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the Texas Chief. Your regulars are all either on vacation or on other trains. Mr. Josephs was looking forward to shaving The King for the first time in his barber’s life.”
    The frown disappeared. Gable said, “I’ve never seen him before? He’s never shaved me before in his life?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Well, then, let’s not disappoint him. Make me an appointment.”
    “Usual time, sir?”
    “What times does he have open?”
    “Any time is always open for you, Mr. Gable. I already told him eight thirty, your usual time.”
    “Certainly. The usual. Eight thirty it is.”
    “When would you like to begin with the Fair Visitors today, sir?” asked Ralph. “There are several waiting notification—one or two, I believe, will be leaving the train fairly early in the day …”
    Gable held up his right hand, palm out. “I think we’ll hold off on that—for now, at least,” he said. “I’m feeling a bit weary.”
    Ralph smiled, nodded his head as if to royalty and left.

 
    Charlie Sanders, talking as snappily as he ever had in his life, just made it up off the top of his head. It was already late and he knew Darwin Rinehart was not going to give him much time.
    “A pretty young woman is dying in Albuquerque. She has a serious brain disorder that can only be cured and her life saved by one man—a handsome young brain surgeon who has the perfect set of hands for the delicate operation it will take. He is known as the best in the world for this particular operation. Usually people come to him but the Albuquerque woman is too sick to travel. So he must come to her.”
    “Where does he live?” Rinehart asked.
    “How about Galesburg, Illinois, because of the
Silver Streak
connection?”
    “Nobody lives in Galesburg, Illinois.”
    “Carl Sandburg did.”
    “My point exactly. Put him in Kansas City.”
    “Done. Yes, sir. The surgeon’s in Kansas City. We get there in less than three hours, in fact—you know, tonight here on the Super Chief.”
    Rinehart said, “Yes, I know. That’s why I thought of it. Of course, nothing ever happens in Kansas City either except in
Oklahoma!
—the movie—when that dancer did a song about it being up-to-date.”
    “Wasn’t that Gene Nelson?”
    “Right, right. Lee Dixon played the part on Broadway. Rod Steiger stole the movie playing Jud Fry. Nobody ever dreamed he could sing. You wake him up in the middle of the night and I’ll bet he’s still Jud Fry. Actors are the characters they play forever.”
    Rinehart must have seen a look of disbelief on Sanders’s face because he quickly added:
    “Hey, kid, I was at a dinner party one night in Beverly Hills. A guy had a heart attack sitting right there at the table. Lew Ayres, without saying a word, got down on the floor with the man, did a lot of doctor things and saved his life. He did it on reflex—instinct. Back in the thirties and forties he’d played Dr. Jimmy Kildare in nine pictures for MGM. Once a doctor in a movie, always a doctor. Once a pig man in
Oklahoma!
, always a pig man. That’s it.”
    Then he looked at his wristwatch, nodded, signaling to the kid to return to The Talk—and make it snappy.
    “Well … the surgeon’s afraid to fly,” said Sanders. “He’s been on one airplane and he almost died of a nervous breakdown. He vomited and cried like a baby—”
    “I don’t do vomit pictures.”
    “Yes, sir. The important thing is that he won’t fly anymore and that means he has to take the Super Chief to the sick woman in Albuquerque, who he saves and then falls in love with and then marries—”
    “The surgeon’s the hero of the picture?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Heroes can’t be afraid. Not in the movies. Got to be another reason he won’t fly and why he’s on the Super Chief. You also got to have things happen on the train—a little murder, romance, maybe have a spy like they did in the first
Silver Streak
. Nothing much ever happens on trains in real life anymore except eating,