The passengers of a liner traversing the region declared themselves on the verge of heat-prostration. They lay in deck-chairs, and sipped constantly at tall glasses of iced drinks. On the outsides of these glasses water at once formed in a film, and then quickly in large drops which trickled down until the glasses stood in puddles on the table. The passengers frequently expressed surprise that such weather did not relieve itself in a shower, not realizing that the upper air also was sufficiently warm to prevent the sudden up-burst of heated surface air which would make possible a thunderstorm.

In an area a thousand miles long and five hundred miles broad, above an ocean which was smooth to the suggestion of oiliness, the air nowhere offered any zone of quick transition in temperature and moisture. Warm and languid, soppy with tepid water as a wet sponge, far and wide the air lay quiescent.

9

After half-past eight the rush-hour in the restaurant was over. Jen got away from her cashier’s booth to put the call through to San Francisco.

“Hello, Dot, hello. This is Jen, Jen—your sister Jen.”

Dot expressed surprise, pleasure, and anxiety, as one may when receiving an unexpected long-distance call. Jen cut her short, because the tolls would be running up.

“Sure, I’m in Reno—as usual; and I’m fine. And say, I got it fixed up to come down and stay with you Saturday night and Sunday, if it suits. I got a boy-friend driving me down—get to your house maybe around midnight—leave late on Sunday. All right?”

Dot expressed delight at the proposed visit, and then the usual married-sister’s doubt about such runnings-around with a boy-friend. What if the car broke down? And who was he? She got the usual answers:

“But I’m often out till after midnight around here, and you wouldn’t think anything of that. He’s just a fellow I know—name’s Max Arnim. But, say, the time on this call is running up. Thanks, and I’ll see you then. ’Member me to Ed and the kids.”

Jen went back to her place at the cashier’s booth, and the proprietress eyed her approvingly. Jen kept her accounts straight, and as to looks she was just about right. She had a rounded little figure, and her light-brown hair had a touch of red in it. Otherwise she was just nice-looking, pretty maybe, not beautiful. Older men liked to pass a word with her, but the younger fellows didn’t hang around too much trying to date her up. In a wide-open town like Reno you had to watch things like that if you were running a respectable place.

10