Jim awoke with a start, the summer storm outside still raging. He felt disoriented, not knowing how long he'd been asleep, nor for a moment, where he was; and then it came back to him. He glanced at his pocket watch, and shook his head. It was almost noon. Jim stood and stretched, patting his horse on the neck. The weather was dismal, but they were going to have to brave it. Sitting around and waiting wasn't going to find Artemus.

West put his saddle on his horse, and hooked up the rein and bit. He leaned outside of the cave mouth and picked up his now full canteen, capping it and replacing it on the saddle horn. He put his hat on, and then pulled his horse out into the rain. A loud thunder clap caused the horse to raise his front legs, but Jim calmed him.

"Easy boy, take it easy, it's just the thunder."

Jim mounted the horse and took off back the way he had come. There was no telling how long the thunder and lightening was going to last, and the best thing he could do was head toward a town. West remembered a small village to the east that he had stopped in on his way into the Canyon. Another loud clap of thunder echoed across the sky, followed by a lightening bolt that seemed a lot closer than Jim would have liked. He hoped Artie wasn't lost out in the middle of all of it.

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