As she
flew up the path, he saw her for an instant as she crossed a patch of
moonlight; then the darkness hid her.
CHAPTER XXX
It was incredible to David as he thought it over afterwards, but he
actually slept away that wonderful night on the railroad! When he
climbed on to the shutting-up shelf behind red and green striped
curtains, nothing had been further from his mind than sleep. It was
his intention to sit bolt upright and watch the lamps swinging in the
aisle, to crane his neck over the top of the curtains and look out of
the small hinged window at the smoke all thick with sparks from the
locomotive engine, and at the mountains with the stars hanging over
them, and--at the Horseshoe Curve! But instead of seeing all these
wonders that he and Dr. Lavendar had talked about for the last few
weeks, no sooner had he been lifted into his berth than, in a flash,
the darkness changed to bright daylight. Yes; the dull, common, every-
night affair of sleep, had interfered with all his plans. He did not
speak of his disappointment the next morning, as he dressed--somehow--
in the jostling, swaying little enclosure where the washstands were;
but he thought about it, resentfully. Sleep! "When I'm a man, I'll
never sleep," he assured himself; then cheered up as he realized that
absence from Sarah had brought at least one opportunity of manhood--he
would not have to wash behind his ears! But he brooded over his
helplessness to make up for that other loss.
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