Summary: Adam and Hoss seem to have vanished while on their way to Placerville for ranch business, leaving Ben and Joe to search for what might have happened. What they can’t imagine is that the lost Cartwrights were left for dead by two brothers who had once worked on the Ponderosa. Hoss and Adam’s lives depend on being rescued quickly, but their situation stacks the odd against that happening, forcing Adam to make a decision that may leave the family short one son.

Rating: K+  Word Count: 23,425

Author’s Note: This is one of two stories I’ve placed in the 6th year of Bonanza Canon as Adam finds that he’s becoming restless with his life in Nevada. He is still actively participating in his family, but his heart has already taken the first steps away from home. Now he must figure out how to tell his family. I’ll post the second story in a week or so.

 

A Tale of Four Brothers

One

“I don’t know about this, Jase,” the bearded young man whined to his companion. “If them Cartwrights find us minin’ on their land, they’ll take us to the sheriff fer sure.”

Jase Swanson raised the lamp to take a better look at the blue-green swirl within the darker rock of the cave, and laughed. “Well then they just can’t find out, Myron.” He wiped his hand down the face of the hard surface and smacked his lips. “This here vein is silver fer sure…I think, and we’ll be rich if we can get it outta here quick-like. We’ve already spent a couple weeks shorin’ up the wing of this cave, and I ain’t seen hide-nor-hair of Ben or his boys. All we got to do now is blow out this section, bring in the wagon and grab the ore. So stop standin’ around cryin’ like a baby about bein’ caught, and let’s get them dynamite sticks planted up top.”

The two men squinted in the bright sunlight as they exited the cave. Myron pulled his hat brim lower to shade his eyes as he continued to voice his concern. “We been doing this too long already. Someone’s bound to ride through soon; we ain’t far from the road they take over to Placerville. And when we blow the dynamite, the noise will travel some distance. It don’t feel right to me, and I don’t want to spend time in jail for a few bucks of silver dust. You and I been there before and I don’t intend on goin’ back.”

“That’s yer problem, kid; you think small. That vein probably runs far back and we won’t know that until we get to it. There’s no reason we can’t do that by tomorrow. Then we’ll cover everything up with them bushes jest like we been doin’ so even if them Cartwrights do come by, they won’t know we been here. If things assay good, we’ll come back and blast some more. Besides, you know I done checked yesterday, and the nearest Cartwright beef is grazing some miles from here. If they do hear the explosion, they’ll likely think it’s thunder.”

Myron Swanson shook his head miserably while he made his way to the rocky ledge above the cave and kicked the top off the crate of TNT sticks. The Swanson boys had ridden together since their parents had died in a fire five years ago. Myron had only been 13 then; his brother18. The two had made their way from Abilene to Nevada together, working as drovers and farm hands along the way. But their original dream of having their own ranch someday had changed when they’d decided to head to California and mine for gold. The silver bonanza was going strong in Virginia City about the time they arrived, and Jase had decided they’d try for a different colored metal to make their fortune. They’d taken work at the Ponderosa as a way to save up for a mining claim.

What the Swanson boys knew about extracting ore would fit on the tip of a pickaxe, but they’d asked questions and listened as the other trail hands on the Cartwright ranch had talked about their mining experiences. Many of these men had tried working in the mines, but they’d eagerly given up the dark and dangerous caves and pits to work in the open air again. They’d shared stories of what the silver looked like, and how to get it out of the uncooperative rock that surrounded Virginia City. The fact that all “former” miners agreed that the compensation it brought wasn’t worth the risk, hadn’t dampened Jase and Myron’s spirits, but it had solidified Jase’s plan that they wouldn’t mine for someone else. They were going to find it on their own and make money for themselves.

Things had taken a turn in their favor when they’d been chasing strays over a ridge along a far-south pasture on the Ponderosa. Jase had seen what he thought was a sagebrush-covered cave opening on the hillside, and had gone in to explore. Myron had suspected that they weren’t the first to check it out, and figured there was a reason it hadn’t been mined already, but his older brother had said that with as much land as the Cartwright’s owned they couldn’t look into every hollow.

The brothers had stood there in awe that day as streams of sunshine snaked their way through natural vents in the cave’s ceiling illuminated the greenish-blue coloration on the upper portion of one of cave’s short branches. “It’s just like them men described!” Jase had hollered to Myron. “Blue and green swirled in dirt! It has to be silver!”

After their find, they’d worked another couple of months, saving their wages until they could afford a few tools and supplies, and then had given their regrets to the Ponderosa foreman, saying they were moving on. They had moved on, but not far. They’d made camp in a small canyon behind the mine, far enough off the road they wouldn’t be seen. There hadn’t been money for good shoring wood, so they’d made do with the deadwood and scrub trees they could find. Jase had speculated that they only had to reinforce the area where they’d found the ore anyway. With that in place, they’d dug holes in the ground on the outside—above the cave—estimating where the silver-laden ceiling was inside.

Myron was forced to end his pondering when Jase walked up to him, giving him a punch in the shoulder and snarling at him to, “Hurry up.” He sighed miserably as he grabbed a handful of dynamite sticks and began wedging them into the shallow indentations they’d chipped in the rock. His mind was still working hard to grasp what they were doing. They were trespassing; mining someone else’s ore, and the part that scared him most, was that neither he nor his brother had any experience with this sort of thing. He had to trust that Jase was making the right decisions about where to place the explosives, but in Myron’s mind, blowing the ceiling from outside seemed a better way to collapse the entire cave rather than the best way to free the silver ore. Unable to keep his anxiety at bay, he stopped and asked, “Yer sure you doing this right? I thought them men said they put the sticks inside.”

Jase let out an angry howl that was swallowed up by wind, and then grabbed his brother by the shoulders and shook him. “Stop worryin’. I puzzled this all out, and if we was blowin’ a wall, it would be done inside, but doin’ it this way will save time, and we’ll get outta here quicker.” He shook Myron again. “Ain’t that what you been sayin’ you want?”

Myron nodded. “I’m sorry. You know I got a nervous problem. And it don’t hurt to ask, just to make sure we’s doin’ things right.”

He let go of his brother and gave him a playful punch to the stomach. “I guess it don’t at that. It’s gettin’ toward sundown already,” he said as he took the dynamite sticks from Myron. “Nothin’s gonna go wrong. I’ll finish setting this up; you go get us a rabbit or somethin’ for supper. I’m tired a beans.”

Two

Hoss and Adam had their saddle bags slung over their shoulders, rifles in hand, and their bedrolls stuck under their arms as they stood in front of their father’s desk getting last minute orders before heading out to Placerville.

“Did you take a bank draft, Adam?” Ben asked, and then chuckled when his son patted his saddle bag. “I’m sorry,” the older man offered sincerely. “I know you’re capable of doing this transaction without me interfering, but I’m anxious to get some of the Double D bloodline into our herd.  Daniel Dowd is a hard man to deal with. I’ve been trying to buy one of his bulls for years, and I don’t want this to go wrong.”

“We know, Pa.” Hoss winked at his older brother after giving his reassurance. “Now sendin’ me an Joe might end up not workin’ out so well, but you done got the pairing right in sending Adam and me. Adam ain’t one to have any fun while we’re away—or at least not the kind I’d like, but on the other hand, he don’t usually get me into any trouble neither, and I appreciate that.”

Ben looked from son to son and laughed. “I suppose that’s true enough, except I do remember a race horse and a few other escapades you two took on together that didn’t turn out so well.”

“Believe me, Pa, we’ve learned from our mistakes, and this is all business.” Adam grinned and added, “Now can we get going before it’s lunch time and Hoss needs to eat again?”

Ignoring the snide comment, Ben asked? “You know how much to offer him. I won’t sell the ranch to have his bull, but I’ll pay well for it.”

“Yes, Pa,” Adam answered with a grin. “I’ll pick out the best of the bunch; pay what he’s worth, and we’ll get him home safely.” He looked at Hoss. “Why don’t you go saddle up, I have something personal I’d like to talk to Pa about before we go.” The younger brother gave him a sidelong glance, and then bid goodbye to his father with a handshake before heading out to their waiting horses.

Ben’s eyebrows rose as he asked, “What’s on your mind?”

Adam walked to the window and made sure Hoss was actually moving to their horses rather than eavesdropping. “I know you’d like us back on Friday. That gives us two days to get there and buy the bull, and then three days to get back with it. But I’d like to spend one extra day in Placerville.”

The father’s eyebrows rose further as he grinned. “You got something in mind?”

He cleared his throat. “Not me, Pa; Hoss. Remember last spring when the Dowd’s came here to see our stock? Well, Hoss and Darlene Dowd spent a lot of time together. She’s a nice girl—pretty too, and I think Hoss is sweet on her. I thought if we stayed an extra day, he’d have a chance to get to know her a little better.”

“That’s mighty thoughtful of you,” his father remarked with a knowing smile. “Your love for your brother is an amazing thing, although I suspect this is more to do with you and a wealthy, beautiful widow you know in Placerville, rather than your concern for Hoss.”

Adam’s blush testified to the truth in his father’s suspicions. He pulled his shoulders back and breathed deeply. “It’s a sad day on the Ponderosa when I can’t do a selfless act for my brother without my father accusing me of having something up my sleeve.” Father and son glared at each other before breaking into laughter.

“All right, I won’t ask any more questions. You’re entitled to have a few secrets, and I do think Hoss will appreciate an evening with Miss Dowd. But we’re already four men short with those Swanson brothers leaving, and the two gone who were injured when their horses slipped on that muddy hill, so get back as soon as you can.”

“Don’t worry; we’ll be back first thing Saturday.”

Ben walked his eldest to the door, giving the young man’s shoulder a squeeze as he said goodbye. He watched until all that was left was the swirling dust his sons left behind, and then muttered, “Don’t worry, he says.” He walked back to his desk and dropped down in the green leather chair before finishing his thought. “I will worry about them ‘til the day I die.”

Three

Hoss and Adam were a half-day into their trip when they found Little Joe with the rest of the ranch hands out in the south pastures. “Hey little brother,” Hoss called out as he rode up to the camp and dismounted. “We thought we’d join you for some beans and biscuits before hittin’ the trail again.”

“Is Adam of the same mind as you, Hoss?” Joe asked as he observed the less-than enthusiastic look on his oldest brother’s face. “I recollect that Adam isn’t all that fond of beans.”

“I’m not, but the biscuits are usually good, and hopefully the company will make up for the ever-present legumes.” Adam extended his hand in greeting, and noting his the squinting looks coming his way, he clarified, “Beans, guys. Legumes are beans.”

“Why didn’t ya say that?” Hoss asked, shaking his head.

Adam ignored the snide remark and asked, “How’s it going out here? Any problems since you got the herd settled?”

The three brothers filled plates with food and sat on rocks off to the side of the cook wagon. Little Joe spooned a heap of beans into his mouth and swallowed. “I’m heading home tomorrow with some of the men. A small crew can handle the beef out here while we get other work done at the ranch.”

Adam nodded approvingly. “There’s plenty to do. That breeding pen needs reinforcement before we get back with Dowd’s bull. And there’s hay to cut and…”

Little Joe cut him off. “I already made the list with Pa. You get that bull here in one piece and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Is that any way to speak to your elder?” Adam asked even while sending his youngest brother a look of admiration. He laughed, and added, “I have to admit that I do like it when you take charge. It makes me think I trained you well, and you’ll do a good job when…” He stopped short of finishing his thought. He’d almost said, “When I leave,” but he wasn’t ready to make that declaration just yet.

Adam’s mind drifted away as he considered what such a declaration would mean to him and his family. But he was restless, and it seemed to stem from needing something more out of life than the ranch offered. Lately he paced his room at night trying to decide where his heart was leading him, collapsing in sleep only when he was too exhausted to continue. He’d fully recovered since the fall that had paralyzed him for a few months, and his body was in better shape than ever because of all the strengthening exercises he’d had to do to get back on his feet.

It was his spirit that wasn’t well.

None of what he was experiencing stemmed from the accident. And it certainly wasn’t because things hadn’t worked with Laura; that outcome hadn’t given him a moment of grief or regret. What bothered him was that he didn’t understand why he’d let himself get into the situation in the first place. He’d pushed aside the persistent whisper in his head, telling him that he was making a bad decision even as he’d let people and events push him toward a something he hadn’t really wanted—at least not with Laura. He hadn’t even loved Laura when he’d proposed, yet he’d grown fond of her and he’d begun to see her and Peggy as his way of settling into life as a rancher and family man. He’d actually decided to build the house with the hope that it would get him more excited about staying put and marrying.

The whispering that this wouldn’t work had gotten louder as the house had neared completion. And as he’d bought a ring and agreed to set a date for the wedding, the whisper had become a shout—a constant scream saying that doing what everyone expected him to do was not the life he wanted.

He’d finally been forced to listen to his internal voice while he was paralyzed. It wasn’t that he didn’t want a wife and family, but he wanted to marry someone who couldn’t live without him—someone he couldn’t live without either. She didn’t have to love everything he enjoyed doing, but he needed her to understand why he did, and to have her own passions that he would come to appreciate. His wife would challenge him to be the best man he could be while he did the same for her; someone who would love him with her body and soul. The fact he’d always known, and he finally faced, was that Laura would never be that person.

Settling into a role because it was convenient wasn’t enough. Being on the Ponderosa with his family had been a wonderful life, but it didn’t challenge him anymore. He found himself longing for ways to shake out of the routines that had become comfortable. The truth had left no room for compromise and he’d planned a way to take care of Laura until she found someone who would be a more suitable husband. It had proven a fortuitous turn of events that Laura had turned to Will, while he had come to his own conclusions—ones that hadn’t included her.

It was always easier seeing life in hindsight, and he realized that both he and Laura had received an intervention in their lives that had saved them from a huge mistake. His had started with the unexpected meeting of a woman he’d come to love while he’d been away at school. Melinda Hayworth’s aunt had lived next door to Abel Stoddard and he’d seen the young woman when she visited there. They’d soon fallen in love, but they’d lost touch when Melinda had gone on to college to become a teacher and he’d returned home. He hadn’t heard from her in twelve years, but one day he’d met her again outside a jewelry store in Sacramento—the one where he’d been choosing a ring for Laura—while on the trip that had kept him from getting home for his engagement party. He and Melinda had spent enough time together then to discover that their estrangement had been caused by mail problems, not a lack of devotion, and their feelings for each other had reawakened like a dessert flower after the winter rains.

Yet they’d known it couldn’t become anything more than a reunion, and he’d returned home intent on fulfilling his promise to Laura. He’d pushed his feeling for Melinda deep into the shadows of his mind as he’d dealt with his accident and recovery, but now that he was doing well, he could hear her quiet voice whispering that his life was waiting for him in Boston.

It was obvious to him that his heart had already booked passage back east, even though he was still playing his part on the ranch, pretending to be engaged in family discussions and planning. The biggest drawback to letting his body follow his heart was telling his father about it. He could envision the sadness his departure would cause, and that alone was enough for him to put things off…for a little longer.

Adam looked up from his thoughts to find Little Joe and Hoss staring at him. “What wrong?” he asked.

“That’s jest what we was wondering, Adam,” Hoss said, laughing. “You stopped talkin’ and sort of drifted off fer some time.”

He busied himself dumping the remainder of his beans in the brush to keep the younger Cartwrights from seeing his embarrassment. When he came back he was all business again. “Sounds like you have everything in control, Joe, so the big guy and I better get moving if we want to make Placerville by tomorrow morning.”

The pair was mounted to go when Joe gave them a warning. “Zach said he saw a lone rider watching him the other day, but the guy took off when he rode over there. Might just have been someone passing through, but it might be a scout for rustlers waiting for an opportunity to run off some of the herd once our men are spread a thinner.”

“We’ll keep our eyes open goin’ both directions,” Hoss answered. “Pa’d skin us if we lost his expensive bull to a rustler who’d sell it fer steaks.”

Four

C’mon, Jase, let’s get finished and go back to blow the dang thing. I’m getting’ nervouser by the minute.”

The Swanson boys had been busy all morning figuring out the fusing for their big blow. They hadn’t purchased a detonator box, so Jase had added lengths of fuse to each stick of dynamite and then pulled them together to attach one long strand that ended behind a berm about 75 feet back from the cave. They’d finished around noon, and then returned to their camp for some grub and final planning.

“Relax, kid,” Jase issued with a silencing glare. “You been nothing but nerves since we got here, and I’m plumb tired of it. We only got a few more things to pack and then we’ll head back and set this off.”

Myron hung his head while mumbling as he carried the last of their camp supplies to the wagon. “This ain’t gonna work. I just know it ain’t. We don’t know what we’s doing.”

“You say somethin’?” his brother snarled from a distance.

“Nah, Jase, just hummin’.” Myron’s hands and knees were shaking as he went back to kick sand on the fire pit. He was more than nervous; he was scared witless. His brother’s lack of experience with mining had become obvious as he’d struggled with setting up the configuration for blast. Myron had once watched Adam Cartwright set dynamite to blow a rock slide apart. Everything he’d done had been just so, and he’d even explained why he was setting things the way he was. It had worked perfectly. But thinking about the mess Jase had put together, Myron figured it was likely they’d bring the entire hill down instead of breaking up the silver ore inside.

But Myron knew that was how his brother operated. He always “got” big ideas, but he never took the time to study out how to do anything the right way. They’d already gotten into serious trouble once when Jase thought the two of them could cheat at cards. Jase had “heard” about a scheme, and he’d planned out that he would play poker while Myron would walk around the table pretending to go to and from the bar and move around the room while he observed the other players’ cards.  Then Myron was supposed to give his brother signals. But they’d never practiced, and he’d been so clumsy in his observations, and so obvious at giving signs that the others had caught on immediately. Being hauled off to jail was the only thing that had saved them from being shot.

They’d been found out so early on that they hadn’t won any money with their scheme and the sheriff had finally let them go after they’d paid a fine for disorderly conduct. But Myron had felt like a caged critter in jail and it rode his nerves like lightning down a telegraph wire. He’d spent the couple of hours pacing the cell and counting his steps; talking to himself to stay calm, and then banging his head against the wall when his nerves got to be too much to handle. He’d made a vow that he’d never get into that situation again. Yet here he was, trying to mine someone else’s silver with his brother who didn’t know how to do this any better than he knew how to run a poker scam. He wiped his sweaty palms against his legs and willed himself to relax. It would all be over soon and one way or another they’d be on their way to Placerville.

Myron spit and sighed as he thought about going off on his own. But Jase had stuck with him when their folks had died, and he felt obliged to stick with him now. The one thing he’d done lately that he’d liked and felt good about had been working on the Ponderosa. Being a drover suited him. The pay was good; he liked being out in the open, and the Cartwrights treated him well. The eats were good too for trail fare, and the bunk house was clean and comfortable.

He’d liked the Cartwrights. They weren’t snooty and above their help like some ranchers they’d worked for. The three brothers rode herd, and worked as hard as he and Jase did. Myron especially liked Hoss. He was wiry for a big guy; worked like a bull, and had an easy way of talking to people that set you at ease. The one called Little Joe was all right too, and he usually joined in the pranks the hands played on one another.

The oldest son and the father made him nervous, although Myron thought they were nice enough. It was just that they were all business. Still, when Adam was riding herd, he’d play his guitar and sing around the campfire at night, and it was so soothing that Myron could relax and let his cares go. Sometimes when he rode near Adam, Myron could hear him singing to himself. He had no idea what the songs were, but they were so sweet that he’d ride a little closer just to hear better.

If Myron had his druthers, he’d ride back to the Ponderosa and beg for his job. He’d told this to Jase several times until his brother had forbidden any more such talk. He’d said, “I’m not gonna work for no man if I can find a way to make money fast and then do as I please.” Those words sat in Myron’s stomach like a rock, and he’d had a feeling ever since that they foretold a life of hard prison time for both of them.

A hard gust of wind blew ash from the fire into Myron’s face making him rub his eyes and cough as he looked toward the west. The dark, angry looking clouds he saw moving toward him set his stomach to churning. Neither he nor Jase had kept an eye on the weather, and now it looked like they were in for a storm. He hollered to get his brother’s attention as he pointed at the swirling mass of greenish-gray in the distance. “Looks like we gotta wait a bit to explode that ceilin’.”

Jase kicked at the dirt and spat before meeting his brother’s hopeful gaze. “Why would I wait? You’s been worried that someone’ll hear the blast, so I’ll wait until the storm starts to makin’ some noise and then burn the fuse.”

Myron’s face dropped into a frown. “I was thinkin’ we’d hole up in that cave during the storm.”

Jase strode over and grabbed his brother’s suspenders, pulling him close as he snarled, “Ya can’t have it both ways, kid. You worry about the noise; you worry about gettin’ wet. I can’t worry ‘bout you no more. We’re doin’ this my way.” He let Myron go and dusted him off. When he spoke again, his anger had subsided and his tone was easy. “Help me stretch that big canvas we got over the wagon and we’ll sit under there while it rains. I doubt it’ll last long, and then we’ll load up the ore and head to Placerville.”

Five

Hoss and Adam made good time after leaving Little Joe. Their horses were fresh after the rest, and they’d filled up on grass and water.  Hoss urged Chubby on until he was next to Adam so he could talk. “If we keep this pace, we’ll get pretty close to Placerville by tonight.”

There hadn’t been much conversation on this leg of the trip since they preferred riding singe file at the speed they were moving. If they had something to say, they’d adjust their pace. Adam was nodding his agreement at Hoss’s assessment when a sharp wind nearly took his hat flying. He pushed his Stetson back in place as he pulled up on Sport’s reins. A quick glance over his right shoulder enabled him to see the bank of storm clouds looming in northwestern sky.  He took a moment to watch the direction it was taking and once he was certain, he nudged his brother and pointed. “That mess is headed right at us.”

The sky was darkening as the forward edge of the storm began to hide the sun, and the wind was blowing more steadily as Hoss twisted around in his saddle to join Adam in sky-gazing. “Don’t look too good,” he said as he pushed his hat tighter onto his head.

“Nope.” Adam’s additional comment, “Maybe it’s not that bad,” was nearly drowned out by the howl of the wind and accented by the first brilliant flash of light across the length of the cloudbank. He looked at Hoss with a half grin, and when the wind died down enough to say more, he added, “On the other hand, I have no desire to serve as a lightning rod, so we better find someplace to shelter while it passes.”

Hoss broke into a broad smile as he said, “Hey, that one cave we used to stay in when Pa hunted over this way is just up ahead. If we move fast we should make it before we get wet.”

Being hit by lightning was a real threat since a man on a horse was the tallest thing in this area of scrub brush and rocks, but Adam urged Sport on with an even stronger desire: that of not getting drenched. He and Hoss had oilskin slickers that would cover them and their gear, but those never kept driving rain from getting in and soaking everything under it. There was nothing more irritating than riding with wet pants on wet leather, or the plague of wet boots that kept socks soggy and feet clammy. Even worse was that once things were saturated they took forever to dry out again, ensuring days of discomfort. Adam figured he’d write a book one day about the hazards of ranching, and he suspected he could devote an entire chapter to the miseries of being damp.

His attention was drawn back to the present as they neared their destination. Both men dismounted before coming to a complete stop near the brush-covered cave. “You go clear the entrance,” Adam hollered over the wind. “I’ll tie the horses and get our gear.”

Adam jumped when Hoss came up behind him within minutes of leaving, and grabbed the loosened saddle from Chub’s broad back. He grabbed the sleeve of his brother’s shirt, and shouted, “You done already?”

Hoss leaned in closer to be heard. “None a that bramble-looking stuff was attached to the ground. It was all shoved together into the opening, and once I pulled a couple sage brush free, the rest blew away. It almost looked like someone might’a been there and camouflaged the entrance.” In answer to Adam’s turned up lip and furrowed brow, he added, “It looks deserted now, but there’s footprints nearby.”

The brothers’ conversation ended abruptly when a flash of lightening and sharp clash of thunder broke overhead, and large, wind-driven raindrops began pelting them. They hoisted their saddles over their shoulders, and reached down to grab their canteens, bed rolls and saddle bags before taking off at a run.

***

“I think we’re set, Myron. You wait by the wagon and I’ll go light the fuse.”

“You sure ‘bout this?” Myron shouted as his brother began to walk away. “That storm’s pretty close and it looks bad. Maybe we should hole up ‘til it passes.”

Jase gave his brother a withering look, before walking away without answering. He never could understand his kid brother. He’d always been jittery and there was good reason for that, but it had gotten worse lately.

He suspected his brother’s uneasiness came from always being afraid as a kid. Their pa had been a mean drunk, and their ma had been a moral and upright woman, who’d enforced her own brand of righteousness with quotes from the Bible about not sparing the rod. But Jase had figured out that his mother’s outrage had always been set off by their father’s bad acts rather than theirs. Pa would knock her around when he was fouled with liquor, and then she’d take it out on them.

Being older, Jase had learned his parent’s patterns, and knew to stay away when his pa was drinking, which had become a constant situation toward the end of his life. Pa’s “condition” was sure to bring on one of Ma’s dark moods, stealing her resolve to cleanse her children of their sins.

Their ma didn’t spank; she swung. Sometimes it was an open-handed smack to the face or body that sent you reeling; other times, a back-handed wallop to the side of the head produced similar results. Jase remembered hiding outside the house and peeking in the windows to see his younger brother fly across the room with one of Laverne Swanson’s mighty smacks. The kid would lay the floor, sometimes dazed, but most times just rubbing the wounded areas while he cowered in silence.

As they’d gotten older, Jase had asked Myron why he didn’t hide too when their folks were beginning to boil. Myron’s eyes had taken on a haunted, fearful look as he’d answered, “Ma’s gotta have some way to get past what happens to her, and I figure she’s better off getting’ it outta her system. If she’d don’t do it right then, I don’t think she’d be able to stop once she’d start in on me later.” It was that answer that had settled Jase on making life better for both of them. He suspected that Myron was right; one of these times his ma was going to hurt his brother so bad that he wouldn’t get up again. So Jase had made sure Myron would live long enough to become a man.

The sheriff in the town where they’d lived had concluded that the deaths of Jase and Myron’s parents were due to a fire that had started from an overturned oil lamp. The Swanson couple’s penchant for fighting was well known by the townspeople, and it hadn’t surprise anyone that they’d come to an untimely and violent end. There’d even been whispers among the fine people of the town that Ernest Swanson had beaten his wife to unconsciousness and then passed out drunk while the fire had spread.

The other consensus in the town was how fortunate it had been that the Swanson boys had been out hunting at the time. The one thing no one had ever considered was that while the two boys had gone hunting that morning, Jase had set Myron up in a blind to watch for deer, and then he’d run back to the house, where he’d found his father sleeping off a morning’s worth of corn liquor, while his mother slept in the rocking chair after her taxing morning of punishing Myron for his father’s sins.

He’d braced the two small window shutters closed from the outside, and then snuck inside where he poured a line of flammable liquid around the perimeter of the room, ending the trail near the door. He’d given a final salute to his snoring parents before he’d knocked over the oil lamp nearest the only exit, and had then blocked that from the outside as well. After he’d made it to the woods, he’d turned to watch until he’d seen tongues of fire licking the sky above the cabin before he’d made his way back to his brother. Myron had smelled the smoke, and had feared the worst as they’d headed back to the house. They found the place completely engulfed, and Jase had thought to himself that this must be what hell would look like. He’d held his brother back from trying to help, and embraced him as the youngster had cried over the loss. Yet he’d smiled as he’d watched the timbers collapse, figuring it suited his mother to enter her afterlife in the manner she claimed was to be their fate in eternity.

A kind soul from the town had purchased the Swanson land, and that sum had been enough for the brothers to move on. Jase had done as he’d intended; he’d kept a good eye on his brother. But the kid was an adult now, and his constant worrying was getting on Jase’s nerves. Myron had always been easy to convince or trick into doing what his older brother wanted. But something had changed when they’d started working on the Ponderosa. Old-man Cartwright had scared Myron, and yet he’d been more like a father to Myron than their own pa had ever been. The Cartwrights knew all their hands by name, and they took time to find out a little about each of them. His brother had been good at his job, and he’d received a lot of praise from all four Cartwrights.

Myron had admired the family they’d worked for, and it had taken a lot of fast talk for Jase to get him to quit after they’d found the silver. In fact Jase had played his “Haven’t I always done what’s best for you,” card to finally seal their departure. Since then, Myron’s edginess had deepened, and Jase thought he looked purely miserable at times. His brother’s second-guessing of every decision was making Jase edgy too, but he figured things would turn around once they had a little money. Then he’d be fully in charge again, and the Cartwrights would be a memory.

He shook his head to clear the thoughts that had walked with him to the fuse, and pulling a match from his pocket, he scraped it along a rock to make it spark and lit the fuse just as the first drops of rain began to fall. He waited until he saw the flame head over the edge of the berm on its way to the web of dynamite before running for the shelter of the wagon. He’d once heard the oldest Cartwright son explain how these quick moving storms formed when currents of warm air swirled up from the hills meeting cooler air above. Jase didn’t rightly care what was causing it; this one couldn’t move fast enough by his thinking.

***

Hoss returned to the cave entrance to join Adam after dropping his gear further inside the shelter. “It sure does look awful out there. You thinkin’ it could last a while?”

Adam shook his head as he stepped back to avoid the swirling rain that was licking at his boots and pant legs. “I think it’s just a squall…but you never know for sure until it gets overhead.” He sighed. “I guess we may as well get comfortable while we wait.” He kicked something as he turned, and squatted down to see what it was. “I think you’re right about someone having been here. They left a lantern behind. You gotta match?”

By the time Adam returned from putting his gear near Hoss’s, his brother had the lamp lit and was using it to examine a latticework of wood pieces lashed and nailed together in a small offshoot of the main cave. “Looks like someone was trying to shore up this section, don’t it?”

Adam took the lantern, raising it to get a better look around, and gave a derisive snort. “Whoever built it didn’t know what they were doing. I see so many structural defects that any sort of blasting would bring everything down.”

“Why you s’pose they built it?”

“I have my suspicions.” Adam held the lamp up to the cave wall and ceiling. “I remember coming in here once with Pa after the silver rush started around here, and noticing this coloration.” He ran his hand along the grayish streak. “We both thought it was silver.”

“Are you saying it’s not silver?”

“It is, but it’s mixed with so much iron that it’s not worthwhile. There aren’t any big smelting furnaces out west, and the vein is so shallow that it wouldn’t be worth the cost to send it east.”

“It seems foolish to go through all this if they weren’t gonna make any money.”

“I don’t suppose they knew what they were dealing with. But since they aren’t here now, they may have taken a sample and found out what we did. I’m just glad something made them leave before trying to blow out the ore. They were obviously amateurs, and probably would have died for their stupidity.”

“They also must not a known this was on our land,” Hoss laughed.

“More likely they didn’t care.” Adam rested his hand on Hoss’s shoulder in the dimly lit cave. “This area is remote enough that we only pass by on our way to Placerville. And even then we’re unlikely check on this cave. They figured to take what they could, sell it to a mining company, and make off with the cash.”

Hoss’s mouth turned down in a puzzled frown, “Don’t them companies need to check claim papers before buying ore?”

Adam had just finished saying, “Silver is in such demand that a company might absorb a small amount of rogue material into their totals without checking too hard,” when the walls of the cave began to reverberate and shake.

“Is that thunder or an earthquake?” Hoss hollered over the din.

“Neither!” Adam yelled as he looked up and saw cracks starting to form along fault lines in the rock above them. “I don’t think they left after all; the fools are trying to get at the silver by dynamiting from above.” He stopped to listen, and then shoved Hoss toward the back of the cave as the second, third and fourth blasts created a storm of splintering wood and falling rock as the front sections of the cave collapsed.

***

Hoss took a long deep breath as he awoke in the dark, and tried to remember where he was. He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious, but as the memory of what happened filtered into his mind, he started to tremble from the toes in his boots to the top of his head. The only thing that kept his panic from growing deeper was remembering that Adam was there too. After doing a quick check on his moving parts, he realized he wasn’t injured beyond some bumps and bruises, and called out, “Adam, where are you?” The question lingered in the dense air without an answer. “Adam!” he tried again, louder this time.

“Yeah, Hoss, I’m here. Are you all right?” Adam’s voice was groggy and laced with pain. He too had been out cold, but his post-blast assessment had found something awry. Everything worked except for his left arm. There was throbbing pain radiating from his upper left back down into his arm. While feeling gingerly around the ache, he bumped what felt like a jagged shard of wood lodged in his shoulder, sending a lightning bolt of pain searing down into his fingers. He remembered pushing Hoss ahead of him as the ceiling began to fail, exposing his own back to the brunt of the collapse. He’d heard the cracking as the brittle shoring had snapped—just as he’d predicted it would—and the force of the tonnage pushing downward had created splinter projectiles. He brushed several loose ones from around his wound, and yanked out some that were shallowly embedded in his neck, but there was no simple removal of the one that remained. A shiver coursed through him as he considered his good fortune in not having been impaled by any of the larger pieces that he could feel around him on the dirt floor.

“I’m in good shape. How’re you?” Hoss answered. He heard his older brother’s unrevealing grunt from the darkness. “Seems like we’re in a little jam here. Got any of them good ideas of yours that might get us outta here?” Another grunting chuckle was the only answer. “Can I ask ya somethin’?” Hoss waited for a reply but receiving none, asked, “How come you pushed me into the cave instead of outta it when that mess started to fall?”

Adam cleared his throat and coughed as he ran his sleeve across his face and nose to remove some of the dust and dirt. “If we’d tried to get out, we’d be under that rubble instead of behind it. It was a split-second decision, but I could tell the blast was moving towards the entrance where there was less resistance. I agree we’re in a jam, but at least we’re alive.”

Hoss laughed. “I know you think that’s supposed to make me feel better, but it don’t…at least not right now. I’m no more partial to being buried alive than I am to being dead.” After a moment of silence, he asked, “Why d’ya suppose whoever done this blasted from the outside?”

“Nothing about what was done here was right, so I’m not surprised. The same thing would have happened if the charges would have been put it on the inside. The shoring was no good, and they used too much TNT. I counted at least four blasts before it all crashed down. All I can figure is that they hoped to shake the ore loose.” He laughed. “The ceiling of the cave isn’t thick, but they probably didn’t figure on that, so I’m pretty sure the blast took out most of the front of this cave and the surrounding hillside. We’re lucky that this back chamber held. It must look like a giant rock slide out there.”

The storm was blowing over outside, leaving a sun-streaked sky in its wake. The change in light outside brought a change inside the cave as well as a ray of sun lit up the ground between the two brothers.

“Well I’ll be,” Hoss breathed out as he stuck his hand in the light and watched the glittering particles of dust dance around it. “You think there’s a shaft up there?”

Adam struggled to stand using only his right arm for support. His fingers and elbow still worked on the left, but his shoulder wound made it impossible to move his arm, and any jostling aggravated the pain. Once on his feet he reached upward to find the edges of the rock where the sun was shining through, and sighed. “It’s just a fissure. It might have always been here, or maybe it opened in the blast, but I can barely get my hand in there. The good news is that we have fresh air coming in.”

“So what do we do now?”

“Take stock of what we have and figure out the possibilities.” Adam leaned his right side against the rock wall and slid gingerly down it to sit again. His head was spinning, and while he hoped it was merely the result of his fall he when he dove away from the blast, he soon realized it wasn’t. When he removed his right hand from supporting his injured arm, he realized it was sticky wet, and he noted the unmistakable scent of fresh blood. At first he thought he was sweating, but he began to shiver as felt along the rest of his sleeve and cuff, and comprehended that they were saturated to the point of dripping with the same sticky liquid.  He took a couple of deep breaths and forced himself to focus. He would need to address the spike in his back soon, but now there were more important things to sort through.

Hoss’s voice was animated as he spoke again. “Hey, someone had to light that fuse, so they must be out there yet. They’ll see our horses and figure out what happened. If there’s a couple a them, they can start diggin’ us out or go fer help.”

“Maybe,” Adam replied without enthusiasm. “But I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Whadaya mean by that?”

“We’ll know soon what they’re going to do. In the meantime, let’s feel around and see if any of our gear is here. It might have been far enough inside to be free of the rubble.”

***

Myron lifted the canvas as the spattering of raindrops on the outside began to slow. “Wow!” He reached back and tugged on his brother’s shirt. “Ya gotta see this. There’s a double rainbow out there. I ain’t seen one a those since I was a kid.”

Jase crawled out from under the wagon and stretched before he started toward the cave. He wasn’t interested in anything except seeing how well his plan had worked. “Dang it!” he shouted as he got to the top of the rise and looked down at the mess below him.

His brother caught up and swallowed hard as he too inspected the remains of what was once the cave. “Was that what you expected would happen?” he asked innocently.

“Of course not, you idiot. I figgered it to just shake things up inside enough to knock the silver loose, not fall down completely.” Jase rubbed at his face and kicked at a rock, stubbing his toe. After yelping and hopping around he said in a calmer voice. “I must’a used too much dynamite.”

“That, or maybe you should a done it from the inside.” Myron hadn’t meant his statement as a criticism, but he shrank away as he saw the threatening look on his brother’s face.

“If you knew so much about minin’, then why didn’t take care a it?” Jase’s tone was clipped with sarcasm. “You never want to do things, but then yer right there to knock me fer not doin’ it right.”

Myron had stepped back, cowering under his brother’s glare. “I didn’t mean nothin’ by it, I swear, Jase. You done good. It’s probably just that shorin’ wood was so old it couldn’t hold up.”

The anger blew away just as the clouds had. “I think that’s what it was too. Next time we try this we’ll need to buy some good wood.” Jase smiled. “C’mon, lets go see if we can get at any ore. If not we’ll head out and find somethin’ else to get some money in our pockets.”

“We mighten head back to the Ponderosa. They can always use good hands, and they don’t know why we left, so they’d take us back.”

Jase’s angry tirade at his brother’s suggestion was interrupted by a loud whinny drifting toward them from further down the hill. “Did our nags get loose during the storm?” he spat at Myron. “It’d be like you to not get ‘em tied up tight.” He paled as he looked back toward the wagon and saw their two horses munching grass, still where they’d been tied on a stringer line.

The younger Swanson followed his brother’s gaze over toward their own team, and came to the same conclusion as they both broke into a run to get to the bottom of the hill. Jase grabbed his arm and pulled him behind a clump of brush once they could see the crumbled cave entrance. They waited to see if anyone was around, and when all remained quiet, they broke cover and went to check on what they’d heard.

“Them’s Cartwright horses, Jase!” Myron walked over to the two fine mounts, soothing them as he stroked their manes. “This here brown one is Adam’s. I’d recognized his blaze and socks anywhere. And the big black belongs to Hoss. I remember he always laughed about really needing a draft horse because a his size, but how this good ol’ saddle horse seemed content to carry him without complainin’” He stopped stroking Chubby as his face screwed up in thought. “Where you suppose Adam and Hoss are?”

Jase blew out a long sigh and shook his head. His eyes drifted toward the pile of stone that had once been the cave entrance. He asked, “Are you really that stupid?” before starting to pace. He stopped as he returned and realized that his brother remained clueless. “Them Cartwright brothers were likely heading somewhere when the storm blew in. They tied off their horses, and cleared their gear, plannin’ to shelter the weather in the cave. They didn’t know…”

The full brunt of Jase’s explanation hit Myron like a boulder being shot from a cannon. He bent over and moaned as he put together what had happened. “They didn’t know we was above them plannin’ to dynamite, and we didn’t know they was inside, and…”

“And we just killed off half the Cartwright family.”  Jase concluded without emotion.

“We don’t know they’s dead. We can dig and find ‘em.” Myron ran to the rubble and began shoving rocks away. He turned back and hollered, “C’mon Jase, give me a hand here. Maybe one a us should ride for help!”

Jase grabbed his brother by the shoulder, pulling him away from the stones, and spoke in the same toneless voice as before. “It don’t matter whether they’s dead or not; if they ain’t they’ll be soon enough. If we dig them out or get help, then the old man’ll know what we was trying to do out here. The sheriff will accuse of trying to murder them two to cover our tracks, and we’ll hang fer it.”

Tears were streaking down Myrons face. “No, Jase, they’ll tell how we saved them and it won’t matter what we was doin’. We can say we was just goin’ past when we saw the explosion and stopped to help. We gotta do somethin’!”

The calm, eerie voice continued. “We will do somethin’. We’ll get outta here fast and never look back. Everything’s packed already so all we gotta do is leave.”

“But leaving is the same as murder if they’s alive in there.” He thought a moment. “But if we leave the horses, then someone ridin’ by’ll see ‘em, and figger out what happened.”

“We’re gonna take the horses back into that canyon and shoot ‘em, Myron. By the time they find the carcasses we’ll be long gone, and they’ll have no way to pin this on us.” He slapped his brother’s face as the young man began to sob. “Get hold a yerself. We’s just doing what we always done: we survive. Now, you take them horses and I’ll meet you by the wagon. I’m gonna make sure there ain’t nothin’ left to connect this mess to us.”

Myron untied the horses and led them slowly toward his destination. This whole business left him feeling queasy and sick in the head. How could they leave the Cartwrights behind to die? It wasn’t right, and yet he’d seen his brother do a lot of things that weren’t right in the years they’d traveled together. Myron had managed to keep his sense of right and wrong, even through the years of beatings at his mother’s hand. He’d always figured that what was happening to her wasn’t right either, and she was just so unhappy that she needed someone to hit out at. He hated the pain, but he understood that she didn’t really want to hurt him.

He pondered on how he could give the two brother inside the cave a fighting chance while the two brothers outside still got away without getting hung. He smiled as it came to him. These horses were used to these roads, and they might just head home if they were free. If these two were as smart as they looked, they’d do that, and then someone would come looking for their absent riders. “It’s now or never,” he whispered as he checked to make sure his brother wasn’t looking, and then gave both reins a sturdy yank that pulled hard in the animals’ mouths. They reared up with the shock and pain, and Myron dropped the leather and shooed the two horses on their way before dropping to the ground as he yelled out, and pointed at the retreating horses when Jase looked over to see what the commotion was all about.

By the time Jase made it to his brother, the two animals were nothing more than a dust cloud on the horizon. “What did you do?” He hollered; his anger raging so deep that he shook.

“I didn’t do nothing. I was leadin’ ‘em back here like you said, when the black one reared up and tried to stomp me. Then the brown did the same and I had to let go or be trampled. Didn’t you see it? It don’t matter none, they’ll just run till they find grass and water.”

Jase gave Myron a suspicious look and shook his head. “If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you cooked this up. But you don’t lie.”

Myron got up and dusted himself off before going to get their horses hitched to their wagon. He kept his back towards his brother since his face was flaming red and he didn’t want to be caught in his deceit. There was no regret; he suspected that some lies, when given to help save a life, weren’t lies at all.

Six

Adam awoke in pain; his shoulder and arm were throbbing from the injury, and his back ached from the hard dirt and rock he’d slept on. Hoss was still snoring, so he kept quiet to let the big man sleep on while he took a little time to think. Figuring the cycles of light coming and going through the cave’s fissure, he thought this was the third morning of their captivity.

He thought back to Hoss’s disappointment when he realized there was no help coming from those who’d trapped them. It hadn’t surprised Adam. Whoever had lit the fuse had already committed a few offenses in trying to mine someone else’s land. But Adam assumed that once they figured out what they’d done, they’d feared being charged with something far more serious. It had been an accident; a sick twist of fate that they’d sought shelter in a cave that was being dynamited, yet he could see that those involved would seek to save their own skin. They must have ultimately decided that dead men can’t bring charges. He did wonder what they’d done with Sport and Chubby, and figured they’d taken them along to sell somewhere farther from the Ponderosa. The horses bore a highly recognizable brand, but these wouldn’t be the type to sell them to a reputable dealer, and some traveling man wouldn’t care that there was no bill of sale.

After they’d realized that no help was coming, he and Hoss had figured out what they had to help them survive. They had fresh air coming in, so they didn’t have to worry about suffocating, and they’d found their gear under a little rubble, and that had lifted their spirits. Unfortunately, this had been planned as a short trip, and since they’d planned to stop by Little Joe for lunch, they’d only brought along a few biscuits and jerky to tide them over. Hoss had counted on getting to Placerville for a late breakfast at a friend’s restaurant in Placerville by the next day. The food they’d found wouldn’t last long, and they’d only found one canteen, but they’d decided to strictly ration what they had to get them through a few days.

Two things had weighed heavily on Adam’s mind since the cave in, but he chose to keep them to himself. The first was that the canteen was only half full, and would go fast even with keeping their usage to a minimum. The food would run out quickly too, but a man could go a fair while without food. Lack of water was another thing entirely. He’d experienced severe dehydration and starvation when he’d been Kane’s prisoner, and he knew some unpleasant days were coming if they weren’t rescued soon. The deprivation would be even harder for Hoss than for him because of his size.

The second problem Adam faced was his physical condition. Hoss had used the fissure’s light to remove the wooden shard that first day, and had to use some of their water to clean the area. When It had continued to bleed, he’d fashioned a heavy bandage from a spare shirt in Adam’s saddle bag, and secured it using a saddle cinch and their belts. The pressure had done the trick, and Adam had hoped he’d be all right. But he was far from all right.

He’d noticed from the beginning that he was foggy, and overly sleepy. Even though he and Hoss had talked a lot in the time they’d been trapped, he couldn’t remember what they’d said, and he knew he’d said, “Huh?” so many times that Hoss had begun to tease him about getting so old his hearing was going bad.

Hoss had started moving rocks as soon as he could see a little on their first full day of captivity, figuring to do what he could to get them out. Adam had envisioned what had occurred when the dynamite exploded, and set his brother up in the area most likely to lead to the outside. He didn’t have the heart to tell him that he’d seen the long cracks snaking their way across the ceiling as it had blown. This had seemed a pretty clear indication that the entrance to the cave had gone down in large sheets of rock that would have been covered with rubble from the dirt higher up on the hill.  But as Hoss was Hoss, his enthusiasm for the job had buoyed Adam’s spirits too, and he’d helped as much as he could.

He grit his teeth as he tried to remember more. It was odd; he could recall time passing, but what had happened during those hours was muddled. From the beginning he’d noticed that the pain in his shoulder radiated into his neck and head, and he was now convinced he had some sort of injury to his brain that accounted for the fogginess in his thinking. He’d originally hoped this would ease with time, but it was getting worse instead. Now he felt like he could sleep forever, and although he could carry on a conversation and “act” normal, it often seemed like in those times he was floating above his body instead of being grounded in it.

That wasn’t the only thing getting worse. His skin was hot and the wound felt raw, which probably indicated an infection. All these issues taken together had convinced him of what he’d noticed from the first time he’d stood to inspect the fissure—the same feeling that had been gnawing in his heart and mind through the fog of the following days: he’d had his miraculous rescue in the desert after he’d been with Kane. Pa finding him had given him a few more years to live and make a difference, but this time…he knew Hoss deserved the reprieve, not him. This time, he was convinced that he wouldn’t make it, and that was all right.

That certainty had prompted a decision early in their ordeal—one that ensured Hoss would have a chance at survival. If there was a “way” out, he knew that Hoss would find it. And if there wasn’t, then at least the decision might give him the chance to stay alive long enough to be found.

Adam shook off the momentary fear that shrouded him, and he turned his thoughts to the rest of his family. It was likely Pa and Little Joe weren’t even aware there was a problem yet. And even when he and Hoss didn’t arrive home as scheduled, they might figure there’d been a simple delay. Once they understood that half the family had disappeared, they would still have to cover acres of the Ponderosa looking for a sign of what happened. There might be a few clues if they got to the cave remnant and poked around. His father and brother were good at putting evidence together, but it was unlikely that they’d decide that digging up a hillside was their best option. Adam knew his father would think they’d been fallen prey to thieves or had an accident on the trail, and that meant that Ben Cartwright would be looking for his sons’ bodies; not their grave.

Hoss grunted as he rolled over and stretched. He looked over and saw Adam sitting up. “How long you been awake?”

“A few minutes.”

The big man chuckled. “So what you wanna do today? If we had a deck a cards, maybe we could get a good game of blind poker goin’.”

Adam laughed. “How’d we play that?”

Hoss’s voice took on the serious tone he always used when he explained his own ideas. “I’d deal out five cards to each of us. We could make our bets based on how lucky we felt and discard some fer new ones just like in a real game. At the end, we could stick our cards into that ray’o light to see what we got. Best hand wins.”

They both chuckled. “That actually sounds like fun. Makes me wish we did have a deck.” Adam caught his breath as the movement of his laughter made his left side hurt more, and he decided his shoulder needed to be addressed if he was going to give any assistance in the time he had left. “One thing I need is for you to look at that wound. I think the tight bandage is hurting more than helping now. Maybe we can make a sling instead so I can move without it pulling so much.”

“No time like the present. We’ll get ya fixed up and then have a bite a breakfast.” He laughed and added, “A bite’s about right, ain’t it, since that’s all we got left.”

They both moved toward the light, and Hoss made quick work of undoing his handiwork. He tried to stifle his hiss, but Adam heard it anyway. “That bad, huh?”

“I guess I thought it’d be better.” He felt around in the darkness for the canteen. “I’m gonna run a little water through it, and then tie the shirt over it again.” What he didn’t share was that he felt the heat in his brother’s skin as he worked, and he knew with certainty that help needed to get to them sooner than later. He kept his voice calm as he speculated. “Pa was expectin’ us home on Friday, so that leaves jest a day before he’ll know somethin’s wrong. He’ll see our horses outside here when he comes lookin, and we’ll be outta here in no time.”

“He isn’t expecting us until Saturday,” Adam replied. “I arranged for us to stay in Placerville an extra day.”

“Why’d ya do that?” he asked as he fashioned a sling from the same materials he’d used to stem the bleeding. He finished by wrapping his own large belt around Adam’s chest and arm to keep the limb from moving.

“I thought you might want to spend some time with Darlene before we headed back, and there was someone I hoped to see before…”

Hoss found the saddle bag with their food stash and broke off a piece of their last biscuit and jerky, handing them to his brother. “You need to eat something to heal.”

Adam shook his head. “Thanks, but I’m not hungry right now. I’ll let this pain ease up a little bit first. It does feel better shored up like this.” He chuckled. “Who knew saddle parts could come in so handy.”

“We can thank Pa for that. He always taught us to use what we had to its best purpose.”

“That he did, and you should thank him when you see him.”

Hoss chewed his meager rations and then moved closer to Adam. “Hey, brother. I notice you been ending a lot of sentences lately without actually endin’ ‘em. Like just before you said you wanted to see someone before… You did it with Joe too, sayin’ that he’d do good when you were…” He waited for an answer. “Ya know you can tell me anythin’,” he said in the lingering silence. “I’ll keep yer secret if that’s what it is. See, I’m thinking those sentences would probably end with you saying you weren’t gonna be around.”

A soft chuckle. “You’re very perceptive, Hoss; you always have been.”

“So who is it you wanted to see in Placerville?”

Adam considered whether to share his thoughts, but decided he’d nothing to lose since his journey would be ending much sooner than he’d planned anyhow. “Do you remember Monica Crawford?”

“Sure do,” Hoss said as he chuckled. “I remember thinkin’ you liked her some, and that friend of hers—Addy I think—was a 85 year-old force to be reckoned with.”

“That she was.”

“So what happened to them gals? I thought maybe you and Monica would get together one day. She seemed a right better match for you than Laura.”

Adam laughed heartily until he ended in a groan. “I did like Monica, but there were too many ghosts lingering between us by the time we finished dealing with that Tanner woman.” His voice silenced as he thought back to the time he’d met Monica Crawford while trying to find out why a woman named Margot Tanner had lied about him fathering a child with her. He’d only spoken to Margot a few times before leaving for college, and yet twelve years later she’d showed up at the Ponderosa with a boy she’d said was his. She’d admitted she’d lied when he’d confronted her, but he’d gone to Placerville, where she’d been living, to see what other lies she might have told about him. What he’d found out started a series of events that had almost gotten him killed twice.* The best part of the adventure had been meeting Monica and Addy. They were two very strong women who’d risked their lives to help him. He and Monica had become close, but they’d parted, knowing that they’d each had work to do to heal the wounds Margot had caused.

Hoss broke into his thoughts. “Did ya ever hear from her again?”

“I got a letter a while back saying that Addy had died. I’d intended to ride over there and see her after that, but I was engaged to Laura, and…”

A rumbling chuckle reverberated through the cave. “I think you were the only one who didn’t wonder why you did that. I’m not sayin’ there was anythin’ wrong with Laura Dayton. She was jest wrong fer you.”

“Don’t worry, I wondered why I’d done it too. But it turned out right.”

“So you thinkin’ of startin’ up with Monica again?”

Adam shook his head and then realized Hoss couldn’t see him. “That’s not it… I just wanted to see her before…”

“You don’t owe me no explanations when it comes to things like that. I shouldn’t a asked.” He took a deep breath and said. “I s’pose we could play some hide-and-seek instead a poker, or maybe a rousin’ game of move the rocks.”

Seven

Little Joe rode Chochise into his stall, and unsaddled him. He’d noticed that Hoss and Adam’s horses were in their stalls when he came in the barn, but his face screwed up as he realized they still had their bridles in place and they looked road worn. It wasn’t like either of his brothers to put their mounts away without tending to them, and that made the hair rise on his neck. He headed to the house at a run knowing that something had gone wrong. They’d only been gone four days so there wasn’t time to get to Placerville and back with a bull.

As he neared the door, he remembered something from earlier, and pulled a small envelope from his pocket. Zeke had run out to him as he’d ridden past the Western Union office in town, saying he’d just received a telegraph for Ben. He found his father sitting at his desk as he usually was this time of day, and walked over to perch on the corner—his position for father-son discussions. “Why did Adam and Hoss come home without the bull?” he asked as he handed Ben the envelope.

Unexpected telegrams usually signaled bad news, so Ben paid less attention to Joe’s words than to the words written on the paper in front of him. His brows neared and his breathing accelerated as he looked up at his youngest son. “What makes you think Hoss and Adam are home?”

“Their horses are in the barn…in need of tending. I assumed they’d gotten home and had to get inside in a hurry.”

Ben’s worried look deepened as he handed the telegram to his son.

Little Joe skimmed over the words and then reread them more slowly as his heart began to race.

CARTWRIGHTS 2 DAYS OVERDUE. PLEASE ADVISE CONCERNING DELAY. AWAIT YOUR REPLY. D DOWD.

“Something happened,” Joe said softly as he laid the paper on the desk. His father was already moving toward the door, and he joined him as they ran to the barn. Joe brushed dirt and stones from Sport’s tail and mane while Ben began to brush the dust from Chubby’s back. “What do you make of it, Pa?”

“Their saddles are gone, so they were probably camped when something spooked the horses.”

Joe shook his head. They should have only spent one night out, so it had to have happened between where I saw them, and Placerville.”

***

Ben and Joe recruited two more ranch hands before setting out, figuring they could cover a broader area with four riders. They’d gotten started by mid-afternoon and reluctantly gave up when they couldn’t see enough to search thoroughly.

Ben couldn’t sleep and rode further along the road, calling for his sons; willing his ears to hear something in the still night air. The thought that kept poking him was that if they’d been robbed or their horses had gotten away, they would have headed home on foot and they’d have found the two of them walking along the road. That left the gut-wrenching conclusion that they were in no shape to walk, and from the sound of it, unable to call for help either. He returned to the others in time to head out in the morning, this time praying he’d see a clue that would lead him to his boys.

The group rode into Placerville towards evening having found no signs of Adam and Hoss making camp. They split up, leaving the hands to ask around town if anyone had seen the missing Cartwrights, while Ben and Joe continued on to the Double D to apprise them of developments.

“I’m sorry to hear this, Benjamin,” Daniel Down offered after hearing the details. “I’ll send a few men to ride back over the same ground with you tomorrow. Why don’t you stay here tonight, and leave at first light.”

Ben gave his thanks and regrets, explaining that they needed to see the sheriff in Placerville and they would stay in the city in case any news came in. They did accept the additional men, and planned to meet by the sheriff’s office with full light.

***

Myron Swanson was looking out the grimy window of the lice-infected hotel they were staying at when he saw Ben and Joe Cartwright ride by late in the afternoon. He couldn’t miss the look of misery on the older man’s face, and it pained his heart because he knew he was the cause of it. He’d seen that same haunted look on his ma’s face after she’d been beaten down by his pa.

He knew that Ben Cartwright’s pain came from different circumstances, but he also knew that it reflected a soul-deep ache that came from not knowing why things happened the way they did. Myron had no doubt that the father he’d just seen ride by would be wearing that look for some time while he wondered where his sons had gone. He also had no doubt that they would find Hoss and Adam sometime. After that their pa would wonder how someone could have left them in that cave to die, and he wouldn’t rest until he found out.

Jase’s voice carried over from the bed where he’d spent the afternoon alternately drinking and sleeping. “Whadaya lookin’ at?” he asked with a slur.

“The Cartwrights just got here, Jase. They must know now that Adam and Hoss ain’t comin’ home.”

“That’s sooner than I expected. You come away from there so’s they don’t see you.”

“They ain’t lookin’ this way.” He dropped the dingy curtain back in place and added, “I ain’t never seen the old man look so sad.”

“Stop worryin’ about it like an old woman. We did what we had to do. The old man can hire enough help to replace his boys.”

Myron turned to stare at his brother with a disgusted look. “You can’t never replace family. I still miss Ma and Pa even though it’s been some years since the fire.”

Jase’s words were spit across the room with anger. “How can you miss those two? They tormented you fierce. Whydaya even give them a second thought!”

“They was still my parents, Jase. They weren’t good, but maybe they didn’t know no better. I once heard Ma say that she’d been hit a lot as a kid too. Maybe she thought that was the only way to raise us. Besides, Pa’s drinkin’ didn’t help none. Ma wouldn’t a hurt us if Pa hadn’t hurt her first.”

Jase’s drunkenness overrode the control of his tongue as he gave a low, evil-sounding laugh. “I thought you’d be grateful to me fer settin’ that fire, and here you are sniveling about losing them. I shoulda jest gone off on my own and let Ma beat you to death like she was headin’.”

His mouth sagged open in shock while Myron made sense of what his brother had said. “You set that fire…with them inside?”

“It wouldn’t have made much sense to light the fire with them outside!” The older brother had sat up on the side of the bed and fell back down laughing, as he tried to stand. “I even blocked the doors and windows so’s they couldn’t get out.”

Myron shouted, “How could you!” while his brother found his footing and stumbled over and grabbed his shoulders.

“I did it fer us, little brother,” he slurred in Myron’s face. “They didn’t deserve to live after what they done to us.”

“No one deserves to die like that, Jase. Not even fer what they done to us. If you’d a told me you was so miserable I’d of told you to go along on yer own.”

His back-handed slap sent Myron flying across the room. Jase shouted, “You ungrateful weasel. I oughtta do to you what I did to them.”

Myron sat on the floor where he’d landed looking dazed, but this time he didn’t cower. “Like you did to Hoss and Adam too.” He wiped his sleeve across his mouth where a cut on his lip was bleeding, and pushed against the door to steady himself as he stood up. “It’s only been five days since we left them two behind.” He reached for the knob and opened the door. “They might still be alive. I couldn’t do nothin’ to stop you when it came to our folks, but maybe I can do somethin’ this time.”

Jase regained his senses even though drunk, and he closed the distance to his brother, pulling him back into the room where he knocked him out with one blow to the forehead. “No wonder Ma could always pound you, boy. You ain’t got no fight in ya,” he snarled at the unconscious form as he pulled him to the bed, and tied a hanky around Myron’s mouth, and his arms and legs to the bedframe. Looking back to make sure that his brother was secure, he opened the door a crack,  and called pleasantly, “I’ll see ya later at the saloon,” for the benefit of anyone who might be within earshot. He exited and tipped his hat to another half-sodden hotel patron as he stumbled by, and then locked the door from the outside.

Eight

Adam awoke to the hollow sound of rocks being tossed onto a pile, and remembered that Hoss had been moving the mound of rock between them and the outside when he’d dozed off and must still be at it. He smiled at hearing his brother’s grunt each time he threw another chunk of material, and then groaned himself when he moved his head and stretched, lifting his sore shoulder.

Hoss tossed another rock onto the pile behind him before moving over to his brother. “It’s about time you woke up.”

“Oh yeah, why’s that?” he answered with a yawn.

“Cuz if you’d a slept much longer, I’d a been tempted to eat ya. I’m jest that hungry.”

“You deserve a good meal, but I’m too old and tough.”

“You feeling any better?” His brother’s silence was all the answer he needed. “Hang on, buddy. I’ll keep diggin’ til I find a way outta here.”

“Maybe there is no way out, Hoss.” He sighed. “You’ve been moving rocks for a few days now, and I think you’ve shifted half this cave, and there’s no sign of breaking through of the pile you’re working on.”

“I know…but it feels good to be doin’ somethin’.”

Adam inched his way over to the wall of tumbled rocks. “Maybe I can help a little now.”

The two brothers shifted and moved rocks until Hoss declared a break. “Seems we started talkin’ the other day and got sidetracked,” he said taking a swig of water and handing the canteen to his brother.

Adam’s “Hmm?” sounded far away as he drifted out of the light sleep he’d slipped into as soon as he sat down.

“I asked if you about why you don’t end yer sentences lately. I think you got somethin’ on yer mind that’s botherin’ you deep.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter now, since…”

Hoss laughed. “You jest did it again.”

Adam’s chuckle was as dry as the air in the cave. “I don’t mean to sound mysterious. I’ve had a lot on my mind for some time now, and I made a few decisions. They weren’t easy, and I know they’ll hurt Pa.”

“You’re plannin’ on leavin’ the Ponderosa. That’d be the only thing you’d worry about tellin’ Pa.”

“Before you ask; there was nothing bothering me about any of you. I just needed to go.”

“Where you got in mind?”

“Boston…to start.”

Hoss wrapped a big arm around his brother’s shoulder. “It don’t surprise me a’tall. You got a granddaddy back East; you got friends there too…maybe even some gal I don’t know about?”

“Maybe,” he said, patting Hoss’s hand. “I wanted to talk to Pa about it first, but I guess that doesn’t matter so much now.”

“You go on plannin’ what you gotta do when we get out, and I’ll keep working on gettin’ us there.” He tried to rise, but stopped when Adam grabbed his arm.

His older brother’s voice took a serious tone. “Maybe this is a little premature, but your food and water is nearly gone, and you’re not going to be able to keep tunneling after that.”

“I’m not ready to give up; are you?”

“I know you won’t give up. In fact that’s what I was counting on when…” He sighed deeply. “I just want to tell you that I appreciate what you’ve done for me…not just now, but…”

“I know, Adam,” he said filling in the gap. “You and me always been…good. We got mad sometimes, and had some good arguments and down-right fights. But we got a lot a good times behind us.”

“You’ve always known how to say the things easy. Thanks.” He groaned as he angled his body to get up, and slid back down the wall when his head wouldn’t stop spinning. “Sorry, Hoss, I’m not gonna be able…”

His brother’s body slumped against him, and the big man reached over to lay a hand on Adam’s forehead. “Burnin’ up,” he said to the stillness before getting the sleeping man more comfortable and going back to work.

Nine

It was well into the evening when Ben and Little Joe made their way to the Crawford Hotel to get a few hours of sleep. Ben rang the bell and gave a startled “Oh!” when a young woman rose from behind the large check-in desk, facing away from them.

She squatted again to rearrange the ledgers that prevented the doors from closing properly on the cabinet as she glanced over her shoulder to say that she’d be with them in a second. With everything in order again, she pushed back some wisps of hair that had drifted onto her face with, straightened her dress, and smiled as she turned to face her customers. “Ben Cartwright!” she cried happily as she registered who was there. She hurried around the end of the counter to plant a kiss on his cheek. “It’s been far too long. What brings you to Placerville?”

Ben’s brief smile was replaced by the look of anguish that had settled on his face yesterday when he’d read the telegram. “It’s good to see you too, Monica. I didn’t expect you’d be here this late.”

“My clerk was ill, so I sent him home.” She gave Little Joe a handshake, welcoming him too, and then stepped back and gave her patrons a good looking over. “Something’s wrong,” she concluded. “You look tired, Ben. But it’s more than that. You had that same look on your face back when Adam had been shot and you didn’t want me to know about it.” She led him to a settee in the lobby and made him sit before issuing her order. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“Have you seen Adam and Hoss in the last day or two?”

A shake of her head confirmed her spoken, “No. Why do you ask?”

“They head out for a ranch on the other side of Placerville a few days ago, and they never made it there. I think Adam had planned to see you while he was here, and if he had stopped in, it would help us pin down when it was they got sidetracked.”

“I’m assuming you asked around town and no one else has seen them either?” She heard him sigh in acknowledgment. “Then something must have happened on the trip rather than at the destination.”

Little Joe nodded. “We rode the section between where they were last seen, to Placerville, but it’s a lot of country, and we didn’t see any obvious clues to what might have happened. Then again there was rain, and that wiped out any trail they left.”

Monica smiled reassuringly. “You’ll find them. The Cartwright family always finds their own. I remember that fact very clearly from our previous meeting.” She stood and looked down at the weary father and son. “How about some food and a soft bed?”

“We’d appreciate that, but first tell us how you’ve been,” Ben said as he took her hand and made her sit again.

“It’s taken a while, but I’m doing well. I’ve sold a few of my businesses here so I can concentrate on helping others who need a hand. I’ve managed to get several women out of bad situations, and they’re working for me now. My mission is to make sure that anyone who is afraid or in danger can feel safe. It’s little atonement for not doing more to stop Margo, but it’s something.”

“And have you forgiven yourself?” Ben asked with a knowing smile.

“That’s always the hardest part, isn’t it? Let’s say I’ve found peace in what I do.”

“Adam told me about Addy when he got your letter; I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, Ben. She lived in strength, and died in dignity. I swear I saw angels come down to take her home.” She rose again. “I have a lot of questions about how your oldest son’s been doing, but I’ll ask him…when you find him.” She winked. “Now you two head up to room six. I’ll send up a light supper to have before you turn in.”

Ten

Hoss had continued to move the wall of rock until darkness overtook the cave at the end of the day. A good part of him wished he could go on working blind, but he knew it was too easy to get turned around in the dark and he’d probably do more damage than good. His nerves were jangling more each hour because he knew something was seriously wrong with Adam, and he didn’t know what to do about it. His brother had slept all afternoon, and he hadn’t even been able to roust him to share in the scant supper rations. The wound on Adam’s shoulder looked nasty, yet it didn’t look to be festering. Hoss didn’t know that much about human doctoring, and he had to go by what he saw. What he saw was a man who seemed worse with each passing hour.

The best thing about working so hard was that he was tired enough to fall asleep despite his worries. He’d gotten as comfortable as he could, and was just drifting off when he heard Adam shout.

“No…more…games!”

Hos got to his knees and felt in front of him as he found his way over and grabbed his brother’s arms. “You’re dreamin’, Adam. Wake up.”

His brother’s eerie laughter echoed dully in the small enclosure. “Oh, Pa,” he sobbed as his voice turned despondent. “There was no gold.”

Hoss took Adam’s face in his hands, bringing his forehead to his brothers, while speaking soothingly. “You’s in a cave with me, Adam, but we’re all right.” The younger brother had heard his brother utter similar words before, and he suspected Adam was dreaming about his time in the desert hell with Kane. “I’m here with ya, Adam,” he said again. “And I’ll get ya outta here soon.”

As Hoss’s hand brushed his brother’s cheek, he noticed how parched it felt. He wasn’t sure why he did what he did next, but he brushed his thumb across Adam’s lips and felt the ragged dryness there too. Something that had been sitting poorly in the back of his mind came flashing forward as he realized what had been bothering him. They’d only found one of their canteens in the rubble, and they’d allowed themselves only a few sips of water during the hours they were awake. That should have extended the contents for a good time, but earlier, when he’d shaken the container, he’d thought that there was a lot left considering how many days they’d been stuck already. That had raised his spirits, and he’d indulged in an extra-long swig to combat the dryness he’d felt after a day’s work.

He felt around until he located the canteen and shook it again to make sure he was on the right track, and then patted Adam’s cheeks, saying. “You awake now?”  His brother’s, “Yeah, led me alone,” came out sounding like his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. Hoss poured a splash of water in his hand and ran it across Adam’s mouth, and held the canteen to his lips, telling him to drink.

Adam sipped, but then retched as he tried to swallow. “I’m nod thirsdy,” he growled in the same cottony voice. “Led me sleep.”

Hoss took hold of Adam’s face again. “You haven’t been drinking any water, have you!” His accusation evoked a shake of the head, but no answer. “Why not?”

He licked the remaining water from his lips, creating enough saliva to answer. “You used water on my wound; I didn’t want to take more than my share.”

“So you pretended to drink? Why’d you do a fool thing like that!”

“To make sure you’d have enough.”

The big man was mad, sad, and scared all rolled into one as he pulled Adam into a hug. “I’m all growed up now, in case you didn’t notice. Why’d you think you had to take care a me?”

Adam chuckled as he draped his good arm around Hoss’s neck. “Habit, I guess. Besides, you’re working harder than me, and something bad’s wrong with me; we both know that. I won’t make it, but you deserve a chance to get out alive.”

“We’ll get out together or not at all. That’s how I see it.” But as Hoss was saying the words, he felt Adam slump away, and knew he’d either fallen back to sleep or passed out. He moved around until his back was against the wall, and then pulled Adam over to rest against his large frame. As he leaned his head back to sleep, he whispered, “Looks like this time I’m gonna take care a you, brother.” He grinned in the darkness as he completed his thought. “It’s jest too dang bad you have to be unconscious fer you to accept my help.”

Eleven

Ben stretched as he walked to window and pushed up the lower casement. A distinct odor of burning wood assaulted his nose, causing him to stick his head out and look around. Their room was on the side of the building, but as he looked down the alley toward the street he saw thin gray coils of smoke drifting skyward.

“What’s that smell?” Little Joe asked as he joined his father by the window.

“I can’t see much; it’s still too dark, but it smells like there was a fire.”

A knock brought turned their attention indoors, as Joe went over and opened the door. Monica walked in, balancing a tray with a pot of coffee and two covered plates. “I know you’re in a hurry, but you need something in your stomachs before heading out,” she said with a pleasant smile.

Ben took the tray, placing it on the table. “Was there some excitement last night?” he asked, as he and Joe pulled up their chairs. “We slept right through it if there was.”

“There’s a rat-trap place across the street that takes in drovers and miners for cheap, if they don’t mind the bedbugs and lice. I guess it serves its purpose.” She stopped speaking as she grimaced with the thought, and then blushed when she saw the two Cartwrights looking at her expectantly. “I guess that’s not the important part. The talk out there is that a drunk knocked a lamp onto his bed and then passed out. They think it smoldered for some time before being noticed. The volunteer fire squad doused the flames before they spread too far, but the man was burned badly…or at least that’s the rumor.”

Monica remained with Ben and Little Joe while they ate and was saying her goodbyes when one of her clerks stuck her head inside the room, and cleared her throat. “Mrs. Crawford, the sheriff’s downstairs asking whether we have any guests here by the name of Cartwright. I looked over the ledger and you don’t have a name assigned to this room, so I thought I should check before sending him away.”

“We’re the Cartwrights,” Ben said as he strode to the door. “I guess we never told the sheriff where we would be staying.” He turned and nodded to Little Joe who joined his father in a rapid descent to the main desk.

“I’m glad to have found you, Mr. Cartwright,” Sheriff Mitchel remarked as he saw the Cartwrights walking toward him. “We’d checked around this morning, and I was afraid maybe you’d left last night after all. But you’d mentioned your son being friends with Mrs. Crawford, so something made me try here one more time.”

“Have you received information about my sons?”

“Nothing official, but the young man who was hurt in the fire last night keeps asking for you. You best hurry. He’s in bad shape.”

***

Ben knelt at Myron Swanson’s side in the examining room of the town doctor. The young man had been moaning in pain, but he’d smiled when he saw his former boss enter the room, before starting to cry. Dr. Stevens had tried to prepare Ben for what he’d see, but the sight of Myron’s charred and bloody body had still made him catch his breath.

“What happened to you son?” he asked gently.

“It was Jase did it,” he whispered. “He done to me like he done to our parents when he thought I’d tell you…”

Little Joe was standing at his father’s side, and he saw the puzzled look after Myron’s statement. He touched Ben’s shoulder, and explained, “I remember Myron saying that their folks died in a fire.” He squatted down next to his father. “Are you saying Jase set the fire that killed your parents, and he tried to do the same to you because you knew something he didn’t want told?”

A weak nod. Myron lifted his hand, motioning Ben closer while he whispered the story in his ear. With his confession complete, he said in a feeble voice, “Please forgive me.”

Ben laid his hand on the dying man’s head and said, “Thank you, son. You’ve done all you could to make this right.”

Myron nodded again, and smiled as he exhaled for the last time.

Ben shook his head to clear away his shock as he considered the information he’d just received. He took Little Joe’s arm and said, “He told me what he and his brother did to Hoss and Adam.”

“Are they…” Joe couldn’t tell his brothers’ fate from the look on his father’s face. He couldn’t say he ever considered Myron capable of murder, but something had obviously happened between the Cartwright brothers and the Swanson brothers. He suspected it had to have been bad for Jase to murder his own brother to keep it a secret.

Ben shook his head. “I don’t know.” He told Joe what Myron had said, and then sent him to arrange for a wagon and supplies, with the admonition to, “Hurry!”

Dr. Stevens had completed the assessments to confirm Myron’s death, and arranged for the body to be taken away for burial while the Cartwrights had spoken. He’d overheard what Ben had told his son, and he began gathering supplies as he told the impatient father, “I’ll come with you. If they’re still alive, I can treat them there and save you hours trying to get back here or to Virginia City. I treated Adam when he was beaten to a pulp the time he came looking for information about that Tanner woman.” He walked to Ben, laying a hand on his shoulder. “That son of yours had more grit and determination than any patient I’d ever had, and I imagine that applies this time too. If he and your other boy are alive, I’ll do my best to keep them that way once they’re freed.”

***

Everyone was assembled and ready to ride out on the search, when Ben arrived with Dr. Stevens. He thanked everyone and then took a moment to state his intentions. “My sons were inside a cave when it collapsed several days ago. I don’t know whether they’re still alive, but with your help, we’ll find out. Little Joe and I know where to go, so we’ll head out with our two men, and Ned and Jeb from the Double D.” He nodded as he looked over the tools already tied to their saddles. “I see Joe gave you each a shovel and pick to bring so we can start digging as soon as we get there.” He looked toward the remaining hand from the Dowd ranch. “I’ll ask you to bring Dr. Stevens and the supplies in the wagon.”

The Double D hand asked, “How will I know where to go? I won’t be able to keep up with you.”

Little Joe spoke up. “Follow the road east out of town, and then head north when you see the turnoff for Virginia City and the Ponderosa. You can’t miss it, and the cave is near enough the road that you’ll see us.” After sending the wagon on its way, he turned his attention to the men on horseback. He didn’t wait for his father’s go-ahead to voice his next comments because Joe knew what his father knew: that he was the better rider. “We’re going to ride at a good pace this morning,” he told the group, “but it will still take nearly four hours to get there. I’ll stay out front and pace us so our horses don’t wear out. Keep your eyes open for my signals.”

Eleven

Hoss yanked at a large rock, nearly toppling over as it gave loose. “Holy Cow!” he shouted as he turned to his older brother. “Now’d be a good time to wake up, Adam. I pulled me a good one this time, and doggone if I don’t see daylight.” Adam didn’t move. He hadn’t moved since the night before when he’d admitted he hadn’t been drinking any water to give Hoss a better chance of living until he was rescued. This was sitting heavy in his heart, but Hoss decided the best thing he could do to for both of them was to get them out.

With daylight peeking through the hole, he was energized to move faster, and he began pulling more rocks from around the one he’d just removed. It proved the wrong strategy as the stones above the area began to fall, once again occluding his opening. “I need yer advice, brother,” he said into the stillness once the rocks stopped rolling. “What would you do?” He thought about it for a minute, and said, “I s’pect you’d tell me to work at the top now since there don’t seem to be enough support to tunnel out where I was.” With his efforts redirected, he was soon able to clear a space the size of his fist at the top of the pile of stone still standing between them and freedom.  After a quick break and drink of water he took another look outside. “Ain’t that a beautiful sight,” he breathed.

From the angle of the sun, Hoss judged it to be mid-morning, and he thought hopefully that they could be free by evening if he worked hard. His spirits soon plummeted as he began to work at the surrounding rock and found that there were now longer, solid slabs of rock surrounding the opening rather than the movable-sized pieces he’d encountered so far. He slid to the ground, and wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve while he considered his options. One positive effect of getting through the mass of stone was the added light in the cave, and he was able to see another area with smaller rocks he could work at. He sincerely hoped that since he’d broken through the wall in one spot, he was near the outside edge everywhere now, and he’d break through again soon.

Before starting up, he moved over to check on Adam. “You able to wake up, buddy?” He laid his hand on the black clad shoulder, feeling it rise and fall with each of his brother’s shallow breaths. Reaching over for the canteen, he shook it again, and realized that he’d consumed more than he’d meant to during his morning’s work. Yet there was enough to get him through the next few hours. He gently brought Adam to a sitting position, and then poured water into his hand—using it to wet his brother’s lips. Hoss watched as Adam’s eyes fluttered open and the hint of smile brushed his lips.

“You still trying to make me drink?” Adam’s voice was muffled by dryness but still laced with humor. He ran his tongue across his lips and asked. “How’s it going?”

“I broke through in one spot, but now I gotta move over, cuz the slabs there are too big to move. I was hopin’ you’d tell me if I had the right idea.”

“Help me up, and we’ll take a look.”

Adam blinked several times before a little moisture returned to his eyes, allowing him to see more clearly. Memories of being stranded in the desert with Kane slipped into his mind with the effort. He’d gone through similar problems with his vision back then as his dehydration had taken away “normal” functions. Once standing, he stretched and found that his shoulder wasn’t hurting as badly as before. “Can you see anything outside from that hole?” he asked Hoss, who was still next to him, mostly holding him up.

“Enough to make me want to get out there real fast.”

He observed the problem Hoss had noted with the first opening. “Where were you thinking of working next?”

Hoss pointed to a nubby-looking group of rocks he thought would be easy enough to move.

Adam steadied himself on his brother’s arm as he looked around the dimly lit interior. “I’m not sure that’s the front of the cave, anymore. I know we were toward the back when it dropped, but everything looks different now.”

The younger man took a look around too. “Now that you mention it, I’m not sure either.” He dropped his head and sighed. “It might not be the right place, but I can’t get to anything on the other side, so I need to go with my gut.”

“Your gut’s always been pretty accurate.”

Hoss helped Adam sit again and grabbed the canteen. “As long as yer awake, you should take some a this.”

“I don’t think so; at least not yet.” He could see his brother’s disappointed look. “I know you don’t want me to get worse, but I know you aren’t feeling all that well either, Hoss, and you need to keep working.”

“I’m fine,” Hoss grumbled, before he chuckled. His brother was right. He’d been feeling light-headed all morning, and the little bits of biscuits and jerky weren’t enough to make his stomach stop aching with hunger. “All right, I ain’t fine, but how’d you know?”

“I could feel your muscles trembling when you were holding me up. You’re starving, and the water isn’t enough to make up for how much you sweat when you work.”

He could tell Adam was fading again. The words he was saying rang true, but his words sounded like they were drifting up from far away. “What should I do? You always knowed best about these things.”

“Hand me the canteen.” Adam shook it to gage the amount of water they had. He wet his lips again and handed it back to Hoss. “I want you to drink about half of this right now. It’ll help you get through that mess and see if you’re right about where it leads. Save the other half for one more try if this one doesn’t work.”

“Then what?”

“If that doesn’t work, then rest and wait for Pa. You can last a few days without water if you…” The effort of remaining upright proved too much and he passed out.

Hoss lowered Adam to the ground and then hoisted the canteen, taking a long drink. “I’ll get back to work now,” he said, knowing that there’d be no answer.  He bent to hold his hand near Adam’s face to make sure he was still breathing. Once satisfied that there was warm air coming at rhythmic intervals, he attacked the wall of stone again.

“I was right!” Hoss yelled when after a few minutes, his efforts revealed another speck of daylight. His joy was moderated as he realized that the rubble wall was still very wide, and would take hours of whittling it down one rock at a time. Yet he felt real hope that this nightmare could end soon. He wasn’t sure how he’d get help once he was free, but he still had a few matches in his pants pocket and he’d start a bonfire. If he got it big enough, the hands out watching the herd would see the smoke and come to check on it. His only fear was that help would come too late for Adam.

***

Ben was able to tell Little Joe more of what Myron had said before he died, when they stopped to water their horses at a creek that bordered the road.

Joe whistled after hearing the details. “I always thought Jase was a brooding sort, but I never suspected he could murder his own family.”

“We can’t tell what’s in a person’s heart,” Ben responded as he frowned. “I think Myron only became aware of Jase’s role in their parent’s death last night when they fought about leaving your brothers. It seemed like that’s what finally made him stand up to his older brother, and it cost him his life. He was a good worker, and without his brother’s influence, I think he would have settled nicely into ranching.” He sniffed. “The boy thanked me for being kind to him. Who’d believe that’s all it would take to give him enough courage to do what he did for us.”

Both Cartwrights bowed their heads in silence while Ben laid a hand on his son’s shoulder.  After a few moments, he said, “I suppose we better get moving. It feels like we’ve been riding forever.”

“We’re almost there, Pa. The waiting is hard, but once we arrive, we’ll get them out as fast as we can. I don’t remember that cave being very deep…” He realized once he’d spoken the words that this fact wasn’t encouraging because the entire thing might have disintegrated with a downward blast. “I’m sorry, Pa. I didn’t mean…”

Ben’s face took on a hard set as he turned toward his youngest. “No harm done, son. Your brothers are Cartwrights, and they’d have found a way to survive. My only hope is that our help hasn’t been too long in coming.”

Thirteen

Hoss checked Adam’s breathing again after hauling stones for a while, and thought it seemed even shallower than earlier. “Hang on, brother. I’m getting there.” He meant what he said. His efforts had produced a hole about the size of his head in the new section, and he’d found himself wishing he was Little Joe’s size. “I’d be out in no time,” he’d said aloud as he’d begun working on the surrounding areas to widen the access.

He was humming to himself as he worked, trying to keep his excitement tempered and his mind on what he was doing when he decided to look outside again to keep his eye on the prize, like the Bible said. A shocked yelp preceded his roll down the hill of stones piled up beneath him. He blew out a deep breath, thinking he was hallucinating, and hollered again when he looked up and saw Little Joe’s head sticking in through the hole he’d made—just as he thought he had.

The youngest Cartwright laughed as he asked, “What are you doing down there?”

Joe’s head pulled back and was replaced by Ben’s as he looked into what might have become his sons’ tomb. “Thank God! Are you two all right?”

Hoss was still stunned and asked excitedly, “How’d you find us? I thought it’d still be a couple a days before you might even get here.”

Ben’s tone was sharp as he tried to calm the young man. “I’ll tell you all about it once you’re safe. But now tell me if you need anything.”

“I’m good, Pa. I could use some food if ya got any. But Adam, he ain’t good, so you’re gonna have to hurry some.”

“What’s wrong with Adam?” The father’s tone had gone from take-charge to worried. He couldn’t see well inside the cave but thought he could make out Adam’s form curled up against the far wall.

“He got hurt in the collapse, and he’s been out a lot. And now all I know for sure is that he’s breathing. He’s gotta get help fast.”

Ben’s heart raced as he considered the options. “Get yourself and Adam as far back as possible. There’re several men out here to dig, so you can rest now.” Little Joe had gone off and returned with a sack of food and a full canteen. Ben handed them down to Hoss with the admonition to go easy. Before he finally pulled away to allow the digging to start, he said gently. “I’m pretty glad to see you two.”

“That goes double fer me, Pa. Seeing Little Joe nearly gave me a heart attack, but I would’a died happy.”

***

Hoss could hear the sound of shovels and picks hitting the hard rock outside as he opened the food bag and pulled out a thick sandwich. He’d taken a few bites when he felt full and remembered his father’s warning. “I ‘spect my stomach’s gotten a little smaller,” he said, leaning over toward his quiet brother. He took their canteen and drained it except for a few good splashes that he dropped on Adam’s face while telling him to wake up. He was answered with dry, angry, “Whadaya doing?” as the interrupted sleeper swatted at him ineffectually.  “Just thought you might like to know that Pa and Joe got here.”

Adam turned his head and looked up at Hoss, saying, “That’s nice,” before closing his eyes again.

“You can drink now,” Hoss added, hoping his words had made it through. “I got a full canteen.” He splashed more water on Adam’s face, but this time it brought no response. “You best hurry!” he hollered to those working outside.

Fourteen

Joe giggled as he watched Hoss push the plate with his half-eaten steak toward the center of the table with a look of disappointment. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you leave food behind,” he said, and then laughed again. “Does this mean you’ve turned over a new leaf and will be cutting down on the amount you eat?”

Hoss shot his brother a sardonic look as his lip curled. “It pains me to leave behind that good meat, but I ain’t got the appetite right now. You might understand that if you’d been in that cave starvin’ with me.” He knew he’d made his point when Joe broke eye contact and looked down at the table, seemingly engrossed in rearranging the silverware. Hoss laughed. “Sorry Joe, I was teasin’ you. I’m glad you weren’t with us because we needed someone to rescue us.” He quieted for a moment and shivered.

“You cold, son?” Ben asked as he reached for his son’s shoulder.

“Nah, Pa. I was jest thinkin’ about getting out of there today.” He shivered again as his mind went back to some hours earlier.

The digging at the cave had gone quickly with the right tools and enough men to use them, and Hoss had lifted Adam out when the opening was large enough. His exit had to wait a little longer for a few more rocks to be removed, but by then he’d had some food and water, and was in good spirits. Still he’d stumbled when he’d first tried to walk after crawling out of the rubble, and that had knocked him for a loop. The wagon had arrived by then and Dr. Stevens had explained that while Hoss had been active inside the cave, he probably had accomplished most things by crawling or leaning, not standing, so his legs would feel a little rubbery until his muscles got used to holding him up again.

The doctor had given him a quick exam, and declared him in fine health other than needing a little rest and lots of water. The news hadn’t been quite as certain for Adam. He hadn’t awakened even while being manhandled through the hole and carried to the buckboard where Dr. Stevens had checked him over. He’d complimented the unique shoulder halter Hoss had fashioned, and had said it was so good he’d leave it in place and wait to examine the wound when they got back to his office.

His assessment of Adam had gone on so long that Ben had begun giving threatening looks and voicing, “Ahems,” until he’d finally rendered his opinion. “Adam is very dehydrated. His shirt is caked with dry blood that I assume was lost with the piercing of his shoulder, and from what his brother says, he wasn’t taking water during the days they were trapped. He has a fever, and it might be an infection, but I think it’s mostly from the water deprivation.” He’d motioned the family over as he rolled Adam onto his good arm and pointed out a bluish area starting above his ear that extended down onto his neck. “Hoss tells me that they couldn’t see much in there, so I doubt they were aware this existed.”

When Pa had asked what had caused it, Dr. Stevens said he’d supposed that Adam had been hit in the head during the structure’s collapse. “I’m surprised he didn’t mention the pain,” he offered, “but since it’s the same side as the shoulder injury, he might have thought it was all connected.” In answer to Ben’s next question about why Adam remained unconscious, the doctor had said it could have been the result of any of the factors in play. The one thing he’d been adamant about was that Adam had to be awakened to find out if there had been injury to his brain.

Hoss cringed as he thought about what had happened next.

“What are you thinking about, Hoss?” Joe asked. “We lost you there for a minute and now you look like you’re in pain.”

He shook his head and blew out a long breath. “I was thinkin’ about how you had to get Adam awake out there today, and how it looked to make him powerful unhappy. I can’t help wonderin’ if I should have done that when we were trapped. Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten so bad.”

Ben patted his arm. “You did the best you could. Keeping him awake on the way back to Placerville was…interesting…but we did it, and he’s better now. Even Dr. Stevens said that the symptoms from the head injury were probably mimicked by the dehydration, so you wouldn’t have known what to do. The good news is that there’s no infection, and he credits you with cleaning the wound and keeping it immobilized.” Ben chuckled quietly, before adding, “And I know how hard-headed your older brother can be, so if he made up his mind on a course of action, there was nothing you could do to change it.”

“Thanks, Pa,” His eyes drifted upwards and he sighed again. “Ya know what’s amazin’ to me is how normal everythin’ looked on the outside of that cave. I know it was roughed up some with the guys shoveling, but if Myron hadn’t told you what they did, I think you would have passed it by, not even remembering a cave being there.”

Ben nodded. “You might be right, but then again you were getting close to being free when we got there.”

“It seemed that way, but I don’t know if I could have gotten some of them big pieces moved from the inside. I could punch holes, but nothing big enough to get through. I’m powerful thankful things worked out as they did, and that Adam will be fit-as-a-fiddle in a day or two. Doc Stevens even said my appetite will return to normal in no time.”

Little Joe smiled across at his brother. “Maybe we should send word ahead to Hop Sing to start cookin’ so there’ll be enough when we get home.”

“Something else bothering you?” Ben asked when he noticed Hoss wipe at his eyes and sniff. “Do you need to get back to the room?”

Hoss shook his head and did another quick wipe of his eyes as he regained his composure. “I’m fine, Pa. Just something hit my mind about the tale you done told about the Swanson boys. My older brother was gonna let himself die to make sure I got a chance to live. I know now that he’d hit his head, and maybe his decisions weren’t so good cuz a that.” He sought his father’s eyes to make his point. “But I believe Adam knew he was in trouble, and he truly decided to give me the time he thought I’d need. We didn’t expect help for a couple a days yet; the water was nearly gone, there was no food, but I could’a lasted a while more, hopin’ to be found…only cuz he deprived himself.” Hoss looked over at Joe. “You’d a done the same fer me in a similar circumstance; I’d a done it fer you too. That’s what bothers do.”

Ben could see Hoss fighting to control his emotions and he moved his chair closer to wrap an arm around the big man’s shoulder as he spoke quietly. “I have three fine sons who care for one another.”

“I know, Pa,” Hoss said as leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table. “That’s what so danged sad about what happened to Myron. Jase should’a protected him, but he killed his brother to save his own skin.”

“We’re all responsible for our own actions, son.” Ben said after a moment to consider what Hoss had said. “You, Adam, and Joe will always choose to do what’s right; it’s what you’ve always done, and nothing will change that.”

“We had you, Pa,” Joe interjected. “Jase and Myron didn’t have good parents.”

Ben nodded, “Yet Myron chose to do the right thing. I think he’d have had a good life if he could’ve gotten away from his brother and worked with us a little longer.”

“I can’t say what he would or wouldn’t a been,” Hoss offered, “but I know what he is now.”

“What’s that, son?”

“He’s my brother too. He became a Cartwright, Pa; maybe not by blood, but by his blood. We gotta make sure he’s taken care of.”

“It’s already done, Hoss.” Ben patted the big man’s shoulder. “I asked Monica to make arrangements yesterday before we left to find you, and she set up a short service for tomorrow morning. He’ll have the best we can give him.”

Fifteen

Monica opened the door quietly and stuck her head inside Adam’s room. “I thought you were supposed to be resting,” she teased as she saw him sitting up, reading. She went behind him and kissed the top of his head before pulling the desk chair over and sitting next to him. “You know you gave me a few more gray hairs, dear.”

He smiled as he squinted at her. “I don’t see any, but I’m sorry you were worried.”

She reached out and touched his hand. “It seems that anytime you’re near Placerville, there’s reason to worry.” Her hand was warm making her notice how cool his skin felt to her touch. “You’re cold, Adam.”

“You’d be too if your family thought it was necessary to drag you through every freezing creek between here and the cave.”

“I heard about it, sweetie, and I don’t think it was as bad as all that.”

His lips turned down in a pout. “Well it seemed like it to me. They wanted me to stay awake, so they kept splashing me with cold water, and I’m pretty sure that one time they dunked me completely. And that wasn’t all; they took turns slapping my face and forcing me to drink.” The left corner of his lip twitched into a grin. “They were just lucky I was helpless or I would have punched them all in the face.”

She patted his hand while clicking her tongue, and reached next to her chair where she’d stashed the bottle she’d carried in with her. “You are so lucky that I talked to Doc Stevens and he said you could have some of this fine brandy if you were unable to sleep.” After getting glasses from the dresser, she poured them each a few fingers from the dusty bottle, and handed one to him. He gulped it down and she added another shot to his glass before sitting next to him on the arm of his chair. “Now,” she said, “tell me when you’re leaving.”

A chuckle escaped as he sipped at his drink. “I just got here, and you want to know when I’m going. That’s hardly hospitable.” He held his empty glass out for a refill.

“The doctor said you could have a little to warm you up. I’m not sure you should have any more.”

“I’m a big boy, Monica. Besides, he also said I should rest now, and after all the effort to keep me awake, I’m not very sleepy, so consider it a sleeping elixer.” He pushed his glass at her and winked. “Fill’er up.” With his libation replenished, he thought about what she’d asked. “Pa, Hoss and Joe are heading home tomorrow. Dr. Stevens wants to me rest my shoulder for a day or two because it kept bleeding after he removed the remaining slivers. He doesn’t want me riding either, so I’ll take the stage to Carson when it comes through Monday, and Pa will meet me there with a buggy.”

Monica was grinning at him. “Thank you for your itinerary, and you can stay here as long as you like. What I want to know is when you’ll be leaving the ranch…for good.”

“Huh?” his mouth hung open. “How’d you know…” He blew out a long breath and said, “Hoss. He said he’d keep that to himself until I could talk to Pa.”

“Hoss didn’t say a word, Adam. I just did a little arithmetic.” She saw his nose and brows wrinkle as he shook his head. “Your father came here when he was looking for you. He said you’d planned to come to see me while you were in Placerville, and I figured that since this was the first time you’d come by since we worked on the Margot Tanner thing, you must have something pretty important to tell me.”

“I did want to see you, but how’d you decide it was to say I was leaving Nevada? That seems a mighty big leap.”

“There’re two things that gave you away. First off, when you were here with the last time, you said you’d almost lost something very important when you and your father had argued, and your priority was to be with your family. This time, they’re downstairs, and you’re up here. I know you’re supposed to rest, but I don’t think that would matter if you really wanted to be with them. I don’t sense anything amiss either, so I suspect it is a distancing on your part. You’re probably not even aware you’re doing it.”

“Hmm; that makes some sense. So what’s the second thing?”

“Addy told me.”

He grinned. “You talking to ghosts, Monica? Addy’s been gone for a while.”

She leaned over to rest her cheek on his head. “She saw how devoted your family was, but she also sensed that you were too much of an individual to remain satisfied as a cog in the Cartwright ranch forever. Addy knew you’d want more. She always hoped you and I would get together one day, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her it couldn’t happen.”

He nodded as he reached for her hand and pulled her onto his lap, giving her a soft kiss on the cheek. “Addy was right; I trained as an engineer, and I want to part of that world again. There are so many innovations happening. I’m itching to get back to it.”

Monica outlined the features on his face. “I must have been crazy to let you go last time. You are the most handsome man I’ve ever known, and the truth be told, I love you more than I loved my husband when I married him. But there’s the rub. I didn’t love him enough to fight for him when all those bad things started happening with Margot. If I had…well a lot of others would still be alive, and I can’t get past the guilt.”

“I know,” he said softly, “and I understand. There are many episodes that might have turned out differently in my life too…if I’d had the wisdom I gained from going through them. I’ve come to realize that all we can do is move forward and do the best we can. And speaking of opportunities, I’ve seen articles in the papers that tell of the wonderful things you’re doing for people from here all the way to San Francisco. You’ve learned how to turn your sadness into action. I jumped at the chance to come to Placerville to get Pa’s bull because I wanted to see you again, and tell you know how much I admire what you’re doing before I go to Boston.” He pulled her close. “I think Addy is up there busting her wings with pride over the woman you’ve become. And may I add that your good work becomes you. You’re very beautiful when you’re happy.”

She snuggled onto his chest. “Thank you. I saw things about the Ponderosa in the papers too, and I always cut them out if you were mentioned.” Her serious expression turned into a grin as she asked, “So who’s the lucky woman in Boston?”

Adam’s mouth dropped open a second time. “I suppose Addy told you that too?”

“No! That I figured out all by myself. You could be an engineer anywhere between here and the East Coast. You chose Boston. I hope she’s worthy of you.”

He laughed as he grabbed his glass from the floor where he’d set it, and drained the remaining liquid. “I hope I’m worthy of her. I met Melinda when I went to school in Boston. We agreed we’d marry after she went to college back east, and I came home to work with my family for a few years. But we lost touch and I assumed something had changed her mind about me. I saw her again a while ago, and found out it was all a mistake. That led me to an interesting conclusion.”

“And what might that be?”

“I’ve met some intriguing, intelligent and courageous women in the years since I left Boston. In fact one of them is with me right now. But nothing ever worked out, and when I saw Melinda again, I figured out why. She’s always been there in the back of my mind, and in my heart, and I hope she’ll have me after making her wait all these years. ”

“She hasn’t married?”

“Nope.”

Monica walked behind his chair and leaned down to kiss his cheek. “Then she’ll have you.”

Sixteen

The Cartwrights, and the people of Placerville who’d heard the story of the young man who’d died in the fire, assembled at the open grave the next morning. Reverend Pike, the only minister in town, officiated with prayers and scripture, and Ben gave a short eulogy to lay Myron Swanson to rest.

Jase Swanson had become a victim of his own swagger when he stuck around town after the fire, assuming that his kid brother had died like his parents had. He’d underestimated Myron’s grit in holding on until he could receive absolution from Ben Cartwright, and he was arrested. Jase was quick to point out that he’d been in the saloon all night, so he couldn’t have done what his brother had said. His alibi had been confirmed to a point, but there were two things he hadn’t counted on. The first was that the blaze hadn’t taken away the evidence of Myron being tied to the bed, belying his ability to start the blaze himself, and Jase hadn’t counted on those he’d been playing poker with noticing his absence for more than enough time to sneak back and start the fire. One of them even went so far as to note that he’d smelled kerosene when Jase had returned from using the outhouse.

Daniel Down showed up in town about the time the funeral was ending with his bull and several heifers for the Cartwrights to take with them to extend the bloodline more quickly. After a quick drink to seal the deal and exchange the bank draft, Ben sent Little Joe and their two hands on ahead with the cattle, while he, Adam and Hoss finished up with the undertaker and sheriff.

With their business finished, they gathered back at Monica’s restaurant for lunch before Hoss and Ben would leave to catch up to Little Joe and the men.

Ben was used to Adam’s silence at the table. He’d noticed that his eldest had been getting quieter over the last several weeks and had stopped offering his opinions on the running of the ranch, usually just agreeing with what the rest of them decided had to be done. But now Hoss was quiet as well, and that bothered him. He finally said, “You seem very quiet today.”

The big man smiled as he set his fork down. “I guess I’m usually the one with the most to say, but I was jest contemplatin’ on what we saw this mornin’.”

“What do you mean?” Adam asked as he shifted in his chair to see Hoss better.

“It was Jase. I knowed he was trying to get himself a little of the good will we showed to Myron when he apologized to us, sayin’ he was raised wrong, and it left him mad all the time and not thinkin’ straight. But when he talked about his brother, it sounded almost like he was jealous a him.”

“I heard that too.” Adam blew out a long breath as he winced while trying to ease his shoulder into a more comfortable position. “It seems odd to us, because we’ve always worked hard for what we have. We get noticed because of that, but none of us do it for the attention. Jase Swanson did want attention. I remember an evening at camp when Myron told me he liked my singing, and I sat with him a bit showing him a few cords on the guitar while he talked about some of the things he and his brother had done before getting to the Ponderosa. It struck me that the older one would do just about anything to get ahead…except work hard for it. I guess we saw how far he’d actually go trying to get something for nothing. You do wonder if he is sorry for what he did, or sorry he got caught.”

***

Adam stood in the street outside the hotel, watching as his father and brother prepared to leave. Hoss was already mounted and looking anxious to get moving, while his father tightened the cinch and then tied his saddle bags more securely. While waiting to say his goodbyes and send them off, his mind drifted back to funeral service, where he’d had the chance to honor the young man whose admission had changed the course of events inside the cave. He understood the magnitude of Myron’s sacrifice, and was sorry the young man died.

He and Hoss had discussed their experience when he’d been resting at the doctor’s home, and he’d explained his rationale in the decision he’d made to go without food and water. Hoss had thanked him, and then told him if they were ever trapped again, they would figure things out together because he had the right to have a say in such decisions. But then the big man had admitted that he would have had a hard time getting out on his own even though he’d managed to punch through. The problem had been the amount of rubble that had to be moved from the outside to enlarge the hole on the inside. Hoss had admitted that getting so close and then not being able to get out would have defeated him. He laughed and said he would have hung his shirt out the hole as a signal, hoping someone would see it before he died of starvation, but he was powerful sad…and thankful that Myron had sent Pa and Little Joe in the right direction.

This miraculous rescue in his life had made Adam wondered if it was some sort of sign that he should revise his plans and stay with his family. But during his talk with Monica, he’d come to see that he had to move on, just as she had done. Being with his brothers and father was good, and he loved all of them. Working on the Ponderosa was never easy, but it had become safe, and he realized again that he would never find what he needed there. Staying would only keep him riding in a circle while the only straight path for him led east. Myron’s gift had given him another chance, and he knew he had to make the most of it.

His thoughts returned to the present when Ben handed Buck’s reins to Hoss, and took his older son’s good shoulder, leading him to the boardwalk to speak privately.

“There’s no need to hurry, Adam. I saw how much that shoulder is bothering you, so you make sure you’re feeling better before you get on the stage. You still have a couple of days before it comes through, but stay here longer if you need to.”

Adam continued to hold on after he and his father shook hands. “Pa…”

Ben met the boy’s gaze and smiled. “I know, son. We’ll have time to talk on the way home from Carson.” He touched Adam’s arm. “You do what you have to do, Adam. I’ll always trust and honor your decisions. Right now, I’m just thankful you’re alive to make them.”

“Thanks, Pa.” He sent his father away after a quick embrace, and walked over to Monica. The two of them waved until Ben and Hoss were out of sight.

“Did you tell him?” she asked, taking his arm as they went into the hotel.

“I didn’t have to,” he said with a wry grin. “He’s my father; he already knows.”

The End

 

*This is from a story I wrote called, The Burning Bridge. It was about Adam finding justice for a number of people who’d been hurt or murdered by Margot Tanner. Ben’s failure to believe Adam over Margo’s lie—that the 12-year-old boy she had with her was Adam’s son…caused a rift between them that sent Adam away to find out the truth. He didn’t tell Ben where he was going, yet the family met up by providence at a time when Adam needed them most. The rift was mended as such things were usually fixed in the Cartwright family: by them working together to end Margot’s reign of terror. In the story he meets Monica and Addy, two strong women who stick by him in his quest. Adam is beaten within an inch of his life when Margot sends her lackey to kill him when she finds out what he’s doing. The beating makes him lose his vision for a time, and then he’s shot as he exposes all that Margot has done. Monica and Adam become close and it seems that a romance is blooming, but it can’t happen. She feels great guilt for not exposing what she thought Margot was doing much sooner, thus saving all those who died at Margot’s hands after Monica’s husband died. She realizes that she never grieved her husband’s passing and can’t think about love until she makes amends. On the other hand, Adam had lost a connection to his father during the initial ordeal, and he knows his life will never be right until the two of them find that link again.

The Burning Bridge is in the Bonanza Brand library.

 

Tags:  Adam Cartwright, Family, Hoss Cartwright