"With enough ammunition ahead to settle the hash of any possible meddlers. We'll make the test. Then the other end. A split up at the end of each section, and if the gang get ahead of us on that arrangement, they are cleverer than I thought they were."

All this would have been Greek to a person not acquainted with the facts of the case. The colloquy terminated a whispered confidential talk between Ralph and Bob Adair in the chief dispatcher's office. The road officer seemed to throw the pay car off his mind after a statement that Ralph was one of six persons who knew what was about to happen, namely, the President and superintendent of the road, the a.s.sistant superintendent, the paymaster and Adair himself.

"There will be something to keep track of Tuesday night," observed Adair. "You've got your instructions for that occasion."

"Yes, well in mind," said Ralph. "One moment before you go, Mr. Adair. I have told you about the 'pacer' message."

"Yes," nodded the road officer, "and your explanation looks plausible."

"I don't want to judge from appearances. You see, I feel like giving Glen Palmer a show."

"That's fair enough, Fairbanks. I can't help thinking, though, that he or his grandfather have had some dealings with the crowd we are after."

"It is only a theory," persisted Ralph, "but I figure it out that the old man, Glen's grandfather, is some veteran telegrapher. He isn't right in his mind, and perhaps, without Glen knowing it, he was approached secretly by the conspirators. Perhaps they have benefited from his knowledge of telegraphy in tapping the wires."

"You say the boy, too, is an expert operator?"

"From what I learn, yes," answered Ralph. "His grandfather would naturally teach him."

Adair shrugged his shoulders. It was evident he considered circ.u.mstances against the Palmers, for he said:

"I don't like their sudden disappearance. I don't fancy, either, what Slump remarked about young Palmer being a jail bird."

"That looks bad enough," admitted Ralph, "but please consider that message on the piece of board thrown through the window of the station."

"Well?"

"Didn't that show that Glen Palmer was trying to get some word to me?"

"Maybe."

"Under difficulties, too. I believe that he was a prisoner, perhaps shut into some freight car, but managing to send adrift that word to me."

"You're pretty loyal to anyone you like, Fairbanks."

"I want to do the poor fellow justice," responded Ralph. "Then later, that fragment of message 'Look out for the pay car.' I can't help thinking that the boy is straight, and wants to warn and help us."

"Hope so," said Adair brusquely. "A short time will tell. I shall soon round up the crowd, and if young Palmer is in wrong with them I shall find it out."

It seemed like getting down to a decidedly humdrum existence, routine duty at the dispatcher's desk after the exciting experience preceding.

When Glidden came on duty he merely smiled in his grim way, with the words to Ralph:

"In harness again, eh? I reckon things will smooth down now."

Ralph hoped so. He believed it, too, as a few days went by and in the keen zest and interest of his new work he partially forgot the active issues of the conspiracy, which seemed to have been checked or subdued.

With the departure of Grizzly and Mason the suspicious and treacherous element seemed to be eliminated from the main office. The tricks of the enemy and their methods were now known to the dispatching force, and they were constantly on their guard. A new private code was adopted by Ralph, and a system of checking up through repeats that pretty well safeguarded them against crooked messages.

Mrs. Fairbanks was congratulating herself that affairs had quieted down permanently and was enjoying the days that brought Ralph home for the evening each day, when a new ripple on the surface of affairs set things in vivid action again.

Ralph had come home to dinner and was spending a few minutes in casual conversation with his mother after the meal, when the door bell rang sharply. Ralph answered the summons to find Glidden standing outside, his face pale and anxious, and so nervous over something that he could not stand still in the same position for a single minute.

"Any trouble, Mr. Glidden?" inquired Ralph quickly.

"Only of my own," responded the old operator. "See here, I want you to do something for me. It's a hurry business. Just tell your mother not to worry if you are away to-night."

"Is there a probability that I will be?" inquired Ralph.

"If you consent to do me the favor of my life, yes," declared Glidden quickly. "See here, I've fixed everything."

The operator shoved a slip of paper towards Ralph. It was a brief permission for Ralph to go off for twenty-four hours.

"I had to act quick," explained Glidden, "so I got that end of it fixed directly."

"I hardly understand, Mr. Glidden."

The old operator glanced at his watch and grabbed the arm of his companion.

"Come on," he insisted. "There's no time to lose. We can talk as we walk along. I don't want to bother you with my family troubles, Fairbanks, but I need a reliable friend."

"I am certainly at your service."

"Thanks. It's your way, you can't help it," commented the erratic operator. "Here's the situation: I have a brother in business at Derby."

"That's seventy-five miles down the line."

"Exactly. It seems that he owns a new mill. I don't know exactly what he does, but it's in the metal manufacturing line. He has invented a process for making a subst.i.tute for Babbitt metal."

"They use some of it at the shops, I remember," said Ralph.

"A man named Dorsett, who was his partner, started in the same line after selling out and contracting not to do so. His process is no good, and he wants to get my brother to a point where he will treat with him."

"I see," nodded Ralph, much interested.

"It seems that my brother in starting in for himself had to run in debt for his princ.i.p.al machinery. His old partner managed somehow to buy the debt from the machinery people. He has put the screws to my brother, got out an execution for four thousand dollars against him, and unless that amount and the costs of the judgment are paid by tomorrow, he takes possession, and my brother loses everything."

"There's lots of mean work in the world, and this is one of the hard cases," observed Ralph.

"The worst of it is," continued Glidden, "my brother never let me know about the tight fix he was in. I never should have heard of it if he had not got sick in bed. He could do no business and his lawyer wrote to me.

I got the letter only an hour ago. You see how fast I must work. I've got to raise that four thousand dollars before court time tomorrow."

"Four thousand dollars?" repeated Ralph seriously--"that's a big sum of money, Mr. Glidden."

"Yes, for a poor man like me, but brother John shall have it. I can't see a good twenty thousand dollar investment wrecked to satisfy the malice of an enemy. See here--take that," and Glidden extended a package and Ralph regarded it wonderingly.

"What is it, Mr. Glidden?" he inquired.

"One thousand dollars--five years' savings, I just drew it from the bank here. I want you to take the three o'clock train for Derby. Go to my brother's lawyer, whose address I will give you. Pay him that one thousand dollars, and see if he can't use it to stave off proceedings until I get on hand bright and early tomorrow morning with the balance of the money."