t afterwards.

"I advise you to hurry," said Dick, his eyes opening a little wider.

The autocrat took the advice, and returned with another.

Dick was standing with his hand on the door of the compartment with one
traveller--the remaining motor-cyclist.

"Look here, station-master," he said, beginning before the man could
open his mouth; "I don't want to leave you with a nasty job like this on
your hands, without telling you what I know. I am Major Richard Bellamy
of the R.A.F. Never mind my clothes. Take it I've been celebrating. At
Harthborough I got into the next compartment with a lady, and a man I
have befriended. I am looking after him. He'll be all right to-morrow.
Just as we left--the train had actually started--two fellows in overalls
jumped into _this_ compartment. Half-way between this and Harthborough
we heard a row going on--the lady and I. It got worse and worse, and I
looked out of the window just in time to see one of the pair fall out
backwards."

Here Dick looked at his watch.

"Twelve minutes ago, it was. I took the time then. He hit the grass bank
and rolled. Shouldn't wonder if he's all right. Probably alive, anyhow."

"Why didn't you pull the communication cord?" asked the station-master,
pompously stern.

Now Dick had forgotten the communication cord. But it would have been
impossible for him to forget a few things he had once learned about
railways.

He glanced at the guard, and found uneasiness in his eye.

"It's a slip carriage," he said, smiling, tolerantly superior. "Was the
connection made?" he asked, looking hard in the guard's face.

The man flushed an awkward red. "No," he said. "'Tain't worth the
trouble for the little bit of a journey before we slip her."

"H'm!" said the station-master.

"Just so," said Dick, simultaneously. "So perhaps it'd be just as well
for me not to have thought of the communication cord, eh?"

The station-master said nothing. But the guard looked as if there were
gratitude in him somewhere.

"If the poor beggar's alive, he'll have gained by our not stopping,
because he'll get a doctor and a stretcher all the quicker," Dick went
on. "Now, I advise you to hold the fellow in this compartment here for
your local police. Look at him. He's sat there like that ever since we
ran in here. You can see he was in no hurry to give information
concerning what had happened to his friend."

The station-master turned to the guard.

"Did you see anything?" he