Had a change been made in the time-table?
If so, what a prospect lay before me! Autumn nights are chill in Minnesota, and, my cloak having been sacrificed, I found poor protection in my neat but far from warm serge dress.

However, I did not fully realize my position till another passenger arrived late and panting, and I heard some one shout out to him from the open door that an accident had occurred below and that it would be five hours at least before the train would come through.
"Five hours! and no shelter in sight save the impossible one of the station itself.

How could I pass away that time! How endure the cold and fatigue?
By pacing to and fro in the road?
I tried it, resolutely tried it, for an hour, then a new terror, a new suspense, gripped me, and I discovered that I could never live through the hours; never, in fact, take the train when it came without knowing what had happened in Boone and whether the feint on which I relied had achieved its purpose.

There was time to steal back, time to see and hear what would satisfy me of my own safety; and then to have some purpose in my movement! How much better than this miserable pacing back and forth just to start the stagnating blood and make the lagging moments endurable! "So I turned again toward Boone.

I was not in the mood to fear darkness or any encounter save one, and experienced hesitation only when I found myself reapproaching the bridge.