Page:Weird Tales Volume 10 Number 6 (1927-12).djvu/112

 I called for the porter, who came in as fast as his sleeping feet would carry him.

"Said I, when the negro had come abreast of me, 'Sam, there's a man in my berth.'

"He grinned foolishly and pulled the curtains slightly aside. 'Indeed, suh, indeed there is. Very unfortunate, suh, and tha's a fac'.'

Sam,' I answered, 'go and get me the Pullman conductor, and don't you dare to come back without him.'

Indeed I will, suh.'

"After what seemed a wholly unnecessary interval Sam returned with the Pullman conductor. When the conductor stepped into the car, he asked, 'Are you McCarthy?' 'Yes,' said I, 'I'm McCarthy.' 'H. P. McCarthy?' 'Yes,' said I again, 'H. P. McCarthy.' He came up to me. 'Sam tells me that you claim that your berth is occupied. Lower seven was assigned to H. P. McCarthy and to no one else. As a matter of fact there are only two people in this extra car: you and a salesman, C. E. Schweers.'

Is that right?' said I. It annoyed me that the conductor took so much for granted; he had never even peeped into the berth, and already he was turning to go. 'Just a minute! Mr. Schweers is out on the platform. Mr. McCarthy is right here, yours truly, and I say that there's a man in lower seven!' And I pulled aside the curtain and the conductor looked in and saw the man there. It wounded his pride to find that he was wrong, and so he called loudly to the sleeping man. But the man didn't move. So he went over to him and reached his hand in to shake the sleeper.

"Now I couldn't see what happened, but I was staring right into the conductor's face, and I saw his expression change so rapidly that I thought he was going to faint. His face went white altogether. He pulled his hand out quickly, as if he had been touching a hot iron; and then he pushed the curtains wide apart to admit as much light as possible. Then he looked in again. All the time I could see the man lying there in the light admitted by the widely opened curtains. I said nothing. He turned to me and pointed at the sleeper. 'McCarthy, reach in there and touch him.'

"I thought it was an odd request, but I did it, and I'll wager any amount that my face went as white as his did. For I swear that I saw that man there with the coverlet turned back at his shoulders; I saw that, but my hand felt the undisturbed smoothness of the coverlet! And as I looked, my hand went straight through the man! Sam left by one door as Mr. Schweers came in by the other. The conductor and I stood in the aisle staring stupidly at the sleeper in my berth.

"A smothered exclamation from Schweers caused us to turn to him. He stood before berth three, the lower, staring at something. We knew what he would say before he said it. 'There's a man in my berth!'

"The conductor stared at him; I stared at him. He turned to the conductor. 'Well, what are you going to do about it? I'm not paying for a filled berth!' 'Feel him,' the conductor stammered. 'Yes,' said I, 'feel him.' He looked oddly at us, but obediently he reached in to feel him. And shortly there were three white-faced people in the aisle of the extra Pullman, all staring stupidly at a man sleeping in the berth of a Pullman car.

By God,' said the conductor with effort, 'there's some mystery in this,' a fact which had not escaped the notice of any of us. He moved resolutely to berth six and pulled aside the curtains. And there lay a