Page:Ralph on the Railroad.djvu/1089

Rh broiled pieces of succulent ham on the end of pointed twigs.

"You see, it was this way," Archie Graham explained to the young engineer of No. 999. "I was just watching a chance for washouts or snowstorms to get on a train diving into the danger. Those red bombs are my invention. I shoot them from a gun. I can send them a mile or gauge thm [sic] to go fifty feet. They ignite when they drop, and by sending out a lot of them they are bound to land somewhere near the train you aim at. The engineer is bound to take notice, just as you did, of the glare, and that's where they beat the fusees and save the running back of a brakeman."

"Archie," said Ralph honestly, "I believe you're going to hit some real invention some time."

"I helped out some with my patent rocket signals this time," declared Archie.

"You did, my lad," observed Fogg with enthusiasm, "and the passengers know all about it, and they've mentioned you in a letter they're getting up to the company saying how they appreciate the intelligence—that's Fairbanks—the courage, ahem! that's me, and the good-heartedness, that's all of us, of the two train crews."

By the middle of the afternoon a snow plow opened up the line from Rockton to the stalled train. It was not until two mornings later,