"I did look, miss; and I couldn't have been off seeing it last night, for it was being swung about like anything. 'What's up now,' I said to myself, 'that they are swinging the lamp about like that?' and I thought whoever it was doing it, must have had a drop too much."
"But don't you think you might from that very fact have suspected danger?" questioned Mr. Lake.
"No, sir, not from the green lamp. If they had wanted to warn me of danger, they should have swung the red. Any way, I'd rather have given my own life than it should have happened when I was driver."
"Cooper, I saw the green light swung as well as you; and I shall be happy to bear my testimony in your favour at the proper time and place," said Colonel West. "It is quite a providential thing that I happened to be in my garden at the time."
"Thank you, sir," said the man, earnestly, the tears of relief and emotion rising to his eyes.
Whiling away the time in the best way they could, they got back to the station a few minutes before the train for Guild was expected. The accident was the topic of conversation still.
"I have seen the driver," remarked Mr. Lake to the stationmaster. "I know him well, a sober, steady man. He persists still that the red signal was not exhibited; that it was the green."
"Oh, he does, does he?" returned the stationmaster. "He had better prove it. Of course, when they are at their wit's end for an excuse, they invent anything, probable or improbable."
"Cooper is not a man to invent. I am sure he is truthful."
"Let him wait till the inquest," was the significant reply.