working on the
Short Line Route at its junction with the Great Northern. It was
directed to Zeph Dallas, and in the note Ralph asked his friend to
look up the two uncles of Earl Danvers and learn all he could about
the latter.

It was two nights later when Mrs. Fairbanks announced to Ralph quite
an important discovery. In cleaning house she had noticed some words
penciled on the wall near the cabinet. They comprised a mere scrawl,
as if written under difficulty, and ran:

"Earl prisoner. Two boys stealing things in house. Get the old
coat I wore."

"Why, what can this mean?" said Ralph. "Earl certainly wrote this. A
prisoner? two boys? the thieves? Get the old coat? He means the one he
wore when he came here. What can that have to do with this business?
Mother, where is the coat?"

"Why, Ralph," replied Mrs. Fairbanks, "I sold it to a rag man last
week."

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE FREIGHT THIEVES

Two days later Zeph Dallas came to Stanley Junction to purchase some
supplies for Mr. Gibson's construction camp. In the evening he called
at the Fairbanks home. The farmer boy had located the relatives of
Earl Danvers, and his report verified the story of the latter, who had
disappeared from home, and, according to his uncles, his whereabouts
was unknown to them.

Ralph related the story of the burglary, and Zeph was at once
interested. He believed that some mystery of importance was attached
to the old coat. When he had gone away Ralph got to thinking this
over.

"Mother," he asked, "do you know the man to whom you sold that old
coat?"

"Why, yes," replied Mrs. Fairbanks. "He is the man who goes around
with an old wagon visiting the different country towns in this
district in turn."

Ralph made some inquiries, and ascertained that the peddler in
question made his headquarters at Dover. He resolved upon opportunity
to visit the man at a near date, although it was probable that the
coat with the rags sold with it had been sent to some mill. A few days
later Zeph came again to Stanley Junction and Ralph told him about the
peddler.

For a time after this, affairs ran on smoothly for the Limited Mail
and her experienced crew, and Ralph had settled down to a quiet
enjoyment of congenial employment when there occurred a break in the
routine that once more placed him in a position of peril.

One day as he returned from the city run, the roundhouse foreman
informed him that he was to report at the office o