Kitabı oku: «Ralph, the Train Dispatcher: or, The Mystery of the Pay Car», sayfa 8

CHAPTER XIX – ON THE LOOKOUT

Ten minutes later Ralph and Bob Adair entered the office of the superintendent of the Great Northern. As they did so, a tall, well-dressed man left by another door. Adair nudged Ralph.

“The President of the road,” he spoke in a low quick tone.

“Yes, I see,” nodded Ralph.

“Eyes and ears wide open. We’re going to see some lively doings, if I don’t mistake my cue.”

Ralph felt the dignity and force of the occasion. It was a good deal for a mere youth to realize that he was being called into an important conference on a footing with old and experienced railroaders. The serious yet pleasant greeting of the superintendent told that the situation was a distinct compliment to the fine record and ability of the young railroader.

Ralph modestly took a chair to one side of the big table at which the superintendent and his assistant were seated. Adair produced that formidable memorandum book of his, stuffed with all kinds of secrets of the rail.

“We had better get down to business without any preamble,” spoke the head official briskly. “Before we begin, however, I wish to commend you, Fairbanks, for your diligence in our behalf.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Ralph with a flush of pleasure.

“Yourself and Glidden handled the situation at the relay just as we would have wished it done. What is your report, Adair?”

The road detective consulted his notes in a matter-of-fact way, and began detailing his information as if he was reading off a freight schedule, but Ralph was immensely interested and so were his other auditors.

Part of what Adair told was news to Ralph. The most of Adair’s disclosures, however, linked to what he already suspected or knew. Briefly narrated, the two queerly-acting men who had been noticed by Ralph in the company of Glen Palmer’s grandfather and during the trouble in the tunnel had been the starting clews in the case.

“There is a man named Rivers and half a dozen fellow conspirators who are making most of the trouble,” said the road officer. “Two of the men Fairbanks spotted over two weeks ago. They were after the secrets of our paymaster, as we well know. From word I have received from an assistant, Dallas, they and a group of helpers are hanging around the vicinity of scene of the smash up last night.”

“There’s a mystery to explain, Adair,” here broke in the superintendent. “What was the motive for the collision?”

“Just malicious mischief, I presume-a part of the contract of the gang to hamper and cripple the Great Northern all they can,” returned the assistant. “The work was done by the same group-the word I have received from young Dallas assures me of that.”

“If I may be allowed to say a word,” submitted Ralph.

“Certainly,” nodded the superintendent, and all eyes were instantly fixed on Ralph. The latter took from his pocket the memorandum book and letters which had belonged to the injured train wrecker. He explained how he had found them. There was sharp attention, while the officers expressed approval in their looks.

“From all I can gather from these,” explained Ralph, “the man who ran away with the old engine was Rivers. This book bears his name. From it I would think he was receiving a goodly sum each week from some mysterious source for ‘looking after’ the Great Northern, as it is expressed.”

“This is the underhand work of our rivals in business,” declared the assistant superintendent bitterly.

“I think so, too,” assented Ralph. “Outside of that, however, it is certain that Rivers and his fellow conspirators are doing some business ‘on the side,’ as he again aptly expresses it in his notes. A letter will show you that a man named Kingston hired him to wreck the two cars near the quarry.”

“Kingston, the contractor? Why, it was his own machinery. He had a large contract to do some extensive blasting work for the Great Northern,” spoke Adair.

“Yes,” nodded Ralph, “I guess that from what the memorandum book tells me. The contract, however, had to be done in a certain time or Kingston forfeited a heavy bond, I believe.”

“That is true,” said the superintendent.

“He found out that his machinery would not do the work and that he would lose on his contract.”

“And wrecked his own plant!” exclaimed the assistant superintendent.

“Incredible!” murmured the head official at his side.

“You deserve something for ferreting that out,” declared Adair approbatively. “There is your evidence, gentlemen, it seems,” he added, pushing the documents over to the others.

“This is getting pretty serious,” observed the superintendent.

“I will hunt up the contractor,” said Adair, making a note. “I have men looking for Grizzly and Mason. The other suspects in the service are being shadowed. I think, with the start this famous young friend of ours, Fairbanks, has given us, there will be a general clearing up of the situation in a short time. Dallas is in the company and confidence of the conspirators. There will be some arrests and confessions within a few days. I think I can safely promise that.”

Ralph listened attentively while the others engaged in a general discussion of the situation. It was arranged that he should resume his position at headquarters in the office of the chief train dispatcher. Adair was to go down the line for the avowed purpose of getting more closely in touch with his faithful young assistant, Zeph Dallas. The latter, through the exercise of a keen intelligence and perseverance, seemed to proudly hold the key to the entire situation, and Ralph was glad of it.

“There is one other subject of importance,” remarked the road officer, as the superintendent arose and the conference seemed as on end.

“What is that?”

“The pay car affair.”

“I thought that was all arranged.”

“It is, so far as we are concerned, but shall I advise Fairbanks of the arrangements?”

“By all means,” directed the superintendent promptly.

“Yes, he has proven his trustworthiness and ability,” supplemented the assistant, “and it is our wish that he should be appraised of exactly what is going on.”

“Very well,” nodded Adair, in his usual brusque manner, “I will attend to that. Come on, Fairbanks.”

Ralph bowed courteously to his two official friends and left the room with the road officer. As they reached the street Adair linked his arm in that of Ralph in a confidential way.

“See here, Fairbanks,” he remarked, “such tricks as that smash up and the pay car business any road may have to tackle from time to time. We shall attend to the fellows behind those schemes all right, but it’s bigger game we are after. A plot has crippled our service, corrupted our operators, stolen our private wire information. Bear this in view, and when new things come up along that line, which they are bound to do, dig out all you can under the surface that will give us a handle against the real plotter-the rival road that is trying to throw us down.”

“I understand, Mr. Adair,” said Ralph.

“You are going up to the train dispatcher’s office?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll join you there in about half an hour, as I have some cypher messages I want you particularly to attend to. I’ll tell you then about this pay car business.”

Ralph had to be content with this. As he walked along he wondered what Adair would have to tell him. The fifteenth of the month was only ten days ahead, and the pay car according to usual schedule should start on the regular trip three days earlier.

Ralph was glad to get back to duty pure and simple. Seated at his desk he was soon absorbed in getting accumulated work out of the way. He was pretty busy when one of the second trick men came up to him.

“Mr. Fairbanks,” he said, “I thought I would speak to you about a message I took over the commercial wire early this morning.”

“Is that it.” inquired Ralph, at once guessing the allusion, and producing the little yellow slip of paper that the road officer had given him.

“‘From Glen Palmer,’” read the operator over Ralph’s shoulder-“yes, that’s the one: ‘Look out for the pacer.’ It came in on a jumble of stuff like a quick cut in. There was more, but I couldn’t catch it. I signaled ‘repeat,’ but lost the sine, and it was clicked so thunderingly fast I got mixed on the letters.”

“You don’t know the point of sending, then?” asked Ralph.

“No. I didn’t know what the other end was trying to give me: Look out for the packer? faker, pacer?”

“Hello!” said Ralph, so strangely and suddenly that the operator started at him agape.

“What’s the matter?” inquired the latter, wonderingly.

Ralph did not reply. He was thinking hard. A sudden light had illuminated his mind.

“I’ve got it,” he breathed in some mental triumph. “‘Look out for the pay car!’”

CHAPTER XX – 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.”

CHAPTER XXI – A DASTARDLY PLOT

Ralph was greatly interested in the affairs of the Gliddens. The old dispatcher was a good fellow all around; he had proven himself a loyal friend to the young railroader, and Ralph could not resist the compliment implied in entrusting him with an important mission.

“Sure the leave of absence is all right?” he suggested.

“Saw the superintendent himself.”

“Very well, I’m glad to go for you,” said Ralph, and he stowed the one thousand dollars in a safe inside pocket. “How are you going to raise the other three thousand dollars, though?”

“I have a sister living at Wilston, who I know has as much as I had in bank. I’m going to take the express for there, jump to Myron, where a brother-in-law runs a small country bank, and I’m not afraid of results. My sister owns a two thousand dollar mortgage that I have an interest in, too. I’ll take that on to the bank to put up as security, if it’s needed.”

“You’re a pretty good brother, Mr. Glidden,” said Ralph earnestly.

The old operator mumbled in his throat and turned away to hide the emotion that lay under his gruff manner.

By the time they reached the depot Glidden had given Ralph final detailed instructions. He did not know how his messenger might find affairs at Derby, but he seemed to take a good deal of comfort in believing that if they were at all complicated, Ralph’s dexterity and intelligence would simplify the problem.

“Tell the lawyer I will be certain to reach Derby on the first morning train with the money,” declared Glidden. “Stay with him all night and watch things. Keep your eye on the other crowd and guard the factory.”

“I shall try to do all you suggest,” promised Ralph.

He telephoned to his mother at home. It was a three hours’ ride to Derby. Ralph reached his destination about five o’clock in the afternoon. He went to the office of the lawyer, located above a store, but found its door locked. Then he inquired in the place below as to his residence and received the necessary directions.

As Ralph left the store he noticed a crowd of four men lounging in front of a drinking place across the street. From their manner he judged that they had watched him go up to the office of the lawyer. Why they were interested Ralph did not know, but he kept a keen eye out, remembering that he carried a thousand dollars in an inner pocket of his coat.

“Two of those men are following me,” Ralph said to himself with conviction, a minute later.

This he believed to be true, judging from their actions. They kept pace with him on the opposite side of the street. Ralph gave no sign that he suspected their surveillance. Suddenly as the two men were crossing the street, a lank, wretched looking fellow came towards them from the doorway of a saloon. It was apparent that he knew them and made some appeal to them. One of them brushed him carelessly aside. As the other passed him the mendicant caught his sleeve to detain him. The man turned, jerked away, shot out his fist, and striking the other brutally in the face sent him prostrate to the pavement and walked coolly on.

“Poor fellow!” commented Ralph, as the man picked himself up, wiping the blood from his injured face with an old ragged handkerchief.

“That’s the way you treat an old friend after getting all you can out of him, is it?” shrieked the injured man, waving his fists wildly after his assailant. “I’ll fix you for this. I’ll get even with you.”

The incident passed out of Ralph’s mind as he sought for and found the home of the lawyer. As he entered its gate he glanced back down the street. The two men who had followed him stood at the next corner. Soon they turned and retraced the way they had come. Apparently they were satisfied in the proceedings, their mission having been to locate Ralph’s destination.

Ralph found the wife of the lawyer at home. It took only a few minutes for a bright businesslike boy and a woman who interested herself in her husband’s professional duties to understand one another. Ralph explained the object of his call.

“I am very glad to welcome you,” said the lady. “And I am glad of the good news you bring. My husband and I are deeply interested in Mr. Glidden’s business affairs. My husband had an urgent professional call to the next town, but he will be back at eight o’clock this evening. He was preparing to arrange for some kind of a bond tomorrow morning, but it looked dubious. The money will settle everything.”

Ralph noticed a small safe in the room where he sat, and turned the thousand dollars over to the lawyer’s wife for safe keeping.

“That is better so,” said the lady. “Dorsett, the man who is making all this trouble, has employed three or four rough loafers in his service, and they have been watching every move my husband has made.”

“I think two of them followed me here,” explained Ralph.

“I hope you will watch out for yourself,” warned the lawyer’s wife anxiously. “Perhaps you had better remain here until my husband returns.”

“Oh, I am not a bit afraid,” said Ralph. “I want to look around town and perhaps go as far as the factory. Is it in operation?”

“No, it has been shut down since Mr. Glidden’s illness, but it is in charge of a faithful, honest old fellow, his foreman, a man named Bartlett.”

Ralph left the lawyer’s house and started in the direction of the factory as just indicated to him. It appeared to be located on the river, about half a mile from the center of the town.

In order to reach it he had to go back a few blocks towards the village. He saw no trace of the men who had followed him. As he passed an alley opening, however, he slowed up to watch the maneuvers of a man who interested him.

This was the man who had been knocked over in the street by the two men who had followed Ralph. He was standing near a barrel which seemed to be used as a receptacle for the kitchen refuse of a house near by. He had reached into it and picked out a piece of stale bread and lifted it to his lips.

“Don’t eat that,” said Ralph impulsively, slipping quickly to the side of the man.

The latter flushed up, put the scrap of food behind him and looked rather annoyed and angry. He did not have a good face, and it looked the worse because of his recent beating. Still, the man’s forlorn wretchedness appealed to the whole-hearted young railroader in a forcible way.

“What will I eat?” growled the man, scowling hard.

“You seem to be hungry-go and get a good meal somewhere.”

Ralph extended half a dollar. The man stared at it, then at Ralph.

“Crackey!” he said breathlessly-“do you mean it?”

“You had better go somewhere and wash the blood off your face first,” continued Ralph. “Here,” and he took out the little surgical case that all locomotive men carry with them. “Put a piece of that sticking plaster on that cut across your cheekbone. It was a pretty bad blow that fellow gave you.”

“Did you see him strike me?” inquired the man.

“Yes, and it appeared to be a brutal and uncalled for assault.”

“Say, that’s just what it was,” declared the man, getting excited. “I trained with that crowd and did their dirty work, and because I got a drop too much and blowed about the things we were going to do up to the factory, they dropped me.”

“What factory?” pressed Ralph.

“Glidden’s.”

“I was just going up there,” said Ralph. “It’s somewhere in this direction, isn’t it?”

“You’ll see the smokestack when you turn the next corner. Say,” demanded the fellow with a stare of interest at Ralph, “what you going there for? Looking for a job?”

“No,” replied Ralph, “I wanted to see it, that’s all. I am a friend of the man who owns it.”

“Oh, that’s it?” observed the man thoughtfully. “Well, he won’t own it tomorrow.”

“Why not?”

“Dorsett is going to get him, that’s why.”

“You mean seize on the factory, don’t you?” inquired Ralph.

The man stared at Ralph fixedly. He was silent for nearly two minutes. He seemed to be turning something over in his mind. He gazed at the coin Ralph had given him. Then he glanced over his shoulder to see if any lurker was watching them.

“See here,” he asked in a low tone, “you’re on Glidden’s side, of course?”

“Yes, strongly.”

“You’ve been good to me. Saved me from starving. I’ll do something for you. Between twelve and one o’clock tomorrow morning, Dorsett and his men are going to pull that factory up yonder to pieces.”