ck as though he had been or was still asleep. The
station-master stepped forward, and as he did so the attendant came
hurrying out to the platform, and, pushing back the porters, called to
him by name.

"Mr. Rice," he said, "If you please, sir, will you come this way?"

The station-master acceded at once to the man's request and entered
the saloon. The attendant clutched at his arm nervously. He was a pale,
anaemic-looking little person at any time, but his face just now was
positively ghastly.

"What on earth is the matter with you?" the station-master asked
brusquely.

"There's something wrong with my passenger, sir," the man declared in
a shaking voice. "I can't make him answer me. He won't look up, and I
don't--I don't think he's asleep. An hour ago I took him some whiskey.
He told me not to disturb him again--he had some papers to go through."

The station-master leaned over the table. The eyes of the man who sat
there were perfectly wide-open, but there was something unnatural in
their fixed stare,--something unnatural, too, in the drawn grayness of
his face.

"This is Euston, sir," the station-master began,--"the terminus--"

Then he broke off in the middle of his sentence. A cold shiver was
creeping through his veins. He, too, began to stare; he felt the color
leaving his own cheeks. With an effort he turned to the attendant.

"Pull down the blinds," he ordered, in a voice which he should never
have recognized as his own. "Quick! Now turn out those porters, and tell
the inspector to stop anyone from coming into the car."

The attendant, who was shaking like a leaf, obeyed. The station-master
turned away and drew a long breath. He himself was conscious of a
sense of nausea, a giddiness which was almost overmastering. This was
a terrible thing to face without a second's warning. He had not the
slightest doubt but that the man who was seated at the table was dead!

At such an hour there were only a few people upon the platform, and
two stalwart station policemen easily kept back the loiterers whose
curiosity had been excited by the arrival of the special. A third took
up his position with his back to the entrance of the saloon, and allowed
no one to enter it till the return of the station-master, who had gone
for a doctor. The little crowd was completely mystified. No one had
the slightest idea of what had happened. The attendant was besieged by
questions, but he was sitting on the step of the car, in th