"Something is," declared Ralph, "according to his looks and actions." Bates came puffing up white and breathless. Evidently he had just got out of bed, half dressed himself, put on a pair of slippers, no coat, no hat, and he seemed to ignore the cold and snow amid some frantic urgency of reaching the departing train. "Say!" he panted, approaching the fireman who was giving No. 341 the last touch of oil before they pulled out, "thank heaven you haven't gone!" "Hey?" stared the engineer. "Don't pull out for a minute." "Why not?" "I think there's a mistake in your orders." "What's the matter with you?" snapped back the fireman with affected gruffness. "I hain't got no orders. Come here, till I oil the wheels in your head." "You must come up to the dispatcher's office," insisted Bates urgently, and the engineer followed him wonderingly. Ralph, tracing something unusual in the episode of the moment, kept them company. The chief dispatcher was standing by the counter. He glanced sharply at Bates with the words: "What's up, kid? Seen a ghost? You look almost pale enough yourself to be one." "No," quavered Bates in a shaky tone. "I haven't seen any ghosts, but I am afraid I forgot to notify that track gang just west of here about this extra." The chief went to the order book and glanced at the train sheet. "Oh, bosh!" he said. "Of course you notified them. Here it is as big as life. Look out for extra west engine 341 leaving Stanley Junction at 1:21 P. M. What do you want to get a case of rattles and scare us all that way for. Say, I'd ought to run down your spinal column with a rake. Don't you know there are other dispatchers in this office besides yourself--men who know more in a minute about the business than you do in a month? Don't you suppose that order book would be verified and the train sheet consulted before sending out the extra. Say, don't you ever show up with such a case of rattles again." Bates expressed an enormous sigh of relief. As he came down to the platform, however, Ralph noticed that he was shaking from head to foot. "Did you ever work up there?" inquired Bates in a solemn tone. "No," answered Ralph. "Then don't. Just wake up once after you've left the key, and get thinking you've forgotten something, and--nightmare? Fairbanks, it's worse than the horrors!" CHAPTER XI MAKING A SCHEDULE "You understand me, Fairbanks?" "Perfectly, Mr. Drake." "You have helped us out of trouble before this and I believe you can be of inestimable service in the present instance. We are sorry to lose a first-class engineer, but we need you somewhere else, and need you badly." They were seated in the private office of the superintendent of the Great Northern, that august official and the young engineer of the Overland Express, and a long, earnest and serious colloquy had just ended.