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Rh Marvin Clark. "Well, I don't want to intrude, but if there's room for myself and my credentials, I'd rather keep you company than free pass it in the parlor coach. There you are."

As the boy spoke of "credentials," he drew an unsealed envelope from his pocket and handed it to Ralph. The latter received it, noting that it bore in one corner the monogram of the Great Northern, with "President's office—official business" printed under it. He withdrew the enclosure and perused it.

The sheet was a letter head of the Middletown & Western Railroad. It bore on one line in one handwriting the name "Marvin Clark," and beneath it the words: "For identification," in another handwriting, and the flourishing signature below "Nathaniel Clark, President."

In typewriting beneath all this were the words: "Pass on all trains, Marvin Clark," and below that a date and the name in writing of Mr. Robert Grant, the President of the Great Northern, unmistakably genuine. There were few employees on the road who were not familiar with that signature.

"All right," said Ralph, refolding the sheet, re-inclosing it in the envelope, and handing it back to the stranger. "I guess that passes you anywhere on the line."