could have knocked me down with a feather when I found that out,"
went on the man from the dispatcher's office, "although I didn't find
it out until later. Yes, the train had been rented and paid for by our
old extra wiper here, that dreamer, kicker and would-be detective,
Dallas. A pretty penny it must have cost. Where did he get the money?
Skylarking around the country like a millionaire, and what did he pick
out that antiquated curiosity of a relic car for? Well, it was the
'Dallas Special,' sure enough, and it made its run just the same as if
he was a railroad president inspecting the lines."

"I'm interested," explained Ralph.

"I'm jiggergasted," added the dispatcher; "I got the line on their
route by wire to Brampton. I found that the contract was to run to
Fordham spur and back to Brampton."

"But what for?" inquired Ralph.

"To deliver some special freight presumably," said the dispatcher. "At
first I wondered if things mightn't be stirring up in a new business
way at the old factory. Thought maybe they were going to do some
blasting, and Dallas had been hired to run through a load of giant
powder. Well, I was off in my guess."

"How did you find that out?" asked Ralph.

"I caught the Brampton outfit on the return trip. She had to switch
here for an hour to get the right of way north. I went over to the
siding and happened to know the engineer."

"And where was Zeph?"

"They left him up at the spur."

"H'm," commented Ralph, feeling that Zeph was indeed enveloping
himself in a dense mist of mystery.

"The engineer just grinned and haw-hawed when I asked him about his
run. He said that Dallas had acted like a fellow on the most serious
business, the whole run through. When they got to the spur he had them
run in about two hundred feet. Then he sat down by the side of the
track, watch in hand, solemnly waited for an hour to pass by, and
then told the engineer the trip was ended and he was satisfied."

"He didn't explain----" began Ralph in wonderment.

"Not a word. He just waved his hand grandly good-by to the engineer,
and passed out of sight. It was a queer go--wasn't it, now? The
engineer and fireman were dumfounded. They looked into the car out of
sheer curiosity."

"And found?" pressed Ralph.

"Nothing."

"What!"

"No--empty."

Ralph was bewildered, and said so. The dispatcher acknowledged the
same sentiment, so had the engineer and the fireman, he said.

"There you have it," he rem