Red River prospector. (Red River, Taos County, N.M.) 1900-190?, 1907-01-10

-.
sank, and the smile slid down his
cheek and vanished-"it raj the plain,
unvarnished truth, and it happened as
l told you-whilst we were %scudding
along through this Inferno-like dark
ness, just as tie train is doing now"
But a man without a head" l ven
tured to expostulate. And to enter a
moving train-in a tunnell The thing
is impossible, you know, impossible!"
1t happened two years ago, and ]
was going then (as / am going now
to Luvinci, a small station just out.
side of this tunnel on the Italian side.
At that time l was connected with a
Franco-Itanan firm of jewellers and
as the samples l carried were extreme.
ly valuable, l made 1t a point when
travelling by train to always engage an
entire compartment and have the
guard lock me in securely. / was,
therefore, quite alone when the affair
of which 1 am about to tell you oc'
CURED. l was, moreover, unusually
careful on this particular occasion, and
kept a loaded revolver lying upon the
seat beside me. Some four months
previously, a fellow commercial trav'
eler, who had the misfortune to re
semble me very closely indeed, Ia
been murdered in a compartment OF
the Lyons express, and his murderer,
who was most fortunately captured,
confessed that he had mistaken the
man for me.
"On the morning prior to my start
ing upon the journey of which l am
now telling you, this murderer had
been g%uillotined in Paris, and there
was a full account of the execution in
all the evening papers, La Presse in
particular giving a very graphic de
scription of it. / think l read it quite
a dozen times that night and a dozen
more the next morning, and l was
reading 1t again when the train
whizzed suddenly into this tunnel. The
horrible droning of the wheels, com.
bined with the gloom and, perhaps, the
grewsomeness of the thing l had been
reading, got on my nerves and when
l heard the door behind me--the
locked door!-open and close with a
bang, / fairly bounded from my seat,
AS l faced around, my heart hammer.
ing against my ribs as though it would
beat its way out of me, l saw standing
before me the shape of a man with
a great scoop cut out of his coat and
shirt where the collar should have
been, a slim, red line running round
his throat, and above that line a gray
white dead face with shut eyes AID
hanging lips"
"Ach! Lieber Gott."
/ heard the words quaver out from
the Germans corner, but l could not
see his face, for the thick vapor which
the opened window had let in loated
between us, humid, yellow, reeking OF
sulphur. l looked round at the Cor
nishman, every fiber of my being ting
ling, and something creeping up my
neck.
Go on" l said family. You are
sure it wasn't nerves?"
las sure as l am that you are sitting
here beside me this minute" he re.
piled. Nerves may often make a man
fancy that he sees things, but they
can't make those things talk"
And he talked?"
Eyes. AS | faced round and saw
him, his dead lips said quite distinct
ly: Good evening. comrade. We
travel far and fast. 1t may be morn
ing to you, but it is evening to me-
for ever!' And then, with a wave of
the hand, inviting me to resume my
seat, he sat down in the corner near
the window and turned his dead face
towards me his eyelids never once
lifting, and his head, Jared by the
movement of the train, rocking lin
steadily upon his shoulders. Once he
put up his hand to steady it, and as
his fingers touched that red line about
his throat, The trademark of Mon
sieur de Paris, he said, with a ghaHtly
movement of the lips which, in a liv-
ing man., would have been a smile.
He guillotined me at dawn this morn
ing"
The Cornishman stopped short and
l saw his eye travel to the window.
Along the vapOr-smeared surface OF
the glass a faint glow of light was
creeping-a light which presently
burst into the compartment with such
a fierce and binding glare that for an
instant / could see nothing. Then ]
became conscious that we were out OF
the tunnel, and that the German was
still sitting huddled up in his corner
with gaping lips and wide-opened eyes
The Cornishman rose. lifted his
portmanteau out of the rack. looked
down at me and-winked.
Il reckon I've won that fve-pound
note hands down." he said, with a
laugh. "Our friend from the Father
land never slept a wink, nor snored g
snore, the whole way through"
We'll, I'm dashed!" / managed to
gasp at last. and pulled my purse into
view.
mo, don't pay It to me-" he said
hastily. i've won it, l know. but
send it as a donation to DIR. Barnsrdo's
home; it will do some good there. ]
am sure l can trust you to do 1t; you
we're so willing to pay up like a man.
One last word-don't make rash bets
in future: you will always find some
body ready to take you up. Good. bye