“Jim Perkins ought to be big enough to stop that,” urged one of the firemen. “They say he still holds his job in the old union but has spoken at the meetings in Beeman Hall.” “There is a bunch of fellows helping him stir up trouble, too,” observed his mate. “Billy Lyons and Sam Peters and some others. But they all keep their cards in the old union. Something rotten—something rotten, boy, believe me!” This suspicion that the small unions were playing an underhanded game—or that officers of those unions were doing so—kept many of the wiser employees of the Great Northern in line. Ralph secretly told himself that that fusillade of rotten vegetables and stones aimed at his firemen and himself in the cabin of the big locomotive that pulled the Midnight Flyer cured both of the firemen of any suspicion of sympathy with the men who had struck and their supporters. But, after all, Ralph would have felt safer if there had been guards riding on the train and on the locomotive, as there had been in war times when he helped get the soldiers through to the embarkation port. Mr. Adair, however, did not believe in a show of force. He had men in plain clothes unobtrusively distributed along the division; but they could not be discovered from the passengers save by those who had inside information. Coming down the hill beyond Shadow Valley Station on this very morning that the Midnight Flyer engine crew had been bombarded, Ralph chanced to be thinking of Zeph. It was a black hour; there was not a star visible. The locomotive was steaming well. She was going so fast, in fact, that if there had been any obstruction on the straight track it is doubtful if the headlight would have picked it out in time for Ralph to have stopped the heavy train. But he had to take that chance to make the schedule. He knew the track walkers of this section were all true and tried men. Under ordinary circumstances and conditions, the inspection of this piece of track had been made within half an hour. Ralph sat with his hand on the throttle. He could shut off, without reversing, and set the brakes with two swift motions in five seconds. The brakes were really dragging a bit on the wheels, for the curve was near and he must ease the engine around that. No startling figure appeared this night on the bowlder beside the right of way. Ralph needed no heart-stimulant, his pulse throbbed just a little rapidly. He almost held his breath as he shut down the throttle and the headlight flashed off the rails as the heavy engine approached the turn. This was the dangerous spot. For several moments the light did not reveal the ribbons of steel very far ahead. Behind that turn wreck and disaster might lie! And yet, the young engineer dared not creep around it. To lose time on this important run meant much to the Great Northern. He must keep on——