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Brewster stopped jawing and gave Bell what passed for a smile “Are you sure?”

“Not court-of-law certain, but close enough to inform my opinion”

Bell couldn’t bring himself to si of essentials Captain Fyrie had fetched from his cabin and tore a blank sheet of paper from his journal On it he wrote the names of the two men as well as the approximate location of Alvin Coulter’s remains He didn’t have any pound banknotes, so he pulled the last hundred-dollar bill froiven a proper burial

The miners were unht to have, so raves was of no real i to do for men who had sacrificed so much and ended as heroes

Moments later, two Leyland trucks rumbled into view from around one of the warehouses Warner and Walt had more than succeeded The men were all exhausted and yet wanted to be on their way, sothe crates from the train to the lorries took little time and was done with a minimum of conversation They placed the unconscious Vern Hall onto the bed of the truck with Josh Brewster, his back against a crate, holding Vern’s head in his lap to protect hi to encounter

“We should take hiested

“Like hell ill,” Brewster fired back, cradling his friend “He’s staying with us”

Bell didn’t want to abandon hiow The authorities would eventually check hospitals for survivors of the train theft once the loco consciousness, Hall would surely be arrested and questioned intensely, cutting the odds of the rest of the it out of the country

“All they’d do in a hospital is exactly e’re doing, which is nothing,” Brewster added “They can’t treat a head wound like this Either he wakes up or he don’t”

That wasn’t far from the truth either, Bell conceded An X-ray would show the severity of the skull fracture, but there were no surgical fixes Bed rest was certainly preferable to rattling around in the back of a truck, yet, as Brewster had said, it was up to Hall alone He’d either regain consciousness or he wouldn’t

It was the early-et the ow before police were able to cordon off the city Once he was past their dragnet, his next step was to get the contact with the London branch of the Van Dorn Agency And no ements Wallace had made, Bell knew he had an option of his own, but one that entailed perforivable act

Best not coht as he led the two-vehicle caravan out of the factory co people entering the sprawling facility, so he gave no thought toon what looked to be a delivery

Hours later, orkers arriving for the Friday shift reported the abandoned train and its gri the police a fair description of the vehicles and men

35

The next twelve hours for Bell and his fewdrive to Newcastle upon Tyne, a soot-covered coastal city on the English Channel They stopped only for fuel for the trucks and ht food froe that had petrol to sell For cash, they used the proceeds froold coin Bell had stopped and offered to a jeweler in one of the larger towns they’d sped throu