“It is, so far as we are concerned, but shall I advise Fairbanks of the arrangements?”
“By all means,” directed the superintendent promptly.
“Yes, he has proven his trustworthiness and ability,” supplemented the assistant, “and it is our wish that he should be appraised of exactly what is going on.”
“Very well,” nodded Adair, in his usual brusque manner, “I will attend to that. Come on, Fairbanks.”
Ralph bowed courteously to his two official friends and left the room with the road officer. As they reached the street Adair linked his arm in that of Ralph in a confidential way.
“See here, Fairbanks,” he remarked, “such tricks as that smash up and the pay car business any road may have to tackle from time to time. We shall attend to the fellows behind those schemes all right, but it’s bigger game we are after. A plot has crippled our service, corrupted our operators, stolen our private wire information. Bear this in view, and when new things come up along that line, which they are bound to do, dig out all you can under the surface that will give us a handle against the real plotter--the rival road that is trying to throw us down.”
“I understand, Mr. Adair,” said Ralph.
“You are going up to the train dispatcher’s office?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll join you there in about half an hour, as I have some cypher messages I want you particularly to attend to. I’ll tell you then about this pay car business.”