you to powder! Strip."

With this Bouncer threw off his coat, and there was a scuffle among
his minions to secure the honor of holding it.

"I don't intend to strip," remarked Ralph, "and I don't want to strike
you, but you've got to open a way for myself and my friend to go about
our business, or I'll knock you down."

"You'll----Fellows, hear him!" shrieked Bouncer, dancing from foot to
foot. "Oh, you mincemeat! up with your fists! It's business now."

The young engineer saw that it was impossible to evade a fight. The
allusion of Bouncer to Jim Evans was enlightening. It explained the
animus of the present attack.

If Lemuel Fogg had been bent on queering the special record run to
Bridgeport out of jealousy, Evans, a former boon companion of the
fireman, had it in for Ralph on a more malicious basis. The young
railroader knew that Evans was capable of any meanness or cruelty to
pay him back for causing his arrest as an incendiary during the recent
railroad strike on the Great Northern.

There was no doubt but what Evans had advised his graceless nephew of
the intended visit of Ralph to Bridgeport. During the strike Evans had
maimed railroad men and had been guilty of many other cruel acts of
vandalism. Ralph doubted not that the plan was to have his precious
nephew "do" him in a way that he would not be able to make the return
trip with No. 999.

The young engineer was no pugilist, but he knew how to defend himself,
and he very quickly estimated the real fighting caliber of his
antagonist. He saw at a glance that Billy Bouncer was made up of bluff
and bluster and show. The hoodlum made a great ado of posing and
exercising his fists in a scientific way. He was so stuck up over some
medal awards at amateur boxing shows, that he was wasting time in
displaying his "style."

"Are you ready?" demanded Bouncer, doing a quickstep and making a
picturesque feint at his opponent.

"Let me pass," said Ralph.

"Wow, when I've eaten you up, maybe!"

"Since you will have it, then," observed Ralph quietly, "take that for
a starter."

The young engineer struck out once--only once, but he had calculated
the delivery and effect of the blow to a nicety. There was a thud as
his fist landed under the jaw of the bully, so quickly and so
unexpectedly that the latter did not have time to put up so much as a
pretense of a protection.

Back went Billy Bouncer, his teeth rattling, and down went Billy
Bouncer on a backward sli