The Vestibule Limited Mystery — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

28 THE VESTIBULE LIMITED MYSTERY, of thus electrifying the young man, and bringing him to his senses. To accomplish this I will have to be qualified to prove the base design these harpies have upon his purse, and I may need the assistance of the two English tourists in the matter. About the time we near Harrisburgh, in the afternoon, I find my inter- est aroused in a new quarter. Coming back to my seat after getting a drink—my real object was to see whether the English colonel was talking with the tourists—I discover a novel in my seat. There is no train newsboy around to bother one with his attentions, for we have quite a little library aboard, and I wonder who has been so kind as to loan mea book. Mechanically I pick it up, and opening to the first page, find written in pencil, one line: “Watch his jags the Rabbi.” Is this a mere accident, or can it be design? Iam puzzled to know, but at any rate there is no harm in keeping an eye on that end of the car where the Jew has his seat. It seems like nonsense to think he has anything in common with these people, and as I watch his face, seen in the glass he fronts, I cannot believe it possible. Nevertheless, before five minutes have elapsed, I realize the weakness of human judgment, even when backed by such long experience as my Own. The colonel comes out of the passage leading around the drawing-room and smoking compart- ment. He glances swiftly toward the lovers—their heads are close together—just now Robert Ham- — mond can see nothing before him but a laughing ~~ Ecomicbooks co