"
The engineer looked doubtful.
"My dear fellow," he said, "you would have been maimed or killed. You do
not seem to be harmed."
Frank realized that the engineer actually doubted his word.
"He might have fallen," said the assistant; "but it would have broken
his neck."
"I tell you I was attacked from behind and thrown down!" exclaimed
Frank. "I managed to get hold of the ladder and slide, so I was not
killed."
The engineer looked annoyed.
"This is what comes of letting a passenger in here," he said. "It's the
last time I'll do it on my own responsibility. Now if you go out and
tell you were thrown into the stoke-hole, there'll be any amount of fuss
over it."
"I am telling it right here," said Frank, grimly, "and I want to know
who did the trick. Somebody who came from this room must have done it."
"Impossible!"
"Then where did he come from?"
The engineer and his assistant looked at each other, and the former
began to swear.
"What do you think of it, Joe?" he asked.
"Think you made a mistake, Bill; but his story won't go. Nobody'll take
any stock in it."
Frank was angry. It was something unusual for his word to be doubted,
and he felt like expressing his feelings decidedly.
He was saved the trouble. The grimy stoker who had witnessed the
struggle and the fall appeared in the door of the engine-room.
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