The Face in the Glass

by Caroline Conrad

The morning express from New York arrived at Chicago at eight o’clock, and brought its usual medley of passengers, among them one very strange one. A dead woman was found in one of the sleeping-cars—a young and exceedingly lovely girl, with hair like silk and features exquisitely perfect and fair. 

She lay on the lower berth of a section as if asleep; only when they turned her and looked in her face, the large, black eyes were wide and staring with a look of agony and horror in them that even death had not been able to remove. 

The upper berth, did not seem to be occupied, and there was nothing about her to indicate that she had died by violence, except that look in her fixed eyes and a slight distortion of her lovely features. 

Upon one of the long, silky curls which lay across her throat, was a small piece of soft, slightly adhesive wax, which, finding it impossible to remove otherwise, the curl containing it was severed, and laid aside for future examination. 

It was learned upon inquiry that she had come upon the train at Detroit, in the night, and alone. 

The section had been engaged for her beforehand, by a woman of middle age seemingly, though none of the officials at the ticket-office could give more than a general description of her, she having worn a veil, and only partially lifted it at any time. Nothing was discovered to really excite suspicion of… Read More