now and again with the
haggard side-glance of fear. Why was the mine-owner afraid? Lidgerwood
analyzed the query shrewdly. Was he implicated in the matter of the
loosened rail? Remembering that the trap had been set, not for the
passenger train, but for the special, the superintendent dismissed the
charge against Flemister. Thus far he had done little to incur the
mine-owner's enmity--at least, nothing to call for cold-blooded murder
in reprisal. Yet the man was acting very curiously. Much of the time he
scarcely appeared to hear what Miss Brewster was saying to him.
Moreover, he had lied. Lidgerwood recalled his glib explanation at the
meeting beside the displaced rail. Flemister claimed to have had the
news of the disaster by 'phone: where had he been when the 'phone
message found him? Not at his mine, Lidgerwood decided, since he could
not have walked from the Wire-Silver to the wreck in an hour. It was all
very puzzling, and what little suppositional evidence there was, was
conflicting. Lidgerwood put the query aside finally, but with a mental
reservation. Later he would go into this newest mystery and probe it to
the bottom. Judson would doubtless have a report to make, and this might
help in the probing.

Fortunately, the waiting interval was not greatly prolonged;
fortunately, since for the three young women the reaction was come and
the full horror of the disaster was beginning to make itself felt.
Lidgerwood contrived the necessary diversion when the relief-train from
Red Butte shot around the curve of the hillside cutting.

"Van Lew, suppose you and Jefferis take the women out of the way for a
few minutes, while we are making the transfer," he suggested quietly.
"There are enough of us to do the work, and we can spare you."

This left Flemister unaccounted for, but with a very palpable effort he
shook himself free from the spell of whatever had been shackling him.

"That's right," he assented briskly. "I was just going to suggest that."
Then, indicating the men pouring out of the relief train: "I see that my
buckies have come up on your train to lend a hand; command us just the
same as if we belonged to you. That is what we are here for."

Van Lew and the collegian walked the three young women a little way up
the old spur while the wrecked train's company, the living, the injured,
and the dead, were transferring down the line to the relief-train to be
taken back to Red Butte. Flemister helped with the othe