that monument of brass buttons
and gold cap braid is the limit. Discipline? why, he works on springs
and you have to touch a button to make him act. I had to chum with the
brakeman to find out what's up."

"Something is up, then?" inquired Ralph a trifle uneasily.

"Oh, quite. The conductor has been writing a ten-page report on the
collision. It's funny, but the station man at Plympton----"

"New man, isn't he?" inquired Ralph.

"Just transferred to Plympton yesterday mornin'," explained Clark.
"Well, he swears that your front signals were special at the curves
and flashed green just as you neared the semaphore."

"Absurd!" exclaimed Ralph.

"That's what the conductor says, too," said Clark. "He told the
station agent so. They nearly had a fight. 'Color blind!' he told the
station agent and challenged him to find green lights on No. 999 if he
could. The station man was awfully rattled and worried. He says he
knew a special was on the list, but being new to this part of the road
he acted on Rule 23 when he saw the green lights. He sticks to that,
says that he will positively swear to it. He says he knows some one
will be slated, but it won't be him."

"What does the conductor say?" inquired Ralph.

"He says Rule 23 doesn't apply, as the white lights prove. If there
was any trickery or any mistake, then it's up to the fireman, not to
the engineer."

At that moment, happening to glance past Clark, the young engineer
caught sight of Lemuel Fogg. The latter, half crouching near a drive
wheel, was listening intently. The torch he carried illuminated a
pale, twitching face. His eyes were filled with a craven fear, and
Ralph tried to imagine what was passing through his mind.

There was something mysterious about Fogg's actions, yet Ralph
accepted the theory of the conductor that the station man had made a
careless blunder or was color blind.

"You see, it isn't that the smash up amounts to much," explained
Clark, "but it might have, see?"

"Yes, I see," replied Ralph thoughtfully.

"Then again," continued Clark, "the conductor says that it delayed a
test run, and there's a scratched locomotive and a busted construction
car."

"I'm thankful that no one was hurt," said Ralph earnestly.

When the next start was made, Fogg was taciturn and gloomy-looking,
but attended strictly to his duty. Ralph voted him to be a capital
fireman when he wanted to be. As an hour after midnight they spurted
past Hopeville forty m