d, and I'm NOT sick, and I'm all RIGHT."

"No, no; I can tell. I think we'd best have the berth made up and you
lie down."

"That would be perfectly ridiculous."

"Well, where is it you feel sick? Show me; put your hand on the place.
Want to eat something?"

With elaborate minuteness, he cross-questioned her, refusing to let the
subject drop, protesting that she had dark circles under her eyes; that
she had grown thinner.

"Wonder if there's a doctor on board," he murmured, looking uncertainly
about the car. "Let me see your tongue. I know--a little whiskey is what
you want, that and some pru----"

"No, no, NO," she exclaimed. "I'm as well as I ever was in all my life.
Look at me. Now, tell me, do l look likee a sick lady?"

He scrutinised her face distressfully.

"Now, don't I look the picture of health?" she challenged.

"In a way you do," he began, "and then again----"

Hilma beat a tattoo with her heels upon the floor, shutting her
fists, the thumbs tucked inside. She closed her eyes, shaking her head
energetically.

"I won't listen, I won't listen, I won't listen," she cried.

"But, just the same----"

"Gibble--gibble--gibble," she mocked. "I won't Listen, I won't listen."
She put a hand over his mouth. "Look, here's the dining-car waiter, and
the first call for supper, and your wife is hungry."

They went forward and had supper in the diner, while the long train, now
out upon the main line, settled itself to its pace, the prolonged, even
gallop that it would hold for the better part of the week, spinning out
the miles as a cotton spinner spins thread.

It was already dark when Antioch was left behind. Abruptly the sunset
appeared to wheel in the sky and readjusted itself to the right of the
track behind Mount Diablo, here visible almost to its base. The train
had turned southward. Neroly was passed, then Brentwood, then Byron.
In the gathering dusk, mountains began to build themselves up on either
hand, far off, blocking the horizon. The train shot forward, roaring.
Between the mountains the land lay level, cut up into farms, ranches.
These continually grew larger; growing wheat began to appear, billowing
in the wind of the train's passage. The mountains grew higher, the
land richer, and by the time the moon rose, the train was well into the
northernmost limits of the valley of the San Joaquin.

Annixter had engaged an entire section, and after he and his wife went
to bed had the porter close t