Allen Chapman

“ In a few minutes the locomotive pilot burst through the far side of the smoke-cloud. The headlight beamed along the rails again. The forest here lay untouched by fire on either side of the right of way.
Haley smote Ralph on the shoulder, a congratulatory blow.
“Good boy, Fairbanks!” he shouted. “I thought you were running us into a hot corner one while. But you certainly know your business. How far are we from that wreck?”
Ralph could figure that out exactly after a glance at the first numbered signpost. He increased the speed of the train on the instant. ”

“ That was, that his reckless friend, Zeph Dallas, was on the next flight above, and had sought to imitate Whitey Malone’s voice.
“Nice mess I’m in,” thought the young train dispatcher.
He crouched, but gripping the spoke, his only weapon. If it came to a fight, he purposed to have the best of the argument—and have it quick. He was sure he knew who this fellow approaching the door was. The other man did not have to repeat his name.
“Whitey! what the dickens is the matter with you?” called the man. “You know what I sent you for. Didn’t you see Perrin?”
Ralph started. ”

“ Mrs. Fairbanks never overlooked the fact that a railroader is always hungry. And Ralph hated restaurant food. He carried enough for a bite on the engine as well as a hearty breakfast at the far end of his run.
He did not go down to the roundhouse himself, but trusted to his firemen to back the locomotive on to the westbound track and into the train-shed. As he stood in his overalls and with his coat and lunch kit near the open window of the telegraph room, he heard Mr. Barton Hopkins’ voice inside.
“Anything on, Silsby?” asked the supervisor, in his sharp, quick way. ”

“ Ralph was red hot on the instant.
To be dignified, too, is all very well. But Ralph knew these hoodlums quite well enough to be sure that only one course with them would make the proper impression. He possessed as much brute courage as any healthy young fellow. And he did not purpose to allow these loafers to blackguard him on the public street.
The dispatcher turned swiftly and started across the street. The several men and boys in the group yelled again. Some missile hurtled through the dusk and fairly fanned Ralph’s cheek!
“Who are you rascals?” demanded Ralph angrily. ”

“ But while he is in Rockton I think I know where to find him,” and he reached his hat down from its peg.
“Will you go downtown to look him up, Ralph?” asked the widow placidly.
“Yes, ma’am. I’d like to see Zeph.”
“So would I. Bring him home with you, Ralph. You know we have a spare bed, and Zeph Dallas is just as welcome to it as though he were your brother.”
“I don’t know,” laughed Ralph, going to the door. “Zeph is a born vagabond. Nothing keeps him long in one place but some intrigue in which he can have a part. He says he is preparing himself to wear Bob Adair’s shoes.” ”

“ The men who had broken away from their unions as well as from the employing railroad were desperately determined to stop every wheel on the division.
It was Andy McCarrey’s boast that he would have the Great Northern on its knees in a month. It seemed that he had a large strike fund at his command. And Ralph suspected that the fellow likewise had under his control a band of rascals who would go to any length to cripple the railroad.
Gangs of ill-favored fellows were hanging about the yards. He heard of such men, too, all along the division. ”

“ Supervisor Hopkins was certainly shaking. Out of the corner of his eye Ralph watched those long, lean, red hands twitching nervously.
“Maybe he has been under this pressure all the time,” Ralph considered. “It might be. He is as close-mouthed as a clam. Anybody can see that. Mr. Barton Hopkins would never confide in any person as long as he could keep his self-control. My gracious! I never saw him so broken up.”
While Ralph was thinking these thoughts he was speeding up the great eight-wheeler. The train, gaining on its pace with each revolution of the drivers, left the Rockton yard behind. ”

“ Behind that turn wreck and disaster might lie!
And yet, the young engineer dared not creep around it. To lose time on this important run meant much to the Great Northern. He must keep on——
The head of the locomotive swerved and the light caught the two rails again at a distance. The great white ray of the lamp shot into the tunnel of blackness under the trees.
And then, as one of the watching firemen sang out from the other side of the cab, Ralph grabbed the reverse lever and threw it down in the corner. He could not stop for easing her off. He slapped on the brakes. ”

“ An over-ripe cabbage may be a dangerous missile. This one exploded almost like a bomb against the warehouse, spattering Cherry Hopkins all over. She screamed and ran back toward Ralph Fairbanks. A harsh voice shouted:
“Poor shot! Yer oughter smashed that Hopkins gal, Whitey.”
Ralph saw that the group of fellows behind the flagman’s shack had scattered. One long-legged fellow was ahead and evidently in some fear of apprehension.
“You wait right here, Miss Cherry!” the young dispatcher cried. “I’m going to try to get that fellow.”
He dashed along the tracks and through an alley of which he knew. ”

“ We had just got the tracks clear when this new Midnight Flyer came through. Say! who’s handling the throttle on that big engine?”
“Old Byron Marks.”
“Wow! That antediluvian pill?”
“Seniority does it,” said Ralph briefly. “It’s the men’s own fault if the dead ones get the best runs.”
“Well, believe me,” muttered Zeph, “if old By Marks heard what I heard last night you couldn’t hoist him into the cabin of that locomotive with a derrick.”
“What do you mean, Zeph?” and now Ralph Fairbanks was immensely interested in what his peculiar friend had to say. ”

“ Whether it was wise or not, Ralph Fairbanks kept this special suspense to himself. In truth, while a fast train like the Midnight Flyer is under headway, the crew on the locomotive have little time for conversation. ”

“ Nagle, the conductor of Eighty-seven, ran along and boarded the switcher as Ralph dropped her down to couple on to the gondolas. Nagle’s eyes popped open like a scared cat’s when he saw who was handling the switcher’s throttle.
“Jerusalem! is the G. M. himself going to take a hand in this strike, too, I dunno?” he demanded.
“I shouldn’t wonder. I have seen him take to the deck of a mountain hog himself on occasion, Nagle,” admitted Ralph.
“It’s right you are. ”

“ But I’d say he got it, law or no law.”
“So that fellow is a friend of the Big Noise?”
“A tool, anyway, of McCarrey’s.”
“Wonder where he’s going?” ruminated Zeph. “Drunk or sober, he acts as though he had something on his mind.”
“There is another gate in the yard fence in that direction,” whispered Ralph.
“Come on!” urged Zeph Dallas. “I’ve another idea, Ralph.”
“Aren’t you the little wonder?” chuckled the dispatcher. “What now?”
“A drunken man often tells the truth when a sober man won’t. He likewise is not to be trusted with a secret. Alcohol loosens the tongue. ”

“ Would any of our Great Northern employees be foolish enough to join this wildcat strike?”
“Well, what do you think yourself?” asked Ralph Fairbanks, with some impatience in his tone. “You know these roughnecks as well as I do.”
The general manager, in whose office at Rockton they were sitting, threw up both hands and fairly snorted his disgust.
“I’ve been a long time at the railroad game,” he declared; “but I never yet understood the psychology of a maintenance of way man. No, sir. In some things they are as loyal to the road as I am myself. ”

“ Believe me! It’s like crowding a fat man through a Pullman ventilator.”
“Well, what else is the trouble?”
“As I have told you a dozen times, Mr. Glidden, we are short-handed.”
“I know! I know, boy! But this system is having an economical streak and I am afraid I cannot squeeze you through another assistant, Ralph. Not just now.”
“It better be now, or it will be too late,” declared Ralph. “This efficiency expert that is running things at this terminal is going to get to the board and show ’em that I can run this office with a cripple and a fifteen year old boy, I shouldn’t wonder.” ”

“ Somehow the supervisor did not consider the use of tobacco an inefficient thing.
“Nothing to put our finger on as yet, Mr. Hopkins,” was the reply. “Of course we might arrest McCarrey and his right-hand man, Falk. But we should have to let them go again for lack of holding evidence. There was a time—during the war—when we could have stopped them. But not now. Now a man can fire off his mouth about as much as he likes without getting into trouble. These fellows aim their talk at the railroad, not at the Government.” ”

“ Most railroad systems keep only one jump ahead of disaster in the busy season. Locomotives and all other rolling stock have to be watched and inspected just as closely and carefully as a good family doctor watches his patients. A turn in the shops for the great moguls and eight-wheelers comes more frequently than the public suspects. This averts accidents more surely than block-signal systems or perfect train dispatching.
Of late the shopmen had been lax in their work, just as the section men had been lax in their department. Disgruntled employees of any corporation are dangerous. ”

“ Stilling, the other fireman, could see no more than Ralph could ahead of the locomotive.
Had the strikers or the ruffians employed in secret by Andy McCarrey imagined this situation they could easily have derailed the Midnight Flyer. Any obstacle on the track would have brought the fast train to grief. But if the forest fire was started by McCarrey’s order, he expected that the fire itself would halt the trains on the division. His object, at most, was to throw the trains out of schedule, rather than to wreck the trains. ”

“ Glidden,” and Ralph spoke doggedly.
“Listen, young man! You are in no position to war with me. In my opinion you are quite too young for your responsible position, anyway.”
“That can be taken up with the general manager if you choose,” said Ralph, with a sigh, turning away. “He gave me the job.”
“Wait!” exclaimed Hopkins coldly. “You are a very smart young man; but you do not know everything—not even about your job.”
“I admit the truth of your last statement, anyway,” said Ralph, grinning slightly. “In my line there is always something to learn.” ”

“ That bandit might be a free lance outlaw or he might be working with Andy McCarrey and his gang of trouble-makers. Almost, Ralph was convinced, Zeph Dallas must know about that outlaw. Did the same fellow dynamite the trestle pillar at Devil’s Den?
“My gracious! how I’d like to get off this run and take a hand in dealing with these scoundrels myself,” groaned Ralph. “I’d like to find Zeph and learn what he knows. I just ache to get into the fight!”
He was in peril enough. He knew that, of course. On every foot of the way ahead lay uncertainty. But his work now was passive. He craved action. ”

“ He never was an engineer, or sprayed coal into a firebox. No, sir! He doesn’t know a thing about this end of railroading, save by theory.
“And mere theory is bound to get a man in wrong. Practise is the thing! I wonder how Hopkins will come out of this, if the strike becomes general? Why, the directors and stockholders who praise him so now will fairly crucify him if things go wrong and he is shown to be in any way at fault.”
Ralph believed thoroughly that Barton Hopkins was at fault. ”

“ It was said that the maintenance of way men on other divisions of the Great Northern were about to walk out.
The day shifts of men in the Rockton shops had not even come to work. The yard crews, who were more closely affiliated with the big Brotherhoods, were remaining at work. And yet, as Ralph could easily sense, nothing was going right in the yard or around the offices.
The clerks in the freight offices had some kind of association with McCarrey’s new union, and when Ralph had occasion to go down the platform he saw these clerks buzzing like mad bees. ”

“ Hopkins wheeled and stared coldly at Ralph. “Just what has Mr. Fairbanks done to be thanked for, Cherry?” the supervisor asked.
“He stopped the train, Papa,” declared the girl firmly.
“Humph! The engineer stopped the train, to be exact,” said her father and then turned to haul the pump out from under the car seat.
Ralph tipped his hat to the ladies and walked away.
“In my opinion, Barton Hopkins is a pretty small man,” the train dispatcher thought. “In any case, I may as well make up my mind to one fact: If he can ‘get’ me he will. He is as cold-blooded as a snake. ”

“ His mother was thinking deeply.
“Ralph, my boy,” she said, of a sudden, “isn’t it true that Zeph disappeared down there in Shadow Valley?”
“That’s true enough, Mother. But Zeph is a different person. He can take care of himself. He is not a delicate girl, helpless in the hands of such villains as Andy McCarrey and his associates. Cherry——”
“I was just thinking,” said the widow, “that Zeph might have been captured and imprisoned by the same men and in the same place as the supervisor’s girl. Isn’t it possible?”
“Humph! That’s an idea! I had forgotten Zeph since Cherry disappeared. ”

“ Hopkins.”
“He wouldn’t let me help him if I could do so,” answered Ralph.
“All the better,” his mother said with satisfaction. “If you cannot be drawn into the trouble by either side in the controversy, very well. I shall feel safe, at least.”
“I guess I am out of it, for once,” admitted her son. “It gives a fellow a lot to think of. I hate to see trouble come to the division. That Andy McCarrey ought to be jailed. But, on the other hand, I feel that Barton Hopkins is quite as much at fault. ”