THE HAND IN THE AISLE
The man whose interest in the passenger in Section Three of the last
sleeper was most definite and understandable and, therefore, most
openly acute, was Conductor Connery. Connery had passed through the
Pullmans several times during the morning--first in the murk of the
dawn before the dimmed lamps in the cars had been extinguished; again
later, when the passengers had been getting up; and a third time after
all the passengers had left their berths except Dorne, and after nearly
all the berths had been unmade and the bedding packed away behind the
panels overhead. Each time he passed, Connery had seen the hand which
hung out into the aisle from between the curtains; but the only
definite thought that came to him was that Dorne was a sound sleeper.
Nearly all the passengers had now breakfasted. Connery, therefore,
took a seat in the diner, breakfasted leisurely and after finishing,
went forward to see what messages had been received as to the relieving
snow-plows. Nothing definite yet had been learned; the snow ahead of
them was fully as bad as this where they were stopped, and it would be
many hours before help could get to them. Connery walked back through
the train. Dorne by now must be up, and might wish to see the
conductor. Unless Dorne stopped him, however, Connery did not intend
to speak to Dorne. The conductor had learned in his many years of
service that nothing is more displeasing to the sort of people for whom
trains are held than officiousness.
As Connery entered the last sleeper, his gaze fell on the dial of
pointers which, communicating with the pushbuttons in the different
berths, tell the porter which section is calling him, and he saw that
while all the other arrows were pointing upward, the arrow marked "3"
was pointing down. Dorne was up, then--for this was the arrow denoting
his berth--or at least was awake and had recently rung his bell.
Connery looked in upon the porter, who was cleaning up the washroom.
"Section Three's getting up?" he asked.
"No, Mistah Connery--not yet," the porter answered.
"What did he ring for?" Connery thought Dorne might have asked for him.
"He didn't ring. He ain't moved or stirred this morning."
"He must have rung." Connery looked to the dial, and the porter came
out of the washroom and looked at it also.
"Fo' the lan's sake. I didn't hear no ring, Mistah Connery. It mus'
have been when I was out on the platform."
"When was that?"
"Jus' now. There ain't been nobody but him in the car for fifteen
minutes, and I done turn the pointers all up when the las' passenger
went to the diner. It can't be longer than a few minutes, Mistah
Connery."
"Answer it, then," Connery directed.
As the negro started to obey, Connery followed him into the open car.
He could see over the negro's shoulder the hand sticking out into the
aisle, and this time, at sight of it, Connery started violently. If
Dorne had rung, he must have moved; a man who is awake does not let his
hand hang out into the aisle. Yet the hand had not moved. Nothing was
changed about it since Connery had seen it before. The long, sensitive
fingers fell in precisely the same position as before, stiffly
separated a little one from another; they had not changed their
position at all.
"Wait!" Connery seized the porter by the arm. "I'll answer it myself."
He dismissed the negro and waited until he had gone. He looked about
and assured himself that the car, except for himself and the man lying
behind the curtains of Section Three, was empty. He slowed, as he
approached the hand. He halted and stood a moment beside the berth,
himself almost breathless as he listened for the sound of breathing
within. He heard nothing, though he bent closer to the curtain. Yet
he still hesitated, and retreating a little and walking briskly as
though he were carelessly passing up the aisle, he brushed hard against
the hand and looked back, exclaiming an apology for his carelessness.
The hand fell back heavily, inertly, and resumed its former position
and hung as white and lifeless as before. No response to the apology
came from behind the curtains; the man in the berth had not roused.
Connery rushed back to the curtains and touched the hand with his
fingers. It was cold! He seized the hand and felt it all over; then,
gasping, he parted the curtains and looked into the berth. He stared;
his breath whistled out; his shoulders jerked, and he drew back,
instinctively pressing his two clenched hands against his chest and the
pocket which held President Jarvis' order.
The man in the berth was lying on his right side facing the aisle; the
left side of his face was thus exposed; and it had been crushed in by a
violent blow from some heavy weapon which, too blunt to cut the skin
and bring blood, had fractured the cheekbone and bludgeoned the temple.
The proof of murderous violence was so plain that the conductor, as he
saw the face in the light, recoiled with starting eyes, white with
horror.
He looked up and down the aisle to assure himself that no one had
entered the car during his examination; then he carefully drew the
curtains together again, and hurried to the forward end of the car
where he had left the porter.
"Lock the rear door of the car," he commanded. "Then come back here."
He gave the negro the keys, and himself waited to prevent any one from
entering the car at his end. Looking through the glass of the door, he
saw the young man Eaton standing in the vestibule of the car next
ahead. Connery hesitated; then he opened the door and beckoned Eaton
to him.
"Will you go forward, please," he requested, "and see if there isn't a
doctor--"
"You mean the man with red hair in my car?" Eaton inquired.
"That's the one."
Eaton started off without asking any questions. The porter, having
locked the rear door of the car, returned and gave Connery back the
keys. Connery still waited, until Eaton returned with the red-haired
man, "D. S." He let them in and locked the door behind them.
"You are a doctor?" Connery questioned the red-haired man.
"I am a surgeon; yes."
"That's what's wanted. Doctor--"
"My name is Sinclair. I am Douglas Sinclair, of Chicago."
Connery nodded. "I have heard of you." He turned then to Eaton. "Do
you know where the gentleman is who belongs to Mr. Dorne's
party?--Avery, I believe his name is."
"He is in the observation car," Eaton answered.
"Will you go and get him? The car-door is locked. The porter will let
you in and out. Something serious has happened here--to Mr. Dorne.
Get Mr. Avery, if you can, without alarming Mr. Dorne's daughter."
Eaton nodded understanding and followed the porter, who, taking the
keys again from the conductor, let him out at the rear door of the car
and reclosed the door behind him. Eaton went on into the observation
car. As he passed the club compartment of this car, he sensed an
atmosphere of disquiet which gave him first the feeling that some of
these people must know already that there was something wrong farther
forward; but this was explained when he heard some one say that the
door of the car ahead was locked. Another asked Eaton how he had got
through; he put the questioner off and went on into the
observation-room. No suspicion of anything having occurred had as yet
penetrated there.
"How long you've been!" Harriet Dorne remarked as he came near. "And
how is it about the roof promenade?"
"Why, all right, I guess, Miss Dorne--after a little." Controlling
himself to an appearance of casualness, he turned then to Avery: "By
the way, can I see you a moment?"
Without alarming Harriet Dorne, he got Avery away and out of the car.
A few passengers now were collected upon the platforms between this car
and the next, who questioned and complained as Eaton, pushing by them
with Avery, was admitted by the negro, who refused the others
admittance.
"Is it something wrong with Mr. Dorne?" Donald Avery demanded as Eaton
drew back to let Avery precede him into the open part of the car.
"So the conductor says."
Avery hurried forward toward the berth where Connery was standing
beside the surgeon. Connery turned toward him.
"I sent for you, sir, because you are the companion of the man who had
this berth."
Avery pushed past him, and leaped forward as he looked past the
surgeon. "What has happened to Mr. Dorne?"
"You see him as we found him, sir." Connery stared down nervously
beside him.
Avery leaned inside the curtains and recoiled. "He's dead!"
"The doctor hasn't made his examination yet; but, there seems no doubt
he's dead." Connery was very pale but controlled.
"He's been murdered!"
"It looks so, Mr. Avery. Yes; if he's dead, he's certainly been
murdered," Connery agreed. "This is Doctor Douglas Sinclair, a Chicago
surgeon. I called him just now to make an examination; but since Mr.
Dorne seems to have been dead for some time, I waited for you before
moving the body. You can tell,"--Connery avoided mention of President
Jarvis' name,--"tell any one who asks you, Mr. Avery, that you saw him
just as he was found."
He looked down again at the form in the berth, and Avery's gaze
followed his; then, abruptly, it turned away. Avery stood clinging to
the curtain, his eyes darting from one to another of the three men.
"As he was found? When?" he demanded. "Who found him that way? When?
How?"
"I found him so," Connery answered.
Avery said nothing more.
"Will you start your examination now, Dr. Sinclair," Connery suggested.
"No--I'll ask you to wait a minute."
Noises were coming to them from the platforms at both ends of the car,
and the doors were being tried and pounded on, as passengers attempted
to pass through. Connery went to the rear, where the negro had been
posted; then, repassing them, he went to the other end of the car. The
noises ceased. "The Pullman conductor is forward, and the brakeman is
back there now," he said, as he turned to them. "You will not be
interrupted, Dr. Sinclair."
"What explanation did you give them?" Eaton asked.
"Why?" Connery returned.
"I was thinking of Miss Dorne."
"I told them nothing which could disturb her." Connery, as he spoke,
pulled back the curtains, entirely exposing the berth.
The surgeon, before examining the man in the berth more closely, lifted
the shades from the windows. Everything about the berth was in place,
undisturbed; except for the mark of the savage blow on the side of the
man's head, there was no evidence of anything unusual. The man's
clothes were carefully and neatly hung on the hooks or in the little
hammock; his glasses were in their case beside the pillow; his watch
and purse were under the pillow; the window at his feet was still
raised a crack to let in fresh air while he slept. Save for the marks
upon the head, the man might yet be sleeping. It was self-evident
that, whatever had been the motives of the attack, robbery was not one;
whoever had struck had done no more than reach in and deliver his
murderous blow; then he had gone on.
Connery shut the window.
As the surgeon carefully and deliberately pulled back the bedclothing
and exposed the body of the man clothed in pajamas, the others watched
him. Sinclair made first an examination of the head; completing this,
he unbuttoned the pajamas upon the chest, loosened them at the waist
and prepared to make his examination of the body.
"How long has he been dead?" Connery asked.
"He is not dead yet."
"You mean he is still dying?"
"I did not say so."
"You mean he is alive, then?"
"Life is still present," Sinclair answered guardedly. "Whether he will
live or ever regain consciousness is another question."
"One you can't answer?"
"The blow, as you can see,"--Sinclair touched the man's face with his
deft finger-tips,--"fell mostly on the cheek and temple. The cheekbone
is fractured. He is in a complete state of coma; and there may be some
fracture of the skull. Of course, there is some concussion of the
brain."
Any inference to be drawn from this as to the seriousness of the
injuries was plainly beyond Connery. "How long ago was he struck?" he
asked.
"Some hours."
"You can't tell more than that?"
"Longer ago than five hours, certainly."
"Since four o'clock, then, rather than before?"
"Since midnight, certainly; and longer ago than five o'clock this
morning."
"Could he have revived half an hour ago--say within the hour--enough to
have pressed the button and rung the bell from his berth?"
Sinclair straightened and gazed at the conductor curiously. "No,
certainly not," he replied. "That is completely impossible. Why did
you ask?"
Connery avoided answer.
The doctor glanced down quickly at the form of the man in the berth;
then again he confronted Connery. "Why did you ask that?" he
persisted. "Did the bell from this berth ring recently?"
Connery shook his head, not in negation of the question, but in refusal
to answer then. But Avery pushed forward. "What is that? What's
that?" he demanded.
"Will you go on with your examination, Doctor?" Connery urged.
"You said the bell from this berth rang recently!" Avery accused
Connery.
"I did not say that; he asked it," the conductor evaded.
"But is it true?"
"The pointer in the washroom, indicating a signal from this berth, was
turned down a minute ago," Connery had to reply. "A few moments
earlier, all pointers had been set in the position indicating no call."
"What!" Avery cried. "What was that?"
Connery repeated the statement.
"That was before you found the body?"
"That was why I went to the berth--yes," Connery replied; "that was
before I found the body."
"Then you mean you did not find the body," Avery charged. "Some one,
passing through this car a minute or so before you, must have found
him!"
Connery attended without replying.
"And evidently that man dared not report it and could not wait longer
to know whether Mr.--Mr. Dorne, was really dead; so he rang the bell!"
"Ought we keep Dr. Sinclair any longer from the examination, sir?"
Connery now seized Avery's arm in appeal. "The first thing for us to
know is whether Mr. Dorne is dying. Isn't--"
Connery checked himself; he had won his appeal. Eaton, standing
quietly watchful, observed that Avery's eagerness to accuse now had
been replaced by another interest which the conductor's words had
recalled. Whether the man in the berth was to live or die--evidently
that was momentously to affect Donald Avery one way or the other.
"Of course, by all means proceed with your examination, Doctor," Avery
directed.
As Sinclair again bent over the body, Avery leaned over also; Eaton
gazed down, and Connery--a little paler than before and with lips
tightly set.