"Why did you ring the bell in Mr. Santoine's berth?" Avery directed the attack upon him suddenly.
Question and answer, Eaton realized, had made some effect upon Harriet Santoine, as he did not doubt Avery intended they should; yet he could not look toward her to learn exactly what this effect was but kept his eyes on Avery.
"You had known, then, that he needed help?"
"When I went forward to look for the conductor to ask him about taking a walk on the roof of the cars."
"You found him then--that way, the way he was?"
"Yes; how, Mr. Eaton, or Hillward, or whatever your name is? How did you find him? The curtains were open, perhaps; you saw him as you went by, eh?"
Eaton shook his head. "No; the curtains weren't open; they were closed."
"When I came back it didn't look right to me; its position had not been changed at all, and it hadn't looked right to me before. So I stopped and touched it, and I found that it was cold."
"And having looked in and seen Mr. Santoine injured and lying as he was, you did not call any one, you did not bring help--you merely leaned across him and pushed the bell and went on quickly out of the car before any one could see you?"
"Yes; but I waited on the platform of the next car to see that help did come; and the conductor passed me, and I knew that he and the porter must find Mr. Santoine as they did."
"Do you expect us to believe that very peculiar action of yours was the act of an innocent man?"
"If I had been guilty of the attack on Mr. Santoine, I'd not have stopped or looked into the berth at all."
"If you are innocent, you had, of course, some reason for acting as you did. Will you explain what it was?"
With a look almost of triumph Avery turned to Harriet Santoine, and Eaton felt his flesh grow warm with gratitude again as he saw her meet Avery's look with no appearance of being convinced.
"Mr. Eaton spoke to me about that," she said quietly.
"You mean he told you he was the one who rang the bell?"
"No; he told me we must not attach too much importance to the ringing of the bell in inquiring into the attack on Father."
Avery smiled grimly. "He did, did he? Don't you see that that only shows more surely that he did not want the ringing of the bell investigated because it would lead us to himself? He did not happen to tell you, did he, that the kind and size of socks he wears and carries in his traveling-bag are very nearly the same as the black sock in which the bar was wrapped with which your father was struck?"