Hawk's Way by Joan Johnston Page A

attacked Angel and destroyed without thought the things that meant so much to her. The ragged sound of Angel’s voice tore him from his thoughts.
    â€œDo you think finding my rucksack means we’re in the past now?”
    Dallas frowned. “I don’t know. If we did somehow manage to make our way into the past, why did it happen this time and not the last? We didn’t do anything differently that I’m aware of.”
    Angel gnawed on her lower lip, trying to find an explanation for the inexplicable. “Does it really matter how we got here, so long as we’re here?”
    â€œIt does if we—I—hope to go back.”
    â€œOh.”
    Dallas put up a hand to shade his eyes as he looked back the direction they had come. Suddenly, nothing looked familiar. He felt a stunned breathlessness as he realized the darkened cave opening was no longer there, only a blank wall of stone. “It’s gone.”
    â€œWhat’s gone?” Angel asked.
    Dallas nodded toward the spot where the cave entrance had been.
    Angel gasped. “How could it just…disappear like that?”
    Dallas fought the urge to walk over and put his hand on the stone to physically experience what his eyes told him had happened. He felt a sickening lurch in his stomach. This was too weird for words. If what he suspected was true, he and Angel had passed through some portal of time and it had closed behind them .
    Dallas’s mouth flattened into a thin line. He hadn’t believed they would end up in the past, and he certainly hadn’t counted on having a problem finding his way back to the future. He took astep back toward the stone wall, then stopped. Closer examination was not going to reveal what plainly wasn’t there.
    His inclination was to stop right now and figure out how to get back where he had come from. But if the portal was there—and he refused to believe it wasn’t—then it would still be there after he had escorted Angel to San Antonio for the hanging. That was a deadline that they knew was finite. After the hanging he could come back and figure it all out.
    He met Angel’s blue eyes with a somber stare. “It looks like you got your wish, Angel,” he said. “Apparently we’ve crossed over some portal to the past. Now what?”
    â€œThere’s probably some good explanation for why the cave opening isn’t there any more,” Angel said in a placating tone. “As soon as we can figure out what we did to get here, we’ll know how to get back. Or rather, how to get you back. As long as we are here, why don’t we head for San Antonio. We can think just as well while we’re walking.”
    Dallas’s mouth twisted wryly. “I suppose that makes sense.” He looked over at the solid stone wall one last time. “Standing around here isn’t going to accomplish anything.”
    This time, Angel led the way. “I’ve been toSan Antonio a couple of times,” she said. “It’s not a bad walk from here. Maybe sixty miles.”
    That was an hour’s drive in Dallas’s truck. And two long days on foot. At least they had supplies, food and water that he’d packed as a precaution before they went into the cave. And he had his gun. Dallas told himself he was just taking a little camping trip. Nothing to it. They would be fine. And when they got to San Antonio…
    The enormity of his situation hit Dallas all at once. He was in the past! As fantastic as it seemed, Angel had been telling the truth about where she had come from. Dallas felt exhilarated. He was living an adventure that most men could only dream about. He would see San Antonio as it had been near the end of the Civil War. He would witness a public hanging in the town square. That is, if they ever reached San Antonio.
    Dallas dismissed the possibility that they wouldn’t make it. Angel certainly didn’t seem to be entertaining any