The two horsemen saw the billowing gray smoke on the dark horizon and tugged their mounts to a halt. Whipping winds pulled tendrils of fresh snow from the Kansas clouds, and frost sprinkled their hats, but the chill didn’t bother the travelers. More than the cold, the horsemen felt a dreadful curiosity to know the source of the distant smoke.
“Where are we?” the first rider asked, stretching his long back.
The second rider reached into his saddlebag and withdrew a map of the Territories. He traced his gloved finger from the Kansas River down to the Neosho. “Here.”
Based on their current position, the smoke was smoldering near the town of Wisdom, which stood farther south. The faint tracks they had been following suggested fast movement in that direction.
“He’s near,” the first horseman muttered. He wiped a flew flecks of snow off his mustache.
“We best hurry then.”
The two travelers snapped their horses’ reins and pushed on through the Kansas chill.
The riders wouldn’t stop till they found Keech Blackwood and put an end to his journey.
THE END