The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-03-25
BY THE NIGHT EXPRESS.

A bitter December midnight, and the
up-express painting through it's ten
minutes rest at Rugby. What with
passengers just arriving, and passengers
just departing; what with the friends
who came to see the last of the depart
ing passengers, or to meet the arriving
ones, the platform was full enough [
can assure you: and had some difficulty
in making my way from carriage to car
riage, even though generally find that
people almost unconsclously, perhaps
move aside for the guard when they see
him walking up or down close to the
carriage doors. This difficulty was in
creased, too, by the manpuvres of my
. companion, London detective, who
had Joined me to give himself better
opportunity of examining the passeng-
ers. Keenly he did it, too, in that seem
ingly careless way of his; and while he
appeared to be only an idle, lounging
acquaintance of my own, I knew that
under his unsupported scrutiny it was
next to impossible for the thieves he was
seeking to escape-even in hampers. /
didn't trouble myself to help him, for [
knew it wasn't necessary; yet 1 was as
anxious as hundreds of others were that
those practised thieves, whom the po-
lice had been hunting for the last two
days, should be caught as they deserved.
Sometimes we came upon a group
which my companion could not take in
at a glance, and then he always found
himself unusually cold, and stopped to
stamp a little life into his petritied feet.
OF course for me this enforced standing
was the signal for an attack of that per-
-sistent questioning with which railway
guards are familiar; and, in attending to
polite questioners who deserved answer
ing, and unpolite ones who insisted on it,
I had not much time for locking about
me but presently 1 did catch myself
Watching girl who stood alone at some
distance. girl very pretty and pleas
ant to look upon l thought. though her
face and her dress, and her attitude were
all sad. She stood just at the door of
the booking office; a tall, slight girl, in
deep mourning, with a quantity of
bright, fair hair plated high upon her
shoulders, with childishly innocent
face, and pretty, bewildered eyes. [
wished L could have gone straight to
her, and put her into one-the most
comfortable-of the lines of carriages at
which she gazed so timidly. just as 1
hesitated, very remarkable figure ell
bowed its way to me; a stout, grandly-
dressed old lady painting painfully, and
almost piercing me with pair of rest
less half-opened eyes, that looked out
through the gold-rimmed spectacles
perched on her sharp nose. Two por-
tiers followed her, laden with bags,
cloaks, umbrellas and fowers-1the only
flowers in the station, I expect, that
winter highland one'of the men wink
cd at me over her hand, while the other
guarded her treasures with face of con-
centrated anxiety, and thoughts en-
crossed by possible fees.
'sThis is the London train, is it,
ga'ad ," she asked, peering sharply into
my face with her half-closed eyes. as if
she found it difficult to distinguish me
even through her spectacles.
From her whole attitude / guessed
her to be deaf, but I never guessed how
deaf until, after yelling my answer SO
loud that the engine-driver must have
heard it eighteen carriages off, she still
remained stonily waiting for it.
Deaf as dozen posts, said the de
tective; aloud, giving the old lady an
expressive little nod in the direction of
the train.
''Slow train % she asked In that plain
tive tone which the very deaf often use.
Mail - shouted, putting my face
as close to her cheek as / fancied she
would like.