On a newly-made siding parallel to the main-line tracks, and in the center
of a rolling vista of yellow-brown prairie, stood a trampish-looking train
of weather-beaten passenger coaches and box-cars. In the sides of the
latter small windows had been cut, and from the roofs projected chimneys.
North of the train, to a din of clanking, pounding and shoveling, a throng
of men were laying ties and rails, driving spikes and tightening bolts, in
the construction of further short stretches of track.
It was the Yellow Creek branch "boarding" and construction train, and the
laying of the sidings of the newly-created Yellow Creek Junction was the
first step in the race of the Middle Western and the K. & Z., some miles
below the southern horizon, for the just-discernible break to the
southwest in the blue line of the Dog Rib Mountains--the coveted entrance
to the new gold fields in the valley beyond.
And here, the first of the construction operators sent forward, Alex had
been two days established in the "telegraph-car."
As he had anticipated, Alex was enjoying the experience hugely. It was
every bit as good as camping out, he had declared over the wire to
Jack--having for an office a table at one end of the old freight-car,
sleeping in a shelf-like bunk at the other end, and eating in the
rough-and-ready diner with the inspectors, foremen, time-keepers and
clerks who shared the telegraph-car with him. As well, the work going on
about him was a constant source of interest during Alex's spare moments.
On this, the second day, Alex had been particularly interested in the
newly-arrived track-laying machine--which did not actually lay track at
all, but by means of roller-bottomed chutes fed out a stream of rails and
ties to the men ahead of it. After supper, the wire being silent, Alex
made his way amid several trains of track-material already filling
completed sidings, for a closer view of the big machine.
There proved to be less to see than he had expected; and having climbed
aboard the pilot-car and examined the engine, Alex ascended the tower
from which a brakeman controlled the movements of the train.
On his right lay a string of flats piled high with timbers for bridges
and culverts. Glancing along them, Alex was surprised to see a man's head
cautiously emerge from an opening in the lumber on one of the cars, and
quickly disappear on discovering him. A moment after he had a fleeting
glimpse of the intruder running low along the side of the train toward
the rear.
"Only a hobo," Alex decided on second thought. For numbers of tramps had
come through on the material-trains. And presently Alex returned to the
telegraph-car.
Shortly after midnight the young operator was awakened by someone running
through the car and shouting for Construction Superintendent Finnan. When
he caught the word "Fire!" he scrambled into his clothes and leaped to
the floor, and out.
Over the tops of the cars in the direction of the track-machine was a
dancing glare.
In alarm Alex joined the stream of men dropping to the ground all along
the boarding-cars. Dodging through the intervening trains, he brought up
with an expression of relief beside, not the track-machine, but a car of
bridge material.
Fanned by a brisk wind, flames were spouting from amid the timbers at
several points. Already men were pitching the burning beams over the
side, however; and finding a shovel, Alex joined those who were
smothering them with sand.
"Tramps, sure!" Alex heard another of the shovelers remark angrily.
Immediately then he recalled the man he had seen from the track-machine
tower, and pausing in his work, he counted the cars back.
It was the same car. Yes; undoubtedly the fire was the careless work of
the tramp he had seen running away.
The force of fire fighters was rapidly augmented, and soon, despite the
fresh breeze, the last of the burning beams were smothered, and all
danger of a general conflagration was past.
It was as Alex at last headed back for the boarding-train that a theory
other than the tramp theory of the origin of the fire occurred to him. It
came from a sudden recollection of Division Superintendent Cameron's
prediction of interference from the K. & Z. "Could that be the real
explanation?" he asked himself with some excitement.
The first streak of dawn found Alex again at the scene of the fire, bent
on proving or disproving the theory of incendiarism. Climbing aboard the
scorched car, he dropped to his knees and began carefully brushing aside
the sand with which the burning floor had been covered.
A few minutes' search produced the burned ends of shavings!
"So!--the 'fight' is on!" observed Alex to himself gravely.
With several of the tell-tale fragments in his pocket Alex was about to
leap to the ground when Construction Superintendent Finnan appeared.
"Good morning, my lad. You beat me here, eh?" he said genially. "Well,
what do you make of it?"
Alex sprang down beside him, and produced the charred pine whittlings. "I
found these on the bottom of the car, sir. They don't seem to support the
careless tramp theory, do they?" Continuing, Alex then told of the man he
had seen there the evening before. "Do you think it was the work of the
K. & Z., sir?" he concluded.
The superintendent's lips were drawn tight. "Yes; I believe it was. Could
you identify the man?"
"I am afraid not, sir. It was getting dusk, and he was five or six
car-lengths from me, and running stooped over.
"Perhaps we could follow his footsteps down the side of the train?" Alex
suggested.
"Good idea! Lead ahead. There has been a good deal of tramping about, but
we may pick them out."
Proceeding to the point several cars distant at which he had seen the
stranger on the ground, Alex moved on slowly, carefully inspecting the
freshly turned but considerably trampled earth, the superintendent
following him.
A car-length beyond, the latter suddenly paused, retraced his steps a few
feet, and pointing out three succeeding impressions, exclaimed, "I think
we have him, Ward! See? A long step! He was running on his toes."
Aided by the known length of the stride, they continued, following the
footprints with comparative ease. Passing the second car from the end,
they found the steps shorten, then change to a walk. "Probably turned in
between this and the last car," the superintendent observed.
"Yes; here they go," announced Alex, halting at the opening between the
two flats. "He stood for a moment, then went on through."
Alex and the superintendent followed, and continued toward the rear of
the last car. Half way Alex halted, and with an ejaculation stooped and
picked up something white. "A small shaving, sir!"
The official took it. "That decides the matter," he said. "Probably it
was sticking to his clothes."
"He sat down here, for some time, did he not?" Alex was pointing to a
depression in the earth well under the car, between two ties, and to the
marks of bootheels. The superintendent went to his knees and closely
examined the impressions left by the heels.
"Good! Look here," he said with satisfaction. "The marks of spurs! Our
'tramp' was a horseman."