"Thank you, sir. I have worked on Section 66 nearly two years--"

"Let me see," interrupted the superintendent, "that extends from Trestle
Summit to Wood's Hollow."

"Yes, sir."

"The most troublesome section on the entire line of the road. But go on
with your story."

"It's a bad section, sir, and it usually takes five regular hands to
keep it in repair. But for two weeks a couple of the men have been off
on account of illness, while our foreman, Mr. Gammon, has not been on
duty half of the time. This left one man, with myself, to look after the
road. That, with the rains we have been having, has given us more than
we could do as it ought to be done. But Mr. Gammon refused to put on any
more help, so Mr. Baxter and I have done the best we could.

"Day before yesterday it was after dark when we had finished a repair
which had taken us all the afternoon, at Trestle Summit, the extreme
upper end of our section.

"The northern mail train was then due, and we were waiting for that to
pass, so we could have a clear track to go home, when a man, coming from
the direction of Woodsville, told us the bridge, two miles beyond the
station, had been washed away. The stranger didn't look like an honest
man; and we knew, if he had been, he would told them at the station. But
the bridge had been threatened for several days, and, as we had not seen
it for thirty-six hours, we knew there was more than an even chance that
the tramp was right.