“So there is,” assented Fogg, peering ahead. “Guess I’ll see what it means.”
Ralph did not have to let down speed to accommodate his expert helper. Fogg was as much at home on the running board with the train going a mile a minute pace as a house painter on a first-floor scaffold. He crept out through his window.
Ralph lost sight of him beyond the bulge of the boiler and while watching ahead from his own side of the cab. Fogg was nearly three minutes on his tour of investigation.
“There’s something to think about,” he declared emphatically as he dropped two objects on the floor of the cab.
“What is it?” inquired Ralph with a curious stare.
“Wait till I mend the fire and I’ll show you something,” said the fireman. Then, this duty attended to, he took from the floor a long piece of wire wound around a part of a device that resembled a telegraph instrument.
“See here,” explained the fireman excitedly, “I’ve got it in a word.”
“And what is that, Mr. Fogg?”
“Wire tappers.”
“Or line repairers,” suggested Ralph.