The Midnight Flyer’s arrival at the basin of Shadow Valley a little ahead of her schedule, if anything, and the fact that Ralph Fairbanks was willing to take a chance overcame the conspiracy of the strike leaders. 202 came through the danger area without much hurt. The crew and detectives on the locomotives suffered the most. The train was a vestibule train for its entire length and the doors were kept closed. Such little heat and smoke as entered the ventilators was of small consequence. In a few minutes the locomotive pilot burst through the far side of the smoke-cloud. The headlight beamed along the rails again. The forest here lay untouched by fire on either side of the right of way. Haley smote Ralph on the shoulder, a congratulatory blow. “Good boy, Fairbanks!” he shouted. “I thought you were running us into a hot corner one while. But you certainly know your business. How far are we from that wreck?” Ralph could figure that out exactly after a glance at the first numbered signpost. He increased the speed of the train on the instant. Not far ahead now lay the scene of the disaster, of which they had secured so few particulars. Timber Brook, the little settlement mentioned in the message that had been passed up to him at Shadow Valley Station, was already in sight. CHAPTER XXVI THE WRECK There was a red lamp out for the Flyer just beyond Timber Brook. Ralph pulled down to a crawl and set the pilot of his engine almost against the lamp that had been placed between the rails. Around the next turn was the wreckage of Number 33. A white-faced section hand came to Ralph’s side of the cab while the detectives climbed down and started ahead along the right of way. “What happened to her?” the young engineer asked the laborer. “They set up two ties between the rails and the old mill was thrown off the track. It carried half the train with it. Only one car—the smoker—overturned, but everybody was badly shaken up.” “How many killed?” gasped Ralph anxiously. “Not a one. Lucky, I call it. And only a dozen or so hurt to any amount.” The hospital outfit that had come from Shadow Valley Station went by on a trot. Ralph was eager to leave his post and to go forward to satisfy himself about Cherry Hopkins, but he could not do this at once. He could not pull the train forward, for the locomotive of Number 33 was across the westbound track. Finally, after some minutes of suspense, he was informed by wire from the station just passed that the delayed Flyer was to remain where it was until the rails were cleared. He could not have run it back, anyway, for the fire was now burning on both sides of the right of way. Leaving Stilling in command of the locomotive, and with the conductor’s permission, Ralph finally got away and hurried around the curve to the scene of the eastbound train’s wreck.