train there, and almost run into it. It was a freight, and travelin'
kinder slow. I seen the lights of the caboose and stopped the car right
close to the track. I wasn't stopped more'n fifteen or twenty seconds,
and just as soon as the train got by, I went on."

"But you did stand still for a few seconds?"

"Yes, sir."

"If any one had got into or out of the cab right there, would you have
heard them?"

"I don't know that I would. I was frozen stiff, like I told you, sir; and
I wasn't thinking of nothin' like that. Besides, the train was makin' a
noise; an' me not havin' my thoughts on nothin' but how cold I was, an'
how far I had to drive, I mos' prob'ly wouldn't have noticed--although I
might have."

"Looks to me," chimed in Leverage, "as if that's where the shift must
have taken place; though it beats me--"

Carroll lighted a cigarette. Of the three men, he was the only one who
seemed impervious to the cold. Leverage and the taxi-driver were both
shivering as if with the ague. Carroll, an enormous overcoat snuggled
about his neck, his hands thrust deep into his pockets, his boyish face
set with interest, seemed perfectly comfortable. As a matter of fact, the
unique circumstances surrounding the murder had so interested him that he
had quite forgotten the weather.

"Obviously," he said to Leverage, "it's up to us to find out whether the