on the line below men
were working in the drift, amid piles of debris and splintered wood. The
wrecked train had all been slightly draped in snow; the engine alone,
barely cold, lying black and grim, like some mighty giant, formidable in
death. A sheet of glass ice near it showed how the boiler had burst.
Some of the hindermost carriages were still standing, or had fallen
comparatively uninjured; but others seemed to have leaped upon their
fellows, and ploughed right through them into the drift. It was well
that it began to snow as we reached the spot. There were traces of
dismal smears on the white ground which it would be seemly to hide.

Our friend in black went forward and asked a few questions of the man in
charge, and presently returned.

"The remainder of the passengers are at the farm," he said, pointing to
a house at a little distance; and without further delay we began to
scramble up the steep embankment, and clamber over the stone-wall of the
bridge into the road. My mind was full of other things, but I remember
still the number of people assembled on the bridge, and how a man was
standing up in his donkey-cart to view the scene. It was Saturday, and
there were quantities of village school-boys sitting astride on the low
wall, or perched on adjacent hurdles, evidently enjoying the spectacle,
jostling, bawling, eating oranges, and throwing the peel at the engine.
Some older people touched their hats sympathetically, and one went and
opened a gate for us into a field, through which many feet seemed to
have come and gone; but for the greater number the event was evidently
regarded as an interesting variation in the dull routine of every-day
life; and to the school-boys it was an undoubted treat.

Ralph and Charles walked on in front, following the track across the
field. It was not particularly heavy walking after what we had had
earlier in the day, but Ralph stumbled perpetually, and presently
Charles drew his arm through his own, and the two went on together, the
police-inspector following with me.

In a few minutes we reached the farm, and entered the farm-yard, which
was the nearest way to the house. A little knot of calves, intrenched on
a mound of straw in the centre of the yard, lowered their heads and
looked askance at us as we came in, and a party of ducks retreated
hastily from our path with a chorus of exclamations, while a thin collie
dog burst out of a barrel at the back door, and made a series