Winters' 3 Dears- The 12: Book Three

20. Yellowstone Or Bust

            Captain James sighed as he lifted the saw from the chain to see it hadn't dented it. "These here blades are mighty dull. I don't know what kind of chain you put yourselves in but it's a tough one. At least we were able to cut you out of your coats."

Beatrice bemoaned he coat which Cyril said he'd sew up again. She tried pushing the clasp over her hand again. "Are you sure you don't have a hammer or an axe..."

"I didn't see anything but this saw," James said as the wind wagon rolled slowly in the breeze. He picked up the slack of the chain. "If you had some honey or some butter you might be able to slip your hands through."

"Tree!" Cyril suddenly called out and the three of them went to the front of the wagon. The trees rolled into view growing hither and thither from the desert sand.

"I don't believe it!" Beatrice shouted. "Wysteria was right, they do remind me of hands. Can we stop and get a closer look?"

The wind wagon was stopped and Beatrice climbed down taking Tennessee with her. She raced over to the Joshua tree and embraced it. "We did it!" she declared.

Tennessee touched the bark of the tree. He didn't want to admit it but he was proud of their conquest.

"How much farther now?"

Beatrice's voice snatched him back to reality and they returned to the wind wagon to look at the map. "It looks like we need to find the ring of trees. It seems they are located north of here. My guess would be toward Wyoming. What do you figure, Captain?"

James stood over them and looked down at the map. "Could be," he said. "Did you say a ring of trees?"

Beatrice nodded. "That could be anywhere."

"I wouldn't say that, young lady," James said tapping his jaw. "Say, Cyril, pass me that news paper that featured us five years ago."

Cyril went to the stern and opened a wicker chest. He took out a rolled news paper and handed it to his brother.

James unraveled the news paper and held it so Beatrice and Tennessee could see. "It was when we first built Old Mary here," he said. "We took her out for a test just around the Wyoming and Utah boarders." He tapped the photograph of a contraption tangled up in the trees. "Folks talk about it still from here to Yellowstone Park."

"We were the laughing stocks of the west," Cyril said.

"But Old Mary works perfect now," Beatrice said. "We would have died out there if you two hadn't come along. You aren't laughing stocks anymore, you're heroes." She swung her arm, yanking Tennessee.

James and Cyril both smiled. "The young lady is right!" James said. "Uh, say we can get you near the border if you like. But I can't take Old Mary further than that. Different terrain."

Beatrice and Tennessee both nodded.

"We'd appreciate it very much," he said. "But what was it you were thinking about the ring of trees?"

James laughed. "Oh, they're the one we got tangled up in." He showed them the picture again. Two copses linked together forming a perfect ring. "They sit below a water fall in a lovely grassland. Very enchanting. When you get there you may not want to leave."

Beatrice looked over at Tennessee as the brothers prepared to start Old Mary again. She watched him studying the map and yawned. As the wind wagon rolled on and the brothers sang a sea faring song the Joshua trees rolled out of view like hands waving goodbye.