r, and again it was Avery who answered. "We
have not said so."

"I must assume it, then," Eaton said to the girl without regarding
Avery. "I have been watching as well as I could since they shut me up
here, and I have listened, but I haven't found any evidence that
anything more is being done. So I'm obliged to assume that nothing is
being done. The few people who know about the attack on your father
are so convinced and satisfied that I am the one who did it that they
aren't looking any further. Among the people moving about on the
train, the--the man who made the attack is being allowed to move about;
he could even leave the train, if he could do so without being seen and
was willing to take his chance in the snow; and when the train goes on,
he certainly will leave it!"

Harriet Santoine turned questioningly to Avery again.

"I am not asking anything of you, you see," Eaton urged. "I'm not
asking you to let me go or to give me any--any increase of liberty
which might make it possible for me to escape. I--I'm only warning you
that Mr. Avery and the conductor are making a mistake; and you don't
have to have any faith in me or any belief that I'm telling the truth
when I say that I didn't do it! I'm only warning you, Miss Santoine,
that you mustn't let them stop looking! Why, if I had done it, I might
very likely have had an accomplice whom they are going to let escape.
It's only common sense, you see."

"That is what you wanted to say?" Avery asked.

"That is it," Eaton answered.

"We can go, then, Harriet."

But she made no move to go. Her eyes rested upon Eaton steadily; and
while he had been appealing to her, a flush had come to her cheeks and
faded away and come again and again with her impulses as he spoke.

"If you didn't do it, why don't you help us?" she cried.

"Help you?"

"Yes: tell us who you are and what you are doing? Why did you take the
train because Father was on it, if you didn't mean any harm to him?
Why don't you tell us where you are going or where you have been or
what you have been doing? What did your appointment with Mr. Warden
mean? And why, after he was killed, did you disappear until you
followed Father on this train? Why can't you give the name of anybody
you know or tell us of any one who knows about you?"

Eaton sank back against the seat away from her, and his eyes shifted to
Avery standing ready to go, and then fell.

"I might ask you in return," Eaton said,