compartment, only to find
that, in his absence, three additional passengers had been squeezed into
the crowded quarters, so that he himself now raised the total to
thirteen,--a decidedly unlucky number. The ladies were in despair, and
their attendant had begun to express his mind vigorously in his native
Hungarian, when he felt himself touched on the elbow from behind, and
heard a voice accosting him, in the same tongue.

"My fellow-countryman, don't heat yourself. Not eloquence, but
backsheesh, is needed here. While you were wasting your breath I had a
guard open for me a reserved first-class compartment. It cost me but a
trifle, and if you and your ladies choose to share it with me, it is at
your service."

"Thank you," was the reply, "but we shall not have time to change; we
had only two minutes here in all."

"Never fear," rejoined the stranger, reassuringly. "The _due minute_ is
a mere form with which to frighten the inexperienced. The train won't
start for half an hour yet."

The two ladies were no less grateful to their deliverer than was
Andromeda of old to the gallant Perseus. They gladly accepted the
comfortable seats offered them, while their escort took a third, leaving
the fourth for their benefactor, who lingered outside to finish his
cigar. At the second ringing of the bell, he gave his half-smoked
Havana to a passing porter, mounted the running-board of the moving
train, and entered his compartment.

Seating himself, the young man removed his travelling-cap and revealed a
broad, arched forehead, surmounted by a luxuriant growth of hair. Thick
eyebrows, bright blue eyes, and a Greek nose were the striking
characteristics of his face, which seemed to combine the peculiarities
of so many types and races, that an observer would have been at a loss
to classify it.

The other gentleman of the party was of genuine Hungarian stock, stout
in figure and ruddy of countenance, with a pointed moustache, which he
constantly twirled. The younger of the two ladies was veiled, so that
only the graceful outlines of a face, evidently classic in its
modelling, were revealed to the eye. But the elder had thrown back her
veil, exposing to full view an honest, round face, blond hair, lively
eyes, and lips that manifestly found it irksome to maintain that silence
which good breeding imposes in the presence of a stranger.

The ladies' escort was a very uneasy travelling companion. First he
complained that he could not