"God knows I don't want to put it
all over any man unless it belongs to him, but I'm locoed every time it
comes to that kind of a guess. Every bunch of letters I see spells just
one name."
"Go on," said Lidgerwood sharply.
"Hallock came somewhere up this way on 202 yesterday."
"I know," was the quick reply. "I sent him out to Navajo to meet
Cruikshanks, the cattleman with the long claim for stock injured in the
Gap wreck two weeks ago."
"Did he stop at Navajo?" queried the trainmaster.
"I suppose so; at any rate, he saw Cruikshanks."
"Well, I haven't got any more guesses, only a notion or two. This is a
pretty stiff up-grade for 202--she passes here at two-fifty--just about
an hour before Clay found that loosened rail--and it wouldn't be
impossible for a man to drop off as she was climbing this curve."
But now the superintendent was shaking his head.
"It doesn't hold together, Mac; there are too many parts missing. Your
hypothesis presupposes that Hallock took a day train out of Angels, rode
twelve miles past his destination, jumped off here while the train was
in motion, pulled the spikes on this loosened rail, and walked back to
Navajo in time to see the cattleman and get in to Angels on the delayed
Number 75 this morning.
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