man, Judson; the man you saw beating with his fists on
the bulkhead air-lock: who was he?" persisted Lidgerwood.

"Now you've got me guessin' again. If I hadn't been dead certain that I
saw Hallock go on ahead with Flemister--but I did see him; saw 'em both
go through the little door, one after the other, and heard it slam
before the other dub turned up. No," reading the question in the
superintendent's eye, "not a drop, Mr. Lidgerwood; I ain't touched not,
tasted not, n'r handled not--'r leastwise, not to drink any," and here
he told the bottle episode which had ended in the smashing of
Flemister's sideboard supply.

Lidgerwood nodded approvingly when the modest narrative reached the
bottle-smashing point.

"That was fine, John," he said, using the ex-engineer's Christian name
for the first time in the long interview. "If you've got it in you to do
such a thing as that, at such a time, there is good hope for you. Let's
settle this question once for all: all I ask is that you prove up on
your good intentions. Show me that you have quit, not for a day or a
week, but for all time, and I shall be only too glad to see you pulling
passenger-trains again. But to get back to this crime of to-night: when
you left Flemister's office, after telephoning Goodloe, you walked down
to Little Butte station?"

"Yes; walked and run. There was nobody there but the bridge watchman.
Goodloe had come on up the track to find out what had happened."

"And you didn't see Flemister or Hallock again?"

"No."

"Flemister told us he got the news by 'phone, and when he said it the
wreck was no more than an hour old. He couldn't have walked down from
the mine in that time. Where could he have got the message, and from
whom?"

Judson was shaking his head.

"He didn't need any message--and he didn't get any. I'd put it up this
way: after that rail-joint was sprung open, they'd go back up the old
spur on the hand-car, wouldn't they? And on the way they'd be pretty
sure to hear Cranford when he whistled for Little Butte. That'd let 'em
know what was due to happen, right then and there. After that, it'd be
easy enough. All Flemister had to do was to rout out his miners over his
own telephones, jump onto the hand-car again, and come back in time to
show up to you."

Lidgerwood was frowning thoughtfully.

"Then both of them must have come back; or, no--that must have been your
third man who tried to flag Cranford down. Judson, I've got to kno