The Vestibule Limited Mystery — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

THE VESTIBULE LIMITED MYSTERY. 27 threads together so as to weave them into a beauti- ful fabric—my case. CHAPTER LV, THE STRANGE OLD VIOLINIST, Robert Hammond and the girl seem to be wholly wrapped upin each other, and pay little attention to their fellow-travelers. The doughty colonel has left them, to smoke in the gentlemen’s compart- ment. I wonder will he enter into conversation with the English tourists, and whether they may or may not size him up for a fraud of the first water. Still, he may have been an officer in her majesty’s service—all such officers are not gentlemen of the first rank, since an examination allows a man to enter the line. The young couple apparently find plenty to talk about. As the car is warm the girl is forced to re- move her hat, and the vail goes withit. I watch them out of my half-closed eyes, and speculate on the old fable of the spider and the fly. I would give a good deal to hear what they are saying, but they speak too low for this. Hammond seems happy, and yet I can see the man acts peculiarly. Again the suspicion of a drug comes into my mind—this does not appear to be the same astute young politician who took such a prom- inent part in the debates at Albany, and charmed all hearers with his witty sallies, his shrewd logic, and lawyer-like method of making up his case. He is like one in a dream, and unless something occurs to suddenly shock him, he cannot be aroused from this peculiar mental coma. Perhaps, before Chicago is reached, or soon after, I may find a way — cComicboo CS mn