The Passenger from Calais

my legs on the platform. No one took much notice of us; it must have been known that the train was empty, for th

first carriage) I had noticed a man standing with a valise in his hand, and I saw him following the train down the platform when we stopped. He addressed himself to a little group of conductors who h

empty sleeping-car. Curiosity and something more led me to examine this man closely; it was a strange, undefined, inexplicable sense of foreboding, of fateful

ent or "traveller" on his own account, well-to-do and prosperous, was the notion borne out by his dress, his white waistcoat a

e my compartment. I could not tell why, until presently he made overtures of sociability and began a desultory talk across the corridor. My cabin or compartment, it will be remembered, was the last but

e curve also upwards, a sort of set smile that was really a sardonic sneer, conveying distrust and disbelief in all around. His eyes were so deep set as to be almost lost in their recesses behind his sandy eyelashes, and he kept them screwed up close, with the intent

remarks or his questions, which were incessant and shamelessly inquisitorial. Nothing disconcerted him. I had all but shut the door of my compartment i

unpalatable society than let him bore

gar-case and pressed one upon me with such pertinacious, offensive fam

There are ladies in th

n his face that convinced me he perfectly well knew

her maid and a child

. "Does monsieur, tell me quickly, I-I-be

do you mean by asking me questions? Find out what you wa

to smoke. I shall find out then," and he jumped up

l which I had pressed to summon the attendant, as

igorous emphasis, backed by all my strength. "I'll s

ce are you? None of your bally non

I dragged him back helplessly with tightened gri

appeared upon the scene, an

It can't be allowed. No fightin

hemselves," I retorted. "Don't le

" stammered the other. "You shall a

with that I forced him, almost flung him, into his co

be disagreeable, and was barely pacified by a couple of five-franc pieces. "Fell

beyond her door a little nervously, but she venture

heard some noise, hi

ght manners. I told him not to smoke here, and he wanted to i

ndication of my thumb as I jerked it back, and

e of acute painful surprise, the gesture that

gasped. "He must not see

maid received her tenderly and with comforting words. There was clearly a strong bond of affection between these two, possibly companions and confederates in

re, don't give way," said the maid, so

! He is there! Falfan

ious solution to which so many plain indications pointed. The man, of course, was a detective, an officer or private agent, and his dirty business-you see, I was already shaken in my honesty, and no

on increasing. "I begin to think we shall fail, we cannot carry

must devise something, some way, of outwitting this Falfani. We did it before, we must do it ag

't it be better to slip out of the tr

we be? It would be far worse; we should be much more at his mercy if we left the train. The journey

n it; we shall never be able to keep it, they will come and claim it and recover it;" and

ced a slight sarcasm in her tone that was not without its effect

ounting the cost fully, and it shall be paid, however heavy it may be. It is

aid patted her on the cheek with great affection. "We shall find

ce and shining eyes? If I had had any scruple

on," I said solemnly, careless of all consequences, content to hold her