stood, half-turned toward me, one hand idly drooping, the other steadying her as she gazed out at the flying landscape.  I had an instant impression that I had met her somewhere, under different circumstances, more cheerful ones, I thought, for the girl’s dejection now was evident.  Beside her, sitting down, a small dark woman, considerably older, was talking in a rapid undertone.  The girl nodded indifferently now and then.  I fancied, although I was not sure, that my appearance brought a startled look into the young woman’s face.  I sat down and, hands thrust deep into the other man’s pockets, stared ruefully at the other man’s shoes.

The stage was set.  In a moment the curtain was going up on the first act of the play.  And for a while we would all say our little speeches and sing our little songs, and I, the villain, would hold center stage while the gallery hissed.

The porter was standing beside lower ten.  He had reached in and was knocking valiantly.  But his efforts met with no response.  He winked at me over his shoulder; then he unfastened the curtains and bent forward.  Behind him, I saw him stiffen, heard his muttered exclamation, saw the bluish pallor that spread over his face and neck.  As he retreated a step the interior of lower ten lay open to the day.

The man in it was on his back, the early morning sun striking full on his upturned face.  But the light did not disturb him.  A small stain of red dyed the front of his night clothes and trailed across the sheet; his half-open eyes were fixed, without seeing, on the shining wood above.

I grasped the porter’s shaking shoulders and stared down to where the train imparted to the body a grisly suggestion of motion.  “Good Lord,” I gasped.  “The man’s been murdered!”

CHAPTER IV

NUMBERS SEVEN AND NINE

Afterwards, when I tried to recall our discovery of the body in lower ten, I found that my most vivid impression was not that made by the revelation of the opened curtain.  I had an instantaneous picture of a slender blue-gowned girl who seemed to sense my words rather than hear them, of two small hands that clutched desperately at the seat beside them.  The girl in the aisle stood, bent toward us, perplexity and alarm fighting in her face.

With twitching hands the porter attempted to draw the curtains together.  Then in a paralysis of shock, he collapsed on the edge of my berth and sat there swaying.  In my excitement I shook him.

“For Heaven’s sake, keep your nerve, man,” I said bruskly.  “You’ll have every woman in the car in hysterics.  And if you do, you’ll wish you could change places with the man in there.”  He rolled his eyes.

A man near, who had been reading last night’s paper, dropped it quickly and tiptoed toward us.  He peered between the partly open curtains, closed them quietly and went back, ostentatiously solemn, to his seat.  The very crackle with which he opened his paper added to the bursting curiosity of the car.  For the passengers knew that something was amiss:  I was conscious of a sudden tension.