Blaze! The Christmas Journey by Stephen Mertz

Author:Stephen Mertz [Mertz, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rough Edges Press
Published: 2016-11-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Kate said, "A peso for your thoughts."

The Pullman was only half full, this being First Class and times being tough.

Train travel was nothing new in America, of course, since the invention of the steam engine. But the laying of rail track across the breadth of the North American continent had overnight altered life in previously remote Arizona Territory.

While once it was a grueling ordeal to get from any one point to another on this frontier—the stagecoach ride from Horseshoe had been no picnic!—never before had so many different types of people been loaded aboard fast-moving conveyances that whisked them hither and yon. It was still the frontier for damn sure, but only a fool could miss the writing on the wall. The world was growing smaller. The Old West was changing with the times.

J.D. wasn't sure what to make of that except for the fact that change (some called it progress) was inevitable.

The atmosphere in the Pullman car was comfortable. The muted buzz of polite conversation underscored by the constant, back-and-forth swaying of the traveling train and the rhythm of its wheels rattling along the rails, a sound that reminded J.D. of a state's name being rapidly repeated, Connecticut-Connecticut-Connecticut.

He drew his gaze from the prairie rolling by outside the train car window, a barren landscape except for scrub brush and distant rock formations beneath what had become a foreboding, winter-gray sky. He sat opposite Kate.

Beside her, Mrs. Mitchell stared out at the passing view, lost in her own private world of thought. Reverend Sullivan, seated next to J.D. on the aisle side, stared down at his own twiddling thumbs.

These were the end seats, allowing J.D. to keep an eye on comings and goings through a passage door at the front of the car that connected the Pullman to the next car on the train.

J.D. said, "I've been wondering if we made a mistake back there in Contention. I'm wondering if we're going to see fireworks before this train ride is over."

The preacher perked up at that. He looked up from his thumbs, frowning.

"Fireworks?" He was sober, though there remained a tremor in his voice. "What sort of fireworks?"

Kate said, "What sort of mistake?"

J.D. addressed Kate.

"Those horses we saw tied up at that hitching post in front of the saloon."

"What about 'em? We passed 'em on our walk from the stage to catch the train. The nags were in bad shape. I would've taken them to the stable for better care no matter who they belonged to but you were so all-fired in a hurry to catch this train...wait a minute. I remember those horses!"

J.D. said, "Yeah, so do I. So much going on, it took us a spell to place 'em."

Kate said, "Those were the horses the Waddells rode when they robbed the bank. So our mistake was leaving Contention when the Waddells are still back there?"

J.D. kept watching the door at the end of the car.

"Maybe. But there's another way it could have gone."

"They're on this train."

J.D. gave her a wink.

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