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aside all question of reality or unreality between us, I represented to him that whoever

thoroughly discharged his duty must do well, and that at least it was his comfort that he
understood his duty, though he did not understand these confounding appearances. In
this effort I succeeded far better than in the attempt to reason him out of his conviction.
He became calm; the occupations incidental to his post as the night advanced began
to make larger demands on his attention: and I left him at two in the morning. I had
offered to stay through the night, but he would not hear of it.

That I more than once looked back at the red light as I ascended the pathway, that I did

not like the red light, and that I should have slept but poorly if my bed had been under
it, I see no reason to conceal. Nor did I like the two sequences of the accident and the
dead girl. I see no reason to conceal that either. But what ran most in my thoughts was
the consideration how ought I to act, having become the recipient of this disclosure?
I had proved the man to be intelligent, vigilant, painstaking, and exact; but how long

might he remain so, in his state of mind? Though in a subordinate position, still he
held a most important trust, and would I (for instance) like to stake my own life on the
chances of his continuing to execute it with precision?

Unable to overcome a feeling that there would be something treacherous in my
communicating what he had told me to his superiors in the Company, without first
being plain with himself and proposing a middle course to him, I ultimately resolved
to offer to accompany him (otherwise keeping his secret for the present) to the wisest

medical practitioner we could hear of in those parts, and to take his opinion. A change
in his time of duty would come round next night, he had apprised me, and he would
be off an hour or two after sunrise, and on again soon after sunset. I had appointed to
return accordingly.

Next evening was a lovely evening, and I walked out early to enjoy it. The sun was
not yet quite down when I traversed the field-path near the top of the deep cutting. I

would extend my walk for an hour, I said to myself, half an hour on and half an hour
back, and it would then be time to go to my signal-man’s box. Before pursuing my
stroll, I stepped to the brink, and mechanically looked down, from the point from which
I had first seen him. I cannot describe the thrill that seized upon me, when, close at the
mouth of the tunnel, I saw the appearance of a man, with his left sleeve across his eyes,

passionately waving his right arm.
The nameless horror that oppressed me passed in a moment, for in a moment I saw that

this appearance of a man was a man indeed, and that there was a little group of other
men, standing at a short distance, to whom he seemed to be rehearsing the gesture he
made. The Danger-light was not yet lighted. Against its shaft, a little low hut, entirely
new to me, had been made of some wooden supports and tarpaulin. It looked no bigger

than a bed.

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