"Sure, Miss Warfield," replied the man. "If anybody had tried to
move that rail out of alignment, he would have to disconnect it
at the other end, that is, take off the plate that joins it to
the next rail. That would leave the end of the rail clean, with
no broken plate. But the end of the rail is bent and the plate
is twisted off. We looked at that the first thing. Nobody could
twist that plate off. The engine did it when it left the track.
"You see, Miss Warfield, the weight of the engine, like a wedge,
simply forced one of these rails out of alignment. Don't you
understand how a hundred ton wedge driven against the track, at
the start of an upgrade, could do it?"
The old peasant woman stood behind the track boss. The thing was
a sort of awful game. She did not speak, but the vicissitudes of
the inquiry advanced her, or retired her, with the effect of
points, won or lost.
"I understand perfectly," replied Marion, "how the impact of the
heavy engine might drive both rails out of alignment, if they
offered an equal resistance, or one of them out if it offered a
less resistance. This is straight track.
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