Written for the 2016 Ponderosa Paddlewheel Poker Tournament.

Summary:  Adam meets a shy boy on the stage and then helps guide him when he must face decisions after traumatic events and revelations.  The boy has a secret that others want, but even he doesn’t know what that secret is.

 

 

Bullfrog Song

Chapter 1

Intrigued and a bit fascinated, Adam watched the boy across from him in the stage sit up and do his best to look as if he wasn’t frightened. He clearly was, but he showed a lot of courage in holding his head up and not giving in to the fear that probably had turned his insides to jelly when his mother put him on this stage alone with strangers. He couldn’t be more than eight or nine years old, slender and with a shock of dark hair hanging down over his forehead, he held his hat in his lap as his mother probably taught him to do. Adam had his hat on his head and tipped slightly to the side to help block the dust and the bright sunlight. He had thought the boy had been the son of the couple who had ridden with them for two days. They had seemed to watch over the boy like he might have been theirs. Instead, they had been good Samaritans watching out for a youngster traveling on his own. When they had reached their destination and realized the shy boy was to continue on, they had searched the faces of the remaining passengers and the new ones and apparently found them all lacking. They had asked the driver to watch out for the boy. It was then that Adam had learned the boy’s story or as much as the couple knew for the boy never spoke. The driver had spat and said he was only going as far as the next station. It was clear the couple feared for the boy, but he had stood as tall as you can at that age and climbed aboard the stage taking the seat by the window across from Adam. He sat rigidly trying not to shake probably but the trembling of his hands gave away the fear that twisted inside his mind and probably conjured up all sorts of terrible possibilities. Two other men climbed in to sit by the other windows. Another man chose to ride up above preferring the fresh air and the dust to the confinement of the coach and the enforced camaraderie and smells you got riding in the heat squeezed into a box with four others. Conversation in the coach was limited and all efforts to engage the boy in conversation failed. He barely overcame his shy nature to tell them his name was Dolf Huber. That had led to smirks and laughter by the other two men. Adam decided to intervene by engaging the boy in conversation taking it as a bit of a challenge to draw him out. It wasn’t easy, but the more they talked, the more the shy boy opened up glad to have someone interested in his welfare.

“Are you from Germany?”

“Yes.”

“You speak English very well.”

“Thank you.”

“It would be difficult for most to even hear your accent. In fact, it almost sounds as if you have a bit of a Boston accent like my father and my grandfather.”

“When my family knew we would move here, my father hired a nanny from Boston.”

“My family came from Boston. I was born there. My father was a sailor and traveled to many places but decided that he wanted to make a home out here.” The more that Adam talked, the more the shy boy was willing to open up and talk as well. It was if he needed to confide in someone, to have someone who knew him as more than a nameless child sitting in the coach. Adam felt a great empathy for the scared and lonely child.

“Our nanny was with us until we got to this country. As I got older, she became more of a tutor and taught me to speak as an American. My father said it would be important that we fit in when we got here.”

“I traveled out here as a child. Then a covered wagon was the only way to go. It was very dangerous to travel then. My stepmother was killed on the way west. My little brother was only a few months old.”

“My father came to buy land here. He traveled many places and thinks this is the best place so he brought us all the way from Germany to here.”

“That’s a long way to travel. I was in England once. The trip over the ocean was long. He must be a determined man to make that trip and bring his family here too.

“He wants to open a large dairy in California. He wants to bring cheesemakers here.”

“Now that’s unusual, but I could see where there would be a market for cheese. That would take a lot of money.”

“He, ah, yes, that would.”

“Are you traveling to California to meet him?”

“Yes, my mother sent me ahead. She was worried about something and said I should go ahead, and she would follow along.”

“That’s a long way to go alone for someone so young.”

“It is.”

“I’ll make sure you get there safely. First thing is you might want to put your hat on for this part of the trip. The dust and the sun won’t affect you so much if you put your hat on and use it to shield yourself a bit like this.” Adam demonstrated then how he tilted his hat and his head to block the worst of the dust and bright sunlight.

“Thank you, sir.”

The ‘thank you’ was for more than the help with the hat and Adam smiled at the boy in recognition of that. They traveled on not speaking much but occasionally commenting on something when there was something noteworthy, and talking more when there was a stop at a station for new horses. With the desert lands they were traversing, there wasn’t that much that was noteworthy until the sun began to set. They were still quite a distance from the last station of the day as they had lost time earlier when the stage needed to have a wheel replaced. They hoped they could make the station before it became too dark to travel because spending a night sleeping in the coach was wholly undesirable especially after a whole day bouncing along in the dust and heat. After some time when the coach slowed suddenly, all four inside stirred and were ready to climb out except the voices they heard were not what they expected.

“Toss any guns and gunbelts out the windows or we’ll shoot into the coach right now.”

There wasn’t any other option. The three men unbuckled their gunbelts, cautiously rolled up the canvas covering one window, and tossed their weapons out.

“All right, climb out one at a time and send the kid first. Then the men can get out but hands come out first. You, on top, start throwing down the luggage. All of it.”

Soon, all five passengers and the driver stood silently as the men demanded that Dolf identify his luggage. He did and was subsequently shoved back to the line of men. His luggage was ripped apart and searched as thoroughly as any luggage could be searched.

“There’s nothing here either.”

“Kid, take off your jacket and toss it here.”

Dolf took off his jacket as ordered and tossed it to the men who ripped that apart looking for something. They checked the lining as if there could be a message there. Again they found nothing.

“It’s got to be with him.”

“Well, it ain’t in his luggage anywhere. It ain’t on him. Where is it then?”

“Kid, where’s the message your ma sent with you?”

Too scared to speak, all Dolf could do was shake his head. As far as he knew, he had no message. As the men approached, he cowered back toward Adam who decided to speak for him.

“Look, it’s clear the boy has no idea what you want.”

That earned Adam a blow that sent him reeling. The man questioning Dolf had no patience. They had been waiting for the stage all afternoon, and he was fuming at this point. They were frustrated and getting desperate to find the message or information they wanted. The leader looked at the passengers and picked out one.

“You want to leave?”

“Yeah.”

“All right, leave. You can start walking. The station is that way.” He pointed to the west down the rough road toward the sun that was nearly set. “Go now or I’ll let somebody else be the first.”

The man started walking then looking back nervously a few times. The leader bent down and grabbed Dolf’s shirtfront warning him that if he didn’t tell him what he wanted to know, he was going to kill the man who was walking away and it would be Dolf’s fault.

“But I don’t know what you want.”

“Have it your way, kid.” He turned and fired shooting the man in the back as he walked. That man fell groaning in agony as the leader grabbed Dolf to force him to walk to see the grisly sight and made him stand beside the mortally wounded man who moaned in pain and twisted trying to reach his hand back to the source of the searing pain assaulting him. He writhed in distress for at least fifteen minutes as the leader held Dolf there forcing him to watch the man’s death throes and repeatedly told Dolf that what he was seeing was his fault.

“Now, you want that to happen to those other men? If you don’t tell us what we want to know, they’re all going to die like this, and it’s going to be your fault. I think that one you seem to like is going to be next. We’ll make sure he dies even more painfully than this one. It’ll hurt so bad he’ll be crying for his mama before it’s over. Now, you ready to tell me what I want to know?”

Dolf was crying by this point. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

The other men and Adam didn’t need to hear the conversation to know the fate that awaited them. They were unarmed but knew that they had to fight back anyway. It was the only chance they had even if it was a nearly hopeless one. Four unarmed men against four armed men were horrible odds, and Adam hoped somehow to rescue Dolf too. He had no idea how they could possibly manage it, but they needed to act soon before any more of them were shot. He whispered only one thing as the leader and Dolf walked back toward them.

“As soon as they get here.”

When Adam saw the nearly imperceptible nods of the others, he prepared himself to act. The others had known what he meant because they had drawn the same conclusion that he had drawn. The next few seconds were chaos. No one could have described it because so much happened so fast that it was impossible to describe. Men hurled themselves at other men, shots were fired, bodies fell, there were screams, and at the end, Adam and Dolf had scrambled into the growing darkness with bullets screaming near them. There were shots fired after that and all Adam could surmise was that the outlaws had finished off the wounded. He didn’t know if any of the others had escaped. He had managed to grab a pistol in the melee, but that was all that he had besides Dolf. He had a slight wound too but didn’t think it would be too much of a problem. He had been hit by one of the shots as they fled. It had pierced the muscle at the base of his neck on the left side. It hurt terribly and was bleeding too much, but it didn’t hamper his movement or his ability to shoot.

The outlaws did not pursue them. Adam guessed they were worried about him being armed, and by now with the gunfire, they were probably worried that men at the station might be riding this way to find out what had happened to the overdue stage. Under the circumstances, they would come out well armed and ready for trouble. At least, he hoped so because if he had to face the outlaws in the morning with only one pistol, he didn’t think he could hold them off. He did find what he thought was good cover and pushed Dolf in ahead of him after using a stick to make sure there were no snakes or scorpions using the spot to spend the night. Once Dolf was settled in, he backed in pulling some brush in behind him. It would take a master scout to find them, and he doubted any of the outlaws had even rudimentary tracking skills although his blood trail would make things easy for them if they had to wait for daylight.

“What do we do now, Adam?”

Those were the first words from the shy and now traumatized boy. Adam was relieved that he was able to speak even if the voice was shaky and the boy was trembling.

“We wait and listen. I don’t think they’ll risk looking for us, but we have to listen to make sure they aren’t. We listen too for men riding in. They would likely be from the station and we need them.”

“I’m cold.”

Dolf had lost his jacket because of the outlaws’ search but was probably suffering from shock too. Adam slipped off his jacket and wrapped it around the boy unaware in the darkness that he smeared a fair amount of blood on him. Then he used his handkerchief and pressure to try to stop the bleeding from the wound by his neck. They sat quietly like that for over a half hour before hearing riders. Listening carefully Adam heard them call for the driver by name, which was a positive sign and then heard their voices get very upset when they found the coach and the bodies.

“Dolf, time to go. Our rescue party is here. Don’t walk too fast. We’ll have to approach slowly and call out to them. They’ll be upset and ready to shoot.”

Adam’s words were prophetic but they did manage to get to the men and explain what had happened although there was some near panic when the torchlight showed that one side of Dolf’s face was smeared with blood from Adam’s coat. That was the first that Dolf realized that Adam was wounded because Adam had not wanted to worry him any more than he was in the darkness.

“Adam, you got shot!”

“It’s not bad. It could have been, but they were shooting wild.”

“But you got shot protecting me.”

“Dolf, they were going to kill all of us. I was protecting me too. Now, these men want to know what happened so we better tell the whole story. Do you want me to do it?”

Knowing the shy boy would have trouble facing the strange men who wanted to know what happened to their friend, Adam quickly moved on to the practical matter of what had happened as well as he understood it. The driver and the other passengers were dead as was one of the outlaws. Apparently he had been wounded in the melee and his partners had killed him with a bullet to the face rather than take a wounded man with them. His horse and anything that might identify him was gone. With the wound to the face, it was going to be difficult to match his likeness to a wanted poster except that Adam said he thought he could sketch a likeness of the man if they wanted one. In fact, he said he could sketch all of the men if they wanted him to draw them. They did. The men gathered up the luggage, loaded the bodies as well into the coach, and with Adam and Dolf riding on top, one of the men drove the coach to the station. The sheriff from the nearest town would be called out the next morning and told what had happened, but by then the outlaws would be long gone with little hope that anyone could track them down. The story that Adam told was a bit outlandish too, and he could tell the men found it strange. He guessed the sheriff would as well, but sometimes the truth was strange. He and Dolf underwent questioning the next day, and the story matched everything that could be determined from the evidence. The sheriff accepted that the story was true and released them to continue their travels the next day.

Under the circumstances though, Adam didn’t think it was safe for Dolf to travel without protection. He went to the U.S. Marshal’s Office in the larger town they arrived in next, explained their story, and asked for help. The U.S. Marshal Daniel Graves was even more skeptical than the sheriff in the small town had been. Marshal Graves insisted they stay there until he could do some checking and began sending out telegrams about them after getting the names of Dolf’s parents and where they were as well as where Adam lived. Adam sent one of his own telling his family that he had been delayed but not to worry, and then he got a room for the two of them. He was running a slight fever and knew what he should do.

“Dolf, will you be all right here while I go see a doctor about this wound?” His reaction was answer enough. Dolf was too shy to talk much especially about his feelings. Adam understood that very well. “On second thought, maybe it would be best if you came with me. You could get checked out too. It never hurts to play it safe.” With a nod, Dolf moved quickly to follow him out the door.

After getting the wound cleaned out and stitched up, Adam felt that he needed some food so he took Dolf to a restaurant. However, even though Adam’s appetite diminished at the smell of the food, Dolf ate ravenously. Adam took the rest of his meal with him back to the hotel hoping he would feel better later and be able to eat more. That worked out well but what didn’t was that the Marshall showed up with bad news the next morning and delivered it far too bluntly by Adam’s estimation.

“I don’t know how else to say it, but the boy’s mother is dead. They found her in the hotel room in Battle Mountain. She’d been beaten until she died.”

The Marshal had spoken too fast for Adam to stop him before Dolf heard all of it. The boy collapsed with that news, and Adam wanted to slug the Marshal. Instead he did his best to soothe the grief stricken boy. As he was doing so, the Marshal made it worse.

“I guess you were right about the boy needing protection. His father is missing.”

Standing then, Adam shoved the Marshal out the door and slammed it. He returned to Dolf who was sobbing uncontrollably at that point having learned in less than a minute that he might have lost all the family that he had in this country. Adam held him as he sobbed until slowly those diminished to whimpers and then he lay weakly in Adam’s arms.

“Adam, what am I going to do?”

“You’ll come home with me until we figure it out. I’ll keep you safe until we can find out where your father is.”

“Do you think he’s alive?”

“We’ll pray and hope that he is, Dolf. That’s what we have now.”

The U.S. Marshal had found out quite a bit more and shared some of it with Adam later when Adam’s temper had cooled somewhat. The Hubers were wealthy and Dolf’s father had said that his wife was bringing the money for the purchase of the property they wanted. He apparently had not realized how that put her in danger. She must have realized her predicament and sent Dolf ahead to save him when she realized the threat to her. However because the outlaws came after Dolf, no one seemed to know what had happened to the money she had been carrying.

“Any idea how much it was?”

“No one seems to know, but he was in the process of buying lots of property. Estimates are that it had to be over one hundred thousand dollars and perhaps twice that.”

“And he let his wife carry that much?”

“My guess is they thought that no one would suspect a woman of having that much money with her so he went ahead to get things settled in Sacramento. You said the boy told you that he and his ma were visiting with relatives in St. Louis. Now you know as much as I was able to find out. I’ve asked for more to be sent to me but that will be by post and will take longer. I’ll take charge of the boy now and escort him to Sacramento.”

“Dolf wants to go home with me to the Ponderosa until his father can be located. We can keep him safe there.”

“Well, I guess that would be all right for a short time, but he’ll have to go to Sacramento eventually.”

Wondering at that, Adam didn’t worry about it much as long as the Marshal had conceded that Dolf could go to the Ponderosa. He could rest there and be safe. The boy needed to recover, to feel safe, and to have a place to wait while his father was missing although Adam didn’t believe that was likely to turn out well either.

 ********** 

Chapter 2

A few days later, the three of them arrived in Virginia City. Marshall Graves headed to Sheriff Roy Coffee’s office to check in while Adam went to the livery stable to rent a carriage. He found that his family had left Sport there for him to ride home whenever he arrived not realizing he would have a guest as he had neglected to tell them anything about Dolf.

“Dolf, can you ride?”

“I only rode a horse in St. Louis, and someone else was leading it.”

“Hmm, Luke, do you have a very calm horse with an easy gait that I could rent. It has to be able to get to the Ponderosa though so it can’t be a nag.”

“Got a couple that I rent to ladies. Would one of those do? They’re out in the back. Take your pick.”

A half hour later, Adam and Dolf rode out of town although walking out of town was a more apt description. The trip to the Ponderosa took about twice as long as usual too but eventually the two arrived. Ben came out when he heard the horses and immediately greeted his son and asked about the boy. Dolf hid behind Adam with the greeting delivered by the gruff patriarch of the Ponderosa well known for his booming voice.

“Pa, this is Dolf, and he’s a bit shy. He’s had some awfully tough things happen that we can talk about later.”

Quickly getting the message, Ben spoke much more softly and invited Dolf to come into the house. He was still reluctant, but with Adam’s arm around his shoulders, he moved forward. Ben signaled to a ranch hand to take the horses. Inside, Hoss and Joe were about to yell out greetings but a quick gesture from their father cut that off.

“Boys, Adam brought home a guest. He’s had a tough time according to Adam so we need to be respectful of his need for some peace and quiet.” Ben looked at Adam for confirmation and saw the gratitude in his son’s expression.

“Pa, I’ll get Dolf settled in the guest room next to my room upstairs if that’s all right, and then I’ll be back downstairs to explain what’s going on that’s made things such a mess.”

After showing Dolf to his room, Adam told him he was going downstairs to tell his family what had happened. A bit scared to be alone even if he wouldn’t admit it, Dolf wanted to go with him. “Do you really want to hear all of that again? I won’t leave anything out. My family needs to hear all of it so that they understand and can do their best to help you.” Dolf looked far less certain then.

“You can rest here. After the travel we’ve done, I bet you’re tired. The bed is comfortable. It used to be mine before I got a new one. You can get some rest, and I’ll wake you for dinner if you don’t wake up sooner. All right?” Adam watched as Dolf laid on the bed then. The boy looked like he didn’t think he could sleep. Adam guessed that wouldn’t last. He was correct as Dolf fell asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes to see if he could sleep. Adam was downstairs by then telling his family the story of the shy boy traveling alone, of feeling the need to draw the boy out, of the attack by the outlaws, of the news delivered by Marshal Graves, and that Dolf needed protection.

“But ifn he don’t know nothing, why does he need protecting?”

“Hoss, they still seemed to think he had some kind of code or cipher key that was going to lead them to the small fortune that his mother was carrying and that got her killed.”

“Why’d they carry that kind of money around with ’em anyway?”

“They brought their money from Europe, and apparently his father thought that no one would suspect a woman of carrying that kind of money. He went ahead to California to make arrangements and get things ready while she and Dolf visited with relatives in St. Louis. When it was all set and he needed the money, he sent for them. Someone guessed that she was carrying the money and went after her. She must have recognized they were in danger, and in Battle Mountain, she put Dolf on the stage and she stayed behind. She must have thought that would keep him safe. But the men came after him anyway, and they’re still out there, and we don’t know who they are or how long they will continue to be a threat.”

“Since her husband is missing, could he be the one doing this?” Joe was being a good detective looking at all possibilities.

“I don’t think so but I don’t know. I’ve thought about that, but I don’t know the family or anyone who knows them. There’s no way to know. For now, I’d like to keep Dolf here until we get some word on his father.”

“Of course, son, he can stay here. We’ll protect him as well as we can. Perhaps the men who are looking for him don’t even know where he is and may give up their search.”

“For now, that’s possible. Well, I’d like a bath before dinner. It’s been a long trip and tough.”

A bath, a shave, and clean clothing made Adam feel much better. Thinking that a bath and clean clothes might have a beneficial effect on Dolf, Adam woke him early and asked him if he wanted a bath. He did, so he told him to get what he needed and meet him downstairs. Hop Sing as usual had anticipated the request and had hot water ready for the boy. Adam stayed in the kitchen as Dolf bathed in the washroom. Over and over again, he heard him singing a simple rhyme.

Bullfrogs croaking in the old millponds,

Eating the bugs off the green, green fronds,

Two one two four six four two,

Find me the place that is all blue.

An odd song for a German born boy to be singing, at dinner, it was the subject of one of the first questions Adam asked Dolf.

“Mama wrote it for me. She said we should sing American words now like we talk American words now. She made me practice and practice until I got it perfect so I could sing it to Papa.”

Dolf couldn’t hold back any more after that. Adam never heard him sing that little tune again, but he didn’t forget it either after having heard it so many times. He wrapped an arm around Dolf and let him cry. His family quietly ate their meal and excused themselves.

“Dolf, do you think you could eat something now?”

Snuffling into Adam’s shirt, Dolf didn’t want to look up or at anyone. “You all think I’m a baby now. Papa said only babies cry. I should be a man and not cry.”

“It’s all right for a man to have feelings. It’s normal. As long as you can do what you have to do, then tears are fine. I’ve cried.”

“I bet not since you were a little boy.”

“No, I’ve cried since I’ve been a man. Sometimes there are things that are so sad that you have to let it out.” Adam knew there were times he ought to take that advice himself, but he wasn’t going to get into that discussion with anyone.

“Do you want to eat something now? Another thing a man has to do is to stay strong to do what has to be done, and one way to stay strong is to eat, and sometimes that means eating even when you don’t think your stomach wants any food.”

To please Adam, Dolf tried a few mouthfuls of food and then a few more. Soon, without realizing it, as Adam talked about the Ponderosa and the things they could do for a few days, he finished all the food on his plate. Then Adam had to bring up an unpleasant subject even though he knew Dolf probably was in no shape to face the prospect of burying his mother.

“Dolf, I made arrangements for your mother’s body to be sent here. Do you want to have her buried here in Virginia City? I can help you with that. I know it’s a big decision, but you’re the only family member to ask right now.” Adam could see how his words had shaken the boy again. He waited for him to regain his composure and answer.

“She would want to be buried by a church.”

“We can do that. When we get word that she’s here, we’ll go to town and make the arrangements. All right?”

After that, Adam had Dolf sit by the fireplace with him and the rest of the family. Hoss offered to play a game of checkers with Dolf.

“No, sir, I can’t play checkers.”

“Why cain’t ya play checkers, and ya don’t need to be callin’ me sir. I’m plain old Hoss,”

“I don’t know how to play checkers. Maybe Adam could teach me and then I could play.”

“Aw, dadburnit, I can teach you as well as Adam.”

“Sir, I mean, Hoss, what does dadburnit mean? I never learned that word when I was learning to speak American.”

“Spend some time with Hoss and you’ll learn a lot of words no one else knows.”

“Aw, c’mon now, older brother, you use words all the time that I don’t know.”

“There’s a difference.”

“What difference?”

“I use actual words.”

“So do I. Ifn you ain’t familiar with ’em jest shows your fancy schooling wasn’t near as good as it shoulda oughta been.”

The banter and silliness had the desired effect and Dolf was smiling. Hoss had a few more ideas.

“Hey, Dolf, how about you spend part of tomorrow with me and learn a few good old western words? Adam’s gonna be busy being a blacksmith tomorrow anyways. We’re a might behind and he’s late getting back so there’s a lot of iron work stacked up for him to do.”

“And it might have to wait a bit longer. I’m having a bit of trouble with my left arm.” Ben was immediately concerned even as Hoss and Joe were curious so Adam had to explain about being shot and where. He did explain that the wound was minor but it did make it difficult to raise his left arm, and until the stitches came out, he probably needed to be careful.

“Dolf, that’s what you get with our older brother. He rides around the country to avoid work and then he comes home wounded so he don’t have to work here neither. Now how about that game of checkers? I’ll show you how and then you decide when you’re ready to play for real.”

For the next few days, Dolf spent most of his time with Adam or with Hoss. Be watched his sons act as surrogate fathers and was proud of them but worried about what would happen when news came about Dolf’s father because all of them except Dolf expected bad news. Four days after Dolf arrived on the Ponderosa, they got word late in the day, that the coffin with his mother’s body was at the undertaker’s office in town. Adam had sent some preliminary instructions by a written note when he sent a hand to town to return the rented horse. Now though they had to go to make arrangements for the formal funeral service. It was going to be a difficult day for Dolf without his father there, but with Adam on one side and Hoss on the other, he made it through the service standing as tall as he could. As they were leaving the cemetery next to the church, Deputy Clem Foster and Marshal Graves approached them. Clem spoke first.

“Adam, I know it’s a terrible time, and I give you my sincere condolences, Dolf. We haven’t met, but I’m Sheriff Coffee’s deputy. He’s put me in charge of this because he’s got some other problems he has to handle, and well there are some complications that we need to discuss. Is there somewhere all of us could meet and talk privately?”

Ben suggested that the Cattlemen’s Association building would be open and had a large conference room. The whole group walked there, and it was clear that Marshal Graves wanted to say something, which made Adam nervous. He made some eye signals to Hoss who got between Graves and Dolf so that the Marshal couldn’t blurt something out. Like Adam, Hoss expected that Clem was going to give Dolf more bad news. Once they were all in the conference room of the Cattlemen’s Association, Adam sat next to Dolf and kept a hand on the boy’s shoulder to remind him that he wasn’t alone no matter what the news was. It was in fact as bad as they expected although Clem did preface it with some good news.

“Adam, those sketches you did of the men who attacked the stage and murdered the driver and three passengers worked like a charm. We got word from the sheriff of Big Meadows that he circulated them, and not only got identification of those men, but they got picked up in Carson when the posters got there and then he was able to send the names. They were looking for the two of you and thought that no one knew who they were. All of them are sitting in the jail in Carson City right now so you have nothing to fear from them.”

“Any idea who sent them?”

“That we don’t know yet, but they failed, and now they don’t know where you and Dolf are so you’re safe for the time being.”

“The time being?”

That’s when Marshal Graves jumped into the conversation. “What he means is that the boy needs to go to Sacramento. I’ll be taking charge of getting him there, and the man who sent those men after him might try again, but now the law will be ready for that.”

Although Adam suspected the reason, he had to ask. “Why does Dolf need to go to Sacramento?”

“A body has been found, and they think it’s his father. He has to identify it. No one else knows him well enough to be sure.”

About that time, there were at least four men who wanted to hit Marshal Graves and do him grave bodily injury. Dolf sat in shock. Adam put an arm around his shoulders but the boy was rigid. He had been hoping and praying that his father was alive, and suddenly his whole world seemingly had collapsed. He had seen the coffin holding his mother’s body lowered into the ground. Less than a half hour later, he heard that his father was dead because despite the Marshal’s words, everyone in the room knew that was how the identification was going to end. He was a boy, but he knew too even if he wanted to deny the terrible truth.

“Dolf, I’ll go with you.”

Graves had been expecting that although the next thing he heard was a big surprise.

“Adam, I’ll go too.” Clem’s offer surprised Adam too who looked up at the deputy and got only a neutral look from the man although Graves’ stiff posture indicated that he wasn’t pleased by that development. Ben, Hoss, and Joe looked as surprised as Adam. There was something they had missed, but Clem wasn’t going to tell them with Marshal Graves present. That much was obvious.

Gruff as usual, Graves issued his orders before stomping off. “Have the boy ready to travel by tomorrow. He can ride because I saw you ride out of town with him. I don’t want to use the stage. I want to go by a route no one can guess so we can’t be intercepted.”

After agreeing to meet Graves there the next morning, Adam waited until the Marshal left before turning to Clem to ask him why he felt the need to go.

“Roy put me in charge of this case.”

“Clem, there’s more to it than that. Tell me, or I’m not cooperating in this.”

“All right. Adam, there’s something wrong with how Graves is handling this and it’s not only that he has the manner of a common lout. Several times I’ve had to tell him that Dolf was fine in your custody. He’s been anxious to get his hands on him ever since he got to town. The other thing is that Dolf doesn’t have to go to Sacramento. They asked Graves to get a detailed description from Dolf or send him to Sacramento. He chose the trip. Now what reasonable man picks that option from the two offered? Something stinks in this whole thing, and I want to be along to make sure nothing happens to Dolf or to you.”

“Maybe Hoss and me ought to come along too to keep you safe from whatever he might be planning.”

“Joe, I thank you for that, and I wouldn’t mind someone watching our backs, but if you do that, I can guarantee that Graves is going to come up with another plan, and maybe that one won’t include us.”

“Mebbe me and Joe could come along at a distance but close enough to watch your backs. Seems to me that the Marshal ain’t got the best common sense around. I bet that would work.”

Clem and Adam agreed so the plan was set although they had a few other small details that they worked out among them. Dolf was fascinated by the discussion, and Adam had to tell him that under no circumstances could he share any of what he had heard or the plan could fail and possibly one or more of them could be hurt or killed. Dolf very solemnly agreed that he wouldn’t tell anyone anything knowing his silence was crucial.

The ride back to the ranch was relatively quiet with the Cartwrights not wanting to talk about the situation in front of Dolf who had enough to think about already. They didn’t want to talk about other things either and seemingly make light of the double tragedy that had befallen the boy. When they got back to the house, all went to their rooms to change into ordinary clothing. Adam asked Dolf if he wanted to talk. He said no, but also said he didn’t want to be alone so Adam went with him to his room, wrapped an arm around him as they sat, and told him how proud he was of him for how strong he was and how brave.

“I’m trying to be like you. I don’t feel brave. Adam, what’s going to happen to me now?”

“We’ll talk about that after we get all of this settled. Trust me?”

“I trust you.” Dolf leaned into Adam and held onto him because at that moment he was his only anchor.

 ********** 

Chapter 3

The next morning, Hoss and Joe headed out early planning to intercept Adam and the others rather than following behind their route. They guessed that Graves might be looking for someone following them, but there were only a few ways to go toward Sacramento and from a high vantage point, they could watch the group head out and see which way they were going. Using what Adam called the hypotenuse of the triangle and Hoss simply said was the cross country cut, they planned to intercept the trail and then follow along keeping them in sight and watching them closely especially at night when any treachery planned by Graves would be more likely especially against two armed men. None of them trusted Marshal Graves especially as they considered that he chose a far more difficult option than simply sending a description of the man to be used to verify his identification. It didn’t take long for the two brothers to spot the four riders especially as slowly as they were riding because of Dolf. As they watched, Hoss chuckled.

“This is gonna be the easiest tracking we ever done. We’re gonna have to be careful we don’t ride right up their backsides.”

“Yeah, the only hard part is having a cold camp at night. I’m not looking forward to cold meals and no coffee.”

That comment reminded Hoss too that unless this all played out in two days, they would run out of the food that Hop Sing had packed and be reduced to eating jerky and crackers with two cans of peaches as their only indulgences although a couple of hard boiled eggs might last a bit longer. He frowned at the thought but knew that the Marshal probably had his own agenda. Unfortunately for Hoss, it didn’t play out for another week. Travel proceeded peacefully with the only adventure occurring the first night in camp. Adam and Clem pretended to sleep, and Dolf was so excited that he couldn’t sleep and peeked from beneath his arm waiting for his two new friends to carry out their plan. When Marshal Graves got up during the night to head off into the bushes, Clem, who had his bedroll next to him quickly reached over to do his task while Adam raised his head to keep watch. It only took a minute to complete the task and then the two men were snuggled back into their bedrolls seemingly sound asleep when Graves returned. Dolf almost snickered but controlled himself as he watched Graves take a close look at Adam and then at Clem before pulling his blanket over himself and settling in to sleep again. The next morning, Adam went to water the horses before they left as Clem kept Graves busy cleaning up their camp. When Adam came back, he and Clem shared a look that Dolf understood. The second mission was also accomplished.

There was a lot of hard riding though, and Dolf suffered quite a bit by the second and third days. Adam rigged a blanket to give him some relief in the saddle, but saddle-sore at the end of each day, he rested on his side to eat his dinner and slept that way too. After several days, Adam asked to see his backside. Dolf was embarrassed, but Adam insisted saying that even a small sore, if it got infected, could be serious trouble. When he examined Dolf, he found that there were several small blisters that had broken and were red and inflamed.

“There’s only one thing I can do for those, Dolf. It’s going to sting rather badly, but it has to be done. I have some salve I can put on them afterwards. Tomorrow, I know there’s a small clear lake. Maybe we can take a break from traveling and you could rest and let these heal up a bit.”

As his father had taught him, Dolf was as strong as he could be through Adam’s ministrations. He grimaced and hissed through his teeth a few times, but he never cried out. There were tears in his eyes, but he tolerated everything that Adam said he had to do. That night, he admitted that there was less pain, and in the morning, he looked forward to the rest at the small mountain lake that Adam said was only a few miles from where they were. Graves seemed a bit disconcerted that Adam was so familiar with the area, but Adam explained that he and his family had made the trip to California and back many times so that they knew all the routes. Graves also didn’t want to stop but wanted to push on toward Sacramento.

“It’s been nearly a week, and we still have almost that long to go. Surely it won’t matter if we wait a day for the boy to heal up a bit. He’s in pain. A day of rest will go a long way to making him feel better. It was your idea to take him this way.”

“It was for his own good.”

“It would have been far better to leave him on the Ponderosa and send a description of his father.”

Unwilling to challenge Adam any further at that point, Graves backed down, but from the look he gave Adam, both Adam and Clem expected that something was going to happen soon. There was no way they could know how soon, and when it happened, it was wholly unexpected. As they rested by the small lake, Dolf saw a bullfrog in the reeds. He was delighted never having seen one except in illustrations before that moment. He couldn’t help himself and was going to sing that song his mother taught him except the words caught in his throat when he remembered he couldn’t sing it to his father now. The tears came then no matter what he did to try to stop crying. Graves was confused.

“Why’s he crying?”

“Let me see: he’s only a boy and his mother died, his father is probably dead, and he’s being dragged across the mountains to identify his father. Seems to me, he’s got a few reasons to cry.” Adam moved next to Dolf and put a hand on his shoulder. As he did so, he noticed the bullfrog in the reeds too, and it reminded him of the song that Dolf had sung so many times in the bath that first night on the Ponderosa.

“Are you remembering that song you told me your mother taught to you and wanted you to sing to your father?” All Dolf could manage was to nod slightly so overcome with grief that he was weak. As Adam sat with him, he recalled the words to that song that he had heard in the kitchen as he sat and waited for Dolf to finish his bath.

Bullfrogs croaking in the old millponds,

Eating the bugs off the green, green fronds,

Two one two four six four two,

Find me the place that is all blue.

 

He thought about all that he had learned of the movements of Dolf’s mother and her worries about her son and then about her death. He began nodding as he deciphered the code she had given her son to pass on to his father. It was ingenious. Dolf couldn’t tell anyone because he didn’t know he had it. He could honestly tell anyone who asked that his mother had not given him anything to give to his father nor did he have any idea what she had done with the money. But Adam knew. Clem moved closer to him because he was surprised to see that slight smile with Dolf still crying. Adam wrapped his other arm around Dolf and leaned down to whisper to him. Dolf looked up at Adam with tears on his face and a growing look full of wonder as Clem moved close to the two of them.

“Adam, something I oughta know?”

Looking up at Clem, Adam nodded and then asked Dolf if he could tell Clem. When Dolf agreed, Adam explained what he had told the boy. “Yes, I know where the money is. Dolf told me a long time ago, but he didn’t know he told me, and I didn’t know it either until right now when I saw that bullfrog. It made me think of the song, and when I remembered the song with everything else that I knew or learned, I was able to decipher the code.”

“You aren’t making much sense.”

“Dolf sang a song the first night on the Ponderosa. When I asked him about it, he said his mother taught it to him and made him practice until he had it perfect so that he could sing it to his father. He never would have sung the song to me. He’s too shy, but in the washroom, he sang, and I was sitting in the kitchen so I heard him. His mother was brilliant. She used the bullfrog part of the song simply to hide that the song lines  included the code. As I listened to him sing it, I thought the song was a bit odd especially for a German boy to be singing, but I never thought it was the code for anything. All the key parts are there. The new bank in Humboldt Wells has a blue façade. She must have been worried by the time they were there, and she put the money in an account there. I’m sure the bank there was thrilled to get a deposit that large. It’s a branch of the Bank of California so it won’t be difficult to check. All you need is the account number to go with the name.”

Adam repeated the song several times for Clem then who smiled when he understood it. Clem was impressed with her ingenuity, but Graves was still confused.

“But what’s the account number?”

Clem answered him because he understood the whole code now that Adam had deciphered it. “It’s the number line: two, twelve, forty-six, and forty-two.”

Adam explained further. “We have a similar code for the Ponderosa account. No one can get any money simply by trying to use one of our names. They need the number code too. We had too many people who used one of our names to get money and other wealthy people had the same problem so the bank created a security system for anyone who wanted it.”

Pulling his pistol then, Graves had the drop on them because they hadn’t expected him to be so bold as to do it that openly. “Unbuckle your gunbelts and drop them.”

Shrugging, Adam refused. “Why, you plan to kill us anyway? But first, tell me why a U.S. Marshal is going to murder and then steal after having taken an oath to uphold the law.”

“That’s easy. Two hundred thousand dollars is a lot of temptation. I won’t kill the boy. I’ll take him to a mining camp and drop him off. They always need workers. No one will believe a crazy story like what he’ll try to tell. I’ll have to take care of the two of you right now.”

Looking at Clem, Adam asked if he had taken care of his part. Clem nodded and asked Adam if he had taken care if his part. Adam nodded. Neither of them seemed nervous at all, and that made Graves nervous and a bit confused especially when Adam began to advance on him. He pulled the trigger and nothing happened. He heard the click but there was no explosion and Adam didn’t die. Instead, he reached out and grabbed the pistol from Graves’ hand. Graves rushed for his horse, pulled his rifle from its scabbard, turned and fired, but again nothing happened. At that point, Hoss and Joe both came out of the trees with guns drawn.

“Dadburnit, Adam, ya plum scared the dickens out of us. You coulda told us what you was gonna do.”

“We did, but Clem and I added a couple of extra pieces to the plan to be safer. It seems it was necessary too. It all happened a bit faster than expected when it happened, but it all turned out all right.”

As if he had given up, Graves dropped to the ground.  No one paid enough attention to him as he drew a small pistol from his boot.  Moving fast, he lunged for Dolf and would have gotten the boy except Adam saw him begin to move and saw the flash of light reflect from the metal gun barrel in his hand.  He dove on top of the man wrestling with him for control of the weapon.  As they rolled in the dirt, it was nearly impossible for the others to help without risking Adam being shot if Graves got the pistol pointed at Adam even briefly.  Adam was in a desperate struggle with the man who seemed to remember about that moment that Adam had been wounded in the neck recently.  When he could, he slammed his right fist into that muscle at the base of Adam’s neck on the left side.  It didn’t hurt much but it was enough for Adam to be slightly stunned and lose the battle over the pistol.  He might have lost his life then too except Joe was ready.  Faster than most men, he moved quickly into position on the ground next to Graves and had a pistol against the man’s head as soon as the two wrestlers paused.  Graves was in trouble but wouldn’t hang for what he had done.  He took the wiser course and surrendered.

From that point on, things proceeded swiftly. Clem took custody of Graves, and with Joe’s help, took him back to Virginia City for trial. Hoss rode with Adam and Dolf to the nearest town where Adam and Dolf took the stage to Sacramento while Hoss took the horses back to the Ponderosa. In Sacramento, Dolf gave his description of his father that matched what they had for the body. With a coffin and his father’s personal effects, Dolf returned to Virginia City with Adam and they held another funeral as Dolf saw his father buried next to his mother. There was one more trip to finalize the transfer of the money in the bank in Humboldt Wells to a bank in Virginia City. The next issue was what Dolf was going to do. Ben talked to Adam about it.

“What are your plans for Dolf now? You know that he’s welcome here if that’s what you want?”

“It’s not so important what I want as what Dolf wants. He told me that he would like to stay with me, but that he doesn’t like living on a ranch and riding horses. He wondered if I would have any interest in living in a city and making cheese.” Ben had to smile at that unable to picture Adam doing that. “Yes, that was my reaction too. It may take some time, but I’ve sent a letter to his family in Germany asking what they would like. Until then, Dolf will be our guest if that’s all right.”

“Of course he can stay here as our guest. He’s a fine boy, and he’ll be safe here. It will give him time to recover from all that has happened to him.”

A few months later, the answer to Adam’s letter arrived in the person of two of Dolf’s cousins. They were interested in carrying on the same dream as Dolf’s father and were hopeful that they could adopt Dolf as their son. Childless, the couple hoped that having Dolf as their son would fulfill their dream of a family, and their skills in cheesemaking could help him fulfill his dream of fulfilling his father’s legacy. Too shy to talk to the couple directly about what they offered, Dolf asked instead if he could talk to Adam before he gave his answer.

“Adam, do you want me to do this?”

“Dolf, what’s important is if you want to do this. It sounds like a great way to take care of things. What do you think?”

“It does sound good, but I’ll miss you, and I’ll miss Hoss too.”

“We’ll still be friends. We do go to California often. Perhaps you can make cheese that tastes so good, Hoss will eat it. Hoss hates cheese.”

“He hates cheese? You’re right. He’ll like the cheese I make. I’ll show him that cheese tastes good.”

“It does sound like you’ve made up your mind.”

“I like the idea, but I don’t know these cousins of mine very well. They always seemed very nice.”

“Your relatives in Germany trusted them and sent them to take care of you. That says a lot, and that they would travel thousands of miles to see you not knowing if you would accept them or not. They must want you very much.”

Dolf hadn’t thought about it that way. “I could say no.”

“You could, and they would be very hurt. They sacrificed a lot to get here. They took a big chance.” Adam could see by Dolf’s smile that he understood. “If you like, I can tell them your answer or I can be with you when you tell them. Will that help?” Adam knew that Dolf was relieved by his offer so he stepped inside and asked Dolf’s cousins to join them on the porch.

Within days, the adoption was formalized. The new family went to live in Sacramento and used the money left to Dolf by his parents to purchase property to build the first of many dairies that they built in California. Eventually Hoss sampled some of the best cheeses they made and had to admit he liked their cheese getting a smile from the shy young Dolf. Eventually Dolf married and taught his children the Bullfrog Song, and when they got older, he told them how important it was and how important a certain man in black was to him and why.

The End

Words drawn:  bullfrog, Clem, decipher, shy, US Marshal