LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2634, 15 September 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

A STRANGE RAILWAY MURDBB.

• One more glass before you go, Gioam.’ * Ko, thanks; your wine is very good, but ’

' Ob, another glass won’t hurt yon ; it a a cold day, and you have a railway journey before you.’ Ho the Bev. Jude Gioam accepted another glaai of sherry. Some of his old college friends had been entertaining him on the occasion of bis coming down to Oxford to take his M. A. degree ; and, after dinner, Mr Gioam was go ng off to Warwickshire to enter Into possession of the living of Borlelgh, to which he bad just been appointed. It was his first living, and constituted a lucky piece of preferment, for tho income was substantial and Mr Gioam was bat twenty-eight years old. The world seemed very fair to him as he drank the last glass of sherry. He was provided for for life ; his friends were all wishing him joy ; and the reverend gentleman was really in capital spirits as ho drove down to the station in a hansom, towards eight o’clock, to catoh the express for Birmingham. ‘Be quioK, sir,’ said a porter as he alighted j * express starts in a minute, ’ and Mr Gioam bad but just time (o buy his ticket and dart across the platform. A porter opened the door of a first class carriage for him ; he jumped in j the train started ; and tho rector of Rcrleigh found himself seated opposite a n : oe-lcoking g'rl, who had a novel on her lap. 1 Quick work, that,’ a-id Mr Gioam, smiling at his companion, ‘ Yts ; you we*e almost late,’ answered the young lady, with a laugh. * A minute one wsy or the other often makes a great difference,’ raid Mr Gioam; and from that mlnuta the pair went on talking about one thing and another. Now, in his ordinary moods, Mr Glosm would not have ventured to talk with a strange young lady In a railway carriage, tie was not only discreet by profession, but shy by natnre—so shy that, as a curate, he had oft=>n felt miterable from this coustitu ttocal Infirmity which prevented him from getting on so well with the fair sex of h-s parish as other livelier curates did It had needed that last glass of wine which Mr Gioam had drank, and the subsequent excitement about hurrying to catch the train, to embolden him to break tho ice of reserve at one stroke, as ho had jmt done. But, having once broken it, he rather relished his plunge Into conversations! waters. Hl* companion was pretty and vivacious, and seemed much disposed to ol at—at least Mr Gioam thought so. The truth was, however, that the pretty young lady was as shy as himstlf, and hsd never before taken a railway journey alone. She talked because Mr Gioam addressed her ; but ehefelt inwardly uneasy at finding hoi self solitary in the company of a familiar clergyman, whom

she had never seen before. What Is more, ■he perceived that her companion was ve’y much excited. The fluency of his talk, the complacent feeling he experienced at having surmounted his timidity for once, were completing the intoxlonti .n wnich the wine had oommeu:ed; and so it befel that, after gabbling about railway trains, he touched on the weather, which led him to the cold, and thence on to < hrlstmss and tie mi sir toe. ‘I suppoea you will bo very merry at Christmas time. Miss —Miss — ; bus you have cot Soli mo what your name is?’ said tho too.forward ecolceia-uc

‘My name is A visa, ’ replied the young Isdy, much troubled by the strangeness of the query. •Avias? Why that meins a bird in Latin. What of b’rd do yon belong to —nightinga’es,, wrens ? In any case, I should oall you a hir.i of paradise.' The young lady blushed, but made no answer. * I mean, of course, that any place which yon inhabited would become a paradise,* ex plained the young reotor, growing more hilarious. It Is the curte of shy men that, getting so litTe practice in conversing with woman, they never know w'here to stop when peradvonture they do get aohanoe of talking. It is by shy men that tho rudest things are habitually said and done through sheer inexperience. Mr Gloam had no idea that he was transgrecsing the prop ietiea. He thought he was making himself very funny and agreeable. He remembered Mr Yaddy, his fellow curate In the parish where he had served, used to say the most startling things to girls, who only giggled as if they liked it. Yaddy had a'anred him that they did like it; and Yaddy was not on improper man by eny moans—much lha contrary, and ha was trusted by mothers of all denominations Thought Mr Oloam, as tho train sped along : ‘ I have heard Mr Yaddy joke about mis'etoe, and I am sure If he had been with this girl pretty ha would have had a little brotherly fun with her,’ for it was one of honest Yaddy‘a maxims that we are all brothers and sls'ers here below, and ought to behave as such. ‘ 1 say, Miss —Avias,* stuttered the Bov. Jude, with a leer, ‘ s apposing there was a place of mieeltoe In this carriage ?’ Bo answer from the girl, but her eyes opened wide, and she shrank trembling in her earner of the carriage. 1 X—l think there is a piece ; look there, ’ continued the foolirh man, pointing to tho lamp In tho celling, for ha meant to be facetious. The girl was now fairly frightened, and moved from her seat to the further corner of the carriage. She had heard of drunken ruffians insulting ladies in railway carriages, and she set down her reverend companion as being drnnk, and possibly a ruffian. _ No doubt his clerical garb was only a disguise, 1 What are yon running away for f' asked Mr Gloam, and he rose to follow her with an unsteady gait, caused not so much by his tipsiness—for ho was not regularly tipsy—as by the oscillation of the train But to the affrighted girl who saw him stagger, it looked a# if he were dangerously inebriated. ‘lf you approach me another atop, sir, I shall scream ! ’ cried she, starting up, with all the colour fled from her faoe. ‘What for?’ asked tho Bev. Jude, and putting out his hand to steady himself, he quite unintentionally rested it on her ■boulder.

The movement of recoil which this apparent assault earned the girl to make threw Mr Gloam off his balance, ond he plunged into the seat from which he bad risen. This only increased the girl’* fright, and wildly opening the window of the carriage, she screamed ;

1 Help! help! murder ! * In an instant Mr Gloam was sobered. The girl’s shrieks cleared all the fumes of wine from Lii brain, and showed him in what a desperate position he had placed himself. 'Sot God's sake don’t scream like that,’ he implored, ‘you’ll ruin me,’ and seizing the girl by the waist he wrenched her from the window.

* Help! ’ she gasped, as she fell on to one of the seats, and straggled to regain her footing. ‘ Miss A visa, for God’s sake, let me explain,’ entreated Mr Gloam, seizing her hands ; but the horrible fear which was now legible on his face made him a more dreadful object to look at than before, while the violence ho used to restrain the girl robbed her of all presence of mind. Disengaging herself from him, she tottered towards the nearest door, and frantically turned the handle. A blast of cold night air flew into the carriage, and a shower of sparks from the engine was seen flying by. Mr Gloam made a grab at the girl to draw her back ; she eluded him, and, screaming louder tbau ever, tried to step on the footboard. Then there was another faint shriek, and all was silence. The door, swinging forward by the impetus of the train at a curve, closed of its own accord. The girl had slipped, and was gone. * Great God !’ muttered Mr Gloam, when one awful minute had elapsed. He had taken off his hit, and was stroking his forehead, as he sat endeavoring to realise what bad happened. He asked himself whether he was not in the midst of a nightmare. If the train had stopped at that minute he would have been unable to crawl out, and anybody who bad seen him must have suspected him of a c ime. During a quarter of an hour the poor wretch could neither stir nor think lucidly ; he could only moan and tremble. What first reoa led him to himself was the sight cf the things which the poor girl—now dead beyond doubt —had left In the carriage. There was a shawl, a travelling bag, a novel ; and on the floor a small gold watob, without a chain, The of these articles stirred in the unwilling murderer the sense of self-preservation. He caught them up one by one and flung them out of the window Into the dark; after which he orept on his knees and looked under the seats to see if anything else had been left. Be found nothing. Pitiable ae his agony of mind then was, he saw the necessity of composing himself, and sat down again, trying to reflect. Had any of the passengers In the other carriages heard the girl ahnek ? Had any one seen her fall ? If so he was a lost man. He would be arrested at Birmingham, and In duo time he would be banged or sentenced to penal servitude for the better part of his life. How wonM his story be believed T And if it were believed, how would it justify him 1 Ihe public ontory against him would be all the greater as he was a clergyman; and now that he had thrown the girl’s things oat cf the carriage In the first moment of his panic, the evidence of criminal iotent’on would seem complete.

• Why did I throw the things out ?' faltered M r Gioam, speaking to himself; and then ho groaned again, * My God, what shall I dot’

It was between Leamington and Birmingham that the girl had fallen out of the train. As the express neared Birmingham the tension on Jude G’oam’s nerves was such aa few men ever experience. Within five minutes he endured an amount of terror and anguifh enough to spread over a lifetime; yet he had the craft to see that all his chances of escaping unsuspected might depend upon his behaviour when the train stopped fie mast alight quite coolly, he must not ron nor appear anxious to get away; he must control his terrors, though his heart throbbed to bursting. The train glided into the station; the porters ran along the platform, opening doors ; one of them opened Mr Gloam’s carriage. * Any luggage, sir f ’ * Yes, I have some luggage,’ said Mr Gioam, and he stspped out, shaking in every limb, but apparently sedate and calm, as it behoves a clergyman to be. Next moment he was mixed up with the throng of people who were foraging for their trunks and portmanteaus. Nobody paid any attention to him. Ha heard no one talk about shrieks having been heard during the j jurney. The passengers all attended to their own business and left Mm to his, Mr Gloam’s business was to collect a portmanteau, a box, and a hamper; having done this, ho turned to ask a porter to call a oab for him, bat as ha was about to speak his words froze on his tongue, for he saw standing beside him a girl who was the vary image of Miss A visa. If the girl had looked at him she must have noticed his confusion, but she was glancing towards an elderly lady and gentleman who were walking towards her. * Here’s her box, papa, but I’ve not seen her pass,’ said the girl to the elderly couple. «We have looked Into every carriage,’ said the gentleman addressed as papa ; ‘but she hasn’t come. I suppose she missed her train.’ ‘ But how comes her box to be here ?' «Wasn’t there a change of carriages some-

where between this and London !’ suggested the elderly lady i * I think there's a change at Didcot. Perhaps she got ont these, and afterwards entered the wrong train ’ ‘How veiy jrevoking !’ exclaimed tho girl. • I dares iy we shall find a telegram when we get home,’ said tho elderly gentbman, ‘ but wn must ask the station-master to take cire of Mary’s box until she comes to claim 9

Mr Gloom had glanced at. the box beside which tho girl stood, and ho raw on it a cord with tho name • Mies Mavy Avis I .’ The miserable man shrank as the father, mother, and sister of tho poor girl with whom ho had travelled pasied him. Then he helped a porter to lift hi, portmanteau, and walked with him to a oab. Ha had a six mile, drive before ho could reach his parish of Br.leigh which was on the outskirts cf Birminghom However, the drive was accomplished in safety, and that night was gpsnt by Mr Qloam sleepless, in his new parsonage. The body <f Mias A visa was found deal on tho line early on the following day ; and afterwards her travelling bag was discovered twenty miles farther down the line Bat for this discovery of tho bag the poor girl’s death would have been attributed to accident. As it was, when it became demonstrated that somebody must have had a share in her death nobody accused tho iiev. Judo Gloarn b'or was anybody else accused. 2ho porter who had put Mr Gloam Into the carriage &t Oxford had not noticed that there was a young lady iu tho compartment; and simply oning to this slight fact of non-obsarvance the story of Mary Aviss’s death was fated to remain a mystery. It became known In time, however, to one man to who u Mr Gloam communicated the facts In writing some five years after they had happened He, the rector of Borlelgb, ended hia letter by saying, ‘ I have lived in a purgatory of remo'sa and sorrow ever sinoo that awful night, and am thankful to think I shall soon be rid of my load.’ When he wrot) this he was dying of a decline, brought on by overwork in hla palish; and he lett behind him the reputation of balng the most earnest, zealous, kindest, and also the saddest rector whom the people of Horleigh had ever seen.