Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-04-27

SOus Lit CuSlOnS SudIu says youI
other trunk has already been eXam-
ined, passed and placed on the bag
gage val He was trying to tell you
hat 1t would be necessary for you to
permit a porter to take this trunk to
the train before time for starting.
With your permission
The stranger turned and halloed to a
porter, who came running. Miss Ger
son had the trunk locked and strapped
in no time, and it was on the Shout
ders of the porter.
you have very little time, Miss Ger
son. The train will be making a start
directly. If | might-ah-pilot you
through the station to the proper train
shed. l am not presuming?'
"You are very kind" she answered
hurriedly.
They set off, the providential Samar-
itan in the lead. Through the waiting
room and on to a broad platform, al
most deserted, they went. A guards
whistle shrilled. The stranger tucked
a helping hand under Jane Gerson's
arms to steady her in the sharp sprint
down a long aisle between tracks to
where the Paris train stood. 1t began
to move before they had reached its
midlength. A guard threw open a
carriage door, in they hoped, and with
a rattle of chains and banging Of buff
ers the Express du Nord was off on
it's arrow flight from Calais to the cap
ital.
The carriage, which was of the sec
ond class, was comfortably filled. Miss
Gerson stumbled over the feet of a
puffy Fleming nearest the door, was
launched into the lap of a comfortably
seat, ricocheted back to jam an elbow
into a French gentleman's spread
newspaper and finally was catapulted
into a vacant space next to the win
dow on the carriages far side She
giggled, tucked the skirts of her pearl
gray buster about her, righted the chic
sailor hat on her chestnut brown head
and patted a stray wisp Of hair back
into place. Her meteor fight into and
through the carriage disturbed her not
a whit.
AS for the Samaritan, he stood I'M
certainly In the narrow cross aisle,
swaying to the swing of the carriage
and accommodating seating possibili-
ties. There was a place, a very mar
row one, next to the fat Fleming; also
there was a vacant place next to Jane
Gerson. The Samaritan caught the
girls glance in his INDIGESTION, read in
it something frankly comradely and
chose the seat beside her.
Every good of you, I'm sure" he
murmured. 81 did not wish to pre-
sumo
You're not" the girl assured, and
there was something so fresh, so In
genuous, In the tone and the level
glance Of her brown eyes that the Sa-
marian felt all at once distinctly sat.
isied with the cast of fortune that
had thrown him in the way of q dis
tressed traveller. He sat down with
a lifting of the checkered alpine hat
he wore and a stiff little bow from the
waist.
"If l may, Miss Gerson-I am Cap
tain Woodhouse of the signal service"
"Oh!!" The girl let slip a little gasp,
the need of admiration the feminine
heart always pays to shoulder straps.
'iSignal service; that means the army?'
His majesty's service, yes, Miss Ger
son."
"You are, of course, off duty?" she
suggested, with the f~aintest possible
tinge of regret at the absence of the
stripes and buttons that spell soldier
with the woman
you might say so, Miss Gerson.
Egypt-the Nile country-is my sta.
ton. l am On my way back there aft
er a bit of a vacation at home-Lon-
don l mean, of course"
She stole a quick side glance at the
face of her companion. A soldiers
face it was, lean and school hardened
and competent. Lines about the eyes
and mouth-the stamp of the sun and
the imprint of the habit to command
had taken from Captain Woodhouse's
features something of freshness and
youth, though giving in return the in
dex of inflexible will and lust for
achievement. His smooth lips were a
bit thin, Jane Gerson thought, and the
o%utshooting chin, almost squared at the
angles, marked Captain Woodhouse as
anything but a tri1er OF a firt. She
was satisfied that nothing of presump-
ton or forwardness IN the part of this
hard nodded chap from Egypt would
give her cause to regret her %unconven-
tional offer of friendship.
Captain Woodhouse in his turn had
made a satisfying, though covert, ap-
praisal of his travelling companion by
means of a narrow mirror inset above
the baggage rack over the opposite
seat. Trim and petite of figure, which
was just a shade under the average
for height and plumpness; a small head
set sturdily on a round, smooth neck;
face the very embodiment of independ-
ence and self confidence, with its brown
- ILL a~ovk 4&c Is~I, Huo-r t1-Inu