and forming +a circle, surrounded them. There was an addition to their ranks. Ralph +noted this instantly. He was a rowdy-looking chunk of a fellow, and +the swing of his body, the look on his face and the expression in his +eyes showed that he delighted in thinking himself a "tough customer." +Backed by his comrades, who looked vicious and expectant, he marched +straight up to Ralph, who did not flinch a particle. + +"You look like Fairbanks to me--Fairbanks, the engineer," he observed, +fixing a glance upon Ralph meant to dismay. + +"Yes, that is my name," said Ralph quietly. + +"Well," asserted the big fellow, "I've been looking for you, and I'm +going to whip the life out of you." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +FOUR MEDALS + + +Marvin Clark stepped promptly forward at the announcement of the +overgrown lout, who had signified his intention of whipping the young +engineer of No. 999. Clark had told Ralph that athletics was his +strong forte. He looked it as he squared firmly before the bully. + +"Going to wallop somebody, are you?" spoke Clark cooly. "Watch the +system-cylinder"--and the speaker gave to his arms a rotary motion so +rapid that it was fairly dizzying, "or piston rods," and one fist met +the bulging breast of the fellow with a force that sent him reeling +backwards several feet. + +"Hey, there! you keep out of this, if you don't want to be +massacreed!" spoke a voice at Clark's elbow, and he was seized by +several of the rowdy crowd and forced back from the side of Ralph. + +"Hands off!" shouted Clark, and he cleared a circle about him with a +vigorous sweep of his arms. + +"Don't you mix in a fair fight, then," warned a big fellow in the +crowd, threateningly. + +"Ah, it's going to be a fair fight, is it?" demanded Clark. + +"Yes, it is." + +"I'll see to it that it is," remarked Clark briefly. + +The fellow he had dazed with his rapid-fire display of muscle had +regained his poise, and was now again facing the young engineer. + +"Understand?" he demanded, hunching up his shoulders and staring +viciously at Ralph. "I'm Billy Bouncer." + +"Are you?" said Ralph simply. + +"I am, and don't you forget it. I happen to have got a tip from my +uncle, John Evans, of Stanley Junction. I guess you know him." + +"I do," announced Ralph bluntly, "and if you are as mean a specimen of +a boy as he is of a man, I'm sorry for you." + +"What?" roared the young ruffian, raising his fists. "Do you see +that?" and he put one out, doubled up. + +"I do, and it's mighty dirty, I can tell you." + +"Insult me, do you? I guess you don't know who I am. Champion, +see?--light-weight champion of this burg, and I wear four medals, and +here they are," and Bouncer threw back his coat and vauntingly +displayed four gleaming silver discs pinned to his vest. + +"If you had four more, big as cartwheels, I don't see how I would be +interested," observed Ralph. + +"You don't?" yelled Bouncer, hopping mad at failing to dazzle this new +opponent with an acquisition that had awed his juvenile cohorts and +admirers. "Why, I'll grind you to powder! Strip." + +With this Bouncer threw off his coat, and there was a scuffle among +his minions to secure the honor of holding it. + +"I don't intend to strip," remarked Ralph, "and I don't want to strike +you, but you've got to open a way for myself and my friend to go about +our business, or I'll knock you down." + +"You'll----Fellows, hear him!" shrieked Bouncer, dancing from foot to +foot. "Oh, you mincemeat! up with your fists! It's business now." + +The young engineer saw that it was impossible to evade a fight. The +allusion of Bouncer to Jim Evans was enlightening. It explained the +animus of the present attack. + +If Lemuel Fogg had been bent on queering the special record run to +Bridgeport out of jealousy, Evans, a former boon companion of the +fireman, had it in for Ralph on a more malicious basis. The young +railroader knew that Evans was capable of any meanness or cruelty to +pay him back for causing his arrest as an incendiary during the recent +railroad strike on the Great Northern. + +There was no doubt but what Evans had advised his graceless nephew of +the intended visit of Ralph to Bridgeport. During the strike Evans had +maimed railroad men and had been guilty of many other cruel acts of +vandalism. Ralph doubted not that the plan was to have his precious +nephew "do" him in a way that he would not be able to make the return +trip with No. 999. + +The young engineer was no pugilist, but he knew how to defend himself, +and he very quickly estimated the real fighting caliber of his +antagonist. He saw at a glance that Billy Bouncer was made up of bluff +and bluster and show. The hoodlum made a great ado of posing and +exercising his fists in a scientific way. He was so stuck up over some +medal awards at amateur boxing shows, that he was wasting time in +displaying his "style." + +"Are you ready?" demanded Bouncer, doing a quickstep and making a +picturesque feint at his opponent. + +"Let me pass," said Ralph. + +"Wow, when I've eaten you up, maybe!" + +"Since you will have it, then," observed Ralph quietly, "take that for +a starter." + +The young engineer struck out once--only once, but he had calculated +the delivery and effect of the blow to a nicety. There was a thud as +his fist landed under the jaw of the bully, so quickly and so +unexpectedly that the latter did not have time to put up so much as a +pretense of a protection. + +Back went Billy Bouncer, his teeth rattling, and down went Billy +Bouncer on a backward slide. His head struck a loose paving brick. He +moaned and closed his eyes. + +"Four--medals!" he voiced faintly. + +"Come on, Clark," said Ralph. + +He snatched the arm of his new acquaintance and tried to force his way +to the alley opening. Thus they proceeded a few feet, but only a few. +A hush had fallen over Bouncer's friends, at the amazing sight of +their redoubtable champion gone down in inglorious defeat, but only +for a moment. One of the largest boys in the group rallied the +disorganized mob. + +"Out with your smashers!" he shouted. "Don't let them get away!" + +Ralph pulled, or rather forced his companion back against two steps +with an iron railing, leading to the little platform of the alley +door of a building fronting on the street. + +"No show making a break," he continued in rapid tones. "Look at the +cowards!" + +At the call of their new leader, the crowd to its last member whipped +out their weapons. They were made of some hard substance like lead, +and incased in leather. They were attached to the wrist by a long +loop, which enabled their possessors to strike a person at long range, +the object of the attack having no chance to resist or defend +himself. + +"Grab the railing," ordered Clark, whom Ralph was beginning to +recognize as a quick-witted fellow in an emergency. "Now then, keep +side by side--any tactics to hold them at bay or drive them off." + +The two friends had secured quite a tactical position, and they +proceeded to make the most of it. The mob with angry yells made for +them direct. They jostled one another in their eager malice to strike +a blow. They crowded close to the steps, and their ugly weapons shot +out from all directions. + +One of the weapons landed on Ralph's hand grasping the iron railing, +and quite numbed and almost crippled it. A fellow used his weapon as a +missile, on purpose or by mistake. At all events, it whirled from his +hand through the air, and striking Clark's cheek, laid it open with +quite a ghastly wound. Clark reached over and snatched a slungshot +from the grasp of another of the assaulting party. He handed it +quickly to his companion. + +"Use it for all it's worth," he suggested rapidly. "Don't let them +down us, or we're goners." + +As he spoke, Clark, nettled with pain, balanced himself on the railing +and sent both feet flying into the faces of the onpressing mob. These +tactics were wholly unexpected by the enemy. One of their number went +reeling back, his nose nearly flattened to his face. + +"Rush 'em!" shouted the fellow frantically. + +Half-a-dozen of his cohorts sprang up the steps. They managed to grab +Ralph's feet. Now it was a pull and a clutch. Ralph realized that if +he ever got down into the midst of that surging mob, or under their +feet, it would be all over with him. + +"It's all up with us!" gasped Clark with a startled stare down the +alley. "Fogg, Lemuel Fogg!" + +The heart of the young engineer sank somewhat as he followed the +direction of his companion's glance. Sure enough, the fireman of +No. 999 had put in an appearance on the scene. + +"He's coming like a cyclone!" said Clark. + +Fogg was a rushing whirlwind of motion. He was bareheaded, and he +looked wild and uncanny. Somewhere he had picked up a long round +clothes pole or the handle to some street worker's outfit. With this +he was making direct for the crowd surrounding Ralph and Clark. Just +then a slungshot blow drove the latter to his knees. Two of the crowd +tried to kick at his face. Ralph was nerved up to desperate action +now. He caught the uplifted foot of one of the vandals and sent him +toppling. The other he knocked flat with his fist, but overpowering +numbers massed for a headlong rush on the beleaguered refugees. + +"Swish--thud! swish!" Half blinded by a blow dealt between the eyes by +a hurling slungshot, the young engineer could discern a break in the +program, the appearance of a new element that startled and astonished +him. He had expected to see the furious Fogg join the mob and aid them +in finishing up their dastardly work. Instead, like some madman, Fogg +had waded into the ranks of the group, swinging his formidable weapon +like a flail. It rose, it fell, it swayed from side to side, and its +execution was terrific. + +The fireman mowed down the amazed and scattering forces of Billy +Bouncer as if they were rows of tenpins. He knocked them flat, and +then he kicked them. It was a marvel that he did not cripple some of +them, for, his eyes glaring, his muscles bulging to the work, he acted +like some fairly irresponsible being. + +Within two minutes' time the last one of the mob had vanished into the +street. Flinging the pole away from him, Fogg began looking for his +cap, which had blown off his head as he came rushing down the alley at +cyclone speed. + +Clark stared at the fireman in petrified wonder. Ralph stood +overwhelmed with uncertainty and amazement. + +"Mr. Fogg, I say, Mr. Fogg!" he cried, running after the fireman and +catching at his sleeve, "How--why----" + +"Boy," choked out Lemuel Fogg, turning a pale, twitching face upon +Ralph, "don't say a word to me!" + +And then with a queer, clicking sob in his throat, the fireman of +No. 999 hastened down the alley looking for his cap. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +DAVE BISSELL, TRAIN BOY + + +"I don't understand it at all," exclaimed Ralph. + +"Mad--decidedly mad," declared young Clark. "Whew! that was a lively +tussle. All the buttons are gone off my vest and one sleeve is torn +open clear to the shoulder, and I guess there were only basting +threads in that coat of yours, for it's ripped clear up the back." + +Clark began to pick up some scattered buttons from the ground. His +companion, however, was looking down the alley, and he followed Fogg +with his eyes until the fireman had disappeared into the street. + +"You're wondering about things," spoke Clark. "So am I." + +"I'm trying to figure out the puzzle, yes," admitted the young +engineer. "You see, we were both of us wrong, and we have misjudged +Mr. Fogg." + +"I don't know about that," dissented Ralph's companion. + +"Why, he has helped us, instead of hurt us." + +"Yes," said Clark, "but why? It's nonsense to say that he didn't start +out on your trip fixed up to put you out of business if he could do +it. It is folly, too, to think that he didn't know that this Billy +Bouncer, relative of that old-time enemy of yours back at Stanley +Junction, Jim Evans, had put this gang up to beat you. If that wasn't +so, why has he been hanging around here all the morning in a +suspicious, mysterious way, and how does he come to swoop down on the +mob just in the nick of time." + +"Perhaps he was planning to head off the crowd all the time," +suggested Ralph. + +"Not from the very start," declared Clark positively. "No, sir--I +think he has had a fit of remorse, and thought better of having you +banged up or crippled." + +"At all events, Fogg has proven a good friend in need, and I shall not +forget it soon," observed Ralph. + +When they came out into the street the hoodlum crowd had dispersed. +They entered the first tailor shop they came to and soon had their +clothing mended up. + +"There's a moving picture show open," said Clark, after they had again +proceeded on their way. "Let's put in a half-hour or so watching the +slides." + +This they did. Then they strolled down to the shops, took in the +roundhouse, got an early dinner, and went to visit the museum at the +Mechanics' Exchange. This was quite an institution of Bridgeport, and +generally interested railroad men. Clark was very agreeable to the +proposition made by his companion to look over the place. They found a +fine library and a variety of drawings and models, all along railroad +lines. + +"This suits me exactly," declared Clark. "I am not and never will be a +practical railroader, but I like its variety just the same. Another +thing, a fellow learns something. Say, look there." + +The speaker halted his companion by catching his arm abruptly, as they +turned into a small reading room after admiring a miniature +reproduction in brass of a standard European locomotive. + +"Yes, I see," nodded Ralph, with a slight smile on his face, "our +friend, Wheels." + +Both boys studied the eccentric youth they had seen for the first time +a few hours previous. He occupied a seat at a desk in a remote corner +of the room. Propped up before him was a big volume full of cuts of +machinery, and he was taking notes from it. A dozen or more smaller +books were piled up on a chair beside him. + +Young as he was, there was a profound solemnity and preoccupation in +his methods that suggested that he had a very old head on a juvenile +pair of shoulders. As Ralph and his companion stood regarding the +queer genius, an attendant came up to Wheels. He touched him politely +on the shoulder, and as the lad looked up in a dazed, absorbed way, +pointed to the clock in the room. + +"You told me to inform you when it was two o'clock," spoke the +attendant. + +"Did I, now?" said Wheels in a lost, distressed sort of a way. "Dear +me, what for, I wonder?" and he passed his hand abstractedly over his +forehead. "Ah, I'll find out." + +He proceeded to draw from his pocket the selfsame memorandum he had +consulted in the case of Jim Scroggins. He mumbled over a number of +items, and evidently struck the right one at last, for he murmured +something about "catch the noon mail with a letter to the patent +office," arose, put on his cap, and hurriedly left the place, +blissfully wool-gathering as the fact that noon had come and gone +several hours since. + +"I'm curious," observed Clark, and as Wheels left the place he +followed the attendant to the library office, and left Ralph to stroll +about alone, while he engaged the former in conversation. In about +five minutes Clark came back to Ralph with a curious but satisfied +smile on his face. + +"Well, I've got his biography," he announced. + +"Whose--Wheels?" + +"Yes." + +"Who is he, anyway?" inquired Ralph. + +"He thinks he is a young inventor." + +"And is he?" + +"That's an open question. They call him Young Edison around here, and +his right name is Archie Graham. His father was an aeronaut who was an +expert on airships, got killed in an accident to an aeroplane last +year, and left his son some little money. Young Graham has been +dabbling in inventions since he was quite young." + +"Did he really ever invent anything of consequence?" asked Ralph. + +"The attendant here says that he did. About two years ago he got up a +car window catch that made quite a flurry at the shops. It was used +with good results, and the Great Northern was about to pay Graham +something for the device, when it was learned that while he was +bringing it to perfection some one else had run across pretty nearly +the same idea." + +"And patented it first?" + +"Both abroad and in this country. That of course shut Graham out. All +the same, the attendant declares that Graham must have got the idea +fully a year before the foreign fellow did." + +The boys left the place in a little while and proceeded towards the +railroad depot. Ralph had conceived quite a liking for his volatile +new acquaintance. Clark had shown himself to be a loyal, resourceful +friend, and the young engineer felt that he would miss his genial +company if the other did not take the return trip to Stanley Junction. +He told Clark this as they reached the depot. + +"That so?" smiled the latter. "Well, I'll go sure if you're agreeable. +I've got no particular program to follow out, and I'd like to take in +the Junction. Another thing, I'm curious to see how you come out with +your friends. There's that smash-up on the siding at Plympton, too. +Something may come up on that where I may be of service to you." + +They found the locomotive, steam up, on one of the depot switches in +charge of a special engineer. It lacked over half an hour of leaving +time. While Clark hustled about the tender, Ralph donned his working +clothes and chattered with the relief engineer. The latter was to run +the locomotive to the train, and Ralph walked down the platform to put +on the time. + +"I've stowed my vest in a bunker in the cab," said Clark, by his +side. + +"That's all right," nodded Ralph. + +"And I'm going to get some sandwiches and a few bottles of pop for a +little midnight lunch." + +"All right," agreed the young engineer, as his companion started over +towards Railroad Row. + +Lemuel Fogg had not put in an appearance up to this time, but a few +minutes later Ralph saw him in the cab of No. 999, which he had gained +by a short cut from the street. As Ralph was looking in the direction +of the locomotive, some one came briskly up behind him and gave him a +sharp, friendly slap on the shoulder. + +"Hello, Ralph Fairbanks!" he hailed. + +"Why, Dave Bissell!" said the young railroader, turning to face and +shake hands with an old acquaintance. Dave had been a train boy on an +accommodation run at Stanley Junction about a year previous, and had +graduated into the same line of service on the Overland Limited. + +"I'm very glad to see you," said Ralph; "I hear you've got a great +run." + +"Famous, Fairbanks!" declared Dave. "I'm hearing some big things about +you." + +"You call them big because you remember the Junction and exaggerate +home news," insisted Ralph. + +"Maybe so, but I always said you'd be president of the road some +time," began Dave, and then with a start stared hard at young Clark, +who appeared at that moment crossing the platform of a stationary +coach from the direction of Railroad Row. "Why!" exclaimed Dave, "hey! +hi! this way." + +Clark had halted abruptly. His expressive features were a study. As he +evidently recognized Dave, his face fell, his eyes betokened a certain +consternation, and dropping a package he carried he turned swiftly +about, jumped from the platform and disappeared. + +"Why" spoke Ralph, considerably surprised, "do you know Marvin +Clark?" + +"Who?" bolted out Dave bluntly. + +"That boy--Marvin Clark." + +"Marvin Clark nothing!" shouted the train boy volubly. "That's my +cousin, Fred Porter, of Earlville." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AN ASTONISHING DISCOVERY + + +The young engineer of No. 999 faced a new mystery, a sharp suspicion +darted through his mind. He recalled instantly several queer breaks +that the special passenger had made in his conversation. + +"Your cousin, is he?" observed Ralph thoughtfully. + +"That's what he is," affirmed Dave Bissell. + +"And his name is Fred Porter?" + +"Always has been," declared Dave. "Why, something up? Humph! I can +guess. Bet he's been up to some of his old tricks. He always was a +joker and full of mischief." + +"Tell me more about him," suggested Ralph. + +"Why, there isn't much to tell," said Dave. "He and I were raised at +Earlville. His parents both died several years ago, and he wandered +around a good deal. This is the first I've seen of him for over two +years." + +"Might you not be mistaken--facial resemblance?" + +"Not much," observed Dave staunchly. "Think I don't recognize my own +relatives? Why, didn't you notice how he acted?" + +"Yes, surprised." + +"No, scared," corrected Dave, "and ran away." + +"Why?" demanded Ralph. + +"Well, from your seeming to know him under another name, I should say +because he is found out. What game has he been playing on you, +Fairbanks?" + +"He has done me more good than harm," evaded Ralph. "I've only known +him since yesterday." + +"Well, he has run away, that's certain. That bothers me. Fred Porter +was never a sneak or a coward. He was full of jolly mischief and fun, +but a better friend no fellow ever had." + +"He struck me that way," said Ralph. "I hope he'll come back. There's +my engine coming, and I'll have to go on duty. Try and find him, Dave, +will you?" + +"If I can." + +"And if you find him, tell him I must see him before we leave +Bridgeport." + +"All right." + +Ralph picked up the lunch package that his odd acquaintance had +dropped and moved along the platform to where No. 999 had run. The +locomotive was backed to the coaches and the relief engineer stepped +to the platform. + +"I say," he projected in an undertone to Ralph, "what's up with +Fogg?" + +"Is there anything?" questioned Ralph evasively. + +"Dizzy in the headlight and wobbly in the drivers, that's all," came +the response, with a wink. + +Ralph's heart sank as he entered the cab. Its atmosphere was freighted +with the fumes of liquor, and a single glance at the fireman convinced +him that Fogg was very far over the line of sobriety. Ralph hardly +knew how to take Fogg. The latter nodded briefly and turned away, +pretending to occupy himself looking from the cab window. Ralph could +not resist the impulse to try and break down the wall of reserve +between them. He stepped over to the fireman's side and placed a +gentle hand on his shoulder. + +"See here, Fogg," he said in a friendly tone, "I've got to say +something or do something to square accounts for your help in routing +that crowd this morning." + +"Don't you speak of it!" shot out the fireman fiercely. "It's over and +done, isn't it? Let it drop." + +"All right," laughed Ralph genially. "Say, I saw a dispatch in the +Bridgeport paper to-day from Stanley Junction that ought to make you +feel pretty good." + +"Did?" snapped Fogg, determinedly antagonistic and stubbornly keeping +his face turned away. + +"Yes. It gave the list of names of those in our district who passed an +examination as school teachers." + +Ralph observed that a tremor ran through the fireman's frame at this +intelligence. + +"Who--who was in it?" he questioned, his voice hoarse and tense. + +"Two from the Junction." + +"Two?" + +"Yes, and the one who led with the highest average was your daughter, +Nellie." + +"I--I don't deserve it!" fairly sobbed the fireman, getting up +suddenly and striving to hide his emotion. "Boy!" and he trembled all +over as he now faced Ralph, "I'm steamed up again, as you can plainly +see. I won't deny it, but I had to, I couldn't fire a mile unless I +steamed up, but I'll say one thing with truth--I've got no bottle in +the cab." + +"That's good, Mr. Fogg," said Ralph. + +"And never will have again, and you've seen the last signs of the +dirty stuff on me. I'm going home to make a new start." + +"Heaven bless you in your new resolution, Mr. Fogg!" cried Ralph, his +own tones none too steady. + +"I'll--I'll have something to say to you after we get home," continued +Fogg. "Just leave me alone till then." + +Something was working on the mind of the fireman, this was very +plain--something for good, Ralph fervently hoped. The young engineer +took his cue promptly. During all the trip to Stanley Junction he +avoided all conversation except commonplace routine remarks. Up to the +time of leaving Bridgeport Ralph had waited expectantly for some sign +of the youth he had known as Marvin Clark. Clark or Porter, his new +acquaintance did not put in an appearance, nor did Dave Bissell +return. + +"Dave did not succeed in finding him," decided Ralph, as No. 999 +started up. "I'm sorry." Dave had been pretty positive as to the +identity of his cousin, and the elusive actions of his relative seemed +to verify his recognition. + +"Traveling under false colors, I fear," reflected the young engineer. +"A pretty bold and difficult imposture, I should think. Are his +credentials false or stolen? But how to explain his motive? He +doesn't like railroading, and the system and the vouchers he is at so +much trouble to get and preserve make this business decidedly +mysterious. If it wasn't for those features, I would feel it my duty +to report the affair and notify the real Marvin Clark, if there is +one." + +Ralph had both mind and hands full during the trip. As to Fogg, he +went straight about his duties, grimly silent and mechanically. As the +fire and vim of stimulation died down, Ralph could see that it was +with the most exhaustive effort that his fireman kept up his nerve and +strength. Fogg was weak and panting the last shovel full of coal he +threw into the furnace, as they sighted Stanley Junction. He was as +limp as a rag, and looked wretched as the train rolled into the +depot. + +They ran the locomotive to the roundhouse. Ralph went at once to the +foreman's office, while Fogg attended to the stalling of No. 999. He +found the night watchman asleep there and no orders on the blackboard +for Fogg or himself. This meant that they need not report before +noon. + +Ralph looked around for the fireman when he came out of the office, +but the latter had disappeared, probably headed for home. Ralph, +half-across the turntable, halted and went over to No. 999. + +"The vest of that mysterious new acquaintance of mine, Clark--Porter," +said Ralph--"he said he left it in the locomotive." + +Ralph did not find the article in question in his own bunker. He threw +back the cover of Fogg's box, to discover the vest neatly folded up at +the bottom of that receptacle. With some curiosity he looked over its +pockets. + +"Whew!" whistled Ralph, as he removed and opened the only article it +contained--a check book. The checks were upon a bank at Newton. About +half of what the book had originally contained had been removed. +Examining the stubs, Ralph calculated that over $1,000 had been +deposited at the bank in the name of Marvin Clark, and that fully half +that amount had been checked out. + +"This is pretty serious," commented the young engineer. "It looks as +if the impostor has not only stolen Clark's name, but his passes and +his check book as well. I don't like the looks of this. There's +something here I can't figure out." + +Ralph placed the check book in his own pocket and returned the vest to +the box. As he did this, he disturbed a piece of cloth used by Fogg to +wipe grease from the cab valves. Something unfamiliar to the touch was +outlined wrapped up in the rag, and Ralph explored. + +Two objects came into view as he opened the piece of cloth. With a +great gasp the young engineer stared at these. Then he rolled up the +rag and placed it and its contents in his pocket. + +His face grew grave, and Ralph uttered a deep sigh, startled and +sorrowful. + +The young engineer of No. 999 had made a discovery so strange, so +unexpected, that it fairly took his breath away. + +The mystery of the collision on the siding at Plympton was disclosed. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LIGHT OF HOME + + +Ralph walked home in the quiet night in a serious and thoughtful mood. +His usually bright face was clouded and his head bent, as though his +mind was greatly upset. As the light of home came into view, however, +with a effort he cast aside all railroad and personal cares. + +"Always the same dear, faithful mother," he murmured gratefully, as he +approached the cheerful looking cottage all alight down stairs, and +hurried his steps to greet her waiting for him on the porch. + +"Ralph," she spoke anxiously, "you are not hurt?" + +"Hurt!" cried Ralph, "not a bit of it. Why," as he noticed his mother +trembling all over, "what put that into your head?" + +"The fear that what Zeph heard downtown at the roundhouse might be +true," replied Mrs. Fairbanks. "There was a rumor that there had been +a collision. Besides, I knew that some of your enemies were watching +your movements." + +"You must stop worrying over these foolish notions," said Ralph +reassuringly. "We made a successful run, and as to the enemies, they +generally get the worst of it. Men in the wrong always do." + +Ralph was glad to get back to his comfortable home. As he passed +through the hallway he noticed Zeph Dallas, asleep on the couch. Ralph +did not hail or disturb him. Young Dallas had been at work for the +friends of Ralph who operated the Short Line Railroad up near Wilmer, +but about two weeks previous to the present time had got tired of the +dull route through the woods and had come to Stanley Junction. The +young engineer had gotten him a job "subbing" as a helper on a yards +switch engine. Zeph had been made welcome at the Fairbanks home, as +were all friends of Ralph, by his devoted mother. + +"You are the best mother and the best cook in the world," declared +Ralph, as he sat down at the table in the cozy little dining room, +before a warm meal quickly brought from the kitchen. "Really, mother, +you are simply spoiling me, and as to your sitting up for me this way +and missing your sleep, it is a positive imposition on you." + +His mother only smiled sweetly and proudly upon him. Then she asked: + +"Was it a hard trip, Ralph?" + +"In a way," responded Ralph. "But what made it harder was some +unpleasant developments entirely outside of railroad routine." + +"That so? It never rains but it pours!" proclaimed an intruder +abruptly, and, awakened from his sleep by the sound of voices, Zeph +Dallas came into the dining room yawning and stretching himself. + +"Why!" exclaimed Ralph, giving the intruder a quick stare, "what have +you ever been doing to yourself?" + +"Me?" grinned Zeph--"you mean that black eye and that battered +cheek?" + +"Yes--accident?" + +"No--incident," corrected Zeph, with a chuckle. "A lively one, too, I +can tell you." + +"Fell off the engine?" + +"No, fell against a couple of good hard human fists. We had been +sorting stray freights all the afternoon on old dinky 97, and had +sided to let a passenger go by, when I noticed a man with a bag and a +stick picking up coal along the tracks. Just then, a poor, ragged +little fellow with a basket came around the end of the freight doing +the same. The man thought he had a monopoly in his line, because he +was big. He jumped on the little fellow, kicked him, hit him with his +stick, and--I was in the mix-up in just two seconds." + +"You should keep out of trouble, Zeph," advised Mrs. Fairbanks, +gently. + +"How could I, ma'am, when that little midget was getting the worst of +it?" demurred Zeph. "Well, I pitched into the big, overgrown bully, +tooth and nail. I'm a sight, maybe. You ought to see him! He cut for +it after a good sound drubbing, leaving his bag of coal behind him. I +gave the little fellow all the loose change I had, filled his basket +from the bag, and sent him home happy. When I got back to the engine, +Griggs, the assistant master mechanic, was in the cab. He said a few +sharp words about discipline and the rules of the road, and told me to +get off the engine." + +"Discharged, eh?" + +"And to stay off. I'm slated, sure. Don't worry about it, Fairbanks; +I'd got sick to death of the job, anyway." + +"But what are you going to do?" inquired Ralph gravely. + +"Get another one, of course. I'm going to try to get Bob Adair, the +road detective, to give me a show. That's the line of work I like. If +he won't, I'll try some other town. I'm sorry, Fairbanks, for my +wages will only settle what board I owe you, and there's that last +suit of clothes you got for me, not paid for yet----" + +"Don't trouble yourself about that, Zeph," interrupted Ralph kindly. +"You're honest, and you'll pay when you can. You may keep what money +you have for a new start until you get to work again." + +Zeph looked grateful. Then Ralph gave some details of the record run +to Bridgeport, there was some general conversation, and he went to +bed. + +Ralph had asked his mother to call him at nine o'clock in the morning, +but an hour before that time there was a tap at the door of the +bedroom. + +"Ralph, dear," spoke up his mother, "I dislike to disturb you, but a +messenger boy has just brought a telegram, and I thought that maybe it +was something of importance and might need immediate attention." + +"That's right, mother. I will be down stairs in a minute," answered +the young railroader, and he dressed rapidly and hurried down to the +sitting room, where his mother stood holding out to him a sealed +yellow envelope. Ralph tore it open. He looked for a signature, but +there was none. It was a night message dated at Bridgeport, the +evening previous, and it ran: + + "Clark--Porter--whatever you know don't speak of it, or great + trouble may result. Will see you within two days." + +"I wonder what the next development will be?" murmured Ralph. "'Great +trouble may result.' I don't understand it at all. 'Will see you in +two days'--then there is some explanation coming. Clark, or whatever +his real name is, must suspect or know that his cousin, Dave Bissell, +has told me something. Well, I certainly won't make any move about +this strange affair until Clark has had an opportunity to straighten +things out. In the meantime, I've got a good deal of personal business +on my hands." + +Ralph was a good deal in doubt and anxious as to his railroad career, +immediate and prospective. As has been told, his trip to Bridgeport +had been a record run. The fact that the China & Japan Mail could be +delivered on time, indicated a possibility that the Great Northern +might make a feature of new train service. It would not, however, be +done in a day. No. 999 might be put on the Dover branch of the Great +Northern, or accomodation service to other points, and the Overland +Express connection canceled. + +There had been all kinds of speculation and gossip at the dog house as +to the new system of business expansion adopted by the Great +Northern. That road had acquired new branches during the past year, +and was becoming a big system of itself. There was talk about a +consolidation with another line, which might enable the road to +arrange for traffic clear to the Pacific. New splendid train service +was talked of everywhere, among the workmen, and every ambitious +railroader was looking for a handsome and substantial promotion. + +Ralph could not tell until he reported at the roundhouse after twelve +o'clock when and how he would start out again. On the Bridgeport run +he was not due until the next morning. All he was sure of was that he +and Fogg were regulars for No. 999 wherever that locomotive was +assigned, until further orders interfered. Despite the successful +record run to Bridgeport, somebody was listed for at least a +"call-down" on account of the accident on the siding at Plympton. +Every time Ralph thought of that, he recollected his "find" in Lemuel +Fogg's bunker, and his face became grave and distressed. + +"It's bound to come out," he reflected, as he strolled into the neat, +attractive garden after breakfast. "Why, Mr. Griscom--I'm glad to see +you." + +His old railroad friend was passing the house on his way to the +roundhouse to report for duty. His brisk step showed that he was +limited as to time, but he paused for a moment. + +"You got there, Fairbanks, didn't you?" he commented heartily. "Good. +I knew you would, but say, what about this mix-up on the signals at +Plympton?" + +"Oh, that wasn't much," declared Ralph. + +"Enough to put the master mechanic on his mettle," objected the +veteran engineer. "He's going to call all hands on the carpet. Had me +in yesterday afternoon. He showed me your conductor's report wired +from Bridgeport. It throws all the blame on Adams, the new station man +at Plympton. The conductor declares it was all his fault--'color +blind,' see? Master mechanic had Adams down there yesterday." + +"Surely no action is taken yet?" inquired Ralph anxiously. + +"No, but I fancy Adams will go. It's a plain case, I think. Your +signals were special and clear right of way, that's sure. Danforth is +ready to swear to that. Adams quite as positively swears that the +green signals on the locomotive were set on a call for the siding. He +broke down and cried like a child when it was hinted that a discharge +from the service was likely." + +"Poor fellow, I must see the master mechanic at once," said Ralph. + +"You'll have to, for your explanation goes with him and will settle +the affair. You see, it seems that Adams had broken up his old home +and gone to the trouble and expense of moving his family to Plympton. +Now, to be let out would be a pretty hard blow to him. Of course, +though, if he is color blind----" + +"He is not color blind!" cried Ralph, with so much earnestness that +Griscom stared at him strangely. + +"Aha! so you say that, do you?" observed the old engineer, squinting +his eyes suspiciously. "Then--Fogg. Tricks, I'll bet!" + +"I'll talk to you later, Mr. Griscom," said Ralph. + +"Good, I want to know, and I see you have something to tell." + +The young engineer had, indeed, considerable to tell when the time +came to justify the disclosures. He was worried as to how he should +tell it, and to whom. Ralph sat down in the little vine-embowered +summer-house in the garden, and had a good hard spell of thought. +Then, as his hand went into his pocket and rested on the piece of +cloth with its enclosure which he had found in Fogg's bunker on +No. 999, he started from his seat, a certain firm, purposeful +expression on his face. + +"I've got to do it," he said to himself, as he went along in the +direction of the home of Lemuel Fogg. "Somebody has got to take the +responsibility of the collision. Adams, the new station man at +Plympton, is innocent of any blame. It would be a terrible misfortune +for him to lose his job. Fogg has sickness in his family. The truth +coming out, might spoil all the future of that bright daughter of his. +As to myself--why, if worse comes to worse, I can find a place with my +good friends on the Short Line Railway down near Dover. I'm young, I'm +doing right in making the sacrifice, and I'm not afraid of the future. +Yes, it is a hard way for a fellow with all the bright dreams I've +had, but--I'm going to do it!" + +The young engineer had made a grand, a mighty resolve. It was a severe +struggle, a hard, bitter sacrifice of self interest, but Ralph felt +that a great duty presented, and he faced its exactions manfully. + +The home of Lemuel Fogg the fireman was about four blocks distant. As +Ralph reached it, he found a great roaring fire of brush and rubbish +burning in the side yard. + +"A good sign, if that is a spurt of home industry with Fogg," decided +the young railroader. "He's tidying up the place. It needs it bad +enough," and Ralph glanced critically at the disordered yard. + +Nobody was astir about the place. Ralph knew that Mrs. Fogg had been +very ill of late, and that there was an infant in the house. He +decided to wait until Fogg appeared, when he noticed the fireman way +down the rear alley. His back was to Ralph and he was carrying a rake. +Fogg turned into a yard, and Ralph started after him calculating that +the fireman was returning the implement to a neighbor. Just as Ralph +came to the yard, the fireman came out of it. + +At a glance the young engineer noted a change in the face of Fogg that +both surprised and pleased him. The fireman looked fresh, bright and +happy. He was humming a little tune, and he swung along as if on +cheerful business bent, and as if all things were coming swimmingly +with him. + +"How are you, Mr. Fogg?" hailed Ralph. + +The fireman changed color, a half-shamed, half-defiant look came into +his face, but he clasped the extended hand of the young railroader and +responded heartily to its friendly pressure. + +"I've got something to tell you, Fairbanks," he said, straightening +up as if under some striving sense of manliness. + +"That's all right," nodded Ralph with a smile. "I'm going back to the +house with you, and will be glad to have a chat with you. First, +though, I want to say something to you, so we'll pause here for a +moment." + +"I've--I've made a new start," stammered Fogg. "I've buried the +past." + +"Good!" cried Ralph, giving his companion a hearty slap on the +shoulder, "that's just what I was going to say to you. Bury the +past--yes, deep, fathoms deep, without another word, never to be +resurrected. To prove it, let's first bury this. Kick it under that +ash heap yonder, Mr. Fogg, and forget all about it. Here's something +that belongs to you. Put it out of sight, and never speak of it or +think of it again." + +And Ralph handed to the fireman the package done up in the oiling +cloth that he had unearthed from Fogg's bunker in the cab of No. 999. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +FIRE! + + +Lemuel Fogg gave a violent start as he received the parcel from +Ralph's hand. His face fell and the color deserted it. The package +unrolled in his grasp, and he let it drop to the ground. Two square +sheets of green colored mica rolled out from the bundle. + +"Fairbanks!" spoke the fireman hoarsely, his lips quivering--"you +know?" + +"I surmise a great deal," replied Ralph promptly, "and I want to say +nothing more about it." + +"But--" + +"I have figured it all out. Adams, the station man at Plympton, has a +family. You are going to turn over a leaf, I have decided to take all +the blame for the collision on the siding. I shall see the master +mechanic within an hour and settle everything. I am going to resign my +position with the Great Northern road." + +The fireman's jaws dropped at this amazing declaration of the young +railroader. It seemed as if for a moment he was fairly petrified at +the unexpected disclosure of the noble self-sacrifice involved. He did +not have to explain what those two sheets of green mica +signified--Ralph knew too well. Inspired by jealousy, Lemuel Fogg had +slipped them over the white signal lights of No. 999 as the locomotive +approached Plympton, getting the siding semaphore, and removing them +before the smash-up had come about. + +"Never!" shouted Fogg suddenly. "Let me tell you, Fairbanks--" + +Before the speaker could finish the sentence Ralph seized his arm with +the startling words: + +"Mr. Fogg, look--fire!" + +Facing about, Lemuel Fogg uttered a frightful cry as he discerned what +had just attracted the notice of the young engineer. The Fogg house +was in flames. + +When Ralph had first noticed the fiercely-burning heap of rubbish on +the Fogg premises, he had observed that it was dangerously near to the +house. It had ignited the dry light timber of the dwelling, the whole +rear part of which was now a mass of smoke and flames. + +"My wife--my helpless wife and the little child!" burst from the lips +of the frantic fireman in a shrill, ringing scream. + +Ralph joined him as he ran down the alley on a mad run. The great +sweat stood out on the bloodless face of the agonized husband and +father in knobs, his eyes wore a frenzied expression of suspense and +alarm. + +"Save them! save them!" he shouted, as Ralph kept pace with him. + +"Don't get excited, Mr. Fogg," spoke Ralph reassuringly. "We shall be +in time." + +"But she cannot move--she is in the bedroom directly over the kitchen. +Oh, this is a judgment for all my wickedness!" + +"Be a man," encouraged Ralph. "Here we are--let me help you." + +"Up the back stairs!" cried Fogg. "They are nearest to her." + +"No, no--you can never get up them," declared Ralph. + +The side door of the house was open, showing a pair of stairs, but +they were all ablaze. Smoke and sparks poured up this natural funnel +fiercely. Ralph caught at the arm of his companion and tried to detain +him, but Fogg broke away from his grasp. + +Ralph saw him disappear beyond the blazing barrier. He was about to +run around to the front of the house, when he heard a hoarse cry. +Driven back by the overpowering smoke, Fogg had stumbled. He fell +headlong down a half a dozen steps, his head struck the lower +platform, and he rolled out upon the gravel walk, stunned. + +Ralph quickly dragged the man out of the range of the fire and upon +the grass. He tried to arouse Fogg, but was unsuccessful. There was no +time to lose. Seizing a half-filled bucket standing by the well near +by, Ralph deluged the head of the insensible fireman with its +contents. It did not revive him. Ralph sped to the front of the house, +ran up on the stoop and jerked at the knob of the front screen door. + +It was locked, but Ralph tore it open in an instant. A woman's frantic +screams echoed as the young railroader dashed into the house. He was +quickly up the front stairs. At the top landing he paused momentarily, +unable to look about him clearly because of the dense smoke that +permeated the place. + +Those frenzied screams again ringing out guided him down a narrow +hallway to the rear upper bedroom. The furniture in it was just +commencing to take fire. On the floor was the fireman's wife, a tiny +babe held in one arm, while with the other she was trying +unsuccessfully to pull herself out of range of the fire. + +"Save me! save me!" she shrieked, as Ralph's form was vaguely outlined +to her vision. + +"Do not be alarmed, Mrs. Fogg," spoke Ralph quickly--"there's no +danger." + +He ran to the bed, speedily pulled off a blanket lying there, and +wrapped it about the woman. + +"Hold the child closely," he directed, and bodily lifted mother and +babe in his strong, sinewy arms. The young railroader staggered under +his great burden as he made for the hallway, but never was he so glad +of his early athletic training as at this critical moment in his +life. + +It was a strenuous and perilous task getting down the front stairs +with his load, but Ralph managed it. He carried mother and child clear +out into the garden, placed them carefully on a rustic bench there, +and then ran towards the well. + +By this time people had come to the scene of the fire. There were two +buckets at the well. A neighbor and the young railroader soon formed a +limited bucket brigade, but it was slow work hauling up the water, and +the flames had soon gained a headway that made their efforts to quench +them useless. + +Ralph organized the excited onlookers to some system in removing what +could be saved from the burning house. In the meantime he had directed +a boy to hasten to the nearest telephone and call out the fire +department. Soon the clanging bell of the hose cart echoed in the near +distance. The rear part of the house had been pretty well burned down +by this time, and the front of the building began to blaze. + +Ralph got a light wagon from the barn of a neighbor. A comfortable +couch was made of pillows and blankets, and Mrs. Fogg and her child +were placed on this. Ralph found no difficulty in enlisting volunteers +to haul the wagon to his home, where his mother soon had the poor lady +and her babe in a condition of safety and comfort. As Ralph returned +to the dismantled and still smoking Fogg home he met a neighbor. + +"Oh, Fairbanks," spoke this person, "you're in great demand up at the +Foggs." + +"How is that?" + +"Fogg has come to. They told him about your saving his wife and child. +He cried like a baby at first. Then he insisted on finding you. He's +blessing you for your noble heroism, I tell you." + +"I don't know about the noble heroism," returned Ralph with a smile. +"Go back, will you, and tell him I'll see him in about an hour. Tell +him to come down to our house at once. It's all arranged there to make +him feel at home until he can make other arrangements." + +"You're a mighty good fellow, Fairbanks" declared the man +enthusiastically, "and everybody knows it!" + +"Thank you," returned Ralph, and proceeded on his way. As he casually +looked at his watch the young railroader quickened his steps with the +half-murmured words: + +"And now for a tussle with the master mechanic." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE MASTER MECHANIC + + +"Want to resign, do you?" + +"That is what I came here for, sir," said the young engineer of +No. 999. + +"Well, you're too late," and the master mechanic of the Great Northern +seemed to turn his back on Ralph, busying himself with some papers on +his desk. He was a great, gruff fellow with the heart of a child, but +he showed it rarely. A diamond in the rough, most of the employees of +the road were afraid of him. Not so Ralph. The young railroader had +won the respect and admiration of the official by his loyalty and +close attention to duty. In fact, Ralph felt that the influence of the +master mechanic had been considerable of an element in his promotion +to No. 999. He stepped nearer to the desk, managing to face the +would-be tyro. + +"Too late, sir?" he repeated vaguely. + +"Didn't I say so? Get out!" + +The master mechanic waved his hand, and Ralph was a trifle surprised +at what seemed a peremptory dismissal. The moving arm of the old +railroader described a swoop, grasped the hand of Ralph in a fervent +grip, and pulling the young engineer to almost an embrace, he said: + +"Fairbanks, we had in our family a little boy who died. It's a pretty +tender memory with us, but every time I look at you I think of the +dear little fellow. He'd have been a railroader, too, if he had lived, +and the fondest wish of my heart is that he might have been like +you." + +"Why----" murmured the astonished Ralph. + +The master mechanic cleared his throat and his great hand swept the +moisture from his eyes. Then in a more practical tone he resumed: + +"I said you was too late." + +"Too late for what?" + +"Resigning. You are too late," observed the official, "because Lemuel +Fogg has already been here." + +"Then----" + +"To tender his resignation, to tell the whole truthful story of the +collision on the siding at Plympton. Fairbanks," continued the master +mechanic very seriously, "you are a noble young fellow. I know your +design to bear the whole brunt of the smash-up, in order that you +might save your fireman and the station man down at Plympton. As I +said, Fogg was here. I never saw a man so broken. He told me +everything. He told me of your patience, of your kindness, your +manliness. Lad, your treatment of Fogg under those circumstances shows +the mettle in you that will make you a great man, and, what is better +still, a good man." + +"Thank you, sir," said Ralph in a subdued tone, deeply affected +despite himself. + +"For the first time in twenty years' service," continued the official, +"I am going to take a serious responsibility on myself which should be +rightly shouldered by the company. The Plympton incident is dead and +buried. The three of us must hold always the secret close. The black +mark is rubbed off the slate." + +"You have done right--oh, believe me, sir!" declared Ralph earnestly. +"I feel sure that Mr. Fogg has learned a lesson that he will never +forget, and the blessings of his sick wife, of his ambitious young +daughter, will be yours." + +"In my desk yonder," continued the master mechanic, "I have his +written pledge that drink is a thing of the past with him. I told Fogg +that if ever he disappointed me in my belief that he was a changed +man, a reformed man, I would leave the service feeling that my +mistaken judgment did not do justice to my position with the Great +Northern. As to you, ready to sacrifice yourself for the sake of +others--you are a young man among thousands. Drop it now--get out!" +ordered the master mechanic, with a vast show of authority. "It's all +under seal of silence, and I expect to see you and Fogg make a great +team." + +"Mr. Fogg's house has just burned down," said Ralph. "It would have +broken him down completely, if his discharge had been added to that +misfortune." + +"Burned down?" repeated the master mechanic, in surprise and with +interest. "How was that?" and Ralph had to recite the story of the +fire. He added that he had heard Fogg had but little insurance. + +"Wait a minute," directed the official, and he went into the next +office. Ralph heard him dictating something to his stenographer. Then +the typewriter clicked, and shortly afterwards the master mechanic +came into the office with a sheet of foolscap, which he handed to +Ralph. A pleased flush came into the face of the young railroader as +he read the typewritten heading of the sheet--it was a subscription +list in behalf of Lemuel Fogg, and headed by the signature of the +master mechanic, with "$20" after it. + +"You are a noble man!" cried Ralph irresistibly. "No wonder it's a joy +to work for you." + +"Down brakes there!" laughed the big-hearted fellow. "Don't draw it +too strong, Fairbanks. Don't be more liberal than you can afford now," +he directed, as Ralph placed the paper on the desk, and added to it +his subscription for $10. "You can tell Fogg we're rising a few +pennies for him. I'll circulate the subscription among the officials, +and if any plan to have the roundhouse crowd chip in a trifle comes to +your mind, why, start it down the rails. Get out." + +"All right," cried Ralph. "You've said that twice, so I guess it's +time to go now." + +"One minute, though," added the master mechanic. "You and Fogg will +run No. 999 on the Tipton accommodation to-morrow. It's a shift berth, +though. I don't want you to go dreaming quite yet, Fairbanks, that +you're president of the Great Northern, and all that, but, under the +hat, I will say that you can expect a boost. We are figuring on some +big things, and I shouldn't wonder if a new train is soon to be +announced that will wake up some of our rivals. Get out now for good, +for I'm swamped with work here." + +The young engineer left the office of the master mechanic with a very +happy heart. Affairs had turned out to his entire satisfaction, and, +too, for the benefit of those whose welfare he had considered beyond +his own. Ralph was full of the good news he had to impart to Lemuel +Fogg. As he left the vicinity of the depot, he began to formulate a +plan in his mind for securing a subscription from his fellow workers +to aid Fogg. + +"I say," suddenly remarked Ralph to himself with a queer smile, and +halting in his progress, "talk about coincidences, here is one for +certain. 'The Overland Limited,' why, I've got an idea!" + +The "Overland Limited" had been in Ralph's mind ever since leaving the +office of the master mechanic. There could be only one solution to the +hint that official had given of "new trains that would wake up some of +the rivals of the Great Northern." That road had recently bought up +two connecting lines of railroad. The China & Japan Mail +experiment--could it be a test as to the possibility of establishing +an "Overland Special?" At all events, there was a pertinent suggestion +in the words that met the gaze of the young engineer and caused him to +halt calculatingly. + +A newly-painted store front with clouded windows had a placard outside +bearing the announcement: "Olympia Theatre, 10-cent show. Will open +next Saturday evening with the following special scenes: 1--The Poor +Artist. 2--London by Gaslight. 3--A Day on the Overland Limited." At +the door of the store just being renovated for a picture show stood a +man, tying some printed bills to an awning rod for passers by to take. +Ralph approached this individual. + +"Going to open a moving picture show?" he inquired in a friendly way. + +"I am," responded the show man. "Interested?" + +"Yes," answered Ralph. + +"I hope the public will be. It's a sort of experiment, with two other +shows in town. There's none in this locality, and they tell me I'll do +well." + +"I should think so," answered Ralph. "Bright, clean pictures will draw +a good crowd." + +"I'd like to get the railroad men in touch with me. They and their +families could give me lots of business. There's that prime 'Overland' +scene. It's a new and fine film." + +"And it has suggested something to me that you may be glad to follow +out," spoke Ralph. + +"And what's that, neighbor?" inquired the showman curiously. + +"I'll tell you," responded Ralph. "There was a fire in town +to-day--one of the best-known firemen on the road was burned out. It's +a big blow to him, for he's lost about all he had. There isn't a +railroad man in Stanley Junction who would not be glad to help him +get on his feet again. The big fellows of the road will subscribe in a +good way, but the workers can't spare a great deal." + +"I see," nodded the man. "What are you getting at, though?" + +"Just this," explained Ralph. "You get out some special dodgers and +announce your opening night as a benefit for Lemuel Fogg, fireman. +Offer to donate fifty per cent. of the proceeds to Fogg, and I'll +guarantee to crowd your house to the doors." + +"Say!" enthused the man, slapping Ralph boisterously on the shoulder, +"you're a natural showman. Write me the dodger, will you, and I'll +have it over the streets inside of twenty-four hours." + +"I'm better at filling in time schedules than composing show bills," +said Ralph, "but I'll have a try at this one for my friend's sake." + +Ralph went inside and was soon busy with blank paper and pencil, which +the showman provided. His composition was a very creditable piece of +literary work, and the showman chuckled immensely, and told Ralph that +he could consider himself on the free list--"with all his family." + +Ralph made a start for home again, but his fixed plans were scheduled +for frequent changes, it seemed. An engineer friend, on his way to the +roundhouse, met him, and Ralph turned and walked that way with him. +He broached the subject nearest to his heart, and soon had his +companion interested in the subscription for Lemuel Fogg. When he +parted with the man at the end of the depot platform the latter had +promised to be responsible for great results among his +fellow-workmen. + +The young engineer now proceeded in the direction of home. The whistle +of the western accommodation, however, just arriving, held him +stationary for a few moments, and he stood watching the train roll +into the depot with the interest ever present with a railroader. + +The last coach was a chair car. As the coaches jolted to a halt, there +crawled or rather rolled from under the chair car a forlorn figure, +weakened, tattered, a stowaway delivered from a perilous stolen ride +on the trucks. + +It was a boy; Ralph saw that at a glance. As the depot watchman ran +forward to nab this juvenile offender against the law, the boy sat up +on the board plankway where he had landed, and Ralph caught a sight of +his face. + +In an instant the young railroader recognized this new arrival. It was +"Wheels," otherwise Archie Graham, the boy inventor. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A GOOD FRIEND + + +RALPH could not repress a smile at a sight of the erratic youth. The +young inventor, it seemed, was always coming to light in some original +way. His last sensational appearance fitted in naturally to his usual +eccentric methods. + +"Hey, there! trying to beat the railroad, eh?" shouted the depot +official officer, rushing forward to nab the culprit. + +"Don't arrest him, Mr. Brooks," spoke Ralph quickly. "I know him; I'm +interested in him. He is no professional ride-stealer, and I am +perfectly satisfied that he never went to all that risk and discomfort +because he didn't have the money to pay his fare." + +The watchman was an old-time friend of Ralph. He looked puzzled, but +he halted in his original intention of arresting the stowaway. Young +Graham paid no attention to anything going on about him. He seemed +occupied as usual with his own thoughts solely. First he dug cinders +out of his blinking eyes. Then he rubbed the coating of grime and soot +from his face, and began groping in his pockets. Very ruefully he +turned out one particular inside coat pocket. He shook his head in a +doleful way. + +"Gone!" he remarked. "Lost my pocket book. Friend--a pencil, quick." + +These words he spoke to Ralph, beckoning him earnestly to approach +nearer. + +"And a card, a piece of paper, anything I can write on. Don't +delay--hurry, before I forget it." + +Ralph found a stub of a pencil and some railroad blanks in his pocket, +and gave them to the young inventor. Then the latter set at work, +becoming utterly oblivious of his surroundings. For nearly two minutes +he was occupied in making memoranda and drawing small sections of +curves and lines. + +"All right, got it, good!" he voiced exultantly, as he returned the +pencil to Ralph and carefully stowed the slips of paper in his pocket. +Then he arose to his feet. He smiled queerly as he gazed down at his +tattered garments and grimed and blistered hands. + +"Pretty looking sight, ain't I?" he propounded to the young engineer. +"Had to do it, though. Glad I did it. Got the actual details, see?" + +"What of, may I ask?" inquired Ralph. + +"New idea. Save fuel, make the engine go faster. Been figuring on it +for months," explained the strange boy. "I live at Bridgeport." + +"Yes, I know," nodded Ralph. "I saw you there." + +"Did? Glad of that, too. If you feel friendly enough, maybe you'll +advise me what to do in my distressing plight. Stranger here, and lost +my pocketbook. It fell out of my pocket while I was hanging on to the +trucks. Not a cent." + +"That can be fixed all right, I think," said Ralph. + +"Clothes all riddled--need a bath." + +"You had better come with me to the hotel, Mr. Graham," spoke Ralph. +"I know enough about you to be interested in you. I will vouch for you +to the hotel keeper, who will take care of you until you hear from +home." + +"Yes. Got money in the bank at Bridgeport," said Archie Graham. "As I +was telling you, I've struck a new idea. You know I've been trying to +invent something for a number of years." + +"Yes, I've heard about that, and sincerely hope you will figure out a +success." + +"Stick at it, anyway," declared Archie. "Well, at Bridgeport they take +me as a joke, see? That's all right; I'll show them, some day. They +voted me a nuisance at the shops and shut me out. Wouldn't let me +come near their engines. I had to find out some things necessary to my +inventions, so I came on to Stanley Junction. Rode in a coach like any +other civilized being until I got about ten miles from here--last +stop." + +"Yes," nodded Ralph. + +"Well, there I stepped out of the coach and under it. Whew! but it was +an experience I'll never try again. All the same, I got what I was +after. I wanted to learn how many revolutions an axle made in so many +minutes. I wanted to know, too, how a belt could be attached under a +coach. I've got the outlines of the facts, how to work out my +invention: 'Graham's Automatic Bellows Gearing.'" + +Ralph did not ask for further details as to the device his companion +had in mind. He led a pleasant conversation the way from the depot, +and when they reached the hotel introduced Archie to its proprietor. + +"This friend of mine will be all right for what he orders, Mr. Lane," +said Ralph. + +"Yes, I'm going to stay here some days, perhaps a week or two," +explained the young inventor, "so, if you'll give me a blank check +I'll fill it for what cash I may need. You put it through your bank +and the funds will be here to-morrow." + +Everything was arranged in a satisfactory way, even to Archie ordering +a new suit of clothes. The youth came out temporarily from his usual +profundity, and had a real, natural boyish talk with Ralph. The latter +recited the incident of the adventure with Billy Bouncer's crowd at +Bridgeport. + +"Oh, that Jim Scroggins fellow," said Archie, with a smile. "Yes, I +remember--'kick him Scroggins.' You see, he had broken into my +workshop, destroyed some devices I was working on and stole a lot of +my tools. So you're Mr. Fairbanks? I've heard of you." + +"Ralph, you mean, Mr. Graham," observed the young railroader +pleasantly. + +"Then Archie, you mean," added his eccentric companion. "I'd like to +be friends with you, for I can see you are the right sort. You've done +a good deal for me." + +"Oh, don't notice that." + +"And you can do a good deal more." + +"Indeed? How?" + +"By getting me free range of your roundhouse here. Can you?" + +"I will be glad to do it," answered Ralph. + +"I hope you will," said Archie gratefully. "They don't know me here, +and they won't poke fun at me or hinder me. I'm not going to steal +any of their locomotives. I just want to study them." + +"That's all right," said Ralph, "I'll see you to-morrow and fix things +for you, so you will be welcome among my railroad friends." + +"You're a royal good fellow, Mr. Ralph," declared the young inventor +with enthusiasm, "and I don't know how to thank you enough." + +"Well, I've tried to do something for humanity to-day," reflected the +young engineer brightly, as he wended his way homewards. "It comes +easy and natural, too, when a fellow's trying to do his level best." + +Ralph found his mother bustling about at a great rate when he reached +home. The excitement over the fire had died down. Fogg was up at the +ruins getting his rescued household belongings to a neighborly +shelter. The string of excited friends to condole with Mrs. Fogg had +dwindled away, and the poor lady lay in comfort and peace in the best +bedroom of the house. + +"She seems so grateful to you for having saved her life," Mrs. +Fairbanks told Ralph, "and so glad, she told me, that her husband had +signed the pledge, that she takes the fire quite reasonably." + +"Yes," remarked Ralph, "I heard about the pledge, and it is a blessed +thing. I have other grand news, too. There's a lot of good fellows in +Stanley Junction, and the Foggs won't be long without a shelter over +their heads," and Ralph told his mother all about the subscription +list and the moving picture show benefit. + +"You are a grand manager, Ralph," said the fond mother. "I am only too +glad to do my share in making these people welcome and comfortable." + +"You know how to do it, mother," declared Ralph, "that's sure." + +"It seems as if things came about just right to take in the Foggs," +spoke Mrs. Fairbanks. "Limpy Joe went back to his restaurant on the +Short Line yesterday, and Zeph Dallas has left, looking for a new job, +he says, so we have plenty of spare rooms for our guests." + +Ralph started for the ruined Fogg homestead to see if he could be of +any use there. He came upon Fogg moving some furniture to the barn of +a neighbor on a hand-cart. The fireman dropped the handles as he saw +Ralph. His face worked with vivid emotion as he grasped the hand of +the young railroader. + +"Fairbanks," he said, "what can I say to you except that you have been +the best friend I have ever known!" + +"Nothing, except to make up your mind that the friendship will last if +you want to suit me." + +"Honest--honest?" urged Fogg, the tears in his eyes, earnestly +regarding Ralph's face. "You don't despise me?" + +"Oh, yes, we all dislike you, Mr. Fogg!" railed Ralph, with a hearty +laugh. "The master mechanic has such bitter animosity for you, that +he's taking his revenge by circulating a subscription list to help +build you a new home." + +"Never!" gasped Fogg, overcome. + +"What's more," proceeded Ralph, in the same ironical tone, "the men +down at the roundhouse have such a deep grudge against you, that they +are following his example." + +"I don't deserve it--I don't deserve it!" murmured the fireman. + +"Why, even the new moving picture showman is so anxious to throw you +down, that he's going to give you a benefit Saturday evening." + +"I guess I'm the wickedest and happiest man in the world," said Fogg, +in a subdued tone. + +"You ought to be the happiest, after that little memoranda you gave to +the master mechanic," suggested Ralph. + +"The pledge? Yes!" cried the fireman, "and I mean to keep it, too. He +told you about it?" + +"And everything else necessary to tell," replied Ralph. "It's all +settled. He says you and I ought to make a strong team. Let's try, +hard, Mr. Fogg." + +"Lad, I'll show you!" declared Fogg solemnly. + +"All right, then say no more about it, and let us get these traps +under cover, and get home to enjoy a famous meal my mother is +preparing for all hands." + +Activity and excitement around the Fairbanks home did not die down +until long after dark. All the afternoon and evening people came to +the house to see Fogg, to offer sympathy and practical assistance. If +the fireman needed encouragement, he got plenty of it. He seemed to +have grown into a new man under the chastening, and yet hopeful +influences of that eventful day in his life. Before his very eyes +Ralph fancied he saw his fireman grow in new manliness, courage and +earnestness of purpose. + +All hands were tired enough to sleep soundly that night. When Ralph +came down stairs in the morning, his mother told him that Fogg was up +and about already. She believed he had gone up to the ruins to look +over things in a general way. Ralph went out to hunt up the stroller +for breakfast. + +Scarcely started from the house, he halted abruptly, for the object of +his quest was in view. Ralph saw the fireman about half a block away. +He was facing two men whom Ralph recognized as Hall and Wilson, two +blacklisters who had been prominent in the railroad strike. + +One of them was gesticulating vigorously and telling something to +Fogg, while his companion chipped in a word now and then. Suddenly +something appeared to be said that roused up the fireman. His hand +went up in the air with an angry menacing motion. He shouted out some +words that Ralph could not hear at the distance he was from the +scene. + +The two men seemed to remonstrate. One of them raised his own fist +menacingly. The other crowded towards Fogg in a stealthy, suspicious +way. + +In a flash the climax came. Swinging out his giant hand, the fireman +of No. 999 seized his nearest opponent and gave him a fling into the +ditch. He then sprang at the other, and sent him whirling head over +heels to join his companion. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE "BLACK HAND" + + +Lemuel Fogg's opponents scrambled to their feet and sneaked off +immediately. The fireman turned his back upon them, and strode down +the sidewalk in the direction of the Fairbanks' home with a stormy and +disturbed expression on his face. + +"Trouble, Mr. Fogg?" intimated the young railroader, as the fireman +approached him. + +"No," dissented Fogg vigorously, "the end of trouble. I'm sorry to +lose my temper, lad, but those ruffians were the limit. They know my +sentiments now." + +"They were Hall and Wilson, I noticed," suggested Ralph. + +"Yes," returned the fireman, "and two worse unhung rascals never +walked. They came about you. Say, Mr. Fairbanks," continued Fogg +excitedly, "It wasn't so bad tackling me as a sort of comrade, +considering that I had been foolish enough to train with them once, +but when they mentioned you--I went wild. You--after what you've done +for me and mine! Say----" + +"Hold on--close the brakes," ordered Ralph, as his companion seemed +inclined to run after his recent adversaries and seek them out for a +further castigation. "You've made the brake with them--forget them." + +"They had a new plot to get a black mark against you," went on the +fireman. "I heard them half through their plans. Then I sailed into +them." + +"Well, breakfast is ready," said Ralph, "and after that, work, so we'd +better get down to schedule." + +The run to which No. 999 had been apportioned covered the Muddy Creek +branch of the Great Northern to Riverton. The train was an +accommodation and ran sixty miles. It was to leave Stanley Junction at +9:15 A. M., arrive at terminus at about noon, and start back for the +Junction at two o'clock. + +Ralph left the house about eight o'clock, after arranging to meet his +fireman at the roundhouse. He went to the hotel to see Archie Graham, +and found that youthful genius in his room figuring out some +mathematical problem at a table. + +"Well, how are you this morning?" inquired Ralph cheerily. + +"First-rate, except that I'm a trifle sleepy," replied the young +inventor. "Say, I was riding under the coaches all night long. It was +dream after dream. I believe it tired me out more than the real +thing." + +"You haven't got your new clothes yet, I see," observed Ralph, with a +glance at the tattered attire of his new acquaintance. + +"They are ordered," explained Archie, "but they won't be here until +late this afternoon." + +"When they do," said Ralph, taking a card from his pocket and writing +a few lines on it, "if you don't want to wait till I have some +leisure, take this to Mr. Forgan, down at the roundhouse." + +"Thank you," said Archie. + +"He'll extend all the civilities to you. I hope you may discover +something of advantage." + +"I'll try," promised Archie. + +Seeing the young inventor, reminded Ralph of Bridgeport, and naturally +he thought of the boy he had known as Marvin Clark. + +"He telegraphed that he would see me," ruminated Ralph. "I shall miss +him if he comes to Stanley Junction to-day, but he will probably wait +around for me--that is, if he comes at all. If he doesn't, in a day or +two I shall start some kind of an investigation as to this strange +case of double identity." + +When Ralph got to the roundhouse he found Fogg in the doghouse +chatting with his friends. He had to tell the story of the fire over +and over again, it seemed, at each new arrival of an interested +comrade, and Ralph's heroic share in the incident was fully exploited. +The young railroader was overwhelmed by his loyal admirers with +congratulations. Ralph felt glad to compare the anticipated trip with +the starting out on the first record run of No. 999, when he had a +half-mad sullen fireman for a helper. + +As the wiper finished his work on the locomotive, engineer and fireman +got into the cab. + +"Hello!" exclaimed Fogg sharply. + +"Hello!" echoed his cabmate. + +A little square strip of paper was revealed to both, as they opened +their bunkers. It was patent that some one had sneaked into the +roundhouse and had pasted the papers there. Each slip bore a crude +outline of a human hand, drawn in pencil. + +"Bah!" spoke Fogg, with a brush of a chisel scraping the portraiture +on his own box out of all semblance, and then doing the same with the +picture on the reverse cover of Ralph's bunker. + +"What is it, Fogg?" inquired the young railroader, to whom the ominous +sketches were a new wrinkle. + +"Black Hand," explained Fogg. + +"Whose--why?" inquired Ralph. + +"The outcast gang. It's one of their scare tricks. Humph! I'd like to +get sight of the fellow who thought he was doing a smart trick. The +Black Hands are supposed to warn us that we're doomed by the gang, +see? It's a notification that the trouncing I gave those fellows Hall +and Wilson is a declaration of war to the knife." + +"Well, let it come. Aren't we equal to it, Mr. Fogg?" + +"You are, for they can't hit you hard. You've made your mark," said +the fireman, somewhat gloomily. "I'm not in the same class. I've had +my weak spots. Besides, it's me they'll be after. Dunno, Fairbanks, +maybe I'd better not be the cause of getting you into any more +trouble. Perhaps I'd better slide for a bit into some switchyard +job." + +"What--scared?" cried Ralph. + +"No, not scared," responded Fogg soberly, "only worried about you." + +"Well," said Ralph, "the master mechanic said we were a strong team?" + +"Ye-es." + +"Let's prove to him that we are. Good-by to the Black Hands, Mr. Fogg, +they aren't worth thinking about." + +So the young railroader rallied and cheered his comrade, and they had +got beyond the turn table and had quite forgotten the incident of the +pasters, when John Griscom mounted the cab step. He nodded genially to +both Ralph and the fireman. Griscom knew pretty much what was going on +most of the time, and the master mechanic was a close friend of his. + +"Just a word, Fairbanks," he began in a confidential tone, and the +young engineer bent over towards him. "I don't want to be croaking all +the time, but railroading isn't all fun and frolic." + +"What's the matter now, Mr. Griscom?" inquired Ralph. + +"The old strike gang is the trouble, and will be until they're laid +out, ragtail and bobtail, dead cold. I have a friend in a certain +department of the service here. He isn't giving away official business +any, but he isn't in sympathy with Hall or Wilson. One of them sent a +wire to Riverton an hour since. It was to some one the operator never +heard of before, evidently a friend of theirs. It mentioned 999, your +name, and Fogg. The rest of it was in cipher." + +"We've just had a Black Hand warning, here in the cab," said Ralph. + +"Oh, you have?" muttered Griscom. "Then there's new mischief afoot. +Look out for snags at Riverton." + +Ralph realized that it wasn't very pleasant working under the +continual menace of enemies plotting in the dark and in a mean, +desperate way. There was nothing for it, however, but to exercise +patience, vigilance and courage. + +"They shall never drive me from my post of duty," firmly decided the +young railroader. "I shall neither tire out nor scare out." + +Riverton was made on time and with no unpleasant incident to mar a +schedule trip. No. 999 was run to a siding, and Ralph and Fogg had +over two hours on their hands to spend as they chose. They had brought +their lunch, and they dispatched the best part of it in the cab. Mrs. +Fairbanks had put it up in a basket, and a two-quart fruit jar held +the cold coffee. After the repast Fogg fixed the fire and they +strolled down to the depot. + +The station agent was an old acquaintance of Ralph. He knew Van +Sherwin, Limpy Joe and the people up at the Short Line railroad, kept +posted on their progress pretty closely, and he had a good deal of +interesting railroad gossip to retail to Ralph. + +"Oh, by the way," he observed incidentally, after they had conversed +for some time, "there was a spruce young fellow here this morning +asking very particularly about 999 and her movements. He mentioned +your name too." + +"Who was he?" inquired Ralph. + +"I never saw him before. He was curious all about your run, hung +around a while and then disappeared. I haven't seen him since." + +"Describe him, won't you?" and the station agent did so. Ralph was +sure that the stranger was the youth he had known as Marvin Clark. +From that time on until the train got ready for the return trip, the +young railroader kept his eyes open for a glimpse of his acquaintance +with the double identity. The latter, however, up to the time No. 999 +steamed out from Riverton, did not put in an appearance. + +"Well, nobody tackled us at Riverton," observed Ralph, as he and Fogg +settled down comfortably to their respective tasks. + +"Better not," retorted the fireman keenly. "I just made a little +purchase this morning, and I'm going to stand no fooling," and he +touched his hip pocket meaningly. "Have a swig?" he inquired +additionally, as he reached for the jar of coffee and took a drink. + +"Oh, I could feast on my mother's coffee all day," observed Ralph as +the jar was passed to him. "Now, then, you finish it up and hand me +one of those doughnuts." + +The little refection seemed to add to the satisfaction of the moment. +Their run was a slow one, and there was little to do besides keeping +the machinery in motion. The day was warm, but the air was balmy. The +landscape was interesting, and they seemed gliding along as in a +pleasing dream. + +Later, when he analyzed his sensations, the young railroader, +recalling just these impressions, knew that they were caused by +artificial conditions. Ralph relapsed into a dream--indeed, he was +amazed, he was startled to find himself opening his eyes with +difficulty, and of discovering his fireman doubled up in his seat, +fast asleep. He tried to shout to Fogg, realizing that something was +wrong. He could not utter a word, his tongue seemed glued to the roof +of his mouth. Ralph barely managed to slip to his feet in an effort to +arouse his cab mate. + +"Something wrong!" ran through his mind. A vague thrill crossed his +frame as, whirling by a landmark, a white-painted cattle guard, he +realized that he must have gone five miles without noting distance. + +The bridge was his next thought. Muddy Creek was less than a mile +ahead. If the draw should be open! Wildly reaching towards the lever, +the young engineer sank to the floor a senseless heap, while No. 999, +without a guide, dashed down the shining rails! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A SERIOUS PLOT + + +"Who stopped this train--and why?" + +Dreamily returning to consciousness, these were the first words that +reached Ralph Fairbanks' rallying consciousness. They were spoken by +the conductor of the accommodation train sharply. The locomotive was +at a standstill, and, staring wonderingly, the conductor stood by the +side of the tender. + +"I did," answered a prompt voice, and removing his hand from the +lever, the boy whom the young engineer had known as Marvin Clark +drifted before his vision. + +"Hello!" exclaimed the conductor, "I've seen you before. You're the +fellow who caught the train at Riverton just as she left--had a free +pass." + +"Never mind me, Mr. Conductor," responded the other rapidly. "I'm +thinking they need some attention," and he pointed to the fireman, +lying doubled up in his seat, and then to Ralph, lying prone on the +floor of the cab. + +"Fairbanks--Fogg!" fairly shouted the conductor. "Why, what can this +mean?" + +"Foul play, if I'm a judge," spoke Clark definitely. "Fairbanks! +Fairbanks!" he shouted, stooping over and lifting Ralph in his strong +arms. "Here, brace him in his seat." + +"Water!" gasped the young engineer in a choking tone. "My throat is on +fire! What has happened?" + +"Nothing alarming," answered Clark reassuringly, "only--I'm glad I +happened to be here." + +Ralph's mouth and throat seemed burning up. The water he drank only +partially allayed his frantic thirst. It was with great difficulty +that he could arouse himself from a lethargy that seemed to completely +paralyze both body and mind. As the moments passed, however, he +succeeded in rallying into something like normal. But as yet he was +unable to fully understand just what had happened. + +"He needs something to stimulate him," declared the conductor, and +stepping into the cab he hastily ransacked the fireman's bunker. +"Aha!" + +His tones announced a discovery--likewise a suspicion. He had +unearthed two flasks of liquor, one only partly filled. + +"Not for me," said Ralph, waving back the conductor, who evidently was +intent on administering a stimulant. "Liquor!" he cried, suddenly +bracing up now. "Fogg never brought it aboard. It's some plot! Why!" +he exclaimed, in sudden enlightenment, "I see it all, clear as day." + +What Ralph saw, all hands in the cab soon realized within the ensuing +ten minutes. When they had aroused Fogg, there followed animated +theory, discovery and conviction. Not one of them doubted but that +some enemy had sneaked aboard of the locomotive while it was +sidetracked at noon at Riverton and had put some drug in the jar of +coffee. They found a suspicious dark sediment at the bottom of the +jar. + +"Black Hands--mark it down," observed Fogg. "Whoever did it, also +placed those flasks of liquor in my bunker. See the label on them? +They come from a place in Riverton I never was in. The scoundrels +aimed to have us found in the cab, just as we have been, and a report +go in that the heat and too much liquor had crippled us from making +the run." + +"You've struck it, Fogg," assented the conductor. "Just stow that jar +and those two flasks in a safe place. I'll have our special agent +Adair, the road detective, find out who bought that liquor. No need +of any blabbing to the general public. Are you able to complete the +run, Fairbanks?" + +"Certainly," reported Ralph, exercising arms and feet vigorously to +restore their circulation. Fogg was still dazed and weak. He had drunk +more of the coffee than Ralph. Besides, being the older of the two, he +did not shake off the effects of the narcotic so readily as the young +engineer. + +"I'll help fire--I know how to," declared Clark. + +"You know how to stop an engine, too!" commented the conductor. "All +right, Fairbanks, when you're ready," and he returned to the coaches. +Ralph extended his hand to Clark. The latter met his glance frankly. + +"I've been trying to get track of your movements by telegraph," said +Clark. "Located your run, and was waiting at Riverton for your train. +Got there ahead of time, and came back to the depot just as 999 was +pulling out, and caught the last car. First, I thought I'd not show +myself until you got through with your trip. Things got dull in those +humdrum coaches, though, and I sailed ahead to the tender, saw what +was wrong, and checked up the locomotive just beyond the bridge. Say, +if the draw had been open, we'd all have had a bath, eh?" + +"The miscreants who played this diabolical trick ought to be severely +punished," said Ralph. + +There was no evidence of strained relations between the two boys. +Ralph recognized that Clark had sought him out to make an explanation. +He wondered what it would be. The present was not, however, the time +to broach the subject. There was something very manly and reassuring +in Clark's manner, and the young railroader believed that when he got +ready to disclose his secret, the revelation would be an unusual and +interesting one. + +The train was started up, soon made up the lost time, and at 5:15 +rolled into the depot at Stanley Junction. Ralph did not feel quite as +well as usual and his fireman was pale and loggy, but the main effects +of the drug had passed off. + +"You go straight home, Mr. Fogg," directed Ralph. "I will see that 999 +is put to bed all right." + +"I think I'll take advantage of your kind offer, Fairbanks," responded +Fogg. "I'm weak as a cat, and my head is going around like an electric +turntable." + +Fogg started for home. Clark rode with Ralph on the locomotive to the +roundhouse. The big engine was put into her stall. Then the boys left +the place. + +"I have something to say to you, Fairbanks," began Clark. + +"I suppose so," replied Ralph. "It must be quite a long story, +though." + +"It is," admitted his companion. + +"Then suppose we leave its recital till we are rested a bit," +suggested Ralph. "I want you to come up to the house and have supper. +Then we'll adjourn to the garden and have a quiet, comfortable chat." + +"That will be famous," declared Clark. "Say, you don't treat an +imposter like myself courteous or anything, do you?" + +"Are you really an imposter?" asked Ralph, with a faint smile. + +"I am--and a rank one." + +"Just one question--you are not the real Marvin Clark?" + +"No more than yourself." + +"And you are Fred Porter?" + +"That's it." + +"I thought so," said the young engineer. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +"THE SILVANDOS" + + +"I declare!" exclaimed Ralph Fairbanks. + +"For mercy's sake!" echoed Fred Porter. + +Both stood spellbound just within the grounds of the Fairbanks' home, +where they had arrived. Over towards the dividing lot line of the next +door neighbor, their eyes had lit upon an unusual and interesting +scene. + +Two figures were in action among the branches of the great oak tree. +They were boys, and their natural appearance was enough to attract +attention. They were leaping, springing, chasing one another from +branch to branch, with a remarkable agility that made one think of +monkeys and next trained athletes. + +"Who are they, anyway?" demanded Fred. + +"They are new to me," confessed the young engineer. + +The two strangers were about of an age, under sixteen. It would puzzle +one to figure out their nationality. Their faces were tawny, but +delicate of profile, their forms exquisitely molded. They suggested +Japanese boys. Then Ralph decided they more resembled lithe Malay +children of whom he had seen photographs. At all events, they were +natural tree climbers. They made the most daring leaps from frail +branches. They sprung from twigs that broke in their deft grasp, but +not until they had secured the purchase they aimed at in the act to +send them flying through the air to some other perilous point in view. +Their feats were fairly bewildering, and as one landed on the ground +like a rubber ball and the other chased him out of sight in the next +yard, Ralph conducted his companion into the house with these words: + +"That's odd enough to investigate." + +He did not announce his arrival to his mother, but led Fred up to his +room. As he passed that now occupied by the Foggs, it made his heart +glad to hear the fireman crowing at the baby to the accompaniment of a +happy laugh from the fireman's wife. + +"You can wash up and tidy up, Porter," he said to his friend. "I'll +arrange for an extra plate, and take you down later to meet the best +mother in the world." + +"This is an imposition on you good people," declared Fred, but Ralph +would not listen to him. He went downstairs and out the front way, +and came around the house looking all about for some trace of the two +remarkable creatures he had just seen. They had disappeared, however, +as if they were veritable wood elves. Passing the kitchen window, the +young engineer halted. + +"Hello!" he uttered. "Zeph Dallas is back again," and then he listened +casually, for Zeph was speaking to his mother. + +"Yes, Mrs. Fairbanks," Ralph caught the words, "I'm the bad penny that +turns up regularly, only I've got some good dollars this time. On the +mantel is the money I owe Ralph for the clothes he got me." + +"But can you spare the money?" spoke Mrs. Fairbanks. + +"Sure I can, and the back board, too," declared Zeph, and glancing in +through the open window Ralph noted the speaker, his fingers in his +vest armholes, strutting around most grandly. + +"I can't understand how you came to get so much money in two days," +spoke the lady. "You couldn't have earned it in that short space of +time, Zeph." + +"No, ma'am," admitted Zeph, "but I've got it, haven't I? It's honest +money, Mrs. Fairbanks. It's an advance on my wages--expense money and +such, don't you see?" + +"Then you have secured work, Zeph?" + +"Steady work, Mrs. Fairbanks." + +"What at, Zeph?" + +"Mrs. Fairbanks," answered the lad in a hushed, mysterious tone of +voice, "I am hired as a detective." + +"You're what?" fairly shouted Ralph through the window. + +"Hello! you here, are you?" cried Zeph, and in a twinkling he had +joined Ralph outside the house. "Yes, sir," he added, with an +important air that somewhat amused Ralph, "I've landed this time. On +both feet. Heart's desire at last--I'm a detective." + +Ralph had to smile. He recalled the first arrival of honest but +blundering Zeph Dallas at Stanley Junction, a raw country bumpkin. +Even then the incipient detective fever had been manifested by the +crude farmer boy. From the confident, self-assured tone in which Zeph +now spoke, the young railroader was forced to believe that he had +struck something tangible at last in his favorite line. + +"What are you detecting, Zeph?" he inquired. + +"That's a secret." + +"Indeed--and what agency are you working for--the government?" + +"That," observed Zeph gravely, "is also a secret--for the present. +See here, Ralph Fairbanks, you're guying me. You needn't. Look at +that." + +With great pride Zeph threw back his coat. It was to reveal a star +pinned to his vest. + +"Yes," nodded Ralph, "I see it, but it doesn't tell who you are." + +"Don't it say 'Special'?" demanded Zeph, with an offended air. + +"Yes, I see the word." + +"Well, then, that's me--special secret service, see? Of course, I +don't look much like a detective, just common and ordinary now, but +I'm going to buy a wig and a false beard, and then you'll see." + +"Oh, Zeph!" exclaimed Ralph. + +"All right, you keep right on laughing at me," said Zeph. "All the +same, I'm hired. What's more, I'm paid. Look at that--I've got the job +and I've got the goods. That shows something, I fancy," and Zeph waved +a really imposing roll of bank notes before the sight of the young +engineer. + +"Your employers must think you a pretty good man to pay you in +advance," suggested Ralph. + +"They do, for a fact," declared Zeph. "They know they can depend upon +me. Say, Ralph, it's funny the way I fell into the job. You never in +your life heard of the slick and easy way I seemed to go rolling +right against it. And the mystery, the deadly secrets, the--the--hold +on, though, I'm violating the eth--eth--yes, ethics of the +profession." + +"No, no--go on and tell us something about it," urged Ralph. "I'm +interested." + +"Can't. I've gone too far already. Sworn to secrecy. Honestly, I'm not +romancing, Ralph, I'm working on a case that reads like a story book. +Some of the strange things going on--they fairly stagger me. I can't +say another word just now, but just the minute I can, you just bet +I'll tell you all about it, Ralph Fairbanks. Say, you haven't seen two +boys around here, have you--two tiny fellows? I left them in the +garden here. They're in my charge, and I mustn't lose sight of them," +and Zeph began looking all around the place. + +"Two human monkeys, who make no more of flying through the air than +you or I do to run a race?" inquired Ralph. + +"That's them," assented Zeph. + +"They were here a few minutes ago," advised Ralph, "but I don't see +them just now. I wondered who they were. The last I saw of them, they +were chasing one another over our neighbors' lot over there." + +"I must find them," said Zeph. "They are another of my +responsibilities. I hear them." + +As Zeph spoke, there proceeded from the alley a mellow and peculiar +but very resonant whistle. It was followed by a responsive whistle, +clear as a calliope note. Then into view dashed the two boys for whom +Zeph was looking. They were still chasing one another, and the +foremost of the twain was making for the house. As he passed a tree +full tilt, without the least apparent exertion he leaped up lightly, +seized a branch, coiled around it like a rubber band, and his pursuer +passed under him at full speed. + +"This way, Kara--hey, Karo," called out Zeph, and the two strange lads +came up to him with a fawn-like docility, in keeping with the mild, +timid expression of their faces. + +"Sare," spoke one of them with a bow, and his companion repeated the +word. They both bowed to Ralph next, and stood like obedient children +awaiting orders. Ralph was silent for fully a minute, studying their +unfamiliar make-up. At that moment Fred Porter, having come down +stairs the front way, strolled around the corner of the house. + +"This is my friend, Fred Porter--Zeph--Zeph Dallas, Porter," +introduced the young railroader, and the two boys shook hands. Porter +became instantly interested in the two strange lads. + +"I'm going to show you fellows something," said Zeph, "something +mighty remarkable, something you never saw before, and it's going to +beat anything you ever heard of. About those two boys. Kara!" + +One of the two lads instantly moved to the side of Zeph, who beckoned +to him to follow him. He led the boy ten feet away behind a thick +large bush, his back to the others. + +"Karo," he spoke again, and the other boy allowed him to turn him +around where he stood, his back to the other boy. + +"See here, Zeph," spoke Ralph with a broad smile, "are you going to +give us a detective demonstration of some kind, or a sleight-of-hand +demonstration?" + +"Quit guying me, Ralph Fairbanks," said Zeph. "You're always at it, +but I'm going to give you something this time that will make you sit +up and take notice, I'll bet. Those boys came from a good many +thousand miles away--from the other side of the world, in fact." + +"They look it," observed Fred Porter. + +"Gomera," exclaimed Zeph. + +"Where's that now?" inquired Fred. + +"It is the smallest of the Canary Islands." + +"Oh, that's it!" + +"And they talk without saying a word," was Zeph's next amazing +announcement. + +"Whew!" commented Fred dubiously. + +"They do. It's that I'm going to show you. Perhaps those boys are the +only two of their kind in the United States. They are Silvandos." + +"What are Silvandos, Zeph?" inquired Ralph. + +"Silvandos," replied Zeph, with manifest enjoyment of the fact that he +was making a new and mystifying disclosure, "are persons who carry on +a conversation through a whistling language." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ZEPH DALLAS AND HIS "MYSTERY" + + +"Whistling language?" repeated Fred Porter. "Is there one?" + +"Aha! didn't I say I was going to show you something you never heard +of before? You bet there is a whistling language!" chuckled Zeph--"and +I'm now about to demonstrate it to you. You see these two boys? Well, +they are natives of Gomera, the smallest of the Canary Islands. They +were raised in a district where at times there is no living thing +within sight, and the vast wilderness in the winding mountains is +broken only by the crimson flower of the cactus growing in the clifts +of the rock." + +"You talk like a literary showman, Zeph Dallas," declared Fred. + +"Well, I'm telling the story as I get it, ain't I?" demanded Zeph in +an injured tone and with a sharp look at Fred, as if he suspected that +he was being guyed. "Anyhow, I want to explain things so you'll +understand." + +"Go right ahead, Zeph," insisted Ralph encouragingly, "we're +interested." + +"Well, up among those big stone terraces is the whistling race. They +are able to converse with one another at a distance of three miles." + +"That's pretty strong," observed Fred. "But make it three miles." + +"A Silvando will signal a friend he knows to be in a certain distant +locality. He does it by setting his fore fingers together at a right +angle in his mouth, just as you'll see these two Canaries do in a +minute or two. An arrow of piercing sounds shoots across the ravine." + +"Arrow is good--shoots is good!" whispered Fred, nudging Ralph. + +"There is a moment's pause--" continued Zeph. + +"Oh, he's read all this in some book!" declared Fred. + +"Then there comes a thin almost uncanny whistle from far away. +Conversation begins, and as the sounds rise and fall, are shrill or +drawn, so they are echoed. Then comes the ghostly reply, and then +question and answer follows. They talk--all right. Travelers say so, +and a lot of scientific fellows are now on the track of this strange +tribe to investigate them before civilization makes of their talk a +dead language. Kara--ready!" called out Zeph to the boy at the bush. +"Karo--attention!" + +"Sare," answered the little fellow, his bright twinkling eyes full of +intelligence. + +"Ask him how many!" said Zeph "--see?" and he touched himself, the boy +and Ralph and Fred with his forefinger in turn. + +Out rang a series of rising interrogatory sounds. There was a pause. +Then from the boy stationed at the bush came quick responsive +toots--one, two, three, four. + +"Tell Kara to bring you this--see, this?" and Zeph stooped down and +touched the sodded yard with his hand. Karo whistled again. +Immediately Kara wheeled, stooped also, and was at their side in an +instant, tendering a handful of grass. + +"Say, this is odd all right," confessed Fred thoughtfully. + +"Tell Kara to climb a tree next," spoke Zeph. More "whistle talk," and +agile as a monkey Kara was aloft, making dizzying whirls among the +branches of an oak nearby. "I tell you, it would stun you to watch +these little fellows at play. It's like a piccolo or a calliope to +hear them talk--yes, sir, talking just as knowingly as we do." + +"Who are they, anyway?" spoke Fred curiously? + +"I've told you--Canaries." + +"Yes, but where did you pick them up?" + +"That's a secret. You see," responded Zeph, looking duly wise and +mysterious, "those boys were imported to this country by a peculiar +old man, who wanted servants around him who weren't gabbing about his +affairs and asking him questions all the time. Well, he's got them, +hasn't he? I'm working for that man, or rather for a friend of his. +Detective work," continued Zeph, rather proudly. "I've told Ralph. +These two boys have been shut up in the house for two months. They +just pined for fresh air, and trees--oh! trees are their stronghold. +When I started out with them they made for the first tree like birds +for a roost. I have taken them out for an airing, and I ran down here +to report to Ralph how I was getting on, and brought them along with +me for the novelty of the thing." + +"Do they live near here?" inquired Ralph. + +"No," answered Zeph, "we had to come by rail. I can't tell you where +they live, but it's on a branch of the Great Northern. I've got to get +back to-night. We've had our supper, Ralph. I just wanted to settle up +the bills I owed you. I'll say good-bye to your mother and get to the +depot." + +Zeph and his charges trooped to the kitchen door. Zeph spoke a few +words to Mrs. Fairbanks. His companions bowed her a polite and +graceful adieu, and Ralph accompanied their former boarder to the +street. + +"See here, Ralph," said Zeph to the young engineer in parting, "I +don't want you to think I wouldn't tell you everything." + +"That's all right, Zeph." + +"But honestly, I've solemnly agreed not to lisp a word about what I am +really about or the people concerned in it." + +"That's all right, too," declared Ralph. + +"I'll say this, though," resumed Zeph: "I'm working on a strange and +serious case. It's no play or fooling. I'm getting big pay. I may do a +big thing in the end, and when I do, if I do, I'm coming straight to +tell you all about it." + +Ralph watched Zeph and his charges disappear down the street with a +great deal of curiosity and wonderment in his mind. A great many +lively and unusual incidents were coming to the front recently, but +this one was certainly enough out of the ordinary to give him food for +profound thought. + +Ralph rejoined Fred in the garden, and took him into the house and +introduced him to his mother. Mrs. Fairbanks won the heart of the +manly young fellow, as she did the love of all of her son's friends. + +It was a pleasant, happy little coterie, that which sat down at the +table soon afterwards to enjoy one of Mrs. Fairbanks' famous meals. + +"I'm ashamed!" declared Fred, after his seventh hot biscuit with +freshly churned butter that made his mouth water, "but eating houses +and hotels, Mrs. Fairbanks, make a roving, homeless fellow like me +desperate, and if a third helping of that exquisite apple sauce isn't +out of order, I'll have another small fish." + +"I'm spoiled for regular cooking, Bessie," declared Fogg to his wife. +"Mrs. Fairbanks is fattening us till we'll be of no use at all." + +"You are all flatterers," said Mrs. Fairbanks warningly, but with a +pleased smile. + +"I'll take another piece of cake, ma'am, providing you'll promise me +the little exercise of helping you wash the dishes afterwards," spoke +Fred. + +He interested the widow with his animated, interested talk as he +bustled around the kitchen, wearing a big apron while drying the +dishes. Then when this task was completed, he and Ralph went out to +the little summer house and comfortably seated themselves. + +"Now then," remarked the young railroader with a pleasant smile, "now +for your confession, Fred." + +"No, sir," objected his comrade vociferously, "I've done nothing +that's wrong to confess. It will be an explanation." + +"All right," agreed Ralph, "open the throttle and start the train." + +At that moment there was an interruption. A chubby, undersized boy +came swiftly through the gateway. He was advancing up the steps of the +house when Ralph halted him. + +"Hi, there, Davis!" he challenged. "What's wanted?" + +"Oh, you there, Fairbanks!" responded Ned Davis, the red-headed call +boy for the roundhouse of the Great Northern, familiarly known as +"Torchy." "Extra orders for you and Fogg--you're to take out a special +to-night." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +IN WIDENER'S GAP + + +There was always a spice of novelty and excitement for the young +engineer in running a special. Besides that, extra orders meant pay +and a half, sometimes double pay, with twenty-four hours' rest after +it, if the special run came after midnight. + +Ralph arose from his seat in the summer-house, telling Ned Davis that +Fogg and himself would report at the roundhouse at once. + +"You'll have to excuse me, Porter," he said to his guest. "We'll have +to postpone our talk until to-morrow." + +"Duty call, I see," returned Fred. "Well, there's no urgency, now that +I've found out you don't consider me some hideous impostor of the old +story book kind. I'll go as far with you as a hotel, and tell you what +I have to say after this trip." + +"You'll camp right here at the Fairbanks cottage until I return," +peremptorily declared Ralph. "My mother would be lonesome if there +wasn't a boy somewhere about the house. Zeph is gone and my other +friends, and you will be good company." + +"I'm only too willing, if it's entirely agreeable," said Fred, and so +it was settled. + +Fogg grumbled a good deal when Ralph told him of the extra call. He +declared that he had just succeeded in teaching the baby to say "All +aboard!" looked at the sky and predicted the biggest storm of the +season, and was cross generally until he climbed aboard No. 999. Then +Ralph heard him talking to the well-groomed steel steed as if it was +some pet racer, and he anxious and glad to put it through its paces. + +"What's the run, Fairbanks?" asked the fireman, as Ralph returned from +the roundhouse office. + +"Nothing very interesting. Special sleeper, some convention crowd for +Bridgeport, came in on the north branch. We've got to pick our way on +our own schedule." + +"Huh! thought it must be a treasure train, or the pay car at the +least!" snorted Fogg contemptuously, but thoroughly good-natured under +the surface. + +When they backed down to the depot, Ralph was handed his flimsy +orders. No. 999 was given standard special lights, with the usual +markers at the rear of the sleeping car, but no one on platform +charge. The coach had a conductor, but he barely showed himself, and +went inside, where all the curtains were drawn and passengers +evidently gone to sleep. + +"I told you it was going to rain," spoke Fogg, as they cleared the +limits and got ready for a spurt. "All schedule cancelled where we can +get clear tracks, I suppose? All right, let's see what 999 can do on +slippery rails." + +No. 999 did famously, as she always did under the guidance of the +vigilant young engineer. Ralph was learning a good deal lately, and +his mind was always strictly on the business of the moment when at the +throttle. He was learning that there was a science in running a +locomotive a good deal deeper than merely operating throttle, brake +and lever automatically. There was a way to conserve the steam energy +and reserve wide-open tactics for full pressure that he had found out, +which enabled him to spurt when the chance came, at no cost of +exhaustion later. He knew the gauges by heart, how to utilize the +exhaust, and worked something along the line of the new superheated +steam theory. + +The night had set in very dark and very stormy. They had nothing to +look out for, however, on the out track except an accommodation that +had started two hours previous. No. 999 had a light load, and she sped +along without a jar. The wires took care of her. By nine o'clock they +were twenty miles "to the good" on regular schedule basis. + +After that it was slower progress. The wind had arisen to a hurricane, +the rain came down in torrents, and as they passed Winston they began +to get in among the hills, where there was a series of intricate and +dangerous curves. + +"It's nearly a waterspout," observed Fogg, as the rain swept against +the cab as if driven from a full pressure hose, and they could feel +the staunch locomotive quiver as it breasted great sweeps of the wind. +"I don't like that," he muttered, as a great clump came against the +cab curtain. And he and his engineer both knew what it was from past +experience. + +"One of those young landslides," spoke Ralph. + +"The second in a half-an-hour," declared Fogg. "It's clear mud, but +sometime in one of these storms we'll get a big drop of rock, and +there'll be mischief afoot." + +Ralph slowed as they entered a long stretch known as Widener's Gap. It +was a pull up hill. Besides that, Widener was only two miles ahead, +and the curves were so sharp and frequent that they could not catch +the semaphore at any distance. + +Both engineer and fireman were under an intense strain, and Ralph kept +a keen lookout from his cab window. Fogg was doing the same. Suddenly +he uttered a great shout. It was echoed by Ralph, for there was cause +for excitement. + +"A tree!" yelled Fogg. + +Ralph set the air and pulled the lever in a flash. What the gleaming +headlight of No. 999 had shown, however, they were upon in a leap. +They could feel a grinding jar, but the pilot had evidently swept the +obstacle aside. They could hear the branches sweep the top of the +engine. Then there came a warning sound. + +Bumpety-bump,-bump-bump! The tree, uprooted from the gap side by the +rain and the wind, had descried half a circle, it seemed, when shifted +by the pilot. Its big end had rolled under the coach. From the feeling +the young engineer could guess what had happened. + +"Shut her off!" shouted Fogg. + +"The coach has jumped the track!" echoed Ralph quickly. + +His heart was in his mouth as he made every exertion to bring the +locomotive to a quick stop. No. 999 acted splendidly, but it was +impossible to slow down under two hundred feet. + +"Both trucks off--she's toppling!" yelled Fogg, with a backward +glance. + +Each instant Ralph waited for the crash that would announce a +catastrophe. It did not come. The coach swayed and careened, pounding +the sleepers set on a sharp angle and tugging to part the bumpers. +Ralph closed the throttle and took a glance backwards for the first +time. + +"The coach is safe, Mr. Fogg," he spoke. "Get back and see how badly +the passengers are mixed up." + +"There's nothing coming behind us?" asked the fireman. + +"No, but tell the conductor to set the light back as far as he can +run." + +"Allright." + +"The Night Express!" gasped Ralph the next moment, in a hushed +whisper, as he caught the faint echo of a signal whistle ahead of them +in the distance. + +An alarming thought came into his mind. Nothing could menace them +ahead on the out track and nothing was due behind, but the coach +attached to No. 999 stood on a tilt clear across the in track. + +Along those rails in ten minutes' time, unaware of the obstruction, +the night express would come thundering down the grade at a forty-mile +clip around the sharp curves of Widener's Gap. + +"It's 38. She's due, entering Widener," breathed Ralph. "Yes," with a +glance at the cab clock, "and just on time. Mr. Fogg," he shouted +after his fireman, leaping to the ground, "get the people out of that +coach--38 is coming." + +"The Night Express," cried Fogg hoarsely. "I never thought of it." + +Ralph tore one of the rear red tender lights from its place. He +started down the out rails on a dead run. His only hope now was of +reaching the straight open stretch past the last curve in open view of +Widener. To set the warning signal short of that would be of no avail. +No. 38 could not possibly see it in time, coming at full speed, to +avoid a smash-up. + +In a single minute the young engineer was drenched to the skin. It was +all that he could do to keep from being blown from his footing. He +fairly counted the seconds as he shot forward, sprinting to the limit +on that slippery, flooded roadbed. He could not restrain a shout of +relief and hope as he turned the last curve. + +"Widener--38!" he gasped. + +The station lamps were visible, a mile distant. Somewhat nearer, a +blur of white radiance amid the dashing rain, was the headlight of +No. 38 showing that she was coming at momentarily increasing speed. +Ralph aimed to run nearer to the air line stretch to plant the signal. +Suddenly his feet tripped and he went headlong. The breath seemed +knocked out of his body as he landed across the ties of the brief +trestle reach, which he had forgotten all about in his excitement. The +lantern, flung wide from his grasp, struck one rail, smashed to +pieces, and the lamp went out as it dropped with a flare into the deep +gully beneath. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +AT THE SEMAPHORE + + +THE young engineer of No. 999 struggled to his feet appalled. The case +seemed hopeless. He had matches in his pocket. In dry weather under +the same circumstances he might to gather up enough dry grass and +brush to build a fire between the rails, but now, with everything +soaked and dripping this was impossible. + +"The semaphore signal!" gasped Ralph. "Can I reach it in time?" + +He crossed the remainder of the trestle in desperate leaps. Ralph +calculated the distance to the semaphore, the distance of the train, +and his heart failed him. Still he kept on. His eyes were fixed on the +lantern aloft showing open tracks for the oncoming train. It was his +star of hope. Then as he reached it he saw that he was too late. + +To scale the slippery timber to the staple-runners without boot hooks +would be no easy task. To get to the first rung and ascend would +consume fully two minutes' time. + +"What shall I do--what can I do?" panted the young railroader in +desperation. + +Just beyond the semaphore was a symmetrical heap of bleached blocks of +rock comprising a landmark guide for engineers. Ralph ran to it. +Groping among the gravel at its base, his fingers frantically grasped +several loose stones. He glanced once at the glowering headlight of +No. 38. + +"If I can make it--if I can only make it!" he voiced, and the +aspiration was a kind of a wail. + +The young engineer of No. 999 had been the former leader of all boyish +sports and exercises in Stanley Junction. Posed as he had posed many +times in the past when he was firing at a mark, with all his skill, he +calculated aim, distance and fling. The bull's eye target was the +lantern pendant from the arm of the semaphore. + +One--failed! the missile missed its intended mark. + +Two--a ringing yell of delight, of hope, of triumph rang from the lips +of the young engineer. The skillfully-aimed projectile had struck the +glass of the signal, shivering it to atoms. The wind and rain did the +rest. Out went the light. + +A sharp whistle from No. 38, the hiss of the air brakes, and panting +and exhausted, the young engineer of No. 999 watched the Night +Express whiz by on a lessening run and come to a stop two hundred +yards away. + +Ralph dashed after the train, now halted beyond the trestle. He did +not heed the shout of the brakeman already out on the tracks, but got +up to the locomotive just as the conductor, lantern in hand, reached +it. + +"Hello!" shot out the engineer of No. 38, staring at the figure +outlined within the halo of the conductor's light--"Fairbanks!" + +"Why, so it is!" exclaimed the conductor, and it was easy for him to +discern from Ralph's sudden appearance and breathless manner that he +had some interest, if not an active part, in the mysterious +disappearance of the semaphore signal. "What is it, Fairbanks?" + +Very hurriedly Ralph explained. The engineer of No. 38 uttered a low +whistle, meantime regarding the active young railroader, whom he well +knew, with a glance of decided admiration. Then as hurried were the +further movements of the conductor. + +Within a very few minutes a brakeman was speeding back to Widener to +inform the man on duty there of the condition of affairs. He returned +to report the situation in safe official control all up and down the +line. In the meantime No 38. had moved up to the scene of the wreck. +This was done at the suggestion of Ralph, who did not know how the +passengers in the special coach might have fared. Arrived at the +scene, however, it was soon learned that two men only had been thrown +from their beds and slightly bruised. The rest of the passengers were +only shaken up. + +The frightened passengers were huddled up, drenched to the skin, at +the side of the gap, for Fogg had insisted on their taking no risk +remaining in the derailed coach. + +"We're stalled for three hours," decided the engineer of No. 38. + +"Yes, and more than that, if the wrecking gang is not at Virden, as we +suppose," added the conductor. + +The passengers of the derailed coach were taken to shelter in a coach +which backed to Widener. There was nothing to do now for the engineer +and fireman of No. 999 but to await the arrival of the wrecking crew. +Word came finally by messenger from the dispatcher at the station that +the same was on its way to the Gap. Inside of two hours the coach was +back on the rails, and No. 999 moved ahead, took on transferred +passengers from No. 38, and renewed the run to Bridgeport on a +make-time schedule. + +There had been a good many compliments for the young engineer from +the crew of No. 38. The conductor had expressed some gratifying +expressions of appreciation from the passengers who had heard of +Ralph's thrilling feat at the semaphore. The conductor of the special +coach attached to No. 999 had come up and shook hands with Ralph, a +choking hoarseness in his throat as he remarked: "It's a honor to +railroad with such fellows as you." Fogg had said little. There were +many grim realities in railroading he knew well from experience. This +was only one of them. After they started from Widener he had given his +engineer a hearty slap of the shoulder, and with shining eyes made the +remark: + +"This is another boost for you, Fairbanks." + +"For No. 999, you mean," smiled Ralph significantly. "We'll hope so, +anyway, Mr. Fogg." + +Wet, grimed, cinder-eyed, but supremely satisfied, they pulled into +Bridgeport with a good record, considering the delay at the Gap. The +conductor of the special coach laid off there. No. 999 was to get back +to Stanley Junction as best she could and as quickly. As she cut loose +from the coach its conductor came up with an envelope. + +"My passengers made up a little donation, Fairbanks," the man said. +"There's a newspaper man among them. He's correspondent for some daily +press association. Been writing up 'the heroic dash--brave youth at +the trestle--forlorn hope of an unerring marksman'--and all that." + +"Oh, he's not writing for a newspaper," laughed Ralph; "he's making up +a melodrama." + +"Well, he'll make you famous, just the same, and here's some +government photographs for you lucky fellows," added the conductor, +tossing the envelope in his hand into the cab. + +Fogg grinned over his share of the fifty-dollar donation and accepted +it as a matter of course. Ralph said nothing, but he was somewhat +affected. He was pleased at the recognition of his earnest services. +At the same time the exploit of the night had shaken his nerves +naturally, and reminded him of all the perils that accompanied a +practical railroad career. A stern sense of responsibility made him +thoughtful and grave, and he had in mind many a brave, loyal fellow +whose fame had been unheralded and unsung, who had stuck to his post +in time of danger and had given up his life to save others. + +No. 999 was back at Stanley Junction by eight o'clock the next +morning. When Ralph reached home he was so tired out he did not even +wait for breakfast, but went straightway to his bed. + +He came down the stairs in the morning bright as a dollar, to hear his +mother humming a happy song in the dining-room, and Fred Porter +softly accompanying with a low-toned whistle on the veranda. The +latter, waving a newspaper in his hand, made a dash for Ralph. + +"Look!" he exclaimed, pointing to some sensational headlines. "They've +got you in print with a vengeance. A whole column about 'the last +heroic exploit of our expert young railroader and rising +townsman--Engineer Fairbanks.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE BOY WHO WAS HAZED + + +"Well, Porter, proceed." + +Ralph gave the direction. He and Fred were seated in the garden +summer-house, settled comfortably on benches facing each other across +a rustic table, after a good breakfast, a general restful feeling +permeating them. + +"All right," assented Fred. "Before I begin, though, I wish to make a +remark. The way your mother and yourself have treated me has been just +royal--I'll never forget it!" + +"And never forget us," directed the young engineer with a warm, +friendly smile. "You'll always find yourself welcome in this house." + +"That's what gets me," said Fred, and there was a slight tremor and a +suspicion of tears in his voice. "Most fellows would have little to do +with an impostor, eh?" + +"That's a pretty hard word, Porter," intimated Ralph. "Just the same, +I believe in you. I have had confidence in you all along." + +"And my story won't disturb it any," declared Fred. "Well, to +begin--my name is not Marvin Clark." + +"Of course, I know that already." + +"It is Fred Porter." + +"So you have told me." + +"I am an orphan, homeless. As I said when I first came here, I have +been a sort of a knockabout, a wanderer. I have been a poor boy. The +real Marvin Clark, whose father is the real and genuine president of +the Middletown & Western Railroad, is a rich boy. I have saved his +life when he was drowning. He likes me for that, and there isn't much +that he wouldn't do for me." + +"You deserve it," said Ralph. + +"Well, to make a long story short, he was a student at the Earlville +Academy. He's a fine, manly fellow, nothing sneaking or mean about +him. One night, though, he and his school chums got to cutting up. +They raided the town and had a dozen fights with the village boys. One +of them was taken prisoner, a lad named Ernest Gregg. The academy +fellows decided to haze him. They put him through an awful course of +sprouts. They ducked him in the river, scared him with mock gunpowder +explosions, and wound up by tying him blindfolded to a switch near a +railroad track. They left him there all night. The result was that +when little Ernest was discovered the next morning, he was in a high +fever and delirious." + +"Too bad," murmured Ralph. "I don't think much of your Marvin Clark." + +"Hold on, don't misjudge him. He helped to capture the enemy, as they +called poor little Gregg, but he left the crowd right after that, +supposing his chums would scare their captive a bit and let him go. +Clark had no hand whatever in the downright persecution that sent the +boy to the hospital. It seems that some of the gunpowder got into the +eyes of the little fellow, and the douse in the river had given him a +cold. The scare he got had nearly driven him out of his right mind, +for he was a timid little fellow. A month later Ernest was discharged +from the hospital nearly blind, thin, pale and weakly, a mere shadow +of his former self." + +"Of course the academy fellows tried to make up for all that," +suggested Ralph. + +"They didn't. Vacation came on, and they hied to their homes with not +a thought of the great sorrow they had brought on their innocent +victim. They say that Clark was just furious when he heard of it all. +He laid out two of the ringleaders and shamed them in public. He +sought out Ernest and took him to the best hotel in town. He hired +doctors, and loaded the little fellow with comforts and luxuries." + +"It must have cost him something," remarked Ralph. + +"What did Clark care for that? His father was rich and gave him all +the money he wanted. He had an account at a bank, and was heir to two +aunts who doated on him and who were fabulously rich. I never saw a +fellow take to heart the misfortunes of a poor little stranger as +Clark did. The incident seemed to have changed his whole life. He +sobered down wonderfully. He blamed himself for the whole thing, and +took the whole responsibilities upon himself. Nearly all the time he +was with Ernest, trying to cheer him up, hoping to find some way to +make him well and strong and happy again." + +"A royal good fellow, in fact, just as you said--I see that." + +"Yes, sir," declared Fred staunchly. "Well, to continue: Clark's +father and family were going to Europe. They had arranged for young +Clark to go with them, but he wouldn't. Then there was a family +council. Clark had not made much progress at school. He was fine at +football, but no good at arithmetic. In fact, he was a disappointment +to his father as a student. The old man, the academy professor, and +the family lawyer, held a great consultation. Old man Clark came to a +stern decision. It was planned out that young Clark should follow in +the footsteps of his father and become a railroader. A regular +arrangement was made. Clark was to have free passes everywhere. He was +to spend his entire vacation traveling over different railroad +systems, while his folks were in Europe. Twice a week he was to send +to the family lawyer reports of his progress, accompanied by vouchers +showing that he had not wasted the time." + +"I see," nodded Ralph; "also where you come in." + +"Yes, that's easy to guess," said Fred. "Just at that time I happened +to be on a flying visit to Earlville, where one day I met Clark. He +took me to the hotel, where I met Ernest. I had known young Gregg +before, for he had come to Earlville a ragged, homeless lad before I +first left, seeming to have no home or relatives, and going to work at +odd jobs around the town. Clark told me of the fix he was in. While we +were talking, a sudden idea came to him. He became very much excited +and serious, and then made a very strange request of me." + +"To assume his identity and go railroading in his stead?" inquired +Ralph, anticipating what was coming. + +"You've struck it," assented Fred; "just that." + +"And you accepted?" + +"And that is why you see me here," said Fred. "Don't think any the +less of me, Fairbanks, for doing it. Don't find fault with me if I +took up the imposture for all there was in it. It's my way--when I go +at a thing, I do so with all my--nerves. I was Marvin Clark to the +core. I took up his name, I played his part, and say, I tried not to +disgrace his good name by one unmanly act. He taught me to imitate his +handwriting perfectly one day. The next I was on the road, without a +mishap until I met you." + +"Which may not be a mishap after all," suggested the young engineer. + +"I think as you do about that. I've come to you for advice, and I feel +sure that it will be good advice. Now, then, to get to central motive +of Clark's plan--a noble, grand act, a royal deed. It was all for the +sake of his little charge, Ernest Gregg." + +"I can imagine that," said Ralph. + +"Clark could not get the little fellow out of his mind. He had got, it +seemed, a clew to some of his relatives. He told me that only for a +wicked enemy, and if he had his rights, Ernest would be in a position +of positive wealth. He said that he was determined to find a certain +old man who could clear up the whole situation. He was going to start +out with Ernest to solve the secret of his strange life, while his +friends supposed that he was following out the plan that his father +had arranged. Clark made a plan how we were to keep track of one +another, writing to certain points we agreed upon. I started out from +Earlville on my part of the arrangement, while Clark stole out of town +with his young charge. For three weeks I wrote regularly to him and he +replied. During the last month I have not received a word from him, +and some of my letters have come back to me." + +"Then you are worried about him?" inquired Ralph. + +"I am, very much. You see, he spoke of an enemy of Ernest. How do I +know what may have happened to both of them? If Clark should +disappear, see what a fix I am in, assuming his name, spending his +money. I'd have a hard time explaining reasonably the wild, mad move +Clark made me take." + +"It is certainly a singular situation," admitted the young railroader +thoughtfully. + +"Isn't it, now? I've come to you to have you help me solve the +problem. Think it over, give me some advice. Or, one thing--you go to +many places with your railroading. You might keep a watch out for +Clark, just as I am doing. You might get a clew to him or run across +him." + +"But how should I know him?" inquired Ralph. + +"I'm going to give you his picture." + +"That will help." + +Fred drew out a memorandum book and selected from it a small +photograph, which he presented to Ralph. The latter saw a bright, +manly face portrayed in the picture. + +"You keep that," directed Fred. + +Ralph reflected for a few moments. Then they discussed the situation +in all its bearings. There was not much to suggest, however, on the +part of the young engineer. The most they could hope for, he told +Fred, was that one or the other of them might by some circumstance run +across the missing Clark and his young charge. + +"I've got an idea that I ought to run down a branch line of the road I +have never been over," suggested Fred, at the close of their animated +colloquy. "If I do, I'll have to catch a train in an hour. I'll get +word to you soon again, and if you hear of anything that interests me, +I'll arrange so that a letter or a wire will reach me if you address +it to Marvin Clark, Lake Hotel, Wellsville." + +"All right," agreed Ralph. + +They strolled together down to the depot a little after that. A train +from the west came in just as the one having Fred for a passenger +steamed out. A familiar figure alighted from one of the coaches. + +"Here I am again," announced Zeph Dallas, coming up to Ralph. + +"How are your little friends, the Canaries?" inquired the young +engineer. + +"Safe and snug at home," replied Zeph. "Going up to the house?" + +"Yes, just come in from a special trip, and I probably have a lay-over +till to-morrow. I want to call and see a friend at the hotel for a few +moments. Then I'm at your service." + +When they reached the hotel, Ralph sought out Archie Graham, to find +the young inventor in his room, engrossed in putting together some +kind of a mechanical model. The latter greeted Ralph with effusion. + +"I'm having the prime chance of my life," declared Archie. "That note +of yours was the open sesame to the roundhouse and everything about +it. The foreman made me as welcome as a friend. I say, Fairbanks, they +think a lot of you, these railroad chums of yours." + +"Do they?" asked Ralph, with a modest smile. "I'm glad they do." + +"I'll show you results in a few days," declared Archie, with a show +of more enthusiasm than Ralph had ever before seen him exhibit. "I've +got up an invention that will just about revolutionize engineering." + +"You don't say so!" + +"Yes, I do. Only a day or two, and I'm going to try it--you'll hear +about it, all right." + +Ralph did, in fact, hear about it in a very sensational way, and +within a few hours after the interview. + +He rejoined Zeph and they proceeded homewards. Zeph was just as +mysterious as ever about his new employment. Ralph knew that he was +bubbling over from a pent-up lot of secrecy, but he did not encourage +his quaint friend to violate an evident confidence reposed in him by +his employer. + +Zeph announced that he would like to stay over at the Fairbanks home +until the next day, and was made duly welcome. He amazed and amused +Ralph by showing him his "detective outfit," as he called it. It was +an incongruous mass, stored away in a flat leather case that he +secreted in a great pocket made inside his coat--a wig, false +whiskers, a pair of goggles, and a lot of other "secret service" +paraphernalia, suggested to Zeph by reading some cheap and sensational +detective stories. + +"Well, I've got to get on the shadowy trail to-day," yawned Zeph, as +he got out of bed the next morning. + +"Where's the shadow, Zeph?" asked Ralph humorously. + +"Let you know when I find my quarry." + +"Ha, bad as that?" laughed Ralph. + +"Oh, you can smile, Ralph Fairbanks," said Zeph resentfully. "I tell +you, I'm on a mighty important case and--say, where did you get +that?" + +"What?" + +"That picture!" exclaimed Zeph, picking up from the bureau the +photograph of Marvin Clark, given to the young engineer by Fred Porter +the day previous. + +"Oh, that picture?" said Ralph. "A friend of mine gave it to me. He's +trying to find its original, and hoped I could help him." + +"Trying to find him?" repeated Zeph with big staring eyes. "Whew! I +can do that for you." + +"You can?" demanded Ralph. + +"I should say so!" + +"Do you know the original of that picture then?" inquired Ralph. + +"Sure I do--why, he's the person who hired me to be a detective," was +Zeph's remarkable reply. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +"LORD LIONEL MONTAGUE" + + +"You can't get on here!" + +"But I've got a paus, don't you know." + +"Paws? Yes, I see," said Lemuel Fogg. "Take 'em off the tender, son, +or you'll get a jerk that will land you, for we're going to start up +pretty soon." + +"Hawdly--I have a right here, my man--I've got a paus, don't you +know." + +"See here, my friend, if you are bound for Hadley, this isn't the +train." + +"I didn't say Hadley, sir, I said 'hawdly.'" + +"He means hardly, Mr. Fogg," put in Ralph, "and he is trying to tell +you he has a pass." + +"Why don't he talk English, then?" demanded the fireman of No. 999 +contemptuously, while the person who had aroused his dislike looked +indignant and affronted, and now, extending a card to Ralph, climbed +up into the tender. + +He was a stranger to the engineer--a man Ralph could not remember +having seen before. His attire was that of a conventional tourist, +and his face, words and bearing suggested the conventional foreigner. +He wore a short, stubby black mustache and side whiskers, a monocle in +one eye, and he had a vacuous expression on his face as of a person of +immense profundity and "class." + +Ralph, glancing over the card, saw that it was a pass from the master +mechanic of the road, briefly explaining that the bearer was Lord +Lionel Montague, studying up American railroad systems. + +"We can't offer you a seat, Lord Montague," spoke Ralph politely. +"It's rough work in cramped quarters aboard a locomotive." + +"I have noticed it," replied "his ludship." "Not so abroad, by no +means, my man. In fact, on the home lines in Lunnon, it is quite the +thing, you know, for the quality to make a fad of locomotive parties, +and the accommodations for their comfort are quite superior to this, +don't you know." + +"That so?" growled Fogg, with an unpleasant glance at the stranger. +"Why, I've had Senators in my cab in my time, glad to chum with the +crew and set back on the coal, jolly and homelike as could be--as +you'll have to do, if you stay on this engine." + +"Remawkably detestable person!" observed the stranger confidentially +to Ralph. "I shall ride only a short distance--to the first stop, in +fact." + +"You are welcome," replied Ralph, "and if I can explain anything to +you, I am at your service." + +"Thawnks, thawnks," uttered the pretentious passenger, and fixed his +monocled eye on space in a vapid way. + +No. 999 was on schedule for the old accommodation run to Riverton. It +was nearly a week after the interview between the young engineer and +Fred Porter recited in the last chapter. Affairs had quited down with +Ralph, and railroad life had settled down to ordinary routine of the +usual commonplace character. + +There had at first been considerable interest for Ralph in the +remarkable statement of Zeph Dallas that the original of the +photograph of Marvin Clark, the son of the railroad president, was his +mysterious employer. Further than that involuntary admission of his +erratic friend, however, Ralph could not persuade Zeph to go. Zeph +declared that he was bound by a compact of the greatest secrecy. He +insisted that there could be no possibility of a mistake in his +recognition of the picture. + +Ralph told him that a friend was very anxious to find his employer, +and told Zeph who his friend was. The latter became serious, and acted +quite disturbed when he learned that it was Fred Porter, whom he had +met several times. + +"I'd like to tell you a whole lot, Ralph, but I can't do it!" Zeph had +burst out. "Say, one thing, though; I'm going to tell my employer +about Fred Porter being so anxious to see him, and you can write to +Porter and tell him that his friend is all right and safe, if you want +to. What's that address--I may get around to Porter myself." + +Ralph told Zeph. That same evening the latter left Stanley Junction, +and Ralph had not heard from him since, nor did he receive word from +Fred. Temporarily, at least, Zeph, Fred and the railroad president's +son, Marvin Clark, the "Canaries" and all the peculiar mystery +surrounding them, seemed to have drifted out of the life of the young +engineer. + +No. 999 was about ready to start on her daily trip when the stranger +designated as Lord Montague had appeared. As he stood against the +tender bar and seemed to commune with himself on the crudity of +American locomotive cabs, Ralph leaned from the window and hailed a +friend. + +"I say, Graham," he observed, "you seem particularly active and +restless this morning." + +Ralph had reason for the remark. The young inventor had been very +little care to his sponsor and friend during the past week. Given +free access to the roundhouse, Archie had just about lived there. +Quiet and inoffensive, he at first had been a butt for the jokes of +the wipers and the extras, but his good-natured patience disarmed +those who harmlessly made fun of him, and those who maliciously +persecuted him had one warning from his sledge-hammer fists, and left +him alone afterwards. + +On this especial morning Archie was stirred with an unusual animation. +Ralph noticed this when he first came down to the roundhouse. The +young inventor hung around the locomotive suspiciously. He even rode +on the pilot of No. 999 to the depot, and for the past five minutes he +had paced restlessly up and down the platform as though the locomotive +held some peculiar fascination for him. As he now came up to the cab +at Ralph's hail, his eye ran over the locomotive in the most +interested way in the world, and Ralph wondered why. + +"Call me, Fairbanks?" mumbled Archie, and Ralph could not catch his +eye. + +"I did, Graham," responded Ralph. "What's stirring you?" + +"Why?" + +"Chasing up 999." + +"Am I?" + +"It looks that way; it looks to me as if you were watching the +locomotive." + +"She's worth watching, isn't she?" + +"Yes, but you act as if you expect her to do something." + +"Ha! ha!--that's it, h'm--you see--say, wish I could run down the line +with you this morning." + +"We're crowded in the cab, as you see," explained Ralph, "but if you +want the discomfort of balancing on the tank cover back there----" + +"I'd dote on it--thanks, thanks," said Archie with a fervor that +increased Ralph's curiosity as to his strange actions this particular +morning. + +"Got some new bee in his head?" suggested Fogg, as Archie scrambled up +over the coal. "He'll have a new kind of locomotive built by the time +we clear the limits--that is, in his mind." + +Lord Lionel Montague warmed up to Ralph the next few minutes before +starting time. He asked a few casual questions about the mechanisms of +No. 999, and then seemed tremendously interested in the young engineer +himself. + +"I've taken a fawncy to you, Mr. Fairbanks, don't you know," he +drawled out. "I'd like to cultivate you, quite. I must call on you at +Stanley Junction. There's a great deal you might tell me of interest, +don't you see." + +"I shall be happy to be of service to you, Lord Montague," responded +Ralph courteously. + +He did not like the man. There was something untrue about his shifty +eye. There was a lot of "put on" that did not strike Ralph as natural. +"His ludship" harped on the youth of Ralph. Only veterans were +intrusted with important railroad positions in England--"didn't he +know." He was asking many questions about Ralph's juvenile friends, as +if with some secret purpose, when the train started up. + +"Hi, up there!" Fogg challenged Archie, seated on the tank tender top, +"don't get moving up there and tumble off." + +The young inventor certainly looked as if he was moving. His eyes were +glued to the smokestack of the locomotive, as though it possessed a +fascinating influence over him. + +"Say, there's some draft this morning," observed the fireman, half-way +to the crossing, as he threw some coal into the furnace. + +"I should say so," replied Ralph; "some sparks, too, I notice." + +"Humph! that new patent spark arrester don't arrest particularly," +commented Fogg. "Queer," he added, with a speculative eye on the +smokestack. + +That appendage of No. 999 was shooting out showers of sparks like a +roman candle. As she slid the splits at the crossing and got down to +real business, the display was very noticeable. + +"I'd say that some of our old time enemies were doctoring the fuel, if +it wasn't that the crowd is off the job after that last drubbing I +gave Hall and Wilson," remarked the fireman. "I can't understand it. +That draft is pulling the coal up through the flues fast as I can +shovel it in. Thunder!" + +With a yell the fireman of No. 999, as he opened the furnace door to +throw in more coal, leaped to one side. + +A cyclonic stream, like the sudden blast of a volcano, poured out into +the cab. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +ARCHIE GRAHAM'S INVENTION + + +The cab was suddenly filled with smoke, ashes and steam. Something +unusual had happened. Unable to determine it all in a minute, Ralph +pulled the lever and set the air brakes. + +Mingled with the jar and the hiss of steam there arose a great cry--it +was a vast human roar, ringing, anguished, terrified. It proceeded +from the lips of the self-dubbed Lord Montague, and glancing towards +the tender Ralph witnessed a startling sight. + +The monocled, languid-aired nobleman had struck a pose against the +tender bar, and as Fogg opened the furnace door and the fire box +suddenly belched out a sheet of flame and then a perfect cloud of +ashes, the passenger of high degree was engulfed. Fogg, alert to his +duty, after nimbly skipping aside, had kicked the furnace door shut. +He was not quick enough, however, to prevent what seemed to be half +the contents of the furnace from pouring out a great cascade of ashes +as if shot from a cannon, taking the astounded and appalled Montague +squarely down his front. + +"Murder!" he yelled, and grasped his head in his hands to brush away +the hot ashes that were searing his face. + +As he did so he became a new personality. His mustache was brushed +from his lip and fell to the bottom of the cab, while its former +possessor made a mad dive to one side. + +"Here, you chump!" cried Fogg; "do you want to kill yourself?" and +grabbing the singed and frightened passenger, he pinned him against +the coal and held him there. In doing this he brushed one whisker from +the side of his captive's face, and the latter lay panting and +groaning with nearly all his fictitious make-up gone and quite all of +his nerve collapsed. + +"What's happened?" asked Ralph, as they slowed down. + +"It felt like a powder blast," declared Fogg. + +Archie Graham had uttered a cry of dismay--of discovery, too, it +seemed to Ralph. The young engineer glanced at his friend perched on +the top of the tender tank. The face of the young inventor was a +study. + +Archie acted less like a person startled than as one surprised. He +appeared to be neither shocked nor particularly interested. His +expression was that of one disappointed. It suddenly flashed across +Ralph, he could scarcely have told why, that the young inventor had +indeed been "inventing" something, that something had slipped a cog, +and that he was responsible for the catastrophe of the moment. Now +Archie looked about him in a stealthy, baffled way, as though he was +anxious to sneak away from the scene. + +Half-blinded, sputtering and a sight, "his ludship" struggled out of +the grasp of the fireman. His monocle was gone. His face, divested of +its hirsute appendages, Ralph observed, was a decidedly evil face. As +the train came to a halt the dismantled passenger stepped from the +cab, and wrathfully tearing the remaining false whiskers from place, +sneaked down the tracks, seeking cover from his discomfiture. + +"Hi! you've left that nobleman face of yours behind you," shouted Fogg +after him. "What's his game, Fairbanks?" + +"It staggers me," confessed Ralph. "Hello, there, Graham!" + +But the young inventor with due haste was disappearing over the rear +of the tender, as though he was ashamed of a part in the puzzling +occurrence at the moment. + +"Something's wrong," muttered Fogg, and he opened the furnace door +timidly. There was no further outburst of ashes. "Queer," he +commented. "It couldn't have been powder. I noticed a draft soon as we +started. What made it? Where is it now?" + +"It was only when we were running fast," submitted Ralph. + +The fireman leaped down to the tracks. He inspected the locomotive +from end to end. Then he began ferretting under the engine. Ralph +watched him climb between the drivers. Strange, muffled mutterings +announced some discovery. In a moment or two Fogg crawled out again. + +"I vum!" he shouted. "What is this contraption?" + +He grasped a piece of wire-netted belting, and as he trailed out its +other end, to it was attached a queer-looking device that resembled a +bellows. Its frame was of iron, and it had a tube with a steel +nozzle. + +"I say," observed the young engineer, in a speculative tone, "where +did that come from?" + +"I found its nozzle end stuck in through one end of the draft holes in +the fire box," answered Fogg. "This belt ran around two axles and +worked it. Who put it there?" + +"Graham," announced Ralph politely. "Well--well--I understand his +queer actions now. Bring it up here," continued Ralph, as the fireman +was about to throw it aside. + +"The young fellow who thinks he is going to overturn the system with +his inventions? Well, he must have done a lot of work, and it must +have taken a heap of time to fix the thing so it worked. The belt was +adjusted to a T. Say, you'd better keep him out of the roundhouse, or +he'll experiment on us some day in a way that may lead to something +serious." + +Ralph put the contrivance under his seat for more leisurely inspection +later on. He had to smile to think of the patience, the ingenuity and +the eccentric operation of the well-meant project of his young +inventor friend. The bellows principle of increasing the furnace draft +might have been harmless in a stationary engine. Even on the +locomotive it had shown some added suction power while the locomotive +was going ahead, but the moment the furnace door was opened the +current of air from below sought the nearest vent. That was why "his +ludship" had retired under a decided cloud in more ways than one. + +When they arrived at Riverton the young engineer made a search for +both Archie and the disguised impostor. He located neither. From what +he gathered from the conductor, Archie had left the train at the first +station after the stop. The pretended English lord had been noticed +footing it back towards Stanley Junction. + +The return trip was uneventful. Archie did not put in an appearance, +and Ralph fancied he might have gone back to Bridgeport. The next +morning when Ralph reported for duty, little Torchy, the call boy, +sidled up to him in a confidential way. + +"Say, Mr. Fairbanks--I noticed a fellow was on your cab on your run +yesterday that I have seen before----" + +"Indeed," answered Ralph curiously; "what about him?" + +"Nothing much, only he was around here a couple of days ago. He +pretended that he wanted to see the inside of a roundhouse, and Mr. +Forgan sent me with him to show him about. When he got me alone he +began asking me all about you. Then he tried to pump me about all your +boy friends. I didn't like his looks or his actions, so I thought I +would tell you what I have." + +"Thank you," said Ralph. "If you ever run against him again, tell +me." + +"I will, sure," responded the staunch little fellow, who had a genuine +friendship for Ralph, who had encouraged him greatly, by initiating +him into roundhouse duties when he first came to work for the Great +Northern. + +Ralph could not fathom the possible motive of the stranger, who +apparently was somehow interested in his doings. When they started out +on their regular run, he told Fogg what Torchy had imparted to him. +The fireman reflected speculatively over the disclosure. + +"I can't understand what the fellow is up to," he admitted, "unless +one of the gangs is up to a new trick and has hired a stranger to work +it on us." + +There was a long wait at Riverton after arrival that day. Then they +were sided, and Fogg strolled off to a restaurant. Ralph sat down on a +pile of ties at the side of the track and enjoyed the lunch that he +had brought with him from home. He had just finished it and was about +to go to the cab and get a book on railroading to read, when a tall, +farmer-appearing fellow came upon the scene. + +"Say," he drawled, "is this 999--yes, I see it is." + +"All right," nodded Ralph; "what about it?" + +"I want to see the engineer." + +"I am the engineer." + +"Name Fairbanks?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, I'm sent to you." + +"By whom?" + +"Don't know--never saw the boy before. He's a stranger in Riverton. +Came up to me and gave me a half-a-dollar to come here and deliver a +message to you." + +"Let me know it," directed Ralph. + +"Come out here on the tracks, and I'll show you where he said you was +to come to see him. See that old shed over beyond those freights? +Well, the boy said you was to come there." + +"Oh, he did?" commented Ralph musingly. + +"Yes, he said to come alone, as it was particular. He said you'd know +when I said Martin--Martin, oh, yes, Clark, that's it." + +"Marvin Clark," decided the young railroader at once, and as the +messenger went his way Ralph ran to the engine cab, threw off his +jacket and then walked down the tracks. He of course thought of Fred +Porter at once. It looked as though that individual had turned up +again and had sent for him, and Ralph was glad to hear from him at +last. + +The building that had been pointed out to him by the boy messenger was +a storage shed for repair tools and supplies. Ralph passed a line of +damaged freights, and reaching the shed, found its door open. He +stepped across the threshold and peered around among the heaps of iron +and steel. + +"Is anybody here?" he inquired. + +"Yes, two of us," promptly responded a harsh, familiar voice, that +gave Ralph a start, for the next instant his arms were seized, drawn +behind him, and the young engineer of No. 999 found himself a +prisoner. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +IKE SLUMP AGAIN + + +Ralph knew at once that he had fallen into a trap of some kind. He +struggled violently, but it was of no avail. Two persons had slipped +up behind him, two pairs of hands were holding him captive. + +"Who are you?" demanded the young engineer sharply, over his +shoulder. + +There was no response, but he was forced forward clear back into the +shed. The front door was kicked shut. Ralph was thrown roughly among a +heap of junk. He recovered himself quickly and faced his assailants. + +The light in the place was dim and uncertain. The only glazed aperture +in the shed was a small window at the rear. With considerable interest +Ralph strained his gaze in an endeavor to make out his captors. Then +in immense surprise he recognized both. + +"Ike Slump and Jim Evans," he spoke aloud involuntarily. + +"You call the roll," observed Evans with a sneer. + +Ralph reflected rapidly. The last he had heard of this precious brace +of comrades, they had been sentenced to prison for a series of bold +thefts from the railroad company. How they had gotten free he could +not decide. He fancied that they had in some way escaped. At all +events, they were here, and the mind of the young engineer instantly +ran to one of two theories as to their plans: Either the gang at +Stanley Junction had hired them to annoy or imperil him, or Slump and +Evans were inspired by motives of personal revenge. + +Ike Slump had been a trouble to Ralph when he first began his +ambitious railroad career. It was Slump who had hated him from the +start when Ralph began his apprenticeship with the Great Northern, as +related in "Ralph of the Roundhouse." Ralph had detected Slump and +others in a plot to rob the railroad company of a lot of brass journal +fittings. From that time on through nearly every stage of Ralph's +upward career, Slump had gone steadily down the easy slope of crime. + +When he linked up with Evans, his superior in years and cunning, he +had several times sought revenge against Ralph, and but for the +vigilance and courage of the young engineer his life might have paid +the forfeit. + +Evans acted promptly, wasting no words. He had drawn a weapon from his +pocket, and this he handed to Slump. Then he turned a fierce, lowering +visage upon Ralph. + +"Fairbanks," he began, "you're to go with us--where, don't matter, nor +why. We owe you one, as you've known for a long time, and if it wasn't +that we're here for the money there is in it, and not revenge, I'd +take pleasure in balancing the months you got us in jail by crippling +you so you'd never pull another lever. This is business, though, pure +and simple. If you get hurt, you can blame yourself. You've got to go +with us." + +"Why have I?" demanded Ralph. + +"Because we say so. There's a man quite anxious to see you." + +"Who is he?" + +"That's telling. He wants to ask you just one question. A civil answer +given, and you are free as the wind. Slump, take this pistol, get up +on that pile of rails, and guard Fairbanks. If he starts to run, +shoot--understand?" + +"I guess I do!" snarled the graceless Ike, climbing to the top of the +pile of rails. "When I think of what this fellow has done to down me, +it makes my blood boil." + +"I'll be back with a wagon in fifteen minutes," said Evans. "You take +your medicine quietly, Fairbanks, and nobody will get hurt. Try any +capers, and blame yourself." + +The speaker proceeded to the door of the shed, opened it, and closed +it after himself as if everything was settled his way. Ike Slump, +regarding the captive with a venomous expression of face, sat poising +his weapon with the manner of a person glad to have an occasion arise +that would warrant its use under the instructions given by his +partner. + +Ralph summed up the situation and counted his chances. It was apparent +to him that only a bold, reckless dash could avail him. There was no +chance to pounce upon and disarm the enemy, however, and Ralph +hesitated about seeking any risks with a fellow who held him so +completely at his mercy. + +"How does it seem?" jeered Ike, after a spell of silence, but Ralph +did not answer at once. He had experienced no actual fear when so +suddenly seized. Now, although he could not disregard a certain risk +and menace in the custody of two of his worst enemies, a study of the +face of the youth before him made the young railroader marvel as to +what he could find enticing in doing wrong, and he actually felt +sorrow and sympathy, instead of thinking of his own precarious +situation. + +"Slump," spoke Ralph finally, "I am sorry for you." + +"That so? Ho! ho! truly?" gibed the graceless Ike. "What game are you +up to? Don't try any, I warn you. You're clever, Ralph Fairbanks, but +I'm slick. You see, the tables have turned. I knew they would, some +time." + +"What is it you fellows want of me, anyhow?" ventured Ralph, hoping to +induce Ike to disclose something. + +"Nothing to worry about," declared Slump carelessly. "You'll soon +know. Say, though, Fairbanks, don't stir the lion, don't pull his +tail." + +"You seem to be talking about menageries," observed Ralph. + +"You'll think you're in one, sure enough, if you rile Evans up. He +won't stand any fooling, you hear me. Shut up, now. We'll leave +discussing things till this job is over and done with. Then I may have +something to tell you on my own personal account, see?" and Ike tried +to look very fierce and dangerous. "I'll give you something to think +of, though. You're going to tell a certain man all you know about a +certain fellow, and you're going to fix it so that the certain man +can find the certain fellow, or you don't run 999 for a time to come, +I'll bet you." + +"Who is this certain man?" inquired Ralph. + +"I don't know his name. He's a stranger to me." + +"And who is the certain fellow?" + +"I know that one--I don't mind telling you. Then shut up. You've a way +of worming things out of people, and I'm not going to help you +any--it's Marvin Clark." + +"I thought it was," nodded the young engineer reflectively; and then +there was a spell of silence. + +Ralph could only conjecture as to the significance of Ike's statement. +There certainly was some vivid interest that centered about the +missing son of the railroad president. That name, Marvin Clark, had +been used to lure Ralph to the old shed. Now it was again employed. It +took a far flight of fancy to discern what connection young Clark +might have with these two outcasts--worse, criminals. Ralph decided +that their only mission in any plot surrounding Clark was that of +hired intermediaries. He did not know why, but somehow he came to the +conclusion that Evans and Slump were acting in behalf of the pretended +Lord Montague. Why and wherefore he could not imagine, but he believed +that through circumstances now developing he would soon find out. + +Slump shifted around on the pile of rails a good deal. They afforded +anything but a comfortable resting place. Finally he seemed to decide +that he would change his seat. He edged along with the apparent +intention of reaching a heap of spike kegs. He never, however, took +his eye away from Ralph. Ike, too, held his weapon at a continual +menace, and gave his captive no chance to act against him or run for +the door. + +Near the end of the pile of rails, Ike prepared to descend backwards +to the spike kegs. He planned to do this without for an instant +relaxing his vigilance. As he reached out one foot to touch the rails, +there was an ominous grinding sound. He had thrown his weight on one +rail. The contact pushed this out of place. + +Once started, the whole heap began to shift. Ralph, quite awed, saw +the pile twist out of shape, and, tumbling in their midst, was his +watcher. A scream of mortal agony rang through the old shed, and Ike +Slump landed on the floor with half a ton of rails pinioning his lower +limbs. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A CRITICAL MOMENT + + +If the rails under which Ike Slump lay had not caught at their ends +with other rails, his limbs would have been crushed out of all +semblance. Ralph noted this at once, and as well the extreme peril of +the situation of the enemy who, a minute previous had been gloating +over his helplessness. + +"Don't move--for your life, don't move!" shouted Ralph, and he sprang +forward in front of the pinioned Ike Slump. + +"I'm killed, I'm crushed to death!" bellowed Ike. "Oh, help! help!" + +The weapon had fallen from his hand. Both arms wildly sawing the air, +Ike shivered and shrank like the arrant craven he was at heart. + +"Do just as I say," ordered the young engineer breathlessly. "Don't +stir--don't even breathe." + +Ralph had jumped to the end of the pile of rails. His quick eye +selected the one rail that was the key of the tangle, which, directed +wrong, would sweep the mass with crushing force across the pinioned +body of Ike. The rails were short lengths. But for this, Ralph, strong +as he was, could have done little or nothing. He got a grasp upon the +rail. Then he sung out. + +"Slip when I lift." + +"I can't,--I can't!" wailed Ike. + +"You've got to--now!" + +Ralph gave a tug at the rail. There was an ominous grind and quiver as +the others interlocked. He made a tremendous lift, one which strained +every sinew and started the perspiration from every pore. + +"I'm numbed, I'm all crushed!" snivelled Ike; nevertheless he managed +to crawl out, or rather slip out from under the uplifted rail. He +rolled on the dirt floor of the shed, making a great ado. It was just +in time, for Ralph felt his eyes starting from his head. He dropped +the heavy mass he had sustained and staggered back, well-nigh +overcome. + +As his breath came back to him, Ralph glanced particularly at Ike. The +latter was completely absorbed in his own sufferings. Ralph could +discern from the movements of his limbs that neither of them was +dislocated and apparently no bones were broken. Still, he realized +that they must be badly bruised and that Ike was disabled, at least +for a time. + +"I'm going for help," he said simply, and darted from the shed. Ike +yelled after him to protest against desertion, but Ralph paid no +attention. He planned to get to friends while Evans was still away, +and he determined to get back with friends by the time Evans +returned. + +Fogg was at the engine as Ralph ran along the tracks, and one of the +brakemen of the accommodation was with him. Ralph rapidly apprized his +fireman of the situation. + +"Slump and Evans, eh!" muttered Fogg, a deep crinkle of belligerency +crossing his forehead. "It was Slump who stole half my chickens. As to +Evans, his mean treachery during the strike came near getting me +discharged. I thought they were safe in jail." + +"So did I," said Ralph. "They seem to have escaped, though. Mr. Fogg, +they are bad people to have at large." + +"Bad! they're of a dangerous breed, I tell you. Simmons, hustle along +with us." + +The fireman snatched up a furnace poker and put down the track after +Ralph, on the run. He was the first to dart into the shed when they +reached it, and ran up against the others following, after a swift +glance about the place. + +"No one here," he reported. "Gone--they've slipped us--there's no one +in this shed." + +"Ah, I see," spoke Ralph, with a look about the place outside. "Here +are wagon wheels," and then he cast his eye across the landscape. + +It was so crowded with tracks, buildings and trees beyond that he +could not look far in the distance. Ralph, however, was satisfied that +Evans, returning with the wagon, had made haste to carry his helpless +comrade to the vehicle and get beyond reach of capture. + +Fogg was for starting a pursuit, but Ralph convinced him of the +futility of this course, and they returned to the locomotive. Once +there, the fireman went over the case in all its bearings. Ralph had +heretofore told him little concerning Fred Porter and Marvin Clark. He +had shown him the photograph of the latter some days previous, asking +him to keep an eye out for its original. Now he felt that some +confidence was due his loyal cab mate, and he recited the entire story +of what he knew and his surmises. + +"You've got a square head, Fairbanks," said Fogg, "and I'll rely on it +every time. It's logic to think your way. Some fellow is mightily +interested in this young Clark. None too good is the fellow, either, +or he wouldn't have to beat around the bush. No, he's not straight, +or he wouldn't hire such fellows as Evans and Ike Slump to help him +out." + +"I don't understand it all," confessed Ralph, "but I can see that a +good deal of mysterious interest centers around this young Clark. I'm +going to try and get some word to Porter--and to Zeph Dallas. They +should know what's going on regarding Clark." + +The incident did not depart from the young engineer's mind during the +return trip to Stanley Junction, nor for several days later. With the +escape of Evans and Ike Slump, however, the episode ended, at least +for the time being. A week and more passed by, and that precious pair +and their presumable employer, the pretended Lord Montague, seemed to +have drifted out of existence quite as fully as had Zeph, Porter and +young Clark. + +One morning there was an animated discussion going on when Ralph +entered the roundhouse. He was greatly interested in it, although he +did not share in the general commotion. + +The result of somebody's "confidential" talk with the division +superintendent had leaked out--the Great Northern was figuring to soon +announce its new train. + +"As I get it," observed old John Griscom, "the road is in for a bid on +the service the Midland Central is getting." + +"You don't mean through business?" spoke an inquiring voice. + +"Sure, that," assented the veteran railroader. "We've beat them on the +China & Japan Mail run to Bridgeport, and now the scheme is to run the +Overland Express in from the north, catch her up here, and cut out +Bridgeport at a saving of fifty miles on the regular western run." + +"Then they will have to take the Mountain Division from Stanley +Junction." + +"Just that, if they expect to make the time needed," assented Griscom. +"Hey, Bill Somers," to a grizzled old fellow with one arm, who was +shaking his head seriously at all this confab, "what you mooning +about?" + +"I wouldn't take that run," croaked Somers, "if they gave me a solid +gold engine with the tender full of diamonds. I left an arm on that +route. Say, Dave Little and I had a construction run over those +sliding curves up and down the canyon grades. It lasted a month. There +were snowslides, washouts, forest fires. There's a part of the road +that's haunted. There's a hoodoo over one section, where they kill a +man about once a week. Little lost his leg and his job there. My old +arm is sleeping thereabouts in some ravine. No Mountain Division run +for me, boys!" + +"You won't get it, never fear," observed a voice. + +"No, I know that," retorted Somers a little sadly, indicating his +helplessness by moving his stump of an arm, "but I pity the fellow who +does." + +Day by day after that there were new additions to the fund of gossip +concerning the new run. It all interested Ralph. Nothing definite, +however, was as yet stated officially. Ralph and Fogg continued on the +accommodation, and there was now little break in the regular routine +of their railroad experience. + +Ralph had made a short cut across the switch yards one morning, when a +stirring episode occurred that he was not soon to forget, nor others. +It took an expert to thread the maze of cars in motion, trains stalled +on sidings, and trains arriving and departing. + +It was the busiest hour of the day, and Ralph kept his eye out +sharply. He had paused for a moment in a clear triangle formed by +diverging rails, to allow an outward bound train to clear the switch, +when a man on the lower step of the last car waved his hand and hailed +him. + +It was the master mechanic, and Ralph was pleased at the notice taken +of him, and interested to learn what the official wanted of him. The +master mechanic, alighting, started across the tracks to join Ralph. + +A train was backing on the one track between them. Another train was +moving out on the rails still nearer to Ralph. + +It was a scene of noise, commotion and confusion. If the master +mechanic had been a novice in railroad routine, Ralph could not have +repressed a warning shout, for with his usual coolness that official, +timing all train movements about him with his practiced eye, made a +quick run to clear the train backing in to the depot. He calculated +then, Ralph foresaw, to cross the tracks along which the outgoing +train was coming. + +"He's taking a risk--it's a graze," murmured the young engineer in +some trepidation. + +The master mechanic was alert and nimble, though past middle age. He +took the chances of a spry jump across the rails, his eye fixed on the +outgoing train, aiming to get across to Ralph before it passed. In +landing, however, he miscalculated. The run and jump brought him to a +dead halt against a split switch. His foot drove into the jaws of the +frog as if wedged there by the blow of a sledge-hammer. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE NEW RUN + + +The young engineer stood shocked and motionless--only, however, for +the minutest fraction of a moment. A railroad man's life is full of +sudden surprises and situations calling for prompt, decisive and +effective action. Ralph had learned this from experience. + +The master mechanic was in the direct path of the train backing into +the depot. The one he had just left and the one proceeding in the same +direction shut him in where there was no flagman or switches. The +train bearing down upon him was on a rounding bend of rails, the +locomotive not in view, and there was no possible chance of signalling +the engineer. + +As Ralph started forward the engine of the outbound train passed him. +He waited for one car only to pass him. How he skimmed its rear +platform he never knew. It was a daring, reckless spring, and he +landed on the planking beyond the rails on a dizzying slide. The next +instant he was at the side of the imperilled railroad official. + +"I'm caught!" gasped the master mechanic, with a white but set face, +as he recognized Ralph. + +"Swing down!" cried the young railroader. "It's your only chance." + +The master mechanic barely suppressed a groan as he toppled sideways. +The twist to his ankle made him wince. Ralph saw that his foot was +held as in a vise. No amount of pulling could get him free. The train +backing down was less than thirty feet away. + +"Hold steady," breathed Ralph in a shaking tone, and his hand dove for +his pocket. He recalled it all afterwards as a remarkable thing that, +standing there, a great peril hovering, there seemed to flash through +his mind a vivid photograph of Torchy. + +The call boy at the roundhouse was a great friend of the young +engineer. Ralph had been his model, as was he his friend. He had +loaned the little fellow a book on railroading that had delighted +Torchy, and observing Ralph sharpening a peg for his bumper with a +decidedly blunt-edged knife, he had begged the privilege of getting it +sharpened for him. + +When he had returned the knife to Ralph the day previous, Torchy +declared that it was sharp as a razor and would cut a hair in two. +Ralph found this to be no exaggeration. In addition Torchy had oiled +the blade hinges. Now the young engineer thought of Torchy and of the +knife as he drew it from his pocket, whipped open its big blade and +made a dive rather than a swoop beside the body of the master +mechanic. + +"Pull back your foot!" cried Ralph, and made a swoop. The flanges of +the near truck wheels were grinding on the edge of the rails not five +feet away. Ralph's arm described a deft oval movement. In one swift +stroke he slit the shoe from vamp to sole. He was conscious that the +foot of the master mechanic came free. Then something struck Ralph, +and he felt himself tossed aside inert and unconscious by some +stunning force. + +When he again opened his eyes Ralph caught the vague hum of a lingo of +switch pidgin, smut-faced, blear-eyed men near by, himself stretched +at full length on sleeping car cushions on the floor of the doghouse. +He sat up promptly. There was a momentary blur to his sight, but this +quickly passed away. + +"Aha--only a bump--I told you so!" cried bluff-hearted Tim Forgan, the +foreman, jumping from a bench and approaching Ralph. + +"All right, Fairbanks?" questioned John Griscom, coming to his side. + +"Right as a trivet," reported Ralph, getting to his feet. "What hit +me?" + +"The step of a coach, it seems," explained Forgan. + +Ralph passed his hand over his head until it rested on a lump and a +sore spot near one ear. It was wet and greasy where some liniment had +been applied. + +"The master mechanic?" he asked, with a quick memory of what had +happened. + +"Ankle wrenched," said Griscom. "We made him get to a surgeon on a +litter. He minded nothing but you, till he was sure that you were all +right." + +Ralph uttered a vast sigh of relief and satisfaction. Forgan led him +to his own special office armchair. Half-a-dozen crowded about him, +curious for details of the accident no one of them had witnessed. + +Ralph gave them the particulars as he could remember them. He asked +for a drink of water, felt of the bump again with a smiling grimace, +and arose to his feet. + +"Same schedule, I suppose?" he inquired, starting to go outside the +doghouse and inspect the bulletin board on which daily orders were +posted. + +"You don't mean that you are going to make your run to-day, +Fairbanks?" asked the foreman. + +"Why not?" + +"Used up." + +"Am I?" queried Ralph with a smile. "Then I don't know it. I fancy it +was a narrow escape, and I am grateful for it." + +"The master mechanic was looking for you when he got frogged," +observed Griscom. + +"Yes, I thought he was," nodded Ralph. + +"Here, Fairbanks," broke in the foreman of the roundhouse, "tack up +this flimsy with the rest, will you?" + +Ralph took the tissue sheet tendered, stepped through the open doorway +into the roundhouse, and set the sheet upon two tacks on the bulletin +board. He started to stroll over to No. 999 in her stall. + +"Hold on," challenged Forgan; "that flimsy just came in. It's an +important order. Better read it, Fairbanks." + +"All right," assented Ralph, and turning, cast his eyes at the sheet. +They distended wide, for this is what he read: + + "No. 7, new train, Overland Express, Mountain Division, 6.12 + p. m., beginning Monday, the 15th. Engineer: Fairbanks--Fireman: + Fogg." + +"My!" was all that Ralph could gasp out. + +A great hearty hand, that of the old railroad veteran, John Griscom, +landed on Ralph's shoulder with a resounding slap. + +"Fairbanks!" he roared in the ear of the bewildered young engineer, +"the top rung of the ladder at last!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE MOUNTAIN DIVISION + + +"Well, lad, you've passed muster and got to the head of the class!" +proclaimed old John Griscom. + +"Oh, no," dissented Ralph Fairbanks; "I'm just started in to learn +what real railroading means." + +"I'd call you a pretty apt student, then," put in Tim Forgan, foreman +of the Stanley Junction roundhouse. + +"If there's any man, boy or child in this doghouse who says that young +Fairbanks isn't a crackerjack, let him step right up here and take his +medicine!" vaunted Lemuel Fogg, playfully, but with a proud look of +admiration at the expert young engineer. + +"It's the best part of it to know that you fellows mean every word you +say and believe in me," observed Ralph. "Your encouragement and +influence have boosted me up to the Overland Express all right--I'll +try and never make you ashamed of having backed me." + +Ralph Fairbanks felt good and showed it. His friends shared in his +emotions and sentiments, and that made the present occasion doubly +glad and welcome. It was one of those rare moments, coming only once +in a while, when Ralph and his comrades had an idle half hour to chat +and compliment each other in the doghouse. + +The Overland Express had become an established feature of the Great +Northern--as little Torchy had phrased it, "a howling success." A week +had gone by, and now, seated in the midst of his loyal friends, Ralph +felt that he had made good on a promotion that placed him at the top +notch of engineering service. + +It was a big thing for a youth to gain that high distinction--engineer +of the Overland Express. Looking back over the active, energetic +career that had led up to this, however, Ralph realized that the +climax had been reached a step at a time through patience, +perseverance and genuine hard work. It was a proof to him that any +person following discipline and having as a motto precision and +finality, was bound to succeed. It was a most enjoyable breathing +spell to realize that all the anxiety, dash and novelty of the +experimental trips over the Mountain Division were past, and he now +felt that he knew the route and all its details perfectly. + +Ralph had found time to do some thinking about his friends the past +day or two. He had seen two of them, for Van Sherwin and little Limpy +Joe had come down from the Short Line, and had spent a pleasant day at +the Fairbanks home. Archie Graham, too, had put in an appearance. The +young inventor looked shamefaced and distressed when he admitted all +that Ralph had guessed concerning the patent bellows--draft +improvement for locomotives. + +"It only worked the wrong way," explained Archie; "next time----" + +"Next time try it on some other railroad, Archie," advised Ralph. +"They're watching for you with rifles down at the Great Northern +roundhouse." + +"Huh!" snorted Archie contemptuously; "they'll be sorry when I strike +some real big thing and another line gets it. Now then, I've got +something brand new--the rocket danger signal." + +"Go right ahead experimenting with it, only choose a spot where you +won't hurt any one," advised Ralph. "You're all right, Archie," +declared the young railroader, slapping his comrade appreciatively on +the shoulder, "only you are too ambitious. I have no doubt that you +will some day hit something tangible. It's a long, patient road, +though--this inventing things." + +"You bet it is," assented Archie with force. + +"And you attempt too grand beginnings. Take something more simple and +easy than trying to revolutionize railroad service all at once, and +gradually work up to bigger things." + +"Say, there's sense in that, an old inventor told me the same thing," +said Archie; "but you see this rocket danger signal of mine is a new +thing. I'm going to Bridgeport to-morrow to get some fixings I have in +my workshop there. You'll hear from me later, Fairbanks." + +Concerning Zeph, Fred Porter and Marvin Clark the young railroader had +heard nothing since the last visit of Zeph to Stanley Junction. Many a +time he wondered what had become of them. He had all kinds of theories +as to their continued mysterious absence, but no solution offered as +time wore on. + +The Overland Express had not become an old thing with Ralph. He felt +that the charm and novelty of running the crack train of the road +could never wear out. With each trip, however, there came a feeling of +growing strength and self-reliance. Ralph had learned to handle the +proposition aptly, and he took a great pride in the time record so +far. + +"It's a lively run, and no mistake," he remarked to Fogg, as they +started out from the depot that evening. "We haven't had any of the +direful mishaps, though, that those old doghouse croakers predicted." + +"No," admitted the fireman, but he accompanied the word with a serious +shake of the head; "that's to come. I'm trained enough to guess that +another frost or two will end in the season that every railroad man +dreads. Wait till the whiskers get on the rails, lad, and a freshet or +two strikes 999. There's some of those culverts make me quake when I +think of the big ice gorges likely to form along Dolliver's Creek. Oh, +we'll get them--storms, snowslides and blockades. The only way is to +remember the usual winter warning, 'extra caution,' keep cool, and +stick to the cab to the last." + +Summer had faded into autumn, and one or two sharp frosts had +announced the near approach of winter. The day before there had been a +slight snow flurry. A typical fall day and a moonlit night had +followed, however, and Ralph experienced the usual pleasure as they +rolled back the miles under flying wheels. They took the sharp curves +as they ran up into the hills with a scream of triumph from the +locomotive whistle every time they made a new grade. + +"Waste of steam, lad, that," observed Fogg, as they rounded a curve +and struck down into a cut beyond which lay the town of Fordham. + +"Better to be safe," responded Ralph. "There's a crossing right ahead +where the old spur cuts in." + +"Yes, but who ever crosses it?" demanded the fireman. + +"Some one did two nights ago," insisted Ralph. "I'm positive that we +just grazed a light wagon crossing the roadway leading into the cut." + +"Then it was some stray farmer lost off his route," declared Fogg. +"Why, that old spur has been rusting away for over five years, to my +recollection. As to the old road beyond being a highway, that's +nonsense. There's no thoroughfare beyond the end of the spur. The road +ends at a dismantled, abandoned old factory, and nobody lives anywhere +in this section." + +"Is that so?" Toot! toot! toot! + +The whistle screeched out sharply. The fireman stuck his head out of +the window. Ralph had already looked ahead. + +"I declare!" shouted Fogg, staring hard. "Swish--gone! But what was it +we passed?" + +Ralph did not speak. He sat still in a queer kind of realization of +what they both had just seen, and in the retrospect. While he and his +fireman had been conversing, just ahead in the white moonlight he had +seen two human figures against the sky. It was a flashing glimpse +only, for the train was making a forty mile clip, but, dangling from a +tree overhanging the side of the cliff lining the tracks on one side, +he had made out two boys. + +"The Canaries!" he murmured to himself, in profound surprise and deep +interest. "I even heard them whistle." + +Ralph was so sure that the little swinging figures he had seen were +the lithe, strange creatures who had been brought to Stanley Junction +by Zeph Dallas, that he thought about it all the rest of the trip. He +said nothing further to Fogg about the circumstance, but he resolved +to investigate later on. + +The young engineer tried to calculate ahead how some day soon he could +arrange to visit the vicinity of the old Fordham spur. He was positive +that he had seen the two Canaries. Their presence at the spur +indicated that they must be denizens of its neighborhood. This being +true, their presence might indicate the proximity of Zeph Dallas. At +least the strange young foreigners might know what had become of the +ardent young "detective." + +Ralph made a good many inquiries of his fireman as to the Fordham +spur. Fogg simply knew that it ran to an old ruined factory long since +abandoned. On the return trip Ralph kept a sharp lookout as they +neared the cut. There was no second appearance of the Canaries, +however, nor the next night, nor that following. The young engineer +found no opportunity of visiting the place, but he kept his plan to do +so constantly in mind. + +It was two days later as he made the short cut to the roundhouse about +noon, that Ralph was greeted by a new discovery that fairly took his +breath away. He had stepped aside to wait till a locomotive with one +car attached passed the crossing. The peculiar oddness of the car at +once attracted his attention. + +It was an old tourist car, used only on far western railroads. He had +seen its like only once or twice before. Its inside shades were all +drawn. There was no sight of life about it. The locomotive belonged to +the northern branch of the Great Northern, and had the right of way +and was tracked for the Mountain Division. + +"That's a queer layout," soliloquized Ralph, as the strange outfit +flashed by. "Hello!" + +The young engineer uttered a great shout. As the car passed him he +naturally glanced at its rear platform. + +Upon its step in solitary possession of the car sat his long-lost +friend--Zeph Dallas. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +MYSTERY + + +Ralph Fairbanks saw Zeph Dallas distinctly and recognized him. The +latter looked up as the young engineer uttered an irrepressible shout. +He started to wave his hand. Then he shrank down on the car step as if +seeking to hide himself. + +Ralph stood gazing after the coach until it had disappeared from view. +From the look of things he decided that Zeph was not casually stealing +a ride. Something about him suggested a sense of proprietorship--a +certain official aspect as if he had a right to be where Ralph had +seen him, was, in fact, in charge of the car. + +"A queer car--the queerest old relic I ever saw," mused Ralph. "I'm +going to look into this affair." + +"Say, Mr. Fairbanks," spoke little Torchy as the young engineer +entered the roundhouse; "just saw an old friend of ours." + +"Did you?" spoke Ralph. "You don't mean Zeph Dallas, do you?" + +"That's who," nodded Torchy. "Big as life on a single car run--and, +say, such a car!" + +"Do you know where it came from, or where it was bound for?" inquired +Ralph. + +"No, but I heard one of the fellows here say it must have come over +the north branch." + +"I thought so, too," said Ralph, and after a stroll about the place he +went down to the dispatcher's office. Ralph knew the railroad routine +well, and he soon had a good friend working in his interest. He was +one of the assistants in the office of the chief dispatcher. Ralph had +loaned him a little sum of money once when he was off on the sick +list. It had been paid back promptly, but the man was a grateful +fellow, and, under the influence of a sense of obligation, was glad to +return the favor in any way he could. + +"I'll fix you out, Fairbanks," he promised, and he kept his word, for +as Ralph sat in the doghouse two mornings later the man came to its +doorway, peered in, and beckoned to his friend to come outside. + +"All right, Fairbanks," he reported, holding a card in his hand +bearing some memoranda; "I've got the tracer." + +"Good!" applauded Ralph. + +"Here's the dope--that engine and old tourist car was a kind of a +special--the craziest special, though, that either you or I ever +heard of." + +"Is that so?" inquired Ralph. + +"Listen, and see. She started on extra orders from Brampton, the yards +up on the north division. Was chartered for a run via the Junction to +Fordham spur." + +"Indeed?" murmured Ralph thoughtfully. + +"It was a plain twenty-four hours' charter, same as a picnic or an +excursion special, but there was only one passenger, conductor, or +whatever you might call him--a kid." + +"Yes," nodded Ralph, "Zeph Dallas." + +"You could have knocked me down with a feather when I found that out," +went on the man from the dispatcher's office, "although I didn't find +it out until later. Yes, the train had been rented and paid for by our +old extra wiper here, that dreamer, kicker and would-be detective, +Dallas. A pretty penny it must have cost. Where did he get the money? +Skylarking around the country like a millionaire, and what did he pick +out that antiquated curiosity of a relic car for? Well, it was the +'Dallas Special,' sure enough, and it made its run just the same as if +he was a railroad president inspecting the lines." + +"I'm interested," explained Ralph. + +"I'm jiggergasted," added the dispatcher; "I got the line on their +route by wire to Brampton. I found that the contract was to run to +Fordham spur and back to Brampton." + +"But what for?" inquired Ralph. + +"To deliver some special freight presumably," said the dispatcher. "At +first I wondered if things mightn't be stirring up in a new business +way at the old factory. Thought maybe they were going to do some +blasting, and Dallas had been hired to run through a load of giant +powder. Well, I was off in my guess." + +"How did you find that out?" asked Ralph. + +"I caught the Brampton outfit on the return trip. She had to switch +here for an hour to get the right of way north. I went over to the +siding and happened to know the engineer." + +"And where was Zeph?" + +"They left him up at the spur." + +"H'm," commented Ralph, feeling that Zeph was indeed enveloping +himself in a dense mist of mystery. + +"The engineer just grinned and haw-hawed when I asked him about his +run. He said that Dallas had acted like a fellow on the most serious +business, the whole run through. When they got to the spur he had them +run in about two hundred feet. Then he sat down by the side of the +track, watch in hand, solemnly waited for an hour to pass by, and +then told the engineer the trip was ended and he was satisfied." + +"He didn't explain----" began Ralph in wonderment. + +"Not a word. He just waved his hand grandly good-by to the engineer, +and passed out of sight. It was a queer go--wasn't it, now? The +engineer and fireman were dumfounded. They looked into the car out of +sheer curiosity." + +"And found?" pressed Ralph. + +"Nothing." + +"What!" + +"No--empty." + +Ralph was bewildered, and said so. The dispatcher acknowledged the +same sentiment, so had the engineer and the fireman, he said. + +"There you have it," he remarked. "Queer go, eh?" + +"The strangest I ever heard of," confessed Ralph. + +"You see, there's no motive to trace," observed the dispatcher in a +puzzled, baffled way. "Think of the cost of it! Think of the mystery +about the whole affair! What is Dallas up to, and why the spur?" + +"I don't know," admitted the young engineer, equally perplexed, "but +I'm going to find out, make sure of that." + +Things were certainly focusing around Fordham spur, there was no doubt +of it. That point of the road was a decided point of interest to Ralph +every time the Overland Express neared the spur on succeeding trips. +He could only conjecture that Zeph and the Canaries and others in whom +Zeph was interested, were located somewhere in the vicinity. However, +he caught no sight of any person in the neighborhood of the spur as he +passed it. The thing was getting to be a worry to the young engineer, +but although he daily promised himself he would manage some way to +visit the place, no favorable opportunity presented. + +The run to Rockton and back had become harder as cold weather came on. +There was a call for extra vigilance and close attention to routine. A +snowstorm caught them one night on the out run, and Ralph found out +that it was no trifle running with blurred signals among the deep +mountain cuts. A great rain followed, then a freeze up, then another +heavy fall of snow, and the crew of the Overland Express had a +rigorous week of it. + +They had made the run to Rockton four hours late on account of a +broken bridge, and the next evening when they reported at the +roundhouse, engineer and fireman found a cancelled trip instead of +readiness for their regular return run to Stanley Junction. The +foreman was busy in his office at the telephone, receiving continual +instructions from the dispatcher. He was sending men and messengers in +every direction. The exigencies of the hour required blockade and +wrecking crews. The foreman looked bothered and worried, and nodded to +Ralph and Fogg in a serious way as there was a lull at the 'phone. + +"No run to-night, boys," he announced. "You'd better get back to your +warm beds." + +"Blockade on the Mountain Division?" inquired the fireman. + +"Worse than that. The whole division is annulled this Side of Fordham, +and that's over half the run. Two bridges down, a freight wreck at +Wayne, and the mountain cuts are choked with drifts. I doubt if you +will break through for a couple of nights." + +"H'm," observed Fogg. "I fancied to-day's storm would shut up +things." + +"It has. We're half clear south, but west and north there isn't a +wheel moving within fifty miles." + +"We may as well make the best of it then, Fairbanks," said the +fireman, "and get back to our boarding house." + +The speaker started for the door and Ralph followed him. Just then +with a sudden roar of the tempest outside the door was swept open. +Two snow-covered forms came in. + +They were men closely muffled up, and they paused for a moment to +shake the snow from their heavy enveloping overcoats. The foreman +stared curiously at the intruders. One of them threw his overcoat +open. Fogg grasped Ralph's arm with a start as he seemed to recognize +the man. + +"Hello!" he ejaculated in a sharp half whisper. "What does this mean, +Fairbanks? It's the president of the Great Northern." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE RAILROAD PRESIDENT + + +As the person Fogg designated pushed back his storm cap and came under +the light of a bracket lamp, Ralph observed that the fireman had been +correct in his surmise--it was Mr. Robert Grant, president of the +road. He busied himself removing the snow from his garments and taking +in the warmth of the place, while his companion came forward to the +doghouse. + +Ralph and Fogg drew to one side, curious and interested. They now +recognized the man who had entered the roundhouse with the president +as Lane, superintendent of the Mountain Division of the Great +Northern. His manner was hurried, worried and serious. A big load of +responsibility rested on his official shoulders, and he realized it +and showed it. He nodded brusquely to Ralph and Fogg, and then went up +to the desk where the foreman sat. + +"Get the dispatcher's office, Jones, and get it quick," he spoke +tersely, and he added something in an undertone. The foreman gave a +slight start. From the way he turned and stared at the companion of +the superintendent, Ralph could trace that he had just been informed +of his identity. + +"Here you are," said the foreman, after a minute at the 'phone and +handing the receiver to the superintendent. The latter, without +seating himself, instantly called over the wire: + +"This is Superintendent Lane. I want the chief dispatcher." A pause. +"That you, Martin?--Yes?--Hold the wire. The president of the road +wants to talk with you. Mr. Grant." + +Ralph knew the railroad president quite well. It was a long time since +he had seen him. That was at headquarters, after Ralph and some of his +railroad friends had succeeded in rescuing a relative of the official +from a band of blackmailers. Ralph did not believe that the president +would remember him. He was both surprised and pleased when the +official, glancing about in his keen, quick way, smiled and mentioned +his name in greeting, nodded to Fogg, and then went up to the +foreman's table. + +Spread out upon this was an outline map of the great Northern and all +its branches. The foreman had been utilizing it as an exigency chart. +He had three pencils beside it--red, green and blue, and these he had +used to designate by a sort of railroad signal system the condition of +the lines running out of Rockton. Red signified a wreck or stalled +train, green snow blockades, blue bridges down and culverts under +water. The map was criss-crossed with other special marks, indicating +obstructions, flood damage and the location of wrecking crews. + +"As bad as that!" commented the president in a grave tone, with a +comprehensive glance over the chart. Then he picked up the receiver. + +"Martin, chief dispatcher," he spoke through the 'phone. "Give me the +situation over the Mountain Division in a nutshell." + +What followed took barely sixty seconds. The information must have +been as distressing as it was definite, for Ralph noticed a deeper +concern than ever come over the serious face of the official. + +"How's the South Branch?" he inquired next. + +"It's useless, Mr. Grant," put in the superintendent, as the president +dropped the receiver with a disappointed and anxious sigh. After +receiving some further information he again swept his eye over the map +on the table. His fingers mechanically followed the various divisions +outlined there. The foreman came to his side. + +"Excuse me, Mr. Grant," he spoke respectfully, "but I'm in pretty +close touch with conditions along the lines. If I can explain +anything----" + +"You can. That is the old Shelby division?" inquired the official, his +finger point resting on a line on the chart running due southeast +between the Mountain Division and the South Branch out of Rockton. + +"Yes, sir," assented the foreman proudly. "You know it has been +practically abandoned except for coal freight, since the south line +was completed. It's used as a belt line now--transfer at Shelby +Junction." + +"What's the condition." + +"Risky. We sent a freight over this morning. It got through four hours +late." + +"But it got through, you say?" spoke the official earnestly. "Get the +dispatcher again. Ask for details on that division. Don't lose any +time." + +The foreman was busy at the 'phone for some minutes. As he held the +receiver suspended in his hand, he reported to the railroad +president: + +"Snow and drifting wind reported between here and Dunwood." + +"What else?" + +"Look out for washouts and culverts and bridges damaged by running ice +and water between Dunwood and Kingston." + +"That's half the forty-five miles--go head." + +"Between Kingston and Shelby Junction water out over the bottoms and +flood coming down the valley." + +"What's on the schedule?" + +"All schedules cancelled, not a wheel running except on instructions +from this end." + +"Give them," spoke the official sharply. "Tell the dispatcher to keep +the line clear from end to end. Wire to the stations that a special is +coming through, no stops." + +"Yes, sir," assented the foreman in wonderment, and executed the +order. The official stood by his side until he had completed the +message. Then he said: + +"Tell the dispatcher to get Clay City, and find out if the Midland +Express over the Midland Central left on time." + +"On time, sir, and their road is not much hampered," reported the +foreman a few minutes later. + +"All right," nodded the official briskly. "Now then, get out your best +locomotive. Give her a shallow caboose, and get her ready as speedily +as you can." + +The foreman ran out into the roundhouse. The president took out his +watch. To the infinite surprise of Ralph he called out: + +"This way, Fairbanks." + +He placed a hand on the shoulder of the young engineer and looked him +earnestly in the eye. + +"I know you and your record," he said. "Is that your regular fireman?" +indicating Fogg. + +"Yes, sir, Lemuel Fogg. We're on No. 999, Overland Express." + +"Yes, yes, I know," spoke Mr. Grant hurriedly. "Mr. Fogg!" + +The fireman approached promptly. + +"My friends," continued the official rapidly to both. "I have got to +reach Shelby station by 10.15. I must catch the Night Express on the +Midland Central at that point--without fail," added Mr. Grant with +emphasis. + +"Yes, sir," nodded Fogg coolly. + +"One minute late means the loss of a great big fortune to the Great +Northern. The minute on time means anything in reason you two may ask, +if you make the run." + +"We are here to make the run, Mr. Grant, if you say so," observed +Ralph. + +"Sure," supplemented Fogg, taking off his coat. "Is that the order, +sir?" + +"I haven't the heart to order any man on a run a night like this," +responded the official, "but if you mean it----" + +"Fairbanks," shot out the fireman, all fire and energy, "I'll get 999 +ready for your orders," and he was out into the roundhouse after the +foreman in a flash. + +"Mr. Grant, you're taking a long chance," suggested the division +superintendent, coming up to where the president and Ralph stood. + +"Yes, and it must be any chances, Fairbanks," said the official. He +was becoming more and more excited each succeeding minute. "I'm too +old a railroader not to know what the run means. If you start, no +flinching. It's life or death to the Mountain Division, what you do +this night." + +"The Mountain Division?" repeated Ralph, mystified. + +"Yes. It's an official secret, but I trusted you once. I can trust you +now." Mr. Grant drew a folded paper from his pocket. "The president of +the Midland Central is on the Night Express, returning from the west. +The document I show you must be signed before he reaches the city, +before midnight, or we lose the right to run over the Mountain +Division. If he once reaches the city, interests adverse to the Great +Northern will influence him to repudiate the contract, which only +awaits his signature to make it valid. He will sign it if I can +intercept him. Can you make Shelby Junction, ninety miles away, in +two hours and fifteen minutes?" + +"I will make Shelby Junction ahead of the Night Express," replied +Ralph calmly, but with his heart beating like a triphammer, "or I'll +go down with 999." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +A RACE AGAINST TIME + + +There was a thrill and fervor to the present situation that appealed +to Ralph mightily. The brisk, animated procedure of the president of +the Great Northern had been one of excitement and interest, and at its +climax the young engineer found himself stirred up strongly. + +Mr. Grant smiled slightly at Ralph's valiant declaration. He drew the +division superintendent aside in confidential discourse, and Ralph +went to the bulletin board and began studying the routeing of the +Shelby division. Then he hurried out into the roundhouse. + +No. 999 was steamed up quickly. Ralph put the cab in rapid order for a +hard run. The foreman hurried back to his office and telephoned to the +yards. When No. 999 ran out on the turntable it was the foreman +himself who opened the ponderous outside doors. + +"It's some weather," observed Fogg, as the giant locomotive swung out +into the heart of a driving tempest. + +The foreman directed their movements to a track where a plug engine +had just backed in with a light caboose car. There was no air brake +attachment and the coupling was done quickly. + +"All ready," reported Ralph, as Mr. Grant came up with the division +superintendent. + +The railroad president stepped to the platform of the caboose, spoke a +few words to his recent companion in parting, and waved his hand +signal-like for the start. + +Fogg had been over the Shelby division several times, only once, +however, on duty. He knew its "bad spots," and he tried to tell his +engineer about them as they steamed off the main track. + +"There's just three stations the whole stretch," he reported, "and the +tracks are clear--that's one good point." + +"Yes, it is only obstruction and breakdowns we have to look out for," +said Ralph. "Give us plenty of steam, Mr. Fogg." + +"There's heaps of fuel--a good six tons," spoke the fireman. "My! but +the stack pulls like a blast furnace." + +The cab curtains were closely fastened. It was a terrible night. The +snow came in sheets like birdshot, a half-sleet that stung like hail +as it cut the face. The rails were crusted with ice and the sounds +and shocks at curves and splits were ominous. At times when they +breasted the wind full front it seemed as if a tornado was tugging at +the forlorn messenger of the night, to blow the little train from the +rails. + +Fogg stoked the fire continuously, giving a superabundant power that +made the exhaust pop off in a deafening hiss. They ran the first ten +miles in twelve minutes and a half. Then as they rounded to the first +station on the run, they were surprised to receive the stop signal. + +"That's bad," muttered the fireman, as they slowed down. "Orders were +for no stops, so this must mean some kind of trouble ahead." + +"What's this?" spoke Mr. Grant sharply, appearing on the platform from +the lighted caboose. He held his watch in his hand, and his pale face +showed his anxiety and how he was evidently counting the minutes. + +An operator ran out from the station and handed a tissue sheet to +Ralph. The latter read it by the light of the cab lantern. Mr. Grant +stepped down from the platform of the caboose. + +"What is it, Fairbanks?" he asked somewhat impatiently. + +"There's a great jam at the dam near Westbrook," reported Ralph. +"Driftwood has crossed the tracks near there, and the operator beyond +says it will be a blockade if the dam breaks." + +"Are you willing to risk it?" inquired the official. + +"That's what we are here for," asserted Ralph. + +"Then don't delay." + +"It's getting worse and worse!" exclaimed Fogg, after a half-hour's +further running. + +Ralph never forgot that vital hour in his young railroad experience. +They were facing peril, they were grazing death, and both knew it. The +wind was a hurricane. The snow came in great sheets that at times +enveloped them in a whirling cloud. The wheels crunched and slid, and +the pilot threw up ice and snow in a regular cascade. + +There was a sickening slew to the great locomotive as they neared +Westbrook. The track dropped here to take the bridge grade, and as +they struck the trestle Fogg uttered a sharp yell and peered ahead. + +"We can't stop now!" he shouted; "put on every pound of steam, +Fairbanks." + +Ralph was cool and collected. He gripped the lever, his nerves set +like iron, but an awed look came into his eyes as they swept the +expanse that the valley opened up. + +The trestle was fully half a foot under water already, and the volume +was increasing every moment. Fogg piled on the coal, which seemed to +burn like tinder. Twice a great jar sent him sprawling back among the +coal of the tender. The shocks were caused by great cakes of ice or +stray timbers shooting down stream with the gathering flood, and +sliding the rails. + +"She's broke!" he panted in a hushed, hoarse whisper, as they caught +sight of the dam. There was a hole in its center, and through this +came pouring a vast towering mass fully fifteen feet high, crashing +down on the bridge side of the obstruction, shooting mammoth bergs of +ice into the air. As the sides of the dam gave way, they were fairly +half-way over the trestle. It seemed that the roaring, swooping mass +would overtake them before they could clear the bridge. + +The light caboose was swinging after its groaning pilot like the tail +of a kite. A whiplash sway and quiver caused Ralph to turn his head. + +The door of the caboose was open, and the light streaming from within +showed the railroad president clinging to the platform railing, +swaying from side to side. He evidently realized the peril of the +moment, and stood ready to jump if a crash came. + +A sudden shock sent the fireman reeling back, and Ralph was nearly +thrown from his seat. The locomotive was bumping over a floating piece +of timber of unusual size, and toppling dangerously. Then there came +a snap. The monster engine made a leap as if freed from some incubus. + +"The caboose!" screamed Fogg, and Ralph felt a shudder cross his +frame. He could only risk a flashing glance backward--the caboose was +gone! It had broken couplings, and had made a dive down through the +flood rack clear to the bottom of the river, out of sight. Then +No. 999 struck the edge of the up grade in safety, past the danger +line, gliding along on clear tracks now. + +Fogg stood panting for breath, clinging to his seat, a wild horror in +his eyes. Ralph uttered a groan. His hand gripped to pull to stop, a +sharp shout thrilled through every nerve a message of gladness and +joy. + +"Good for you--we've made it!" + +The railroad president came sliding down the diminished coal heap at +the rear of the tender. He had grasped its rear end, and had climbed +over it just as the caboose went hurtling to destruction. The glad +delight and relief in the eyes of the young engineer revealed to the +official fully his loyal friendship. Fogg, catching sight of him, +helped him to his feet with a wild hurrah. The fireman's face shone +with new life as he swung to his work at the coal heap. + +"If we can only make it--oh, we've got to make it now!" he shouted at +Ralph. + +There was a sharp run of nearly an hour. It was along the lee side of +a series of cuts, and the snow was mainly massed on the opposite set +of rails. Ralph glanced at the clock. + +"We're ahead of calculations," he spoke to Fogg. + +"We're in for another struggle, though," announced the fireman. "When +we strike the lowlands just beyond Lisle, we'll catch it harder than +ever." + +Ralph was reeking with perspiration, his eyes cinder-filled and glazed +with the strain of continually watching ahead. There had not been a +single minute of relief from duty all the way from Westbrook. They +struck the lowlands. It was a ten-mile run. First it was a great +snowdrift, then a dive across a trembling culvert. At one point the +water and slush pounded up clear across the floor of the cab and +nearly put out the fire. As No. 999 rounded to higher grade, a tree +half blown down from the top of an embankment grazed the locomotive, +smashing the headlight and cutting off half the smokestack clean as a +knife stroke. + +Ralph made no stop for either inspection or repairs. A few minutes +later an incident occurred which made the occasion fairly bristle with +new animation and excitement. + +Mr. Grant had sat quietly in the fireman's seat. Now he leaned over +towards Ralph, pointing eagerly through the side window. + +"I see," said Ralph above the deafening roar of the wind and the +grinding wheels, "the Night Express." + +They could see the lights of the train ever and anon across an open +space where, about a mile distant, the tracks of the Midland Central +paralleled those of the Shelby division of the Great Northern. The +young engineer again glanced at the clock. His eye brightened, into +his face came the most extravagant soul of hope. It was dashed +somewhat as Fogg, feeding the furnace and closing the door, leaned +towards him with the words: + +"The last shovel full." + +"You don't mean it!" exclaimed Ralph. + +The fireman swept his hand towards the empty tender. + +"Eight miles," said Ralph in an anxious tone. "With full steam we +could have reached the Junction ten minutes ahead of the Express. Will +the fire last out?" + +"I'll mend it some," declared the fireman. "Fairbanks, we might +lighten the load," he added. + +"You mean----" + +"The tender." + +"Yes," said Ralph, "cut it loose," and a minute later the railroad +president uttered a sudden cry as the tender shot into the distance, +uncoupled. Then he understood, and smiled excitedly. And then, as Fogg +reached under his seat, pulled out a great bundle of waste and two oil +cans, and flung them into the furnace, he realized the desperate +straits at which they had arrived and their forlorn plight. + +Conserving every ounce of steam, all of his nerves on edge, the young +engineer drove No. 999 forward like some trained steed. As they +rounded a hill just outside of Shelby Junction, they could see the +Night Express steaming down its tracks, one mile away. + +"We've made it!" declared Ralph, as they came within whistling +distance of the tower at the interlocking rails where the two lines +crossed. + +"Say," yelled Fogg suddenly, "they've given the Express the right of +way." + +This was true. Out flashed the stop signal for No. 999, and the white +gave the "come on" to the Night Express. There was no time to get to +the tower and try to influence the towerman to cancel system at the +behest of a railroad president. + +"You must stop that train!" rang out the tones of the official +sharply. + +"I'm going to," replied Fairbanks grimly. + +He never eased up on No. 999. Past the tower she slid. Then a glowing +let up, and then, disregarding the lowered gates, she crashed straight +through them, reducing them to kindling wood. + +Squarely across the tracks of the incoming train the giant engine, +battered, ice-coated, the semblance of a brave wreck, was halted. +There she stood, a barrier to the oncoming Express. + +Ralph jumped from his seat, reached under it, pulled out a whole bunch +of red fuses, lit them, and leaning out from the cab flared them +towards the oncoming train, Roman-candle fashion. + +The astonished towerman quickly changed the semaphore signals. Her +nose almost touching No. 999, the Express locomotive panted down to a +halt. + +"You shall hear from me, my men," spoke the railroad president simply, +but with a great quiver in his voice, as he leaped from the cab, ran +to the first car of the halted express and climbed to its platform. + +Ralph drove No. 999 across the switches. The Express started on its +way again. In what was the proudest moment of his young life, the +loyal engineer of staunch, faithful No. 999 saw the president of the +Great Northern take off his hat and wave it towards himself and Fogg, +as if with an enthusiastic cheer. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +ZEPH DALLAS AGAIN + + +"Say--Engineer Ralph--Mr. Fairbanks!" + +A spluttering, breathless voice halted Ralph on his way from the depot +to the roundhouse. It was the call boy, Torchy, the young engineer +ascertained, as he waited till the excited juvenile came up to him. + +"What's the trouble, Torchy?" he inquired. + +Torchy caught his breath, but the excited flare in his eyes did not +diminish. + +"Say!" he spluttered out; "I was looking for you. That car, the one +they use out west in Calfrancisco, Francifornia, no, I mean +Calfris--rot! out west, anyway--tourist car." + +"I know, yes," nodded Ralph. + +"Well, you remember the queer old fossil's special to Fordham spur? +That fellow Zeph Dallas was on it." + +"I remember distinctly; go ahead." + +"There's another car just like that one in the yards now, right this +minute." + +"You don't say so? I didn't suppose that more than one antiquated +relic of that kind was in existence," said Ralph. + +"Come on and see," invited Torchy. "This last car must have come from +the north this morning, just like the other one did. It's bunched up +with a lot more of the blockade runners, delayed freight, you know, +and they've made up a train of it and others for the Mountain +Division." + +Besides being intensely interested, Ralph had time to spare. It was +nearly a week after the Shelby Junction incident. The great storm had +crippled some of the lines of the great Northern to a fairly alarming +extent. The Mountain Division had felt the full force of the blizzard +and had suffered the most extensively. There were parts of the +division where it took several days to repair culverts, strengthen +trestles and replace weakened patches of track. The Overland Express +missed several runs, but had got back on fair schedule two days +before. A new storm had set in that very morning, and as Ralph +followed Torchy there were places where the drifts were up to their +knees. + +"There you are," announced his companion, pausing and pointing over at +a train on a siding. "Isn't that last car the very picture of the one +that Dallas was on?" + +"Remarkably so," assented Ralph. + +"I've got to get to the roundhouse," explained the little fellow, +turning back in his tracks. "Thought you'd want to know about that +car, though." + +"I do, most emphatically," declared Ralph, "and greatly obliged to you +for thinking of it." + +Ralph approached the train on the siding. It was one of the queerest +he had ever seen. There was a motley gathering of every class of +freight cars on the line. As he passed along he noted the destination +of some of the cars. No two were marked for the same point of +delivery. It was easy to surmise that they were victims of the recent +blockade. + +Ralph came up to the rear car of the incongruous train with a good +deal of curiosity. It was not the car that had made that mysterious +run to Fordham Spur with Zeph Dallas, although it looked exactly like +it. The present car was newer and more staunch. A fresh discovery made +Ralph think hard. The car was classified as "fast freight," and across +one end was chalked its presumable destination. + +"Fordham Spur," read the young engineer. "Queer--the same as the other +car. I wonder what's aboard?" + +Just like the other car, the curtains were closely drawn in this one. +There was no sign of life about the present car, however. Smoke curled +from a pipe coming up through its roof. No one was visible in the +immediate vicinity except a flagman and some loiterers about a near +switch shanty. Ralph stepped to the rear platform of the car. He +placed his hand on the door knob, turned it, and to his surprise and +satisfaction the door opened unresistingly. + +He stepped inside, to find himself in a queer situation. Ralph stood +in the rear partitioned-off end of the car. It resembled a homelike +kitchen. An oil stove stood on a stand, and around two sides of the +car were shelves full of canisters, boxes and cans, a goodly array of +convenient eatables. Lying asleep across a bench was a young colored +man, who wore the cap and apron of a dining-car cook. + +Ralph felt that he was intruding, but his curiosity overcame him. He +stepped to the door of the partition. Near its top was a small pane of +glass, and through this Ralph peered. + +"I declare!" he exclaimed under his breath, and with a great start. + +A strange, vivid picture greeted the astonished vision of the young +railroader. If the rear part of the tourist car had suggested a modern +kitchen, the front portion was a well-appointed living room. It had a +stove in its center, and surrounding this were all the comforts of a +home. There was a bed, several couches, easy chairs, two illuminated +lamps suspended from side brackets, and the floor was covered with +soft, heavy rugs. + +Upon one of the couches lay a second colored man, apparently a special +car porter, and he, like the cook, was fast asleep. All that Ralph had +so far seen, however, was nothing to what greeted his sight as his +eyes rested on the extreme front of the car. + +There, lying back in a great luxurious armchair, was a preternaturally +thin and sallow-faced man. His pose and appearance suggested the +invalid or the convalescent. He lay as if half dozing, and from his +lips ran a heavy tube, connected with a great glass tank at his side. + +Such a picture the mystified Ralph had never seen before. He could not +take in its full meaning all in a minute. His puzzled mind went +groping for some reasonable solution of the enigma. Before he could +think things out, however, there was a sound at the rear door of the +car. Some one on the platform outside had turned the knob and held the +door about an inch ajar, and Ralph glided towards it. Through the +crack he could see three persons plainly. Ralph viewed them with +wonderment. + +He had half anticipated running across Zeph Dallas somewhere about the +train, but never this trio--Ike Slump, Jim Evans and the man he had +known as Lord Montague. The two latter were standing in the snow. Ike +was on the platform. He was asking a question of the man who had posed +as a member of the English nobility: + +"Be quick, Morris; what am I to do?" + +Lord Montague, _alias_ Morris, with a keen glance about him, drew a +heavy coupling pin from under his coat. + +"Take it," he said hastily, "and get inside that car." + +"Suppose there's somebody hinders me?" + +"Didn't I tell you they were all asleep?" demanded Morris. "You'll +find a man near a big glass tank." + +"See here," demurred Ike; "I don't want to get into any more trouble. +When it comes to striking a man with that murderous weapon----" + +"Murderous fiddlesticks!" interrupted Morris. "You are to hurt nobody. +Smash the tank, that's all--run out, join us, and it's a hundred +dollars cash on the spot, and a thousand when I get my fortune." + +"Here goes, then," announced Ike Slump, pushing open the door, "but +what you want to go to all this risk and trouble for to smash an old +glass tank, I can't imagine." + +"You'll know later," muttered Morris grimly. + +Ralph did not know what the three rascals were up to, but he realized +that it must be something bad. Putting two and two together, thinking +back a bit of all that had occurred concerning Zeph, the Clark boy, +and the Slump crowd, he began to fancy that tourist cars played a big +part in the programme, whatever that programme was. The smashing of +the glass tank, Morris had announced, was worth a hundred dollars to +Ike--might lead to a fortune, he had intimated. + +"There's some wicked plot afoot," decided Ralph, "so--back you go, Ike +Slump!" + +As Ike stepped across the threshold of the car the young engineer +acted. He had grabbed the coupling pin from Ike's hand, dropped it, +grasped Ike next with both hands and pressed him backwards to the +platform. Ike struggled and himself got a grip on Ralph. The latter +kept forcing his opponent backwards. Ike slipped and went through the +break in the platform railing where the guard chain was unset, and +both toppled to the ground submerged in three feet of snow. + +Ralph had landed on top of Ike and he held him down, but the cries of +his adversary had brought Evans and Morris to his rescue. The former +was pouncing down upon Ralph with vicious design in his evil face, +when a new actor appeared on the scene. + +It was Zeph Dallas. He came running to the spot with his arms full of +packages, apparently some supplies for the tourist car which he had +just purchased of some store on Railroad Street. These he dropped and +his hand went to his coat pocket. The amateur detective was quite as +practical and businesslike as did he appear heroic, as he drew out a +weapon. + +"Leave that fellow alone, stand still, or you're goners, both of you," +panted Zeph. "Hi! hello! stop those men! They're conspirers, they're +villains!" + +Zeph's fierce shouts rang out like clarion notes. They attracted the +attention of the crowd around the switch shanty, and as Evans and +Morris started on a run three or four of the railroad loiterers +started to check their flight. As Zeph helped Ralph yank Ike Slump to +his feet and drag him along, the young engineer observed that Evans +and Morris were in the custody of the switch shanty crowd. + +Two men coming down the track hastened over to the crowd. Ralph was +glad to recognize them as Bob Adair, the road detective, and one of +the yards watchmen. + +"What's the trouble here, Fairbanks?" inquired Adair, with whom the +young engineer was a prime favorite and an old-time friend. + +"Dallas will tell you," intimated Ralph. + +"Yes," burst out Zeph excitedly; "I want these three fellows arrested, +Mr. Adair. They must be locked up safe and sound, or they'll do great +harm." + +"Ah--Evans? Slump?" observed Adair, recognizing the twain who had +caused the Great Northern a great deal of trouble in the past. +"They'll do on general principles. Who's this other fellow?" + +"He's the worst of the lot, the leader. He's an awful criminal," +declared Zeph with bolting eyes and intense earnestness. "Mr. Adair, +if you let that crowd go free, you'll do an awful wrong." + +"But what's the charge?" + +"Conspiracy. They're trying to----" + +"Well, come up to the police station and give me something tangible to +go on, and I'll see that they get what's coming to them," promised the +road detective. + +"I can't--say, see! my train. I've got to go with that train, Ralph," +cried Zeph in frantic agitation. "Try and explain, don't let those +fellows get loose for a few hours--vast fortune--Marvin Clark--Fred +Porter--Fordham Cut--big plot!" + +In a whirl of incoherency, Zeph dashed down the tracks, for the train +with the tourist car had started up. He had just time enough to gather +up his scattered bundles and reach the platform of the last car, as +the mixed train moved out on the main line and out of sight, leaving +his astonished auditors in a vast maze of mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +SNOWBOUND + + +Chug! + +"A snowslide!" exclaimed Ralph, in dismay. + +"An avalanche!" declared Fogg. "Dodge--something's coming!" + +With a crash both cab windows were splintered to fragments. The young +engineer of No. 999 was nearly swept from his seat as there poured in +through the gap a volume of snow. + +They had struck an immense snowdrift obliquely, but the fireman's side +caught the brunt. As the powerful locomotive dove into the drift, the +snow packed through the denuded window-frame at the fireman's seat +like grain into a bin. A solid block of snow was formed under the +terrific pressure of the compact. It lodged against the coal of the +tender with a power that would probably have crushed the life out of a +person standing in the way. + +"Whew!" shouted Fogg. "Lucky I ducked." + +Ralph stopped the engine, which had been going slower and slower each +minute of the past hour. They had gotten about half the distance to +Rockton. Long since, however, both engineer and fireman had fully +decided that they would never make terminus that night. + +They had left Stanley Junction under difficulties. The snow was deep +and heavy, and there was a further fall as they cleared the limits. +There was no wind, but the snow came down with blinding steadiness and +volume, and at Vernon they got the stop signal. + +The operator stated that the line ahead leading past Fordham Cut was +impassable. The passenger was stalled ten miles away, and orders from +Rockton were to the effect that the Overland Express should take the +cut-off. This diverged into the foothills, where there were no such +deep cuts as on the direct route, and where it was hoped the drifts +would not be so heavy. + +Neither Ralph nor Fogg was familiar with their new routing. For an +hour they made fair progress. Then they began to encounter trouble. +They did not run a yard that the pilot wheels were not sunk to the +rims in snow. Landmarks were blotted out. As they found themselves +blindly trusting to the power of the giant locomotive to forge ahead +despite obstacles, they were practically a lost train. + +It was now, as they dove bodily into a great drift choking up an +embankment cut, that they realized that they had reached a definite +angle in their experience of the run, and were halted for good. + +No. 999 barely pushed her nose far enough out of the enveloping drift, +to enable Ralph by the aid of the glaring headlight to discern other +drifts further ahead. + +"We're stalled, that's dead sure," declared Fogg. "Signal the +conductor and see what the programme is." + +It was some time after the tooting signal that the conductor put in an +appearance. He did not come along the side track. That was fairly +impossible, for it would have been sheer burrow progress. He came over +the top of the next car to the tender, a blind baggage, and as he +climbed over the coal in the tender his lantern smashed and he +presented a pale and anxious face to the view of the cab crew. + +"What's the prospects?" he inquired in a discouraged tone. + +"It looks like an all-night lay-over," reported Ralph. + +"There's nothing ahead, of course," said the conductor calculatingly. +"There's a freight due on the in track. Behind us a freight was to +come, provided No. 11 put out from Stanley Junction to-night." + +"Which I doubt," said Fogg. + +"If we could back to Vernon we'd be in better touch with something +civilized," went on the conductor. "The wires are all down here." + +"I can try it," replied Ralph, "but without a pilot the rear car will +soon come to a bump." + +"Give her a show, anyway," suggested the conductor. + +Two minutes' effort resulted in a dead stop. The young engineer knew +his business well enough to understand that they were in danger of +running the train off the track. + +"I'll send a signal back, if a man can get back," decided the +conductor. + +The backing-up had left a clear brief space before the train. Ralph +took a lantern and left his fireman in charge of the locomotive. He +was gone about ten minutes, and came back panting and loaded down with +the heavy, clinging snow. + +"May as well bunk in right here," ventured Fogg. + +"That's it," answered Ralph definitely. "It's drift after drift ahead. +No use disabling the locomotive, and we simply can't hope to dig our +way out." + +The conductor came forward again looking miserable. A red lantern had +been planted as far down the tracks as the brakeman dared to go. The +conductor and Ralph held a conversation. Fogg, a veteran in the +service, was appealed to for a final decision. + +"You've hit it," said the fireman sagely and with emphasis. "It's a +permanent blockage, and our only chance is for the Great Northern to +find us out or for us to wait until the snow melts." + +"If this snow keeps up we'll be buried under," said the conductor. + +"Well, we've got to make the best of it," advised Fogg. "If we can +make it, build a big fire ahead there as a warning or signal, although +I don't believe there's much stirring at either end. Then it's just a +question of food and warmth." + +"Food!" repeated the conductor, who was fat and hearty and looked as +if he never willingly missed his meals; "where in the world are we to +get food? They cut the diner off at the Junction, and there probably +isn't a farmhouse or station along this dreary waste for miles." + +"Well, I fancy we'll have to stand the hunger," said Ralph. "As to the +heat, that's an essential we mustn't neglect. We had better shut off +the steam pipes, keeping only a little fire in the furnace and +starting the stoves in the coaches." + +"Yes, we might last out on that plan," nodded the conductor, glancing +over the tender. + +Ralph pulled to a spot about two hundred feet ahead, where the advance +and retreat of the train had cleared a space alongside the rails, and +the conductor went back to the coaches. + +Ralph adjusted the steam pipes so they would not freeze, and Fogg +banked the fire. Then they got to the ground with rake and shovel, and +skirmished around to see what investigation might develop. + +Despite the terrible weather and the insecurity of their situation, +the train crew were soon cheerily gathering wood up beyond the +embankment. They had to dig deep for old logs, and they broke down +tree branches. Then they cleared a space at the side of the track and +started a great roaring fire that flared high and far. + +"Nobody will run into that," observed Fogg with a satisfied chuckle. + +"And it may lead a rescue party," suggested Ralph. + +Some of the men passengers strolled up to the fire. Fear and anxiety +had given way to a sense of the novelty of the situation. Ralph +assured them that their comfort and safety would be looked after. He +promised a foraging party at daylight in search of food supplies. + +"They're talking about you back there in the coaches, Fairbanks," +reported the conductor a little later. "They know about your +arrangements for their comfort, and they're chatting and laughing, and +taking it all in like a regular picnic." + +"I suppose you've been giving me undue credit, you modest old hero!" +laughed Ralph. + +"Hello!" suddenly exclaimed Fogg; "now, what is that?" + +All hands stared far to the west. A dim red flame lit the sky. Then it +appeared in a new spot, still far away. This was duplicated until +there were vague red pencils of light piercing the sky from various +points of the compass. + +"It's queer," commented the conductor. "Something's in action, but +what, and how?" + +"There!" exclaimed Fogg, as suddenly seemingly just beyond the heavy +drift immediately in front of the train the same glare was seen. + +"Yes, and here, too!" shouted out the conductor, jumping back. + +Almost at his feet something dropped from midair like a rocket, a +bomb. It instantly burst out in a vivid red flame. Ralph investigated, +and while thus engaged two more of the colored messengers, +projectiles, fireworks, whatever they were, rained down, one about +half-way down the train, the other beyond it. + +The young engineer was puzzled at first, but he soon made out all that +theory and logic could suggest. There was no doubt but that some one +at a distance had fired the queer little spheres, which were made of +the same material as the regular train fuse, only these burned twice +as long as those used as railroad signals, or fully twenty minutes. + +"I make it out," explained Ralph to the conductor, "that somebody with +a new-fangled device like a Roman candle is sending out these bombs as +signals." + +"Then we're not alone in our misery," remarked Fogg. + +"First they went west, then they came this way," continued Ralph. "I +should say that it looks as if the signal is on a train stalled like +us about a mile away. I'll soon know." + +Ralph got into the cab. In a minute or two No. 999 began a series of +challenge whistles that echoed far and wide. + +"Hark!" ordered Fogg, as they waited for a reply. + +"A mere peep," reported the conductor, as a faint whistle reached +their strained hearing above the noise of the tempest. + +"Yes," nodded Fogg, "I figure it out. There's a train somewhere near +with the locomotive nigh dead." + +"If it should be the east freight stalled," suggested Ralph to the +conductor, "you needn't worry about those hungry children in the +coaches, and that baby you told about wanting milk." + +"No, the east freight is a regular provision train," put in the +fireman. "If we could reach her, we'd have our pick of eatables." + +It was two hours later, and things had quieted down about the +snowed-in train, when a series of shouts greeted Ralph, Fogg and the +conductor, seated on a broken log around the fire at the side of the +tracks. + +"What's this new windfall!" exclaimed Fogg. + +"More signals," echoed the conductor, staring vaguely. + +"Human signals, then," supplemented Ralph. "Well, here's a queer +arrival." + +Five persons came toppling down the side of the embankment, in a +string. They were tied together at intervals along a rope. All in a +mix-up, they landed helter-skelter in the snow of the cut. They +resembled Alpine tourists, arrived on a landslide. + +"Why, it's Burton, fireman of the east freight!" shouted the +conductor, recognizing the first of the five who picked himself up +from the snow. + +"That's who!" answered the man addressed, panting hard. "We're +stalled about a mile down the cut. Coal given out, no steam. Saw your +fire, didn't want to freeze to death quite, so----" + +"We guessed that you were the Overland," piped in a fresh, boyish +voice. "Packed up some eatables, and here we are. How do you like my +new railroad rocket signals, Engineer Fairbanks?" and Archie Graham, +the young inventor, picked himself up from the snow. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +CONCLUSION + + +One hour after daybreak the vicinity of the snowbound Overland Express +resembled a picture, rather than a forlorn blockade. + +The lone adventurers who had made the trip from the stalled freight +had been a relief party indeed. The engineer was a railroader of long +experience, and he had thought out the dilemma of the refugees. He and +his companions had broken open a freight car and had brought each a +good load. There was coffee, sugar, crackers, canned meats, a ham, +and, what was most welcome to anxious mothers and their babes, a whole +crate of condensed milk. + +There never was a more jolly breakfast than that aboard the snowbound +coaches. There was plenty to eat and to spare all around, and plenty +more at the stalled freight, everybody knew. In front of the engine +many a merry jest went the rounds, as the train crews and some of the +passengers broiled pieces of succulent ham on the end of pointed +twigs. + +"You see, it was this way," Archie Graham explained to the young +engineer of No. 999. "I was just watching a chance for washouts or +snowstorms to get on a train diving into the danger. Those red bombs +are my invention. I shoot them from a gun. I can send them a mile or +gauge them to go fifty feet. They ignite when they drop, and by +sending out a lot of them they are bound to land somewhere near the +train you aim at. The engineer is bound to take notice, just as you +did, of the glare, and that's where they beat the fusees and save the +running back of a brakeman." + +"Archie," said Ralph honestly, "I believe you're going to hit some +real invention some time." + +"I helped out some with my patent rocket signals this time," declared +Archie. + +"You did, my lad," observed Fogg with enthusiasm, "and the passengers +know all about it, and they've mentioned you in a letter they're +getting up to the company saying how they appreciate the +intelligence--that's Fairbanks--the courage, ahem! that's me, and the +good-heartedness, that's all of us, of the two train crews." + +By the middle of the afternoon a snow plow opened up the line from +Rockton to the stalled train. It was not until two mornings later, +however, that the main line was open and Ralph and Fogg got back to +Stanley Junction. + +Archie came on the same train. Ralph asked him up to the house, but +the young inventor said he wanted the quiet of his hotel room to work +on his signal rocket idea, which he declared would amount to something +yet. + +The young engineer had scarcely got in the house after the warm, +cheerful greeting of his anxious mother, when Zeph Dallas put in an +appearance. + +Zeph was looking exceedingly prosperous. He wore a new, nicely-fitting +suit of clothes, a modest watch and chain, and was quite dignified and +subdued, for him. + +"When you've had your breakfast, Ralph," he said, "I've got something +to tell you." + +"Yes," nodded Ralph, "I'm expecting to hear a pretty long story from +you, Zeph." + +The young engineer hurried his breakfast and soon joined Zeph in the +sitting-room. + +"Say, Ralph," at once observed his friend, "you've done some big +things in your time, but the biggest thing you ever did was when you +saw to it that Jim Evans and Ike Slump, and most of all, that fellow, +Morris, were held as prisoners by Adair, the road detective." + +"I fancied they deserved locking up," remarked Ralph. + +"There would have been a murder if you hadn't seen to it," declared +Zeph. "I've a story to tell that would make your hair stand on end, +but it would take a book to tell it all." + +"I'm here to listen, Zeph," intimated Ralph. + +"Yes, but I'm due to meet Mr. Adair at the jail. He's sent Evans and +Slump back to the prison they escaped from. I hurried on here from the +Fordham cut purposely to tell him what I wanted done with Morris." + +"I say, Zeph," rallied the young railroader, "you seem to have a big +say in such things for a small boy." + +"That's all right," declared Zeph good-naturedly; "I'm all here, just +the same, and I'm here for a big purpose. In a word, not to mystify +you, Ralph, for you know only half of the story, I was hired by Marvin +Clark, the son of the Middletown & Western Railroad president, to do +all I've done, and I have been royally paid for it." + +"Then you must have done something effective," observed Ralph. + +"Clark thought so, anyway. I'll try and be brief and to the point, so +that you'll understand in a nutshell. You know Marvin Clark and Fred +Porter and the two Canaries?" + +The young engineer nodded assentingly. + +"Well, as I say, I ran across Clark accidentally in my stray +wanderings. He and a sickly boy named Ernest Gregg were living in a +fixed-over building at Fordham Spur. I seemed to be just the person +Clark was waiting for. He hired me to do some work for him. He was +planning to get the poor boy, Gregg, his rights." + +"Yes, I know about that," observed Ralph. + +"Then if you do, I can hurry over things. It seems that when he began +to look up Gregg's affairs, he found out that Ernest had a strange +hermit of a grandfather, named Abijah Gregg. Ernest's father was an +only son. About five years ago the old man discovered a terrible +forgery in which he was robbed of over ten thousand dollars. He had +reason to believe that Ernest's father and a man named Howard were +responsible for it. He disowned his son and all his family, and a +month later Ernest's father died, leaving his son a disowned and +homeless outcast." + +"And what became of Howard?" inquired the interested Ralph. + +"He disappeared. Old Gregg became soured at all humanity after that," +narrated Zeph; "the more so because he had a profligate nephew who +turned out bad. This was the man in jail here now." + +"Lord Lionel Montague--Morris?" + +"Yes, Morris robbed the old man, who became afraid of him. The old man +tried to hide away from everybody. In his wanderings he picked up the +two Canaries and settled down at the lonely place at Fordham Cut. He +was very rich, partly paralyzed, and intended to leave his fortune to +the state, rather than have any relative benefit by it. Well, Marvin +Clark, the splendid, unselfish fellow, got a clew to all this. He +located old Abijah Gregg. He spent just loads of money following down +points, until he discovered that the man Howard was a broken-down +invalid in New Mexico. Clark was sick himself for a month, and that +was why Fred Porter did not hear from him." + +"And later?" asked Ralph. + +"I ran across Porter and brought him to the Spur about a month ago. He +is there now. Well, Clark found out positively that Ernest's father +never had a thing to do with forgery. It had been really committed by +Howard and this villain, Morris. He got in touch with Howard in New +Mexico, who was a dying man. He found him anxious to make what +reparation he could for a wicked deed. Old Gregg would not go to New +Mexico. Howard could only live where the air was just right for him. +The physicians said that if he ever went to any other climate, the +change of atmosphere would kill him. With plenty of money at his +command, Clark arranged it all. The New Mexico doctors got a tank that +held an artificial air, and Clark arranged so that Howard could come +east in a special car." + +"And the first tourist car that you ran empty to the Spur?" inquired +Ralph. + +"Why, we knew that Morris was trying every way to locate and annoy his +uncle. We thought that maybe he had got onto our plans about Howard. +We ran the dummy car to see if we were being watched. Don't you see, +that if Morris had succeeded in smashing the glass air tank, Howard +would have died before he could tell his story to old Mr. Gregg." + +"And now?" said Ralph. + +"The story has been told. Old Mr. Gregg is convinced that his son was +innocent of forgery. He will take care of his grandson and make him +his heir, and young Clark, as you see, has done a grand thing." + +"Yes, indeed," assented Ralph. + +"Howard will return to New Mexico with a relieved conscience. I am +going to the jail here now to see Morris. If he will agree to leave +the country and never annoy his uncle again, I will give him a certain +large sum of money, as directed by his uncle. If he doesn't, he will +be prosecuted for the forgery." + +"Zeph," observed the young railroader enthusiastically, "you have +proven yourself not only a real detective, but a splendid lawyer, as +well." + +"Thank you," returned Zeph, and blushed modestly; "most everybody that +gets in with you does some kind of good in the world." + +It was two hours later when a messenger came to the Fairbanks home +with a letter for Ralph. + +The young engineer flushed with pleasure as he read a brief +communication from the master mechanic, advising him that Mr. Robert +Grant, president of the Great Northern, was at Stanley Junction, and +wished to see him for a few minutes at the Waverly Hotel. + +Ralph told his mother of the incident, and her eyes followed him +fondly and proudly as, arrayed in his best, Ralph started out to keep +his appointment. + +It was a warm welcome that the young railroader received from the +great railroad magnate. Mr. Grant went over their mutual experiences +the night of the wild dash of the special from Rockton to Shelby +Junction. + +"You did a most important service for the road that night, Fairbanks," +said the railroad president; "how much, is a secret in the archives of +the company, but I can say to you confidentially that the Mountain +Division would have passed to another line if we had not acted in +time." + +"I am very glad," said Ralph modestly. + +"I want to acknowledge that service. I am only the president of the +road," said Mr. Grant, smiling, and Ralph smiled, too, "so being a +servant of the road, I must act under orders. I learned that, like all +thrifty young men, you had a savings account at the bank here. I have +deposited there the company's check for one thousand dollars to your +account." + +"Oh, Mr. Grant----" began Ralph, but the railroad president held up +his hand to check the interruption. + +"As to Fogg," went on Mr. Grant, "the road has closed up the +subscription in his behalf, by giving him sufficient to rebuild his +burned-down house." + +Ralph's face was aglow with pride, pleasure and happiness. + +"So, good-by for the present, Fairbanks," concluded the railroad +president, grasping Ralph's hand warmly. "There are higher places for +ambitious young men in the service of the road, as you know. I shall +not try to influence your plans, for I know that sheer merit will put +you forward when you decide to advance. As to my personal influence, +that, you know, is yours to command. For the present, however, we +should regret to see the Overland Express in other hands than those of +the youngest and the best engineer on the Great Northern." + +What Mr. Grant had to say about Ralph's advancement came true a little +later, and those who care to follow our hero's future career may do so +in the next story of this series, to be called, "Ralph, the Train +Dispatcher; or, The Mystery of the Pay Car." In that volume we shall +meet many of our old friends once more, and see what our hero did when +new difficulties confronted him. + +One day Ralph was surprised to receive a visit from Marvin Clark and +Fred Porter. He received them both warmly, and soon learned that Clark +had fixed up his trouble over railroad work, and with his parent, and +had secured a good position for Fred, so that the latter would no +longer need to lead a roving life. + +"But I must have one more ride with you, Fairbanks," said Fred. + +"And I'll go along," said the son of the railroad president. + +"With pleasure!" cried Ralph. "Come on!" And he led the way to where +No. 999 stood ready for the next run. + +The trip was a grand success. And here we will, for the present, at +least, say good-by to Ralph of the Overland Express. + +THE END + + + + +THIS ISN'T ALL! + +Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made +in this book? + +Would you like to read other stories continuing their adventures and +experiences, or other books quite as entertaining by the same author? + +On the reverse side of the wrapper which comes with this book, +you will find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the +same store where you got this book. + +Don't throw away the Wrapper. + +Use it as a handy catalog of the books you want some day to have. +But in case you do mislay it, write to the Publishers for a complete +catalog. + + + + +THE TOM SWIFT SERIES + +By VICTOR APPLETON + +Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers. +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + +Every boy possesses some form of inventive genius. +Tom Swift is a bright, ingenious boy and his inventions +and adventures make the most interesting kind of reading. + + TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP + TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE + TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS + TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER + TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE + TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER + TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY + TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA + TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON + TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP + TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL + TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS + TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK + TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH + TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS + TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE + TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING BOAT + TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT OIL GUSHER + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +THE DON STURDY SERIES + +By VICTOR APPLETON + +Individual Colored Wrappers and Text Illustrations by + +WALTER S. ROGERS + +Every Volume Complete in Itself + +In company with his uncles, one a mighty hunter and the other a noted +scientist, Don Sturdy travels far and wide, gaining much useful +knowledge and meeting many thrilling adventures. + +DON STURDY ON THE DESERT OF MYSTERY; + Or, Autoing in the Land of the Caravans. + +An engrossing tale of the Sahara Desert, of encounters with wild +animals and crafty Arabs. + +DON STURDY WITH THE BIG SNAKE HUNTERS; + Or, Lost in the Jungles of the Amazon. + +Don's uncle, the hunter, took an order for some of the biggest snakes +to be found in South America--to be delivered alive! The filling of +that order brought keen excitement to the boy. + +DON STURDY IN THE TOMBS OF GOLD; + Or, The Old Egyptian's Great Secret. + +A fascinating tale of exploration and adventure in the Valley of +Kings in Egypt. Once the whole party became lost in the maze of +cavelike tombs far underground. + +DON STURDY ACROSS THE NORTH POLE; + Or, Cast Away in the Land of Ice. + +Don and his uncles joined an expedition bound by air across the north +pole. A great polar blizzard nearly wrecks the airship. + +DON STURDY IN THE LAND OF VOLCANOES; + Or, The Trail of the Ten Thousand Smokes. + +An absorbing tale of adventures among the volcanoes of Alaska in a +territory but recently explored. A story that will make Don dearer to +his readers than ever. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +THE RADIO BOYS SERIES + +(Trademark Registered) + +By ALLEN CHAPMAN + +Author of the "Railroad Series," Etc. + +Individual Colored Wrappers. Illustrated. + +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + +A new series for boys giving full details of radio work, both in +sending and receiving--telling how small and large amateur sets can +be made and operated, and how some boys got a lot of fun and +adventure out of what they did. Each volume from first to last is so +thoroughly fascinating, so strictly up-to-date and accurate, we feel +sure all lads will peruse them with great delight. + +Each volume has a Foreword by Jack Binns, the well-known radio +expert. + +THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS; + Or, Winning the Ferberton Prize. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT; + Or, The Message That Saved the Ship. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT THE SENDING STATION; + Or, Making Good in the Wireless Room. + +THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS; + Or, The Midnight Call for Assistance. + +THE RADIO BOYS TRAILING A VOICE; + Or, Solving a Wireless Mystery. + +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE FOREST RANGERS; + Or, The Great Fire on Spruce Mountain. + +THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE ICEBERG PATROL; + Or, Making Safe the Ocean Lanes. + +RADIO BOYS WITH THE FLOOD FIGHTERS; + Or, Saving the City in the Valley. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +THE RAILROAD SERIES + +By ALLEN CHAPMAN + +Author of the "Radio Boys," Etc. + +Uniform Style of Binding. Illustrated. + +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + +In this line of books there is revealed the whole workings of a great +American railroad system. There are adventures in abundance--railroad +wrecks, dashes through forest fires, the pursuit of a "wildcat" +locomotive, the disappearance of a pay car with a large sum of money +on board--but there is much more than this--the intense rivalry among +railroads and railroad men, the working out of running schedules, the +getting through "on time" in spite of all obstacles, and the +manipulation of railroad securities by evil men who wish to rule or +ruin. + + +RALPH OF THE ROUND HOUSE; + Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man. + +RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER; + Or, Clearing the Track. + +RALPH ON THE ENGINE; + Or, The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail. + +RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS; + Or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer. + +RALPH, THE TRAIN DISPATCHER; + Or, the Mystery of the Pay Car. + +RALPH ON THE ARMY TRAIN; + Or, The Young Railroader's Most Daring Exploit. + +RALPH ON THE MIDNIGHT FLYER; + Or, The Wreck at Shadow Valley. + +RALPH AND THE MISSING MAIL POUCH; + Or, The Stolen Government Bonds. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +THE RIDDLE CLUB BOOKS + +By ALICE DALE HARDY + +Individual Colored Wrappers. Attractively Illustrated. + +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + +Here is as ingenious a series of books for little folks as has ever +appeared since "Alice in Wonderland." The idea of the Riddle books +is a little group of children--three girls and three boys decide to +form a riddle club. Each book is full of the adventures and doings of +these six youngsters, but as an added attraction each book is filled +with a lot of the best riddles you ever heard. + + +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT HOME + +An absorbing tale that all boys and girls will enjoy reading. How the +members of the club fixed up a clubroom in the Larue barn, and how +they, later on, helped solve a most mysterious happening, and how one +of the members won a valuable prize, is told in a manner to please +every young reader. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB IN CAMP + +The club members went into camp on the edge of a beautiful lake. Here +they had rousing good times swimming, boating and around the +campfire. They fell in with a mysterious old man known as The Hermit +of Triangle Island. Nobody knew his real name or where he came from +until the propounding of a riddle solved these perplexing questions. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS + +This volume takes in a great number of winter sports, including +skating and sledding and the building of a huge snowman. It also +gives the particulars of how the club treasurer lost the dues +entrusted to his care and what the melting of the great snowman +revealed. + +THE RIDDLE CLUB AT SUNRISE BEACH + +This volume tells how the club journeyed to the seashore and how they +not only kept up their riddles but likewise had good times on the +sand and on the water. Once they got lost in a fog and are marooned +on an island. Here they made a discovery that greatly pleased the +folks at home. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +THE BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS + +For Little Men and Women + +By LAURA LEE HOPE + +Author of "The Bunny Brown Series," Etc. + +Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding. + +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + +These books for boys and girls between the ages of three and ten +stands among children and their parents of this generation where the +books of Louisa May Alcott stood in former days. The haps and mishaps +of this inimitable pair of twins, their many adventures and +experiences are a source of keen delight to imaginative children +everywhere. + + + THE BOBBSEY TWINS + THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE + THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME + THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY + THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND + THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA + THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT CEDAR CAMP + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE COUNTY FAIR + THE BOBBSEY TWINS CAMPING OUT + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AND BABY MAY + THE BOBBSEY TWINS KEEPING HOUSE + THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT CLOVERBANK + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES + +By LAURA LEE HOPE + +Author of the Popular "Bobbsey Twins" Books, Etc. + +Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding. + +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + +These stories by the author of the "Bobbsey Twins" Books are +eagerly welcomed by the little folks from about five to ten years of +age. Their eyes fairly dance with delight at the lively doings of +inquisitive little Bunny Brown and his cunning, trustful sister Sue. + + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR SHETLAND PONY + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE GIVING A SHOW + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE SUNNY SOUTH + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE KEEPING STORE + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR TRICK DOG + BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT A SUGAR CAMP + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES + +By LAURA LEE HOPE + +Author of The Bobbsey Twins Books, The Bunny Brown Series, The +Make-Believe Series, Etc. + +Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding. + +Every Volume Complete in Itself. + +Delightful stories for little boys and girls which sprung into +immediate popularity. To know the six little Bunkers is to take them +at once to your heart, they are so intensely human, so full of fun +and cute sayings. Each story has a little plot of its own--one that +can be easily followed--and all are written in Miss Hope's most +entertaining manner. Clean, wholesome volumes which ought to be on +the bookshelf of every child in the land. + + SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA BELL'S + SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT AUNT JO'S + SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COUSIN TOM'S + SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPA FORD'S + SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT UNCLE FRED'S + SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S + SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COWBOY JACK'S + SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT MAMMY JUNE'S + SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT FARMER JOEL'S + SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT MILLER NED'S + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +THE HONEY BUNCH BOOKS + +By HELEN LOUISE THORNDYKE + +Individual Colored Wrappers and Text Illustrations Drawn by +WALTER S. +ROGERS + +A new line of fascinating tales for little girls. Honey Bunch is a +dainty, thoughtful little girl, and to know her is to take her to +your heart at once. + +HONEY BUNCH: JUST A LITTLE GIRL + +Happy days at home, helping mamma and the washerlady. And Honey Bunch +helped the house painters too--or thought she did. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE CITY + +What wonderful sights Honey Bunch saw when she went to visit her +cousins in New York! And she got lost in a big hotel and wandered +into a men's convention! + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM + +Can you remember how the farm looked the first time you visited it? +How big the cows and horses were, and what a roomy place to play in +the barn proved to be? + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE SEASHORE + +Honey Bunch soon got used to the big waves and thought playing in the +sand great fun. And she visited a merry-go-round, and took part in a +seaside pageant. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST LITTLE GARDEN + +It was great sport to dig and to plant with one's own little garden +tools. But best of all was when Honey Bunch won a prize at the flower +show. + +HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS IN CAMP + +It was a great adventure for Honey Bunch when she journeyed to Camp +Snapdragon. It was wonderful to watch the men erect the tent, and +more wonderful to live in it and have good times on the shore and in +the water. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ralph on the Overland Express, by Allen Chapman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS *** + +***** This file should be named 28655.txt or 28655.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/5/28655/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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