The lad he addressed was an open-faced, smart-looking boy. He was well dressed and intelligent, and suggested to Ralph the average college or home boy. Certainly there was nothing about him that indicated that he had to work for a living.
“My name is Clark—Marvin Clark,” continued the intruder.
Ralph nodded and awaited further disclosures.
“My father is President of the Middletown & Western Railroad,” proceeded the stranger.
Ralph did not speak. He smiled slightly, and the keen-eyed intruder noticed this and gave him a sharp look.
“Old racket, eh? Too flimsy?” he propounded with a quizzical but perfectly good-natured grin. “I suppose they play all kinds of official relationships and all that on you fellows, eh?”
“Yes,” said Ralph, “we do hear some pretty extravagant stories.”
“I suppose so,” assented the youth calling himself 15 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.”