TERRIBLE NEWS
“What train is off the iron?” asked Ralph quickly. “Anything ahead of
us? Will we be held up?”
That was his first consideration. To think of the Flyer’s schedule as
being of the first importance had become an obsession with him.
“I didn’t get any details,” said Haley, over the engineer’s shoulder.
“I don’t even know whether the wreck is this side or the other side of
the burning woods. But somehow I’ve got to get there. Adair’s orders.”
“Let’s see,” ruminated Ralph, “there is Sixty-four that takes the
siding at Cole’s Station to let us pass. Hold on! She hasn’t much more
than left Shadow Valley. The only other west-bound train in our way
right now is the passenger accommodation that pulls into Oxford just
ahead of us. Number Fifty-two. Think it may be her, Haley?”
Haley had caught most of what the engineer said. He shook his head.
“The wreck may be on the eastbound track,” he observed.
“You’re right at that!” exclaimed Ralph. “We pass Number Thirty-three,
eastbound passenger, this side of the Devil’s Den. Where would she be
about now? Let’s see.”
Without looking at the printed schedule which every trainman carries,
Ralph figured out from his memory of the train dispatcher’s orders
which he had himself formulated the locality of Number 33 if it was on
time.
“That Thirty-three comes clear from the Junction, doesn’t she?” asked
Haley, over Ralph’s shoulder.
“Yes. She leaves Shelby Junction at ten-forty——”
The young fellow halted in his speech. A new thought stabbed him to
the quick. Cherry Hopkins had telegraphed her father that she was
leaving Shelby Junction at that hour. If anything had happened to
Number 33 this girl was aboard it!
He said nothing more to Haley, but gave his strict attention to the
running of the train. But the specter of the wreck ahead took on a
grimmer cast in Ralph Fairbanks’ mind.
If there was any way of coaxing more speed out of the big locomotive,
the engineer put it to the test now. The run between Fryburg and
Shadow Valley Station was not a long one, at best. He had lost two
minutes in shutting down to let Frank Haley aboard. Ralph recovered
those two minutes and steamed into the next stop with another minute
to spare.
Early morning though it was, the station platform was thronged. Ahead,
as Ralph and his crew could now see, the sky was blood red. The forest
fire must be of great consequence and burning a big area in the Shadow
Valley basin.
The fire had called the curious together at the railroad; but news of
the wreck on the far side of the valley was likewise rife. The station
agent himself was on hand and brought the engineer and conductor the
messages. They read:
“Speed up to get ahead of fire in Shadow Valley.”
“Wreck of 33 between Hardwell and Timber Brook. Reported
spread across right of way.”
The second message struck Ralph to the heart. He had feared it. Poor
Cherry! He felt that she might be seriously injured, or even dead.
When he saw doctors, nurses, and a hospital outfit getting aboard one
of the Pullmans he was more than convinced that the wreck had been a
terrible catastrophe.
“If those strikers did it, it will break the back of the strike,”
declared Haley, with confidence.
Ralph felt no interest in the strike just then. He was visualizing
Cherry Hopkins’ pretty figure writhing in a tangle of flaming wood and
scorching iron.
If Cherry was killed or disfigured, her mother surely would die.
Supervisor Hopkins might lose all his family at one blow! Ralph found
himself considering the supervisor’s case with a feeling of sympathy
which he had never supposed he would have for the crotchety railroad
official.
There were several railroad detectives riding on the locomotive when
Number 202 pulled out of Shadow Valley Station; but they talked among
themselves. The crew of the locomotive had too much to do right then
to engage in any conversation.
Ralph hung out of his window, watching the ribbons of steel ahead of
the pilot. Where the track was straight, the mild glare of the
headlight glistened along the rails for yards upon yards. He could
mark every joint of the steel rods.
At times he glanced skyward. That angry glare quenched such light as
remained of the misted stars. The train mounted the remainder of the
grade and then took the straight pitch down to that curve on the side
of Shadow Valley which had already been the scene of several exciting
events for the young railroader.
Now and then they flew past a closed station where only the night
lamps and switch targets revealed life. The small hamlets near these
stations, themselves endangered by the fire below—especially, if the
wind rose—were all but deserted. All the able-bodied men had joined
the State fire guard in opposing the forest fire.
Ralph could see at last the bottom of the valley. If the fire had been
set, and for the purpose of overwhelming the railroad, the wind at
first had been against the criminals’ plans. It had spread in a
direction away from the right of way.
The bottomlands of Shadow Valley were enveloped in crimson flames, and
the smoke rising from this pit was borne northward and away from the
line. But it was a veritable sea of fire!
A great dead pine that had been a landmark ever since Ralph had known
this division suddenly sprang into flame as though it were by
spontaneous combustion. It stood alone on a knoll and there was little
but low brush near its base. Yet, of a sudden, it was aflame from root
to topmost twig!
“A few of ’em like that burning near the tracks would settle us!”
thought the young engineer. “One at least would be sure to fall. If we
headed into it—good-night!”
The men riding on the locomotive were all eagerness as the Flyer slid
down the incline. Ralph could give but a glance now and then to the
fire, for never had he watched the rails ahead more closely.
The warning he had received before leaving Rockton still loomed
importantly in his mind. He was sure that had not referred to the
wreck of Number 33. His own train was threatened with disaster!
His strained interest in Cherry Hopkins’ fate, however, urged him to
drive the Flyer as fast as he dared. The smooth slope into the heat
and glow of the furnace-like valley tempted him to push the engine to
the limit of her speed. Number 202 was actually flying before she was
half way to the curve this side of the Devil’s Den!