Any inference to be drawn from this as to the seriousness of the injuries was plainly beyond Connery. "How long ago was he struck?" he asked. "Some hours." "You can't tell more than that?" "Longer ago than five hours, certainly." "Since four o'clock, then, rather than before?" "Since midnight, certainly; and longer ago than five o'clock this morning." "Could he have revived half an hour ago--say within the hour--enough to have pressed the button and rung the bell from his berth?" Sinclair straightened and gazed at the conductor curiously. "No, certainly not," he replied. "That is completely impossible. Why did you ask?" Connery avoided answer. The doctor glanced down quickly at the form of the man in the berth; then again he confronted Connery. "Why did you ask that?" he persisted. "Did the bell from this berth ring recently?" Connery shook his head, not in negation of the question, but in refusal to answer then. But Avery pushed forward. "What is that? What's that?" he demanded. "Will you go on with your examination, Doctor?" Connery urged. "You said the bell from this berth rang recently!" Avery accused Connery. "I did not say that; he asked it," the conductor evaded. "But is it true?" "The pointer in the washroom, indicating a signal from this berth, was turned down a minute ago," Connery had to reply. "A few moments earlier, all pointers had been set in the position indicating no call." "What!" Avery cried. "What was that?" Connery repeated the statement. "That was before you found the body?" "That was why I went to the berth--yes," Connery replied; "that was before I found the body." "Then you mean you did not find the body," Avery charged. "Some one, passing through this car a minute or so before you, must have found him!" Connery attended without replying. "And evidently that man dared not report it and could not wait longer to know whether Mr.--Mr. Dorne, was really dead; so he rang the bell!" "Ought we keep Dr. Sinclair any longer from the examination, sir?" Connery now seized Avery's arm in appeal. "The first thing for us to know is whether Mr. Dorne is dying. Isn't--" Connery checked himself; he had won his appeal. Eaton, standing quietly watchful, observed that Avery's eagerness to accuse now had been replaced by another interest which the conductor's words had recalled. Whether the man in the berth was to live or die--evidently that was momentously to affect Donald Avery one way or the other. "Of course, by all means proceed with your examination, Doctor," Avery directed. As Sinclair again bent over the body, Avery leaned over also; Eaton gazed down, and Connery--a little paler than before and with lips tightly set. CHAPTER VII "ISN'T THIS BASIL SANTOINE?" The surgeon, having finished loosening the pajamas, pulled open and carefully removed the jacket part, leaving the upper part of the body of the man in the berth exposed. Conductor Connery turned to Avery.