Proverbs 18:24

Present

Adam could hardly breathe. Pain muddled his vision, his thoughts, and even his common sense. As Joe hunched over him, trying to get the bullet out, Adam almost gave in to all that pain. But he stopped himself. He owed it to his little brother to stick around a little longer.

Don’t worry, brother. You’re going to be fine.

“I’ve almost got it,” Joe said. “It’s under the bone, but at least I see it now.”

Adam groaned deep down in his throat and clenched his teeth, but he hung on, counting each second as if it were a lifetime. Pain scorched his shoulder, as Joe made one last desperate attempt to dig around the bone. And then it was over. Just like that, bullet was out, and the unbearable pain eased up just a little. Joe held the scrap of metal up in the sunlight, his hands slick with his brother’s blood. And just like that, Joe fell apart.

“I’m sorry, Adam,” he said, exhausted and broken, collapsing beside him. “This is all my fault.”

Adam couldn’t get out the words. Forgiveness. Absolution. Let’s try it again. All the right words were tangled up in his brain, but he couldn’t bring himself to say any of them. Adam looked at his brother’s battered face and over at the dead body that Joe had somehow hauled over to the rocks. He reached for Joe’s arm and squeezed it hard before closing his eyes.

“You did what you had to,” Adam managed to get out. “I don’t blame you for it.”

Joe had been dry-eyed since the whole thing began. Adam could hear his kid brother finally start to cry, even as darkness took him back…

Past

“What did you do?” Adam hissed.

Adam held Joe’s arm in a bone-bruising grip. Joe tried to pull away, but his older brother was stronger. He’d always been stronger, but Joe had never let that stop him before. It was almost like he wanted to be caught.

“Why did you do it?” Adam asked this time furiously, shaking his kid brother hard enough to rattle his teeth. “What were you thinking?”

Joe shrugged as if he didn’t care, but he’d never been much for bluffing. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said, and made like he was going to launch himself into the saddle, but Adam wouldn’t let go. It was just as well. The pinto was winded and lathered after their wild ride, and Joe knew that his father wouldn’t stand for abusing a fine horse that way. Riding so hard was foolish beyond all reckoning, but he’d had no choice. At least that’s what he’d been telling himself in a constant refrain, ever since the desperate ride began.

“You know exactly what I mean.” Adam’s voice was tight, as he tried to regain control. “You knew the posse was making a mistake by chasing you, and you didn’t even try to let them know they were chasing the wrong man. You led that posse on a wild goose chase, and I’m thinking you did it on purpose. Now why is that, Joe?”

Joe took a deep breath. A breeze was kicking up through the ravine, cutting through his sweat soaked jacket all the way to his skin. He couldn’t stop shivering, a fact that wasn’t escaping his older brother. He tucked up his collar and stood back, glaring at Adam defiantly.

“I was riding,” he said. “Ain’t my fault that posse decided to follow after me.”

Adam wasn’t buying it. “You let him get away. You took off in the opposite direction so we’d follow. Why’d you do it, Joe? Jimmy Greener might be your friend, but it’s entirely possible he murdered a man. There were witnesses who saw him running from the saloon. Do you know how hard you’ve made it for the sheriff to catch up with him now? You could have gone to prison for helping him.”

“Jimmy Greener is half Cherokee,” Joe fiercely retorted and pulled his arm free. “He’s eighteen for God’s sake. They’d have strung him up on a rail post before getting half way back to Correyville. This ain’t Virginia City, Adam. You know what kind of justice he’d have gotten. The dead man was the sheriff’s brother. Look how quick they left me to go after him!”

“I was with the posse,” Adam said evenly. “I would not have let them lynch Jimmy.”

Joe regarded his older brother. Adam seemed so sure. But Adam always seemed so sure. It was the one thing Joe could always count on. However, Joe was not so sure. He could feel his own uncertainty churn inside him like a belly ache. The posse was out for blood. Adam was out for justice. Joe wasn’t sure which was more dangerous. 

“Why did you do it?” Adam repeated.

Joe shook his head. It was the only honest answer he could give.

Adam sighed. It was a miracle he’d persuaded the posse to move on without beating his brother half to death. It was only for the fact that the sheriff was desperate to find his brother’s killer that they’d let him go. All the same, the lawman had barraged them with a streak of cussing the likes of which Adam had never heard before. Joe had stood stock-still throughout the entire tirade with a look on his face that Adam couldn’t make out. That was a new thing. For every one of Joe’s eighteen years, his emotions had played out across his face; you could read him like a book. What else had changed that Adam didn’t know about? The honest truth was that Joe’s response to the sheriff had stunned him. 

“Don’t you ever set foot in my town again,” the sheriff had shouted at both of them before riding off. “You hear? I’d just as soon shoot you as look at you.”

Then Joe yelled after him, “Don’t you care if I’m a witness?” 

They were already out of hearing. But Adam had heard him just fine, and he fixed his brother with an incredulous stare. Just what had Joe gotten himself into? 

Dust clouded the air between them. Thinking about what Joe had said to the sheriff, Adam continued his interrogation of his brother. 

“Because of you, a murderer might go free,” Adam said with as much self-control as he could manage. “If you were in that saloon, then you saw what was left of Randolph’s head. A man was killed, and somebody has to be held accountable. Jimmy has to be taken in, Joe.”

“Jimmy might not have done it,” Joe said quietly. “He might not have killed that man. We’d have explained it to them, but they wouldn’t have listened.”

There was something chilling in Joe’s voice that made Adam feel suddenly cold on a very hot day. 

“Tell me what you mean, Joe.”

“I’m not sure Jimmy killed Randolph,” Joe said, not willing to look his brother in the eyes. “It was me. I think it might have been me.”

**********

Adam’s body ached from the miles they’d already put between themselves and Correyville. It had not been an easy ride. Time and time again, he’d pulled hard on the reins, as if stopping in his tracks would bring him back to his senses. All he had to do was remember Joe ahead of him, and he’d spur his horse forward. As it turned out, Adam was a brother first and a law-abiding citizen second. In a perfect world, he’d have hauled his brother back to town to get the whole mess straightened out. However, Correyville was anything but a perfect world, and Adam simply could not take his eighteen year old brother back to town with such an ambiguous confession. Adam honestly couldn’t believe that Joe was responsible for that man’s death, but he didn’t trust the sheriff to see it the same. While a prosperous Cartwright might get more of a trial than half-Cherokee Jimmy Greener, he still stood a good chance of being hung at sunup. Adam could not let that happen. It would kill their father. It might damn well kill all of them. 

Adam held himself accountable for letting this happen in the first place. He should have kept a better eye on Joe. Wasn’t that the story of his life? Wasn’t that why their father sent him along? To make sure that Joe didn’t get in more trouble than they could get him out of? Adam could feel a headache coming on that felt a great deal like life-long responsibility. 

Adam still had no idea what had happened in the saloon. At the time of the shooting, he’d been in the middle of the most lucrative deal the Cartwrights had ever put together. It was a very profitable time for the Ponderosa. They were a close knit family, but they were also a business, and money needed to keep coming in to keep operations running. He’d certainly had no inkling that his brother was involved in the shooting or was even in town at the time. He’d believed that Joe was back at the camp with the other cowhands. Adam had been sitting in the bank owner’s high backed chair, sealing the cattle-buying deal on a handshake and a decanter of excellent brandy when news of the killing broke out. Of course, that news spread quickly because the dead man happened to be the sheriff’s kid brother, Grissom Randolph. Although the sheriff asked Adam to join the posse, he’d only been told scant details about the killing. The one thing he’d known for sure was that folks seemed to think that Jimmy Greener was involved. That was enough of a reason for Adam to go along to keep an eye on things. He had fervently prayed that Little Joe didn’t hear about this until they caught Jimmy. Joe had been good friends with the young man, and there was no telling what he’d do if he heard.

As they rode into the high desert, Adam started hearing more details from other members of the posse. There’d been a poker game in the dark corner of the town’s only saloon. The saloon was fairly deserted at that time of day. Only the most addicted and desperate of gamblers were still going at it. There were three men left at the table. Lots of drinking, stakes going higher than they should. At the peak of losing all his money, Randolph accused Jimmy of being a card sharp. Jimmy had faced him off, hotly denying it. Gunfire had broken out. When it was over and the barkeep had dared to come out from hiding, Randolph’s dead body lay draped over a chair. Blood pooled underneath him. Although his face had been blown clean away, nobody had any trouble identifying him. It was without a doubt, Grissom Randolph, the sheriff’s hard living younger brother. The barkeep was sure Jimmy had done it. After all, he was an Indian, and as it turned out, he was a card sharp as well.

The accusation of murder was a surprise to Adam, but not a shock. They’d spent time getting to know Jimmy, and there were certainly plenty of signs of trouble to come. Joe didn’t see it though. Jimmy was a natural with horses, he drank alarming amounts of rotgut, and he liked to have a good time. As far as Joe was concerned, it was an easy friendship. The fact that he was half Indian might have bothered some, but it certainly didn’t bother the Cartwrights. They were far more bothered by some of the young man’s more dubious proclivities. He had an eye for the wrong kind of girl, and he and Joe had been seen around every part of town. He seemed to spend money as easily as Joe and yet he always had more than enough. And finally, Jimmy Greener was always playing cards. Unlike Joe, he was very, very good at poker.

“A man with the wrong kind of companion can come to ruin, Joseph,” Ben Cartwright had warned Joe time and time again, after receiving alarming reports from his older sons.

Yet Joe always finished it off with a smile, saying, “But there’s a friend who sticks closer than a brother. I know how the verse goes. You don’t have to worry about me and Jimmy. He just needs a good friend, Pa.”

The way business had been going, Joe had plenty of opportunity to get to know Jimmy better. Correyville was an upstart cattle town, an ideal junction between the western ranchers and cattle buyers in the east. The Union blockade had proved devastating for Texan cattlemen, but it had been a windfall for the Ponderosa. Joe had joked that he’d been spending more time in Correyville than in Virginia City, and he’d been half right. Every one of them had spent time in the town, but nobody as much as Adam and Joe. Adam had been responsible for brokering the majority of the deals. The cattle buyer liked Adam. Considered him a fine young man and appreciated his straight-forward way of doing business. Ben was happy to hand that responsibility off to his oldest son. There was no one he trusted more to take care of things. 

Originally they’d intended to rotate who would go on a drive and who would stay home at the ranch, but it sure seemed like Little Joe was out on the trail most of the time. He had plenty of motivation. He’d rustled up a business deal for himself at a ranch just outside of Correyville, breaking mustangs for a local wrangler. Jimmy had found him the job, and Joe felt like he owed the young man for that. His family had mixed feelings about his newfound occupation. For the first time in his eighteen years, Joe’d been able to earn enough cash to get in a whole lot of trouble, and for the past six months, he’d been doing just that. Adam couldn’t count how many times he’d interrupted his little brother buying drinks in the bar for all the boys, and that was hardly the beginning. Just last month, Joe had been out with a bunch of drunken cowpunchers while they’d shot out all the streetlamps in town. True, Joe hadn’t been the one doing the shooting, but he’d been arrested any way. They’d let him out of jail right away, because he was a Cartwright, and Cartwright business meant a lot to the town. Hoss had been with him that time, and apparently, it had taken all Hoss’s forbearance to not knock out his little brother right there and then outside that jail and haul him face down over the saddle all the way to the Ponderosa. But Hoss knew well enough not to stir up any more trouble until they were well out of town. 

Correyville was a young town that had never cottoned to handling its legal problems using anything as narrow-minded as the law. The sheriff had only been hired six months earlier, and most folks hadn’t figured out what he was good for. It was an unruly town though, with all the drovers passing through. More often than not, a trial seemed like a waste of time. Correyville was known for the fact that they’d rather hang a man than try him, and most circuit judges didn’t even bother stopping by as part of their monthly rounds. By the time a judge would get in to preside over a trial, new grass would be already be sprouting over the condemned man’s grave. 

It really wasn’t the best place for a young man to sow his wild oats.

Adam tried to ease his father’s mind the best he could. After all, he’d gone through his own bout of carousing at Joe’s age, but the truth was that the majority of it happened when he was out of his father’s house. Adam was still mighty glad he hadn’t had his pa riding herd on him while he was a young man in Boston. It had been a mercy to be able to make his own mistakes without anyone looking over his shoulder. In some ways, Adam believed that Joe might as well get it out of his system while away from home. Pa didn’t need to hear about everything. All the same, Adam wasn’t about to leave Joe to his own devices. He’d been riding herd on his little brother, but he’d been trying to leave their father out of it. 

“Nobody I can depend on like Adam,” Ben would tell friends, “to keep his head when everyone else is running scared.”

Just thinking of his father’s words in him made Adam shake his head at such misplaced confidence. Running scared. That’s exactly what he was doing. Here he was, on the run with his kid brother. And he was definitely scared, even though he’d die a hundred memorable deaths before he let Joe know it.

Adam still didn’t know what had happened in that saloon. Joe had tried to tell him the rest of it, but his older brother had held up his hand, effectively putting an end to the story.

“No,” he said. “Enough, Joe. You can’t tell me any more of it. You can tell the rest to Pa’s lawyer.”

Joe ducked his head, and Adam could tell he was on the verge of tears. “Don’t you want to know what happened so you can tell the sheriff?”

“The less I know, the less I have to testify,” Adam said roughly. He could see the confusion all over Joe’s face, and he let it stay there. “And I’m not taking you back to the sheriff of Correyville.”

“You’re not?”

“No.” Adam crossed his arms over his chest, sighing deeply. “Correyville’s just as corrupt as Hangtown. They’ve got a lynching tree on every corner. No, I’m not taking you back there.”

“Where are we going to go?”

“I’m taking you back to Pa.”

To his surprise, Joe didn’t argue. Although it seemed that he’d wanted to be anywhere but home lately, now there was nowhere else he wanted to be. He was in trouble. Where else should he go but home? So they’d started up on the long ride home to the Ponderosa. Joe had been quiet and introspective, after he’d come to realize that Adam didn’t want to know what happened. If he couldn’t confess, what was there to say? Composed but grim, Adam didn’t ask any questions. They rode at an easy lope that ate up the miles, but nightfall was coming on. 

It was just as well it was too dark to ride. Adam had been mulling over situation over and over again, until he was too tired to think any longer. Joe had taken care of getting camp set up. They’d brought almost nothing with them, just the scant provisions stashed in their saddlebags. Obviously, neither had been planning for being on the run from the law and had left most of their supplies back at the main camp outside of town. 

The moon was rising over the trees, and clouds were tracking across it. Storms often blew in over the mountains at night. They had camped up the hill from Beggar’s Creek, and Joe tramped off into the woods to refill the canteens. Adam had watched him go almost impassively. It was a strange feeling as he watched Joe disappear into the dark. Somehow, the feeling came over him that he shouldn’t let his kid brother go off alone. But that was irrational, and Adam knew it. He fought off the urge to go after him. Joe was certainly capable of going to get water by himself, but Adam couldn’t fight off the feeling that he was missing something. 

Adam sat back on a fallen log and watched sparks from the fire dance and fade away against the dark sky. He could see lightning strikes in the distance. Joe had been gone too long. Vaguely, Adam wondered what he would do if his little brother actually decided to make a run for it. After all, Adam hadn’t promised Joe that he’d help him escape, only that he’d bring him back to sort out the mess in Virginia City. The Cartwrights pursued justice as passionately as other men pursued power and wealth. Even Ben Cartwright would never for stand for his beloved youngest son spending his life on the run from the law. Joe knew what he was facing at home, and certainly he understood the fact that his father would have to turn him in. 

Joe had been running when the posse caught up with him. But Joe wouldn’t run from his older brother, would he? The questions kept on coming. Could Joe really be guilty of shooting down a man? Wouldn’t Adam know something like that? Could Joe have drifted so far away from his family’s intrinsic values that Adam wouldn’t know such a thing about his own brother? Adam couldn’t help but feel that they’d gotten it wrong somehow. Given Little Joe too much slack rein. How, in the end, did you know if you’d gotten it right? Raised up a boy in the way he should go?

The rain began. It spattered around him, threatening to put out the fire. It also roused Adam from the daze he’d been in. It was time to find Joe. It wouldn’t do for him to be out in that stand of trees with lightning coming in. Adam pushed to his feet. He was already feeling the rain through his coat. He had left his oil slicker back at the camp. Damn Joe anyways! Not for the first time, Adam wondered what his life would have been like if he’d grown up without brothers.

Adam was the oldest son of a man who had known more than his fair share of tragedy. Life and loss. Responsibility came like a punch in the gut to a boy who had seen more death in his young life than many grown men. One of Adam’s earliest memories had been holding his baby brother as his stepmother’s blood seeped into the dirt in front of him. He could still hear the baby crying; he could see his father’s raw and frightening grief. He was only six when Inger died, but he’d always been old for his age. That’s what everyone said. Old beyond his years, and that’s the way it had to be. His pa had still been holding Inger’s body, when Adam realized that he missed her already, but he didn’t want to get between them. He held the baby even tighter instead. Hoss. Nobody was going to get between them. His younger brother was his responsibility. He’d stick close his whole life through. After that terrible day, his pa started talking to him like a man.

When they’d staked their claim to the Ponderosa, there had been far more work to do than a single father could possibly manage. It was years before Hop Sing came to work for them so Adam rose to the occasion. He took Hoss in hand, making sure that he was looked after, even if there weren’t any adults around to make sure he was doing it right. But Adam always did it right… besides, looking after Hoss had been easy. 

Raising Joe turned out to be a whole lot harder. Of course, Marie was alive then, but Little Joe was not a one-person baby. He cried like the apocalypse every time his eyes were open and continued to do so until he was old enough to get around on his own two feet. Needed to get on with life, rather than being stuck and helpless in a baby’s body. That’s what Marie often said and she was right, but such God-given wisdom didn’t make raising him any easier. Ben was often gone during that first year, struggling to build up the Ponderosa. Marie was constantly exhausted and rightly so. Of course Adam stepped in to help. How many nights had he spent carrying a enraged baby out underneath a beautiful starlit trying night, trying to spare everyone else from having to listen to that screaming any longer? Little Joe never stopped crying, even in the cold night air, but Adam knew he’d stop eventually. It was a kind of faith: there was potential in this exhausting baby. Those long, miserable nights formed a different kind of bond between him and his youngest brother. His relationship with Hoss came easy. His bond with Little Joe was a lot of work. 

Marie lived until Joe was five – long enough to help keep him alive through his lively first few years. After that, it was up to the remaining three Cartwrights to raise the boy up. It was a task easier said than done. Like Hoss always said, trouble stuck to Joe like fleas on a mangy dog. However, despite his many indiscretions, the kid always had a good heart. That was what Pa and Hoss said. Said that they’d raised him right and that he’d come around. That’s what Adam had always believed as well. He’d sow his wild oats and then settle down. Joe a murderer? Adam just couldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t believe it. But how he wished his pa was there! It was a ridiculous thing. He’d taken care of things his whole life through. Here he was – a grown man – but this time, Adam wanted his father to take care of things.

Lightning still cracked across the sky but seemed to be moving the other direction. The clouds were parting overhead, the rain easing to a fine mist. The full moon slanted between the clouds, bathing the slick trees in silver light. He was wet and miserable, but it was beautiful. Adam found his footing. He was half way to the stand of trees when he heard a sound he didn’t like. A horse whinnying in the distance. Branches breaking. Footfall. The sound of someone groaning.

“Joe?” he called out reflexively and reached for his gun. “You all right?”

There was no answer, and he was just about to pull his gun from its holster when a strange voice ordered from the shadows, “Don’t do it!” 

With the unreliable moonlight, it was difficult to see well, and Adam had to squint to make out two figures emerging from the dark woods. One was staggering; the other was holding a gun. 

“Joe!” he shouted and stepped forward, but he heard the distinctive click of a hammer being cocked, and he stopped.

“Don’t do it, Adam.” Joe called out this time, and his voice was strained. Adam could hear the pain in it right away.

Adam listened to Joe, because he could see the look on Jimmy Greener’s face. It was like Adam had never seen him before. Immediately, he understood that this was a very dangerous young man. He’d always thought of Jimmy as simply being one of Joe’s less reputable friends. It wasn’t like he was the only one. Joe had a passel of friends that his family didn’t quite approve of. But Jimmy looked different in the shadows that night. He looked hard, like he’d seen all the world had to offer and was willing to spit it out like used tobacco.

Adam was so mesmerized by the change that had come over Jimmy that didn’t really take a good look at Joe until he collapsed in a fit of raspy coughing. Only then did he realize that Joe had taken quite a beating. 

“You all right Joe?” he asked and warily stepped forward to get a better look. Joe’s eye was already swelling shut, and he was holding his ribs painfully. Apparently, Joe’s “friend” had learned a thing or two about pistol whipping, in between breaking horses and playing cards.

Joe nodded. “I’m all right, Adam.”

“Enough,” said Jimmy, firmly. “Let’s get a move on back to the fire.”

The young man said it so casually that Adam had to struggle to make sense of the words. His clear thinking, usually his prize asset in a crisis, was muddled by the turn of events, almost to the point where he couldn’t imagine what was coming next. Jimmy pushed Joe forward, keeping the gun leveled at his head. How had this happened? Jimmy and Joe were friends, and Joe had just thrown off a posse to save him. Although the sheriff in town was convinced that Jimmy was the killer, that’s not what Joe believed. Joe had all but confessed to the murder. It made no sense at all. No sense, and here was Jimmy, apparently ready to kill the both of them for reasons that were currently unfathomable to Adam Cartwright.

“Can we talk about this?” Adam asked, almost sarcastically. “I’m having some trouble following what’s going on.”

Despite the gun at his head, Joe turned to regard his former friend.

“Let my brother go,” Joe pleaded quietly. “He doesn’t have anything to do with this.”

Jimmy asked, “You told him what happened, didn’t you? Not smart, Joe. You really should have kept quiet. I’d been expecting to catch up with you alone like we planned, but now your virtuous brother will be first in line to testify. That’s assuming I live long enough to see a trial, once that posse catches up to me.”

Joe hunched over in a coughing fit so fierce that it sounded like he was choking on his own blood, but he managed to reply, “I told my brother that I was the one who shot Randolph. We don’t know whose bullet it was, Jimmy. For God’s sake, I kept them off your trail. You have this chance. Why are you wasting it?”

“Be quiet, Joe,” Adam hissed. He was still painfully aware of the consequences of any “confession” his brother might make. 

“Jimmy was there, Adam,” Joe said, obviously a little exasperated with his overprotective brother. “He already knows what happened. I’m not letting any secrets loose.”

They approached the sputtering fire. The mist had all but extinguished it while they were gone. Jimmy gestured with his gun towards a fallen log.

“Sit down while I decide what to do,” Jimmy ordered.

Warily, Adam took a seat next to his brother, and Joe leaned against him, trying to catch his breath. Adam put his arm around his shoulders protectively but was irritated to feel Joe reaching into his boot for his stashed pocket knife. Apparently, Joe was making plans, the kind that could get both of them killed. He caught Joe’s hand and held it fast, as unobtrusively as he could, trying to send a clear message. Don’t do anything yet! Guns trumped knives. Until they were desperate, it wasn’t worth taking the risk of getting shot. 

“What do you want from us, Jimmy?” Adam asked.

“My money back for one thing,” Jimmy said with an unexpected grin. “Little Joe – you been doing a good job keeping it safe for me?”

“It’s in my saddlebags,” Joe said. “It’s all there. You can count it.”

“Thanks, I’ll wait,” Jimmy said evenly.

Adam regarded his younger brother with mounting anger. “What’s this about, Joe?”

“I kept his money for him, until he could come back for it. We didn’t want the posse to find it on him if they caught up. He won it fair and square, Adam, but we thought it would be incriminating. That’s all.”

“That’s all?” Adam asked incredulously. “So, it was all right if the posse found it on you? Joe, I don’t understand any of this. You helped him get away. You arranged to meet up with him again. You were willing to hold onto the money and get yourself arrested for this “friend” of yours, and this is how he’s returning the favor?”

“I guess,” Joe said and shrugged. “I didn’t expect this either, Adam.”

Adam asked Jimmy, “Was this money you conned out of Randolph? Is that why you killed him – to walk away with his money?”

Although coughing, Joe reminded him, “Adam, I killed Randolph.”

“Shut up, Joe,” Adam retorted, even as he braced him through the bout of coughing. He glared at Jimmy. “How did you get my brother to take credit for killing that man?”

Jimmy looked amused. “What makes you think he’s not telling you the truth? Besides, the money’s mine. Like Joe said, I earned it, fair and square.”

Adam leaned back, his eyes narrow. “I know my brother,” he said. “And I know he didn’t have anything to do with this.”

Joe touched his brother’s arm. “The shooting wasn’t his fault. Randolph accused of him of cheating at poker. He drew on Jimmy first. It was self defense, Adam, but being a card sharp is damn serious. You know as well as I do how this would play out in a town like Correyville for someone who’s half Indian. His word wouldn’t stand a chance.”

It was starting to make some sense to Adam. Joe had originally gotten into this mess defending Jimmy’s reputation. “So you were trying to be the white knight of Correyville?” he asked Joe caustically.

“I was trying to be decent,” Joe snapped. “Isn’t that what you’d want from me?”

Adam turned back to Jimmy.

“You were cheating at cards?” It was really more of a statement than a question.

“He wasn’t cheating,” Joe protested, and Adam rolled his eyes at his brother’s naiveté. Despite the trouble he was always getting in, Adam realized that Joe had a lot to learn about the world. There was a hell of a lot he had left to teach him.

“Don’t tell me,” Adam said, ignoring his brother. “You’re just lucky.”

“Lovely luck,” the young man drawled, and suddenly Adam felt Joe stiffen beside him. “Sometimes luck needs to be encouraged.” 

“You were cheating, weren’t you?” Joe asked abruptly, hearing the mocking in his friend’s voice. “Randolph was right.”

“He broke the gambler’s code,” Jimmy replied. “Shoot first and ask questions later. He asked questions first.”

“I didn’t believe him,” Joe said, almost to himself. “I didn’t think you would cheat. I defended you, thinking you’d only been accused because you were half Indian.”

“Well, you’ve got some learning to do. Don’t be a fool, Joe. And don’t think you’re better than me. I’ve got to look out after myself. Don’t have anyone doing it for me, like you do.”

“My brother may be a fool,” Adam said, glancing sideways at Joe, “but he is also a good friend. Joe didn’t kill that man, did he? Why did he say that he did? To protect you?”

“It was dark,” Joe said. “We don’t know who killed him. Randolph drew and was about to fire. Jimmy and I fired at the same time.”

“So it was self defense?” Adam prodded. “For you at least?”

“Maybe self defense would work for him, but there’s no such thing as self defense for someone like me,” Jimmy said. “They let Joe go when they caught up with him, didn’t they? Didn’t even think to look in his saddlebags or ask him any questions. It never even occurred to them that a Cartwright would have something to do with it. They’d have hung me for sure. It wasn’t his bullet, anyway, if that makes you feel better. Joe had too much to drink and wasn’t shooting straight. His bullet’s lodged in the threshold.”

Although Adam couldn’t cotton to the kind of drinking that kept his little brother from shooting straight, he thanked God right then and there for every last shot of rotgut Joe had downed that night. 

“Joe tried to protect you,” Adam said. “He lured that posse away. He’d have gone to the sheriff to confess if -“

“If I hadn’t come back,” Jimmy finished for him. “Well, I’m sorry about that. I needed that money for a fresh start. I earned it. I like you, Joe, I really do. You’ve been good company. But I can’t take a chance on Older Brother there interfering. I know you’d give me back my money without trouble, but he won’t feel the same. I expect he’d do anything to keep you safe, even if that means killing me.”

“You don’t know anything about my brother,” Joe said with surprising conviction. “You don’t know my family. If I need to face justice, they’ll see to it that I face it.”

“Well then you’re right,” Jimmy replied. “I don’t understand your family at all. I’m sorry for that. Getting to know the Cartwrights could have been interesting.”

Almost laconically, Jimmy lifted his six shooter and pointed it back at Joe’s head. He cocked the hammer.

Adam was moving at him before he could think it through. Impulsive like Joe, he thought for a moment, just as gunfire cracked through the air. The noise was more startling than the impact of the bullet that knocked him off his feet. Pain took a lot longer in coming. Then, he was lying on his back. The stars were fading to black. Adam put his hand to his shoulder and drew it away. Wet. Tacky and warm. He wondered if he would bleed to death under a full moon. Under the fading stars.

Nearby, something important was happening, but Adam couldn’t bring himself to understand what it was. Swearing and groaning. The dull thud of fists pounding into flesh. Dirt and twigs were flying up into the air, and some fell into his mouth, but Adam couldn’t muster up the strength to spit them out. He was fading fast. He could barely keep his eyes open, even as the gun went off again. 

Little Joe. 

Don’t worry, brother. You’re going to be fine.

**********

Present

When Adam opened his eyes, the sun was overhead. A fly was buzzing near his ear. He had been pretty sure he was dead. But he was still breathing, and suddenly life felt a lot more interesting. 

His shoulder hurt like the devil, but it wasn’t bleeding. Then he remembered. Joe managed to get the bullet out. His shoulder was swathed in what looked like Joe’s favorite shirt. With a low groan, Adam stretched out his good arm and practically hit his brother in the face. Joe was asleep next to him. His jacket was on but unbuttoned. From where he was lying, Adam could see the telltale bruising of broken ribs. The kid was out to the world, head thrown back. His leg was sprawled over Adam’s. Typical. If they were lying on a bed, Joe would be hogging it. Little Joe always got more than his fair share. 

Adam turned his head and could see Jimmy’s body lying over by the rocks. The bullet had got him in the gut, as he and Joe had wrestled over the gun. Such a waste. The boy had squandered all the potential of his short life. 

Good Lord, he was tired. Adam tried to sit up but was too dizzy, and he lay back again. Pain washed over him, knife-edge sharp. He was thirsty. 

It was going to be necessary to wake Joe, but he held off as long as he could. Joe was a mess. His face sported bruises on top of bruises, and his breathing sounded rattled and wrong. Those ribs. Adam wondered who would be able to bind them, what with his own shoulder and arm out of commission. Joe was stirring – more “coming to” than waking up. It was the kind of sleep that flirted dangerously close to unconsciousness. They were both close to the kind of exhaustion they couldn’t afford out in the middle of nowhere. Absently, Adam wondered if his pa would find them there, or if they would die a mystery. It wouldn’t do – defeatist thinking. A Cartwright wouldn’t stand for dying so easily.

“Joe.” Adam tried elbowing his brother with his good arm, but Joe moaned and moved away from him. “Joe!”

Joe woke up slowly at first, and then quickly. He struggled to sit up but grinned at seeing Adam awake. 

“Hey, brother!” he exclaimed. “I told you everything was going to be all right.”

Adam managed to smile at Joe’s optimism. “If you say so, buddy,” he said. “Any chance you could find some water somewhere around here?”

“Can do,” Joe said, pausing long enough to examine the angry red wound on Adam’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”

Adam watched as Joe walked painfully across the clearing, pausing before the body of his friend. Head bowed so his face wasn’t visible, Joe could have been crying. However, when he glanced over his shoulder at Adam, there weren’t any tears. All Adam could see was regret and the stirrings of maturity. But Joe moved on. His brother was thirsty.

While he was gone, Adam was still thinking. He was thinking of all the pieces of the puzzle that didn’t fit right. About the questions that might not have answers. Adam had a hundred of them, but he only asked his brother one when he came back with the water.

“Why were you willing to protect him, Joe?’

Joe shrugged. “I thought it was the right thing to do.”

“Because he was Indian?”

“Yeah, I guess. He was my friend. It’s complicated, Adam. Isn’t that reason enough?”

“No,” Adam replied with conviction. “It’s not enough. There’s right and there’s wrong, and there’s nothing complicated about that. You don’t protect someone when they’ve crossed over that line.”

“You were trying to protect me,” Joe said.

“That’s different. I didn’t think there was any way you’d have gotten a fair trial in Correyville, and I knew you didn’t do it.”

“Not different at all,” Joe said. “I didn’t think Jimmy had a chance, and I was right. Look how quick they left me behind to go after him. They never even stopped to think that Jimmy might have been innocent and I was the one who did it.”

“But he wasn’t innocent,” Adam retorted. “He might not have murdered Randolph, but he was a card sharp. He was going to kill us without even thinking twice about it.”

“I wanted to give him a chance,” Joe said quietly. “I’m not saying it was a good plan.”

Adam sighed. The day was slipping by, and neither had managed to take a dozen steps toward getting out of there. They were bedeviled, it seemed, by late stops and early starts. How they were going to get home, Adam had absolutely no idea.

After a while, Adam asked, “If you knew he’d been cheating, would you still have agreed to help him?”

“Probably,” Joe said. “He needed my help. But not if I knew you’d get shot. I’m really sorry about that, by the way, Adam.”

“Thanks a lot,” Adam replied dryly but smiled anyway. His brother was irritating as hell, but not in the ways you’d hang a man for. He would have a hard time breaking it down for their father, but it would a whole lot easier than explaining why Joe was on the run for a murder.

It was time to get a move on, but they were in no condition to do so on their own. Between the two of them, they could hardly saddle the horses, let alone get a foot in the stirrups. They were still struggling to get in the saddle when the posse finally arrived. It had been a long ride for the men, having just found Jimmy’s trail before the rain began. Joe swore under his breath when he saw them ride up over the crest of the hill, and Adam made a move for his gun, although he could hardly have lifted it with the pain in his shoulder. 

“No,” Joe said, staying his brother’s hand. “Let this happen.”

Joe was right, and Adam let the gun stay in its holster. They were a pathetic lot all right, the two Cartwright brothers, standing beside their horses and the dead body of the man who had tried to kill them.

Oddly enough, the sheriff didn’t even seem to notice the two of them at first. He immediately rode to Jimmy Greener’s body, dismounted, and stood over it for a minute. When he turned around, he looked more sad than satisfied.

“Which one of you killed him?” the lawman asked, seeming to acknowledge the Cartwright brothers for the first time. 

“I did,” Joe said, stepping forward. “Sir, I also shot at your brother, but I’m told that I missed.”

Adam would have shot at his brother right there and then, had he been able to, and he snarled at his brother with yet another heartfelt, “Be quiet, Joe!” Good Lord Almighty, would he ever stop confessing?

But it didn’t seem to matter. The sheriff raised his eyebrow at Joe. 

“You mind telling me what happened?” 

“No sir,” Joe replied, glancing nervously at his big brother. “We were playing poker, the three of us. Your brother was losing. Jimmy pulled a royal flush, and he accused Jimmy of cheating. Then he drew on us. We didn’t have much of a choice, but I’m real sorry it happened.”

“Did my brother shoot at you first?” he asked.

“Yes sir,” Joe said. “I’m sorry but he did.”

They both looked back at Jimmy’s body, already covered with wind strewn debris. 

The sheriff looked awfully tired. Adam realized with a start that he probably wasn’t much older than he was. “Was your friend cheating?”

“Yes sir, I reckon he was. I didn’t know it until later.”

“Well then, it’s hard to say how a trial might have turned out,” the sheriff said, running his hand over his forehead. His face looked like it had been etched by sun and wind. “I’d been planning to bring him back to town to give him that chance.” He glanced over his shoulder at the other members of the posse, who were milling next to the body, grumbling over the fact that the Indian kid was already dead. He added meaningfully, “I’d hoped to get to him first.”

Adam and Joe looked hard at the ground, unwilling to voice how surprised they were at that revelation. Apparently, justice would be coming to Correyville after all. Even towns could grow up, given the right man in charge.

The sheriff appraised Adam and then turned back at Joe. “Your brother looks bad off.”

Joe replied, “He is. I got the bullet out of his shoulder, but he needs a doctor. I’d be fine with going along with you peaceably, if you’ll help me get him back to town. I’m willing to turn myself in for a trial, Sheriff.”

The lawman studied Joe. “You don’t look much better off yourself, boy.”

Adam finally found his voice, even though he was leaning heavily against his horse just to stay standing. He’d have shaken his brother hard enough to rattle his teeth if he could have. 

“You have nothing to turn yourself in for, Joe. You’re innocent. When are you going to understand that?” 

“I was involved, Adam,” Joe said evenly. “I covered for Jimmy. I’m accountable for that.”

“I’ll help you get to town,” the sheriff told him. “But you’re going to be seeing a doctor, boy, not the inside of my jail cell.”

“But why?” Joe started to ask, before the lawman cut him off.

“Son,” he said, “my brother was a gambler. He’d been courting this kind of death since he started playing cards. Must have been about your age. I only wish I’d looked after him better. Never thought about it at the time. I should have stuck closer.”

Adam had to ask, “Why are you willing to help us after we misled you?”

The sheriff looked at him with undisguised weariness. 

“Because it’s the decent thing to do,” he said. 

Joe looked over his shoulder, and Adam could see the ghost of a smile, framed by enormous, encompassing relief. Adam felt it too. He’d been so worried that Joe would come to ruin by the company he’d been keeping, but the truth had been a lot more complicated. Like the sheriff of Correyville, things weren’t always what they seemed on the surface. Some did right things for the wrong reasons, while others did wrong things for the right reasons. Joe had been wrong in trying to help Jimmy run from the law, and yet Adam found such misplaced loyalty oddly reassuring. Jimmy Greener hadn’t been redeemable, but Adam was glad that his brother had been willing to try.

They started back for town, even though Adam wasn’t sure he’d be able to stay upright in the saddle. One of the men in the posse had given him a swig of whiskey for the pain, which helped more than he’d expected. Even so, he kept Joe fixed in his sights ahead, unwilling to let any distance come between them. 

Joe was still young. He would have more chances to save the world. It was entirely possible he’d get all of them killed while trying. Not much could be done about that. Joe was a Cartwright, and they’d taught him enough about decency that it had become a habit. His family had stuck close enough. They’d raised him right. 

So Adam relaxed a little, holding the reins nice and easy. He would have to tell Pa and Hoss when he saw them.

The End