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When a patrol is overdue, everyone knows.

Chores are worked, duties are performed, and routines are completed but everything happening at Fort Mackenzie had an additional purpose – to make frequent allowances for a glance at the horizon visible above the rim of the buffalo wall, all seeking the satisfaction of discovering the riders or their dust.

The scouts had been out for two days. Their absence and the lack of a report disturbed Christina Blocker and disrupted her work. Since morning, when awareness first rousted her dreams, she'd felt uneasy, hoping that the knot in her stomach signified a touch of influenza rather than something she dreaded more: premonition.

"A sixth sense," her mother had explained when Christina's first experience prompted a discussion about this family trait. "About somethin' that's about to happen. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes both."

Having been alerted by this feeling before – akin to being called on to recite a Bible passage in Sunday School – and having experienced its accuracy, Christina's main concern was whether the foreshadowed events were good or bad.