The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1910-08-11

goatee creaked up the aisle and
paused beside me.
Porter sick?" he inquired, taking in
with a professional eye the porter's
horror-struck face, my own excite.
ment and the slightly gaping curtains
of lower ten. He reached for the
darky's pulse and pulled out an old
fashioned gold watch.
HIN! Only fifty! What's the mat
ter? Had a shock" he asked
~shrewdly.
Yes" ! answered for the porter.
We've both had one. If you are a
doctor, | wish you would look at the
man in the berth across, lower ten.
I'm afraid it's too late, but I'm not ex-
perienced in such matters"
Together we opened the curtains,
and the doctor, bending down, gave a
comprehensive glance that took in the
rolling head, the relaxed jaw, the ugly
stain on the sheet. The examination
needed only a moment. Death was
written in the clear white of the nos
trils, the colorless lips, the smooth
ing away of the sinister lines of the
night before. With it's new dignity
the face was not unhandsome; the
gray hair was still plentiful, the feat
ures strong and well cut.
The doctor Strengthened himself and
turned to me. Dead for some time"
he said, running a professional finger
over the stains. These are dry and
darkened, you see. and rigor mortis
is well established. A friend of
yours?"
Il don't know him at ALL" l replied.
Never saw him but once before"
Then you don't know if he is tray
cling alone?"
No, he was not-that is, / don't
know anything about him." I correct
ed myself. 1t was my first blunder;
the doctor glanced up at me quickly
and then turned his attention again to
the body. Like a flash there had come
to me h vision of the woman with
the bronze hair and the tragic face,
whom | had surprised in the vesti-
bule between the cars, somewhere in
the small hours of the morning. | had
acted on my first impulse-the mascu-
line n of shielding a woman.
The doctor had unfastened the coat
of the striped pajamas and exposed
the dead mans chest. On the left
side was a small p%unctured wound of
insignificant size.
Very neatly DONE" the doctor said
with appreciation. Couldn't have
done it better myself. Right through
the intercostal space; no time even
to grunt."
Isn't the heart around there ONE
where?" | asked. The medical nan
turned toward me and smiled au-
sterely.
That's where it belongs, just under
that puncture, when it isn't gadding
around in a mans throat or his boots"
had a new respect for the doctor,
for any one indeed who could crack
ever a feeble joke under sucA circum-
stances, or who could run an imper-
those stains. Odd how a healthy, nor.
NAL man holds the medical profession
in half contemptuous regard until he
gets sick, or an emergency like this
arises, and then turns meekly to the
man who knows the ms and outs of
or his patronage, ties to him like a
rudderless ship in a gale.
Suicide, is 1t, doctor?" | asked.
He stood erect, after drawing the
bed-clothing over the face. and, ia
king off his glasses, he wiped them
slowly.
mo, it is not suicide" he announced
d~ecisively. "It is murder"
OF course, / had expected that, bu.
the word itself brought a shiver. I
was just a bit dizzy. Curious faces
through the car were turned toward
us, and l could hear the porter behind
me breathing audibly. A stout won
an in negligee came down the aisle
and ENORMOUSLY confronted the por-
ter. She wore a pink dressing-jacket
and carried portions of her clothing.
Porter" she began, in the voice Of
the lazy VINO udu udLSlSu, Is lueTe
a rule of this company that will al
low a woman to occupy the dressing
room for one hour and curl her hair
with an alcohol lamp while respect
able people haven't a place where
they can hook their"
She stopped suddenly and stared in
to lower ten. Her shining pink cheeks
grew pasty, her jaw fell. / remember
trying to think of something to say,
and of saying nothing at all. Then
she had buried her eyes in the non
descript garments that hung from her
arm and tottered back the way she
had come. Slowly a little knot of men
gathered around US, silent for the most
part. The doctor was making a
search of the berth when the conduct
or. elbowed his way through. followed
by the inquisitive man, who had evil
IDENTITY summoned him. l had lost
sight. for a time, of the girl in blue.
do 1t himself?" the conductor
queried after a bysiness-like glance at
the body.
mo, he didn't" the doctor assers-
ed. There's no weapon here. and the
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