Boldly Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Valuables

If Lorna learned anything on that seemingly-endless trip across the American frontier, it was that trains were a considerably worse mode of transportation than ships. Day after day, night after night, jolting raggedly across the rough landscape... nowhere to sleep except the rock-hard, bolt upright seats in the coaches. Many first-time passengers found that if you didn't brace yourself up in just the right way before falling asleep, you were in danger of sliding into a rather undignified heap on the floor of the coach. Quite a few learned this the hard way.

Lorna gloried in the station stops... particularly when the train was stopping for longer than fifteen minutes. At one stop, she was informed that the train would not leave until late that night and so, after safely depositing her luggage at the depot, she broke off into a tearing run across the prairie... opposite the direction of town, of course, or else people would think her sense had suddenly left her. Perhaps it had. She was used to an active lifestyle and so much sitting, cramped into one tiny little area, had left her miserable. She felt that nothing could quite compare to the glory of that run. Although it was difficult, after all, to run in several layers of ankle-length petticoats. Back home in the highlands, she would have thought nothing of looping up her petticoats and traipsing off into the highlands to climb trees and ford streams...

Yet another thing she discovered on that journey was the almost unparalleled beauty of this vast new land. At first the gently-rolling landscape was dotted with tiny farms and lush forests. The farms became larger the farther west they traveled. Endless fields of wheat and corn, glowing golden in the sunshine. But the fields soon gave way to the prairie with its roaming buffalo herds and abundance of prairie grass, waving in the wind. The train had stopped once for a few hours at a wayside station to wait out a storm. Lorna felt she had never seen anything equal to the fury of that storm. Sheets of rain driving, pounding into the ground. Powerful thunder crashing so hard that the cars shook with the intensity of it. The sky was inky-black... blacker than the blackest night. But the sudden fierce flashes of lightning would show the entire landscape in a jagged streak of brilliant brightness for just a moment at a time. A frantic telegraph operator informed them that a bridge not more than twenty miles ahead was washed out and a detour had to be mapped out.

But horrifying storms weren't the only danger that the West had to offer and that was proven not long after the train had finally crossed into Dakota territory.

When the announcement was made that they were in Dakota territory, Lorna laid down her book and turned to the window... and her heart nearly stopped beating. After miles of endless flat land and nothing more to show for it than abundant herds of cattle, they were nearing the Black Hills. It was almost... almost like being home again. By the bend and sway of the endless pines covering the hills, she could tell that the winds were just as wild as the ones she had grown up loving. She felt almost as if... just around the bend... she would see the little stone cottage nestled among the hills. Looking just as she had last seen it before... before... she shook her head fiercely. It would never do to start crying again.

That was when the sudden startled cries of the passengers drew her attention to the horsemen galloping along the side of the tracks. By the way they rode... and by the bandannas that nearly covered their faces... it was plain that they were not simply out for a pleasure ride. The lead horseman swept far ahead, reaching the engine of the train. Then, in one sudden flying leap, he had boarded the train. A woman screamed from somewhere in the back of the coach and shrunk into her seat.

"It's a robbery, sure as fate," a stout gentleman said in a loud whisper as he quickly unpinned his golden cuff links. The rest of the passengers began to follow his example, fumbling with necklaces and watches. But as the train began to puff slowly to a halt, Lorna forgot that she was wearing any jewelry at all. A few moments of tense silence and the passengers started at the sound of the door of the coach being forcibly thrown open. The first man to enter glared at the frightened occupants with mere slits of black eyes.

"Nobody move!" he commanded, training his six shooters, one in each hand, on the motionless passengers. Another man was boarding behind him. A considerably younger man, stooping under the low ceiling of the coach.

"Will Slade's outfit," the elderly man sitting across the aisle from Lorna whispered under his breath. "The older man is Slade himself."

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask who on earth Slade must be, but he was looking in her direction now and she felt her blood run cold. Instinctively she reached up and touched her locket, remembering in a sudden flash of fear that she had not hidden it. Slade noticed the slight movement and stepped forward, menacingly.

"I said, nobody move!" he growled. Turning, he nodded fiercely at the younger man. "Git on out there, McCulloch. Be quick about it!"

Most of the passengers didn't even need to be told what to do as the man named McCulloch produced a leather bag and held it out to each in turn. The cold steel of Slade's gun muzzles quickened their fingers and a steady stream of jewelry, gold coins, and crumpled bills were poured into the open bag. One old man clung desperately to his wallet.

"Please... please..." he murmured desperately, tears in his eyes. "My grandchildren's pictures are in there... it's all I have to remember them by."

McCulloch hesitated and Slade's eyes narrowed even more.

"Hurry up, damn you!" he growled. McCulloch simply took the wallet, opened it up and removed the bills, then handed it back to the old man. He said something in a low voice... something Lorna didn't hear... but the old man was nodding, smiling gratefully.

And then he was standing before her and she felt her heart pounding loudly. Ashamed of her own fear, she lifted her head boldly and met his eyes. She was surprised to find that they actually seemed... kind. Kind, yet... sorrowful. The bluest eyes she had ever seen... depths of blue.

"Your valuables, Miss," he said softly, almost apologetically, as she hesitated. Slade was yelling at him again. With trembling fingers she reached up and unclasped her locket. For one moment she clung to it... then dropped it softly into the bag. She unpinned the clan badge from her arisaid and added it also. At Slade's repeated order, she opened her purse and rummaged through it. On sudden impulse, she reached for the little Bible and slipped it in with her last few dollars... her guarantee of bed and board once she reached Keystone, her final destination. As he moved on, he reached back suddenly and pressed something in her hand for a moment, closing her fingers around it. Carefully, slowly, so that Slade wouldn't notice, she opened her fingers and her eyes widened to see the twenty dollar gold piece that lay there.