Ralph, the Train Dispatcher; Or, The Mystery of the Pay Car

  CHAPTER XVI

  THE WRECK

  The battered locomotive continued its course for nearly half a mile,with engineer and fireman crouching back on the coal of the tender.There was a diversion of the circling driving rod as the pace slackened.

  Then a violent hissing sound told of a leak somewhere in the machinery.The great steel locomotive slowed down like a crippled giant.

  "She's dead," said Roberts, choking a queer sound way down in histhroat. "Old 93!"

  Ralph jumped to the ground and the fireman after him. The latter wentall around the stalled locomotive, shaking his head mournfully.

  Ralph hastened ahead out of the glare of the headlight and peered downthe rails. For nearly two minutes he stood, shading his eyes with onehand to bring the disappearing runaway within focus. The wild engine hadsped on its way untrammeled. He made out that she had slowed up. In thedistance he fancied he saw a brisk form spring from the cab. Ralphfigured it out that a switch had been set.

  Then the runaway started again. He fancied that some one jumped from thecab after the engine had got in motion. He could catch the sharpclack-clack of the flying wheels ringing in the distance.

  "She is running wild now," murmured the intent young railroader, andthen started with a shock.

  A horrid clamor extended out. It must have been a mile away, but the airwas death-like, it was so still, and the merest sound seemed to vibrateclearly.

  Crash, crash, crash! It sounded as if a building had collapsed againstother tottering structures, tumbling them all into a mass of ruins.

  "They've done it, whatever it is," said Ralph, and ran back speedily toNo. 93 and Roberts. The latter stood with his ear bent in the directionof the runaway, and his usually jolly face was serious.

  "What's up, Fairbanks?" he asked at once.

  "A smashup, I judge," answered Ralph. "Can you dig out any lanterns?"

  "Red?"

  "Yes."

  "Those two on the end of the tender are all right. There's another undermy seat, if it hasn't got smashed."

  "Run back with the two and signal both tracks," ordered Ralph. "I'mgoing ahead to see what has happened."

  Ralph fished among the litter in the dismantled cab and found and litthe lantern referred to by Roberts. Then he started ahead down thetracks.

  When he arrived at the switch he could trace that it had recently beenset for a siding. A little farther on footsteps in the snow showed wheresome one had jumped from the runaway locomotive. Ralph paused at thisspot for only a moment. He went down the siding, which curved in and outamong a series of bluffs and gullies.

  As he remembered it, the siding was not of great length, and ended atthe side of a granite pit. A last turn brought him in full view of this.Ralph paused, a good deal wonderstruck.

  Thirty feet down at the bottom of the gully lay a tangled wreckage ofwood and iron. There had apparently stood two cars where the runaway hadstruck.

  One of them held a derrick outfit, the other some heavy excavatingmachine. The two cars had been forced headlong into the abyss. Therunaway engine piling down upon them had completed the work of ruin.

  "I can't understand it," spoke Ralph, after a long spell of inspectionand thought. "What possible object could any one have in view insmashing up that machinery?"

  Then it occurred to him that his pursuit of the runaway might havefrightened its operator from his original purpose, and he had changedhis plans and abandoned the locomotive to its later course.

  "A pretty bill for the Great Northern to settle, all the same,"reflected Ralph, as he started back the way he had come.

  At the switch he turned the target to open main, and made his wayforward till he reached No. 93. Roberts had set the danger signalsbehind them, and he stood on the side of the embankment dismallysurveying the wreck of his pet locomotive. Ralph told him of thesituation ahead.

  "I can't understand it," confessed the puzzled fireman.

  "No more can I," said Ralph. "I wish we could have caught the man whogot away, though."

  "What are we going to do?"

  "Wait for instructions, of course. There is nothing due out or in forsome time to come, unless the Limited comes on. The out track is clearfor her, if she does. We must get word to Preston, some way."

  "That isn't far away," suggested Roberts.

  "Too far to cover in any reasonable time. I want to get at your toolbox, Roberts."

  "All right."

  Ralph secured a pair of pliers from the box in the cab, and went up theembankment to where the telegraph wires ran. He selected a rough pole,ascended it nimbly, and soon sat astride of the crosstrees.

  The young railroader located the main service wire and began to pry itapart where there had been a splice on the insulator. When he had itseparated he knew from the contact that it was in live use. Putting endto end, he began to tap off what he wanted to say.

  Ralph did not know what business he might be breaking in upon. He waspretty sure that his message would be taken notice of somewhere alongthe line. When he had completed and repeated his message he put the endof one wire to his tongue. The vibrations were vague, but sensitive, andhe knew that he had stirred up the service, and operators on the linetowards headquarters were getting busy. He readjusted the wires anddescended to the ground.

  "Doing some stunts, aren't you?" observed Roberts, with a commendingsmile.

  "I'm trying to get things in order," replied Ralph.

  "It's you for it, every time," declared the friendly fireman. "Wish Ihad brains."

  "Some one will be sure to come to your relief before long," said Ralph."I have done all I can to open up the line, but I think I had better getto Preston and in direct communication with headquarters."

  "It's a long trip," suggested Roberts.

  "That can't be helped. I will set my red lantern half a mile ahead onthe in track, for fear they don't quite understand the situation atPreston."

  "So long; you're a good one," nodded Roberts approvingly.

  Ralph started on his way, set the lantern and accomplished a milewithout meeting with any further adventures. It was when he was abouttwo miles on his course when that whistling in the rear caused him tohalt and watch and wait.

  In about five minutes the Limited whisked by, making up time. Ralph waspretty thoughtful as he followed in her trail after she had passed on.

  There were a good many angles to the exploit of the night to figure out.His independent course in trying to stop the runaway might result insome censure, though he fancied not.

  The identity of the wrecker and his motive were what puzzled the youngrailroader.

  Ralph trudged on, thinking of all this, when, crossing a bridge, hepeered closely over to where a light was flashed and then a second. Someone was igniting matches, apparently to light a pipe. He made out one,then two vague forms a short distance down the shore of the creek.

  It was a pretty early hour of the morning for any one to be trampingaround for fun. As Ralph thought of the man who had abandoned therunaway locomotive, he determined on an investigation.

  He descended to the near shore, lined it, and, sharply turning asnow-laden brush heap, almost stumbled on two persons on its other side.Ralph caught his breath and drew back just in time to escape discovery.

  Peering cautiously, he made out a man seated on the ground. He wasgroaning with pain and rubbing one limb tenderly. In front of him was aboy.

  "You see, I sprained my foot crossing a broken culvert," the man said.

  "Yes, yes, I see," responded his companion, and the voice thrilledRalph, for he recognized the accents as those of a tried and true boyfriend of old--Zeph Dallas.