"Yes, that's easy to guess," said Fred. "Just at that time I happened to be on a flying visit to Earlville, where one day I met Clark. He took me to the hotel, where I met Ernest. I had known young Gregg before, for he had come to Earlville a ragged, homeless lad before I first left, seeming to have no home or relatives, and going to work at odd jobs around the town. Clark told me of the fix he was in. While we were talking, a sudden idea came to him. He became very much excited and serious, and then made a very strange request of me."

"To a.s.sume his ident.i.ty and go railroading in his stead?" inquired Ralph, antic.i.p.ating what was coming.

"You've struck it," a.s.sented Fred; "just that."

"And you accepted?"

"And that is why you see me here," said Fred. "Don't think any the less of me, Fairbanks, for doing it. Don't find fault with me if I took up the imposture for all there was in it. It's my way--when I go at a thing, I do so with all my--nerves. I was Marvin Clark to the core. I took up his name, I played his part, and say, I tried not to disgrace his good name by one unmanly act. He taught me to imitate his handwriting perfectly one day. The next I was on the road, without a mishap until I met you."

"Which may not be a mishap after all," suggested the young engineer.

"I think as you do about that. I've come to you for advice, and I feel sure that it will be good advice. Now, then, to get to central motive of Clark's plan--a n.o.ble, grand act, a royal deed. It was all for the sake of his little charge, Ernest Gregg."

"I can imagine that," said Ralph.

"Clark could not get the little fellow out of his mind. He had got, it seemed, a clew to some of his relatives. He told me that only for a wicked enemy, and if he had his rights, Ernest would be in a position of positive wealth. He said that he was determined to find a certain old man who could clear up the whole situation. He was going to start out with Ernest to solve the secret of his strange life, while his friends supposed that he was following out the plan that his father had arranged. Clark made a plan how we were to keep track of one another, writing to certain points we agreed upon. I started out from Earlville on my part of the arrangement, while Clark stole out of town with his young charge. For three weeks I wrote regularly to him and he replied. During the last month I have not received a word from him, and some of my letters have come back to me."

"Then you are worried about him?" inquired Ralph.

"I am, very much. You see, he spoke of an enemy of Ernest. How do I know what may have happened to both of them? If Clark should disappear, see what a fix I am in, a.s.suming his name, spending his money. I'd have a hard time explaining reasonably the wild, mad move Clark made me take."

"It is certainly a singular situation," admitted the young railroader thoughtfully.

"Isn't it, now? I've come to you to have you help me solve the problem. Think it over, give me some advice. Or, one thing--you go to many places with your railroading. You might keep a watch out for Clark, just as I am doing. You might get a clew to him or run across him."

"But how should I know him?" inquired Ralph.

"I'm going to give you his picture."

"That will help."

Fred drew out a memorandum book and selected from it a small photograph, which he presented to Ralph. The latter saw a bright, manly face portrayed in the picture.

"You keep that," directed Fred.

Ralph reflected for a few moments. Then they discussed the situation in all its bearings. There was not much to suggest, however, on the part of the young engineer. The most they could hope for, he told Fred, was that one or the other of them might by some circ.u.mstance run across the missing Clark and his young charge.

"I've got an idea that I ought to run down a branch line of the road I have never been over," suggested Fred, at the close of their animated colloquy. "If I do, I'll have to catch a train in an hour. I'll get word to you soon again, and if you hear of anything that interests me, I'll arrange so that a letter or a wire will reach me if you address it to Marvin Clark, Lake Hotel, Wellsville."

"All right," agreed Ralph.

They strolled together down to the depot a little after that. A train from the west came in just as the one having Fred for a pa.s.senger steamed out. A familiar figure alighted from one of the coaches.

"Here I am again," announced Zeph Dallas, coming up to Ralph.

"How are your little friends, the Canaries?" inquired the young engineer.

"Safe and snug at home," replied Zeph. "Going up to the house?"

"Yes, just come in from a special trip, and I probably have a lay-over till to-morrow. I want to call and see a friend at the hotel for a few moments. Then I'm at your service."

When they reached the hotel, Ralph sought out Archie Graham, to find the young inventor in his room, engrossed in putting together some kind of a mechanical model. The latter greeted Ralph with effusion.

"I'm having the prime chance of my life," declared Archie. "That note of yours was the open sesame to the roundhouse and everything about it. The foreman made me as welcome as a friend. I say, Fairbanks, they think a lot of you, these railroad chums of yours."

"Do they?" asked Ralph, with a modest smile. "I'm glad they do."

"I'll show you results in a few days," declared Archie, with a show of more enthusiasm than Ralph had ever before seen him exhibit. "I've got up an invention that will just about revolutionize engineering."

"You don't say so!"

"Yes, I do. Only a day or two, and I'm going to try it--you'll hear about it, all right."

Ralph did, in fact, hear about it in a very sensational way, and within a few hours after the interview.

He rejoined Zeph and they proceeded homewards. Zeph was just as mysterious as ever about his new employment. Ralph knew that he was bubbling over from a pent-up lot of secrecy, but he did not encourage his quaint friend to violate an evident confidence reposed in him by his employer.

Zeph announced that he would like to stay over at the Fairbanks home until the next day, and was made duly welcome. He amazed and amused Ralph by showing him his "detective outfit," as he called it. It was an incongruous ma.s.s, stored away in a flat leather case that he secreted in a great pocket made inside his coat--a wig, false whiskers, a pair of goggles, and a lot of other "secret service"

paraphernalia, suggested to Zeph by reading some cheap and sensational detective stories.

"Well, I've got to get on the shadowy trail to-day," yawned Zeph, as he got out of bed the next morning.

"Where's the shadow, Zeph?" asked Ralph humorously.

"Let you know when I find my quarry."

"Ha, bad as that?" laughed Ralph.

"Oh, you can smile, Ralph Fairbanks," said Zeph resentfully. "I tell you, I'm on a mighty important case and--say, where did you get that?"

"What?"

"That picture!" exclaimed Zeph, picking up from the bureau the photograph of Marvin Clark, given to the young engineer by Fred Porter the day previous.

"Oh, that picture?" said Ralph. "A friend of mine gave it to me. He's trying to find its original, and hoped I could help him."

"Trying to find him?" repeated Zeph with big staring eyes. "Whew! I can do that for you."

"You can?" demanded Ralph.

"I should say so!"

"Do you know the original of that picture then?" inquired Ralph.

"Sure I do--why, he's the person who hired me to be a detective," was Zeph's remarkable reply.