“As for the strikers themselves,” went on Mr. Adair, “the union will get rid of Jim Perrin and those that helped him betray the union members to McCarrey. I was able to prove to the union heads their treachery through the written list Ralph got from Malone that night and the warning Perrin slipped into Ralph’s engine the night Thirty-three was wrecked. Undoubtedly Perrin believed McCarrey meant to try again to wreck the Flyer.”
“How did he come to consider Ralph at all?” asked Mr. Hopkins. “Is Perrin such a close friend of yours?” and he asked the question directly of the young man.
“I’ll tell you,” confessed the other. “Some time ago Perrin’s crippled daughter—a sweet little girl—needed to be treated at one of the big Eastern hospitals. Mother and I—more mother than me,” added Ralph, “were able to assist in sending the child there. She has come back cured and I expect, Perrin was grateful.”
It was evident that Mr. Hopkins’ estimation of Ralph Fairbanks increased by leaps and bounds during that run to Rockton. When it was ended the supervisor shook hands warmly with the young fellow before he hastened his daughter away in a taxicab to the hospital, to see her mother.
“I see I have a good deal to thank you for, Fairbanks,” the supervisor said. “Believe me, I shall not forget it.”
However, it was a month before Ralph saw much more of the Hopkins family, even of Cherry. During that time he continued to drive Number 202, and the troubles of all kinds on the division gradually cleared up.
Then another engineer was found to relieve Ralph, and he went back to his desk as chief dispatcher for the division. It was the evening of this day that he kept his first dinner engagement at the Hopkins’ bungalow and met the recovered wife and mother at her own table.
Beside Ralph, too, there sat Mrs. Fairbanks. They found that Barton Hopkins, when he wished to be, could be a very charming host. And Mrs. Fairbanks, as they walked homeward after dinner, repeated to her son something she had already said about Cherry:
“That girl is well worth knowing, Ralph.”
“I’ll tell the world!” agreed the young train dispatcher.