“Don’t know. He had a flour bag over his head. Tall, husky fellow. That is all I know about it. The super is giving me rats over the wire.”
“He would,” called out Ralph, as he let the steam into the cylinders and the train began to move.
“Now, I wonder,” thought the young engineer, “if Whitey Malone had anything to do with that. Or is the bandit a free-lance with no connection with these strikers? Humph! Where is Zeph, I wonder?”
When Zeph next appeared it was in an astonishing way. Neither Ralph nor his queer friend was likely to forget the occasion.
CHAPTER XIX
THE HOLD-UP IN SHADOW VALLEY
As the days slowly passed Ralph Fairbanks became very curious on one particular point. And this was something quite aside from his activities on the road or the strike developments.
He wondered if Cherry Hopkins had been sent away from home as her father had threatened.
The young fellow never went through the street where Mr. Hopkins lived on his way to and from his home. He would not appear to be curious regarding the girl. He did not want to attract her father’s attention and create more trouble for Cherry, if the latter was still in Rockton.
He thought highly of the young girl. As his mother had intimated, he had never paid much attention to any particular girl before.
“How is your friend, Cherry Hopkins?” the widow sometimes asked him.