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"I’ to close my eyes"

"Well, that’s up to you," she said And while the porter Jasper Nichols held the lantern above as steady as huiven the ht’s weapons, she talked to theht in one of the service sections I’m a little surprised to see you up front Whatever they’re paying you, I expect it doesn’t cover military duty"

He kept his eyes on the captain’s skin, which was steadily being drawn together and for, bloody seam "Maybe not, ma’am But I’

It explained enough for Mercy to ask, "Why didn’t you enlist?"

Without showing her, he said, "I’ a foot Got it cut off when I was s to concentrate despite the incessant ht," he said "Staying back in the ’boose wouldn’t be right either, not when these ht"

"Good call," she told hi the bloody needle in her mouth as she estimated the best way to stitch a particularly uneven stretch of wound "And I, for one, alad you made it What about the men at the other end of the train?"

"My cousin Cole Byron is taking care of theer cars, though"

She said, "That’s fine Leave ’em dark The folks inside’ll be scared, but I bet they’ll be safer that ith nothing to draw attention to the after the passenger cars"

And Mercy replied, "Yes, I believe you and I very recently had a conversation on that subject"

Continuing like he hadn’t heard her, he said, "I don’t knohat they want from the caboose What would they ith dead bodies?"

"But you do knohat they ith these front cars, don’t you?"

He opened his eyes, which he’d closed after all, once she’d gotten started He said quietly, "Look around you, woh? Except for a little shrapnel and that one percussion bomb" His voice trailed off, then recuperated "It’s not the armor outside that keeps us safe in here"

She paused her stitching long enough to raise her head, and was startled by her own obliviousness She hadn’t noticed, in the wild dance of flinging herself into the darkened car; and she hadn’t seen, even now that there were three lanterns casting shadows from corner to cornerbut how could she havethe central aisle, the ht was packed with bars of gold

Fifteen

Under her breath, so softly that only the captain and the porter could hear her, Mercy said, "Well, now I did not see that co all her money out West? What kind of a crock is that?"

She tied off the last bit of Captain MacGruder’s scalp with a knot Rather than root around for her scissors, she leaned down and bit off the excess thread And when her mouth was only inches from his ear she said, "So that’s what the Rebs ith the train"

He struggled to sit up, wobbled, and found his way upright "Looks that way Though how they found out about it, I can’t reckon"

"And what about the rear car? What do they ith the noble dead?" she asked She was alainst the car walls stripped all the subtext out of everyone’s words

"I honestly haven’t the foggiest"

"Is thereoff her hands and repacking her satchel

"Not as far as I know," he swore And he continued, "But they ht not know that; and the truth is, I wonder Malverne Purdue isn’t under my command," he said sourly "The rear compartment is his domain, as decreed by the United States Army I’ve been told to mind my own compartment and leave that crooked scientist to his"

Mercy rose up to a kneeling position, her knees popping frole with the captain’s head atop her lap This put their eyes at nearly on the saain leaned on the wall, seated in a loose Indian style "You don’t even know, do you--if there are really bodies back there?"

He said, unsteadily, "I believe there are bodies"

"Then there could be old"

The captain shook his head "I saw thethe caskets, and they didn’t seem unnaturally heavy But they werethey were sealed Anyway--" He reached for his hat, which was streaked with a bloody tear He put it back on with a grier "Purdue’s the only man on board this train who knohat’s really back there And unless the Rebs ainst our will, that’ll reht those bodies were going all the way to Taco until the lastto be processed at the army post in Idaho, whatever that means"