g definite,
however, was as yet stated officially. Ralph and Fogg continued on the
accommodation, and there was now little break in the regular routine
of their railroad experience.

Ralph had made a short cut across the switch yards one morning, when a
stirring episode occurred that he was not soon to forget, nor others.
It took an expert to thread the maze of cars in motion, trains stalled
on sidings, and trains arriving and departing.

It was the busiest hour of the day, and Ralph kept his eye out
sharply. He had paused for a moment in a clear triangle formed by
diverging rails, to allow an outward bound train to clear the switch,
when a man on the lower step of the last car waved his hand and hailed
him.

It was the master mechanic, and Ralph was pleased at the notice taken
of him, and interested to learn what the official wanted of him. The
master mechanic, alighting, started across the tracks to join Ralph.

A train was backing on the one track between them. Another train was
moving out on the rails still nearer to Ralph.

It was a scene of noise, commotion and confusion. If the master
mechanic had been a novice in railroad routine, Ralph could not have
repressed a warning shout, for with his usual coolness that official,
timing all train movements about him with his practiced eye, made a
quick run to clear the train backing in to the depot. He calculated
then, Ralph foresaw, to cross the tracks along which the outgoing
train was coming.

"He's taking a risk--it's a graze," murmured the young engineer in
some trepidation.

The master mechanic was alert and nimble, though past middle age. He
took the chances of a spry jump across the rails, his eye fixed on the
outgoing train, aiming to get across to Ralph before it passed. In
landing, however, he miscalculated. The run and jump brought him to a
dead halt against a split switch. His foot drove into the jaws of the
frog as if wedged there by the blow of a sledge-hammer.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE NEW RUN

The young engineer stood shocked and motionless--only, however, for
the minutest fraction of a moment. A railroad man's life is full of
sudden surprises and situations calling for prompt, decisive and
effective action. Ralph had learned this from experience.

The master mechanic was in the direct path of the train backing into
the depot. The one he had just left and the one proceeding in the same
direction shut him in where there was no flagman or sw