“Why Kit! Has Bob come back?”
“Where is Alison?” Kit inquired.
Mrs. Austin looked about, as if she expected to see Alison. Then she turned to the door, and remarking the gloom outside, braced up.
“She was here after the train went, but, now I think about it, perhaps she got another.”
Kit said Alison had not arrived and saw Mrs. Austin was disturbed.
“Then, I don’t know where she is. Somehow we were left behind, and when a man said he thought another train was going Alison went to inquire. I waited, but we started from Fairmead early and the office was hot. It looks as if I went to sleep.... But you must find out where Alison is.”
“I’m going to try,” said Kit, rather sternly. “You must wait. Bob and the others will arrive before very long, and the cold is fierce.”
A few minutes afterwards a workman informed him that a lady had gone along the track. Another stated that the dame had asked about the train and crossed the bridge. Kit went across and at the other end two men admitted they had told Alison a train was loading gravel at a pit along the line.
Kit knew the spot was three miles off and he inquired: “Did the train leave the bridge long before the lady talked to you?”
“About five minutes. As soon as he knew the rail cars were past the pit the engineer pulled out. We reckoned the dame ought to make it before the boys loaded up.”