Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-03-03
THE DAILY
SHORT STORY.
a Tunnel Episode.
lOriginaLl

Taking train recently on the Erie
railroad for New York. l entered q
drawing room car and WAS assigned TO
seat No. >. Seat No. / was occupied by
an eminently respectable gentleman
with n gray mustache and No. > by a
rosebud of n girl, whom l judged was
his daughter. She had the prettiest
pair of blue eyes in the world, above
which tumbled in artistic waves n
mass of fluffy light hair. The vermil-
ion of her lips was contrasted by lit
tie black patch the size of silver five
cent piece placed directly under cor
ner of her mouth. II seemed to he in
securely fastened, for l noticed that
she occasionally pressed her handker-
chief to it in order to make il Stick.
The faaher soon settled to his news
paper, while the daughter seemed in
disposed TO settle TO anything. She was
continually casting glances through the
car, as if looking for some one. and
whenever the train stopped cast n
quick glance at every one who came in.
When the train moved on, she would
fan herself rcstlessly till we made the
next stop.
Presently at one of the stops Il young
man carrying a suit case got aboard
and glanced through the car. and l
saw his eyes meet those of the young
girl. Though there was not the slight
est sign of recognition. knew ut once
shat they had met before. Seat No. !,
next the lady, was vacant, and in a
few minutes the porter had assigned
it to the young man. The girl swung
round so that her back was TO him and
addressed some words to her father,
pointing out of the window, but l no
ticed that her breath was coming quick
and her face had lost some of its color.
The young man soon turned his back
to all of us, took Il novel from his suit
case and began to read, but from the
number of times he turned to glance
through the glass beside him 1 judged
that his attention was not fixed upon
the book. His seat, the end one, was
next a mirror, and it was not long
before the girl, though his back was to-
ward her, was exchanging glances with
him.
y few miles from the terminus of the
road at Jersey City is a long tunnel.
Just before The train entered this tun-
mel the porter attempted to light the
gas in the center of the car. but had
only one match, which was eXtinguish-
cd before he succeeded. Plunging I'M
der ground, we plunged also into total
darkness.
When we shot out into the light, the |
young couple were sitting back to back; !
but. horror of horrors. the patch on the |
face of the girl had been transferred |
TO the mustache OF the young man. |
This could see by the mirror. 1 have |
been in that sort of danger myself and |
have Il fellow feeling for any one sim
ilarly placed. The father was looking |
out of the window; the girl, uncon-
scious of the transfer of her patch, was
sitting with her face toward him; the
young mans face was exposed to any
one who chose to look into the mirror.
How could L communicate with the
young man unobserved? l stared at
his reflection, hoping TO catch his eye,
but he was so absorbed in the remem-
brance of the kiss he had stolen that
his eye was not to be caught. Mean
while the father faced his daughter
and began to gather up their belong
ings, his face being directly toward the
mirror. Tapping him on the shoulder.
l asked him by what means L had best
reach the Grand Central depot in New
York. While he was telling me l was
trying to catch the eye of the young
man. This talking to the father and
ut the young man at the
same time were more difficult than
an organ and dancing a mon
key. Nevertheless l kept it up while
the train was rapidly nearing the sta
ton.
Presently the young man arose to
take his suit case from the rack above
md saw by my expression that some
thing had happened. / pointed to my
upper lip and glared ut him. He stood
locking ut me stupidity for n time,
then put his hand to his face. and when
he withdrew it the patch came also.
At the moment the young lady noticed
that something was wrong and, glanc-
ing from me to her lover. saw him
looking at her patch on his hand.