The Blind Man's Eyes
Connery had received that morning—"H. R. J." 

 Connery's hand shook as, while trying to recover himself, he took the card and looked at it more closely, and he felt within him the sinking sensation which follows an escape from danger. He saw that his too ready and too assured assumption that Eaton was the man to whom Jarvis' note had referred, had almost led him into the sort of mistake which is unpardonable in a "trusted" man; he had come within an ace, he realized, of speaking to Eaton and so betraying the presence on the train of a traveler whose journey his superiors were trying to keep secret. 

 "You need, of course, hold the train no longer," Dorne said to Connery. 

 "Yes, sir; I received word from Mr. Jarvis about you, Mr. Dorne. I shall follow his instructions fully."  Connery recalled the discussion about the drawing-room which had been given to Dorne's daughter.  "I shall see that the Pullman conductor moves some one in one of the other cars to have a compartment for you, sir." 

 "I prefer a place in the open car," Dorne replied.  "I am well situated here. Do not disturb any one." 

 As he went forward again after the train was under way, Connery tried to recollect how it was that he had been led into such a mistake, and defending himself, he laid it all to old Sammy. But old Sammy was not often mistaken in his identifications. If Eaton was not the person for whom the train was held, might he be some one else of importance? Now as he studied Eaton, he could not imagine what had made him accept this passenger as a person of great position. It was only when he passed Eaton a third time, half an hour later, when the train had long left Seattle, that the half-shaped hazards and guesses about the passenger suddenly sprang into form. Connery stood and stared back. Eaton did not look like any one whom he remembered having seen; but he fitted perfectly some one whose description had been standing for ten days in every morning and evening edition of the Seattle papers. Yes, allowing for a change of clothes and a different way of brushing his hair, Eaton was exactly the man whom Warden had expected at his house and who had come there and waited while Warden, away in his car, was killed. 

 Connery was walking back through the train, absent-minded in trying to decide whether he could be at all sure of this from the mere printed description, and trying to decide what he should do if he felt sure, when Mr. Dorne stopped him. 


 Prev. P 15/255 next 
Back Top
Privacy Statement Terms of Service Contact