he window. The engineer resisted, but Guerin, who is
something of an athlete, held him down and in a few moments the man
collapsed."

"How fast were they going?"

"Well, that is a question to be settled by experts. How fast will
Blackwings go with four cars empty?"

"Ninety miles an hour."

"How fast would she go, working 'wide open in the first notch,' as you
people say, down Zero Hill?"

"She would go in the ditch--she could hardly be expected to hold the
rail for more than two minutes."

"But she did hold it."

"I don't believe it," said the old driver; "but if she did, she must
have made a hundred miles an hour, and in that case the mystery of
Cowels's death is solved--he was drowned."

"But his clothes were not wet, and he was still in the window when they
reached Galesburg."

"I do not mean," said Moran, "that he was drowned in the engine-tank,
but in the cab window--in the air."

"That sounds absurd."

"Try it," said the prisoner. "Get aboard of Blackwings, strike the
summit at Zero Hill with her lever hooked back and her throttle wide
open, let a strong man hold your head out at the window, and if she
hangs to the rail your successor will have the rare opportunity of
writing you up."

"Do you mean that seriously?"

"I do. If what you tell me is true, there can be no shade of doubt as to
the cause of Cowels's death."

"I believe," said the reporter, "that you predicted his death, or that
the train would go in the ditch, did you not?"

"No."

"I was not present at the examination, but it occurs to me that the man
who claimed to be a detective, and who made the arrest, swore that you
had made such a prediction."

"Perhaps," said Moran. "The truth is when that fellow was giving his
testimony I was ignorant of Cowels's death, upon whose evidence I hoped
to prove that the fellow was lying wilfully, or that he had
misunderstood me, and later, I was so shocked and surprised at the news
of my old fireman's death that I forgot to make the proper explanation
to the magistrate."

"Why not make that explanation now? These are trying times and men are
not expected to be as guarded in their action as in times of peace."

"If you hope to learn from me that I had anything to do with Cowels's
death, or with the placing of the dynamite upon the locomotive, I am
afraid you are wasting your time. Suppose you are an army officer, the
possessor of a splendid horse--one that has carried you through hundreds