oine--he hoped he could prove before her that
that person was Eaton.

"Why did you ring the bell in Mr. Santoine's berth?" Avery directed the
attack upon him suddenly.

"To call help," Eaton answered.

Question and answer, Eaton realized, had made some effect upon Harriet
Santoine, as he did not doubt Avery intended they should; yet he could
not look toward her to learn exactly what this effect was but kept his
eyes on Avery.

"You had known, then, that he needed help?"

"I knew it--saw it then, of course."

"When?"

"When I found him."

"'Found' him?"

"Yes."

"When was that?"

"When I went forward to look for the conductor to ask him about taking
a walk on the roof of the cars."

"You found him then--that way, the way he was?"

"That way? Yes."

"How?"

"How?" Eaton iterated.

"Yes; how, Mr. Eaton, or Hillward, or whatever your name is? How did
you find him? The curtains were open, perhaps; you saw him as you went
by, eh?"

Eaton shook his head. "No; the curtains weren't open; they were
closed."

"Then why did you look in?"

"I saw his hand in the aisle."

"Go on."

"When I came back it didn't look right to me; its position had not been
changed at all, and it hadn't looked right to me before. So I stopped
and touched it, and I found that it was cold."

"Then you looked into the berth?"

"Yes."

"And having looked in and seen Mr. Santoine injured and lying as he
was, you did not call any one, you did not bring help--you merely
leaned across him and pushed the bell and went on quickly out of the
car before any one could see you?"

"Yes; but I waited on the platform of the next car to see that help did
come; and the conductor passed me, and I knew that he and the porter
must find Mr. Santoine as they did."

"Do you expect us to believe that very peculiar action of yours was the
act of an innocent man?"

"If I had been guilty of the attack on Mr. Santoine, I'd not have
stopped or looked into the berth at all."

"If you are innocent, you had, of course, some reason for acting as you
did. Will you explain what it was?"

"No--I cannot explain."

With a look almost of triumph Avery turned to Harriet Santoine, and
Eaton felt his flesh grow warm with gratitude again as he saw her meet
Avery's look with no appearance of being convinced.

"Mr. Eaton spoke to me about that," she said quietly.

"You mean he told you he was the one who rang the bell?"

"No; he told me we must n