Dragons Of Summer Gulch

An ex-soldier rides the new railroad west to hunt for valuable bones and scales. And not only does the man discover a spectacular fossil, but buried in her belly are 7 fertile eggs from the Age of Dragons. Two other men will do anything to acquire that prize, and nobody pays much attention to the woman in the midst of everything.

"Here stood the best locomotive available on short notice -- a soot-caked machine built of iron and fire, wet steam and rhythmic noises not unlike the breathing of a great old beast. Since details mattered, Zephyr had hired workmen to paint dragon eyes on the front end and little red wings on its sides, and when the job wasn’t done with the proper accuracy, he commissioned others to fix what was wrong. Two engineers stoked the fire, while a third sat on top of the tender, ready to spell whomever tired first. Behind the locomotive was the armored car hired to move spleens and scales -- a wheeled fortress encased in steel and nearly empty, carrying nothing but seven white eggs and six mercenaries armed with enough munitions to hold off a regiment. And trailing behind was Zephyr’s private car, luxurious and open in appearance, except for the small windowless room at the rear that served as a bath."

Robert Reed has published several hundred stories, many of them reprinted multiple times. Reed won a Hugo Award with the held of his novella, "A Billion Eves."