rails just after eleven o'clock last night, and had not quite finished when the 11.30 express out o' King's Cross for Edinburgh came through.'
'It might have been thrown from that,' I remarked. 'Where was the first stop made by that express?'
'Grantham, sir—at 1.33 in the morning—then York,' he replied, in a hard, rough voice. His face was deeply furrowed, and his eyes were screwed up, for he spent more than half his life in the darkness, choking smoke and wild racket of those two cavernous tunnels through which trains roared constantly, both night and day. 'Of course, sir,' he added, 'there were lots o' trains a passing on the up-line during the night, mails, goods, and passengers. Therefore it's quite impossible to say from which the gold stuff was thrown. My idea is that a thief wanted to get rid of it.'
'No,' I replied. 'If that were so he'd most certainly have taken the money from the purse. The Treasury-notes and silver could not have been identified.'
'Then your theory is that it was dropped out by accident?' asked Teddy, who had been listening to the man's story with keenest interest.
'Well—it certainly was not got rid of purposely by any thief,' was my answer, and with this Barton agreed.
Of other railwaymen we made inquiry. To each I showed Roseye's photograph, but none of the porters had any recollection of seeing her.
The signalman who was on night duty in the box north of the second tunnel was somewhat dubious.
When I showed him the photograph he said:
