As the train rushed along the trestles, thousands of wild birds rose screaming into the light.

The sky was already a pale blue and of the clearness of crystal.

Bartley caught up his bag and hurried through the Pullman coaches until he found the conductor.

There was a stateroom unoccupied, and he took it and set about changing his clothes.

Last night he would not have believed that anything could be so pleasant as the cold water he dashed over his head and shoulders and the freshness of clean linen on his body.
After he had dressed, Alexander sat down at the window and drew into his lungs deep breaths of the pine-scented air.