Page:Ralph on the Railroad.djvu/716

148 was working for. See here, I made up my mind that those fellows were up to more mischief than what they have already done. I concluded there was something under the surface of this pretended strike. I wanted to find out. I have."

Ralph looked very much interested now. He began to see the light.

"Go on, Zeph," he said.

"Well, I found out just what I suspected—some one is furnishing the strikers with money, and lots of it."

"Do you know who it is?"

"I don't, but I do know one thing: every day Evans goes to the office of a certain lawyer in town here. They have a long consultation. Evans always comes away very much satisfied and with more money."

"What's the lawyer's name, Zeph?" inquired Ralph.

"Bartlett."

Just then they were called in to supper by Mrs. Fairbanks. Ralph was silent and thoughtful during most of the meal.

The young fireman had learned that afternoon that a stranger named Bartlett had been buying up all the stock of the railroad he could secure. The man was not in good repute at Stanley Junction. He had come there only the week previous,