In an America that might have been, two war orphans from a divided nation, one in the north and one in the south, meet across a vast battlefield, striking out to forge a future together in the west. It's 1892, the fourth and bloodiest year of the Ci...
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Deke began to wonder if anybody was actually chasing him. He hadn't seen a soul since he left town. So he doubled back, then snuck up on a hill and waited all day, but there was nothing. Just flat prairie, wind, and grass. Ned didn't mind. He and the other horses had been on the run for a lot longer than they liked, and standing around eating grass was just what they wanted.
In the morning Deke decided to take a chance and set out for the railroad. His still shiny compass told him which way to go, and by the end of the day he had found the train tracks. Where he was on the line was another problem. But he decided that it was better to head west, since that was the way he was planning on going anyway, and why cover distance twice? They sped down the tracks at a trot because, although he didn't want to admit to himself directly, he didn't want to miss Kay in Denver.
It was midday when he came up on the tiny town and station of McFarland. There was the town, seven buildings, the rail stretching in a line from horizon to horizon, a road stretching to horizon again in the other, and a flat sea of grass below and sky on top. They sold train tickets at the general store, but out of the twelve passenger trains that went by each day, only one stopped there and it had already gone. The next town was Geary, 18 miles away, and the store owner didn't know which train stopped there so Deke was stuck for the night. He bought a ticket for himself and three for the horses and a can of peaches to soothe his heartache. The trains were noisy so he camped away from the track that night, just to get a little quiet.
The next morning the train stopped like it was supposed to, they loaded the horses and Deke himself, and they were on their way to Denver. He sat in coach in a padded seat, a nice change after squatting on the ground for days and nights. The problem with the plains is that there are no trees and even damn few rocks to sit on. Just dirt and tall grass and the occasional Buffalo flop. Even those you have to fight the prairie dogs over. Deke was looking forward to the next two days.
He slept in his seat mostly and ate in the diner and had an uneventful ride, at least as uneventful as a person who has never been on a train before can have. He discovered the toilets, sinks, and mirrors. He hopped back to the horse car to keep Ned company and watched the ground roll by at an unnatural speed through the windows. In passing by things quickly, he found that he could see them from different sides, near and far, all in a matter of minutes. He actually climbed up on top of one of the cars and sat on the edge of the roof for awhile out of sheer boredom, until a porter saw him and told him to get down.
On the second day they ran into a herd of buffalo. They were brown and shaggy and looked like half the fur was ready to fall off them. Deke couldn't see an end to them, just buffalo wherever he looked, as far as he could see. They were kind of like the plains themselves in that regard. The train slowed to a walk and spent a lot of time blowing its whistle. It took Deke an hour, but he finally managed to stop listening to it. The buffalo, having had more practice listening to train whistles, got the hang of not listening right off. It took three hours to get by them. He finally pulled in to Denver only three days behind Kay. Deke promised himself that he was going to have to ride on a train again sometime.
