“Yes, sir; that is how it must have been. I didn’t believe it, sir, for a long time afterwards: not for several hours.”
“A long time, that,” said Tod, an unpleasant sound of mockery in his tone.
“No, sir; I know it’s not much, counting by time,” answered Lease patiently. “But nobody can ever picture how long those hours seemed to me. They were like years. I couldn’t get the idea into me at all that I had not set the points as usual; it seemed a thing incredible; but, try as I would, I was unable to call to mind having done it.”
“Well, I must say that is a nice thing to confess to, Lease! And there was I, yesterday afternoon, taking your part and quarrelling with my father.”
“I am sorry for that, sir. I am not worth having my part taken in anything, since that happened.”
“But how came you to do it?”
“It’s a question I shall never be able to answer, sir. We had a busy day, were on the run from morning till night, and there was a great deal of confusion at the station: but it was no worse than many a day that has gone before it.”
“Well, I shall be off,” said Tod. “This has shut me up. I thought of going in for you, Lease, finding every one else was dead against you. A misfortune is a misfortune, but wilful carelessness is sin: and my father and his wife and my little sister were in the train. Come along, Johnny.”
“Directly, Tod. I’ll catch you up. I say, Lease, how will it end?” I asked, as Tod went on.
“It can’t end better than two years’ imprisonment for me, sir; and I suppose it may end worse. It is not that I think of.”