TROUBLE BREWING
The strange boy appeared upon the scene so suddenly that Ralph decided
he must have reached the roadbed from the other side of the embankment.
The young engineer faced him with a slight start. To his certain
knowledge he had never seen the lad before. However, his face so
strongly resembled that of some one he had met recently it puzzled
Ralph. Whom did those features suggest? Ralph thought hard, but gave it
up.
"Did you wish to see me?" he inquired.
The boy had a striking face. It was pale and thin, his clothes were neat
but shabby. There was a sort of scared look in his eyes that appealed to
Ralph, who was strongly sympathetic.
"I know you," spoke the boy in a hesitating, embarrassed way. "You don't
know me, but I've had you pointed out to me."
"That so?" and Ralph smiled.
"You are Ralph Fairbanks, the engineer of the Overland Express,"
continued the lad in a hushed tone, as if the distinction awed him.
"That's right," nodded Ralph.
"Well, I've heard of you, and you've been a friend to a good many
people. I hope I'm not over bold, but if you would be a friend to me--"
Here the strange boy paused in a pitiful, longing way that appealed to
Ralph.
"Go ahead," he said.
"I heard this gentleman," indicating Mr. Fry, "offer to sell the
chickens down the embankment. I'm a poor boy, Mr. Fairbanks--dreadfully
poor. There's reasons why I can't work in the towns like other boys. You
can give me work, though--you can just set me on my feet."
"How can I do that?" inquired Ralph, getting interested.
"By buying me those chickens. I've got the place for them, I've got the
time to attend to them, and I know just how to handle them. Why,"
continued the speaker excitedly, "there's nearly two hundred in prime
trim gathered in a little thicket over yonder, and there's double that
number among the wreckage, besides those that are hurt that I can nurse
and mend up. If you will buy them for me, I'll solemnly promise to
return you the money in a week and double the amount of interest in
two."
"You talk clear and straight and earnest, my lad," here broke in the
claim agent. "What's your name?"
"Glen Palmer."
"Do you live near here?"
"Yes, sir--in an old abandoned farmhouse, rent free, about a mile north
of here."
"With your folks?"
"No, sir, I have no folks, only an old grandfather. He's past working,
and, well, a--a little queer at times, and I have to keep close watch of
him. That's what's the trouble."
The claim agent took out his note book.
"Look here," he spoke, "if Fairbanks will vouch for you, I'll tab off
the chickens to you at fifteen dollars, due in thirty days."
"O--oh!" gasped the lad, clasping his hands in an ecstacy of hope and
happiness. "I'll be sure to pay you-- Why, with what I know I can do
with those chickens, I could pay you ten times over inside of a month."
"Mr. Fry," said Ralph, studying the boy's face for a moment or two,
"I'll go security for my friend here."
"Say--excuse me, but say, Mr. Fairbanks, I--I--"
The boy broke down, tears chocking his utterance. He could only clasp
and cling to Ralph's hand. The latter patted him on the shoulder with
the encouraging words:
"You go ahead with your chicken farm, Glen, and if it needs more capital
come to me."
"If you only knew what you've done for me--for me and my old
grandfather!" faltered Glen Palmer, the deepest gratitude and feeling
manifested in tone and manner.
Ralph felt sure that the lad had a history. He did not, however,
embarrass him with any questioning. He liked the way that young Palmer
talked and bustled about as soon as the word was given that his
proposition was accepted. With an eager face he announced that he had a
plan for getting the chickens to his home, and darted off at breakneck
speed, waving his hand gratefully back at Ralph a dozen times.
Ralph and the claim agent reached the dummy to find Cohen hanging around
it in great mental distress. Fry invited him to ride in the cab, and
tormented him by talking about his bargain clear back to the roundhouse.
Then he relieved Cohen's distress, which bordered on positive
distraction, by releasing him from his contract.
Mrs. Fairbanks greeted Ralph with her usual loving, kindly welcome when
he reached home. The old family cottage was a veritable nest of comfort,
and the young engineer enjoyed it to the utmost. There was always some
special favorite dainty awaiting Ralph on his return from a trip, and he
had a fine appetizing meal.
"We had a visitor today, Ralph," said Mrs. Fairbanks, as they sat
chatting in the cozy sitting room a little later.
"Who was that, mother?"
Mrs. Fairbanks with a smile handed her son a card that had been lying on
the mantle. Ralph smiled, too, as he looked it over.
"H'm," he said. "Quite dignified, 'Mr. Dallas,' our old friend Zeph, eh?
What's this mysterious monogram, cryptogram, or whatever it is, way down
in the corner of the card?"
"It looks like two S's," suggested Mrs. Fairbanks.
"Oh, I can solve the enigma now," said Ralph with a broader smile than
ever. "It is 'S. S.,' by which Zeph means and wants mystified others to
half guess means 'Secret Service.' There's one thing about Zeph, with
all his wild imaginings and ambition along the railroad line, he sticks
to his idea of breaking in somewhere as an active young sleuth."
"We think a lot of Zeph, Ralph, and we mustn't forget that he did some
bright things in helping that poor little orphan, Ernest Gregg, to
health and happiness."
"Yes, Zeph deserves great credit for his patience and cleverness in that
affair," admitted Ralph warmly, "only the line he is so fascinated with
doesn't strike me as a regular business."
"How about Mr. Adair, Ralph?" insinuated his mother.
"That's so, Bob Adair is the finest railroad detective in the world. If
Zeph could line up under his guidance, he might make something practical
of himself."
"I think he has really done just that."
"I am delighted to hear it," said Ralph, and watching the glowing embers
in the grate in a dreamy fashion he mused pleasantly over his experience
with the redoubtable Zeph, while his mother was busy tidying up the
dining room.
It was a good deal of satisfaction for Ralph to recall Zeph Dallas to
mind. Zeph, a raw country youth, had come to Stanley Junction in a whole
peck of trouble. Ralph had always a helping hand for the unlucky or
unfortunate. He became a good friend to Zeph and got him a place in the
roundhouse. Zeph made a miserable failure of the job. The height of his
ambition was to be a detective--like fellows he had read about.
Zeph finally landed, as he expressed it, with both feet. The son of a
prominent railroad official became interested in hunting up the
relatives of a forlorn little fellow named Gregg. He had plenty of
money, and he hired Zeph to assist him. The latter showed that he had
something in him, for his wit and energy not only located the wealthy
relative of the orphan outcast, but upset the plots of a wicked schemer
who was planning to rob the friendless lad of his rights.
"What did Zeph say about Mr. Adair, mother?" inquired Ralph, as Mrs.
Fairbanks again entered the sitting room.
"Nothing clear," she explained. "You know how Zeph delights in cuddling
up his ideas to himself and looking and acting mysterious. He was very
important as he hinted that Mr. Adair depended on him to 'save the day
in a big case,' and he said a great deal about a 'rival railroad.'"
"Oh, did he, indeed?" murmured Ralph thoughtfully.
"Zeph told me to advise you, very secretly he put it, to look out for
trouble."
"What kind of trouble?"
"Particularly, he said, in the train dispatcher's department."
"Hm!" commented the young engineer simply, but his brow became furrowed
with thought, and he reflected by spells quite seriously over the
subject during the evening.
Fogg had forgotten all about his fears of the day previous when he
reported at the roundhouse the next morning. He grinned at his young
comrade with a particularly satisfied smirk on his face, and made the
remark:
"You see before you, young man, a person full of the best chicken stew
ever cooked in Stanley Junction. I say, Fairbanks, if you'd kind of slow
up going past Bluff Point we might grab off enough more of those
chickens to do for Sunday dinner."
"We? Don't include me in your disreputable pilferings, Mr. Fogg,"
declared Ralph, "you may get a bill for the two fowls you so boastingly
allude to."
"Hey."
"Yes, indeed. In fact," continued Ralph with mock seriousness, "I don't
know but what I may have a certain interest in enforcing its
collection."
The young engineer recited the episode of the salvage sale of the
chickens to Glen Palmer.
"Quite a windfall, that," commented Fogg. "Another fellow to thank his
lucky stars that he ran up against Ralph Fairbanks. Sort of interested
in this proposition myself. I can hardly imagine a finer prospect than
running a chicken farm. Some day--"
The rhapsody of Fireman Fogg was cut short by the arrival of the
schedule minute for getting up steam on the Overland racer. The bustle
and energy of starting out on their regular trip made engineer and
helper forget everything except the duties of the occasion. As they
cleared the limits, however, and approached Bluff Point, Ralph watched
out with natural curiosity, and Fogg remarked:
"Hope a few more chickens drop into the cab this morning."
Ralph slowed up slightly, they struck the bluff curve, and as they
neared the scene of the freight wreck of the previous day he had a good
view of the embankment where the two abandoned cars lay.
"Some one there," commented Fogg, his keen glance fixed on the spot.
"Yes, our young friend Glen Palmer and an old man. That must be the
grandfather he talked about. They are very industriously at work."
The two persons whom Ralph designated were in the midst of the wreckage.
The old man was prying apart the netted compartment of the car and into
this the boy was reaching. Near at hand was an old hand cart. It carried
a great coop made of laths, and was half filled with fowls.
As the train circled the spot the boy below suspended his work and
looked up. He seemed to recognize Ralph--or at least he knew his
locomotive.
Ralph nodded and smiled and sounded three quick low toots from the
whistle. This attracted the attention of the old man, who, standing
upright, stared up at the train, posed like some heroic figure in plain
view.
"I say!" ejaculated Fogg with a great start.
The young engineer was similarly moved. In a flash he now traced the
source of the puzzling suggestiveness of something familiar in the face
of Glen Palmer the day before.
"Did you see him?" demanded Fogg.
"Yes," nodded Ralph.
"The old man--he's the one we saw with those two suspicious
jailbird-looking fellows down the line yesterday."