Cab and Caboose | Page 3

which he was really entitled. He was
the son, or rather the adopted son, of Major Arms Appleby, who, next
to President Vanderveer, was the richest man in Euston, and lived in
the great, rambling stone mansion that had been in his family for
generations.
The Major, who was a bachelor, was also one of the kindest-hearted,
most generous, and most obstinate of men. He loved to do good deeds;
but he loved to do them in his own way, and his way was certain to be
the one that was contrary to the advice of everybody else. Thus it
happened that he determined to adopt the year-old baby boy who was
left on his doorstep one stormy night, a little more than sixteen years
before this story opens. He was not fond of babies, nor did he care to
have children about him. Simply because everybody advised him to
send this one to the county house, where it might be cared for by the
proper authorities, he declared he would do nothing of the kind; but
would adopt the little waif and bring him up as his own son.
As the boy grew, and developed many undesirable traits of character,
Major Appleby was too kind-hearted to see them, and too obstinate to
be warned against them.
"Don't tell me," he would say, "I know more about the boy than

anybody else, and am fully capable of forming my opinion concerning
him."
Thus Snyder Appleby, as he was called, because the name "Snyder"
was found marked on the basket in which he had been left at the
Major's door, grew up with the fixed idea that if he only pleased his
adopted father he might act about as he chose with everybody else.
Now he was nearly eighteen years of age, big and strong, with a face
that, but for its coarseness, would have been called handsome. He was
fond of display, did everything for effect, was intolerably lazy, had no
idea of the word punctuality, and never kept an engagement unless he
felt inclined to do so. He always had plenty of pocket money which he
spent lavishly, and was not without a certain degree of popularity
among the other boys of Euston. He had subscribed more largely than
anybody else to the Steel Wheel Club upon its formation, and had thus
succeeded in having himself elected its captain.
As he was older and stronger than any of the other members who took
up racing, and as he always rode the lightest and best wheel that money
could procure, he had, without much hard work, easily maintained a
lead in the racing field, and had come to consider himself as invincible.
He regarded himself as such a sure winner of this last race for the
Railroad Cup, that he had not taken the trouble to go into training for it.
He would not even give up his cigarette smoking, a habit that he had
acquired because he considered it fashionable and manly. Now he was
beaten, disgracefully, and that by a boy nearly two years younger than
himself. It was too much, and he determined to find some excuse for
his defeat, that should at the same time remove the disgrace from him,
and place it upon other shoulders.
Rodman Ray Blake, or R. R. Blake as he signed his name, and
"Railroad Blake" as the boys often called him, was Major Appleby's
nephew, and the son of his only sister. She had married an impecunious
young artist against her brother's wish, on which account he had
declined ever to see her again. When she died, after two years of
poverty-stricken widowhood, she left a loving, forgiving letter for her
brother, and in it committed her darling boy to his charge. If she had

not done this, but had trusted to his generous impulses, all would have
gone well, and the events that serve to make up this story would never
have taken place. As it was, the Major, feeling that the boy was forced
upon him, was greatly aggrieved. That the lad should bear a remarkable
resemblance to his handsome artist father also irritated him. As a result,
while he really became very fond of the boy, and was never unkind to
him, he treated him with an assumed indifference that was keenly felt
by the loving, high-spirited lad. As for Snyder Appleby, he was jealous
of Rodman from the very first; and when, only a short time before the
race meeting of the Steel Wheel Club, the latter was almost
unanimously elected to his place as captain, this feeling was greatly
increased.
CHAPTER II.
A RACE FOR THE RAILROAD CUP.
Young Blake had now been in Euston two years, and was, among the
boys, decidedly the most popular fellow