Making no attempt to conceal himself, he walked boldly into the lavatory and washed his face that was blackened with the smoke from outside, and then, in the most leisurely, natural way possible, he came out of the lavatory and walked along the corridor, soliloquising aloud, manifestly not minding whether he were overheard.
“It’s positively maddening! No one can sleep, with travelling companions like that!”
As he spoke he went along the corridor, rapidly glancing into every compartment. In one, three men were asleep, obviously unaware that anyone was surveying them from outside. The door of the compartment was ajar, and the stranger noiselessly stepped within. The fourth corner was unoccupied, and here the man took his seat, laying his bundle down beside him, and feigning sleep. He waited, motionless, for a good quarter of an hour, until he was quite satisfied that his companions were really sleeping soundly, then he slid his hand into the bundle by his side, seemed to be doing something inside it, then withdrew his hand noiselessly, stepped out of the compartment, and carefully closed the door.
In the corridor he drew a sigh of relieved satisfaction, and took a cigar from his pocket.
“Everything is going splendidly,” he said to himself. “I was cursing this awful storm just now, but it is wonderfully useful to me. On such a night as this no one would dream of opening the windows.” He strolled up and down, holding on to the handrail with one hand to maintain himself against the rocking of the train, and every now and then taking out his watch with the other to see the time. “I haven’t any too much time,” he muttered. “I shall have to be quick, or my friend will miss his train!” He smiled, as if amused at the idea, and then, holding his cigar away from him so as not to inhale the smoke, he drew several deep breaths. “There is a faint smell,” he said, “but you would have to be told of it to detect it. The devil of it is that it so often causes nightmare; that would be awful!” He suspended his patrol and listened again. There was no sound to be heard from within the compartments except the snoring of a few travellers and the monotonous, rhythmical noise of the wheels passing over the joints of the rails. “Come: I’ve waited twenty minutes; it would be risky to wait longer; let’s get to work!”
He stepped briskly back into the compartment, and furtively glancing into the corridor to make sure that no one was there, he went across to the opposite window and opened it wide. He put his head out into the air for a minute or two, and then turned to examine his travelling companions. All three were still sound asleep.
The man gave vent to a dry chuckle. He drew his bundle towards him, felt until he found something within it, and flung it back on to the seat. Then he walked up to the man opposite him, slipped his hand inside his coat and abstracted a pocketbook and began to examine the papers it contained. “Ah!” he exclaimed suddenly; “that was what I was afraid of!” and taking one of the papers he put it inside his own pocketbook, chose one from his own and put it into the other man’s pocketbook, and then, having effected this exchange, replaced the man’s property and chuckled again. “You do sleep!”
And indeed, although the pickpocket took no particular precaution, the man continued to sleep soundly, as did the other two men in the compartment.
The thief looked once more at his watch.
“Time!”
He leaned out of the open window and slipped back the safety catch. Then he opened the door quite wide, took the sleeping traveller by the shoulders and picked him up from the seat, and with all his strength sent him rolling out on to the line!
The next moment he seized from the rack the light articles that evidently belonged to his victim, and threw them out after him.
When he had finished his ghastly work he rubbed his hands in satisfaction. “Good!” he said, and closing the door again, but leaving the window down, he left the compartment, not troubling to pick up his belongings, and walked along the corridors to another second-class compartment, towards the front of the train, in which he calmly installed himself.
“Luck has been with me,” he muttered as he stretched himself out on the seat. “Everything has gone off well; no one has seen me, and those two fools who might have upset my plans will wake up quite naturally when they begin to feel the cold; and they will attribute the headache they will probably feel to their tiring journey.”
A train, travelling in the opposite direction, suddenly roared past the window and made him jump. He started up, and smiled.
“ ’Gad! I said my friend would miss his train, but he’ll catch it in another five minutes! In another five minutes, luggage and body and the entire caboodle will be mincemeat!” and as if completely reassured by the idea he chuckled again. “Nothing could have gone better: I can have a rest, and in an hour’s time I shall be at Juvisy, where, thanks to my forethought, I shall be able to whitewash myself—literally.” One thing, however, still seemed to worry him: he did not know exactly where on the line he had thrown his unhappy victim, but he had an idea that the train had run through a small station shortly afterwards; if that was so, the body might be found sooner than he would have liked. He tried to dismiss the notion from his mind, but he caught sight of the telegraph posts speeding past the windows, and he shook his fist at them malignantly. “That is the only thing
