“Don’t lie to us, woman. We all saw that sign back at the depot,” Senator Daniels said sharply. He pointed toward the front of the train. “I am a sitting state senator, which makes me an officer of the state government. And as an officer of the state government, I am ordering you to go to those men . . . for the good of everyone on the train.”
“I won’t do it.”
“Oh, yes, you will.” The senator moved toward her.
Luke stood up and stepped in between Daniels and Jenny. “If you so much as touch her, I’ll throw you off this train,” Luke said in a cold, intense voice.
“What?” Daniels barked. “You, a jailbird, are threatening a state senator?”
“It’s not a threat, Senator,” Luke said calmly. “It’s a promise.”
“You, conductor!” Daniels looked toward Bailey. “You are in charge of this train. What are you going to do about this?”
Bailey looked at Luke, then back at Daniels. “Senator, I clearly am not in charge of this train at the moment. It has been taken over by armed brigands.”
“What?” Daniels sputtered. He pointed at Bailey. “The Denver and Pacific is going to hear about this. We should never have left the station in the first place. Now we are trapped in the mountains for who knows how long, and armed men, which you allowed to board this train, have taken us all hostage. And you stand by and let this man threaten me, but do nothing about it. Yes, sir, the Denver and Pacific will most assuredly hear about this.”
“Jarred, you are frightening Becky.” Millie tugged on the senator’s arm. “Please, calm down.”
“How can I calm down when our very lives are at stake? And this . . .
Matt had heard enough. “Senator, even if the girl did go to the dining car, do you think they would let her live?”
“I don’t know,” Senator Daniels ranted. “But that’s the chance you take when you become a prostitute.”
“I told you, I am not a prostitute!” Jenny screamed.
“Then what are you doing on this train, can you tell me that? You were run out of town, were you not?”
Jenny didn’t answer.
“I thought so.”
The senator made a move toward her, but Luke stepped between them again, and with a vicious backhand blow, sent the senator reeling back. The blow cut the senator’s lip and it began to bleed.
Daniels pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and held it over his lip, glaring at Luke. “Young man, you have just made a huge mistake. Whatever your sentence is, you have just added fifteen years to it for striking a government official.”
“Oh, Luke!” Jenny said anxiously.
Luke smiled. “Well, Senator, if I’m going to get fifteen years just for hitting you one time, I might as well make it worth my while. If you don’t go back to your seat, sit down, and shut up, I’ll beat you to within an inch of your life.”
“What?” The word was filled with fear.
“Jarred, for heaven’s sake, get back over here and sit down,” Millie ordered.
Senator Daniels pulled his handkerchief away from his lip, looked at the blood, then glared once more at Luke. He neither made a move toward Luke and Jenny, nor did he speak again. Instead he acquiesced to his wife’s demand and returned to his seat.
Matt watched the drama play out before him, but made no move to interject himself into the situation when it was obvious Luke had things well in hand. When he saw Senator Daniels return to his seat, and Luke and Jenny sit back down, he knew it was over.
“Troy,” Bailey said, “you can go back and tell the gentlemen who have taken this train that the young lady will not be joining them.”
“Yes, sir,” Troy answered. “That’s exactly what I would tell them if I was goin’ back to the diner car.” He shook his head. “But I ain’t goin’ back.”
“What do you mean you aren’t going back?” Bailey asked. “Good Lord, man, don’t you understand the situation? We have no food here. All the food is in the diner. At least you would get to eat.”
“No sir, it wouldn’t do me no good to go back. The men with the guns, they had themselves a fine breakfast and a fine lunch, but me ’n Fred ’n Pete, we didn’t have nothin’ to eat at all. And if it’s all the same to you, I won’t be goin’ back.”
“All right, you can stay here in the car with us,” Bailey conceded.
“Mr. Bailey, you may have noticed that he and the porter are colored,” Senator Daniels felt the need to point out.
Bailey made an exaggerated point of looking at Julius and Troy. Then he hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. “By golly, Senator, now that I look at them, I believe you are right. They
Matt and Luke laughed out loud.
“Are you ridiculing me?” Daniels snapped.
“No, Senator, you are ridiculing yourself. Of course I know they are colored. What is your point?” Bailey frowned.
“My point is, they can’t stay here in the car with us.”
“Just where do you think the porters stay when the train is under way?”
“I don’t know. I never see them until I need something done, and then they just sort of appear. I’m just saying it doesn’t seem right that they are in the same car with us. But I suppose, if they stay to the back of the car, it would be all right.”
“The back of the car is getting pretty cold,” Matt said. “With only one stove going, just the front half of the car will be heated. These two men will stay in the front of the car with us.”
Senator Daniels glared at Matt, then he sat back down.
Julius stood up then. “Thank you, Mr. Bailey, and thank you, sir, for speakin’ up for us.”
“It’s only common decency,” Matt replied. “No thanks are needed.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“We ain’t gettin’ nowhere,” Beans said, sitting down on the floor of the engine, breathing heavily. His body gleamed gold from the single kerosene lamp illuminating the inside of the cab, as well as from the exertion of digging through the snow. “We’ve dug a tunnel forty feet long or longer, and all I see is snow and more snow. Besides, workin’ this hard we’re just breathin’ harder and usin’ up more air.”
“We don’t have any choice.” Don frowned. “We have to keep digging, no matter how far we have to go. If we don’t get from under all this snow, we will eventually run out of air.”
“You’re right there. But I tell you true, I don’t see how we are going to do it.”
Don took the shovel for his turn at digging. Then he turned back toward Beans with a smile on his face. “Whoa, I just thought of something. We’re digging in the wrong direction!” He pointed down. “We need to dig down to the ground.”
“Why? What good would that do us? That would just put us under more snow, wouldn’t it?”
“Not if we get under the train. We’ll dig down to the ground, then crawl under the train all the way to the back.”
“What if the whole train is under snow?” Beans questioned.
“We’ll just pray that it isn’t.”
For most of the day, one stove had kept the front part of the car bearable, if not comfortable. But by nightfall it became much colder in the car, so cold that sheets of ice covered the inside of the windows. The situation was
