Read The Train for Free Online Page A

her down, and she wants to go back home. I can't blame her. We're sending her back on the express train."
        I want to go, too, Hannah thought. I want to go back home.
        Ms. Quick glanced around the room. There was dismayed awe in her voice as she said, “Isn’t this the most awful thing I can't believe…" Then she took a deep breath and said in a monotone, "I want you all to stay here until it's time to go to the dining car for dinner. No running around the train alone, not until we find out who's behind this horrible business. Dr. Lindsay has volunteered to return to Chicago with Lolly so that Mr. Dobbs and I can stay with all of you."
        "So what happens next?" Mack asked.
        "We're asking everyone on the tour if they have any idea who might have done this. They've all said no. What about you five - any ideas?"
        They all shook their heads.
        "Well, then, since no one knows anything, the conductor will be calling in a detective to get some answers. He'll come on board first thing tomorrow morning when we arrive in Denver. Until then, I must urge all of you to please stick together, okay?"
        They all nodded solemnly, and Ms. Quick left to continue spreading the news.
        Thoroughly shaken by the disastrous way their trip had begun, they all sat quietly, gazing out the window at the speeding landscape and the rapidly descending twilight.
        It was ten minutes past eight O'clock when Ms. Quick rapped on the door and said it was time to head for the dining car, reminding them once more to "stay together."
        The thought of eating dinner turned Hannah's stomach. But the others eagerly got up to go. "I need to stop back at our compartment first," Lewis told Mack. "Need anything there?"
        "I'd better come with you. I think Ms. Quick is right. We shouldn't be wandering the train alone. Not after…" Mack didn't finish the sentence. "I guess two qualifies as a group. Let's go."
        "Walk me back to my compartment?" Jean Marie asked. "Sherry and Ann are probably already there. I can go to dinner with them, but I don't want to walk back there alone."The three left together, with Lewis and Mack promising to return to go with Kerry and Hannah to dinner.
        A few minutes later, the train slowed gradually and came to a complete standstill. Hannah went to the window and watched as Lolly, flanked by the doctor and the conductor, was helped out of the tour train and into a red and silver train standing at the station and aimed in the opposite direction. As she watched the unfortunate girl collapse into a seat in the well-lighted train, Hannah couldn't help thinking she looked relieved. She's glad to be off our train, glad to be going back home.
        No wonder, after what had happened to her.
        Was it really safe to wait until morning and let the detective figure things out?
        It didn't feel safe. How could they be sure that Lolly's attacker had left the train?
        They couldn't.
        Dinner in the dining car would be creepy, Hannah thought. Everyone would be watching everyone else, trying to decide if anyone looked suspicious. There wouldn't be any laughing, the way there had been in the Cafe earlier, and if people talked about anything at all, it would be the attack on Lolly.
        Hannah didn't want to go to the dining car. But anything was better than staying in the compartment alone. That, she could not do.
        Soon they were on their way again, the wheels droning their steady ga-dink, ga-dink, ga-clink.
        Go-back, go-back, go-back…
        Hannah turned away from the window. "It was nice of the doctor to go back with Lolly. So she won't be alone."
        "Yeah, but what if she was the only doctor on board?" Kerry asked. "Let's just hope nothing else bad happens. I hope whoever was after Lolly knows she's not on this train anymore." Kerry pulled the barrette out of her hair and then replaced it carefully. "I