Page:Ralph on the Railroad.djvu/1006

182 opened the furnace door timidly. There was no further outburst of ashes. "Queer," he commented. "It couldn't have been powder. I noticed a draft soon as we started. What made it? Where is it now?"

"It was only when we were running fast," submitted Ralph.

The fireman leaped down to the tracks. He inspected the locomotive from end to end. Then he began ferretting under the engine. Ralph watched him climb between the drivers. Strange, muffled mutterings announced some discovery. In a moment or two Fogg crawled out again.

"I vum!" he shouted. "What is this contraption?"

He grasped a piece of wire-netted belting, and as he trailed out its other end, to it was attached a queer-looking device that resembled a bellows. Its frame was of iron, and it had a tube with a steel nozzle.

"I say," observed the young engineer, in a speculative tone, "where did that come from?"

"I found its nozzle end stuck in through one end of the draft holes in the fire box," answered Fogg. "This belt ran around two axles and worked it. Who put it there?"

"Graham," announced Ralph politely. "Well—well—I understand his queer actions now.