"At whose instance was the train pulled up?" asked the detective, and
the Judge nodded his head approvingly.

To know that would fix fresh suspicion.

But the porter could not answer the question.

Some one had rung the alarm-bell--so at least the conductor had
declared; otherwise they should not have stopped. Yet he, the porter,
had not done so, nor did any passenger come forward to admit giving the
signal. But there had been a halt. Yes, assuredly.

"This is a new light," the Judge confessed. "Do you draw any conclusion
from it?" he went on to ask the General.

"That is surely your business. I have only elicited the fact to disprove
your theory. But if you wish, I will tell you how it strikes me."

The Judge bowed assent.

"The bare fact that the train was halted would mean little. That would
be the natural act of a timid or excitable person involved indirectly in
such a catastrophe. But to disavow the act starts suspicion. The fair
inference is that there was some reason, an unavowable reason, for
halting the train."

"And that reason would be--"

"You must see it without my assistance, surely! Why, what else but to
afford some one an opportunity to leave the car."