OBERLAND VOLUMES IN THIS SERIES POINTED ROOFS BACKWATER HONEYCOMB THE TUNNEL INTERIM DEADLOCK REVOLVING LIGHTS THE TRAP OBERLAND (The next volume is in preparation) OBERLAND BY DOROTHY M. RICHARDSON AUTHOR OF “POINTED ROOFS,” ETC. DUCKWORTH 3 HENRIETTA STREET, LONDON First published 1927 (All rights reserved) Printed in Great Britain by Ebenezer Baylis & Son, Ltd., The Trinity Press, Worcester. TO J. H. B. OBERLAND CHAPTER I The sight of a third porter, this time a gentle-looking man carrying a pile of pillows and coming slowly, filled her with hope. But he passed on his way as heedless as the others. It seemed incredible that not one of these men should answer. She wasted a precious moment seeing again the three brutishly preoccupied forms as figures moving in an evil dream. If only she were without the miserable handbags she might run alongside one of these villains, with a tip in an outstretched hand and buy the simple yes or no that was all she needed. But she could not bring herself to abandon her belongings to the mercy of this ill-mannered wilderness where not a soul would care if she wandered helpless until the undiscovered train had moved off into the night. She knew this would not be and that what she was resenting was not the human selfishness about her of which she had her own full share, but this turning of her weariness into exhaustion ruining the rest of the journey that already had held suffering enough.