"All bases covered?"

"Looks that way."

"How come you don't look happier, Isaac?"

"As Watt said, it's a big railroad."

"Oh yes." Abbott took a sip of brandy and leaned over the map again. His high brow knitted. "Who's watching the Redding Yards?"

"Lewis and Minalgo were nearest by," said Bell, not happy with his answer.

"'And the former was a lulu,"' said Archie, quoting the much-loved baseball poem "Casey at the Bat," "'and the latter was a cake."'

Bell nodded agreement, and, thinking through his roster, said, "I'll move them down to Glendale and put Hatfield in charge of Redding."

"Glendale, hell. I'd move 'em to Mexico."

"So would I, if I could spare the men. But Glendale's mighty far off. I don't think we have to worry too much about Glendale. It's seven hundred miles from the Cascades route . . ." He pulled out his gold watch. "We've done all we can tonight. I've got an extra room in my hotel suite. If I can sneak you past the house dick dressed like that."

Abbott shook his head. "Thanks, but when I came through the kitchen earlier, Miss Anne's cook promised me a midnight supper."

Bell shook his head at his old friend. "Only you, Archie, could spend the night in a whorehouse and sleep with the cook."

"I checked the train schedule," Abbott said. "Give my regards to Miss Marion. You've got time to catch the night flyer to San Francisco."

"I was planning to," said Bell, and strode quickly into the night, heading for the railroad station.

Chapter 5.

AT MIDNIGHT, BENEATH A STARRY SKY, A MAN DRESSED IN A SUIT and a slouch hat like a railroad official worked hand and foot levers to propel a three-wheeled Kalamazoo Velocipede track-inspection vehicle between Burbank and Glendale. The track was smooth on this recently completed section of the San Francisco--to--Los Angeles line. Rowing with his arms and pedaling with his feet, he was making nearly twenty miles per hour in eerie silence broken only by the rhythmic clicking of the wheels passing over the joints between the rails.

The Velocipede was used to watch over the section gangs who replaced worn or rotted crossties, tamped stone ballast between the ties, aligned rails, pounded down loose spikes, and tightened bolts. Its frame, two main wheels, and the outrigger that connected them to its side wheel were made of strong, light ash, its treads of cast iron. The entire vehicle weighed less than one hundred fifty pounds. One man could lift it off the rails and turn it in the opposite direction or get out of the way of a train. The Wrecker, no cripple except when he needed a disguise, would have no trouble tumbling it down an embankment when he was done with it.

Tied to the empty seat beside him were a crowbar, track wrench, spike puller, and a device that no section gang would dare leave on the rails. It was a hook, nearly two feet long, fashioned from a cast-iron boat anchor from which one fluke had been removed.