The Vestibule Limited Mystery — page 30: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE VESTIBULE LIMITED MYSTERY. 91 I endeavor to make up my mind whether this nun’s garb may not be assumed for the occasion. Who is the woman wearing it? What connection does she bear toward the adventuress? She hasa maid with her; this fact does much to make her out a counterfeit in my mind. Perhaps it is Hammond she spies upon—she may be some cast-off love of his, seeking revenge; ora sister, devoted to his interests, and desirous of saving him from the doom to which the rich young man is drifting. That I must find out as time passes. Then, I go over the list of passengers once more, and find my interest resting on the quaint Professor again. He is watching these people too; well, that is not so odd, if I can believe he has had a glimpse of the girl’s face, which may be the case. The steady motion of the fast train makes travel- ing a pleasure, and not a stop will be effected until we draw into Philadelphia, after a run of some ninety miles. Will my employer wire me there? he may have realized how indefinite his instructions must have been, and concluded to let me deeper into the matter. Already I have reached what is probably the real truth—that some one has hired him to save Robert Hammond from his fate. When a man is dead set upon such a thing—head over ears in love, dazed, enslaved, charmed by such an adorable creature as the girl with whom he is — seated, it must prove a Herculean task to save him — against his will. I do not shrink from it, but at the same time understand full well the difficulties in the way. Ah! a more flashes into my mind ; at first I cS (ele) COomicboo nn