The three of us began inspecting the whole train from engine to caboose. The District Attorney scrutinized everything.
After the examination, which seemed to offer up nothing of special interest, our new friend suggested we retrace our steps. We straggled along the ties, each to himself, nobody having much to say.
“Something tells me,” finally spoke the District Attorney, “that your old woman with the gun and this wreck are connected in some way. Certainly there is nothing either mysterious or valuable about that old house. Why should someone become suddenly interested in it enough to go around armed and to warn away intruders? The only thing significant is that wreck. If it is that—then developments will take place quickly and in darkness.”
“It is getting dark now,” I suggested.
“Yes. I’m going to stick around here and see what I shall see. You boys can find your way back to the store. Just follow the tracks and turn into the path at the bridge.”
Hunky smiled. “If it’s all the same to you, we’d like to stick.”
The District Attorney hesitated a moment, then said: “All right. It will be a lonely vigil, and maybe you can help if anything does happen.”
We stopped about half a mile from the wreck, and sat down to wait for darkness. In the woods twilight is short, and we hadn’t long to wait. Back we turned and worked cautiously toward the wreck.
The gang was still at work, and in the distance we could see their grotesque shapes by the light of their lanterns. The operations were up ahead and we kept just in the rear and about a hundred feet to one side of the caboose. This vantage point enabled us to command a view of the wreck and the approach to it from the pasture and woods. Our own position was well concealed.
Four hours went by, slowly because of the damp and cold of the night. The illuminated hands of my wrist watch told me it was between eleven and midnight. Banks of fleecy fog clung here and there to the low trees and the ground. The night sounds of the woods mingled eerily with the sharp noises made by the wrecking crew. It was cold and damp.