A TRUSTY FRIEND
"Understand, Fairbanks?"
"Perfectly, Mr. Adair."
"The pay car goes through on regular schedule out of Stanley Junction."
"Yes, sir."
"With enough ammunition ahead to settle the hash of any possible
meddlers. We'll make the test. Then the other end. A split up at the end
of each section, and if the gang get ahead of us on that arrangement,
they are cleverer than I thought they were."
All this would have been Greek to a person not acquainted with the facts
of the case. The colloquy terminated a whispered confidential talk
between Ralph and Bob Adair in the chief dispatcher's office. The road
officer seemed to throw the pay car off his mind after a statement that
Ralph was one of six persons who knew what was about to happen, namely,
the President and superintendent of the road, the assistant
superintendent, the paymaster and Adair himself.
"There will be something to keep track of Tuesday night," observed
Adair. "You've got your instructions for that occasion."
"Yes, well in mind," said Ralph. "One moment before you go, Mr. Adair. I
have told you about the 'pacer' message."
"Yes," nodded the road officer, "and your explanation looks plausible."
"I don't want to judge from appearances. You see, I feel like giving
Glen Palmer a show."
"That's fair enough, Fairbanks. I can't help thinking, though, that he
or his grandfather have had some dealings with the crowd we are after."
"It is only a theory," persisted Ralph, "but I figure it out that the
old man, Glen's grandfather, is some veteran telegrapher. He isn't right
in his mind, and perhaps, without Glen knowing it, he was approached
secretly by the conspirators. Perhaps they have benefited from his
knowledge of telegraphy in tapping the wires."
"You say the boy, too, is an expert operator?"
"From what I learn, yes," answered Ralph. "His grandfather would
naturally teach him."
Adair shrugged his shoulders. It was evident he considered circumstances
against the Palmers, for he said:
"I don't like their sudden disappearance. I don't fancy, either, what
Slump remarked about young Palmer being a jail bird."
"That looks bad enough," admitted Ralph, "but please consider that
message on the piece of board thrown through the window of the station."
"Well?"
"Didn't that show that Glen Palmer was trying to get some word to me?"
"Maybe."
"Under difficulties, too. I believe that he was a prisoner, perhaps shut
into some freight car, but managing to send adrift that word to me."
"You're pretty loyal to anyone you like, Fairbanks."
"I want to do the poor fellow justice," responded Ralph. "Then later,
that fragment of message 'Look out for the pay car.' I can't help
thinking that the boy is straight, and wants to warn and help us."
"Hope so," said Adair brusquely. "A short time will tell. I shall soon
round up the crowd, and if young Palmer is in wrong with them I shall
find it out."
It seemed like getting down to a decidedly humdrum existence, routine
duty at the dispatcher's desk after the exciting experience preceding.
When Glidden came on duty he merely smiled in his grim way, with the
words to Ralph:
"In harness again, eh? I reckon things will smooth down now."
Ralph hoped so. He believed it, too, as a few days went by and in the
keen zest and interest of his new work he partially forgot the active
issues of the conspiracy, which seemed to have been checked or subdued.
With the departure of Grizzly and Mason the suspicious and treacherous
element seemed to be eliminated from the main office. The tricks of the
enemy and their methods were now known to the dispatching force, and
they were constantly on their guard. A new private code was adopted by
Ralph, and a system of checking up through repeats that pretty well
safeguarded them against crooked messages.
Mrs. Fairbanks was congratulating herself that affairs had quieted down
permanently and was enjoying the days that brought Ralph home for the
evening each day, when a new ripple on the surface of affairs set things
in vivid action again.
Ralph had come home to dinner and was spending a few minutes in casual
conversation with his mother after the meal, when the door bell rang
sharply. Ralph answered the summons to find Glidden standing outside,
his face pale and anxious, and so nervous over something that he could
not stand still in the same position for a single minute.
"Any trouble, Mr. Glidden?" inquired Ralph quickly.
"Only of my own," responded the old operator. "See here, I want you to
do something for me. It's a hurry business. Just tell your mother not to
worry if you are away to-night."
"Is there a probability that I will be?" inquired Ralph.
"If you consent to do me the favor of my life, yes," declared Glidden
quickly. "See here, I've fixed everything."
The operator shoved a slip of paper towards Ralph. It was a brief
permission for Ralph to go off for twenty-four hours.
"I had to act quick," explained Glidden, "so I got that end of it fixed
directly."
"I hardly understand, Mr. Glidden."
The old operator glanced at his watch and grabbed the arm of his
companion.
"Come on," he insisted. "There's no time to lose. We can talk as we walk
along. I don't want to bother you with my family troubles, Fairbanks,
but I need a reliable friend."
"I am certainly at your service."
"Thanks. It's your way, you can't help it," commented the erratic
operator. "Here's the situation: I have a brother in business at Derby."
"That's seventy-five miles down the line."
"Exactly. It seems that he owns a new mill. I don't know exactly what he
does, but it's in the metal manufacturing line. He has invented a
process for making a substitute for Babbitt metal."
"They use some of it at the shops, I remember," said Ralph.
"A man named Dorsett, who was his partner, started in the same line
after selling out and contracting not to do so. His process is no good,
and he wants to get my brother to a point where he will treat with him."
"I see," nodded Ralph, much interested.
"It seems that my brother in starting in for himself had to run in debt
for his principal machinery. His old partner managed somehow to buy the
debt from the machinery people. He has put the screws to my brother, got
out an execution for four thousand dollars against him, and unless that
amount and the costs of the judgment are paid by tomorrow, he takes
possession, and my brother loses everything."
"There's lots of mean work in the world, and this is one of the hard
cases," observed Ralph.
"The worst of it is," continued Glidden, "my brother never let me know
about the tight fix he was in. I never should have heard of it if he had
not got sick in bed. He could do no business and his lawyer wrote to me.
I got the letter only an hour ago. You see how fast I must work. I've
got to raise that four thousand dollars before court time tomorrow."
"Four thousand dollars?" repeated Ralph seriously--"that's a big sum of
money, Mr. Glidden."
"Yes, for a poor man like me, but brother John shall have it. I can't
see a good twenty thousand dollar investment wrecked to satisfy the
malice of an enemy. See here--take that," and Glidden extended a package
and Ralph regarded it wonderingly.
"What is it, Mr. Glidden?" he inquired.
"One thousand dollars--five years' savings, I just drew it from the bank
here. I want you to take the three o'clock train for Derby. Go to my
brother's lawyer, whose address I will give you. Pay him that one
thousand dollars, and see if he can't use it to stave off proceedings
until I get on hand bright and early tomorrow morning with the balance
of the money."