erved young Clark with a
chuckle--"been waiting to pass examination on a smash up."

"Oh, this isn't one," replied Ralph. His tone was tense, and he showed
that he was disturbed. He was too quick a thinker not to at once
comprehend the vital issue of the present incident. With Fogg headed
down the track towards him from the ditch, trying to overtake the
train, and the conductor, lantern in hand, running to learn what had
happened, Ralph sized up the situation with decided annoyance.

The action of the station man in giving the free track signal and then
at a critical moment shooting the special onto the siding, had
something mysterious about it that Ralph could not readily solve. The
slight mishap to the locomotive and the smashing of the derrick was
not particularly serious, but there would be a report, an
investigation, and somebody would be blamed and punished. Ralph wanted
to keep a clear slate, and here was a bad break, right at the
threshold of his new railroad career.

All he thought of, however, were the delays, all he cared for at this
particular moment was to get back to the main tracks on his way for
Bridgeport, with a chance to make up lost time. A sudden vague
suspicion flashing through his mind added to his mental disquietude:
was there a plot to purposely cripple or delay his train, so that he
would be defeated in his efforts to make a record run?

"What's this tangle, Fairbanks?" shouted out the conductor sharply, as
he arrived breathless and excited at the side of the cab.

His name was Danforth, and he was a model employee of long experience,
always very neat and dressy in appearance and exact and systematic in
his work. Any break in routine nettled him, and he spoke quite
censuringly to the young engineer, whom, however, he liked greatly.

"I'm all at sea, Mr. Danforth," confessed Ralph bluntly.

"Any damage?--I see," muttered the conductor, going forward a few
steps and surveying the scratched, bruised face of the locomotive.

"There's a gondola derailed and a derrick smashed where we struck,"
reported Ralph. "I acted on my duplicate orders, Mr. Danforth," he
added earnestly, "and had the clear signal almost until I passed it
and shot the siding."

"I don't understand it at all," remarked the conductor in a troubled
and irritated way. "You had the clear signal, you say?"

"Positively," answered Ralph.

"Any serious damage ahead?"

"Nothing of consequence."

"Back slowly, we'll see the