“Look at that,” B.W. said. “Bad stuff comin,’ we got to get out of the open.”
“If we got time to get to that over yonder we can get some cover,” Rance said, gesturing toward the nearest mountain. “Don’t see nothin’ else but prairie grass between us and that mountain.”
“Think we can make it ‘fore it gets here?” Tommy said.
“Have to,” Rance said and they took off.
They could see a hard rain in the distance and the lightning darting back and forth across the sky.
Suddenly, the lightning stopped and it became still and quiet—no birds in the sky and no sounds of animals.
They rode to the foot of the mountain and saw what looked like the entrance to an old mine shaft a little ways up and rode to it.
“Looks like this one petered out some time ago,” Rance said. “If that storm is as big as it looks from here, this is where we need to hunker down.”
“I ain’t goin’ in there,” Tommy said. “Why don’t we head a different direction and outrun it?”
“Too wide,” Rance said.
“Don’t like it either,” B.W. said, “but it may be like the major said: We ain’t got a choice.”
“Don’t have to go in too far, just enough to protect us from the wind and wait till it passes. Watch for snakes,” Rance said.
“I hate snakes,” Tommy said.
“I’ll go in first.” Rance led Buck through the weeds and into the mine shaft. Tommy and B.W. followed.
“Boy, does this place stink,” Tommy said.
“Animals usin’ it too,” B.W. said.
“They can have it.”
“Not just yet,” Rance said.
The roar of the storm picked up again and they held on to their horses. The rain started and in seconds it looked like a dark gray curtain had been pulled down over the entrance to the mine. The rain came in waves as the wind whistled across the mountain, blowing away everything in its path. The horses pranced, pawing at the ground as they held on. They knew if one got away he was a dead horse. B.W. grabbed the reins of Tommy’s horse and helped him hang on. In less than five minutes the storm had moved across the mountain and was sweeping the prairie clean.
They led their horses out of the mine shaft and breathed a sigh of relief. An old overturned rusted ore car was laying on a rail track with Westway Copper Mine on the side of it.
“What’s that say on that car?” Tommy asked.
“Westway Copper Mine,” Rance said.
“Would you and B.W. learn me to read?”
“Sure,” Rance said.
“When?”
“Don’t know, exactly,” Rance said.
“Soon,” B.W. said.
“I need to be able to read things.”
They followed the mine rails through weeds and brush and saw a railroad track and an old busted-down loading dock with a spur that ran to railroad tracks. The tracks ran north and south as far as they could see.
“Tracks look clean and shiny, may be a train is using them now,” Rance said. “Let’s follow the tracks. One might come along headed south.”
“Why can’t we just wait for it here?” Tommy said.
“We would be givin’ that marshal catchin’-up time,” B.W. said.
“Need to find a place the train would stop,” Rance said.
As they rode along beside the tracks, they could see the storm moving further away and the mist in the air evaporating fast. They followed the tracks for three days, and when the sun was hanging on the late afternoon side of the sky that third day, they heard a train whistle.
“Hear that?” Tommy said.
“That could be the one we’re lookin’ for. It’s whistling for a stop,” Rance said. “We got to get to wherever it stops before they do. Let’s ride.”
They spurred their horses into a gallop, looking for a place the train would stop. As they rounded a bend they saw a railroad water tower.They rode up to a hitching post behind the tower, dropped down from their horses and tied them snugly to a hitching post and stepped up on the platform.
“Hope we don’t scare them off,” Rance said.
A big black locomotive painted with Number Seventy-Six on the cattle guard and Union Pacific on the side came around the bend, huffing and puffing, blowing smoke high into the air, pulling a bunch of cattle cars. By the time it reached the platform you could walk faster than it was traveling, steel-on-steel grinding to a halt. Steam shot out of the engine and the whistle blew. Buck, B.W.’s horse and Tommy’s roan danced a little, but they were use to the loud noises from the war.
A man stepped down from the locomotive to the platform and stretched his arms over his head and looked around. He was tall and gaunt-looking, maybe in his fifties, wearing a Union Pacific railroad cap and red suspenders. Another man, shorter and heavier than the first, appeared with a railroad cap on and climbed the water tower and swung the water arm over the engine. The tall man waved to the man on the tower and he climbed down and connected the arm to the engine’s water tank.
A cattle car door slid open and three men with rifles stood in the open doorway, looking at them. The tall man moved over to Rance and stopped just out of reach.
“I’m the engineer, name’s Morgan. What you boys doin’ here?”
“Lookin’ for a ride to Texas,” Rance said.
“We can get you to Pinefield, Arkansas. Have to catch another train to Texarkana from there. Looks like ya’ll was in the war.”
“Was,” B.W. said. “Hear anything ‘bout that actor killed Lincoln?”
“Federals killed him and goin’ to hang some others for helpin’ him.”
“Good,” B.W. said. “Wish it could have been me.”
“Don’t want no free ride,” Rance said. “We can pay.”
“Thought you might be goin’ to rob us,” Morgan said. “Takin’ a load of beef to the army. Ten dollars and check those guns with me till we get there. Don’t know if they got a car for your horses on the train out of
