Frank Merriwell's New Comedian Part 42

ON THE REAR PLATFORM.

A feeling of exultant satisfaction flashed over Merriwell, and he quickly stepped out onto the platform, closing the door behind him.

The woman turned and looked toward him.

The train was racing along, the track seeming to fly away from beneath the last car.

It was a strange place for a woman to be, out there on the rear platform, and Merry's first thought had been that it must be the woman he sought, for had she not come out there to escape him? She had fancied he would look through the car, fail to find her, and decide that she was not on the train. It must be that she had seen Hodge come in, and had realized at once why he had entered the car. When he departed to carry the information to Frank, the desperate woman had fled to the rear platform.

Immediately on stepping out onto the platform, however, Frank decided that his reasoning was at fault.

It was a veiled woman, and she was in black, but it was not the woman he sought. It was not the woman who had caused his arrest in Denver!

Merry was disappointed.

The unknown looked at him, and said nothing. He looked at her and wondered. The veil was thick and baffling.

"Madam," he said, "this is a dangerous place."

She said nothing.

"You are liable to become dizzy out here and meet with an accident," he pursued. "If you should fall--well, you know what that would mean. It is remarkable that you should come out here."

"The air," she murmured, in a hoa.r.s.e, husky voice. "The car was stifling, and I needed the air. I felt ill in there."

"All the more reason why you should not come out here," declared Frank, solicitously. "You could have had a window opened, and that would have given you air."

"The window stuck."

"It must be some of them would open. If you will return, I'll endeavor to find you a seat by an open window."

"Very kind of you," she said, in the same peculiar, husky voice. "Think I'll stay out here. Don't mind me."

"Then I trust you will permit me to remain, and see that you do not meet with any misfortune?"

"No. Go! Leave me! I had rather remain alone."

She seemed like a middle-aged lady. He observed that her clothes fitted her ill, and her hands were large and awkward. She attempted to hide them.

All at once, with a suddenness that staggered him, the truth burst on Frank.

The woman was no woman at all! It was a man in disguise!

Merry literally gasped for a single instant, but he recovered at once.

Through his head flashed a thought:

"This must be some criminal who is seeking to escape justice!"

Immediately Frank resolved to remain on the platform at any hazard. He would talk to the disguised unknown.

"The motion of the train is rather trying to one who is not accustomed to it," he said. "Some people feel it quite as much as if they were on a vessel. Car sickness and seasickness are practically the same thing."

She looked at him through the concealing veil, but did not speak.

"I have traveled considerable," he pursued, "but, fortunately, I have been troubled very little with sickness, either on sea or land."

"Will you be kind enough to leave me!" came from behind the veil, in accents of mingled imploration and anger.

"I could not think of such a thing, madam!" he bowed, as gallantly as possible. "It is my duty to remain and see that you come to no harm."

"I shall come to no harm. You are altogether too kind! Your kindness is offensive!"

"I am very sorry you regard it thus, but I know my duty."

"If you knew half as much as you think, you would go."

"I beg your pardon; it is because I do know as much as I think that I do not go."

The unknown was losing patience.

"Go!" he commanded, and now his voice was masculine enough to betray him, if Frank had not dropped to the trick before.

"No," smiled Merry, really beginning to enjoy it, "not till you go in yourself, madam."

The train lurched round a curve, causing the disguised unknown to swing against the iron gate. Frank sprang forward, as if to catch and save the person from going over, but his real object was to apparently make a mistake and s.n.a.t.c.h off the veil.

The man seemed to understand all this, for he warded off Frank's clutch, crying:

"I shall call for aid! I shall seek protection!"

"It would not be the first time to-day that a veiled woman has done such a thing," laughed Frank,

The disguised man stared at him again. Merry fairly itched to s.n.a.t.c.h away the veil.

"If you are seeking air, madam," he suggested, "you had better remove your veil. It must be very smothering, for it seems to be quite thick."

"You are far too anxious about me!" snapped the disguised man. "I would advise you to mind your own business!"

This amused Merry still more. The situation was remarkably agreeable to him.

"In some instances," he said, politely, "your advice would be worth taking, but an insane person should be carefully watched, and that is why I am minding your business just now."

"An insane person?"

"Exactly."

"Do you mean that I am insane?"