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Car 4’s porter station was a small closet with a curtain for a door It was craover cures, a shoe-shine kit, and a spirit stove to heat water Dow unscrewed a lightbulb to cast shadow on the short length of corridor along which he would dart to Marion Morgan’s Stateroom 4 Then he rehearsed

He practiced watching the corridor through the porter’s curtain, tracing the route Isaac Bell would take from the front of the car toward the rear Then he practiced stepping silently into the corridor and swinging his sap Restricted by the confines of the narrow space, he swept it underhanded Thereach that started well behind, would accelerate the heavy pouch of lead shot with deadly force into Isaac Bell’s temple

ISAAC BELL PRESSED FINGERS to his temple

“Headache?” Marion murmured

“Just hoping this ‘short speech’ will be over soon,” he whispered back

“Anarchy?” shouted Charles Kincaid, building steam “Emperor worship? Who kno the China opium, his favorite vice …”

His supporters leaped up, applauding

Preston Whiteway, red-nosed on good wine, bellowed in Osgood Hennessy’s ear, “Didn’t the Senator nail the Yellow Peril threat square on the head?”

“We built the transcontinental railroad with John Chinah for me”

Franklin Mowery stood up fro, “Next tih the Donner Summit, cast your eye on their stonework”

Whiteway, deaf to dissent, grinned at Marion “I’ll wager that old Isaac here applauds Senator Kincaid’s understanding of the threat, since he’s the hotshot detective who stopped that opium-maddened Chinaman in his tracks”

Bell thought that Whiteway’s grins at Marion were getting dangerously close to leers Dangerous for Whiteway, that is

“The motivation appears to have beenMarion’s kick under the table, he added, “We have no evidence that the er than tobacco”

Mowery gathered up his walking stick and limped toward the porch

Bell hurried to hold the door for hi assistant had not been invited to the banquet Mowery tottered across the covered porch and leaned on the railing that overlooked the river