"Of course not! I didn't mean for you to think I was some kind of do-gooder or something," she explained hurriedly, not wanting to risk offending her new boss. "I haven't got anything against drinking. I just don't like it for myself, that's all. Don't go getting any notions that I'm that kind of person!"

Hawkins slowly turned his head from side to side, his eyes never leaving her for a second. "That's good, Sarah. 'Cause life gets a little bit tarnished sometimes traveling around the country like this. You don't have to become hardened to it, though, just be able to bend enough when the times comes, and you'll do nicely… really nicely."

Sarah felt an unexpected chill run through her veins… that quickening that tells you something isn't quite the way it should be. But that was outrageous, everything was better than it had been for her in years! She quickly shrugged it off and made herself another cup of coffee and sat down opposite Hawkins at the fold-down dining table opposite the galley-style kitchen. He reached up and turned on the gas mantle of the built-in lamp that hung on the wall beside them and held a paper match to the mantle until it burst into flame and settled into a white-hot glow that illuminated the cabin like an electric light bulb.

They sat there in silence for an uncomfortably long time, Sarah curious and restless from the excitement of this new life unfolding for her so quickly, Hawkins quiet and pensive, his mind somewhere else as he gazed out the curtained window through the trees to the opposite clearing where his crew was busily making preparations for settling down for the night. There were voices carrying through the fifty yards or so that separated them from the others, mixed with the muffled sounds of stirring animals caged in their trailers as the trainer and Sammy moved from cage to cage, dispensing the night's ration of food and water, plus an occasional dose of vitamins or veterinary prescription to one or the other mildly ailing beasts.