Peering cautiously, he made out a man seated on the ground. He was groaning with pain and rubbing one limb tenderly. In front of him was a boy. "You see, I sprained my foot crossing a broken culvert," the man said. "Yes, yes, I see," responded his companion, and the voice thrilled Ralph, for he recognized the accents as those of a tried and true boy friend of old--Zeph Dallas. CHAPTER XVII A STRANGE MESSAGE Ralph had known the time when a good many of the boys and railroad men at the Junction had considered Zeph Dallas a joke. He himself, however, had tried to take Zeph as seriously as he could, and now his erratic young friend rose still higher in his estimation. In every live town there are generally one or more lads with the detective fever. Zeph had wandered to Stanley Junction all on fire with it. He had liked railroading, but he disdained its humdrum phases. Step by step he had kept on the trail of "detecting something," until he had unraveled a real mystery, had been of signal aid to the road detective of the Great Northern, and had practically become a hired and loyal helper to that experienced officer. Ralph recalled the flying visit of Zeph to his mother at Stanley Junction less than ten days previous. On that occasion Zeph had dropped some mysterious and significant hints to Mrs. Fairbanks that he was "working on a big case." He had even asked her to warn Ralph "to look out for dispatching trouble." There was no doubt in the mind of Ralph that Zeph was on the present spot on duty pure and simple. Inside of a very few minutes he was aware of the real situation of affairs. The crippled man in whose company he had found Zeph was the man who had operated the runaway engine. As Ralph peered closer he believed him to be one of the men with whom he had seen the grandfather of Glen Palmer, and whom he had later encountered in the railroad tunnel the night of the burglary of the paymaster's house. Ralph listened attentively as the man seated on the ground began to dolefully recite a lying story of how he had got hurt. How much of this Zeph took in Ralph could not guess, for Zeph was playing a part. The man pretended to be a member of a construction gang, with friends at a little settlement a few miles distant. Acting to perfection a simple country bumpkin, Zeph pulled the wool completely over the eyes of the fellow. "You've helped me this far," the man said, "and that makeshift crutch is a big help, but I don't think I can navigate ahead alone." "That's all right," declared Zeph ingenuously. "If it isn't too far, I'll stay with you till you reach your friends, mister." "Say, you're mighty obliging. I'll make it worth your while, too. I'll pay you well." "Oh, I don't care so much for that," said Zeph. "What I'd like to do is to get settled down to some steady job." "H'm," murmured the man reflectively, looking Zeph over in a speculative way, "I don't know but I might steer you right up against a good thing."