By degrees I grew quite composed, and told them all.
“Yes,” said my big friend, “it was very brave of you; but I think I should have parted with all I had sooner than have run such a risk.”
“If it had been your own,” said the other gentleman. “In this case it seems to me the boy would have been robbed, and probably thrown out afterwards upon the line. I think you did quite right, my lad, but I should not recommend the practice to anyone else.”
They chatted to me pleasantly enough till the train began at last to slacken speed preparatory to stopping for the tickets to be taken, and at the first symptom of this my two new friends jumped up and let down the windows, each leaning out so as to command a view of the back of the train.
I should have liked to look back as well, but that was impossible, so I had to be content to sit and listen; but I was not kept long in suspense, for all at once the quieter and more gentlemanly of my companions exclaimed:
“I thought as much. He has just jumped off, and run down the embankment. There he goes!”
I ran to the side, and caught a glimpse of a figure melting away into the darkness. Then it was gone.
“There goes all chance of punishing the scoundrel,” said the big bluff man, turning to me and smiling good-temperedly. “I should have liked to catch him, but I couldn’t afford to risk my neck in your service, young man.”
I thanked him as well as I could, and made up my mind that if my father was waiting on the platform he should make a more satisfactory recognition of the services that had been performed.
This did not, however, prove so easy as I had hoped, for in the confusion of trying to bring them together when I found my father waiting, I reached the spot where I had left my travelling-companions just in time to see them drive off in a cab.