The Mission of Poubalov — page 156: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

152 _ THE GHOST OF POUBALOV. ‘recognized Poubalov’s immeasurable superiority. Now he — felt again this superhuman character of the spy appealing — to him, setting his poor brain in a whirl, and blurring his | eyes as if a mighty wind had taken up the dust of the > street and held it suspended in a dense cloud before him. ‘‘Bah!’’ exclaimed Litizki, striking his brow angrily, ‘‘*he cannot’’—and he stopped suddenly, conscious that he was speaking aloud. There was nobody in the room but a sleepy clerk, who looked up curiously from his ledger and — then bent his head again over his work. Litizki tried to force his thoughts away from the topics that absorbed him. It occurred to him that he had eaten nothing since the morning before, and he went to the hotel restaurant. On the table at which he took a seat was a newspaper left by some previous customer. lt was the same journal that had beaten its contemporaries in the first publication of the rumor, that was finally accepted as news, concerning the elopement of Strobel and Lizzie White. Litizki recalled the superior enterprise of this paper, and while waiting — for his breakfast, he looked it over. Yes! there it was, and his heart bounded with joy and fear at once. It was not a long story under a half-column head, but the few — lines were double-leaded, and paragraphed at every period. A newspaper man would have seen at a glance that the item had come in late, after the forms were made up, and that the editor had “‘lifted’’ a story of minor interest to make room for this. ‘‘Probable Murder,’’ was the caption, and the statement beneath it was as follows: ‘‘A passenger in one of the drawing-room cars attached to the New York express due at Park Square at six P.M., but some hours late last night, was stabbed just before the train reached the station, “Tt is believed that the wound was mortal. ‘The assailant took advantage of the excitement and confusion to jump from the train. ‘‘No trace of him has been found. ‘‘The name of the victim is not known at this writing. “No rumor concerning the tragedy reache this office un til long after midnight. ~ The police, to whom the railroad officials secretly -d the