f
the thing proves beyond a doubt that he acted on principle, not on
impulse. If he had flung himself into the life-boat because he was a
coward, he would have been ashamed of it; and whatever he might have
done afterwards, he would never have done that thing again. He would
have been sensitive: not saving his own life would have turned into an
obsession with him. But there is left, I admit, the murder. And murders
always take the public. So I'll give you the murder--though it throws no
light on Ferguson, who is the only thing in the whole accursed affair
that really counts."

"The murder? I don't see--unless you mean the murdering of the
tow-headed child."

"I mean the murder of Ferguson by the girl he loved."

"You said 'suicide' a little while ago," panted Chantry.

"Technically, yes. She was a hundred miles away when it happened. But
she did it just the same. Oh, I suppose I've got to tell you, as
Ferguson told me."

"Did he tell you he was going to kill himself?" Chantry's voice was
sharp.

"He did not. Ferguson wasn't a fool. But it was plain as day to me after
it happened, that he had done it himself."

"How--"

"I'm telling you this, am I not? Let me tell it, then. The thing
happened in no time, of course. The girl got over screaming, and ran
down to the track, frightened out of her wits. The train managed to
stop, about twice its own length farther down, round a bend in the
track, and the conductor and brakeman came running back. The mother came
out of her hovel, carrying twins. The--the--thing was on the track,
across the rails. It was a beastly mess, and Ferguson got the girl away;
set her down to cry in a pasture, and then went back and helped out, and
gave his testimony, and left money, a lot of it, with the mother,
and--all the rest. You can imagine it. No one there considered that
Ferguson ought to have saved the child; no one but Ferguson dreamed that
he could have. Indeed, an ordinary man, in Ferguson's place, wouldn't
have supposed he could. It was only that brain, working like lightning,
working as no plain man's could, that had made the calculation and
_seen_. There were no preliminary seconds lost in surprise or shock, you
see. Ferguson's mind hadn't been jarred from its pace for an instant.
The thing had happened too quickly for any one--except Ferguson--to
understand what was going on. Therefore he ought to have laid that
super-normal brain under the wheels, of course!

"Ferguson was