rear platform of the
observation car. Here, some time later, Norman found him smoking and
was drawn into conversation with the stranger, who seemed to have a gift
for asking questions.

The conversation was confined principally to the different kinds of wild
animals and snakes to be found in the state of Texas, and to an amateur
"zoo" which Norman had once owned in Lone-Rock, the mining camp in
Arizona that they were now going back to. But incidentally the
interested artist learned that Jack had been assistant manager of the
mines. That accounted for the mature lines of his face. They stood for
responsibilities bravely shouldered. He had been almost killed by an
accident which would have crushed several Mexican workmen had he not
risked his own life for theirs. He had been ordered to a milder climate,
hence their recent sojourn in Texas. They had supposed he would always
be a helpless cripple, but, by an almost miraculous operation, he had
been restored, and was now going back to take his old position.

Norman himself intended to be a mining engineer, he told the stranger
when questioned. He had already begun to take a practical course under
the chief at the office. Mathematics came easy to him. The other
studies, which he thought unnecessary, but which his family insisted
upon, he recited to the minister. He, and another boy, Billy Downs.
There were only a few white boys of his age in Lone-Rock.

"What does your sister do for entertainment?" asked his questioner,
recalling the vivacious little face under the hat with the saucy bronze
quills. "Doesn't she find it rather lonely there?"

"Why, no!" answered Norman in a surprised tone. "A place just naturally
quits being lonesome when Mary gets into it, and she does so many things
that nobody can ever guess what she's going to think of doing next."

Probably it was because he had a daughter of his own, who, not
possessing Mary's rare gift, demanded constant amusement from her
family, that he turned his spectacled gaze on her with deepened interest
when he went back into the car, and many times during the rest of the
time that they journeyed together. She crossed the aisle to sit with her
mother the greater part of the afternoon, so he heard nothing of the
conversation which appeared to be of absorbing interest to them both.

But the woman who had been on the watch for something wild all the way
across the state, deliberately arranged to hear as much of it as she
coul