THE WIRE TAPPERS
"I don't like it," spoke Fogg with emphasis.
"Neither do I," concurred Ralph, "but I fancy the sensible thing to do
is to make the best of it."
"While somebody else is making the worst of it!" grumbled the old
fireman. "What brought up the confab with the old man at the terminus,
anyway?"
"He just called me into the office and gave me the warning I have told
you about."
"Queer--and pestiferous," said Fogg with vehemence. "I don't mind a fair
and square fight with any man, but this stabbing in the back, tumbling
into man traps in the dark and the like, roils me."
The Overland Express was on its return trip to Stanley Junction. Outside
of the incident of the recognition of the old grandfather of Glen Palmer
at the bluff curve, nothing had occurred to disturb a smooth,
satisfactory run. Ralph and Fogg had discussed the first incident for
quite some time after it had come up.
"I don't like the lineup," Fogg had asserted. "Here one day you run
across that old man in the company of two fellows we'd put in jail on
mere suspicion. The next day we find the same old man cleaning up a
wreck. Is that part of some villanious programme? Did some fine play
send that chicken car down into the ditch, say?"
"Decidedly not," answered Ralph. "It doesn't look that way at all. Even
if it did, I would vouch for young Palmer. He had no hand in it. I'll
look this business up, though, when we get back home."
"H'm, you'd better," growled Fogg, and the fireman was back in his old
surly suspicious mood all of the rest of the run.
Now, on the return trip, Fogg was brought up to a positive pitch of
frenzy. It was just after their layover at Rockton when a messenger had
come from the assistant superintendent to the roundhouse. The waiting
hands there knew him. He approached Ralph, addressed him in a low
confidential tone, and the two proceeded to headquarters together. It
was the sentiment of the majority that the young engineer of the
Overland Express was "on the carpet for a call down."
Ralph came back from the interview with the railway official with a
serious but by no means downcast face. He parried the good natured
raillery of his fellow workmen. It was not until he and his fireman were
well out of Rockton on their return trip that he told Fogg what had
taken place in the private office of the assistant superintendent.
There was not much to tell, but there was lots left to surmise, and
worry over, according to Fogg's way of thinking. The railroad official
had pledged Ralph to treat the interview as strictly confidential,
except so far as his fireman was concerned. There was trouble brewing
unmistakably, he told Ralph. The latter had weathered some pretty hard
experiences with personal enemies and strikers in the past. The official
wished to prepare him to battle some more of it in the future.
Bluntly he informed Ralph that two rival roads were "after the scalp" of
the Great Northern. They could not reach the Overland schedule of the
latter line by fair means, and they might try to break it by foul ones.
The official gravely announced that he felt sure of this. He would have
later specific information for Ralph. In the meantime, he wished him to
exercise unusual vigilance and efficiency in overcoming obstacles that
might arise to delay or cripple the Overland Express.
Two things rather startled the young engineer, for they seemed to
confirm hints and suspicions already in the wind. In a guarded way the
official had referred to "harmony in the train dispatcher's office." He
had next made an allusion to the fact that if competitive rivalry grew
fierce, it might attract under cover a lot of disreputable criminals,
and he spoke of extra precaution when the pay trips of the line were
made, tallying precisely with suspicions already entertained by Ralph.
It was a very cold night when the train started out on its return trip.
It was clear starlight, however, and once on the free swing down the
glistening rails, the exhilarating swirl of progress drove away all
shadows of care and fear. The magnificent locomotive did her duty well
and puffed down to the regular stop beyond The Barrens an hour after
daylight fresh as a daisy, and just as pretty as one, Fogg declared.
"They're going to miss us this time, I reckon," spoke the fireman with
hilarity and relief, as they later covered the first fifty miles beyond
the Mountain Division.
"If any one was laying for us, yes, it seems so," joined in Ralph. "We
are pretty well on our way, it's daytime, and likely we'll get through
safe this trip."
Both were congratulating themselves on the outlook as they struck the
first series of curves that led through the long stretch of bluffs at
the end of which they had encountered the torpedo warning just
seventy-two hours previous. There was no indication of any obstruction
ahead, and the locomotive was going at good speed.
It was almost a zigzag progress on a six per cent. grade for a stretch
of over ten miles, and five of the distance it was a blind swift whiz,
shut in by great towering bluffs without a break.
Suddenly at a sharp turn Fogg uttered a shout and Ralph grasped the
lever with a quick clutch.
"What was that?" gasped Fogg.
"Maybe a flying rock," suggested Ralph. He spoke calmly enough, but
every nerve was on the jump. The crisis of the vigilance since the run
commenced had reached its climax of excitement and strain.
"Something busted," added Fogg a trifle hoarsely, "something struck the
headlight and splintered it. See here," and he picked up and showed to
Ralph a splinter of glass that had blown in through the open window on
his side of the cab.
"Whatever it was it's past now and no damage done," declared Ralph.
"There's something twisted around the steam chest, Mr. Fogg."
"So there is," assented Fogg, peering ahead. "Guess I'll see what it
means."
Ralph did not have to let down speed to accommodate his expert helper.
Fogg was as much at home on the running board with the train going a
mile a minute pace as a house painter on a first-floor scaffold. He
crept out through his window.
Ralph lost sight of him beyond the bulge of the boiler and while
watching ahead from his own side of the cab. Fogg was nearly three
minutes on his tour of investigation.
"There's something to think about," he declared emphatically as he
dropped two objects on the floor of the cab.
"What is it?" inquired Ralph with a curious stare.
"Wait till I mend the fire and I'll show you something," said the
fireman. Then, this duty attended to, he took from the floor a long
piece of wire wound around a part of a device that resembled a telegraph
instrument.
"See here," explained the fireman excitedly, "I've got it in a word."
"And what is that, Mr. Fogg?"
"Wire tappers."
"Or line repairers," suggested Ralph.
"I said wire tappers," insisted Fogg convincedly, "and I stick to it.
They were at work back there in the cut. Their line must have sagged
where they strung it too low. Our smokestack struck it, whipped the
outfit free, stand and all, and that metal jigger there swung around and
struck the headlight."
"What stand--was there a stand, then?" inquired Ralph.
"Must have been, for pieces of it are out on the pilot. Say, something
else, too! The whole business came that way. Look at that."
Fogg lifted a small strap satchel from the floor of the cab as he spoke.
This was pretty well riddled. In the general swing of the outfit its
side must have come in contact with some sharp edged projection of the
locomotive. Then, one side torn open from which there protruded some
article of wearing apparel, it had landed on the pilot where Fogg had
found it.
"Line repairers do not carry little dinky reticules like that,"
scornfully declaimed the fireman. "There's a dress shirt, a fancy vest
and a pair of kid gloves in it. The old man at terminus was right. Some
one is trying to do up the Great Northern."
"Put these things away carefully," directed Ralph, his face thoughtful,
and as they ran on it grew anxious and serious.
When they passed the scene of the freight wreck three days previous,
they found the debris cleared away and no sign of the boy and old man
who had interested them. A wrecking crew had men at work and only a
litter of kindling wood marked the scene of the tumble down the
embankment.
When they reached their destination Ralph made a package of the articles
Fogg had found on the pilot and proceeded to the office of the general
superintendent. That functuary he found to be absent. He followed the
promptings of his own mind and proceeded to the office of the road
detective, Bob Adair.
A bright young fellow named Dayton, the stenographer of the road
detective, announced that Mr. Adair was off duty away from Stanley
Junction.
"How soon can you reach him?" inquired Ralph.
"Oh, that's easy," replied Dayton.
Adair was a warm friend of Ralph. The latter knew the official reposed a
good deal of confidence in young Dayton. He decided to tell him about
the supposed discovery of the wire tapping outfit.
"Good for you," commended Dayton. "You've hit a subject of big
importance just at present, Mr. Fairbanks."
"Is that so."
"Very much so. I'll get word to Mr. Adair at once. He happens to be in
call this side of the Mountain Division. This discovery of yours fits
in--that is, Mr. Adair will be glad to get this bit of news."
"I understand," returned Ralph meaningly. He was a trifle surprised to
see Dayton begin a message in cypher to his chief.
"It looks as if Mr. Adair doesn't even trust the wires just now,"
soliloquized Ralph as he started for home.
The first thing he did after supper was to undo the parcel containing
the telegraphic device and the satchel.
The latter, as Fogg had stated, contained a shirt, a fancy vest and a
pair of gloves. These bore no initial or other marks of identification.
They were pretty badly riddled from their forcible collision with some
sharp corner of the locomotive--so much so, that a pocket, ripped clear
out of place, revealed a folded slip of paper. This had suffered in the
mix-up, like the garments. Ralph opened it carefully.
It was tattered and torn, sections were gouged out of it here and there,
but Ralph devoted to its perusal a thorough inspection.
His face was both startled and thoughtful as he looked up from his desk.
For nearly five minutes the young railroader sat staring into space, his
mind wrestling with a mighty problem.
Ralph arose from his chair at last, put on his cap and went to the
kitchen where Mrs. Fairbanks was tidying up things.
"I'm going away for an hour or two, mother," he announced.
"Nothing wrong, I hope, Ralph," spoke Mrs. Fairbanks, the serious manner
of her son arousing her mothering anxiety at once.
"I don't know," answered Ralph. "It's something pretty important. I've
got to see the paymaster of the road."