“Yes, I found out,” answered the sheriff, with a queer little smile. “I found out, too, that he was some one whom you knew quite well and were deeply interested in.”
“Some one I knew!” cried Rod, in surprise, at the same time taking a rapid mental note of all his railroad friends who might have been connected with the accident. “Who was he? Was he a railroad man?”
“No, he was not a railroad man, and I can’t tell you his name, but if you feel strong enough, I should like to have you come and take a look at him.”
“Of course I do,” replied Rod whose curiosity was now fully aroused. “I feel almost as well as ever I did, excepting a little shaky, and with a smart here and there in the burned places.”
As the two entered an adjoining room, Rod’s attention was instantly attracted by the motionless form, covered with a sheet, that lay on a bed. Several persons were engaged in a low-voiced conversation at one end of the room; but at first the lad did not notice them. He was too anxious to discover which of all his friends lay there so silently, to heed aught else just then.
As he and the sheriff stepped to the side of the bed, the latter gently withdrew the covering and disclosed a peaceful face, from which every trace of grime and smoke had been tenderly removed.
Rod instantly recognized it. It was the same that he had last seen only the morning before lying by the forest roadside more than a hundred miles away. In a tone of awed amazement he exclaimed, “the train robber!”
“I think that settles it, gentlemen,” said the sheriff quietly, and turning to the other occupants of the room who had gathered close behind Rod. “We thought it must be the train robber,” he continued, addressing the latter “because we found the missing diamonds in a breast pocket of his coat; but we wanted your evidence to establish the fact. I have also recognized him as the alleged reporter who interviewed me yesterday morning, and who was accidentally left alone for a minute with the leather bag in my office. The moment I discovered that the diamonds were missing I suspected that he must have taken them, but thought it best to keep my suspicions to myself until I could trace him. I learned that a man answering his description had boarded the east-bound freight somewhere this side of Millbank and telegraphed Conductor Joe Miller to keep him in sight. By making use of Mr. Appleby’s special I hoped to overtake and pass him before he reached New York. I thus expected to be on hand to welcome and arrest him at his journey’s end, and by so doing relieve you of all suspicion of being anything but the honest plucky lad you have proved yourself. At the same time I looked forward to taking some of the conceit out of that young sprig of a secretary. That all my calculations were not upset by last night’s accident was largely owing to you, for I must confess that, but for the shame of being outdone in bravery by a mere slip of a boy, I should have given up the fight to save this man long before the victory was won. Of course the evidence of his crime would have vanished with him, and we should never have known for a certainty what had become of the train robber or the diamonds. Some persons might even have continued to suspect you of being connected with their disappearance, while now your record is one that any man may well envy. Was I not right then, in saying that this poor fellow had left you a reward for your bravery that you will value so long as you live?”
“Indeed you were,” answered Rod, in a low tone, “and it is a legacy that I can most gratefully accept, I wish he might have lived, though. It is terrible to think that by following him as I did I drove him to his death.”
“You must not think of it in that way,” said one of the other witnesses of the scene, taking the lad’s hand as he spoke, and at the same time disclosing the well-known features of Mr. Hill, the Superintendent, “You must only remember that you have done your duty faithfully and splendidly. Although I should not have approved the course you took at the outset, the results fully justify all that you have done, and I am very proud to number you among the employees of our company. You have certainly graduated with honors from the ranks of brakemen, and have fairly won your promotion to any position that you feel competent to fill. It only rests with you to say what it shall be.”