by Ken Farmer
“Less’n we have to,” interrupted the taller man to his left and slightly behind him.
“So, all you fellers git your wallets an’ pocket money out an’ put it in big boys hat there…’long with yer watches.” The first speaker nodded at Bone’s dark green John Bull hat.
He pointed his gun at Fiona again. “An’ you ladies jest empty yer purses an’ put yer rings in there, too…Now, ya’ll do it right now an’ we’ll be on our way.”
Bone got to his feet and removed his hat. “This the hat you’re talking about, slick?”
“Huh? Yeah, give it to me an’ sit your big ass back down.”
“No…Don’t think I will,” Bone replied.
“What did you say?”
“I said, I don’t think I will…As a matter of fact, I’m going to break you in several pieces, sunshine…You pointed your popgun there at my great grandmother. That’s a real big no-no and really makes me mad.”
“Huh?…Are you crazy!” The robber backed up a step as Bone moved forward holding his hat out in his left hand.
“I have been accused of that, yes…But, my name is Bone…and I’m your worst nightmare, pal.”
“”The hell you say.” The highway man thumbed back the hammer on his .45, but, before he could pull the trigger, Bone’s massive right hand shot forward like a striking cottonmouth, wrapped around the pistol and the man’s hand, and squeezed.
The outlaw screamed in pain and the scream went up a full octave as Bone wrenched the gun from his hand, breaking his trigger finger in the process in addition to his thumb.
The road agent’s partner to his left, swung his Remington to point it at Bone, but froze halfway as the sound of three Colts being cocked and Loraine racking her Kimber occurred simultaneously. Fiona had drawn both her .38-40s.
The color drained from his face as he saw the four deadly weapons being pointed directly at his head.
“My hand! My hand! You broke my hand! the first man screamed.
“That’s not all friend. Like I said, I’m your worst nightmare.”
Bone dropped the man’s gun to the floor and swung his ham-like fist up and down on top of the shorter man’s head with a hammer strike. It looked almost like his head was driven down between his shoulders as his eyes rolled up to just show the whites and he collapsed to the aisleway like so much dirty laundry.
“What did you do to my brother?” yelled the taller man as he dropped his own gun to the floor.
“I gave him a free sample…Now turn around and put your hands behind your back.” Bone took a set of cuffs from the back of his gunbelt and snapped them on the man’s wrists.
“Ow, ow, that’s too tight.”
“And that’s too bad…You fellows picked on the wrong train. My wife and I are police detectives, that gentleman over by the window is a High Sheriff and this lady here…is a Deputy US Marshal.”
“Oh, damn.” He looked down at his brother. “He gonna be awright?”
“Probably not…I imagine he’s going to be a little shorter.”
The conductor burst through the forward door and quickly took in the situation. “Oh, thank the Lord. I’ll put these fellers in the privy up front till we get to Ft. Worth. He glanced at the badges on their vests and bustiers. Can’t tell you how much the railroad appreciate’s ya’ll…I’ll see your complete fares are returned and additional passes issued.”
“Much obliged,” said Bone as he helped the groggy first man to his feet.
Mason handed him his cuffs. Bone secured the partially out cold man’s hands behind his back like his brother’s.
The conductor took the two brigands forward to the tiny men’s privy on the right side of the car, crammed them inside and locked the door.
Bone sat back down, glanced at Loraine and then at Fiona and Mason and grinned.
“Well, that was fun, children…Bodie lied.” Bone chuckled. “His captain will have to rework his actuarial tables on train robberies on the Gulf and Colorado.”
Fiona looked across the aisle at Bone and backhanded him across his shoulder. “Great grand mother?…Damn you, Bone.”
He shrugged his big shoulders. “Needed to get his attention.
“You did that when you said, ‘I don’t think so.’,” said Loraine.
§§§
CHAPTER SEVEN
ROSA’S CANTINA
SAN ANTONIO
It was near closing time as Vernon staggered to his feet from the table where he’d been sitting all afternoon, nursing a bottle of mescal. He wobbled toward the back door and stepped out into the dark alleyway.
Vernon glanced around, he could just make out the privy in the starlight, but that wasn’t his destination. He shuffled over to some used whiskey barrels just outside the back door that Rosa used to hold trash.
He collapsed to the ground between them and the adobe wall of the cantina and promptly passed out.
Rosa had shooed the rest of the patrons out the door and went around blowing out all the lamps, but one. She took the last of the trash outside to put in the barrels and saw Vernon on the ground, curled up next to the still warm adobe against the night chill.
Knowing she couldn’t pick him up, Rosa went back inside, grabbed a blanket, took it back out and covered him. She watched him for a moment, then shook her head, wiped the tears from her eyes and went back inside.
CENTRAL TEXAS
The sun was breaking the eastern horizon as Bone stirred and blinked his eyes. He glanced off to the east over the top of Loraine’s head at the first vestige of the golden disk poking up, chasing the night away. Then he looked west as the bucolic Texas countryside flashed past outside.
The morning rays hit the three hundred foot high Balcones Escarpment that separated the Edwards Plateau in the west from the Coastal Plains eight minutes after the sun woke from it’s lair. The Balcones Fault underneath the escarpment, extended from the Rio Grande all the way up to the Arbuckles in the Nations.
Bone nudged Loraine. “Hey, Pard, you ever seen the escarpment at sunrise?”
She raised her head up from under his huge arm where it had rested most of the night and looked out the window on the other side of the car. “Um?…Oh, my…it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Their voices woke Fiona from her intermittent slumber on the jostling of the railroad car and the clack-clack of the steel wheels. She glanced over at Bone and Loraine looking across her and Mason, out the window on their side.
“What is it?” she muttered sleepily.
“Look out your window,” suggested Bone.
Fiona turned as the morning sun now fully illuminated the escarpment. “My goodness. I never knew that existed…but, then again, I’ve never been to this part of Texas before.”
“Well, I was raised down here, but, I’ve never seen the Balcones at sunrise,” said Loraine.
“It’s such a marked difference from this grassland we’re on now. How far is it over there?” asked Fiona.
“Around twenty miles from the railroad tracks here to those ridges and hills. It’s called the Texas Hill Country…runs from what we’re looking at, northwest up to Llano and west to Luckenbach. Artesian springs, waterfalls, crystal clear rivers and creeks abound…It’s beautiful,” commented Loraine.
By now, Mason was also looking. “I’ve been down here. Hunted over around Llano…Good lookin’ country, all right.”
“Think the train will get to San Antonio on time?” asked Fiona.
“Should,” answered Mason. “Only had about a ten minute delay while the sheriff’s deputies back in Tarrant County were taking those ne’er-do-wells into custody.”
“Got anything left in the basket?” asked Bone.
“Some roast beef sandwiches, chicken neck, gizzards and liver and a pickle,” answered Fiona as she peeked under the lid of the basket.
“Love me some livers and gizzards…go great in the sandwich with the roast beef…Be better with some salsa, though,” said Bone.
“Oh, yuck, Bone
…Fried chicken, roast beef and salsa?”
“Don’t know what you’re missing, Pard.”
“I’ll sacrifice that part…if you don’t mind.”
“You don’t like sardines, cheese and crackers, either…and they’re staples.”
“Lucky me,” Loraine replied.
POSSUM KINGDOM LAKE
2018
Captain St. John parked his black squad car between the cliff overlooking the lake and the ridge just to the north with the cave.
“Wear your hiking boots, Padrino?”
“Moccasins…Won’t slip on loose rock like shoes or boots.”
“Damn, I shoulda thought of that,” said St. John. “Even though these combat boots served me pretty well in Afghanistan.”
“Uh-huh…They rotted out pretty quick in Nam.”
The two former Marines worked their way up the slope to the cave entrance. Padrino held up his hand to stop when they were outside the opening.
“Feel that?” asked Padrino.
“What?”
“We’re heavier up here. Can’t you tell?”
“Now that you mention it, I do feel just a little sluggish.”
“There’s more gravity here…Probably even more than if we were at the equator. This is that gravitational anomaly I mentioned.”
“And that means what?” asked St. John.
“It creates a unique electromagnetic area that draws lightning during a storm…or possibly even heat lightning during the summer that can form a vortex. I suspect it can even be activated during a perigean super full moon or a blue moon.”
“What’s a perigean super full moon?”
Padrino chuckled. “It’s when a full moon occurs at the extreme of the lunar perigee…when the orbit of our satellite is closest to the earth…It looks about 15 percent larger and around 40 percent brighter. Extra high tides and other things, like a vortex, can occur…Anything that has to do with gravity.”
“How do you know this stuff, Padrino?”
“It’s a gift.”
The older man took out his tac light and stepped inside the mouth of the cave, shining its light around. St. John followed and moved beside him with his light.
“Right,” muttered the captain.
“Here’s the spiral.” Padrino traced the ten inch wide grooved petroglyph with his finger. “Uh-huh, at least fifteen thousand years old. See the slight deterioration of the limestone, even in here out of the weather?…The humidity will have an effect on the edges of the carving over the millennia…Appears to have been carved with a flint point and a rock hammer.”
“Well, if they were in here and a lightning bolt hit the cliff…Where the hell did they go?” asked St. John.
“In my opinion, they’re still here, Captain…but in a different time.”
“When?”
“That is the sixty-four thousand dollar question…When indeed?” said Padrino.
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
1898
The Gulf and Colorado pulled into the station, blowing off steam as the engineer brought the big locomotive to a stop alongside the brick depot platform.
The two couples got to their feet. Bone and Mason reached up and pulled their carpet bags from the overhead storage bins.
Bone nodded at the door at the end of the car. “After you, ladies.”
“Oh, it’s so good to just move around without having to balance, holding on to the seats,” said Fiona.
“Like a drunk sailor,” commented Bone.
“It’s good to move around in any circumstance,” added Mason as he opened the door at the end of the aisleway.
The metal door was set across the end of the car with the women’s privy between the first seats and the door. The men’s toilet was at the opposite end.
It was considered rude to use the facilities when the train was stopped at the station because there were no holding tanks. Bodily excretions went straight to the ground under the car.
Mason went down the four metal steps to the platform, set the bags he had down and held out his hand to assist the ladies.
“Thank you, sir,” said Loraine as she twisted her torso back and forth after she stepped away from the railroad car.
Fiona was doing the same. “Oh, that feels so good…Now I know how dogs and cats feel when they stretch after taking a nap.”
Bone looked around the platform as the other passengers disembarked and were meeting family or friends or getting transportation. “Wonder where our ride is?”
“Are you looking for transportation to the Villa de la Vega?” asked an attractive woman with a slight Castilian Spanish accent as she walked up.
Mason turned to the raven-haired, fifty plus year old aristocratic appearing woman with blue eyes and alabaster skin.
“Uh, yes, Ma’am…Are you Sophia de la Vega?”
“I am…My hired help disappeared on me…At least he didn’t report for work almost a week ago. He was my gardener and maintenance man, plus he picked up customers in the carriage…I don’t know what could have happened to him.”
“Sorry to hear…Is your carriage out front?” asked Bone.
“Yes.”
“This is Mister and Missus Flynn, Mason and Fiona…And my Par, uh…my wife, Loraine Bone…and folks just call me Bone.”
Loraine surreptitiously poked him in the back.
Sophia held out her gloved hand to Mason, palm down. He lifted it gently and brushed her fingers with his lips. “It is indeed a real pleasure, Madam de la Vega.”
Bone did the same.
“My maiden name is Rodriguez. I believe Don Flipe Deigo de la Vega was my great…uh, my great grandfather on my mother’s side,” said Loraine.
“Oh, wonderful, we must talk when we get to the villa,” Sophia responded. “The carriage is this way.”
ROSA’S CANTINA
“Señor Vernon…Wake up…Señor Vernon,” said Rosa.
He mumbled. “Don’t have duty today, Sarg.” He rolled over and pulled the blanket over his head.
Rosa picked up an empty whisky bottle and banged on the side of one of the wooden barrels next to his head.
Vernon covered up with both arms. “Injuns!…Git down, git down!”
“Come, Señor Vernon, eet’s time to get up,” she said.
Vernon peeked up as he pulled the blanket down to his chin, momentarily confused. Then his bloodshot eyes squinted as he focused on Rosa.
“Eet’s all right, Señor Vernon, eet’s only Rosa.”
“That’s a terrible…”
“You can’t sleep there, Señor Vernon…Eet’s morning.”
“… thing to do to a man. Especially…”
“Señor Vernon, I need to open up to serve breakfast…”
“…somebody who was tortured by the Comanches.”
“Comanches?”
Vernon sat up and rubbed his eyes and scraped his tongue across the edge of his front teeth and smacked his lips.
“You were tortured, Señor?”
He nodded. “For two days…Was fixin’ to hang me upside down over a campfire when my squad rescued me.” His eyes jerked around like he was still a little confused.
“I am so sorry, Señor Vernon. You come eenside and Rosa will fix you some huevos rancheros and tortillas…You come. You are safe with Rosa.”
§§§
CHAPTER EIGHT
BONE’S RANCH
2018
“Do you have any suggestions, Padrino?” asked Captain St. John as they pulled up in front of the ranch house.
“About getting Bone and Loraine back or finding out when they are?”
“Yes…either or.”
“I think getting them back is a nonstarter. I think that if they come back, they’ll do it when the gods are smiling…But, I think there is a way to find out when they are.”
St. John nodded as he killed the engine and glanced over at Padrino. “Well?”
“Let’s go inside. Thank goodness for the Internet…and on the eig
hth day, God created search engines…We’re going to do some research.”
St. John shrugged his shoulders and opened his door. “I’m with you…This is way out of my pay grade.”
Padrino booted up his computer and gave it a few seconds while his satellite receiver modem came on line.
Tyrin curled up under the computer desk next to Padrino’s feet.
“Your satellite system even has WiFi, doesn’t it?” asked St. John.
“It does.”
“What’s your pass code? So, I can hook in with my phone.”
Padrino smiled. “Lucy2014.”
“Oh, that’s cool,” the captain said as he logged in.
“I didn’t see any power lines coming in the house…You got underground all the way out here?”
Padrino grinned. “Not hooked up to Cooke County Electric Co-op at all.”
“Well, then how…”
“Lucy left us her portable solar power generator. It’s about the size of a deck of cards and is wireless. Their solar collectors and storage batteries have a few thousand years on ours…She converted this whole house, lights, appliances…everything to wireless.”
“You’re kidding.”
Padrino shook his head. “When her ship crashed at Aurora in 1897, all she was able to salvage before the townsfolk arrived was her emergency kit…A metal case similar to a Halliburton. She carried her formfitting gray space suit, the power generator, two weeks of emergency rations, interstellar transmitter, several bars of gold…and a bag of diamonds in it when she wound up here and adopted by Cletus and Mary Lou Wilson. Left it all to Bone, except her suit when she was rescued.”
“So, Tesla was right about wireless power?”
“That and quite a number of other things including electromagnetic wave theory.”
“Which you think is the secret to time travel?”
“I do…The problem, as I see it, is control…the how and when. According to Tesla, if time travel is actuated, you go to the same place you are.”
“I see…Aw, hell, no I don’t, but I understand what you’re saying.”
