CHAPTER XXI

A DASTARDLY PLOT

Ralph was greatly interested in the affairs of the Gliddens. The old dispatcher was a good fellow all around; he had proven himself a loyal friend to the young railroader, and Ralph could not resist the compliment implied in entrusting him with an important mission.

"Sure the leave of absence is all right?" he suggested.

"Saw the superintendent himself."

"Very well, I'm glad to go for you," said Ralph, and he stowed the one thousand dollars in a safe inside pocket. "How are you going to raise the other three thousand dollars, though?"

"I have a sister living at Wilston, who I know has as much as I had in bank. I'm going to take the express for there, jump to Myron, where a brother-in-law runs a small country bank, and I'm not afraid of results.

My sister owns a two thousand dollar mortgage that I have an interest in, too. I'll take that on to the bank to put up as security, if it's needed."

"You're a pretty good brother, Mr. Glidden," said Ralph earnestly.

The old operator mumbled in his throat and turned away to hide the emotion that lay under his gruff manner.

By the time they reached the depot Glidden had given Ralph final detailed instructions. He did not know how his messenger might find affairs at Derby, but he seemed to take a good deal of comfort in believing that if they were at all complicated, Ralph's dexterity and intelligence would simplify the problem.

"Tell the lawyer I will be certain to reach Derby on the first morning train with the money," declared Glidden. "Stay with him all night and watch things. Keep your eye on the other crowd and guard the factory."

"I shall try to do all you suggest," promised Ralph.

He telephoned to his mother at home. It was a three hours' ride to Derby. Ralph reached his destination about five o'clock in the afternoon. He went to the office of the lawyer, located above a store, but found its door locked. Then he inquired in the place below as to his residence and received the necessary directions.

As Ralph left the store he noticed a crowd of four men lounging in front of a drinking place across the street. From their manner he judged that they had watched him go up to the office of the lawyer. Why they were interested Ralph did not know, but he kept a keen eye out, remembering that he carried a thousand dollars in an inner pocket of his coat.

"Two of those men are following me," Ralph said to himself with conviction, a minute later.

This he believed to be true, judging from their actions. They kept pace with him on the opposite side of the street. Ralph gave no sign that he suspected their surveillance. Suddenly as the two men were crossing the street, a lank, wretched looking fellow came towards them from the doorway of a saloon. It was apparent that he knew them and made some appeal to them. One of them brushed him carelessly aside. As the other pa.s.sed him the mendicant caught his sleeve to detain him. The man turned, jerked away, shot out his fist, and striking the other brutally in the face sent him prostrate to the pavement and walked coolly on.

"Poor fellow!" commented Ralph, as the man picked himself up, wiping the blood from his injured face with an old ragged handkerchief.

"That's the way you treat an old friend after getting all you can out of him, is it?" shrieked the injured man, waving his fists wildly after his a.s.sailant. "I'll fix you for this. I'll get even with you."

The incident pa.s.sed out of Ralph's mind as he sought for and found the home of the lawyer. As he entered its gate he glanced back down the street. The two men who had followed him stood at the next corner. Soon they turned and retraced the way they had come. Apparently they were satisfied in the proceedings, their mission having been to locate Ralph's destination.

Ralph found the wife of the lawyer at home. It took only a few minutes for a bright businesslike boy and a woman who interested herself in her husband's professional duties to understand one another. Ralph explained the object of his call.

"I am very glad to welcome you," said the lady. "And I am glad of the good news you bring. My husband and I are deeply interested in Mr.

Glidden's business affairs. My husband had an urgent professional call to the next town, but he will be back at eight o'clock this evening. He was preparing to arrange for some kind of a bond tomorrow morning, but it looked dubious. The money will settle everything."

Ralph noticed a small safe in the room where he sat, and turned the thousand dollars over to the lawyer's wife for safe keeping.

"That is better so," said the lady. "Dorsett, the man who is making all this trouble, has employed three or four rough loafers in his service, and they have been watching every move my husband has made."

"I think two of them followed me here," explained Ralph.

"I hope you will watch out for yourself," warned the lawyer's wife anxiously. "Perhaps you had better remain here until my husband returns."

"Oh, I am not a bit afraid," said Ralph. "I want to look around town and perhaps go as far as the factory. Is it in operation?"

"No, it has been shut down since Mr. Glidden's illness, but it is in charge of a faithful, honest old fellow, his foreman, a man named Bartlett."

Ralph left the lawyer's house and started in the direction of the factory as just indicated to him. It appeared to be located on the river, about half a mile from the center of the town.

In order to reach it he had to go back a few blocks towards the village.

He saw no trace of the men who had followed him. As he pa.s.sed an alley opening, however, he slowed up to watch the maneuvers of a man who interested him.

This was the man who had been knocked over in the street by the two men who had followed Ralph. He was standing near a barrel which seemed to be used as a receptacle for the kitchen refuse of a house near by. He had reached into it and picked out a piece of stale bread and lifted it to his lips.

"Don't eat that," said Ralph impulsively, slipping quickly to the side of the man.

The latter flushed up, put the sc.r.a.p of food behind him and looked rather annoyed and angry. He did not have a good face, and it looked the worse because of his recent beating. Still, the man's forlorn wretchedness appealed to the whole-hearted young railroader in a forcible way.

"What will I eat?" growled the man, scowling hard.

"You seem to be hungry--go and get a good meal somewhere."

Ralph extended half a dollar. The man stared at it, then at Ralph.

"Crackey!" he said breathlessly--"do you mean it?"

"You had better go somewhere and wash the blood off your face first,"

continued Ralph. "Here," and he took out the little surgical case that all locomotive men carry with them. "Put a piece of that sticking plaster on that cut across your cheekbone. It was a pretty bad blow that fellow gave you."

"Did you see him strike me?" inquired the man.

"Yes, and it appeared to be a brutal and uncalled for a.s.sault."

"Say, that's just what it was," declared the man, getting excited. "I trained with that crowd and did their dirty work, and because I got a drop too much and blowed about the things we were going to do up to the factory, they dropped me."

"What factory?" pressed Ralph.

"Glidden's."

"I was just going up there," said Ralph. "It's somewhere in this direction, isn't it?"

"You'll see the smokestack when you turn the next corner. Say," demanded the fellow with a stare of interest at Ralph, "what you going there for?

Looking for a job?"

"No," replied Ralph, "I wanted to see it, that's all. I am a friend of the man who owns it."