There was shrieking and confusion from one end of the train to the other as the car righted itself again. With a horrid noise of scraping brakes the cars ahead came to a jolting standstill.
Tavia was out of her seat bent on joining the general stampede for the door, but Dorothy held her back firmly.
“You will be hurt in that rush!” she cried. “Wait a minute; do, Tavia.”
Tavia obeyed, and crouched down in the seat and covered her eyes with her trembling hands.
“Oh, listen to those cries, Doro!” she wailed presently. “Somebody must be horribly hurt.”
“Just hysterics, Miss.”
A man, one of those who had been the first to jump from the train, returned and sank into a seat opposite the two girls. “The car ahead of us jumped the track, and it’s a mercy the whole train wasn’t wrecked. As it is, they ain’t nothing to worry about, except that we may be tied up here for some considerable time.”
Tavia uncovered her eyes and looked at him. Dorothy had already done so and had risen from her seat and started hastily for the door, because this man who had undertaken to reassure them was none other than the villainous looking companion of the tall dark stranger!
At her sudden motion the man put out his hand and made as though to rise.
“Better not go out there just now, Miss,” he said, his beady black eyes resting upon her admiringly. “The crowd is still mighty hysterical and it’s possible you might get hurt.”