ly across the tracks of the incoming train the giant engine,
battered, ice-coated, the semblance of a brave wreck, was halted.
There she stood, a barrier to the oncoming Express.

Ralph jumped from his seat, reached under it, pulled out a whole bunch
of red fuses, lit them, and leaning out from the cab flared them
towards the oncoming train, Roman-candle fashion.

The astonished towerman quickly changed the semaphore signals. Her
nose almost touching No. 999, the Express locomotive panted down to a
halt.

"You shall hear from me, my men," spoke the railroad president simply,
but with a great quiver in his voice, as he leaped from the cab, ran
to the first car of the halted express and climbed to its platform.

Ralph drove No. 999 across the switches. The Express started on its
way again. In what was the proudest moment of his young life, the
loyal engineer of staunch, faithful No. 999 saw the president of the
Great Northern take off his hat and wave it towards himself and Fogg,
as if with an enthusiastic cheer.

CHAPTER XXIX

ZEPH DALLAS AGAIN

"Say--Engineer Ralph--Mr. Fairbanks!"

A spluttering, breathless voice halted Ralph on his way from the depot
to the roundhouse. It was the call boy, Torchy, the young engineer
ascertained, as he waited till the excited juvenile came up to him.

"What's the trouble, Torchy?" he inquired.

Torchy caught his breath, but the excited flare in his eyes did not
diminish.

"Say!" he spluttered out; "I was looking for you. That car, the one
they use out west in Calfrancisco, Francifornia, no, I mean
Calfris--rot! out west, anyway--tourist car."

"I know, yes," nodded Ralph.

"Well, you remember the queer old fossil's special to Fordham spur?
That fellow Zeph Dallas was on it."

"I remember distinctly; go ahead."

"There's another car just like that one in the yards now, right this
minute."

"You don't say so? I didn't suppose that more than one antiquated
relic of that kind was in existence," said Ralph.

"Come on and see," invited Torchy. "This last car must have come from
the north this morning, just like the other one did. It's bunched up
with a lot more of the blockade runners, delayed freight, you know,
and they've made up a train of it and others for the Mountain
Division."

Besides being intensely interested, Ralph had time to spare. It was
nearly a week after the Shelby Junction incident. The great storm had
crippled some of the lines of the great