"But if he just takes the truck and leaves us, wouldn't he be afraid we'd put the cops on this trail? Doesn't that mean he might shoot us?" Laura asked fearfully.
"I really think he just had it in for certain people, and I don't have the feeling he'll shoot us unless we try to escape or alert the police. I think he'd just tie us up securely if he leaves us, rather than shooting us. But we have about 2 hours' drive, so let's see what we can come up with to try to get out of this," Monty said, with more assurance than he felt.
They were silent with their thoughts for a while, and then Laura said, "I wonder if I should write something on paper and drop it out the window?"
"There's so much other trash along the freeway I doubt it would be found, and I'm afraid he might see it blowing out the window and get angry," Monty replied, not voicing his fear of what that anger might turn to. "But thanks for giving me an idea, Laura. In about 100 miles, there's a highway rest stop. We could say you need to use the restroom, and when you're in there, you could leave a note where someone would be more likely to see it."
"We should be thinking about what kind of message to write while we're driving. I have a pen in my purse, and there will be toilet paper in the restroom," Laura said, quickly reverting to her normal habit of analyzing a problem and coming up with possible solutions. "But also, let's talk to take our minds off what's in the trailer behind us. You go first, Monty. Tell me about your ranch, and what work you do there, besides chasing bulls into trailers. Do you do the calf roping and bronc like riding we saw last night?"
"Bronc riding, no," laughed Monty. "I'm not sure whether I'm too old, too chicken, or too smart for that. I have a well-trained horse who does everything I need him to do, without any bucking. As for calf roping, we definitely do that, but not the way they do it in competitions. Neighbors are always more than happy to get together to help, and they enjoy showing off their roping and riding skill, but any cattleman who saw his calves treated that roughly would kick the offending cowboy off the ranch immediately."
"So how do you handle the calves differently, then?" questioned Laura, eager to add to her knowledge of a field completely new to her and happy to have something to take her mind off the predicament they were in.