“It seems to be a long-standing trouble the doctor has been treating her for, and now she must go under an operation. Actually, they say she is wearing her heart out because Cherry is away from her and at Shelby Junction. She has never been separated from her before so she tells Mrs. Wagner. That man is awful!” “He is getting worse around the yards,” said Ralph. “I just heard he accuses one of the section foremen of letting the strikers steal dynamite so that they could blow up that trestle.” Mrs. Fairbanks had heard of that; but she had no idea her son’s life had been in danger. And Ralph was not telling her too much. He was glad she switched to Mrs. Hopkins’ illness again. “If Cherry is not allowed to come home, I fear her mother will never come through the operation alive,” said the widow. “Mrs. Wagner says the doctor declares Hopkins the hardest man to move from a decision he ever knew. He calls it ‘mental delinquency’ on the supervisor’s part. He says,” and Mrs. Fairbanks smiled, “if Hopkins had been spanked at the right time when he was a boy, and spanked enough, he would not have got the ‘self-importance complex’ and become such a nuisance to his fellowmen.” “That medico knows his business!” laughed Ralph. “Ain’t it the truth? as Zeph would say. And that reminds me, Mother. I fear Zeph is in some trouble down the line. Mr. Adair does not know what has become of him.” “That boy is always getting into some difficulty,” said the widow. “I would not worry about him, if I were you, Ralph.” That day passed without any particular outbreak by the strikers in Rockton. The police and railroad detectives had the situation pretty well in hand about the terminal and the city yards. Mr. Hopkins had taken the bit in his teeth regarding the attempted wrecking of the Midnight Flyer in Shadow Valley. One of the section foremen near the trestle had obtained some dynamite for a specific purpose, and the supervisor had jumped to the conclusion that this foreman had given up the explosive to the strikers. This unproved assertion provoked more trouble on the entire length of the division. The section foreman had complained to his union. The full quantity of dynamite was promptly found in his possession, and inside of ten hours the union officials had demanded that Mr. Hopkins retract his accusation. “Now, why don’t they ask a hungry bulldog to give up a bone?” Ralph observed, when he read this in the evening paper before leaving home for his night run to Hammerfest. “Those fellows are as bad as the super himself. He never handles anybody with gloves; but you can’t handle him without having your own hands muffled. And those union leaders ought to know it.”