Page 70 (1/2)

Sighing, Lorna rolled onto her side and tried to close her eyes There was a brief irritation that Benteen had left the decision for her to ain Yet, if he had tried to force it, she would have been angry It was very confusing

After two days of wearing pants and riding astraddle, the trailhands beca an eye-popping oddity There was a bit more to the work than Woolie Willis had led her to believe, yet Lorna discovered she could handle it She was really quite proud of herself, too

It had taken two days to round up the scattered herd There were ten head they never found The third ned Lorna to ride one of the flank positions, while Woolie Willis drove their wagon He was hobbling around on a makeshift pair of crutches Rusty had fixed up for him It was hard work, dirty work that tested Lorna’s endurance

Ten days later, they reached Ogallala, Nebraska, on the North Platte River They stopped south of there for a day so Benteen could ride to see if he couldn’t hire a couple extra e of the day’s layover to wash clothes

When she had her things together, she went through Benteen’s bedroll to get his dirty clothes A bright brass coin fell out of the roll onto the quilt It didn’t look like any money she’d ever seen before Lorna picked it up to examine it curiously

On one side, a wo on the other side read: “Coe City” It was a coin of son currency And as Miss Belle?

Curiosity got the better of Lorna Leaving the clothes in the wagon, she climbed out Three of the trailhands had ridden into toith Benteen, and the others were out with the herd Woolie Willis was at the river, trying his hand at catching son of Mary, but Rusty was over by the chuck wagon Since he’d been practically all over the world as a ship’s cook, it seemed likely that he would knohat this coin was, so Lorna went to ask

“Rusty, have you ever seen a coin like this?” She showed hi in the palm of her hand

He glanced at it, then sent her a sharp look “Where’d ya get it?”

Soue “I just picked it up” But she didn’t say it had fallen out of Benteen’s bedroll If Rusty thought she’d found it on the ground, that wasn’t her fault

“One of the boys musta dropped it,” he concluded

“What is it?” Lorna repeated her question “Is it money?”

“It’s a dollar token,” he replied, and tried to look busy

“Do you ain

“There’s places that accept it as legal tender I don’t know as I’d take it into just any bank,” Rusty hedged on his answer