d-sausages; in the town shops they cost twenty-five heller
each. Things are dear in the town shops."

"I will give you fifty heller apiece for a couple of them," said Abbleway
with some enthusiasm.

"In a railway accident things become very dear," said the woman; "these
blood-sausages are four kronen apiece."

"Four kronen!" exclaimed Abbleway; "four kronen for a blood-sausage!"

"You cannot get them any cheaper on this train," said the woman, with
relentless logic, "because there aren't any others to get. In Agram you
can buy them cheaper, and in Paradise no doubt they will be given to us
for nothing, but here they cost four kronen each. I have a small piece
of Emmenthaler cheese and a honey-cake and a piece of bread that I can
let you have. That will be another three kronen, eleven kronen in all.
There is a piece of ham, but that I cannot let you have on my name-day."

Abbleway wondered to himself what price she would have put on the ham,
and hurried to pay her the eleven kronen before her emergency tariff
expanded into a famine tariff. As he was taking possession of his modest
store of eatables he suddenly heard a noise which set his heart thumping
in a miserable fever of fear. 'There was a scraping and shuffling as of
some animal or animals trying to climb up to the footboard. In another
moment, through the snow-encrusted glass of the carriage window, he saw a
gaunt prick-eared head, with gaping jaw and lolling tongue and gleaming
teeth; a second later another head shot up.

"There are hundreds of them," whispered Abbleway; "they have scented us.
They will tear the carriage to pieces. We shall be devoured."

"Not me, on my name-day. The holy Maria Kleopha would not permit it,"
said the woman with provoking calm.

The heads dropped down from the window and an uncanny silence fell on the
beleaguered carriage. Abbleway neither moved nor spoke. Perhaps the
brutes had not clearly seen or winded the human occupants of the
carriage, and had prowled away on some other errand of rapine.

The long torture-laden minutes passed slowly away.

"It grows cold," said the woman suddenly, crossing over to the far end of
the carriage, where the heads had appeared. "The heating apparatus does
not work any longer. See, over there beyond the trees, there is a
chimney with smoke coming from it. It is not far, and the snow has
nearly stopped, I shall find a path through the forest to that house with
the chimney."