The Mobridge news. [volume] (Mobridge, Walworth Co., S.D.) 190?-1917, 1910-08-05

xMoSt
quiet again. Every nerve vas tense
Time passed, perhaps ten minutes.
possibly hail an hour. Then, without
the slightest warning, as the train
rounded q curve, a heavy body was
thrown into my berth. The incident,
trivial as it seemed, was startling in
its sudIrnness, for although my ears
were painfully strained and awake,
| had heard no step outside. The next
instant the curtain hung limp again;
still without a sound, my distuTber
had slipped away into the gloom and
darkness In a frenzy Of w~akefulness,
I sat up, drew on a pair Of slippers and
fumbIcd for my bath robe.
From a berth across, probably lower
ten, came that particularly aggravat-
ing nOr which begins lightly. deli
cately, family soprano, goes down the
scale a note with every breath, and,
after keeping the listener tense with
expectation, ends with an explosion
that tears the very air. | was more
and more irritable: I sat on the edge
Of the berth and hoped the snorer
would choke to death.
He had considerable vitality, how
ever, he withstOOd one shock after
another and survived to start again
with new vigOr. In desperation /
found some cigarettes and one match,
piled my blankets over my grip, and
drawing the curtains together as
though the berth were still occupied, I
made my way to the veStibule of the
car.
| was not clad for dress parade. Is
II because the male is so restricted to
gloom in his everyday attire that he
blossoms into gaudy cOlors in his pa
jamas and dressing gowns? 1t would
take a Turk to feel at home before an
audience In my red and yellow bath
robe, a Christmas remembrance from
Mrs. Klopton, with slippers to match.
So, naturally, when I saw a femi-
nine figure onsthe platform, my first
instinct was to dodge. The woman,
however, was quicker than |: she gave
me a startled glance, wheeled and dis
appeared, with a fash of two bronze.
cOlored braids, into the next car.
Cigarette box in one hand, match
f. the other, l leaned against the un-
certain frame of the door and gazed
after her vanished figure. The noun
tain air tapped my bath robe around
my bare ankles, my one match burned
to the end and went out, and still l
stared. For I had seen on her express
sive face a haunting look that was
horror, nothing less. Heaven knows,
I am not psychological. Emotions
have to be written large before | can
read them. But a woman in trouble
always appeals to me, and this woman
was more than that. She was in dead
IL fear.
If l had not been afraid of being
ridiculous, | would have followed her.
But l fancied that the apparition of a
man in a red and yellow bath robe,
with an unkempt thatch of hair, walk
ing up to her and assuring her that
he would protect her would probably
put her into Mysteries. | had done
that once before, when burglars had
tried to break into the house, and had
startled the parlor maid into bed for
a week. So l tried to assure myself
that | had imagined the lady's distress
-or caused 1t, perhaps-and to dis.
miss her from my mind. Perhaps she
was merely anxious about the I'M
pleasant gentleman of the restaurant
| thought smugly that / could have
told her all about him: That he was
sleeping the sleep of the just and the
intoxicated in a berth that ought, by
all that was fair and right, to have
been mine, and that if | were tied to
a man who snored like that / should
have him a~naesthetized and soft pal
ate put where it would never again
flap like a loose sail in the wind.
We passed Harrisburg as 1 stood
there. 1t al starlight, and the great
crests Of the Alleghanies had giver
way to low hills. AT intervals we
passed smudges of gray white, nc
doubt in daytime comfortable farms
which Mcknight says is a good way
of putting it. the farms being a lot
more comfortable than the people or
them.
| YVES growing drowsy; the woman
with the bronze hair and the mortified
face was fading in retrospect. 1t was
colder, too, and | turned with a shivel
tc go I'm.
As did SO, a bit of paper iutterec
into the air and settled on my sleeve
like a butterfly on a gorgeous red and
yellow blossom. / picked 1t up curl
ously and glanced at 1t. 1t was par
'of Q telegram that had been torn into
bits.
There were only parts Of four words
on the scrap. but 1t left me puzzled
and thoughtful. I, read -ower ten
a Lower ten, car seven,'
was my berth--the one / had bought
and found pre-empted.
GRO BE CONTINUED)
E------tM 49,