eels?"

"Yes."

"Who is he, anyway?" inquired Ralph.

"He thinks he is a young inventor."

"And is he?"

"That's an open question. They call him Young Edison around here, and
his right name is Archie Graham. His father was an aeronaut who was an
expert on airships, got killed in an accident to an aeroplane last
year, and left his son some little money. Young Graham has been
dabbling in inventions since he was quite young."

"Did he really ever invent anything of consequence?" asked Ralph.

"The attendant here says that he did. About two years ago he got up a
car window catch that made quite a flurry at the shops. It was used
with good results, and the Great Northern was about to pay Graham
something for the device, when it was learned that while he was
bringing it to perfection some one else had run across pretty nearly
the same idea."

"And patented it first?"

"Both abroad and in this country. That of course shut Graham out. All
the same, the attendant declares that Graham must have got the idea
fully a year before the foreign fellow did."

The boys left the place in a little while and proceeded towards the
railroad depot. Ralph had conceived quite a liking for his volatile
new acquaintance. Clark had shown himself to be a loyal, resourceful
friend, and the young engineer felt that he would miss his genial
company if the other did not take the return trip to Stanley Junction.
He told Clark this as they reached the depot.

"That so?" smiled the latter. "Well, I'll go sure if you're agreeable.
I've got no particular program to follow out, and I'd like to take in
the Junction. Another thing, I'm curious to see how you come out with
your friends. There's that smash-up on the siding at Plympton, too.
Something may come up on that where I may be of service to you."

They found the locomotive, steam up, on one of the depot switches in
charge of a special engineer. It lacked over half an hour of leaving
time. While Clark hustled about the tender, Ralph donned his working
clothes and chattered with the relief engineer. The latter was to run
the locomotive to the train, and Ralph walked down the platform to put
on the time.

"I've stowed my vest in a bunker in the cab," said Clark, by his
side.

"That's all right," nodded Ralph.

"And I'm going to get some sandwiches and a few bottles of pop for a
little midnight lunch."

"All right," agreed the young engineer, as his companion started over
towards Railro