CHAPTER 1THE COMBINATION immigrant train of the Kansas, Texas and Southern labored its way through the blinding spring rain in a valiant effort to reach Dexter Springs before the whole uncertain roadbed should be washed from under its spinning wheels.
On both sides of the right-of-way the broken bluffs above the raging river were the only sign of solid ground. All the rest of the wind-lashed landscape had vanished beneath the surging course of the swirling flood waters, and the small, bell-stacked locomotive sprayed waves from its wooden cowcatcher as it forged forward, in constant danger that its firebox would drown out.
Inside the rattling coaches it was almost as damp. The train was already eight hours late and the wood for the heating stoves had long since been dissipated. The immigr
