"I wouldn't waste the company's coal that way, if I were you." Ralph with some surprise and considerable interest noted the intruder, who had mounted the tender step just in time to thwart the quarrelsome designs of Lemuel Fogg. As to the fireman, he wheeled about, looked ugly, and then as the newcomer laughed squarely in his face, mumbled some incoherent remark about "two against one," and "fixing both of them." Then he climbed up on the tender to direct the water tank spout into place. "What's the row here, anyhow?" inquired the intruder, with a pleasant glance at Ralph, and leaning bodily against the fireman's seat. Ralph looked him over as a cool specimen, although there was nothing "cheeky" about the intruder. He showed neither the sneakiness nor the effrontery of the professional railroad beat or ride stealer, nothwithstanding the easy, natural way in which he made himself at home in the cab as though he belonged there. "Glad you happened along," chirped the newcomer airily. "I'll keep you company as far as Bridgeport, I guess." "Will you, now?" questioned Ralph, with a dubious smile. The lad he addressed was an open-faced, smart-looking boy. He was well dressed and intelligent, and suggested to Ralph the average college or home boy. Certainly there was nothing about him that indicated that he had to work for a living. "My name is Clark--Marvin Clark," continued the intruder. Ralph nodded and awaited further disclosures. "My father is President of the Middletown & Western Railroad," proceeded the stranger. Ralph did not speak. He smiled slightly, and the keen-eyed intruder noticed this and gave him a sharp look. "Old racket, eh? Too flimsy?" he propounded with a quizzical but perfectly good-natured grin. "I suppose they play all kinds of official relationships and all that on you fellows, eh?" "Yes," said Ralph, "we do hear some pretty extravagant stories." "I suppose so," assented the youth calling himself Marvin Clark. "Well, I don't want to intrude, but if there's room for myself and my credentials, I'd rather keep you company than free pass it in the parlor coach. There you are." As the boy spoke of "credentials," he drew an unsealed envelope from his pocket and handed it to Ralph. The latter received it, noting that it bore in one corner the monogram of the Great Northern, with "President's office--official business" printed under it. He withdrew the enclosure and perused it. The sheet was a letter head of the Middletown & Western Railroad. It bore on one line in one handwriting the name "Marvin Clark," and beneath it the words: "For identification," in another handwriting, and the flourishing signature below "Nathaniel Clark, President."