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Hell's Gate
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The stranger was dressed in a heavy, dark green cotton shirt, loosely tied at the neck and so displaying what looked like the beginning of a hairy chest.  His strong woolen trousers were secured around his middle with a black piece of material passing for a belt and on his feet he had a pair of high lace-up shoes stopping just above his ankle.  Peeping out of the top of the shoe-cum-boot Kate saw what she thought was the handle of a knife.  As politely as she could while trying very hard to keep her voice down and steady, she suggested to the intruder that he had better go.  He laughed; a raucous drunken laugh.

"Me, go," he said, "oh my dear young lady, I know when I’m on to a good thing.  Why would I want to go when I am in the company of two beautiful young ladies? No, I don't think I want to go at all.”

Although now very much awake, Amanda was trying hard not to show that she was trembling like a leaf under her blanket.  The unwashed stench of this hairy monster was beginning to pervade the room and both girls held their blankets up to the lower part of their face so they would not have to smell the stale odour.

The stranger continued to leer alternately at Kate and Amanda and then he started to lurch towards Kate.

"Oscar, Oscar," screamed Kate at the top of her voice.  Chaos erupted in the bedroom.

Initially, laughing at Kate's screams, the stranger walked over to where she was sitting on the bed.  So intent was he on reaching his prey that he didn’t see Oscar towering behind him.  But Amanda did and she watched with a smile of satisfaction because she knew exactly what Oscar was going to do.  In a flash Oscar had hooked his claw-like toe into the top of the stranger’s pant leg.  With a swift stroke, he dragged his foot down the woollen trouser leg of the stranger, easily cutting through the material and his skin, causing him to scream in agony.  Almost on the rebound, the intruder turned round and saw Oscar.  Never had he seen anything like this beast (and he had no idea what it was).  He howled again, this time in fright as well as pain, and fled out of the room leaving a trail of blood all the way across the floor.

On his way out the stranger encountered Nathan running to find the source of the screams.  He was really alarmed when he saw this ruffian coming out through the doorway of Kate and Amanda's room like a madman, his eyes betraying pain and shock.  The stranger kept moving and passing Nathan he pointed to the door and mouthed a word that Nathan didn’t understand.  As the man went on his way, Nathan could see the ripped shreds of trousers and a trail of blood coming from what appeared to be a huge gash in his leg.

Now, quite terrified of what he was going to find, Nathan hurled himself into the bedroom, only to come face-to-face with Oscar who looked down at him from what Nathan thought was some height, with huge, kindly eyes.  Nathan stood still looking at Oscar with his mouth wide open.  He was horrified and fear had paralyzed him so he was unable to move away.  When Kate recovered a little, she was able to reassure Nathan that Oscar was quite safe, friendly and was not going to harm him.

"And Oscar is my dear friend,” finished up Kate.

"But what is he?" stammered Nathan who had never in his life seen anything like this creature.

"He’s an ostrich," explained Kate, “and normally these birds live on the plains of Africa."

"Where's Africa?”  Nathan wanted to know, so Amanda butted in at that point and offered Nathan a mini-geography lesson which meant nothing to him really, because he had no conception of the world outside Yale since that's where he’d been for the whole of his life.

Kate could see that any further explanation about Oscar would take much longer than the time they had left that night.  Smiling at Nathan, she suggested that they talk about Oscar tomorrow morning.  This was a signal for Oscar to sink to the floor by Nathan's side, hoping to prove to him that he was quite tame and placid.  Now Nathan looked down at him and was quite mesmerized by the look Oscar was giving him.  Involuntarily his hand went out to Oscar and he stroked the white/silver down around his neck.  In due course his oohing and aahing at Oscar ceased and he remembered how he’d come to be in the girls’ room in the first place.

"Are you sure you’re okay?" Nathan asked.  "Whatever happened?  I just saw a man with a huge gash in his leg running out of your room."

"That was only because Oscar had done some severe damage to him.  The man first came in about five minutes ago.  He just walked right in and declared that he had no intention of leaving and was moving towards my bed when I screamed.  Of course, Oscar appeared immediately.”

"Oh, it must have been very frightening for you,” said Nathan.   “I’ll get one of our men to sit in front of the door which leads from the saloon into the corridor, to make quite sure no one disturbs you again.  Are you sure you’re okay, Kate and Amanda?  Did he - touch you at all?  Is there anything I can get for you?”

"No, he didn't touch us, Oscar didn't give him that chance,” replied Amanda for both of them.

"Well, if you're sure you’re okay, I’ll get a pail of water and wash this blood off the floor, so you can finally settle down and get some sleep."

After Nathan had left, Kate and Amanda re-made their beds, although there wasn’t much to remake.  Oscar shrank back to pocket size, disappearing into Kate's apron pocket.  This was a problem, because when Nathan reappeared he immediately wanted to know where Oscar was.

"Oh, he's gone for a walk," replied Kate, not wanting to explain about Oscar's peculiarities at that moment.

"Well, maybe I’ll see him tomorrow?" asked Nathan.  “He is such a nice bird."

He set to mopping the floor.  After he’d finished, he left, promising that they wouldn’t be disturbed again that night.

Nathan went off to check that old Jack was quite comfortable in his chair beside the door in the saloon which led to the guest rooms.  Of course, Jack didn’t know what had happened that night, but the fact that he had to ensure that no person went through the door was enough for him.

Nathan then went off to find Mattie and tell her about the extraordinary animal he had encountered in the girls’ room.  Unable to sleep because of the excitement of the night, brother and sister talked for a long time about Kate and Amanda.  Mattie had obtained permission from Kate to tell Nathan about time-travelling.  This explanation, together with the sight of Oscar that evening left poor Nathan’s head swimming.  He couldn’t come to terms with any of it.

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