CHAPTER IX--CALCUTTA TOM
Ralph walked in the direction of the switch tower.
He noticed that all the tracks seemed unusually inactive, even for thenoon hour. The main rails were perfectly clear, and a good manylocomotives were on the sidings.
Glancing up at the switch tower, Ralph was a good deal surprised tonotice that it was entirely unoccupied.
This was startling. Ralph had never known that post of the service tobe untenanted at any hour of the day or night.
Then he noticed on the out main rails near the tower a handcar. Atrackman stood with his hands on the pumping bar. One foot on the car,his watch in his hand, old Jack Knight was looking impatient andexcited.
"Hustle, Fairbanks!" he shouted, and Ralph came up on a sharp run."Here," spoke Knight, extending a slip of paper to Ralph. "Get down tothe depot master, double-quick. Then hustle back to the tower. I'mbound for the limits tower, to keep things straight there."
"Why, what's up, Mr. Knight?" inquired Ralph.
"Mile-a-minute special from the north, due at 1.15. You've got fifteenminutes. The out tracks are set for the 1.05 express all right. Soonas she passes, set the out main after her so the special will take thein tracks to the limits. No. 6 will wait at the limits while we shootthe special to the out again."
"A special?" repeated Ralph, in some bewilderment, "and from thenorth----"
"Obey orders," interrupted Knight crisply. "Nothing to move except theexpress till the special passes. Understand? Don't lose any time. Getthat slip to the depot master, and hurry back to the tower."
"All right," spoke Ralph promptly.
He started on a run for the depot, as Knight sprang to the handcar andit was whirled down the rails.
Ralph had a right to be mystified. There was no special in place on thedepot tracks. The Great Northern had its terminus at Stanley Junction.
There was a single track running north from the depot, but it was not inuse. It had been built by the Great Northern to connect with a beltline fifteen miles distant, all equipped as to rails, switches, androadbed. Then the holding companies had some squabble. Suits andcounter-suits had tied up the line, and it was temporarily out ofservice on an injunction.
Ralph therefore comprehended that it was only over this stretch of roadthat any special could be expected from the north. Further, he decidedthat it must be a very important special that could gain the right ofway under existing legal complications and interrupt the regular systemof the Great Northern.
However, the order was out and Ralph had definite instructions. He madethe depot in three minutes, and darted into the private office of thedepot master without ceremony.
That official looked nervous and engrossed. He clicked at a telegraphinstrument with one hand, while he hastily unfolded and scanned the slipof paper Ralph had brought.
"Very good," he nodded. "Clear tracks to Springfield. If they boostthe special along on the other sections as well as we have done on this,and our president can score a mile-a-minute run, he can reach his dyingwife in time."
Ralph hurried back towards the switch tower. He fancied he nowunderstood the situation. The brief words of the depot master had beenenlightening.
He guessed that the president of the road at a distance had beenapprised of serious illness in his family. Perhaps the attendantphysician had wired a time limit. If the anxious husband hoped to seehis stricken wife before she died, he must exert every privilege hecontrolled as the head of a great railroad system.
Ralph reflected that he might have been a thousand miles away when hereceived the anxious summons. Influence and the wires had possiblycalled half a dozen interlocking lines into service. Even the law hadstepped aside, it seemed, to speed the distressed official on his way,via the north spur of the Great Northern.
The 1.05 express steamed out of the depot just as Ralph reached theswitch tower.
"That clears the situation," he reflected. "Set the out main for the inswitch after she passes. Hark!"
Ralph bent his ear at an unusual sound. This was the echo of a sharplocomotive whistle--to the north.
"The special is coming," he observed, and naturally with someexcitement--a mile-a-minute dash through the depot and town was anovelty for Stanley Junction.
There was no one visible in the immediate vicinity of the switch tower.The unusual quietude of the yards made Ralph think of Sunday. At alittle distance were many engines and freight trains standing onsidings. They were held inactive on order. Engineers and firemenlounged on their cab seats, looking down the yards north expectantly.
Ralph rounded the tower structure briskly. He pulled out his watch.
"Four minutes," he spoke, and turned into the lower doorway.
In a jiffy he would be up the ladder. A turn of the lever, and he, too,could sit down, and from his lofty point of observation leisurely watchthe mile-a-minute special flash by.
Half-way across the lower tower space, Ralph checked himself.
A chill, startled sensation crept over his nerves. He halted with ashock, gave a vivid stare, and uttered a sharp gasp.
A growl had warned him. Ralph saw a bristling, sinuous form arise fromthe floor directly at the bottom of the ladder.
Two fire-balls seemed to glow at him with venom and menace. In a flashthe young leverman realized the situation.
Ralph Fairbanks faced the escaped tiger.