Jack’s exclamation of delight at this final revelation of the heart of the mystery was followed by one of consternation. “But won’t we get an awful shaking up if we’re pitched off, going at full speed?” he said in alarm.
“We may. We’ll have to take it. It’s all in the game you know,” declared Boyle grimly. “Sit tight and brace hard, and it’ll not be so bad, though.
“Sh! Here he is!”
There was a sound of feet scraping against the car door, a rattle as the seal was broken and the clasp freed, then a rumble and the sudden full roar of the train told the two in the boxes that the door had been opened.
Swinging within, the intruder closed the door behind him, and lit a match. Peering from a knot-hole, Jack saw that the detective’s guess was correct. It was a brakeman.
As Jack watched, the man produced and lit a dark-lantern, and turned it on the cases before him. Jack held his breath as the light streamed through the cracks of his own box.
“Just to order,” muttered the brakeman audibly.
“And the bigger one, too. I’ll not have to haul any out.”
Then, to Jack’s momentary alarm, then amusement, the man seated himself on the box, above him.
Presently, as Jack was wondering what the trainman was waiting for, from the distant engine came the two long and two short toots for a crossing, and the man started to his feet. With his eye to the knot-hole Jack watched.