Part 19 (1/2)
”Hardly,” responded Ralph calmly, ”seeing we want these cars.”
”You don't take them,” retorted the man, placing himself between the halted train and the cars beyond.
Ralph calmly gave the signal to the engine. The train backed. The man had to jump quickly out of the way. Ralph set the coupling pin, gave a quick signal and sprang into the first empty car. The man who had spoken to him followed him through the opposite open doorway.
”Fetch him out!” cried his two companions, running along the side of the car. ”Maul him, and send him back to Stanley Junction as a lesson to the others.”
The man attempted to seize Ralph and the latter resisted. The fellow called to his companions, and they sprang into the car. Ralph, trying to reach the doorway to leap out, was tripped up, and he fell quite heavily.
”Toss him out!” growled his first a.s.sailant, but Ralph recovered himself, managed to gain his feet, and leaped to the ground outside.
The three men followed. Ralph ran behind a pile of railroad ties. His pursuers gained upon him. He stumbled, fell flat, and they pounced upon him.
”Hold on there,” suddenly spoke a new voice. ”Get back and stay back, or I'll know the reason why.”
Something whizzed through the air. It was a heavy cudgel. Whack!
whack! whack! the three fellows retreated as their shoulders were a.s.sailed good and hard.
Ralph in some surprise regarded his new friend. He was a queer-looking old man, carrying a formidable cudgel, and this he now brandished recklessly in the faces of his adversaries, beating them back step by step.
”Now, you mind your own business,” he warned the men. ”Pitching onto a boy--three big loafers that you are!”
The men were cowards and sneaked sullenly away. Ralph's rescuer went back to the pile of ties and took up a little open memorandum book lying there.
Ralph noticed that its pages bore a list of numbers, as of cars.
”I am very grateful to you,” said the young fireman.
”That's all right,” responded the stranger, and ran his eye over the cars as they pa.s.sed by as if looking at their numbers. Ralph concluded that he had some business on the spot.
”Are you in the service of the railroad?” he asked.
”Yes,” nodded the man--”of many railroads. I am a professional car finder.”
CHAPTER XV
THE RUNAWAY TRAINS
Ralph and his companion followed the train till it left the siding, when the young fireman set the switch and they stood by the side of the track until the locomotive backed down to where they were.
”Going into Dover?” inquired the man who had rendered Ralph such signal service.
”Yes,” nodded Griscom, looking the questioner over suspiciously, as was his custom with all strangers recently since the strike began.
”Give me a lift, will you? I am through with my work here,” observed the man. ”My name is Drury. I am a car finder.”
”Indeed?” said the old engineer with some interest of manner. ”I've heard of you fellows. Often thought I'd like the job.”