"Heavens and earth! The men are calling it a broken rail; was it?"
"A loosened rail," corrected Lidgerwood.
The master-mechanic's eyes narrowed.
"Natural?" he asked.
"No, artificial."
Gridley swore savagely.
"This thing's got to stop, Lidgerwood! Sift it, sift it to the bottom! Whom do you suspect?"
It was a plain truth, though an unintentionally misleading one, that the superintendent put into his reply.
"I don't suspect any one, Gridley," he began, and he was going on to say that suspicion had grown to certainty, when the latch of the door opening from the outer office clicked again and McCloskey came in with Benson. The master-mechanic excused himself abruptly when he saw who the trainmaster's follower was.
"I'll go and get something to eat," he said hurriedly; "after which I'll pick up a few men whom we can depend upon and garrison the shops. Send over for me if you need me."