"I will not follow you now. I
shall never try to find you after this."
Presently he began laughing at himself for the instinct that had led him
to look at the sky and to shout out his defiance and, getting up, wandered
on. In his wanderings he came to a railroad track where a freight train
groaned and rattled over a crossing. When he came up to it he jumped upon
an empty coal car, falling as he climbed, and cutting his face upon the
sharp pieces of coal that lay scattered about the bottom of the car.
The train ground along slowly, stopping occasionally, the engine shrieking
hysterically.
After a time he got out of the car and dropped to the ground. On all sides
of him were marshes, the long rank marsh grasses rolling and tossing in
the moonlight. When the train had passed he followed it, walking
stumblingly along. As he walked, following the blinking lights at the end
of the train, he thought of the scene in the hospital and of Sue lying
dead for that--that ping livid and shapeless on the table under the
lights.
Where the solid ground ran up to the tracks Sam sat down under a tree.
Peace came over him. "This is the end of things," he thought, and was like
a tired child comforted by its mother.
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