. Foster
was dizzy, but he saw the man's dark figure against the moonlight.
There was a glimmer of snow in the gloom beneath, and a confused din;
the roar of wheels and a rattle from the bridge. Then Pete sprang
across the platform, passing in front of Foster, and when the latter
saw the gap again Daly had gone.

Pete leaned against the back of the car, breathing hard and holding a
piece of torn silk.

"I was aboot a second ower lang," he gasped. "He just stepped back and
left this in my han'."

Foster, crossing the platform shakily, grasped the rail and looked
down. There were rocks and small trees immediately beneath him, but
farther back a level white belt indicated a frozen river covered by
thin snow. In the middle of this was a dark riband of water where the
stream had kept an open channel through the ice. The bridge was one of
the long, wooden trestles, flung across rivers and narrow valleys, that
are now being replaced by embankments and iron structures. Since the
frame, as usual, was open and just wide enough to carry the metals,
there was nothing to save anybody who fell off the cars from a plunge
to the bottom. Foster thought Daly knew this when he stepped off the
platform. Looking back along the curve of the bridge, he imagined that
the thing had happened when they were crossing the unfrozen part of the
stream. He shivered and then glanced round as a man who had followed
Pete closely took the object the latter held.

"His necktie," he remarked. "If it had been stronger, we'd have had
him in handcuffs now."

"Weel," said Pete dryly, "it's no certain I wouldna' ha' gone ower the
brig wi' him."

There was a hoarseness in their voices that hinted at strain, but the
man, ordering Foster not to leave the car, hurried away, and soon
afterwards the train slackened speed. Then he came back with another
man, and telling Foster and Pete to follow him, got down upon the line.
Curious passengers were alighting and asking questions, but the leader
did not object when several followed the party. They had to walk some
distance, and when they reached the end of the trestle it was difficult
to get down the rocky bank.

The bottom of the hollow was roughly level, but part was covered with
small, stunted trees, many of which had been uprooted and had fallen
across each other. In the open spaces, rocks and boulders rose out of
an inch or two of snow. It was plain that there was no chance of
Daly's alighti