Dorothy found out in Cheyenne that there was a train for Salt Lake City. She was originally scheduled to travel from Omaha to San Francisco via Cheyenne and Salt Lake City. She took a tremendous detour back to the original route.
Dorothy bought a ticket to Salt Lake City and sent a telegram to her family in New York to inform them of her safety.
The train was full. Dorothy placed a suitcase (new from Denver, containing nothing but a change of clothes) in the aisle and sat on it. But a kind gentleman offered her a seat.
It was comfortable until Laramie. Dorothy was basking in the refreshing highland breeze through the open window and staring out at the vast grasslands of Wyoming.
"What's that?" said a middle-aged man on the window seat across from the aisle.
Something traversed from left to right under the cottony clouds above the plateau. It looked like a bird. Like the bald eagle on the coat of arms of the United States. She wasn't alone in thinking so.
"It's a bird," said the young man.
"No, it's big for a bird. Compare it with the church and buildings just below."
"It's true. Quite big."
"Isn't it an airship called Zeppelin?"
"I've heard stories about it. But did it look like that?"
"I don't know. I've never seen it."
"Is it a cloud?"
"Impossible, because it's moving in the opposite direction to the other clouds."
An unidentified flying object suddenly turned. at right angles. And it was flying towards the train Dorothy was on.
As it drew closer, she knew what it was. After all it was a bird. It wasn't a bald eagle, but it was a kind of eagle. But it was too big. How could there be such a huge eagle! She knew of giant birds of mythology. For example, Roc from Arabian Nights. And the giant eagle that pecked the liver of the giant Prometheus almost every day as punishment for giving fire to mankind!
The eagle spread its sharp clawed paws and grabbed at the train, and it lifted the train into the sky.
"No!"
Dorothy rolled up and down in the carriage with the other passengers. Then she hit her head on the ceiling (or floor) and fell into a coma...
YOU ARE READING
The Argo Goes West
Science FictionIn 1900, creatures from Greek myth began to invade America, where the frontier line had disappeared. Theodore Roosevelt builds the Argo, a battle train and heads to the west where monsters await!
