Page:Ralph on the Railroad.djvu/1001

Rh "I shall be happy to be of service to you, Lord Montague," responded Ralph courteously.

He did not like the man. There was something untrue about his shifty eye. There was a lot of "put on" that did not strike Ralph as natural. "His ludship" harped on the youth of Ralph. Only veterans were intrusted with important railroad positions in England—"didn't he know." He was asking many questions about Ralph's juvenile friends, as if with some secret purpose, when the train started up.

"Hi, up there!" Fogg challenged Archie, seated on the tank tender top, "don't get moving up there and tumble off."

The young inventor certainly looked as if he was moving. His eyes were glued to the smokestack of the locomotive, as though it possessed a fascinating influence over him.

"Say, there's some draft this morning," observed the fireman, half-way to the crossing, as he threw some coal into the furnace.

"I should say so," replied Ralph; "some sparks, too, I notice."

"Humph! that new patent spark arrester don't arrest particularly," commented Fogg. "Queer," he added, with a speculative eye on the smokestack.

That appendage of No. 999 was shooting out