When he straightened up his passenger was standing beside him.
"What is it?" asked Adair. "Have we lost something?"
Gallagher waved a grimy hand at the gap.
"The thrack," he said. "'Twas there whin I pulled me sthring av empties out over ut lasht night. 'Tis gone now, else I'm thot near dead for sleep I can nayther see nor feel sthraight."
Adair was calmly lighting a cigarette.
"Your senses are still in commission," he said; "there is a good-sized piece of track missing. Who sniped it, do you suppose?"
The engineer was shaking his fiery head.
"'Tis beyond me, Misther Adair."
"That's the deuce of it," smiled the young man. "It's beyond the train. How is your engine—pretty good on the broad jump?"