“Tramps, sure!” Alex heard another of the shovelers remark angrily. Immediately then he recalled the man he had seen from the track-machine tower, and pausing in his work, he counted the cars back.
It was the same car. Yes; undoubtedly the fire was the careless work of the tramp he had seen running away.
The force of fire fighters was rapidly augmented, and soon, despite the fresh breeze, the last of the burning beams were smothered, and all danger of a general conflagration was past.
It was as Alex at last headed back for the boarding-train that a theory other than the tramp theory of the origin of the fire occurred to him. It came from a sudden recollection of Division Superintendent Cameron’s prediction of interference from the K. & Z. “Could that be the real explanation?” he asked himself with some excitement.
The first streak of dawn found Alex again at the scene of the fire, bent on proving or disproving the theory of incendiarism. Climbing aboard the scorched car, he dropped to his knees and began carefully brushing aside the sand with which the burning floor had been covered.
A few minutes’ search produced the burned ends of shavings!
“So!—the ‘fight’ is on!” observed Alex to himself gravely.
With several of the tell-tale fragments in his pocket Alex was about to leap to the ground when Construction Superintendent Finnan appeared. “Good morning, my lad. You beat me here, eh?” he said genially. “Well, what do you make of it?”
Alex sprang down beside him, and produced the charred pine whittlings. “I found these on the bottom of the car, sir. They don’t seem to support the careless tramp theory, do they?” Continuing, Alex then told of the man he had seen there the evening before. “Do you think it was the work of the K. & Z., sir?” he concluded.
The superintendent’s lips were drawn tight. “Yes; I believe it was. Could you identify the man?”