Ralph, the Train Dispatcher; Or, The Mystery of the Pay Car
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CHAPTER XXVII
THE STOLEN PAY CAR
Long before the whistles blew for seven o'clock at Stanley Junction thenews had spread like wildfire--train No. 83, carrying the substitute paycar, containing two hundred thousand dollars in cash and a king's ransomin bullion for the banks, had disappeared.
Somewhere between Fairview and Maddox, the time, and means unknown, thecar containing all this treasure had been boldly stolen, disconnectedfrom the train, had vanished.
One minute after receiving the startling cypher message, Ralph hadtelephoned to the superintendent of the road at his home in StanleyJunction. Within an hour that official and two assistants in hastilydonned garb and with perturbed faces were at headquarters trying tosolve a situation enshrouded in the densest mystery.
The wires were kept hot with messages to and from Fairview. Theconductor of No. 83 could simply repeat his amazing story. When thetrain arrived at Maddox they found the precious treasure car missing.Their crippled engine could not be brought into service. Thesnow-clogged rails offered no chance for a hand car.
Had the car broken loose? was the question put. No, was the answer. Thebumper of the last milk car showed no evidences of unusual strain orbreak. The coupling pin had simply been removed, how far back the lineit was impossible to surmise, certainly between Fairview and Maddox.
And then, linking in the discovery of the brakeman lying drugged or hurtat the side of the track by the station agent at Tipton, theirresistible conclusion was arrived at by the anxious railroad officialsthat their careful plans to delude the conspirators and safely get thesubstitute pay car through had failed utterly.
There was only one thing to do. This was to make an immediate search forthe missing car. Belleville, ten miles distant from Fairview, was wiredan urgency call. The snowplow service with one caboose was ordered out.The division superintendent at Belleville was instructed concerning thesituation, and at four a. m. the train started for Fairview, to plow itsway back over the route of No. 83 to seek a trace of the missing car.
It was before daylight when a report came in. Nowhere along the sharpcurves or deep gullies of the route was a single trace of the cardiscovered. It had disappeared as absolutely and completely as if theearth had opened and swallowed it up.
The falling snow had obliterated all recent marks on its surface. By themerest chance, ten miles out of Maddox, the division superintendent hadnoticed a small mound that was unfamiliar. Stopping the train, aninvestigation disclosed the two guards who had been locked in the paycar when it left Rockton.
It had been hard work to arouse the men, but finally one of them wasrestored to consciousness sufficiently to relate a clear story.
Their instructions had been simple--to use their rifles if any strangerattempted to enter the car on its journey. Between stations the brakemanon duty on the rear platform of the car was allowed to enter to getwarm. He had always, however, given an agreed-on signal at the door ofthe car.
It was just after leaving Tipton that his familiar knock had called oneof them to the door to let him in. Taken completely off their guard, asfour men one after the other jumped in among them, the guards had noopportunity to seize their firearms. They had been knocked down on thefloor of the car, cloths drugged with some subtle acid had been heldover their faces. They knew no more until they had been discovered bythe division superintendent.
"It's easy to guess it out," whispered Glidden to Ralph while theofficials in the room were piecing all these bits of informationtogether.
"Yes," responded Ralph, "the conspirators in some way received advanceinformation of every step we intended to make."
"They must have got aboard secretly beyond Tipton, or have been hiddenin the last milk car," suggested Glidden. "They jumped on and doped thebrakeman, disposed of him, later of the two guards, and were inpossession. The division superintendent reports that the wires werefound cut just out of Tipton. The crowd had planned out everything to asecond, with conspirators posted all along the line."
"But the missing car," said Ralph thoughtfully; "what has become of it?"
Neither he nor Glidden could figure out a solution of this difficultproblem. Even the experienced official after a long confab gave it up.The only thing they could do was to order a hasty search for Bob Adair,the road detective, to rush to the spot with all the force he needed.
The superintendent spoke pleasantly to Ralph and Glidden as the dayforce relieved them. He even forgot his anxieties long enough to commendthem for the hard work they had done and the close tab they had kept onall the occurrences of the night.
"It's a bad mess for the Great Northern," he said with a worried face,"and it proves that our enemies are not as dull as we thought theywere."
Ralph went home tired out. He found it hard, however, to get to sleep.The strain and excitement of the preceding twelve hours told severely onhis nerves. All through the morning his vivid dreams were of snowblockades, cut wires, and stolen treasure cars.
On account of their special service on behalf of the pay car affair,Glidden and himself were relieved from duty for twenty-four hours. Theold dispatcher dropped in at the Fairbanks home shortly after noon.
"Have they found any trace of the missing pay car?" at once inquiredRalph.
"Stolen, you mean," corrected Glidden. "No. Theories? Lots of them. Shewas simply cut off from the train. She couldn't have derailed, forthere's no trace of that unless she went up in the air. Of course,whoever manipulated her sent her off on a siding among the mountains ona down grade."
"And that is the last known of it. Well, what later?"
"Adair will be over to find out soon, or else he won't," retortedGlidden crisply. "You know that web of old abandoned sidings and spursbranching out the other side of Maddox?"
"Near Eagle Pass, you mean?"
"Yes. The superintendent thinks the car will be found somewhere on thebranches, looted, of course, for the robbers have had hours to handlethe booty."
Nothing but theory, however, resulted from official investigationsduring the ensuing two days. The following Monday morning the assistantsuperintendent met Ralph on his way to work. The missing car problem wasstill unsolved, he told the young railroader.
Adair and his men had explored every spur and siding the entire lengthof Eagle Pass. Not a trace of the stolen car had been discovered, andthe road officer was working on a theory that it might have been run offon connecting private switches onto the Midland Central, and thecollusion of important influences exercised.
When Ralph got home that evening he found an old time friend awaitinghim. It was Zeph Dallas, just arrived.
"Why, hello!" hailed Ralph heartily, walking into the sitting room wherehe had spied Zeph. "I'm glad to see you, Zeph--why, what's the matter?"
Zeph was indeed an object to excite wonderment and attention. His facewas about the forlornest that Ralph had ever seen. His eyes were liketwo holes burned in his head, his clothes were wrinkled as if he hadslept in them for a week.
In a limp, hopeless fashion the "boy detective," all his plumes ofambition sadly trailing in the dust of humiliation and defeat, allowedhis hand to rest lifelessly in that of Ralph. His throat choked up witha sob, and his eyes filled with tears.
"Ralph," he almost whispered, "they've fooled me, I'm beaten out."
"You mean the men who stole the pay car?"
"Yes; oh, they put it over on me good. They pulled the wool over myeyes. I thought I had them, and they let me think so. I've got to findthem, I've got to make good, or I'll never hold up my head in StanleyJunction again."
"You did the best you could, I am sure, Zeph," encouraged Ralphsoothingly.
"The best won't do!" almost shouted out Zeph. "There's got to be better.Oh, Ralph, it will break my heart if I fail. I've got to find thatstolen pay car, and you've got to help me."