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

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  RALPH, THE TRAIN DISPATCHER

  OR

  THE MYSTERY OF THE PAY CAR

  BY

  ALLEN CHAPMAN

  AUTHOR OF "RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE," "RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER,""RALPH ON THE ENGINE," ETC.

  ILLUSTRATED

  NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS

  Made in the United States of America

  THE RAILROAD SERIES

  By Allen Chapman

  Cloth. 12mo. Illustrated

  RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER Or, Clearing the Track RALPH ON THE ENGINE Or, The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS Or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer RALPH, THE TRAIN DISPATCHER Or, The Mystery of the Pay Car

  GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York

  Copyright, 1911 by GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Ralph, the Train Dispatcher

  CONTENTS CHAPTER I--THE OVERLAND EXPRESS CHAPTER II--THE WRECK CHAPTER III--TROUBLE BREWING CHAPTER IV--THE WIRE TAPPERS CHAPTER V--IKE SLUMP CHAPTER VI--IN THE TUNNEL CHAPTER VII--DANGER SIGNALS CHAPTER VIII--THE OLD SWITCH SHANTY CHAPTER IX--A SUSPICIOUS DISCOVERY CHAPTER X--THE TRAIN DISPATCHER CHAPTER XI--MAKING A SCHEDULE CHAPTER XII--AT THE RELAY STATION CHAPTER XIII--"HOLD THE LIMITED MAIL!" CHAPTER XIV--OLD 93 CHAPTER XV--CHASING A RUNAWAY CHAPTER XVI--THE WRECK CHAPTER XVII--A STRANGE MESSAGE CHAPTER XVIII--THE SLUMP "SECRET" CHAPTER XIX--ON THE LOOKOUT CHAPTER XX--A TRUSTY FRIEND CHAPTER XXI--A DASTARDLY PLOT CHAPTER XXII--HOLDING THE FORT CHAPTER XXIII--ONE MINUTE AFTER TWELVE CHAPTER XXIV--THE BATTLE OF WITS CHAPTER XXV--A WILD NIGHT CHAPTER XXVI--AN AMAZING ANNOUNCEMENT CHAPTER XXVII--THE STOLEN PAY CAR CHAPTER XXVIII--THE "TEST" SPECIAL CHAPTER XXIX--"CRACK THE WHIP!" CHAPTER XXX--THE PAY CAR ROBBER CHAPTER XXXI--QUICK WORK CHAPTER XXXII--CONCLUSION

  CHAPTER I

  THE OVERLAND EXPRESS

  "Those men will bear watching--they are up to some mischief, Fairbanks."

  "I thought so myself, Mr. Fogg. I have been watching them for sometime."

  "I thought you would notice them--you generally do notice things."

  The speaker with these words bestowed a glance of genuine pride andapprobation upon his companion, Ralph Fairbanks.

  They were a great pair, these two, a friendly, loyal pair, the grizzledold veteran fireman, Lemuel Fogg, and the clear-eyed, steady-handedyoung fellow who had risen from roundhouse wiper to switchtower service,then to fireman, then to engineer, and who now pulled the lever on thecrack racer of the Great Northern Railroad, the Overland express.

  Ralph sat with his hand on the throttle waiting for the signal to pullout of Boydsville Tracks. Ahead were clear, as he well knew, and hiseyes were fixed on three men who had just passed down the platform witha scrutinizing glance at the locomotive and its crew.

  Fogg had watched them for some few minutes with an ominous eye. He hadsnorted in his characteristic, suspicious way, as the trio loungedaround the end of the little depot.

  "Good day," he now said with fine sarcasm in his tone, "hope I see youagain--know I'll see you again. They're up to tricks, Fairbanks, anddon't you forget it."

  "Gone, have they?" piped in a new voice, and a brakeman craned his neckfrom his position on the reverse step of the locomotive. "Say, who arethey, anyway?"

  "Do you know?" inquired the fireman, facing the intruder sharply.

  "I'd like to. They got on three stations back. The conductor spottedthem as odd fish from the start. Two of them are disguised, that'ssure--the mustache of one of them went sideways. The old man, themild-looking, placid old gentleman they had in tow, is a telegrapher."

  "How do you know that?" asked Ralph, becoming interested.

  "That's easy. I caught him strumming on the car window sill, and I havehad an apprenticeship in the wire line long enough to guess what he wastapping out. On his mind, see--force of habit and all that. The two withhim, though, looked like jail birds."

  "What struck me," interposed Fogg, "was the way they snooked around thetrain at the two last stops. They looked us over as if they wereplanning a holdup."

  "Yes, and they pumped the train hands dry all about your schedule,"declared the brakeman. "Cottoned to me, but I cut them short. Seemedmightily interested in the pay car routine, by the way."

  "Did, eh," bristled up Fogg. "Say, tell us about that."

  "Why, you see--There goes the starting signal. See you again."

  The brakeman dropped back to duty, and the depot and the three men whohad caused a brief ripple in the monotony of a routine run were lost inthe distance. For a few minutes the fireman had his hands full feedingthe fire, and Ralph, eyes, ears and all his senses on the alert, got inperfect touch with throttle, air gauge and exhaust valve.

  Ralph glanced at the clock and took an easy position on his cushionedseat. Everything was in order for a smooth run to twenty miles away. TheOverland Express was on time, as she usually was, and everything was intrim for a safe delivery at terminus.

  Fogg hustled about. He was a restless, ambitious being, always findinglots to do about cab and tender. His brows were knitted, however, andevery once in a while he indulged in a fit of undertoned grumbling.Ralph watched him furtively with a slight smile. He knew that hiscompanion railroader was stirred up about something. The young engineerhad come to understand the quirks and turns and moods of his eccentrichelper, just as fully as those of his beloved engine.

  "I say," broke out Fogg finally, slamming down into his seat. "It'sabout time for something to happen, Fairbanks."

  "Think so?" queried Ralph lightly.

  "Been pretty smooth sailing lately, you see."

  "That's the way it ought to be in a well-regulated family, isn't it, Mr.Fogg?"

  "Humph--maybe. All the same, I'm an old bird and know the signs."

  "What signs are you talking about, Mr. Fogg?"

  "Our machine balked this morning when she took the turntable, didn'tshe?"

  "That was because the wiper was half asleep."

  "Thirteen blew out a cylinder head as we passed her--13, an unluckynumber, see?"

  "That's an every-day occurrence since the high pressure system came in."

  "White cow crossed the track just back a bit."

  "Nonsense," railed Ralph. "I thought you'd got rid of all those oldsuperstitions since your promotion to the best job on the road."

  "That's it, that's just it," declared the fireman with seriousvehemence--"and I don't want to lose it. Just as I say, since we knockedout the sorehead crew of strikers and made the big record on that famoussnowstorm run on the Mountain Division, we've been like ducks in clearwater, smooth sailing and the best on earth none too good for us. Itisn't natural. Why, old John Griscom, thirty years at the furnace, usedto get scared to death if he ran two weeks without a broken drivingwheel or a derail."

  "Well, you see we're on a new order of things, Mr. Fogg," suggestedRalph brightly. "They've put us at the top-notch with a top-notchmachine and a top-notch crew. We must stay there, and we'll do it if wekeep our heads clear, eyes open and attend strictly to business."

  The fireman shook his head fretfully and looked unconvinced. Ralph knewhis stubborn ways and said nothing.

  The young engineer of the Overland Express was in the heyday ofsatisfaction and contentment. He was proud of his present position, andwas prouder still because he felt
that he had earned it through sheerenergy and merit. As Fogg had declared, the appearance of the three mennoted had something sinister about it, but the fireman was alwaysgetting rattled about something or other, fussy as an old woman when thelocomotive was balky. Ralph insisted upon enjoying to the limit the fullmeasure of prosperity that had come to him.

  Both had fought hard to secure the positions they now held, however, andthe mere hint of a break in the pleasant programme set them up in armsinstanter. They had chummed together and had learned to love thestaunch, magnificent locomotive that pulled the Overland Express as ifit was a fellow comrade, and would have had a pitched battle any timewith the meddler or enemy who plotted injury to the prize train of theGreat Northern.

  All this had not been accomplished without some pretty hard knocks.Looking back in retrospect now, Ralph could fancy his progress to dateas veritable steps in the ladder of fortune. It had all rounded out sobeautifully that it seemed like a dream. Now the thought of trouble ordisaster reminded him gravely of the foes he had known in the past, andthe difficult places he had battled through in his steadfast march tothe front rank.

  Ralph Fairbanks had taken to railroading as naturally as does a duck towater. His father had been one of the pioneer builders of the GreatNorthern. In the first volume of the present series, entitled "Ralph ofthe Roundhouse," the unworthy scheme of Gasper Farrington, a villagemagnate, to rob Ralph's widowed mother of her little home was depicted.That book, too, tells of how Ralph left school to work for a living andwin laurels as the best engine wiper in the service.

  Ralph's next step up the ladder, as told in the second volume of thisseries, called "Ralph in the Switch Tower," led to his promotion to thepost of fireman. The third volume of the series, "Ralph on the Engine,"showed the routine and adventures of an ambitious boy bound to reach thetop notch in railroad service.

  The proudest moment in the life of the young engineer, however, seemedto have arrived when Ralph was awarded the crack run of the road, astold in the fourth volume of this series entitled "Ralph on the OverlandExpress."

  The reader who has followed the upward and onward course of the railroadboy through these volumes will remember how he made friends everywhere.They were all the better for his bright ways and good example. It wasRalph's great forbearance and patience that overcame the grumpiness andsuspicion of the cross-grained Lemuel Fogg and made of him a first-classfireman. It was Ralph's kindly encouragement that brought out theinventive genius of a capital young fellow named Archie Graham, andhelped Limpy Joe, a railroad cripple, to acquire a living as an eatinghouse proprietor.

  A poor waif named Van Sherwin owed his rise in life to the influence ofthe good-hearted young engineer, and Zeph Dallas, a would-be boydetective, was toned down and instructed by Ralph until his wild ideashad some practical coherency to them.

  Ralph had his enemies. From time to time along his brisk railroad careerthey had bobbed up at inopportune junctures, but never to his finaldisaster, for they were in the wrong and right always prevails in theend. They had tried to upset his plans on many an occasion, they hadtried to disgrace and discredit him, but vainly.

  In "Ralph on the Overland Express" the young engineer did some prettybig things for a new man at the throttle. He carried a train load ofpassengers through a snowstorm experience that made old veterans on theroad take notice in an astonished way, and he made some record runs overthe Mountain Division that established the service of the Great Northernas a standard model.

  All this success not only ranked in the minds of his enemies, but rousedthe envy and dissatisfaction of rival roads. For some time vague hintshad been rife that these rivals were forming a combination "to put theGreat Northern out of business," if the feat were possible, so bothRalph and his loyal fireman kept their eyes wide open and felt that theywere on their mettle all of the time.

  Ralph's last exploit had won him a high place in the estimation of hissuperiors. With every train out of Rockton stalled, he and Fogg had madea terrifying hairbreadth special run to Shelby Junction, defying floods,drifts and washouts, landing the president of the road just in the nickof time to catch a train on a parallel rival line.

  The event had enabled that official to close an advantageousarrangement, in which time was the essence of a contract which gave theGreat Northern the supremacy over every line in the district havingtranscontinental connections.

  The Great Northern had won the upper hand through this timely but nottricky operation. Naturally, baffled, rival roads had been upset by thesame. A revengeful feeling had extended to the employees of those lines,and the warning had been spread broadcast to look out for squalls, asthe other roads had given the quiet tip to its men, it was understood,to take down the Great Northern a peg or two whenever occasion offered.

  Of all this Ralph was thinking as they passed the flag station at Luce,and shot around the long curve guarded by a line of bluffs just beyond.The young engineer was thinking of home, and so was Fogg, for they weredue in twenty-three minutes now.

  Suddenly Ralph reached out for the lever lightning quick, and then hishand swept sand and air valves with the rapidity of an expert playingsome instrument.

  Crack!

  Under the wheels of the big locomotive a detonating clamor rangout--always a vivid warning to the nerves of every wide-awake railroadman.

  "A torpedo--something ahead," spoke Ralph quickly.

  "What did I tell you?" jerked out his fireman excitedly. "I felt it inmy bones, I told you it was about time for something to happen."

  The young engineer steadied the locomotive down to a sliding halt like atrained jockey stopping a horse on the race track. The halt brought thenose of the locomotive just beyond the bluff line so that Ralph couldsweep the tracks ahead with a clear glance.

  "It's a wreck," announced the young engineer of the Overland Express.