Ralph in the Switch Tower; Or, Clearing the Track

by Frank V. Webster

  CHAPTER XV--A HERO DESPITE HIMSELF

  Ralph did not have to look twice to be sure that it was the villagemagnate who stood just where he had discovered Van Sherwin a few minutesprevious.

  Gasper Farrington was stooping stealthily under the open window. He didnot seem to care so much to see who was inside. Perhaps he had alreadyseen. His whole attitude showed that he was listening intently.

  Ralph disliked Farrington. He had reason for the sentiment. He couldnot recall one gracious action on the part of the miserly old man in allthe years he had known him.

  His present occupation, that of an eavesdropper, was so expected andcharacteristic of Farrington, that Ralph's indignation was less than hiscontempt.

  "What is he after here?" reflected Ralph; "no good, of course. Mrs.Davis knows him and fears him, it seems. He is going."

  Before Ralph could make up his mind to any definite course of action,Farrington, after a meditative pause, slunk from under the window. Thenhe disappeared briskly around the corner of the house.

  Ralph ran softly after him and peered around the end of the structure.He saw Farrington headed for town, across lots to the nearest highway.

  Ralph came back to the old summer house to find Van gone. He looked forhim, even tried a whistle signal both understood, but obtained noresponse.

  "It's all a queer affair," mused Ralph. "Mrs. Davis seems to be a greatcenter of interest just at present. Perhaps she has told mothersomething that explains matters."

  Ralph was doomed to disappointment in this hope. When he knocked at thedoor of the Davis home, his mother answered the summons.

  "Mrs. Davis is resting nicely," she whispered. "It would only exciteher to see you to-night. Just wait outside, and I will slip away andjoin you in a few minutes."

  Mrs. Fairbanks was soon on the way homeward with Ralph. She explainedthat Mrs. Davis was quite unwell and nervous. She had stayed with herand nursed her, and left her comfortable for the night.

  "She gave me the ten dollars for you, Ralph," said Mrs. Fairbanks, "butshe said very little about the bonds. I have an idea that she knowssomething about them, and I think she has been writing to GasperFarrington. The last thing she said as I left her, was for both of usto come to see her to-morrow night. She said she would get something inthe meantime she had placed with a friend to show us, in which we wouldboth be interested."

  Ralph said nothing to his mother about meeting Van, nor did he mentionFarrington's visit to the Davis home. He did not wish to worry hismother, and he hoped that another twenty-four hours might somewhat clearthe situation.

  Of course Mrs. Fairbanks was more than pleased over her present of thenew hat. Her son's recital of the tiger episode frightened and thrilledher by turns.

  Ralph did a good deal of thinking after getting to bed. He wondered ifMrs. Davis was up to any double-dealing. Perhaps she knew something ofimportance about the bonds. She might have come to Stanley Junction tosell her secret to Farrington. Possibly later she became undecided asto her course, her accidental meeting with Ralph moving her to favor himin the matter.

  Ralph guessed that no one but Farwell Gibson could have sent Van toStanley Junction. Gibson had been mixed up in the matter of hisfather's railroad bonds, years back. Was there some kind of athree-cornered complication, in which Farrington, Gibson, and Mrs. Daviseach had a share, and all three playing at cross-purposes?

  At ten o'clock that night the local newspaper left the press, weightedwith the biggest sensation of the year, but Ralph did not know it.

  He was made aware of it next morning, however, as he left the house. NedTalcott, an old school chum, came running up to him fluttering afreshly-printed sheet.

  "Did you see it? Did you really do all that?" he demanded, inbreathless excitement.

  "See what--do what?" inquired Ralph.

  "Well, just run your eagle eye over these two front columns!" chuckledRalph's ardent admirer.

  "Oh, dear!" said Ralph, in faint stupefaction.

  The ambitious newspaper reporter had dished up a wonderfully graphic andinteresting story. He did not seem to have missed a point in theepisode of the escaped circus tiger.

  He had got every fact about the special, every detail of Ralph'sencounter with Calcutta Tom, the sensational climb of the telegraphpole, the swing of the lever just in time. He even touched on theaccident to Young Slavin, Ralph's benevolence to that enemy, and hisgenerous division of the reward with the Stiggses.

  "Whew!" gasped Ralph, concluding the article with a whirling head. "Why,if I wasn't mad at all the bosh he has put into this screed, I couldlaugh--it is simply ridiculous!"

  All the same, the reporter had written a very entertaining article. Itwas the "fancy touches" that seemed preposterous to Ralph, who had gonethrough the episode practically.

  All through the story the writer held the tension high as to suspenseand impending peril. He made the reader fairly see the glaring eyeballsof the defiant tiger. He almost made him hear the wild beatings of theheart of the desperate but intrepid young leverman.

  The warning shrieks of the devoted special on the verge of destruction,the nearing hiss and splutter of the steam jets, the thunderous thunderof the grinding wheels--all these were the thrilling concomitants of abreathless description. It ended in the crash of the tower window, theleap to the levers, the action that made of Ralph Fairbanks the hero ofthe hour.

  The grand finale was a pathetic touch. It alluded to the greatthrobbing heart of humanity always electrically responsive to suchappeals as that involved in the anxious haste of the distressed railroadpresident to reach a beloved wife at the door of death.

  Three people whom Ralph knew stopped him to congratulate him before hereached the depot yards.

  A cheer greeted him as he crossed from Railroad Street to the switchtower. It came from a flag-shanty, where four of his firemen friendswere standing. Two of them waved papers. Ralph laughed and noddedcarelessly, but flushed with pleasure.

  "There's two men I would like to have see that article," spoke old JackKnight, emphatically slapping the newspaper in his lap as Ralph came onduty. "One is the master mechanic. The other is that old skeesicks,Farrington."

  Ralph was embarrassed by further congratulations all through themorning. He had a pleasant day, however. The praises of his realfriends were very sweet, and the sense of duty well done was a spur tohis noblest ambitions.

  It was toward five o'clock that the crowning episode of the dayoccurred. Ralph was busy at the levers, Knight was at the telephone, asthe superintendent came up the trap ladder.

  His manner to both these valued employees was more than usually genial.

  "Dropped in on my way to the roundhouse," he observed. "I received awire from the president of the Great Northern about an hour ago,Fairbanks."

  "Yes, sir?" said Ralph, wondering what was coming.

  Shrewd Jack Knight gave a wise chuckle, and his eyes twinkled.

  "He mentioned you," pursued the superintendent. "He sent a long wire,requesting an expression of his thanks for prompt service all along theline. He added a paragraph that may interest you. As I take you to betoo practical a young man to get the swelled head, or impose on anappreciation of duty well done, I will read the paragraph to you."

  The speaker drew a typewritten yellow sheet from his pocket. Heresumed:

  "The president says: 'I imagine that by young Ralph Fairbanks, who hasshown such devotion to his duty and saved the special under suchextraordinary circumstances, the intelligence will be gladly receivedthat my timely arrival at home probably saved my dear wife's life. Themorning papers here have a full account of his remarkable adventures atthe switch tower. I desire that you commend him warmly in my behalf,and it is the sense of the road directors that, while you do not promotehim too fast, you must see that he gets what he deserves promptly."

  Ralph flushed with emotion. He could not speak.

  "Good!" commented blunt old Jack. "The president is a
brick. You'reanother one, Mr. Superintendent, and you don't lose, let me tell you, bywarming up a thrifty employee's heart by giving him the real stuff,right from the shoulder, when he deserves it."

  The superintendent smiled and bowed, and went on his way.

  "Stiff as a poker, looks as if his only thought was to catch a chance tofire someone," observed Knight, watching the prim, dignified officialcrossing the tracks below. "Look at him--cold as an iceberg. You'vethawed him out, though, Fairbanks!" chuckled the veteran towerman."That's so--there is something I wanted to find out."

  He pretended to be mightily busy poring over a little red memorandumbook for a few minutes.

  "Got it," he called out finally: "Chief Train Dispatcher. One hundredand seventy-five dollars a month. Keep it in view, kid. You heard whatthe president said."

  "Nonsense!" flushed Ralph; "my highest ambition for a long time to comeis to run a locomotive."

  Mrs. Fairbanks regarded her son with humid eyes as he told the story ofthe day that night.

  She did not try to express her emotion. She could not. Ever sinceRalph had resolutely started at work, there had been what she greeted asa continual round of blessings. And Ralph shared her heartfeltgratefulness.

  Right after supper they started together to visit Mrs. Davis. Ralphcarried a basket which contained some dainties his mother had preparedfor the invalid.

  On their way Ralph told his mother of the suspicious circumstances ofGasper Farrington's visit to the Davis home the evening previous. Hethought she ought now to know of it. He intimated, too, that it mightbe wise to warn Mrs. Davis.

  "If she would only talk out what is evidently preying on her mind,"observed Mrs. Fairbanks, "we could understand the situation much moreclearly."

  "You know she has promised to enlighten us in a way, this evening,"suggested Ralph.

  "The house is dark," said his mother, as they neared it.

  "Yes, and--why, mother! the door is open."

  Ralph knocked loudly. There was no response.

  "I hope nothing is amiss," murmured Mrs. Fairbanks, in a flutteringtone.

  She groped her way down the dark hall and into the sitting room,stumbling over some garments lying on the floor which nearly tripped herup.

  "Mrs. Davis! Mrs. Davis!" she called, "are you here?"

  Again there was only silence. Mrs. Fairbanks sighed with deep suspense.

  "Perhaps I had better get a light," suggested Ralph.

  "I wish you would," said his mother.

  Ralph flared a match. He discovered a lamp on a mantel-shelf andlighted it. Mother and son glanced about the apartment searchingly.

  On the floor lay the heavy shawl Mrs. Fairbanks had stumbled over. Alittle table was overturned. A drapery that had festooned the entrancedoorway from the hall was torn half loose, as if someone had grasped itin being dragged from the room.

  "That looks bad," said Ralph gravely.

  He took up the lamp and went all through the house. In the one upperchamber the contents of the bureau drawer were scattered all over thefloor. A trunk was broken open, and its interior all in disorder.

  "Is she here, Ralph?" questioned his mother anxiously, as he returned tothe sitting room.

  "No," answered Ralph. "Mother, there is foul play here."

  "Oh, Ralph!"

  "I am sure of it. Someone has ransacked the house, and I believe theyhave kidnapped Mrs. Davis."

  "But--why?" stammered the affrighted Mrs. Fairbanks.

  "Why?" cried Ralph, greatly stirred up by tumultuous thoughts andsuspicions that irresistibly thronged his brain. "To secure somethingthat Mrs. Davis had in her keeping, I believe."

  "But who would do it?"

  "Who?" responded Ralph. "I can imagine only one person who might beinterested."

  "And that is?"

  "Gasper Farrington."

  "Right!" pronounced a new voice, startlingly near. "You have hit thenail squarely on the head this time, Ralph Fairbanks!"