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"I don’t knohy I thought you could," he said with the sa her all week, for exactly the opposite reason

"Oh, leave it be," she said with irritation and a half-​fulldown, she went on "What do you want me to say? I told the captain the truth, same as I told you the truth--and I didn’t rat you out to nobody yet, and I’ west have nothing to do with the war, and I’m sick of it anyway I don’t want a whole trainful of folks hating me because of where I worked and where I’inia?" he asked, with a veneer of false innocence

"Don’t you go putting words in my mouth I loveany ht for anyone but y for that, either"

"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?"

"I didn’t ask you to," she snapped "Same as I didn’t ask you to pull ht be sort of on the saether" She took another jab at her plate, knowing there was et me in trouble, I swear"

He asked, "And what if I do? What do you think’ll happen to you, if they all find out what you’re keeping quiet?"

She shrugged "Not sure Maybe they dump me off at the next stop, in the middle of noplace I don’t have the ain Maybe I get stuck a thousandout there Or, Jesus," she said suddenly, as it had just occurred to her "Maybe they’ll arrest me, and say I’m a spy! I can’t prove I’m not"

"Don’t be ridiculous They’d arrestyour job in so like that," he said in a way that made her want to ask more questions "Fact is, I think there is a spy on the train--but I’m not sure who yet That coupler didn’t break all by its lonesoe the train so the Rebs can catch it, but it sure ain’t ood for it"

"So what are you doing on this train? Knowing that being here is asking for trouble?"

He took a deep breath and the last quarter of his sandwich in one bite, and took his tilance around the roo the faces he saw for familiarity or malice Then he asked, "How much do you keep up with the newspapers, Mrs Lynch?"

"More lately than usually They gave ht Then ht noith so all in a bunch" He said this conspiratorially, but not so quietly that everyone would try to overhear whatever secret was being told

"I’ve seen soharound on the situation"

"Yeah, I’ll bet he did"

"What’s that supposed to ot opinions on it, and I iether different from mine But it’s my job, not my opinion, to sort out what became of the dirty brown bastards and what they’re up to They andering north--"

"To help relocate--"

"They andering north," he talked over her, as if he wasn’t really interested in political discussion "And they andering right off the edge of the ossip, and wild-​eyed fable from every cowhand, cowpoke, rancher, settler, and Injun who’ll stand still long enough to talk toany sense--not at all"

Honestly curious, she asked, "What are they saying?"

He waved his hand as if to dismiss the whole of it, since none of it could be true "Oh, they’re saying crazy things--cos First off, if word can be believed, they went off course by a thousand ot to tell you, Mrs Lynch, I’ve known a backwards Mex or two in o a thousand miles off course in the span of a few oes well beyond unlikely And I don’t think Mexico knohat’s happened to ’eets me Likewise--and I’m in a pretty secure position to know--the Republic didn’t touch ’em Whatever happened happened somewhere out in the West Texas desert hill country, and then so sent those men on some other bizarre quest--"

"All the way to Utah?" she interjected