Just then, however, the door of the car flew open, and out sprang Hodge. Bart saw what was happening in a moment, and he leaped to Merry's aid.
Out on a high trestle that spanned a roaring, torrent-like river rumbled the train.
Bart clutched Frank, gave the disguised man a shove, and----
Just how it happened, neither of them could tell afterward, but over the gate whirled the man, and down toward the seething torrent he shot!
Up from that falling figure came a wild cry of horror that was heard above the fumbling roar of the train on the trestle bridge.
Over and over the figure turned, the skirts fluttering, and then headlong it plunged into the white foam of the torrent, disappearing from view.
On the rear platform of the last car two white-faced, horrified young men had watched the terrible fall. They stared down at the swirling river, looking for the unfortunate wretch to reappear. Off the bridge flew the train, and no longer were they able to see the river.
"Then you saw--you knew it was a man?" cried Frank.
"Yes, I saw his trousers beneath the skirts as I came out the door."
"Yes; attempted to take me off my guard and hurl me from the train."
"Then the wretch has met a just fate," declared Bart.
But now it seemed that the struggle on the platform had been noticed by some one within the car. There were excited faces at the glass in the door, and a trainman came out, demanding:
"What is all this? Why are you out here? They tell me a woman came out. Where is she?"
With unusual readiness, Bart quickly answered:
"Yes. We both tried to save her. Just as I reached the door I saw my friend struggling to hold her, but she was determined to fling herself over."
"Well, this is a fine piece of business!" came angrily from the trainman. "What ailed her?"
"She must have been insane," asserted Bart. "She attacked my friend here, and then tried to jump off. He could not hold her. I did not get hold of her in time."
"Watching her. You will admit it was rather queer for a woman to come out here on the platform and stand. He thought so, and so he came out to watch her."
"Well, you can both come in off this platform!" growled the trainman, in anything but a civil manner.
They did so. The passengers swarmed round them when they entered the car, literally flinging questions at them.