. She shook and shook her head
as though she was trying to wake up the idea that was asleep. Her eyes
were all scrunched up now with trying to remember about it. She dragged
the back of her hands across her forehead. First one hand and then the
other. She opened her eyes very wide again and looked at Old Man Smith.

"Where--is--Harry?" said Old Man Smith.

Annie Halliway never took her eyes from Old Man Smith's face.

"It--It was the night we crossed the border from France to Spain," she
said. Her voice sounded very funny and far away. It sounded like
reciting a lesson too. "There were seven of us and a teacher
from the Paris art school," she recited. "It--It was the March
holiday.----There--There--was a woman----a strange woman in the next
compartment who made friends with me.--She seemed to be crazy over my
hair.--She asked if she might braid it for the night."

Without any tears at all Annie Halliway began to sob again.

"When they waked us up at the Customs," she sobbed, "Harry came running!
His face was awful! 'She's braided diamonds in your hair!' he cried. 'I
heard her talking with her accomplice! A hundred thousand dollars' worth
of diamonds! Smugglers and murderers both they are!--Everybody will be
searched!'--He tore at my braids! I tore at my braids! The diamonds
rattled out! Harry tried to catch them!--He pushed me back into the
train! I saw soldiers running!--I thought they were going to shoot him!
He thought they were going to shoot him!--I saw his eyes!--He looked
so--so surprised!--I'd never noticed before how blue his eyes were!--I
tell you I saw his eyes!--I couldn't speak!--There wasn't anybody to
explain just why he had his hands full of diamonds!--I _saw_ his eyes! I
tell you I couldn't speak!--I tell you I _never_ spoke!--My tongue went
dead in my mouth! For months I never spoke!--I've only just begun to
speak again!--I've only just----"

She started to jump up from the ground where she was sitting! She
couldn't!--She had braided Old Man Smith and his wheel chair into her
hair! When she saw what she had done she toppled right over on her face!
And fainted all out!

Over behind the lilac bush somebody screamed.

It was Annie Halliway's Mother! With her was a strange gentleman who had
come all the way from New York to try and cure Annie Halliway. The
strange gentleman was some special kind of a doctor.

"Hush--Hush!" the Special Doctor kept saying to everybody. "This is a
very crucial momen