“I have felt it my duty to send in, attached to the report of that wreck in the yard the other evening, the fact that all rules of the road were violated by Mr. Fairbanks in trying to handle the switch engine; and, as well, that in my opinion the wreck would not have occurred had it not been for Fairbanks’ oversight. He shunted those heavily loaded gondolas too far into the switch——” “Nothing of the kind!” exclaimed Ralph, interrupting, in anything but a respectful tone. “The train crews and yard crews are honeycombed with treachery, and you daren’t accuse me of such a thing. I won’t stand for _that_, Mr. Hopkins, and don’t you think it!” “Hold on! Hold on!” admonished Mr. Adair in his ear. “Now, this is too much!” cried the young train dispatcher. “I would not help him out now at any price. Why, unless the G. M. himself told me to take the throttle on that old mill, I wouldn’t touch it!” He swung on his heel, panting in his anger, and ran right against a bulky figure in an ulster, his hat brim drawn down over his eyes. Ralph recoiled with a surprised grunt. The man grabbed him. “Hold on!” he said. “I heard you. That train has got to pull out in two minutes. I order you, Fairbanks, to get up into the cab and make that engine behave. You’ve made the schedule. Let’s see if you can make the Midnight Flyer conform to it. How’s that?” Mr. Adair broke into a hearty laugh. But neither the station master nor Ralph, and surely not the supervisor of the division, had previously any idea of the general manager’s presence at the terminal. He had stood back and listened to all that had been said since the unfortunate old engineer had been carried out of the station. “You take this matter entirely out of my hands, sir?” Hopkins asked, his voice shaking. “I do,” rejoined the general manager. “I think you overlook the fact that you are interfering in my province.” “No, I don’t overlook it. But you come back to the office with me, Hopkins, and I believe I can show you where it is for the road’s interest to send Ralph out with this train. There’s the gong!” “Send word to my mother!” cried Ralph to Adair, and made a flying leap for the locomotive steps. The two firemen, who had listened in no little interest and anxiety to the foregoing conversation, sprang to their proper positions. They grinned for they both knew Ralph and liked him. It was a fact that there was not a locomotive on the division that the train dispatcher had not tried out at one time or another. As he had confessed he was, after all, an engineer by instinct. He slid into the seat so recently occupied by the dead engineer, and his hand closed on the throttle. The exhaust coughed through the smokestack. The bell jangled. He let the steam into the cylinders. The drivers groaned and rolled almost on the instant of the conductor shouting his second “All aboard!”