“I don’t see why Pa had us come all the way out here to check up on Billy Sweevers,” Joe complained loudly as he and Adam dismounted in front of the line shack. “Any of the hands could have done it.”

“Methinks he doth protest too much,” Adam said with a sigh. He had heard this complaint from his youngest brother four or five times in the last two days, as they rode out here to the little shack that was one of the most remote on the Ponderosa. “I’m willing to bet that the reason you’re so sore about it is that you’ll have to miss the Saturday night dance in Virginia City.”

Forgetting for a moment the dignity of his eighteen years, Joe poked his tongue out at Adam before tying his pinto, Cochise, to the hitching post. “I did have a kind of arrangement to take Carol-Anne Grey,” he admitted, reaching up to unbuckle his bedroll. “And if I’m not there I bet Mitch’ll be dancing with her instead.”

“Mitch?” Adam queried, his expression showing his amusement at his brother’s miserable tone. “I thought he was seeing Sally Davies?”

“That was weeks ago,” Joe’s look clearly showed that he thought Adam should have been aware of all this. “Before Nancy Rogers.”

“Oh, before Nancy Rogers,” Adam said solemnly. “That far back, eh?” he grinned at the look Joe shot him. “I can’t keep up with you two and girls.”

“Some of us have it, older brother,” Joe said with a smile, his mood lightening at Adam’s teasing. “And some of us lost it years ago.” Ducking away from his brother’s swipe in his direction he pushed open the door of the line shack and stepped inside.

“Nobody here,” Adam entered behind him, his gaze sweeping the small room. “Doesn’t look like there has been for a while.”

“Then I guess Pa was wrong,” Joe flung his bedroll on the bunk in the corner of the room. “Billy didn’t have an accident, he ran out on us.”

“He has been here,” Adam was checking the cupboards that lined one wall of the shack, finding the sacks of food that Sweevers had brought up two weeks previously. “So I’d have thought he’d come back to collect his pay before lighting out.”

Billy Sweevers was fairly new to the Ponderosa, a middle aged man who had hired on as a ranch hand earlier that year. He had been sent to close up the line shack for the winter and when he hadn’t returned ten days later Ben had become concerned, wondering if the man had met with an accident. Despite Joe’s protests he had sent his eldest and youngest sons to make sure that everything was all right.

“I guess we’d better have a scout round and look for him,” Joe said reluctantly. He was tired and hungry and wasn’t looking forward to going back outside where a chill wind was beginning to blow from the mountains and light rain was just starting to fall.

“Guess so,” Adam was no more eager than Joe to begin searching for Sweevers and by the look of the ashes in the stove the man had been gone for at least a week, so if he’d met with an accident it was unlikely they’d find him alive. “We’ve got about three hours before it falls dark, let’s get going.”

By the time day turned to twilight the two brothers had circled out some five or six miles from the line shack, getting very wet in the increasingly heavy rain but finding no sign of Sweevers. Returning, they wasted no time in lighting the stove and cooking up some of the salted bacon they had brought with them from the ranch house. With a cup of strong, black coffee and a hunk of bread, it seemed like a veritable feast to the two ravenous men.

“Guess we’d better turn in now,” Adam said as he finished his coffee and sat back. “You taking the floor, Joe?”

Joe looked in disgust at the hard packed dirt of the cabin floor. “Why should you get the bed?”

“Age before beauty,” Adam told him with a grin, getting up and taking Joe’s bedroll off the bunk before unrolling his own and peeling off his damp shirt.

“Toss you for it?” Joe suggested hopefully.

“No chance. I know about that double sided coin of yours.”

“I suppose Hoss told you about it.”

Adam pulled his boots off and put them carefully on the floor before lying down on the bed and stretching luxuriously. “No, he didn’t. It was Pa.”

“Pa?” Joe said in surprise, giving up on trying to get the bed and reaching for his own bedroll. “Wonder how he knew?”

But the only reply from his older brother was a soft snore and, with a sigh, Joe blew out the lantern and settled down to sleep.

~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~

Joe was cold, bitterly, bone-achingly cold. All around him was darkness and, as he tried to move and look around, pain shot through his legs and abdomen. A searingly sharp pain that made him draw in his breath and moan in agony. But the cold and even the pain faded in comparison to how hungry he felt, hungrier than he had ever been, it gnawed at his stomach and he was aware of a great emptiness inside him.

Vaguely he knew that there was a way to stop the hunger, to fill his belly and feel replete but he also knew that to do that involved something horrific, something repulsive to him and he moaned again, knowing that he had no alternative, he had to eat or he would surely starve to death. Reaching down he took a knife from his boot and rubbed his thumb gently over the blade, feeling the razor like edge. Lifting the weapon he held it up before him, a terrible sorrow filling his mind and causing his eyes to sting with unshed tears. He didn’t want to do this, but he knew he had to, to stay alive he had to. He closed his eyes as the blade descended….

With a start, Joe woke up, still feeling for a moment that terrible hunger and cold. The room was dark but not so dark that he couldn’t see that he was still in the line shack. Adam lay on the bed nearby, fast asleep, his breathing slow and even. Shaken by the dream, for he realised that’s what it had been, Joe wriggled down a bit further under his blanket until the cold feeling dissipated and he began to feel calmer. He was just drifting off to sleep again when he heard a horse whinny outside. It didn’t sound like either Sport or Cochise and, alarmed, he reached for his gun. He decided it would be best not to wake Adam until he’d taken a look, after all if it was just a wild horse roaming around his older brother wouldn’t take kindly to being disturbed. He eased himself out of bed and tiptoed over to the door, pulling it open a fraction. Outside the moon was just breaking through from behind dark, scudding clouds and seemed to illuminate the animal that stood by the hitching rail. He was a big horse, powerfully built and jet-black in colour. His name, Joe knew, was Midnight and he belonged to Billy Sweevers.

“Hey boy,” Joe spoke soothingly as he slipped out of the cabin and walked toward the animal, the ground beneath his feet damp from the previous day’s rain. “Where did you spring from?” At Joe’s approach the horse tossed his head, and stepped away a little, rolling his eyes as though he was scared. “It’s all right,” Joe reassured him, his voice taking on a kind of crooning tone intended to calm the creature. “It’s fine, Midnight, you’re safe now, it’s all fine.”

It took Joe a few minutes of talking but eventually the horse allowed him to approach and Joe patted him gently on the neck, reaching out to grab the reins that dangled from the animal’s bridle. “So where’s Billy?” Joe asked and Midnight snorted as though in reply but didn’t move. Leading the horse over to where Cochise and Sport were tethered and tying him alongside them, Joe looked around. By the look of the sky the moon was going to be hidden by clouds again at any moment and there would be no chance of retracing Midnight’s trail to see if they could find Billy. “We’ll go look for him in the morning,” Joe whispered softly to the horse and the animal snickered gently as though he understood. Giving him a final pat, Joe returned to the shack and settled down to sleep.

~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~

The bang of the cabin door closing and Adam’s irritated voice, asking him if he was thinking of getting up any time soon, roused Joe from sleep the next morning. Rolling over, he yawned and propped himself up on one elbow watching blearily as Adam set the coffee pot to boil on the stove and busied himself frying up a pan of bacon for their breakfast.

“You been outside yet?” he queried sleepily, brushing a hand through his hair before crawling out from beneath his blanket.

Adam gave a nod toward the coffee pot. “How else do you think I got the water? I’ve been up a good half hour while you were lying there snoring like a hog.”

“I don’t snore,” Joe said, affronted. “Did you see Midnight?”

Adam turned to look at his brother with a baffled expression. “What do you mean, midnight?”

“Midnight, Billy’s horse,” Joe explained with a touch of exasperation. “Did you see him out there?”

Looking as though he thought Joe had taken leave of his senses Adam shook his head. “Only horses out there are Sport and Cochise.”

“But I tied Midnight up next to them,” Joe exclaimed, heading for the door. “I woke up in the night and heard him out there and tied him up with the others.”

Adam put aside the pan of bacon and followed Joe outside and over to where Cochise and Sport were quietly grazing.

“He was here,” Joe looked about him as though expecting to see the horse materialise from thin air. “Honest, Adam, he was here.”

Adam pointed down at the ground beneath their feet. “The earth’s soft just here from the rain. I can see two sets of hoof prints, not three. You sure it wasn’t a dream or something?”

“It can’t have been…” Joe’s voice trailed off as he too studied the ground. “I’m sure I wasn’t dreaming, at least I don’t think I was,” with the evidence before him, the clear imprint of just two horses hooves, Joe suddenly wasn’t quite so sure of himself. “I did have an odd dream last night,” he said quietly. “But that was before.”

“Perhaps you just thought you were awake,” Adam reasoned. “Dreams can be pretty vivid at times.”

“Well this one sure was. Midnight was here, large as life, but no sign of Billy.”

“Probably just the searching yesterday, kind of preying on your mind,” Adam said, turning towards the shack. “How about we go and have some breakfast and then take another look around?”

With a nod of assent Joe followed his brother, pausing in the doorway of the shack for a moment to look back at the two horses and shake his head in disbelief. “Seemed so real,” he muttered under his breath before going inside.

Breakfast was soon over and the two Cartwrights lost no time in saddling up and resuming the search for Billy Sweevers. By the time they stopped to eat, just after midday, Adam was of the opinion that Billy had just upped and left.

“He wouldn’t have been this far away from the shack if he was doing the job he was sent here for,” he reasoned, chewing on a hunk of bread and cheese, “and we saw no sign of him on the way up here.”

“So you don’t think he had some kind of accident?”

Adam poured two cups of coffee and handed one over to Joe. “No, I reckon he just lit out though I don’t know why.”

Joe took a swallow and grimaced at the bitter taste of the coffee. “So what do you think we should do? Go back home?”

“I think so,” Adam doused the fire with the remains of the coffee and began clearing up. “We’ll circle back to the shack on the off chance that we missed something, spend the night there and ride out for the Ponderosa in the morning.”

~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~

Joe had scarcely dropped off to sleep that night before the dream started. Once more he felt the cold, a bitter, icy chill that seemed to pervade his whole body. The pain was there again, only now it wasn’t quite so sharp, more of a throbbing, dull kind of ache. But overriding all of this was a feeling of guilt and despair so deep that, even in sleep, Joe twisted and groaned as though trying to escape it. But he knew that he couldn’t get away, he was trapped, trapped with something so horrible he couldn’t bring himself to look at it. Suddenly the knowledge hit him that he would die here and he cried out in fear. Then there were hands on his shoulders, shaking him, a voice speaking and he came awake to find himself safe in the cabin with his brother peering down at him.

“You all right?” Adam asked in concern as he saw that Joe had woken. “You were yelling a bit, thought I’d better wake you up.”

Shaken, Joe ran a trembling hand over his face and attempted to smile at his brother. “I’m fine. Just a bad dream.”

“What about?” Adam got up from where he had been kneeling beside Joe and sat on the bed. “Or don’t you remember?”

Joe sat up and scooted back so that he was leaning against the wall. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget it, it seemed so real.”

“You want to tell me about it?”

“It was all a bit muddled,” Joe shivered and pulled the blanket up around his shoulders, realising that the chill he felt wasn’t a remnant of his dream, the cabin was pretty cold. “I was trapped somewhere, hurt and cold and I thought I was going to die.”

Adam had noted Joe’s shiver and got up to put some wood in the stove and warm the room a little. “You okay now?”

“I’m fine. Sorry I woke you up.”

“That’s all right,” settling himself back into bed Adam looked over at his brother who was still sitting against the wall, the blanket pulled tightly around him. “Sure you’re okay? I could make you a coffee if you like or we could talk…”

“No, you go on back to sleep,” Joe said with just a hint of his usual cocky grin. “I’ll be asleep myself soon.”

As Adam rolled himself in his blanket and turned away, Joe let the grin slip, he had no intention of returning to sleep tonight, the dream had been far too vivid and real. He didn’t want to take the chance of experiencing it again. As Adam’s breathing grew slow and regular, Joe slipped quietly out of bed reaching for his boots and jacket. Perhaps a breath of fresh air might make him feel better, he thought, and a walk would at least keep him awake.

The night was cold and clear, the moon riding high in a cloudless sky and, deciding that perhaps a ride might be better than a walk, Joe stopped and picked up Cochise’s saddle before quietly easing open the door. Cochise was with Sport, tethered close to the shack, beneath the shelter of a stand of trees and he looked up at Joe’s approach, snickered and moved to meet him.

“Hey boy,” Joe spoke gently to the horse, his words carrying on the still air and causing an owl, far above him in the trees, to swoop quickly away. Smoothing the horse’s velvety nose he laughed quietly as Sport came to nudge him from behind and demand a little attention as well. Turning around to see the animal he suddenly froze, standing between himself and the cabin, moonlight gleaming on his deep black coat, was Midnight. As Joe watched him the horse stepped back a little and whinnied softly.

“Stay there,” Joe instructed, his voice quiet and firm. Stepping away from Sport and Cochise he advanced toward Midnight, but as he moved forward the horse retreated back out of reach stepping up his pace until he was well away from Joe. Then he turned and cantered off.

“Darn,” Joe stopped and considered for a moment. He wanted to get Midnight if for no other reason than to show Adam that the horse had been there last night. Coming to a decision he ran back to Cochise and, swiftly saddling him, he swung up onto the animal’s back and set out after Midnight.

~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~

Joe caught sight of Midnight again almost immediately, standing beneath a rocky outcrop. It was almost as though the big horse was waiting for him, for as soon as he spied Joe coming he broke into a gallop and headed away. The moonlight lit the landscape well, but it was nowhere near as bright as day, and Joe held Cochise back a little as he followed Midnight. The black horse seemed well aware of what he was doing and when Joe fell back Midnight slowed until he almost caught him and then, just as Joe reached for his rope to try lassoing the animal, he tossed his head and was off again. It occurred to Joe that the horse wanted him to follow, was actually leading him somewhere.

They were moving away from the shack and were soon almost out as far as Joe and Adam had gone on their search for Billy the previous day. The night was cold and, as the time wore on, it began to cloud over until the moon was hidden from time to time by wisps of dark cloud moving swiftly across its pallid face. Joe was beginning to grow weary of this game of cat and mouse that Midnight seemed to be playing, and was about to turn Cochise and head back, when the big black horse suddenly stopped and stood quite still, looking back at him.

“Just stay there,” Joe muttered under his breath, slowing Cochise to a walk. “Just don’t move.”

He was within yards of Midnight and preparing to attempt to rope him, when the big horse suddenly turned around and Joe caught a glimpse of his other side. What he saw made him gasp in horror. The sight spooked Cochise as well and, with a scared whinny, he reared up. His hand on his rope, Joe had no time to grasp the reins and was thrown backwards from Cochise, hitting his head on a rock as he fell.

Alarmed, Cochise lowered his head and nosed at the still body of his master. There was no response and the horse stepped away a little and looked around him. The thing that had scared him was gone and he and Joe were alone in the cold, rapidly darkening night.

~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~

Turning over on the narrow bed, Adam opened his eyes and peered up at the tiny window set high in the wall of the shack. A pale glimmer of early morning light was just beginning to appear in the dark sky and, yawning, he pulled his blanket closer around him and was about to go back to sleep when he noticed Joe’s abandoned bedroll.

“Joe?” he said softly, sitting up and looking around the dark room. There was no sign of his brother and, with a sigh, Adam swung his legs to the floor and reached for his boots. He saw almost immediately that Joe’s saddle was gone and so wasn’t surprised, when he opened the door of the cabin, to see Sport standing alone beneath the trees.

“Where in tarnation can he have gone?” he muttered to himself irritably as, picking up his own saddle, he went over to Sport. “Darn kid, riding off in the middle of the night. Never thinks, just goes his own sweet way and…” he broke off in mid sentence as just in front of him he saw something. Rubbing his eyes in disbelief, he squinted at what appeared to be the very barest outline of a big horse, hardly visible in the pre-dawn light but there nevertheless, an insubstantial figure through which he could dimly see the trees beyond. As he stared in astonishment, the horse, or whatever it was, moved slowly forward. Adam stood, rooted to the spot, feeling an icy coldness reach out from the figure and surround him. Then suddenly, just as the first rays of the rising sun lit the sky, the thing shimmered and vanished into thin air.

Shaken, Adam didn’t move for a while, just shaking his head in doubt at what he had experienced. Eventually he walked slowly over to where the horse had disappeared and crouched down, examining the ground. Finding nothing he returned to Sport and saddled him, then led the horse around the clearing until he picked up the fresh trail that Cochise had left. Mounting, he moved out slowly, his keen eyes searching and finding the signs that his brother’s horse had left. It was slow going and he had been riding for almost two hours and the sun was now well up. The day was cool with a chill wind blowing from the mountains and carrying a hint of the snows that would soon carpet the area. At last he spotted Cochise though it wasn’t until he drew closer that he saw the prone figure beside the horse.

“Joe!” Reining Sport in Adam leaped from his horse and ran to his brother. Kneeling beside him he felt frantically for a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when he found it, strong and steady. Fetching his canteen he gently pulled the neckerchief from around Joe’s neck and soaked the cloth before applying it to his brother’s forehead. He was rewarded by a small groan from the unconscious youth.

“Come on, wake up,” he said softly, reaching behind Joe to lift him into a sitting position.

“Adam.” Joe croaked out the name as his eyes blinked open and he stared bewilderedly around him. “What happened?”

“Looks like you fell.” Adam told him, his fingers carefully exploring the back of Joe’s head. “You’ve got a pretty fair sized lump here.”

“Ouch! That hurts!” Joe protested as Adam probed at the injury. He reached to pick up the canteen that Adam had set down beside him. “I must have been out cold for hours.”

Adam nodded in agreement, watching his brother with concern as Joe took a few swallows of the water, put the canteen down, and winced in pain. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m all right,” Joe said with a halfhearted grin. “You know us Cartwrights have hard heads,” he gingerly put up a hand to feel the lump and winced again. “Boy, that sure is an egg back there.”

“What were you doing out here anyway?” Adam asked, standing up and holding out a hand to assist Joe to his feet.

Swaying slightly Joe stood up. “I er…” he looked at Adam with an expression that clearly showed he didn’t expect to be believed. “I was following Midnight.”

“So how come you got thrown?”

“Because…” Joe stopped and a shudder ran through him. “You’re really not going to believe this, Adam.”

“I think I will,” Adam told him softly. “Because I saw Midnight too, only it was…”

“It was some kind of ghost?”

“I don’t know about that. I just know I could kind of see through the thing, some sort of mirage perhaps?”

Joe bent to pick up his hat and put a hand to his head as he straightened again, feeling slightly dizzy. “I saw it clear as day, spooked Cochise and scared me half to death. Whatever it was it was right there,” he pointed to his left and Adam turned to look at where Midnight had stood. “It turned around and half of its rump was missing, it was standing there with half its side gone!”

~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~

Joe’s revelation about what he had seen shocked Adam a little but he didn’t argue, the horror of the sight still lurked in Joe’s eyes when he spoke of it and it was obvious he had been badly shaken by the experience.

“I guess we’d better get back,” Adam reached for Sport’s reins. “There’s nothing here now and I’d feel better if we got back to the Ponderosa and called Doc Martin to have a look at your head.”

“My head’s fine. And I think there is something here. I think Midnight was leading me, Adam.”

“Leading you here? Why?”

“Something to do with Billy Sweevers,” Joe looked around him at the rocky landscape. “And I think it’s all tied up with those dreams I had.”

“Dreams? That odd dream you mentioned the first night we were here?”

Joe nodded. “Same as the one I told you about last night.”

“I don’t see how it can be linked,” Adam said thoughtfully, considering what Joe had said “They were just dreams, products of your imagination, but both you and I saw…whatever it was we did see.”

“I think I was meant to follow Midnight,” Joe persisted stubbornly. “I’m sure Billy Sweevers is round here, Adam, and I mean to find him.”

“But we rode through this area yesterday. We never saw anything.”

“He’s here somewhere.” Joe grabbed Cochise’s reins and walked over to stand beside Adam. “I just know he is.”

Okay,” Adam agreed with a sigh. “Show me exactly where Midnight was standing when you saw him last.”

Joe pointed to where he’d last seen Midnight and they began to trudge across to the spot he’d indicated, Cochise and Sport following behind. As they drew closer Adam frowned, the ground didn’t look right, there seemed to be a mass of decaying branches in front of them and yet there were hardly any trees in the immediate vicinity.

Catching hold of Joe’s arm, Adam pulled his brother to a halt. “Walk real careful.”

“Why?” Joe enquired and had his question answered immediately when his next forward step had his foot breaking through the vegetation. It was only Adam’s quick grab that stopped him falling.

“A trap!” Adam exclaimed, kneeling and pulling at the branches, tossing them aside to reveal a large, deep, sheer sided pit at the bottom of which lay the prone figure of a man and beside him, and obviously dead, a big, black horse.

“Billy Sweevers!” Joe exclaimed, staring down at the man. “Think he’s alive?”

Adam stood up and reached for his rope from Sport’s saddle. “I’d better go down and take a look. You stay here.”

“I can go,” Joe protested as Adam began to tie the rope around himself.

“I’d rather you didn’t,” Adam tied the other end of the rope to Sport before handing the looped middle part to Joe. “Not with that head injury. Now lower me down slowly and use Sport to pull me back up again.”

Joe nodded, grasping the rope and letting it play out as his older brother gingerly lowered himself over the edge of the pit and, bracing his legs against the wall, made his way down to Billy Sweevers. A swift examination of the ranch hand found him to be still alive, though in a bad way.

Looking up, Adam shouted to Joe, who was standing at the edge of the pit. “He’s alive! I’ll tie the rope round him and you haul him out of here.”

Joe quickly obeyed and Adam watched as the unconscious man was pulled from the pit. When Joe threw the rope back down Adam took a look around before he headed upward again. An empty canteen lay next to where Billy had been and beside that a knife. Adam could see what the knife had been used for, the big black horse lay on its side and quite obvious was the missing part of the animal’s rump that the desperate man must have hacked off and eaten to survive. With a shudder Adam looked away and called to Joe to pull him up and out of there.

~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~

The journey back to the Ponderosa seemed very long to the two brothers. They had hastily constructed a travois and made Sweevers as comfortable as possible on it using their own bedrolls. The ranch hand was burning up with fever and they had to make constant stops to check on him, trying to get him to take a little water. Barely conscious he could answer none of their questions though in his delirium he called out many times for Midnight.

Back at the ranch Ben took charge of the situation immediately, despatching Hoss to fetch Doc Martin, getting Billy installed in the guest bedroom and ordering Hop Sing to make up some broth. Joe and Adam explained that they had stumbled across the missing man at the bottom of what was probably a bear trap and, as neither brother wanted to tell their father about what they had seen, they were grateful that he asked no questions.

By the time Hoss arrived back with the doctor both Adam and Joe had washed and changed and, though tired, were waiting anxiously to find out exactly how Billy was. It was a great relief when Paul Martin emerged from examining his patient to announce that, with care, he thought that the man would pull through. “The fever has broken,” he told the assembled Cartwrights. “He’s sleeping normally now. He has some injuries to his back and legs but they’ll heal. Just make sure he has plenty of fluids and try and get some food down him, a good chicken broth will do wonders. Now let me take a look at your head, Joe.”

“Hop Sing has got the broth cooking up right now,” Ben said, watching anxiously as the doctor gently probed the back of Joe’s head “I’m sure we’ll soon have Billy back on his feet again.”

“I think you’ll live,” Paul smiled at Joe, picking up his bag and preparing to leave. “I’ll be out in a couple of days to check Sweevers over,” he said, heading for the door. “Call me if there’s any change for the worse though I’m confident that there won’t be.”

Closing the door behind the doctor, Ben turned to look at Adam and Joe. “About time you two got some rest,” he told them. “You look tired out.”

“I am,” Joe admitted, getting to his feet and making for the stairs. “I’ll see you all in the morning. Goodnight.”

“You sure you don’t need my help with Billy?” Adam asked, preparing to follow his brother.

“Hoss, Hop Sing and I can manage just fine,” Ben told him with a smile. “You just get some sleep.”

“Well, goodnight then,” Adam said, unable to suppress a yawn as he too headed for bed.

~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~

Carrying a bowl of broth Adam softly opened the door to Billy’s room the following morning. He found the ranch hand awake and glad to see him. Propped up against the pillows the man still looked pale and ill but a great deal better than when Adam had last seen him.

“Your brother, Hoss, tells me it was you and young Joe that found me,” Billy said, his voice hardly more than a croaky whisper as he took the broth from Adam and sipped it hungrily.

“How did you get down there?” Adam asked curiously, pulling a chair close to the bed and sitting down.

“I was just out riding, giving Midnight a run,” his expression saddened as he spoke of the horse. “He liked a gallop. Next thing I know we’re down the bottom of that pit and there ain’t no way out. Midnight, he was bad hurt…” Billy’s voice trailed off and he stared down at the bedcovers.

“He died?” Adam asked softly.

“Not right away,” Billy didn’t look up. “I oughta have shot him, I know that, he was in pain. But somehow I just couldn’t. Guess I thought we might get out of there and perhaps he could be saved.”

“Did you try climbing out?”

“Tried, but I’d hurt my back and couldn’t stand real well,” Billy put the bowl down on the table beside the bed and dashed a hand across his eyes. “Weren’t no point trying to call for help, weren’t nobody within miles. The darn branches that we fell through just kinda sprang back into place and nobody could have known we were there. I hoped perhaps whoever dug the trap would come back but as the days went on…” his voice thickened and his fingers began to pick agitatedly at the bedclothes as he remembered his time in the pit. “Then Midnight died and I was all alone and it was cold, so cold Adam. Water was running out and I was hungry, hungrier than I’ve ever been…”

“You had to do it,” Adam told him gently, knowing what had happened next. “You had to stay alive.”

“But he was my friend,” the man protested weakly. “I hated myself for doing it. I’d had Midnight since he was just a yearling, I was kinda fond of him,” the way Billy’s voice choked up on the words told Adam that the ranch hand had been more than ‘kinda fond’ of the big black horse. “I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself.”

“I think Midnight would forgive you,” Adam said, picking up the empty bowl and getting to his feet. “In a way he saved your life and if he was your friend, like you say, then I think he’d have been proud to do that.”

“You really think so?” Billy looked up at last, eyes shining with tears. “I guess I never thought of it like that,” he said as Adam nodded. “He did save my life didn’t he? He was a real friend.”

‘More than you’ll ever know.’ Adam thought as he let himself out of the room, knowing that if the vision he and Joe had seen hadn’t led them to Billy they’d never have found him. ‘A friend indeed.’

THE END