"Why don't you work for it, then," questioned Ralph. "It's in any boy who will attend strictly to business."

"Oh, I don't want the glory," explained Slump.

"What, then?"

"Just one chance to spurt her up till she rattled her old boiler into smithereens and run the whole train into the ditch. That's how much I love the Great Northern!"

Ralph was disgusted. He started down the walk, but Slump was persistent.

The latter caught his arm. Ralph allowed himself to be brought to a halt, but determined to break away very shortly.

"Just a word, Fairbanks, before you go," said Slump. "You're going to come across me once in a while, and I want a pleasant understanding, see? You won't see me getting into any more sc.r.a.pes by holding the bags for others. I'm after the real velvet now, and I'm going to get it, see?

I know a heap of what's going on, and something is. I'll give you one tip. I can get you a small fortune to resign your position on the Great Northern."

The way Ike Slump p.r.o.nounced these words, looking squarely into the eyes of Ralph, could not fail to impress the latter with the conviction that there was some sinister meaning in the proposition. Ralph, however, laughed lightly.

"Thinking of starting a railroad of your own, Slump?" he asked.

"No, I ain't," dissented Slump. "All the same--you see, do you?"

Slump smartly put out one hand curved up like a cup.

"Yes, you told me before," nodded Ralph--"clean hands this time."

"Now, this is a different deal."

"Well?"

"Hollow of my hand--see?"

"I don't."

"Maybe it holds a big railroad system, maybe it don't. Maybe I know a turn or two on the programme where the tap of a finger blows things up, maybe I don't. I only say this: I can fix you right with the right parties--for a consideration. Think it over, see? When you see me again have a little chat with me. It will pay you--see?"

Ralph walked on more slowly after a long wondering stare at Ike Slump.

He had never been afraid of the young knave either in a square fight or in a battle of wits. There was something ominous, however, in this new att.i.tude of Slump. He had told just enough to show that something antagonistic to the Great Northern was stirring, and that he was mixed up with it.

The home of the paymaster was located over near the railroad, quite away from the business centre of the town. Ralph reached it after a brisk walk. He found the place dark and apparently untenanted. It looked as if Mr. Little and his family were away, probably at some neighbor's house.

Then going around to the side of the house and glancing up at the windows, Ralph discovered something that startled him.

"h.e.l.lo!" he exclaimed involuntarily, and every sense was on the alert in an instant.

Two flashes inside the downstairs wing of the house, which Ralph knew Mr. Little used as a library, had glinted across the panes of an uncurtained window. Somebody inside the room had scratched a match which went out, then another which stayed lighted.

Its flickerings for a moment illuminated the apartment and revealed two men standing near a desk at one side of the room.

"Why," exclaimed the young railroader--"those mysterious men again!"

CHAPTER VI

IN THE TUNNEL

Ralph pressed close to the window pane of Mr. Little's library room but he did not succeed in seeing much. The last match struck revealed to his sight the two men who had acted so suspiciously the day he had seen them hanging around the Overland Express train with Glen Palmer's grandfather.

If all that he had surmised and discovered was true, it was quite natural that he should come upon them again. Ralph was less startled than surprised. He wondered what their motive could be in visiting the paymaster's house.

"They are not up to burglary," the idea ran through his mind. "It must be they are searching among the paymaster's papers to find out what they can about his system and methods. Yes, that is it."

Ralph saw the man who had struck the matches draw from his pocket a tallow candle, evidently intending to light it. His companion had pulled up the sliding top of a desk and was reaching out toward some pigeon holes to inspect their contents. Just then an unexpected climax came.

The foot of the young railroader slipped on a patch of frozen gra.s.s as he pressed too close to the window. Ralph fell up against this with a slight clatter. The man with the match turned very sharply and suddenly.

He glared hard at the source of the commotion. He must have caught sight of Ralph's face before the latter had time to draw back, for he uttered a startled e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n.

With a bang the desk top fell back in place, the match went out, and the man with the candle fired it wildly at the form at the window with sufficient force to penetrate the pane with a slight crash.

Ralph drew back, some fine splinters of gla.s.s striking his face. It was totally dark now in the room into which he had peered. He could catch the heavy tramping of feet in flight and a door slammed somewhere in the house.

"Hey, there--what are you up to," challenged Ralph, sharply, as he stood in a puzzled way debating what was best to do. He turned about, to face a powerfully-built man, cane in hand, storming down upon him from the front of the house.

"It is you, Mr. Little?" inquired Ralph quickly.

"Yes, it's me. Who are you? Oh, young Fairbanks," spoke the paymaster, peering closely at Ralph.

"Yes, sir."

"I thought I heard a pane of gla.s.s smash--"

"You did. Hurry to the rear, Mr. Little."

"What for?"

"I'll cover the front."

"Why--"

"Two men are in your house. They were just at your desk when I discovered them."

"Two men in the house!"

"I can't explain now, but it is very important that we prevent their escape."

"Burglars! We were all over to supper at wife's folks--"

"Spies, fits the case better, sir--some rival road spite work, maybe.

It's serious, as I shall explain to you later."