Half a dozen times during the apparently interminable trudge toward Stanton David abruptly called a halt, drawing Sally off the road and over reeling, drunken-looking fences into meadows or fields for a terribly needed rest. Once, with his head in her lap, her fingers smoothing his crisp chestnut curls from his sweat-moistened brow, he went to sleep, and she knew that she would not have awakened him even to save herself from the orphanage.
Dawn was bedecking the east with tattered pink banners when the boy and girl, staggering with weariness and faint with hunger, caught their first glimpse of Stanton, a pretty little town snugly asleep in the hush that belongs peculiarly to early Sunday morning. Only the dutiful crowing of backyard roosters and the occasional baying of a hound broke the stillness.
"We've got to have food," David said abruptly, as they hesitated forlornly on the outskirts of the little town. "And yet I suppose the alarm has been given and the constables are on the lookout for us. We might stop at a house that has no telephone--they wouldn't be likely to have heard about Carson--but I don't like to arouse anyone this early on Sunday morning. There's an eating house next to the station that stays open all night, to serve train crews and passengers, but more than likely the station agent has been told to keep a lookout for us."
As he spoke a train whistled shrilly. The two wayfarers stood not a hundred yards from the railroad tracks where they crossed the dirt road. Sally instinctively turned to flee, but David restrained her.
"We can't hide from everyone, Sally," he said gently. "I think our best bet is to act as if we had had nothing to hide. Remember, we've done no wrong. If Carson is dead, he brought his death upon himself. He deserved what he got."
Trustingly, Sally gave him her hand, stood very small and erect beside him as the big engine thundered down the tracks toward them. Her face was drawn with fatigue but her eyes managed a smile for David. His did not reflect that brave smile, for they were fixed upon the oncoming train.
"By George, Sally, it's a carnival train! Look! 'Bybee's Bigger and Better Show.' I'd forgotten the carnival was coming. Look over there! There's one of their signs!"