Ralph on the Engine: or, The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail

“Farrington and the others,” decided Ralph. “This is an exciting business. Now to keep track of Slump and Bemis. I can hardly figure out, though, how they came to rob the hut, for Farrington was once their friend.”

The precious pair of thieves scurried along through the woods, laughing and talking gleefully over the plunder they had secured. They must have gone over three miles before they halted. It was at a spot in among high bushes. Here they had evidently been camping previously, for there was a lot of hay on the ground, the signs of a recent campfire, and a sort of roof of bark overhead for shelter from rain and dew. They sat down on the ground and Slump proceeded to light a lantern.

“Your watching has amounted to something at last, Mort,” said Slump. “Farrington went back on us in a measly way. Why, after all we did for him he took up with Jim Evans and others, and even refused me a few dollars when we were in hiding and trouble after that silk robbery. Here’s our revenge. He’s been up to some deep game for a week. He’ll never know who stole this plunder.”

“Find how much of it there is,” suggested Bemis.

Each took up a satchel to investigate the contents. Ralph was intensely interested. He peered from a safe covert near at hand.

“Well, well, well!” exclaimed Slump as he opened the satchel taken from the cupboard of the old hut. “Why, there’s a fortune here, if we can only handle it. Bonds of the Great Northern, stock in the Great Northern. See? some money – notes, mortgages, deeds! This is a big find.”

“Same here, except the money,” reported Bemis, investigating the documents in the satchel brought from Stanley Junction by Bartlett. “Mostly railroad stock in the Great Northern. Private letters, lists of names of the strikers. Memoranda about some wire-tapping scheme. Say, these papers are enough to send the old skeesicks to the penitentiary. He’ll pay a fortune to get them back.”

Slump pocketed the ready cash in the satchel. Then he was silently thoughtful for a few moments.

“See here, I have my scheme,” he said finally. “We’ll carry these satchels down to the old barge at the creek, and hide them there. Then we’ll block out some plan to work Farrington for their return.”

“All right,” said Bemis. “Come ahead.”

They took up the satchels and started on again, and Ralph followed them as before. They came to a creek, and, after lining its shore for nearly a mile, to a large roughly-made scow. Both boarded the craft, disappeared in its hold, reappeared, and came to the shore again.

“We’ll just enjoy the ready cash for the time being,” said Slump, “and later find out a safe way to deal with Farrington.”

When they had gone, Ralph went aboard the scow. A scuttle led down into its hold. Its cover was closed with a strong spring bolt. Ralph drew this back and sat over the edge of the scuttle.

He peered down, prepared to push the cover clear back, when he slipped and went below head-long. The cover fell tightly shut, and he was a prisoner.

Ralph did not mind this much at the time. He believed he could readily force up the cover in some way when he wanted to leave the scow. He lit some matches and proceeded to search for the two satchels. He found them in a remote corner of the hold.

It was when he prepared to leave the hold that the young fireman discovered himself in a decided quandary. He could barely reach the scuttle cover, and there was not an object in the hold that he could use to force it open. Finally Ralph decided that he could not hope for escape in that direction.

There was a little window at one end of the scow, but it was too small to escape by. Ralph was compelled to accept the situation, at least until daylight. He tried to sleep, and at dawn looked out from the window.

“I will simply have to wait here until some one passes by,” he told himself. “In the meantime, though, Slump and Bemis may return. Can I reach the rope holding the scow to the shore?”

This was secured around a tree stump. Ralph reached with his pocket knife through the window, and began cutting at the scow end of the rope, which ran just above it.

In a few minutes the strands gave way and the scow floated down the creek.

CHAPTER XXI

A FRIEND IN NEED

There was a sluggish current to the creek and as soon as the scow got into midstream, it proceeded steadily on its voyage.

“This is better than staying at the old mooring place,” reasoned Ralph. “Of course, Slump and Bemis will return there and search for the scow. Before they do, I hope I will have drifted past some house or settlement where I can call out for assistance.”

Ralph, however, was not destined to meet with ready relief. The scow floated along banks wild and timbered, and, during a vigilant watch at the little window of over two hours, he saw no human being or habitation.

Finally the scow slowed up, its course became irregular, it bumped into some obstacle, turned around, and Ralph discovered the cause of the stoppage. A mass of logs and other debris had formed clear across the creek at one point. This the scow lined, edging slowly along as if drawn by some counter-current.

In a few minutes the craft had worked its way into a cut-off from the creek. It floated slowly in among a swampy wilderness of reeds and stunted trees, came to halt at a shallow, and there remained stationary.

“Why, this is worse than being in the creek,” ruminated Ralph, with some concern. “There was a chance of hailing some one there sooner or later, but in this isolated spot I stand the risk of starving to death.”

The young fireman was both hungry and thirsty. He made another desperate attempt to force the scuttle, but found it an utter impossibility. Then he took out his pocket knife. There was one last chance of escape in sight. If he could cut the wood away around the bolt of the scuttle cover, he might force it open.

Ralph could not work to any advantage, for the top of the hold was fully a foot above his head. However, patiently and hopefully he began his task. Bit by bit, the splinters and shavings of wood dropped about him.

“Too bad, that ends it,” he exclaimed suddenly, as there was a sharp snap and the knife blade broke in two.

The situation was now a very serious one. Ralph tried to view things calmly, but he was considerably worried. He was somewhat encouraged, however, a little later, as he noticed that along the dry land lining the swampy cut-off there were signs of a rough wagon road.

“All I can do now is to watch and wait,” he declared. “I guess I will take a look over the contents of those satchels.”

Once started at the task, Ralph became greatly interested. He was amazed at what the documents before him revealed of the plans and villainies of old Gasper Farrington. There was evidence enough, indeed, as Slump had said, to send the village magnate to the penitentiary.

“This information will be of great value to the railroad people,” said Ralph. “It would enable them to at once break the strike.”

“Whoa!”

Ralph gave utterance to a cry of delight and surprise. He ran to the little window of the scow. Not fifty feet away was a horse and wagon. Its driver had shouted out the word to halt. Now he dismounted and was arranging a part of the harness where it had come loose.

“Hello, there! Joe! Joe! hurry this way!” fairly shouted Ralph.

“Hi, who’s that, where are you?” demanded the person hailed.

“In the scow. Ralph! Locked in! Get me out!”

“I declare! It can’t be Ralph. Well! well!”

Nimbly as his crutches would allow him, Limpy Joe came towards the scow. He halted as he neared the window where he could make out the anxious face of his friend.

“What are you ever doing there? How did you get in there? Why, this is wonderful, my finding you in this way,” cried the cripple.

“I’ll tell you all that when I get out,” promised Ralph. “All you have to do is to spring back the bolt catch on the cover to the hold scuttle.”

“I’ll soon have you out then,” said Joe, and with alacrity he waded into the water, got aboard the old craft, and in another minute Ralph had lifted himself free of his prison place.

“Whew! what a relief,” aspirated the young fireman joyfully. “Joe, it is easy explaining how I came to be here – the natural sequence of events – but for you to be on hand to save me is marvelous.”

“I don’t see why,” said Joe. “I have been coming here for the last three days.”

“What for?” inquired Ralph.

“Business, strictly.”

“Mother told me you had taken the horse and wagon and had gone off on a peddling trip,” said Ralph.