Ralph in the Switch Tower; Or, Clearing the Track

by Frank V. Webster

  CHAPTER XI--SPOILING FOR A FIGHT

  As Ralph spoke the special was a blur as it passed the tower, a flyingspot as it flashed to the in rails, a speck as it turned the curve.

  Ralph sat motionless till he caught its whistle past the limits tower.Then he realized that his crucial test was past and done.

  The telephone bell rang noisily. The dial indicator began to move. Thedelayed freights set up a piping call for service. For five minutesRalph jumped actively from lever to lever. He was glad of the task--itdiverted his mind from the harrowing ordeal that had so nearly unmannedhim.

  As there was a lull in the service, Ralph thought of the tiger below. Hestarted to send a message for relief over the 'phone. Just then henoticed a familiar form smoking a pipe on a baggage truck near by.

  "Hey, Stiggs!" he called from the open window.

  The person addressed was a simple-faced, smiling man of about fifty. Hewore a railroad jumper and overalls, but they were spotless, as if hehad pretty light work. He wore, too, a regular fireman's peaked cap--infact looked like a seasoned railroad hand, but moved as placidly towardsthe tower at Ralph's hail as though he was inspector-general and mainowner of the railroad.

  Stiggs was a character about the yards. He was one of the firstswitchmen employed by the Great Northern. About two years previously,however, he had got terribly battered up in trying to rescue an expressdriver and his horses who had got wedged in on an X-switch. Stiggssucceeded, but paid the penalty.

  When he came out of the hospital he was sound of limb, but his mind wasaffected. He was not dangerous or troublesome, but he still imaginedthat he was in active service for the railroad company.

  The Great Northern pensioned him, and he and his wife got along quitecomfortably on the sixteen dollars a month allowed them, as they ownedtheir little home. Stiggs, however, haunted the yards. He put on afresh, clean working suit twice a week, and went the rounds of depot,flag-shanties, switch tower, and roundhouse twice a day regularly.

  He was so pleasant and inoffensive that all hands gave him a welcome. Heran errands for men on duty, and at times unofficially spelled thecrossings flagmen while they went to their meals.

  His great need was tobacco. His wife would buy him none, saying theycould not afford it. When the railroad men rewarded his little serviceswith a pipeful or a package of his favorite brand, Stiggs was a veryhappy man.

  "Want me?" he called up to Ralph as he neared the tower.

  "Yes," answered Ralph. "Will you do an errand for me?"

  "Sure pop. That's what the company hires me for, isn't it?" demandedStiggs cheerfully.

  "You know where the circus train is unloading?"

  "Over near the street--of course. I supervised getting their bandchariot down the skids. New men here--never handled chariots before.They'd have smashed her if I hadn't been on deck to direct them."

  "Experience counts, Mr. Stiggs," remarked Ralph indulgently.

  "You bet it does--that's what the company hires me for."

  "Well, you go down and see if any of the circus people are stillaround."

  "They were ten minutes ago."

  "Find the manager. You know one of their wild animals is loose?"

  "I heard so."

  "Then you bargain for a reward. Tell them you can produce their escapedtiger if they pay you for your trouble."

  Stiggs stared in perplexed simplicity at Ralph.

  "But I can't," he demurred, "and I never tell a lie, you know."

  "Yes, you can," asserted Ralph--"at least I can. I know where theanimal is. You hurry the circus manager here, and I will show up thetiger."

  Simple-minded Stiggs craned his neck as if expecting to see the animalin question in Ralph's company. Then his face grew mildly reproachful.

  "I didn't think you would try to hoax me, Fairbanks!" he saidsorrowfully.

  "I wouldn't for the world, Mr. Stiggs," said Ralph. "I have too muchrespect for you. Do as I say now--only hurry. Make a good bargain, fora little money won't do Mrs. Stiggs any harm. Hustle, though--fortigers are slippery customers, you know."

  Stiggs nodded dubiously, and set off on his errand. Ralph kept an eyeon the side of the tower where the lower entrance was, ready to warnanyone approaching.

  He could hear the animal occupant of the room below moving about. Thenit quieted down, after a jangle of metal pieces. Ralph figured out thatit had made its lair in the darkest corner of the apartment where therewas a heap of old junk.

  He looked down the ladder, but did not venture below.

  It was about ten minutes after Stiggs had departed on his errand, thatRalph had occasion to warn a newcomer.

  He had watched this person cross the tracks from Railroad Street in arather lurching, irresponsible way.

  As he came nearer, Ralph recognized the belligerent friend of hispredecessor at the switch tower, Young Slavin.

  Ralph had not seen nor heard from Slavin, Bemis, or Ike Slump since hisadventure with the trio at "The Signal" restaurant on lower RailroadStreet.

  As Slavin drew nearer, Ralph judged, from the way that he glanced up atthe tower, that this was his intended goal, and, from the way heclenched his fists and hunched up his shoulders, that he had got himselfprimed for some mischief.

  Slavin halted as he got within ten feet of the switch tower. In astupid, solemn sort of way he scanned its side, trying to determinewhere its entrance was located. Ralph stuck his head out of the window.

  "Hello, there!" he hailed.

  "Hello, yerself!" retorted Slavin, finding some difficulty in steadyinghimself as he crooked his neck to make out his challenger. "Who's that?Fill my heart with joy by just telling me it's the fellow I'm lookingfor--young Fairbanks!"

  "That is who it is," responded Ralph promptly. "Want me?"

  "Do I!" chuckled Slavin, cutting a pigeon-wing and giving a freeexhibition of pugilist fist play. "Oh, don't I! Business, strictlybusiness--young man. Will you come down, or shall I come up?"

  "I don't want to see you bad enough to come down," observed Ralph. "Asto coming up, I warn you not to attempt it, just at present."

  "Afraid, eh?" jeered Slavin.

  "Was I the other night?" asked Ralph pointedly.

  "That was a foul," cried Slavin wrathfully. "I've come for satisfactionnow, and I'm going to have it."

  "Not in working hours, and not here," declared Ralph definitely. "Holdon, Slavin!" he called in some alarm, as his irresponsible visitorrounded the structure, bent on forcing an entrance. "Hey, stop! Don'tgo in there."

  Slavin had reached the lower door of the tower room.

  "I tell you to stop!" cried Ralph strenuously. "There's a wild beast inthere--the tiger that escaped from the circus."

  "You can't bluff me," retorted Young Slavin, making a determined lurchthrough the doorway.

  Ralph ran to a window sill and seized a long iron wrench lying there. Hewas really alarmed for the safety of his would-be visitor.

  At all odds, he felt it his duty to save even an acknowledged enemy froma foolhardy fate.

  Ralph got to the trap, and started to descend the ladder.

  A curdling yell rang out from below, and Ralph saw tiger and pugilistwhirling together in a maze of wild confusion.