Horse Thieves (The Cowboys, Part 2)

So I, Mary the Cowgirl, tie up my horse. And my sister Pearl ties up her horse as well. The two of us keep our eyes scanning for bandits who might want to steal our horses. 

Thus we stop to rest. Our goal is to regain strength so that we might be able to freshen up and finish our quest. We meditate, to center our mind and calm our spirit so that it stops fighting with our soul. To pass the time, we drink brandy. Then we both doze off.

Now some horse thieves draw near. I awake to the sound of my horse struggling and neighing. I nudge my sister Pearl, whom I had earlier rescued from being dragged up north, and she wakes too. We both spring to our feet and lunge at the thieves with knives upheld. We swing our sharp blades and stab thru the men. But when I turn to congratulate my sister on a job well done, I see that Pearl is running after some other thieves from the same group — they have taken our horses and now are trotting away. “Mary,” shouts my sister Pearl, “I can’t catch them — they’re too fast!” With tears in our eyes, we both watch while the horse thieves gallop into the distance. “What are we going to do now, Pearl?” I ask. My sister shakes her head and says: “I don’t know.”