“Possibly because you never asked. But it is nevertheless the fact. Verify it. Every one will tell you the same.”
The detective himself hurried to the door and called in the porter. He was within his rights, of course, but the action showed distrust, at which the General only smiled, but he laughed outright when the still stupid and half-dazed porter, of course, corroborated the statement at once.
“At whose instance was the train pulled up?” asked the detective, and the Judge nodded his head approvingly.
To know that would fix fresh suspicion.
But the porter could not answer the question.
Some one had rung the alarm-bell—so at least the conductor had declared; otherwise they should not have stopped. Yet he, the porter, had not done so, nor did any passenger come forward to admit giving the signal. But there had been a halt. Yes, assuredly.
“This is a new light,” the Judge confessed. “Do you draw any conclusion from it?” he went on to ask the General.
“That is surely your business. I have only elicited the fact to disprove your theory. But if you wish, I will tell you how it strikes me.”
The Judge bowed assent.
“The bare fact that the train was halted would mean little. That would be the natural act of a timid or excitable person involved indirectly in such a catastrophe. But to disavow the act starts suspicion. The fair inference is that there was some reason, an unavowable reason, for halting the train.”