Way back in his first active railroad work, about the first repellant and obnoxious element Ralph had come up against was Ike Slump. When Ralph was given a job in the roundhouse, he had found Ike Slump in the harness. From the very start the latter had made trouble for the new hand. Ike had tried to direct Ralph wrong, to slight work, to aid him in pulling the wool over the eyes of their superiors in doing poor work. Ralph had manfully refused to be a party to such deception. A pitched battle had ensued in which Slump was worsted. Later he was discharged, still later he was detected in stealing metal fittings from the roundhouse. After that Ike Slump joined a crowd of regular yard thieves. As Ralph went up the ladder of fortune, Ike went down. He was arrested, escaped, made many attempts to "get even," as he called it, with the boy who had never done him a wrong, and the last Ralph had heard of him he was serving a term in some jail for train wrecking. How he had got free was a present mystery to Ralph. That he had been pardoned or his sentence remitted through some influence or other was evident, for here was Slump, back in Stanley Junction, where Adair, the road detective, would pick him up in a jiffy, if he was a fugitive from justice. Ralph had no wish to come in contact with the fellow. On the contrary, so distasteful was Slump and his many ways and his low companions to Ralph, that he was desirous of strictly evading him. Ralph, however, could not help experiencing a new distrust at coming upon Slump at a time when presumptive villainy was in the air. "Hey!" Ralph did not pause at the challenge. He realized that Slump had seen and recognized him. He kept straight on, paying no attention to the hail, repeated, but at the corner of two streets, under a lamplight, he halted, for Slump was at his side. "Well, what do you want?" demanded Ralph bluntly, and with no welcome in his voice. "I--want to speak to you," stammered Slump, breathless from his run. "I suppose it tickled you nearly to death to see me kicked out of the restaurant back yonder, hey?" "Why should it?" inquired Ralph. "That's all right, Fairbanks; natural, too, I suppose, for you never liked me." "Did you ever give me a chance to try." "Eh? Well, let that pass. Don't be huffy now. See here." As Slump spoke, he extended his hands. They were coarse and grimy. With a smirk he inquired: "See them?" "See what?" demanded Ralph. "Clean hands." "Are they--I didn't understand." "Yes, sir," declared the young rowdy volubly. "They've worked out the sentence on the stoke pile, and I owe the state nothing. I'm as free in Stanley Junction as any goody-goody boy in the burg, and I want you to know it." "All right, Ike," said Ralph, pleasantly enough, "hope you'll improve the chance to make good, now you've got the opportunity." "You bet I will," retorted Slump, with a strangely jubilant chuckle. "That's good." "Don't go, I've got something else to say to you."