Part 22 (1/2)
Limpy, in his smooth, quiet way, arranged it so that he left the roundhouse when Ralph did, and as the latter noticed that his companion kept watching out in all directions, he traced a certain voluntary guardians.h.i.+p in the man's intentions.
But if Limpy feared that Ike Slump or his satellites were lying in wait, it was not along the special route Ralph took in proceeding homewards.
He reached the little cottage with no unpleasant interruptions. His mother welcomed him at the gate with a bright smile. Their boy guest was weeding out a vegetable bed. He immediately came up to Ralph, extending a beautifully clean full-grown carrot he had selected from its bed.
Ralph took it, patting the giver encouragingly on the shoulder, who looked satisfied, and Ralph was pleased at this indication that the boy knew him.
”How has he been all day?” Ralph inquired of his mother.
”Just as you see him now,” answered the widow. ”He has been busy all day, willing, happy as a lark. The doctor dropped in this afternoon.”
”What did he say?” asked Ralph.
”He says there is nothing the matter with the boy excepting the shock.
He fears no violent outbreak, or anything of that kind, and only hopes that gradually the cloud will leave his mind.”
”If kindness can help any, he will get sound and well,” declared Ralph chivalrously. ”He doesn't talk much?”
”Hardly a word, but he watches, and seems to understand everything.”
”What is that?” asked Ralph, pausing as they pa.s.sed together through the side door.
The wood shed door was scrawled over with chalk marks Ralph had not seen there before.
”Oh,” explained Mrs. Fairbanks, ”he found a piece of chalk, and seemed to take pleasure in writing every once in a while.”
”And just one word?”
”Yes, Ralph--those three letters.”
”V-A-N,” spelled out Ralph. ”Mother, that must be his name--Van.”
CHAPTER XVI--FACE TO FACE
Ralph Fairbanks' second day of service at the roundhouse pa.s.sed pleasantly, and without any incident out of the common.
With the disappearance of Ike Slump a new system of order and harmony seemed to prevail about the place. The foreman's rugged brow was less frequently furrowed with care or anger over little mishaps, and Ralph could not help but notice a more subdued tone in his dealings with the men.
When Ralph came home that evening, his mother told him of a visit from the foreman's daughter-in-law and little Nora. They had brought Mrs.
Fairbanks a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and their praises of Ralph had made the widow prouder of her son than ever.
That morning, Van, as they now called their guest, had insisted on going with Ralph to his work as far as the next corner, and it was with difficulty that the young railroader had induced him to return to the cottage.
That evening, Van met him nearly two squares away, and when he reached the house Ralph expressed some anxiety to his mother over their guest's wandering proclivities.
”I don't think he would go far away of his own will,” said Mrs.
Fairbanks. ”You see, Ralph, he counts on your going and coming. This morning, after you sent him home, I found him on the roof of the house.