Ralph in the Switch Tower; Or, Clearing the Track

by Frank V. Webster

  CHAPTER VIII--A BAD LOT

  Mort Bemis gave an astonished gasp as he saw his crony disappear likemagic through the window sash.

  His respect for the nerve and prowess of his successor at the switchtower was immensely increased. He spoke not a word, being stupefied andcowed.

  Ralph started to leave the room, unmolested now. A sudden outcrychecked him. He proceeded to its source--the open window.

  Below it on the ground a stirring scene was in progress. It seemed thathis masterly fling of Young Slavin had landed that juvenile Herculesdirectly on top of the individual Ralph had noticed lying asleep underthe window, swathed in horse-blankets.

  Aroused from dense slumber by a terrific shock, this person hadstruggled to his feet.

  "Well, well," said Ralph, his eyes opening wide as he recognized thedisturbed sleeper; "Ike Slump again."

  Ralph at once knew the gaunt, desperate-looking fellow, who had jumpedfrom the delayed freight car and knocked him down the previous evening.

  The stowaway's face was no longer grimed, and Ralph had a clear view nowof its natural lineaments. It was Ike Slump, peaked andwretched-looking. His appearance evidenced that his stolen junkoperations and his later fugitive role had not led him into any pleasantpath of flowers.

  It seemed that Slump, skulking anywhere for hiding and repose like ahunted rat, had utilized the horse-blankets as a bed.

  It seemed, too, that he was in constant dread of discovery and arrest.He must have slept with a missile or a weapon always handy, for hisfingers now clutched a brick.

  Suddenly disturbed, his nervous fears aroused, at sea as to the cause ofthe shock as Slavin landed on him, Ike had come erect, grabbing thebrick instanter.

  He was all entangled in his bed coverings, but he maintained astaggering footing. He was reaching out for his disturber to beat himoff with the brick.

  "You've broken my nose," he yelled; "take that--take that!"

  "Murder!" howled Young Slavin.

  He did not use his doughty fists, for he could not. In blind rage andterror Ike was striking out with the brick.

  He delivered several blows on Slavin's head and face that made Ralphshudder.

  A final one sent the young pugilist reeling back against the clapboardsof the house. He was blinded with blood and pain, and shouted for helpin sniveling terror.

  Slump kicked his feet free of the entangling horse-blankets, and dartedaway towards the railroad tracks.

  Ralph turned in disgust from the scene. He faced Bemis, who, hiscuriosity awakened by the tumult, had come to the window.

  "You are training with a nice crowd, Mr. Bemis," observed Ralph. "Betterswitch off and get back to the main tracks."

  "Lots of show for me, isn't there?" growled Mort sullenly.

  "Get a roundhouse clearance of clean flues and headlights, and try it,"answered Ralph.

  The allusions were technical ones that Bemis fully understood. But heonly blinked his bleared eyes, and more savagely gritted his teeth onthe cigarette he was smoking.

  "It's too bad," ruminated Ralph, as he left the place, shaking hisshoulders as if to cast off a spatter of filthy mud. "It is a terriblewarning, too," he continued. "Thank Heaven for mother, home, andprinciple! Maybe those fellows haven't got all the blessings that keepme in the right path. I wish I could do them some good. Well, I won'tdo them any harm. Let Ike Slump go his way. I fancy the punishment hehas got will keep him from troubling anyone around Stanley Junction fora while."

  Ralph did not inform the local police of Ike's reappearance, nor did helodge any complaint against Bemis.

  He imagined that his visit to the latter had scared off his enemies, astwo days went by and there was no further attempt made to obstruct hisservices at the switch tower.

  Affairs there got down to a routine that pleased the young leverman. Nota jar or break in the service occurred. He seemed to have glidednaturally into the details of the business, and was able to take iteasier now. He did not worry about wrecks any more. Following out oldJack's definite instructions to always strictly obey orders and actpromptly, he simply watched 'phone, dial, and levers. He let the limitstower and the yards switches take care of themselves.

  It was three days after Ralph's encounter with Young Slavin and thefifth of his service at the switch tower.

  His shift had been changed temporarily. It was divided into four hoursin the morning and four in the afternoon.

  Ralph had an hour for dinner. That especial day his nooning hadsomething of the element of a new interest. His mother told him she hadreceived a brief note from Mrs. Davis.

  The latter in a penciled scrawl told Mrs. Fairbanks that the writer wasnot very well, and would like to have her call that afternoon. She saidshe wanted to pay back the ten dollars she owed Ralph, as she hadreceived a remittance from her sister.

  "Are you going to see her, mother?" inquired Ralph.

  "Surely. I will run up to her house as soon as the dishes are washed."

  "I hope she will tell you something about those bonds," said Ralph. "Ishall be anxious to know the result of your call."

  "What time will you be home, Ralph?" asked his mother.

  "A few minutes after five," he answered, and started for work, his mindfilled with all kinds of anticipations regarding his mother's visit toMrs. Davis.

  A crowd lined the out freight tracks as Ralph reached the depot yards.

  A circus had come to town, and the menagerie vans had been switched onthe street sidings early that morning.

  Now the big circus wagons were unloading these, to convey them to thetent site up on the common.

  Some of the cages were uncovered purposely to advertise the coming show.This had drawn a throng of excited urchins and the loungers from lowerRailroad Street.

  Ralph halted for a minute or two, watching the removal of some of thecages.

  He moved up to one that was the center of a peering, engrossed crowd.Those present acted as though something was going on out of the common.

  A person who seemed to be the manager of the show, and looking quiteserious and important, was giving some instructions to half a dozencircus hands.

  Three of these latter had armed themselves with long pikes. Anothercarried a pole with a crooked iron end, resembling a giant chickencatcher. A fifth had a stout rope with a chain end forming a halter.The last of the group carried an enormous wire muzzle.

  They stood beside a car which held a strong iron cage. This was empty,and at one end its canvas covering was torn, and two of its bars werebent far out of regular position.

  Ralph ran up against an old friend as he pressed on the outskirts of thecrowd.

  This was John Griscom, the veteran engineer who had impressed Ralph intoservice the day of his first railroading experience when the yards atActon had caught fire.

  Griscom was on his way to the roundhouse to get his locomotive in trimfor a regular afternoon trip. His dinner pail swung from his arm. Hewas such a practical old fellow that Ralph wondered at his taking aninterest in anything so trifling as circus excitement.

  "What's the excitement, Mr. Griscom?" he asked.

  "Animal loose."

  "Indeed? When did it escape?"

  "That's what's worrying the circus people. They don't know. They justtook off the canvas cover of the cage to make the discovery. The trainswitched here before daylight. It was in the cage then, they say."

  Here the six circus hands started out on the quest of the missinganimal.

  "Search the yards thoroughly," ordered the menagerie manager. "Shoot,if you can't corner him. It won't do the show any good to have him dodamage or scare people. Fifty dollars' reward for the capture of thebeast!"

  "What kind of an animal was it?" Ralph asked of Griscom.

  "Toothless old bear, I suppose, or a blind lion," bluffly answered therailroad veteran, who did not have a very high opinion of the averagecircus wild beast.

  Just here the menagerie manager seemed to disco
ver an opportunity foradvertising the show and lauding its attractions.

  "I beg of you, gentlemen," he said, in a suave tone, as the crowd made amove to follow the searching party--"don't impede our efforts by gettingin the way. Calcutta Tom, the largest and fiercest Indian tiger incaptivity in any menagerie in the country, is loose. This superb kingof the forests killed five men before he was caged, was brought to thiscountry at a cost of six thousand dollars, and, if captured now, will beon exhibition this afternoon, along with the most marvelous aggregationof brute and human celebrities on the face of the civilized globeto-day."

  "And all for twenty-five cents--lemonade and popcorn a nickle extra,"piped a mischievous urchin.