"Were you alone, in a compartment, or in company with other passengers?"
"I had a third-class compartment to myself."
"And you saw this girl fall?"
"I saw her fall—but as I saw just a little less than Dr. Menheniot and the guard saw, I don't see the good of my being questioned," answered Bothwell, with rather a sullen air.
"I beg your pardon," returned Mr. Distin suavely, "every witness sees an event from a different point of view. You may have noticed something which escaped the two witnesses we have just heard."
"I noticed nothing more than you have been told by these two, and I saw less than they saw. I did not look out of the window till I heard the girl's shriek, and I saw her in the act of falling."
"Good. But you may have observed this solitary girl—a foreigner, and therefore more noticeable—on the platform at Plymouth. You were on the platform at Plymouth, you know."
"I was. But I did not see the girl at the station."
"Strange that she should have escaped your observation, although the porter who was busy with his duties had time to notice her," said Mr. Distin.
"Would it surprise you to hear that during the four or five minutes I spent in the station before the train started I was standing at the bookstall buying papers, with my back to the platform?"