I The Trouble-Maker II Discipline III A Good Deal to Think of IV Zeph Fathers an Idea V On the Heels of a Shadow VI Touch and Go VII Something Bad VIII A Clash of Authority IX It Happens Again X The Night of the Strike XI More Friction XII Treachery XIII News from Shadow Valley XIV A Tragedy XV Once More on the Rails XVI Through Shadow Valley XVII More Discipline XVIII From Bad to Worse XIX The Hold-Up in Shadow Valley XX Strange Signals XXI About Cherry XXII The Threat Direct XXIII What Lies Ahead? XXIV Terrible News XXV Through the Flaming Forest XXVI The Wreck XXVII Where Is Cherry? XXVIII Ralph on the Trail XXIX The Run Is Ended RALPH ON THE MIDNIGHT FLYER CHAPTER I—THE TROUBLE-MAKER “What do you think, Ralph? Would any of our Great Northern employees be foolish enough to join this wildcat strike?” “Well, what do you think yourself?” asked Ralph Fairbanks, with some impatience in his tone. “You know these roughnecks as well as I do.” The general manager, in whose office at Rockton they were sitting, threw up both hands and fairly snorted his disgust. “I’ve been a long time at the railroad game,” he declared; “but I never yet understood the psychology of a maintenance of way man. No, sir. In some things they are as loyal to the road as I am myself. And then they suddenly go off at a tangent because of something that, for the life of me, I cannot see is important.” “There lies the difficulty—the germ of the whole trouble,” Ralph Fairbanks said thoughtfully. He was a young fellow of attractive personality—good looking, too. The girls had begun to notice the young railroader, and had he not been so thoroughly devoted to his calling—and to the finest mother a fellow ever had—Ralph might have been somewhat spoiled by the admiration accorded him in certain quarters. Just now, however, having been called in from the train dispatchers’ department where he worked, the young fellow’s attention was deeply engaged in the subject the general manager had brought up. Ralph was an extraordinary employee of the Great Northern. His superiors trusted him thoroughly. And having worked his way up from the roundhouse, switch tower, as fireman and engineer, to the train dispatcher’s grade, he was often called upon by the railroad officials for special duties. The general manager stared at the young fellow after his last remark for fully a minute before asking: