The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-03-30

keen sense OF disappointment, LOT ne was
on the point of giving in.
The train began Enthusiastically to slack
en- speed They were running into Ket-
! tering.
Here we are" he blurted out abrupt
lily; this is Kettering. What do you
mean to do?''
Stay where am" she replied with
provoking nonchalance, through which
firm resolve was perfectly apparent
. He ran the blind up and looked out on
the line. They were very near Kettering
now; soon they slipped past the lighted
caboose of the signal man, then came to
the first rare gas lamps, and at last pull
ed up at the platform OF the station as
bright as day.
1t so CHANGED that aonther express,
southwark bound upon the UP track. was
halted on the opposite track. Its passen-
gers were plainly visible, seated within.
or idly gazing through the carriage win
/ dows, as travellers do when they meet
others on the road. Ludovic Leferve was
staring Ike the rest, but with mind so
preoccupied with his present trouble that
/ he saw nothing cleary at first, nothing
/ real or tangible was conveyed to his men
! tai retina.
Ali at once he jumped to his feet with
a startled exclamation, and prepared to
leave the Pullman.
What is it?" carelessIy inquired his
| companion. The question was repeated
with some insistence.
/ Are you going to leave me?" she went
/ on, no wwith unconceaIed anxiety and
rising rage. rs it so. my preux cavalier?
Discretion is the better part of valor,
and the brave Col. Leferve takes to his
heels. But you will lose your passage
at Liverpool; you will not embark with
your regiment, and then what will people
say?'
She was talking to the empty air for he
was gone. He had hurled from the car,
and was running along the platform at
top speed to the bridge that crossed the
| line. He mounted the stairs in wild
haste, and so gained the up train, cor
ridor train, into which he climbed. hunt
ing through it like an eager hound hot on
the scent. questing high and low.
He had seen a face at the window,
the face he loved best in the world, his
wifes face, wearing a look he had never
seen on it before 1t was white, wan, and
pitiful, upbraiding, and withal full of
awful warning; it was instinct with a
horror of concentrated anguish, as at
some terrible. nearly impending trouble.
| What could have brought her here? So
real and lifelike was the vision that he
did not pause to consider the physical
impOssibility of her being a hundred miles
firm where he had left her just two
hours beforehand left her an invalid,
unable to move from bed.
He was too much upset to reason from
these palpable facts, to satisfy himself
that what he had seen must be Pigment
of his own disordered imagination, and
while he still ran to and fro, still at
fault the train continued its journey
south, and he was carried back to Lon
don with no chance of alightins by the
way
With the leisure of calm reflection that
came Of the next two quiet hours. Ludo-
vic Leferve was able to pull himself to-
gether. and in measure recover his wits.
He saw clearly that he had been the
victim of some spectral illusion, some
false and far-fetched impression, and yet
he could not dismiss it from his mind en-
tirely. 1t was not easy to believe that
the vision had been sent him by some
higher supernatural power to save him
from shameful lapse into wrongdoing;
yet he liked to think so, to refer it to
some occult and unexplained sympathy
or telepathy between their two spirit ma
lures. strong enough to produce this ex--
traordinary result
Withal he was haunted by a vague hor-
ror that it bodied i'll to his wife or him
self. and he rushed home Immediately
when he arrived in town to satisfy him
self that she was In no immediate danger.
He entered the sickroom on tiptoe and
found her sleeping peacefully, but with
his name on her lips, and prayers for his
safety, he felt sure, mingling with her
dreams He went out as softly as he
had came. to spare her the agony of
second parting.
And time was very precious; it be-
hooved him to use all despatch with his
interrupted journey. and by the train
on any line, If needs be by special train.
He caught one from Euston before mid
night by the L. and n. w. r., not the
Midland. and thus reached Liverpool
Before daylight he was aboard the trans
port lying in the Mersey with the Blue
Peter flying just as the anchor was
weighed.
They were selling papers on the steam
tug that took him out into the stream,
and the first he opened told of a terrible
railway accident on the line by which he
had Travelled as far as Kettering on the
night before. The Pullman car had tele-
scoped. and several OF its occupants had
met their deaths. Among them the body
Of ViscounteSs AIilcombe had been identi-
fed by the French maid who. being in
another part of the train. had escaped
injury.-San Francisco Bulletin.