Free Western Star by Bonnie Bryant

least they had Frank warm and safe with them now. They were together. They’d find their way back to the ranch.
    “Do you know where you’re going?” Frank asked.
    “North,” said John. “We took some hay out to thehorse herd and the storm came up as we were headed back. We knew we were on the right path when we got to Parson’s Rock. We made the turn and I checked the direction right before the road totally disappeared. Since then I’ve been following as straight a line as I could, due north. I think we’re about a half mile away from the Bar None.”
    “Sounds about right to me,” Frank said. “I thought I was going north, too, and you came up behind me. Let’s just hope that two great minds won’t be wrong.”
    John looked at the compass for reassurance and began proceeding again, very slowly. When he was satisfied with the truck’s speed and direction, he spoke.
    “Excuse me, sir, but what on earth were you doing out here by yourself in this storm?”
    “I didn’t come out in the storm, John, any more than you two did. I came out to mend the fence and examine the problem myself. I thought I’d be home in plenty of time before the storm began. But I had something of a surprise.”
    “You mean the snow?” Lisa asked.
    “Well, I guess I mean I had two surprises. I took a look at the breaks in the fence. They weren’t accidents. Somebody used a saw and a pair of wire clippers on our fence.”
    “Why would somebody do that?” Lisa asked.
    “I intend to find out,” Frank said. “As soon as we get home.”
    “I’m trying, sir,” John assured him.
    Lisa blinked. A huge, dark shape loomed directly ahead. She couldn’t make it out, she just knew it was there. And then she knew what it was.
    “The barn!” she declared.
    John stopped the truck.
    “Whew,” he said.
    They were safe.

“L ISA !” C AROLE AND Stevie welcomed her into the main lodge with open arms.
    “You’re okay!”
    “I am. I’m just fine,” Lisa said. “John did a great job. It was an instrument landing.”
    John and Frank Devine followed Lisa inside. The three of them brushed snow off their jackets. They’d accumulated a significant dusting of it in the fifteen feet from the truck to the lodge’s front porch.
    “What’s an instrument landing?” Stevie asked, looking puzzled.
    “That’s what they call it when the pilot can’t see the airport. He or she just does everything by what the instruments say,” Carole explained.
    “And the compass was my only instrument,” John explained.
    “Wow!” Stevie said, genuinely impressed.
    “My mother just said something about hot chocolate,” Kate announced. “Any takers?”
    Everybody’s hand went up except John’s.
    “I’m going to go check in with my dad and let him know I’m okay. Then I’ll unsaddle Frank’s horse and give him an extra ration of hot mash. He’s earned it.
Then
I’ll have my hot chocolate.”
    John nodded to the Devines and their guests. He told Lisa he hoped he’d see her later and gave her a shy smile. She told him she hoped so too and, once again, thanked him for the great job he’d done getting her and Frank back to the Bar None.
    Stevie, Carole, and Kate missed none of this. Stevie even thought she could see a glow of pleasure on Lisa’s face. Maybe it was just red cheeks from the cold, though.
    Phyllis appeared with a tray of steaming mugs. Ellen Katz was right behind her with a bowl of marshmallows. Each of the girls took two marshmallows and dropped them onto the hot chocolate. Lisa held her mug with both hands, enjoying the warmth radiating from it. It was nice to be safe and warm back at the Bar None. She and John had had a close call out in the snow—closer than she wanted to think about.
    While she waited for the cocoa to cool a bit, shelooked out the window. It was a whiteout. She knew there was a tree right outside that window, not four feet away. She couldn’t see it. It was lost in the snow, just as she had been.
    “So,