The Indianapolis journal., 1903-02-08
THE P ARIS NAIL
ARTHUR W. MAR CHMON

the guard, who smiled at my school-made
French and shrugged his shoulders, not
understanding me.
Il would rather not travel with him, sis
ter 1 said. protesting But her smile was
SO indulgent and expressive of such good
natured astonishment at my reluctance
that it made me feel half ashamed of my
youthful awkwardness.
Quickly. If you please" said the guard,
impatiently.
My friend would rather find another car
riage." ses-
There is no time by this train; we are
starting this moment. Will the good sister
wait for the next train?"
II cannot she said. ..But you do as you
please. Miss Wiimott.'' and without more
ado she got into the carriage.
Thinking / should be safe with her and
knowing that was to be met by the mail
train at Paris followed, and the man had
barely time to spring in after me when the
train started and we were off, with only
zone stop. at Amiens. until we reached
Paris.
1 liked the mans conduct much less In
the carriage than ever.
The sister settled herself easily in a cor
ner with her back to the engine and told
me she was going to sleep, and chose the
seat opposite her. The man took the corner
on the same side as my companion at the
opposite end Of the carriage, and very soon
after the train started his behavior began
TO cause me great concern. 1t was as
though he had been drinking and the ef-
fects had become suddenly apparent.
He lurched and Topped about in his seat,
nodded and rolled as the train moved; and
himself together and stare alternately at
| me and the sister, who was soon sleeping
placidly in her corner.
This so frightened me that tried to wake
her. kicking her feet secretly not to at
tract the mans attention. But my kicking
had no effect. except to cause the sleeper
to move uneasily and snore softly.
/ Attracted by one of these snores the man,
| who had been lolling back against the cush-
ions with his head fallen forward on his
chest, started. and making of his eff
| forts for self-control looked up and across
at her with long drunken stare. gradu-
| ally topping sideways until he rested on
his arm, his whole body swaying fatu-
| ously.
| Then he looked from the sister across to
me and smirked repulsively as he jerked
| his head in her direction and asked:
us she asleep?" and he loued. blinking
| blearily at me, waiting for my answer.
When said nothing-for in my fright,
| leant back In my seat and pretended to
sleep-he made big effort to stand up as
| if to come to me, muttering something ]
could not make out.
II he came near me meant to scream
and wake the sister; and 1 watched him
through the narrow Sits Of my nearly
closed lids with vigilance inspired by the
fever Of terror which set my heart thump-
| ing violently against my ribs. and my
pulses beating until the throbbing almost
shook my frame with its vehemence. But,
to my infinite relief, he could not succeed
in rising The smirk on his face changed to
an expression of intense effort, and at the
close he sank back in his corner again,
| breathing heavily as If after great exer-
| ton.
After he had sat a minute or two In this
| way he took a notebook from his pocket
and began to write a few sentences la
boriously. with great effort and many stop
| pages. More than once during the writing
his head fell now forward on his chest
now back again against the carriage. as
though his drunken sleep had mastered
him, and when 1t was finished he tore the
page from the book and read over what he
had written. glancing at me frequently the
while.
Then he fumbled I'm his pocket and took
out something which, to my horror, I saw
was a revolver. laid it down on the side
| furthest from me, and stopped to think, his
fingers playing with the revolver, while
his eyes kept wandering from me to the
| sleeping woman, his expression all the
| time furtive, haggard and half-besotted.
| I began to fear now that he was worse
than drunk, and a victim to some kind OF
| madness; and the thought that we two
| women were alone in the carriage at his
mercy and that he was armed in this way
with the means of killing US, heightened
my terror until it was well-nigh unbear-
able
Every time / found his eyes upon me ]
turned cold with fear. and ransacked my
memory for such tags and scraps Of knowl-
! edge how to deal with the insane as had
heard or read But nothing could think OF
/ seemed to have the remotest application tc
| such a crisis as this: and / continued to
/ feign sleep in the one yearning hope that
! by this means he might be led to take nc
notice.
But this was a vain hope, indeed; fol
presently he looked more earnestly than
j ever at me, and then beckoned to me to GO
i to his end of the carriage. His gesture, at
/ first merely earnest and entreating, be.
j came insistent, urgent and peremptory. as
i 1 paid no heed but kept glued to my seat
while L strove to make my breathing deer
i and regular like that Of sleeper
When 1 made no response he groaned. and