He nodded, but for the first time he looked a little nonplussed. Overwhelmed, actually, by the sheer volume of details he did not know. Kit felt a small smug burst of satisfaction. Good.

The cars were linked by small, rubbery accordion-style chambers in which sound was peculiarly deadened and electrical smells had an alarming concentration. Kit always tried to pass through these as quickly as possible, particularly once the train was in motion. The next two cars had progressively fewer people in them, but the first car in business class was quite crowded. Here, most passengers were prosperous gulden men, business owners with operations in the city and homes fifty or sixty miles out in the one of the small towns that clustered around the train tracks. A handful of albino men were also traveling business class, and most of them sat bunched together in a few rows toward the middle of the car. A few of the gulden men were accompanied by their wives, well-dressed, well-groomed women who kept their eyes focused on their handiwork or novels. There were no children in business class; any rich man who chose to travel with his family booked one of the rooms in the semiprivate coaches.

The next car was not quite as packed, and the third one was more than half empty. Kit led them to the very back of the car, to two sets of high-backed green velvet seats that faced each other and created a small, imperfect cubicle of privacy.

“You sit here. I’ll sit across from you. Put your suitcase in the empty seats. Now no one else will sit with us unless every last seat is taken.”

He did as she bid but gave her a faint smile. “I would have thought you might want a leaven for my presence,” he said.

She flicked him a look of scorn, though inwardly, she was puzzled. “It’s not that I want to be alone with you,” she said. “I just don’t like to be thrown together with strangers.”

“So what happens now?”

“Train leaves in about fifteen minutes. Stops about every hour for the first five hours. Then, it’s every couple of hours, as we pass through the rockland where towns are scarcer. Then, we’re in the valley, and towns are closer together again. Then, we go across the Katlin Divide, so it’s very slow, but the train never stops. Then, another twelve hours, and we’re at the foot of Gold Mountain.”

“And how do you entertain yourself for a trip like this?”