Ralph jumped to the ground and the fireman after him. The latter went all around the stalled locomotive, shaking his head mournfully.

Ralph hastened ahead out of the glare of the headlight and peered down the rails. For nearly two minutes he stood, shading his eyes with one hand to bring the disappearing runaway within focus. The wild engine had sped on its way untrammeled. He made out that she had slowed up. In the distance he fancied he saw a brisk form spring from the cab. Ralph figured it out that a switch had been set.

Then the runaway started again. He fancied that some one jumped from the cab after the engine had got in motion. He could catch the sharp clack-clack of the flying wheels ringing in the distance.

"She is running wild now," murmured the intent young railroader, and then started with a shock.

A horrid clamor extended out. It must have been a mile away, but the air was death-like, it was so still, and the merest sound seemed to vibrate clearly.

Crash, crash, crash! It sounded as if a building had collapsed against other tottering structures, tumbling them all into a ma.s.s of ruins.

"They've done it, whatever it is," said Ralph, and ran back speedily to No. 93 and Roberts. The latter stood with his ear bent in the direction of the runaway, and his usually jolly face was serious.

"What's up, Fairbanks?" he asked at once.

"A smashup, I judge," answered Ralph. "Can you dig out any lanterns?"

"Red?"

"Yes."

"Those two on the end of the tender are all right. There's another under my seat, if it hasn't got smashed."

"Run back with the two and signal both tracks," ordered Ralph. "I'm going ahead to see what has happened."

Ralph fished among the litter in the dismantled cab and found and lit the lantern referred to by Roberts. Then he started ahead down the tracks.

When he arrived at the switch he could trace that it had recently been set for a siding. A little farther on footsteps in the snow showed where some one had jumped from the runaway locomotive. Ralph paused at this spot for only a moment. He went down the siding, which curved in and out among a series of bluffs and gullies.

As he remembered it, the siding was not of great length, and ended at the side of a granite pit. A last turn brought him in full view of this.

Ralph paused, a good deal wonderstruck.

Thirty feet down at the bottom of the gully lay a tangled wreckage of wood and iron. There had apparently stood two cars where the runaway had struck.

One of them held a derrick outfit, the other some heavy excavating machine. The two cars had been forced headlong into the abyss. The runaway engine piling down upon them had completed the work of ruin.

"I can't understand it," spoke Ralph, after a long spell of inspection and thought. "What possible object could any one have in view in smashing up that machinery?"

Then it occurred to him that his pursuit of the runaway might have frightened its operator from his original purpose, and he had changed his plans and abandoned the locomotive to its later course.

"A pretty bill for the Great Northern to settle, all the same,"

reflected Ralph, as he started back the way he had come.

At the switch he turned the target to open main, and made his way forward till he reached No. 93. Roberts had set the danger signals behind them, and he stood on the side of the embankment dismally surveying the wreck of his pet locomotive. Ralph told him of the situation ahead.

"I can't understand it," confessed the puzzled fireman.

"No more can I," said Ralph. "I wish we could have caught the man who got away, though."

"What are we going to do?"

"Wait for instructions, of course. There is nothing due out or in for some time to come, unless the Limited comes on. The out track is clear for her, if she does. We must get word to Preston, some way."

"That isn't far away," suggested Roberts.

"Too far to cover in any reasonable time. I want to get at your tool box, Roberts."

"All right."

Ralph secured a pair of pliers from the box in the cab, and went up the embankment to where the telegraph wires ran. He selected a rough pole, ascended it nimbly, and soon sat astride of the crosstrees.

The young railroader located the main service wire and began to pry it apart where there had been a splice on the insulator. When he had it separated he knew from the contact that it was in live use. Putting end to end, he began to tap off what he wanted to say.

Ralph did not know what business he might be breaking in upon. He was pretty sure that his message would be taken notice of somewhere along the line. When he had completed and repeated his message he put the end of one wire to his tongue. The vibrations were vague, but sensitive, and he knew that he had stirred up the service, and operators on the line towards headquarters were getting busy. He readjusted the wires and descended to the ground.

"Doing some stunts, aren't you?" observed Roberts, with a commending smile.

"I'm trying to get things in order," replied Ralph.

"It's you for it, every time," declared the friendly fireman. "Wish I had brains."

"Some one will be sure to come to your relief before long," said Ralph.

"I have done all I can to open up the line, but I think I had better get to Preston and in direct communication with headquarters."

"It's a long trip," suggested Roberts.

"That can't be helped. I will set my red lantern half a mile ahead on the in track, for fear they don't quite understand the situation at Preston."

"So long; you're a good one," nodded Roberts approvingly.

Ralph started on his way, set the lantern and accomplished a mile without meeting with any further adventures. It was when he was about two miles on his course when that whistling in the rear caused him to halt and watch and wait.

In about five minutes the Limited whisked by, making up time. Ralph was pretty thoughtful as he followed in her trail after she had pa.s.sed on.

There were a good many angles to the exploit of the night to figure out.

His independent course in trying to stop the runaway might result in some censure, though he fancied not.

The ident.i.ty of the wrecker and his motive were what puzzled the young railroader.

Ralph trudged on, thinking of all this, when, crossing a bridge, he peered closely over to where a light was flashed and then a second. Some one was igniting matches, apparently to light a pipe. He made out one, then two vague forms a short distance down the sh.o.r.e of the creek.

It was a pretty early hour of the morning for any one to be tramping around for fun. As Ralph thought of the man who had abandoned the runaway locomotive, he determined on an investigation.

He descended to the near sh.o.r.e, lined it, and, sharply turning a snow-laden brush heap, almost stumbled on two persons on its other side.

Ralph caught his breath and drew back just in time to escape discovery.

Peering cautiously, he made out a man seated on the ground. He was groaning with pain and rubbing one limb tenderly. In front of him was a boy.

"You see, I sprained my foot crossing a broken culvert," the man said.