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 of the Edinburgh night-express approaching up the tunnel, and a moment later it ran past me. As it did so I saw in one of the carriages the two women standing there. Both had their hats off. One, a fine big strong person I should take her to be, seized the other, whose hair had fallen about her shoulders, and she seemed to be helplessly in her grip.'

'Did you report it?' Barton asked quickly.

'I rang up Stevenage and told my mate that something was going on in the express. But he replied later on to say that he had watched, and seen nothing. Later on in the night he spoke to me again, and said that the man in the Hitchin box, who had kept a look out, had reported back that all blinds of the express had then been drawn.'

'So the assumption seems to be that Roseye was attacked by some strange woman,' I said, turning to Teddy. 'She struggled at the door, and in the struggle the chatelaine which she had in her hand fell out upon the line.'

Barton drew a long breath.

'It's all a profound mystery, Mr. Munro,' he said. 'If your theory is correct, then we must go a step further and assume that the stout woman overpowered Miss Lethmere, and afterwards drew down the blinds before the express reached Hitchin, where there is a junction and the train would, I suppose, slow down.'

'Yes, sir,' exclaimed the signalman. 'Drivers have orders to go slow through Hitchin because of the points there.'

'But why should Miss Lethmere be attacked by a woman?' I queried in dismay.

'Why should she have disappeared from home at