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[Illustration: "An Avalanche!" declared Fogg. "Dodge--something's coming!"
Page 254. Ralph on the Overland Express.]




RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS

OR

THE TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF A YOUNG ENGINEER

BY

ALLEN CHAPMAN

AUTHOR OF "RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE,"
"RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER,"
"RALPH ON THE ENGINE,"
"DAREWELL CHUMS SERIES," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS

Made in the United States of America




THE RAILROAD SERIES

By Allen Chapman

12mo. Illustrated. Cloth

RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE
  Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man

RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER
  Or, Clearing the Track

RALPH ON THE ENGINE
  Or, The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail

RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS
  Or, The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer

(Other Volumes in Preparation.)

GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York

Copyright, 1910, by

GROSSET & DUNLAP

Ralph on the Overland Express




CONTENTS

 CHAPTER                                                          PAGE
      I. No. 999                                                     1
     II. A Special Passenger                                        12
    III. One of the Rules                                           22
     IV. A Warning                                                  35
      V. At Bay                                                     43
     VI. Four Medals                                                51
    VII. Dave Bissell, Train Boy                                    60
   VIII. An Astonishing Discovery                                   68
     IX. The Light of Home                                          76
      X. Fire!                                                      88
     XI. The Master Mechanic                                        95
    XII. A Good Friend                                             104
   XIII. The "Black Hand"                                          114
    XIV. A Serious Plot                                            123
     XV. "The Silvandos"                                           129
    XVI. Zeph Dallas and His "Mystery"                             138
   XVII. In Widener's Gap                                          145
  XVIII. At the Semaphore                                          153
    XIX. The Boy Who Was Hazed                                     160
     XX. "Lord Lionel Montague"                                    171
    XXI. Archie Graham's Invention                                 179
   XXII. Ike Slump Again                                           188
  XXIII. A Critical Moment                                         195
   XXIV. The New Run                                               203
    XXV. The Mountain Division                                     209
   XXVI. Mystery                                                   217
  XXVII. The Railroad President                                    225
 XXVIII. A Race Against Time                                       233
   XXIX. Zeph Dallas Again                                         244
    XXX. Snowbound                                                 254
   XXXI. Conclusion                                                264




RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS

CHAPTER I

NO. 999


"All aboard."

Ralph Fairbanks swung into the cab of No. 999 with the lever hooked up
for forward motion, and placed a firm hand on the throttle.

It looked as though half the working force of the railroad, and every
juvenile friend he had ever known in Stanley Junction, had come down
to the little old depot that beautiful summer afternoon to especially
celebrate the greatest event in his active railroad career.

Ralph was the youngest engineer in the service of the Great Northern,
and there was full reason why he should center attention and interest
on this the proudest moment of his life. No. 999 was the crack
locomotive of the system, brand new and resplendent. Its headlight was
a great glow of crystal, its metal bands and trimmings shone like
burnished gold, and its cab was as spick and span and neat as the
private office of the division superintendent himself.

No. 999 was out for a trial run--a record run, Ralph hoped to make it.
One particular car attached to the rear of the long train was the main
object of interest. It was a new car to the road, and its blazoned
name suggested an importance out of the ordinary--"China & Japan
Mail."

This car had just come in over a branch section by a short cut from
the north. If No. 999 could beat timetable routine half an hour and
deliver the mail to the Overland Express at Bridgeport, two hundred
miles distant, on time, it would create a new schedule, and meant a
good contract for the Great Northern, besides a saving of three hours'
time over the former roundabout trip of the China & Japan Mail.

Ralph had exchanged jolly greetings with his friends up to now. In an
instant, however, the sonorous, echoing "All aboard" from the
conductor way down the train was a signal for duty, prompt and
imperative. The pleasant depot scene faded from the sight and mind of
the ambitious young railroader. He turned his strict attention now to
the cab interior, as though the locomotive was a thing of life and
intelligence.

"Let 'er go, Ralph!"

John Griscom, the oldest engineer on the road, off duty, but a
privileged character on all occasions, stepped from the gossiping
crowd of loungers at a little distance. He swung up into the cab with
the expert airiness of long usage. His bluff, hearty face expressed
admiration and satisfaction, as his rapid eye took in the cab layout.

"I'll hold up the tender rail till we get to crossing," announced
Griscom. "Lad, this is front rank service all right, and I'm happy to
say that you deserve it."

"Thank you, Mr. Griscom," answered Ralph, his face beaming at the
handsome compliment. "I don't forget, though, that you helped some."

"Oh, so, so," declared Griscom. "I say, Fogg, you're named right."

It was to Lemuel Fogg that Griscom spoke. Fogg was Ralph's fireman on
the present trip. He presented a decided contrast to the brisk, bright
engineer of No. 999. He shoveled in the coal with a grim mutter, and
slammed the fire door shut with a vicious and unnecessary bang.

"What you getting at?" he growled, with a surly eye on Griscom.

"Fogg--fog, see? foggy, that's you--and groggy, eh? Sun's shining--why
don't you take it in? No slouch privilege firing this magnificent
king of the road, I'm thinking, and you ought to think so, too."

"Huh!" snapped Fogg, "it'll be kid luck, if we get through."

"Oho! there's where the shoe pinches, is it?" bantered the old
railroad veteran. "Come, be fair, Fogg. You was glad to win your own
spurs when you were young."

"All right, mind the try-out, you hear me!" snorted Fogg ungraciously.
"You mind your own business."

"Say," shot out Griscom quickly, as he caught a whiff from Fogg's
lips, "you be sure you mind yours--and the rules," he added, quite
sternly, "I advise you not to get too near the furnace."

"Eh, why not?"

"Your breath might catch fire, that's why," announced Griscom bluntly,
and turned his back on the disgruntled fireman.

Ralph had not caught this sharp cross-fire of repartee. His mind had
been intently fixed on his task. He had started up the locomotive
slowly, but now, clearing the depot switches, he pulled the lever a
notch or two, watching carefully ahead. As the train rounded a curve
to an air line, a series of brave hurrahs along the side of the track
sent a thrill of pleasure through Ralph's frame.

The young engineer had only a fleeting second or two to bestow on a
little group, standing at the rear fence of a yard backing down to the
tracks. His mother was there, gaily waving a handkerchief. A neighbor
joined in the welcome, and half-a-dozen boys and small children with
whom Ralph was a rare favorite made the air ring with enthusiastic
cheers.

"Friends everywhere, lad," spoke Griscom in a kindly tone, and then,
edging nearer to his prime young favorite, he half-whispered: "Keep
your eye on this grouch of a Fogg."

"Why, you don't mean anything serious, Mr. Griscom?" inquired Ralph,
with a quick glance at the fireman.

"Yes, I do," proclaimed the old railroader plainly. "He's got it in
for you--it's the talk of the yards, and he's in just the right frame
of mind to bite off his own nose to spite his face. So long."

The locomotive had slowed up for crossing signals, and Griscom got to
the ground with a careless sail through the air, waved his hand, and
Ralph buckled down to real work on No. 999.

He glanced at the schedule sheet and the clock. The gauges were in
fine working order. There was not a full head of steam on as yet and
the fire box was somewhat over full, but there was a strong draft and
a twenty-mile straight run before them, and Ralph felt they could make
it easily.

"Don't choke her too full, Mr. Fogg," he remarked to the fireman.

"Teach me!" snorted Fogg, and threw another shovelful into the box
already crowded, and backed against the tender bar with a surly,
defiant face.

Ralph made no retort. Fogg did, indeed, know his business, if he was
only minded to attend to it. He was somewhat set and old-fashioned in
his ways, and he had grown up in the service from wiper.

Ralph recalled Griscom's warning. It was not pleasant to run two
hundred miles with a grumpy cab comrade. Ralph wished they had given
him some other helper. However, he reasoned that even a crack fireman
might be proud of a regular run on No. 999, and he did not believe
that Fogg would hurt his own chances by any tactics that might delay
them.

The landscape drifted by swiftly and more swiftly, as Ralph gave the
locomotive full head. A rare enthusiasm and buoyancy came into the
situation. There was something fascinating in the breathless rush, the
superb power and steadiness of the crack machine, so easy of control
that she was a marvel of mechanical genius and perfection.

Like a panorama the scenery flashed by, and in rapid mental panorama
Ralph reviewed the glowing and stirring events of his young life,
which in a few brief months had carried him from his menial task as an
engine wiper up to the present position which he cherished so
proudly.

Ralph was a railroader by inheritance as well as predilection. His
father had been a pioneer in the beginning of the Great Northern.
After he died, through the manipulations of an unworthy village
magnate named Gasper Farrington, his widow and son found themselves at
the mercy of that heartless schemer, who held a mortgage on their
little home.

In the first volume of the present series, entitled "Ralph of the
Roundhouse," it was told how Ralph left school to earn a living and
help his self-sacrificing mother in her poverty.

Ralph got a job in the roundhouse, and held it, too, despite the
malicious efforts of Ike Slump, a ne'er-do-well who tried to undermine
him. Ralph became a favorite with the master mechanic of the road
through some remarkable railroad service in which he saved the
railroad shops from destruction by fire.

Step by step Ralph advanced, and the second volume of this series,
called "Ralph in the Switch Tower," showed how manly resolve, and
being right and doing right, enabled him to overcome his enemies and
compel old Farrington to release the fraudulent mortgage.
Incidentally, Ralph made many friends. He assisted a poor waif named
Van Sherwin to reach a position of comfort and honor, and was
instrumental in aiding a former business partner of his father, one
Farwell Gibson, to complete a short line railroad through the woods
near Dover.

In the third volume of the present series, entitled "Ralph on the
Engine," was related how our young railroad friend became an active
employee of the Great Northern as a fireman. He made some record runs
with old John Griscom, the veteran of the road. In that volume was
also depicted the ambitious but blundering efforts of Zeph Dallas, a
farmer boy who was determined to break into railroading, and there was
told as well the grand success of little Limpy Joe, a railroad
<DW36>, who ran a restaurant in an old, dismantled box car.

These and other staunch, loyal friends had rallied around Ralph with
all the influence they could exert, when after a creditable
examination Ralph was placed on the extra list as an engineer.

Van and Zeph had been among the first to congratulate the friend to
whom they owed so much, when, after a few months' service on
accomodation runs, it was made known that Ralph had been appointed as
engineer of No. 999.

It was Limpy Joe, spending a happy vacation week with motherly,
kind-hearted Mrs. Fairbanks, who led the cheering coterie whom Ralph
had passed near his home as he left the Junction on his present run.

Of his old-time enemies, Ike Slump and Mort Bemis were in jail, the
last Ralph had heard of them. There was a gang in his home town,
however, whom Ralph had reason to fear. It was made up of men who had
tried to <DW36> the Great Northern through an unjust strike. A man
named Jim Evans had been one of the leaders. Fogg had sympathized with
the strikers. Griscom and Ralph had routed the malcontents in a fair,
open-handed battle of arguments and blows. Fogg had been reinstated by
the road, but he had to go back on the promotion list, and his rancor
was intense when he learned that Ralph had been chosen to a position
superior to his own.

"They want young blood, the railroad nobs tell it," the disgruntled
fireman had been heard to remark in his favorite tippling place on
Railroad Street. "Humph! They'll have blood, and lots of it, if they
trust the lives of passengers and crew to a lot of kindergarten
graduates."

Of all this Ralph was thinking as they covered a clear dash of twenty
miles over the best stretch of grading on the road, and with
satisfaction he noted that they had gained three minutes on the
schedule time. He whistled for a station at which they did not stop,
set full speed again as they left the little village behind them, and
glanced sharply at Fogg.

The latter had not spoken a word for over half-an-hour. He had gone
about his duties in a dogged, sullen fashion that showed the
permanency of the grouch with which old John Griscom had charged him.
Ralph had made up his mind to leave his cab companion severely alone
until he became more reasonable. However, there were some things about
Fogg of which the young engineer was bound to take notice, and a new
enlightenment came to Ralph's mind as he now glanced at his helper.

Fogg had slipped clumsily on the tender plate in using the coal rake,
and Ralph had marveled at this unusual lack of steadiness of footing.
Then, twice he had gone out on the running board on some useless
errand, fumbling about in an inexplicable way. His hot, fetid breath
crossed Ralph's face, and the latter arrived at a definite
conclusion, and he was sorry for it. Fogg had been "firing up" from a
secret bottle ever since they had left the Junction, and his condition
was momentarily becoming more serious and alarming.

They were slowing down to a stop at a water tank as Ralph saw Fogg
draw back, and under cover of the tender lift a flask to his lips.
Then Fogg slipped it under the cushion of his seat as he turned to get
some coal.

He dropped the shovel, coal and all, with a wild snort of rage, as
turning towards the fire box door he saw Ralph reach over swiftly,
grab the half empty bottle from under the cushion, and give it a fling
to the road bed, where it was dashed into a thousand pieces.

Blood in his eye, uncontrollable fury in his heart, the irrational
fireman, both fists uplifted, made a wild onslaught upon the young
engineer.

"You impudent meddler!" he raved. "I'll smash you!"




CHAPTER II

A SPECIAL PASSENGER


"Behave yourself," said Ralph Fairbanks quietly.

The young engineer simply gave his furious antagonist a push with his
free hand. The other hand was on duty, and Ralph's eyes as well. He
succeeded in bringing the locomotive to a stop before Fogg needed any
further attention.

The fireman had toppled off his balance and went flat among the coal
of the tender. Ralph did not feel at all important over so easily
repelling his assailant. Fogg was in practically a helpless condition,
and a child could have disturbed his unsteady footing.

With maudlin energy, however, he began to scramble to his feet. All
the time he glowered at Ralph, and made dreadful threats of what he
was going to do to the youth for "knocking him down." Fogg managed to
pull himself erect, but swayed about a good deal, and then observing
that Ralph had the free use of both hands now and was posed on guard
to meet any attack he might meditate, the irate fireman stooped and
seized a big lump of coal. Ralph could hardly hope to dodge the
missile, hemmed in as he was. It was poised for a vicious fling. Just
as Fogg's hand went backwards to aim the projectile, it was seized,
the missile was wrested from his grasp, and a strange voice drawled
out the words:

"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