Linda Ford - Dakota Cowboy

He chuckled at her determination. “You planning to push that nag all the way across Dakota?”

Her eyes sparkled. “Now, how gentlemanly would that be? If someone is to push…” She left the rest unsaid. But he understood her message. If anyone had to do the pushing, she expected it to be him.

He eyed the tired old horse. “I could try riding her. Maybe I could convince her to go a little faster. Otherwise, we’ll be spending the winter out in the open plain.”

Lucy scowled. “You’d whip her, I suppose?”

Roy dropped to the ground and rushed to the old nag’s side. “You can’t hit her. She can’t help if she’s old.”

“Don’t suppose either of you thought to bring wheels?”

Two pairs of eyes regarded him suspiciously.

“The way I see it…” He pushed his hat back on his head and leaned over the saddle horn as if contemplating one of the universe’s darkest mysteries. “Either we plan to inch across the prairie—easy for anybody to see us, easier for them to chase us down—or we put wheels under that thing and I’ll drag her.”

“’Course we didn’t bring any wheels.”

He sighed. “I feared that might be your answer. Like I said, this isn’t going to work.”

They all stared at the horse.

“She happen to have a name?” Somehow, it might be easier to deal with her if she was more than a nameless pile of skin draped over protruding bones.

Roy wrapped his arm around the sorry animal’s head. “’Course she has a name. It’s Queenie. ’Cause she’s like a queen.” His tone dared Wade to question the name.

In order to restrain his laughter, Wade drew his lips in tight hoping he looked thoughtful. He slanted a look at Lucy and when he saw her eyes brimming with merriment, he had to bite the inside of his lip.

But their lack of speed was no laughing matter. They had to find some other way of getting across this open land. He studied the landscape trying to come up with a solution. Wheels were not the answer. Unless…he stared southwest. “We’ll go that way.”

“We aren’t going back, are we?”

“Lucy, we’re going to find some wheels.”

“Who’s going to push?”

“The iron horse.”

“A train?”

“Yup.” He’d planned on catching the new SOO line that was direct to Minot and from there they would ride. But if he dropped down to the Northern Pacific line and the less direct route, it might serve their purpose even better, make it a little harder for any pursuers to know for sure where they were headed. And the line was considerably closer if his reckoning was right.

Lucy brightened faster than the sun that now sat several degrees above the horizon, promising another searing day.

Wade eyed the flat land. Being out on the unprotected prairie didn’t seem like the best plan a man could devise. “Come on, Roy. Climb on.” He reached out a hand.

“Will we get breakfast when we get there? I’m awfully hungry.”

“Roy, you’re always hungry.” Lucy’s tone warned him not to complain.

Wade lifted the boy to the back of his horse. “I’m feeling kind of hollow myself. I’m sure we’ll be able to rustle up something.” If he was correct they should connect about the same place as the little town of Anders. They’d find food there. Plus water and relief from the unrelenting heat.

Three hours later, the heat shimmered unmercifully and between them they had downed his entire supply of water.

Wade began to wonder if they’d missed the line entirely and were doomed to wither into nothingness in the baked grass.

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