Summary:  In Bounty Hunter, consequences from an incident on a trip taken by Adam and Joe years earlier embroils the brothers in a tense drama, and kindness shown in that earlier effort is the source of their only hope of survival.  Chasing The Wind is the second story — A surprise visitor from Adam’s recent past in Boston shakes things up in Virginia City and Adam has some choices to make. Weep For Me, and Rejoice With Me is the third story — A serious problem for Adam causes him to have to make some adjustments in his life.

rating = T  WC = 67,872

 

Bounty Hunter

Chapter 1

Looking around, Gene Brown guessed that there were probably three or four people in that saloon that he wouldn’t mind killing. The world would likely be a better place without them. Then he gazed at the other men in the room and wondered if any of them thought the same. If they did and made different choices than he had made, then no one was likely to walk out of there alive that day if they gave in to that desire to purge the world of undesirables. There was one man there though who was probably not on anyone’s list. He wore all black with his gunbelt hanging low like he was probably deadly with it if he needed to be although he had the look of a man who preferred intimidation to outright mayhem although his reputation was of a man who had killed often. For a number of reasons, the bounty hunter found it very strange that this was the man who was his target, but five thousand dollars was a lot of money to deliver him to a town only three hundred miles away. Men were respectful to him in a friendly way without being overly warm. The ladies now were an entirely different matter entirely doing their best to get his attention but having to be satisfied with that grin and pleasant words. It was clear that he wasn’t one to be easily seduced by the charms or enticements offered so easily. For over a week, the bounty hunter had been in town studying him by listening, asking a few questions when the opportunity presented itself without being too obvious, and by reading newspapers. He had a fairly good idea of what he was facing in trying to take him by himself, but he had a plan slowly germinating as to how that could be done. It wasn’t going to be on this day when his target was there with his two brothers, but on Thursdays, the quarry came into town to pick up money for the Ponderosa payroll and to get supplies. The bounty hunter hadn’t asked many questions but the few he had asked had yielded valuable information. The target would be in town early. If he took him before he reached town and immediately headed toward California, no one would even know he was missing for at least six to eight hours. Then they would have to find where he was waylaid, and by then it would be getting dark. The two of them and that wagon could be well on their way and lost in the traffic on the busy route to California. He guessed the plan could work well. It had better work or he might be spending some time in a Nevada jail trying to explain why a bounty hunter had tried to kidnap the son of one of the wealthiest men in the west.

Leaning against the bar with his elbows on it as his hands dangled and his back rested against the polished wood, Adam Cartwright surveyed the room as was his habit anytime he was in the saloon. Next to him, Hoss stood and leaned sideways on the bar drinking his beer and watching their younger brother make the rounds of the room. They had brought in a man injured on the job and stopped in for a beer. That had turned in to two beers but they both knew that they had to leave after that or face their father’s stern disapproval when they returned home. Even at their ages, they didn’t like to see those eyebrows lowered and that finger come pointing in their direction.

“Notice the one in the back corner with the slouch hat pulled low?”

“Now you would be the one to be paying attention to a no count drifter when there’s all these pretty gals trying to get your attention.”

“He’s been watching us.”

“Huh? Why you think so?”

“I have no idea why.”

“No, I mean why d’ya think he is, or I mean how come you think, oh damn, what makes you think that?”

“His eyes circle around the room and always come back here. It’s like he doesn’t want anyone to notice he’s watching us, but he is.” Adam turned slowly to finish his beer and got Sam’s attention. The bartender moved close as Adam spoke softly. “The man in the slouch hat: know anything about him?”

“No, nothing much, except the only questions I’ve heard him ask other than about where to eat are about you. He only asked a couple in the last week, but it’s the kind of thing that get’s my attention.”

“Thanks, Sam.” Adam pushed over money to pay for the beer and some extra that made Sam smile. Adam always took good care of his friends. As Adam pushed away from the bar, Hoss asked where he was going. “To see Roy. Meet me at the horses in fifteen. That ought to be enough time for you to have another beer.” Dropping another coin on the bar to pay for the beer, Adam had Hoss smiling too. He headed out of the saloon then as Hoss paid some attention to the man in the slouch hat. He looked back at Sam when Adam was gone.

“Dadburnit, he’s right. The man is watching him. Now, I gotta wonder why. You keep a good eye on him for us, will ya, Sam?” Hoss was going to pull out some money, but Sam said that Adam had already taken care of that. “Good, I’m gonna finish my beer and collect my little brother then. Be seeing ya, Sam.” Hoss drained his beer in one long gulp and then did as he said he would despite Little Joe’s protests that he needed a few more minutes with the gal he was trying his best to charm. Hoss didn’t listen, and Little Joe was no match for his big brother’s arm pulling him out of the saloon. When they got to the horses, Adam wasn’t there.

“See, you pulled me out of the saloon for nothing. Adam isn’t even here.”

“Now, Joe, you see here. Adam had some important business to see about.”

“Like what?”

“Well, there was a man in the saloon watching us, and Sam said he’s asked a few questions about Adam.” Even as he said it, Hoss realized that it was a rather flimsy story, but like Adam and Sam, he had gotten a funny feeling about that man in the saloon and about his questions. He was ready though for Joe’s response.

“A man was looking at you and asked a couple of questions. Jeez, Hoss, if that’s all it took, we’d never come to town. Adam is getting kinda jumpy for some reason, isn’t he?”

“I don’t know, Joe. I saw the man too, and it made me feel kinda on edge too.”

“You’re getting as bad as he is. The two of you are getting old fast.”

“Now Joe, don’t go talkin’ like that. You know how that riles me up.”

“Yeah, and Adam too, but it works better with him. I get my way by using it.”

Hoss had to smile at that. Little Joe had a way of working all of them to get his way especially that puppy dog look with their father. He had to smile but lost it as he saw Adam approaching with that stiff walk that pronounced that he was angry. It didn’t take long to find out why.

“Roy’s been watching him too. Seems he’s been over at the Enterprise reading old newspaper articles on us especially on me. Apparently he’s studying us for some reason. When Roy asked, he didn’t give an answer but said he was curious and had nothing better to do at the moment. Nothing he’s done is illegal or even close to it so there’s nothing Roy can do, but we better watch our backs. Something is up.”

Joe had one theory. “We’ve got that big contract bid coming up with the railroads. You don’t think it could be related to that, do you? Pa would be very upset if we lost that bid. You were supposed to be leaving soon to take the final offer to them, weren’t you?”

Hoss had another. “We’re almost ready for the fall drive too. Maybe somebody wants to do something to stop us from doing that. I mean it’s not that important and we could put it off, but it would be nice to have that extra cash over the winter.”

“Yes, especially if we lose out on the railroad contract. If we lose both, things could be tight. Maybe you two are on to something. Let’s get home and talk to Pa about it. Maybe he’ll have a take on it.”

As the three brothers rode out of town, the bounty hunter knew that he had to do something to shift concern away from himself. He decided there was only one thing that would work. He went to the hotel, packed up his belongings, and checked out. He made sure that Sheriff Coffee saw him leaving and guessed correctly that the sheriff would be at the livery stable wondering why before he was able to ride out.

“Well, it seems that I’ve done about all I can do in this town. I’ve decided to head on over to Carson City to see if they’ve got any action or maybe I’ll go further down the road. There’s more action in Colorado than here in Nevada for a man in my line of work. I’ve usually worked out of Denver, but I’ve still got some money from my last job so there’s no rush to go after anyone yet.”

“So what brought you to Virginia City then?”

“My last job was to bring in a man to California. I was heading back and decided to lay over for a bit.”

“And now you’re moving on.”

“That’s right.”

“Well, I won’t keep you then. Safe travels to ya.”

It was clear that Sheriff Coffee was glad to see the bounty hunter go. He rode out of town in the direction of Carson City and rode that way for several miles before he headed cross-country toward the Ponderosa to make a cold camp along the road to town. He guessed that he had one shot at Adam Cartwright. If he didn’t get him the next morning, he would probably have to give up on this one and let one of the others get him. He didn’t know how many of those posters had been mailed out, but knew it had to be at least a half dozen. The man who had sent out those wanted posters was driven and would want to make sure there were enough men in the hunt that at least one of them would be successful.

The bounty hunter made his preparations and then settled in with a blanket for a relatively uncomfortable night. He had spent worse nights though so the cold and the hard rough surface of the boulder that he rested against were minor problems. Thinking about the money was enough incentive to make him forget discomfort. He was to collect five thousand upon delivery and there was the promise of another five thousand if the trial and sentence was carried out. He didn’t feel any guilt about that either. He had read the story of what had happened in Barrow, and it seemed cut and dried to him. After baiting a young man into a fight, he had drawn on him when he wasn’t looking and shot him down in the street as if he was no better than a cur. Brown had done his research in Virginia City too. Adam Cartwright had twice been jailed for murder and had been released each time. There was some talk that he had faced similar problems in other towns and gotten out of those charges too. As far as Brown was concerned, it was a rich man buying his way out of facing justice. He had seen it all too often. If he could make things right and get paid for it too, then he would sleep well at night with no regrets. He was ready to take the man the next day and head for Barrow and the best payday he had ever had as a bounty hunter.

Chapter 2

Flashbacks came slowly and in bits and pieces until he finally had the whole memory. It was a trip to get horses. They had stopped in a small town in California with four horses they had purchased. While in the saloon in Barrow, Joe had insisted on playing poker despite Adam’s misgivings about getting involved in any potentially troublesome activity in a town in which they knew no one. As usual, Joe ignored his advice.

“Adam, you say the same thing in nearly every place we stop. All you ever want is a bath, a good meal, and a warm soft bed. It’s like I’m traveling with Pa. How old are you, anyway?” Joe knew how much that irritated Adam, but he also was aware that Adam would give in to what he wanted when he used that jibe. It worked every time. Grinning as he looked away from Adam and toward the bartender, Joe winked at a pretty girl working in the saloon. She smiled at him but that drew the ire of a young man at the bar.

“Jane, leave him alone. He’ll be gone by tomorrow. You know better than to have truck with strangers.”

“Billy Barrow, I can talk to anybody I please. It’s my job to entertain the customers so you can let me be.”

Of course, the interchange hadn’t stopped with those challenges. Billy stepped up to pull Jane away from Joe.

“Stop that, Billy. You’re hurting me.”

“I’ll hurt you a lot more if you don’t do as I say.”

Of course Joe took offense at anyone treating a woman that way. He objected, and Billy took a swing at him. Joe ducked and swung back, and the fight was on. The two fought without interference for only about two minutes with Joe clearly the better fighter. It was over when Billy fell stunned and didn’t get up. Adam took Joe’s arm.

“It’s over. Let’s get out of here.”

“I didn’t finish my beer.”

“Joe, his last name is the same as this town.” Adam let that bit of information sink in for a moment until realization hit. Even with his temper up because of the fight, Joe knew there was potentially a lot of trouble for them in this town. He looked at Jane.

“Sorry, miss, but we have to be going. I wish my brother and me could stay and make sure no one else bothered you, but I’m afraid we need to leave town now.”

“Thank you. No one ever helped me like you and your brother did. I wish you didn’t have to go.”

“Miss, I’m sorry, but Joe is right. We do have to go. If you want us to help you leave here, we’d be happy to oblige, but other than that, I’m afraid we need to take our leave now.”

Amazed at that offer Adam made, Jane would spend years regretting not accepting immediately. Instead, she hesitated and spent those years stuck in that town unable to leave. The next time she saw Adam and Joe, she was going to make an entirely different kind of decision. However on that day, she turned back to help Billy thinking that was the safest route to follow. After a few minutes, Billy roused and asked where the two strangers had gone.

Out on the street, Adam had helped Joe who was suffering a bit from the fight. Joe had pulled off his gunbelt and hung it on his saddle. He pulled off his shirt and splashed water from a horse trough pump across his head and chest.

“You’ve got some nasty bruising there, little brother. Let me see those ribs.”

“I’m fine, Adam. If the ribs were busted, I think I’d know. They hurt, but it’s nothing too bad. I’ll be all right.” Then with a mischievous glint in his eye, he couldn’t help taking another verbal jab at his oldest brother. “I might ride like you now though like I’m all stiff and old.”

Rolling his eyes, Adam told Joe to hurry up and grab a clean shirt so they could ride out before anyone thought to detain them. It was then that Billy came out of the saloon to call Joe out except he didn’t give him time to get his gun. Adam yelled that Joe didn’t have a gun.

“All the better then. I can’t lose.”

Billy drew then intending to shoot Joe down where he stood. Adam couldn’t let him do that and drew on him shooting him in the leg and knocking him down. Swearing, Billy turned to fire at Adam then who had no choice but to fire once more. That shot hit Billy in the side of the chest as he scrambled on the ground trying to aim at Adam. He didn’t die then, but from the color and amount of the blood, it was clear that he had been hit fatally. As the blood pumped from him, he desperately tried to staunch the flow holding his hands to his chest and moaning piteously. There was nothing that anyone could do as everyone stood and watched Billy Barrow die in the dirt of the main street of the town named for his family. Adam stood with them as his smoking pistol hung in his hand and remorse and relief were warring in his heart. Joe took the pistol from his hand and holstered it as the sheriff arrived on the scene. A small town appointee, he had little idea of what to do especially with a dozen people trying to tell him what happened. He did do the only sensible thing he could do at that point and yelled for quiet. He asked for one person to explain what happened, and Jane stepped forward to tell the story. He wanted very much to arrest Adam but had no grounds. It was clearly a case of self-defense, but he knew that when Billy’s father returned, he would not see it that way. Everyone there knew that too. Quite a few stepped forward to say they had seen what happened and that Adam had fired only to save his unarmed brother from being shot down by Billy Barrow.

“Mister, Billy’s father is in San Francisco on business. Ifn I was you, I wouldn’t want to be within five hundred miles of here when he gets back.”

“We’ll leave, but I’d like it in writing that I did nothing illegal. My guess is that memories of this event could change dramatically if this boy’s father returns to his town.”

“I kin put it in writing, but none of these witnesses are likely to put their name to it.”

“I’ll take your word and signature.”

The sheriff was reluctant, but no matter how he had gotten the job, he had taken an oath to uphold the law and took that seriously. He wrote out the letter as requested and signed it. Once he gave it to Adam, Adam and Joe read it over and thanked him for it. Within minutes of taking care of that, Adam and Joe had their horses and headed out of town. There wasn’t much talk on that ride home even though it took a couple of weeks. Adam felt guilt over what he had done killing a young man. Joe felt guilt at having put Adam in that position. Neither ever spoke of it when they got home so Ben and Hoss never knew what happened in Barrow because Adam didn’t want Joe to tell them, and Joe was good with that.

Now Adam lay trussed up in the back of his own wagon, gagged, and covered with a heavy canvas tarp. No one passing the wagon on the road would ever suspect it contained any human cargo. Adam had little else to do but think other than to suffer the bumps of the road. The man who had waylaid him so neatly that morning had said he was taking him to Barrow to face justice for murdering Billy Barrow. There hadn’t been much talk after that. Adam had protested that he hadn’t murdered anyone and that it had been a gunfight, but that earned him a blow to the head which had stunned him. He had never lost consciousness, but hadn’t been able to resist as his hands were tied behind his back, and he was shoved into the bed of his own wagon. He was gagged and his ankles were tied together as well before a rope was run from his wrists to his ankles and tied tightly. He was trussed very effectively unable to move. The man’s saddle and gear were stowed there as well as other supplies and then a tarp was thrown over all.

Remembering shooting Billy was easy. Adam could never forget any of the faces of the men he had shot and killed. There had been far too many and often made him moody and angry about living in a place where living required killing. But being held accountable for murder when he had been acting in defense of his unarmed brother was an injustice that rankled. It was a minor irritation too to realize he should have taken his father’s advice that morning. They had discussed the trip to town after what had happened one day earlier. Ben had suggested that Adam take someone with him on the trip to town, but Adam had been confident that there was no direct threat to him assuming incorrectly that the threat was to the Ponderosa. If he had followed his father’s advice, the simple ploy Brown had used could not have worked. He had ridden up to Adam as he neared the border of the Ponderosa and asked for directions to the ranchhouse saying he had business with Ben Cartwright. Adam had expected that much and had turned to point back the way he had come and heard the click of a pistol being cocked within seconds of doing so. From that point on, he had no defense being unprepared for such an encounter. If he had known he was going to be trussed and hauled off toward Barrow, he might have fought, but it was too late for that too. For the time being, he was left with his thoughts and memories and the many bumps in the road until his captor decided to stop for the night and what little reprieve that would offer him in his present state of helplessness.

That didn’t happen for over eight hours. Brown drove the wagon well past the time of day that was safe for travel on the road, but he wanted to put as much distance as possible between him and any pursuit as he could. He had pushed the horses hard and knew they needed rest, but he had a plan and by the middle of the next day, he hoped to be able to take a route that would cause any pursuit to miss him entirely. He need not have worried. That pursuit wasn’t even headed in his direction yet. Once Ben realized that Adam was too late for any reasonable explanation to apply, he and Hoss had headed out to find him. They reached Virginia City only to discover that Adam had never been there. Returning to the road, they had searched for signs of the wagon and it was nearly dark before Hoss found the signs of the wagon stopping and then turning.

“Pa, there was somebody on horseback here. Then a man on foot and another who looks like he fell. Pa, that had to be Adam by the size of the boot print. Our wagon is headed off toward California now.”

“Let’s go get some men and follow. We have to find Adam.”

“Pa, it’s getting late. I’ll see how far I can follow these tracks, ifn I can at all, until it’s too dark to see, and then I’ll camp and wait for ya. Come out in the morning with fresh horses and supplies. Whoever done it has at least an eight hour head start on us. Even with a wagon, it’s gonna take us a while to catch up to ‘im.”

Ben wanted to argue that Hoss’ plan was too cautious, but he knew it was the way they should go. He agreed to do as Hoss asked even if he felt it was all wrong in his aching heart.

Chapter 3

Wrapping a bandage around Adam’s left thigh, Brown was as irritated as Adam was in pain. Both were grimacing fiercely.

“Why did you try it? You had to know the odds were against you.”

With a smirk that probably only he could manage within a grimace as the pain continued to radiate up from his leg, Adam responded in the only way he knew how to answer and that was with the truth. “You’re taking me to a town where I’m wanted dead or alive for killing the son of the man who owns the town. It’s a foregone conclusion as to what will happen to me there. My only chance is to get away from you before that.”

“You’ll get a trial.” Adam didn’t answer. “Listen, you can get an attorney. Your family has money. I know you know how the system works. You’ve beaten murder charges before.”

“Because I didn’t do it.”

“Yeah, that’s what they all say.”

“You think I’m guilty already. What makes you think that anyone they get on a jury there hasn’t already drawn the same conclusion? If you get me there, it’s the same as marching up the steps of that gallows they’ll build as soon as we ride into town.”

“So you’ll try again.”

Adam didn’t answer. He didn’t have to answer such a question, but Brown wasn’t going to give him another chance anyway. With his wound and heightened vigilance by the bounty hunter, Adam knew he was going to end up in a jail in a town where they wanted to see him hang. His only hope was that his family had some idea what had happened and were following his trail, but because of how he had been taken, he was worried that no one might know what had happened. Brown had set things up well. He had untied him though to let him climb from the wagon to take care of necessary business. Too cramped to do anything except a very stiff walk at that point, Adam did his best to work the muscles of his legs and arms loose as he bent behind a boulder and did what had to be done. By the time he was finished, he was ready to make a desperate escape attempt guessing that Brown wouldn’t be ready for it. He didn’t think he could take the muscular man especially after being bound for over eight hours, but he could surprise him and get some time to run so that’s what he did. He bull rushed him knocking him from his feet. Then he turned and ran into the trees and brush, but a lucky shot by Brown a minute later took him down. He had nearly escaped into darkness and brush, but Brown fired at the sound he made and hit his leg. Even then, it had been difficult for Brown to find him because of the dark clothing he was wearing. Once dragged back to the wagon, Brown tore up a shirt and tied strips around Adam’s leg.

“At least it’s a through and through. If it wasn’t, you likely wouldn’t survive the trip cause we won’t be seeing a town or a doctor for two days likely, but it was your choice to run.”

“It was your choice to shoot an innocent man.”

“You’re hardly innocent. Didn’t you know that after killing all those men you’ve shot that one day you’d have to face something like this? That someone would expect payment in kind?”

“What about you, Brown? By now, you’ve killed. Aren’t you worried that someone will expect payment in kind? And won’t you protest that you’re innocent to them because you killed only in self defense or in defense of others or your property?”

Brown said nothing as that hit uncomfortably close to the truth. He pulled tightly on the bandage he was tying and the resulting pain caused Adam to gasp and stop talking. It was an answer of sorts, and Adam nodded knowing that which infuriated Brown even more. Brown stalked off to the side of the wagon to rummage in his saddlebags returning with shackles and handcuffs.

“I didn’t want to do this, but you give me no choice.”

“Now you think you need them? I can hardly run on this leg.”

“I’m not taking any more chances with you.”

The only good news for Adam was that he wasn’t going to be lying with his hands behind his back. His hands were still swollen and his wrists were abraded from spending eight hours tied that way. The bad news was that Brown made him remove his boots so that the shackles fit around his ankles. Although running would have been highly unlikely, with the shackles and no boots, it was impossible. Brown smirked as he saw that realization hit Adam and knew he would have less trouble with him because of it. He was glad then that he had thought to bring those handcuffs and shackles with him. They weren’t items he usually used, but in this case, he had thought they might be useful and had been proven correct. Feeling generous, he gave Adam a plate of beans and a cup of coffee for dinner. Then he tied a rope to the handcuffs and looped it around a wagon wheel and then tied another rope to the shackles and tied that off to a small sapling stretching Adam out on the ground although not uncomfortably but enough that there was no possible way for him to try to get away or get at anything. He dropped a blanket over him before he doused the fire and slipped into his bedroll confident that things were going as smoothly as they could go. Brown wasn’t as confident the next morning though when he found that Adam was feverish and the wound was hot to the touch. It was clear that the wound was infected.

“Well, you’ve gone and done it to yourself now. We won’t see a town for another two days. You better hang on that long. I’ll get some liquor there and wash it out.”

“It needs to be drained now.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Heat a knife and open it up so it can drain. If you don’t do that at least, it’s likely I won’t be around in two days when you get to a town.”

Reluctant to take the time and delay their leaving, Brown knew it had to be done. If not, Adam might not be alive in two days or he would be so far gone he couldn’t be saved. He started a small fire to heat a knife and began to pull the bandage from the wound. He ripped some of the canvas to use to bind the wound after he was done and pulled a clean handkerchief to place over the wound once it was drained. It was all that he had with him to use. Adam told him there were shotgun shells under the wagon seat next to a small shotgun hidden in a long box. Brown hadn’t seen that and guessed that Adam had hoped to get to that weapon at some point but now needed it for his own survival. When he was ready, he gave Adam a piece of the canvas to bite and then dug open the wound. He had to give Adam credit for not screaming with what had to be done although he moaned and made all sorts of other noises as Brown poked, prodded, and squeezed to get the wound to drain until he was fairly certain he had done all that he could do. Then using the gunpowder from the shotgun shells, he cauterized the tissues that looked the most angry. When he did that, Adam bit into his own lip causing it to bleed and Brown wished he would pass out from the pain. Sweat beaded on his face and rolled in rivulets down his neck, but he stayed conscious.

However when Brown finished, Adam was too weak to manage to stand. Brown had to lift him into the wagon and push him forward so that he could close the gate at the back of the wagon. He threw the canvas over Adam and all the gear and hurried to hitch up the horses not making any effort to clean up the camp. He was two hours late getting started and had lost quite a bit of the advantage he had gained the previous day. If they were following him, which he sincerely hoped they were not, they could be only a few hours behind and on horseback making twice the miles that he could. It was going to be a rough ride for the next two hours until he reached the trail he wanted to take. His prisoner may have gotten some relief from the infected wound but was going to pay for it by bouncing around in the back of that wagon until they could make the turn that should cut off any pursuit.

That pursuit was in full swing too. Hoss had trailed the wagon to the road and then followed the tracks as well as he could until they mingled with the others so much that he could no longer distinguish one from another. He waited then for his father and brother to arrive in the morning with men to continue the rescue mission. They rode hard and came upon wagon after wagon headed either toward Virginia City or away but none were the Ponderosa buckboard although two drivers said they had seen a man driving a wagon fitting that description. It kept their hopes up even if no one had seen Adam in that wagon. By midday, they still had not caught up to that wagon, and no one they questioned on the road said they had seen it.

“Pa, they musta turned off somewhere.”

“Maybe they did, Hoss, but what if they didn’t?”

Joe had the solution. “Pa, Hoss and I can head back and look for any sign that they turned off and took another route. We’re the best trackers left in this group, and the weather looks like it’s going to turn If there are tracks, we need to find them soon or they’ll be wiped out by the rain. You could take the rest of the men and keep riding on the road. If they’re still heading toward California by this road, you should catch up to them today or early tomorrow.”

Knowing he had little time to make a decision, Ben looked to Hoss who nodded. It was the best option they had. “All right, we’ll do that. It’s only one man so we still have the advantage either way. You two be careful. If he took Adam, he’s a clever one. He may set a trap for you.”

“We’ll be careful, Pa. You take care too.”

Riding hard and pushing their horses to their limits stopping only to question travelers and teamsters on the road, Ben and his group didn’t find a trace of Adam or the Ponderosa buckboard. At nightfall when they could no longer safely ride, they made camp. The ranch hands who had ridden with Ben knew what Ben knew but didn’t want to admit. They should have caught up to any wagon they were pursuing by this time. If they had not, it was likely because the wagon had not traveled in this direction. It didn’t make much sense to Ben and it took some time before he was willing to accept what almost had to be the truth. Somehow, the driver had turned away from the man road and was using a trail or little used road and heading south or north. Hoss had been correct, and Ben could only hope that he and Joe had not walked into a trap.

Luckily or unluckily as one might look at it, Hoss and Joe had not found where the wagon had turned off, but they had found where Brown had camped the night before so they had a reference point. By the time they got there, it was getting dark and the winds were picking up in advance of a storm front that was moving in very rapidly. As Hoss set up a lean-to for protection, Joe picked up the partially burned wood from the campfire because that wood would work well as a fire starter. He found the discarded bandage then and brought it to Hoss who understood too what it meant.

“It’s gotta be Adam who’s wounded.” Hoss sniffed the bandage. “And the wound is infected too. I shur hope that man did something about that, or he’s gonna be mighty sorry about that when we catch up to ‘im.”

It was a lot of bravado, but both Hoss and Joe were scared for their older brother and wondering what had happened to him.

Chapter 4

Days later, Ben was as discouraged as he had been in the desert when they had searched for a lost Adam years earlier. Once again, there was no trace of him. They had been up and down that road and crisscrossed the land on either side but never found a trace of where that wagon had gone. A thunderstorm had washed roads and trails into muddy tracks leaving them little to follow, but they found no more camps nor any other evidence of anyone traveling in any other direction other than the main road. They still had no clue as to why someone wanted to take Adam with them, but Ben berated himself for not insisting that Adam take someone with him when he went to town that Thursday morning. Joe tried to reassure him that it wasn’t his fault.

“Pa, none of us thought something like this was going to happen. We thought that there was a threat against the Ponderosa. Adam was due to leave to place that bid for the railroad contract. That’s when we all thought there was going to be a problem. Even Adam said he was worried about that and would accept one or two others going with him when he had to go. We had no idea that someone would kidnap him when he went to town for supplies and the small payroll.”

“Yeah, Pa, Joe’s right. Ya know I woulda been the first one sitting next to Adam on that wagon ifn I thought there was a chance he was gonna be in trouble of any kind. In all the talk we had that night before, not one of us ever suspected the threat was to Adam himself. Mebbe we shoulda with all the attention that man was givin’ Adam in the saloon and in town, but it didn’t make no sense. It still don’t.”

“That’s what bothers me so much about this. We don’t know where to look because we don’t know who would have done this and why.”

They were nearly back home when they got the first part of an answer. Sheriff Roy Coffee rode up to greet them. “Ben, I got some news for ya, and it ain’t good.”

“Roy, I’m as frustrated and upset as I can be. I don’t have time for riddles. Adam’s missing, and we’ve been out searching. Tell me what you want to tell me. I have things to tell you too.”

Surprised a bit at Ben’s manner and somewhat shocked at his news, Roy decided to go ahead and tell him despite the rudeness because he assumed it all tied together. “I got a letter in the mail from that bounty hunter done helped me out a few years back getting that murdering Kyle Nagle back here to stand trial and I helped him out with his family here. He remembered how you and your family was pretty important in helping with his family issues.”

“Roy, I really don’t have time for this.”

“No, Ben, I think you do have time for this. This here bounty hunter sent me a wanted poster he got in the mail. Ben, you ain’t gonna believe who’s on that wanted poster.” Sensing that Ben’s patience was nonexistent, Roy told him instead of making him guess. “It’s Adam. Says he’s wanted for murder in a town in the southern part of California that’s called Barrow. There’s a five thousand dollar reward on him on the poster. The letter with it says the father of the murdered man will pay another five thousand if the trial finds Adam guilty and he’s hanged for what he done.”

“What? Adam has never murdered anyone!”

Joe’s face drained though at the mention of the incident and then Barrow. He knew exactly what the situation was and who the man paying the money probably was too. “Pa, Roy, I can explain a lot of this. I can’t believe that this is happening now after all this time though. It was a little more than five years ago that it happened.”

“Five years ago that what happened? Joe, what happened?” Ben was impatient because he was scared.

“Me and Adam were on that horse buying trip. That wasn’t that long before he left. Remember, he was so discouraged with how things were going here and he wanted to see the world and everything.”

“Yes, Joe, yes, I remember, but what happened?”

“We went through a lot of little towns, but in this one little town, Adam shot a man to save my life. I got in a fight in a saloon over a girl.” Joe knew the look he was going to get before he said that but had to tell the whole story. “I won and Adam said we had to get out of there. He said the man’s name was the same as the town so we were likely going to be in some trouble.”

“What was the name of the town?”

“I’m guessing it’s Barrow.” Roy interjected the name quickly.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“It’s the town on the wanted poster where they’re to bring Adam for trial.”

“Yeah, now I remember. The man’s name was Billy Barrow except he wasn’t that old. He came out of the saloon when I was cleaning up. I had taken my gun off, and he was going to shoot me down anyway like it didn’t matter. When he drew, Adam drew. Adam shot him in the leg, but he turned the pistol toward Adam to shoot again, and Adam had to shoot him. He didn’t want to kill him, Pa. He had no choice. The sheriff came and people there told him what I told you. The sheriff put it all in writing and signed it. He gave the paper to Adam. The sheriff said we ought to leave because the dead man’s father was in San Francisco, and when he got back, he was going to want to see somebody pay for the death of his son. We left town then with the four horses we had bought and we came home.”

“You never told me about this before?”

“Adam didn’t want to talk about it. He was real upset. You know how he gets when he’s upset. He said he’d had enough of killing and didn’t want to talk about killing either.”

“Dadburnit, Joe, that probably had a lot to do with Adam leaving back then. You shoulda said something.”

“Hoss, would you have said something if Adam asked you not to?”

“Dang it, probably not, but where do you suppose that paper is. It could turn out to be real important. It is real important.”

“Maybe, but we need to go to Barrow. Whoever it is could have Adam there already. Hey, do you think it’s that bounty hunter who was watching us in the saloon that day? Pa, we need to get going. Adam’s in a lot of trouble. He’s wounded and now they want to hang him.”

“I know, Joe, where is Barrow? How do we get there?” Ben, like the others, had never heard of the town.

“Pa, Joe can show us. We could get started right away.”

“Hoss, it’s nearly dark and our horses are done. We need fresh horses, we need that paper that Adam got from the sheriff, and we need help from the state of California. We need to work this all out and then head to Barrow.” Pausing for a moment to think about all the information he had received in so short a time, Ben made a decision. “I don’t think that he could have gotten Adam to Barrow yet using backroads and traveling by wagon. We at least have that working in our favor. Now let’s go to the house and do some planning and find that letter if it’s in the house. We’ll leave at the first hint of light in the morning.”

“Ben, I can’t go with you, but I can start sending telegrams in the morning to try to get some help headed your way.”

“Thank you, Roy. We’re going to need all the help we can get and we’re going to need it soon. Adam is going to need it soon.”

The search of Adam’s room was thorough and yet yielded no letter. That was discouraging because it was the best evidence they would have for extricating him from the mess in which he was ensnared. It was Hop Sing who reminded them of another place to look. Before Adam had left years earlier, he had put a number of important papers in a small lockbox in the gun cabinet thinking that if they cleaned out his room or if another person used it, he wanted those papers to be safe. There were a few written mementoes from his mother and grandfather that Grandfather Stoddard had given him when he was in Boston, there was his certificate of birth from the Boston church where his father had him baptized, his college diploma, and various other papers. In that box, they found the letter.

“Pa, Joe and me been thinking that you should be the one to take this to the authorities in California.” Seeing their father about to object, Hoss continued on in a rush with his points to convince him before Ben could state he wouldn’t. “You’re the one they’re most likely gonna listen to, and me and Joe can ride harder and faster to Barrow with only the two of us. More men can follow us with extra horses and such, but the best way and the fastest way to get help to Adam is for me and Joe to go straight to him and for you to go to the government and get help. Roy’s gonna be sending help too, but we need somebody in that town looking out for Adam to give the rest of you time to get help there before they go and do something awful to Adam.”

More than anything, Ben wanted to say that Hoss was wrong, but no matter how many ways he thought about it and tried to come up with an argument to counter what he had said, he failed. “You’re right. Let’s get organized so we can get moving on that as soon as possible.”

“Joe’s already picking out horses for us to ride. We’re taking three. If we have to, we’ll leave horses behind as we go. Hop Sing is packing food for us to eat as we go. If I can’t keep up, Joe will ride ahead. The key is to get somebody there to help Adam as soon as we can.”

“Joe is already picking out horses for you to ride? You were pretty sure of yourself.”

“We knew that when it came to family, you’d do the best thing and there isn’t a better way, is there?”

“No, there isn’t a better way. We have to pray now that they haven’t reached that blasted town before you get there. I wish I had an army to send with you, but we do have a lot of hands. Organize as many as want to go. I don’t care if it looks like an invading army. I got my son back and I don’t want to lose him to some vengeful deranged father who can’t live with the truth of what his son was and how he died.”

“Pa, Joe said there wasn’t any telegraph line into that town. I know it’s gonna be hard not knowing, but we’ll get word out as soon as we know something and find out where the nearest telegraph line is. There’s got to be one near there somewheres.”

As the first hint of light began to color the sky in the morning, there was the neighing of fifty horses, the creaking of leather, and the soft voices of men going about their business. As soon as there was enough light to see the road, Hoss and Joe rode out breaking into a gallop as soon as they were clear of the buildings. They each had two horses on lead ropes following them. Ben and the rest of the men rode out immediately after setting a good pace but not at the breakneck speed of the two brothers. There were a few young hands along whose job was going to be to collect any horses that were worn out and return them to the ranch so that the rest of the men could continue to ride hard. That would include any of the horses that might be abandoned by Hoss or Joe if they were found on the trail. When the group reached the cutoff toward Barrow, Ben continued on alone toward California with one extra mount while the small army of Ponderosa men headed south on a mission to help rescue his oldest son from a vengeful malefactor.

Chapter 5

About a day’s travel from Barrow, bounty hunter Gene Brown began to relax some. Adam Cartwright had needed some medical attention and the time they had spent in a little town waiting and then having a doctor clean Adam’s wound and stitch it up while lecturing Brown on his poor care of his prisoner had cost him a full day of travel. Brown had bought a small can of brown paint and changed the color of the wagon and bought some staves so that the canvas tarp was now permanently affixed as a cover over the back of the wagon. Anyone seeing them would not be able to identify the wagon as the one from the Ponderosa. However, if they took the time to ask questions, they would know about the wounded man in chains being treated at the doctor’s office. There was no way around that particular bit of information, and Brown now regretted not cleaning up the first camp because he realized later that the discarded bandage was going to be all the evidence they needed to know that Adam was wounded. He had little doubt that they had found that camp even as he hoped they had not found his trail and had no idea where he was going. The best case scenario for him was to get to Barrow and have the trial and sentence concluded before Cartwright’s family knew where he was. As much to justify his actions as anything else, he kept taunting Adam.

“You’ll soon pay for your past. Finally justice will be done for you murdering that boy, shooting him down when he didn’t even know you were drawing down on him.”

“I’ve told you. He drew on my brother who was unarmed. I told him Joe was unarmed and he said he preferred it because he couldn’t lose that way. He drew and I drew. I shot him in the leg first, but then he aimed at me and I had to shoot him again. I didn’t want to kill him, but it’s difficult to hit a moving target where you want to especially one who is aiming at your chest with a forty-five. It was in the middle of the day in the middle of town. If it had been murder, the sheriff would have arrested me instead of giving me a written statement exonerating me of any criminal action. If you would take me back to the Ponderosa, I could show you the letter.”

“You can get a lawyer who can send for that letter if it even exists.”

At that point, Adam would always shrug or sigh or otherwise indicate there was no point in continuing the conversation. It was a bit disconcerting to Brown that Adam’s story stayed the same no matter how many times he told it. The words changed but the details always remained exactly the same. That was difficult to do unless someone was an accomplished liar, or what worried him a lot more, if they were telling the truth. He had to console himself with the thought that a man like Adam Cartwright would hire the best attorney available who could handle all of those issues because he was beginning to worry that he was bringing in an innocent man. The way the bounty posters had been delivered had been the first worrisome detail, but he had ignored that because of the amount of the reward. However, the more he learned, the more difficult it was to rationalize his actions. He looked forward to turning the whole matter over to the justice system to let lawyers, a jury, and a judge work out the issues that he could not reconcile satisfactorily. He had always been able to handle any of the moral issues associated with his chosen profession with the reassuring knowledge that he went after men who had done unspeakable acts and deserved the fate that awaited them. This time, his moral dilemma was not so easily resolved however because he had to wonder if he was the one who was committing the unforgivable sin.

The other problem that Brown wrestled with was that Adam was running a persistent fever and the wound in his leg was still obviously infected despite what the doctor had done. It had not been enough. Adam needed more medical attention and probably needed that wound completely irrigated. Brown had seen such issues before and suspected that there was some kind of foreign matter still in the wound somewhere. It happened often in a through and through wound. Adam wasn’t eating much either and was getting weaker. The only good thing was that he was drinking enough so he was coherent, but the drinking illustrated the other issues. Adam needed to take care of necessary business but had trouble walking. Brown had to help him from the wagon, help him to walk to a tree where Adam would lean until he finished, and then Brown had to help him to walk back. He thought about removing the shackles but then had the thought that Cartwright could be putting on an elaborate charade that could suddenly end once the shackles were removed so they stayed. Brown decided he would remove them when he pulled up in front of the jail in Barrow.

That however was not how it worked out. As they arrived there a day and half later, they drew several onlookers immediately, but one stood out as the most impressive by far. He dressed well and had the air of someone who was used to running things and getting his way. He sent one of the others in to get the sheriff as if he knew who was in the back of the wagon. Brown pulled Adam to the end of the wagon and was about to unlock the shackles when he heard an order barked at him.

“Leave them on!”

“He can’t wear his boots with the shackles on.”

“That’s all right.”

By then, the sheriff arrived and Brown ignored the man who he assumed at this point must be Barrow. He handed the wanted poster to the sheriff who looked instead to the bossy man standing beside the wagon staring at Adam.

“Mister Barrow, it’s the poster you sent out for Adam Cartwright.”

“I guessed as much, Sheriff Marks. Have this bastard locked up. I’ll send word to the county seat that we have a murderer in custody and we need the judge here for a trial.”

Or the first time, Adam saw the man who was orchestrating this whole sorry mess in which he was trapped. The man was short but still had the attitude that he stood above others. He looked at Adam with hate from beady eyes set in a face that showed he ate too much, drank too much, and probably did too much of everything that wasn’t good to do. What he probably never did was work. Adam’s guess was that other people did his work for him. When Brown and Sheriff Marks moved to help him from the wagon and to walk to the jail, Barrow barked out orders once more.

“Let him walk on his own. Don’t help him.”

“He’s wounded. He’ll likely fall if we don’t help him.”

“Then let him crawl to his cell. It’s what he ought to do. He’s scum.”

Brown saw something then that he marveled at then and whenever he remembered it later. It was a masterful exhibition of a man ignoring overwhelming pain and weakness in order to win a round with a bully. Adam stood on his own and took a shaky step on his wounded leg that caused a tremor to pass through his body. He didn’t allow himself to give in to the searing pain of standing on that leg but took another step. He moved slowly and deliberately because to try to walk any other way would have meant a fall and the humiliation of being in the dirt at Barrow’s feet. He wasn’t going to do it. The sheriff and Brown walked slowly behind him as he continued his glacial pace pausing ever so briefly to look down at Barrow as he passed him. It infuriated Barrow to have to look up at the much taller, muscular dark haired man but there was nothing that he could do at that point. Adam was walking too slowly to trip him. He wanted to reach out to shove him to the dirt, but that would have been undignified for one such as him and he couldn’t be seen as a common ruffian so he had to stand there as Adam walked to the boardwalk in front of the sheriff’s office, grabbed the post there, and slowly pulled himself up the small step. With a sound of disgust, Barrow stomped away then to his office allowing the sheriff and Brown to help Adam to a cell. Once Adam was settled on the bare mattress with his shackles and handcuffs removed, the sheriff locked the cell. Adam lay on the cot doing his best to recover from the exertion of that walk because of the pain. He would have liked some water but was too exhausted at that point to ask for it and too proud to moan.

“Sheriff Marks, he needs a doctor. That wound in his leg needs attention. He’s been running a bit of a fever and it’s likely to get worse. It’s been looked at, but obviously there’s still something wrong with it.”

“Closest doctor is at the county seat. Probably won’t matter. By Monday, there could be a trial, and by Tuesday, he’ll likely be swinging from a gallows.”

“It’s Saturday. Doesn’t he get a chance to contact an attorney?”

“I guess if he wants one, he can ask on Monday when he sees the judge. No way to contact one now. Nobody in any office today or tomorrow, and we don’t have a telegraph line. How would he pay for one anyway?”

“The horses and the wagon outside belong to him. They’re worth enough to hire an attorney, I would think.”

“Yeah, probably more than enough. Well, I got my orders. I’ll take care of the wagon and horses then. The horse tied to the back belong to you then?”

A bit surprised that Marks admitted getting orders when he was the sheriff, Brown let the statement pass without comment. “Yes, that’s mine. The shackles and the handcuffs are mine too. His boots are in the back of the wagon. Where do I go to see about getting the reward for bringing him in?”

“I got it for you here in my safe. Mister Barrow give me the money when he sent out them posters.”

As the sheriff unlocked the safe, Adam had a question now that he had regained his ability to speak after the struggle to walk into the sheriff’s office. “What happened to the last sheriff?”

“He and Mister Barrow had a difference of opinion over them wanted posters. They did years ago too, but then Mister Barrow found out you had up and left the country so there was no point to it. When he found out you was back, he decided to do it.”

“Yes, but what happened to the old sheriff?”

“No one rightly knows. He fell somehow at his place and hit his head. They found his body the next morning cause he didn’t come in to work. Mister Barrow asked me if I wanted the job and told me how much it paid. I jumped at the chance.”

After hearing that, Brown should have known the look he would get when he turned his attention to Adam but was still surprised by the intensity of the gaze. He knew then that he had probably delivered an innocent man into the hands of a murderer and turned not only his whole career but his life too into a shambles. He faced criminal charges no matter how this played out and yet at the moment could see no way to extricate himself or Adam from the trap.

“Here’s your money. You’ll get the rest from Mister Barrow himself if things work out the way he wants. You only have to stick around town until it’s all over.”

Expecting it, Brown turned to see the smirk from Adam. If he stayed, it likely meant he would never leave this town. He would be buried in the cemetery in an unmarked grave next to the old sheriff and Adam. Barrow wasn’t going to let him ride out of here with that money and the promise of five thousand more was the carrot dangling at the end of the stick to keep him in town until he could be eliminated but probably not until after all the commotion of the trial and the hanging. About the time that Brown relaxed his guard, he would be facing a similar fate to what had happened to the sheriff. He knew it. Adam knew it. Perhaps even the new sheriff knew it. It appeared he would do whatever Barrow told him to do. Brown was a bit worried about leaving Adam in his custody but guessed nothing was likely to happen. Barrow did seem set on having his show trial before the planned execution of his grisly vengeance.

Chapter 6

Laying on the bare mattress in the cell, Adam was grateful that at least he was no longer subjected to the uncomfortable ride in the wagon with all the bumps of the trail, the rough wood abrading his skin, and the stiffness of being forced into laying in one position for twelve or more hours a day as they traveled and then in a similar position to sleep at night. He no longer had the handcuffs and shackles on so he could move more freely and could stand if his leg didn’t hurt so badly when he tried. The sheriff had left shortly after the bounty hunter had gotten his money and left. Adam guessed the bounty hunter wouldn’t live much longer than he did and wondered if the bounty hunter realized that. The look on his face had made it appear that he did. As hours passed, Adam grew thirsty and hungry. Although he had complained to Brown about the diet of beans and jerky on the trail, he would have gladly accepted that and a pitcher of water to wash it down. He was still running a slight fever and generally felt warm, but guessed that during the night, chills would come as the night air invaded through the open window of the cell. There was a wooden shutter on the outside of the bars, but someone would have to go out there to close it, and it seemed no one had much interest in doing anything for his comfort. There was a bucket in the corner of the cell, and he used that for what he assumed was its intended purpose. Then he lay down again and waited for the sheriff’s return. The sheriff came in about dusk with what appeared to be fresh gravy stains on his shirt. He sat at his desk and pulled open a drawer to take out a bottle and pour himself a small glass of whiskey.

“Sheriff, could I have some water please?” Getting no response, Adam asked again. Then he asked if he was going to be given a blanket for the night. Finally he asked if he was going to be given a meal, but by that time, he assumed the answer was going to be silence. He was surprised then to hear the sheriff talk.

“Listen, for your best interest, you should shut up. You get nothing. Billy Barrow got nothing from you so you get nothing from his town. You ain’t gonna die from no water and no food for a few days, and it ain’t that hot and not that cold so you kin just git along fine with what you got. Shut up, sleep, sit, whatever, but don’t ask for nothing no more. I’ll empty that bucket in the morning and again at night cause I don’t want it stinking in here but that’s all that’s gonna happen, see?”

“I see. You’re no sheriff. You’re his paid dog and you do his tricks for him like any good trained dog would.”

Sheriff Marks went to the door of his office then and opened it to admit two other men. Adam realized too late that he had been set up. Marks took the key and unlocked the cell so the two men could move in and grab Adam. They held him so that Marks could hit him with no fear of Adam being able to defend himself. When Marks decided he had done enough damage, he told the men to dump Adam on the cot. He lay there semiconscious as Marks addressed him.

“Don’t ever backtalk me again, boy.” Then Marks turned to the two men. “You can go tell Mister Barrow that he’s had his beating. He likely won’t be saying anything more for a while.”

As Adam lay suffering on the cot, bounty hunter Gene Brown found that enjoying his new wealth wasn’t going to be easy. He was followed wherever he went effectively nullifying any of his plans for slipping out of town with his money and his life. He checked into a room above the saloon and was given the room facing the street with no way to slip out the window unseen and he was sure that any exit from the building was being watched. As effectively locked up as Adam was, he lay on the bed and thought through his options. With his fate now tied inexorably with Adam’s, there seemed to be only one way to go. He was going to have to try to get to the judge when he got to town, and the way to do that was to try to help Adam. It was an odd position for a bounty hunter to be forced to consider, and he laughed a little into the darkness. It wasn’t only the irony of now trying to help prove the innocence of a man he had brought in to face trial, but as he remembered those lectures he had heard in church so many years earlier about what could come to pass for those who gave in to greed.

The next morning, Brown had breakfast and then tried to come up with a reason to visit Adam in the jail. It had to be a good one because he didn’t want them to realize that he was going to help Adam or they might decide to get rid of him sooner. Then he remembered that he still had Adam’s pistol and gunbelt in his gear. After breakfast, he went to his room to get it and noticed that he was still being followed. He wondered then how many men Barrow had on his payroll for it had to be substantial not realizing that only five men willing to use violence and to kill could be enough. After collecting the pistol rig, Brown headed to the jail to see Adam walking at a normal pace so as not to appear too anxious. He stopped to look at the displays in the windows of the mercantile. It wasn’t very interesting stuff to see but helped his cover as a man trying to kill some time. After that, he crossed the street at a diagonal and reached the sheriff’s office only to find that no one answered the door when he knocked and that the door was locked. He shrugged and sat in a chair outside the office, leaned back, put his feet up on an empty crate that was there, and closed his eyes. He planned to wait looking like any man who had nothing better to do.

Close to Barrow, Hoss and Joe had switched to the last of their three horses and released the tired ones. They were riding hard and hoped to make Barrow by nightfall or very early the next morning. They had hardly talked during most of the trip other than to take care of what was needed saving their energy for the hard riding they pushed themselves to do. It was especially hard on Hoss who wasn’t used to this kind of riding, and Joe didn’t hold back to give his brother any break either. They had agreed when they started that Joe shouldn’t do that. If Hoss couldn’t keep up, then the plan was that Joe would ride ahead to get to Adam and help him as much as he could until Hoss and then the others arrived. But Hoss was as determined as he could be to keep up and had done it. He had lost weight not eating as much and working hard at riding. Both slept well each night but not long using only the hours of darkness for making camp, eating, sleeping, and then preparing to ride out. They rested and watered the horses as needed during the day and managed to get at least twelve hours of riding in every day. They knew they were punishing the horses and felt badly about that, but Adam’s life hung in the balance. They guessed that they were traveling about twice as fast as the bounty hunter had so hoped to be in Barrow before a trial could occur but knew it might be close.

In Barrow, it was after noon before the sheriff arrived at his office. Brown was surprised but managed not to show it feigning indifference and acting as if he had awakened from a nap when Sheriff Marks called his name. He followed the sheriff into his office.

“When I emptied my things in my room last night, I remembered that I had Cartwright’s pistol rig with me.” Glancing into the lone cell in the sheriff’s office, Brown had to use all the acting ability he had to control his reaction. Adam lay on the bare mattress with no boots and no blanket, but it was the bruised and battered face that surprised Brown the most. He couldn’t keep the reaction completely concealed and Marks saw it.

“He resisted and I had to teach him that I don’t put up with that. He won’t be resisting any more.”

“I’m surprised he could resist at all on that leg. He had trouble even standing.”

“I guess he’s a better actor than you thought he was. He resisted all right. Now is there anything else.”

“No, nothing else except I could help watch him when you bring him his lunch so you don’t have to worry about him.”

“He ain’t getting no lunch. Rules here are that you pay for your blanket and your meals when you’re in jail. It’s so the taxpayers don’t have to pay, and he can’t pay.”

“He’s got that wagon and horses.”

“Those were confiscated to pay his brother’s fine.”

“His brother’s fine?”

“Yes, his brother had a fine for fighting in town and never paid it. Over five years with interest, it added up.”

“To over five hundred dollars? That wagon and horses must be worth that much.”

“Yes, to that much. Five years is a long time. You’re not starting to feel sorry for that murderer, are you?”

Realizing that he had let too much slip, Brown did his best to remain more neutral. “No, not at all, it’s only that this case is so different than how I normally see cases handled. I’m surprised is all. I’ll be going to get some lunch. By the way, what happens to others in jail who can’t pay for meals and a blanket?”

“We put it on a tab and they work it off on the Barrow ranch or in the Barrow mines when they get out.”

Thinking it was quite a racket that Barrow had set up, Brown smiled instead of showing his disdain. “That’s a pretty neat system. I like it. Well, I’m off to get some lunch. I think I’ve handed over all of his property now. Be seeing you, Sheriff.”

Once outside, Brown headed for the restaurant where he had eaten dinner. The same waitress was working and the same cook. He guessed they were the only two employees there were and neither one seemed to like him at all. The waitress was especially hostile in the looks she gave him. She walked with a bit of a limp, but otherwise carried herself well and certainly was an attractive woman even with the looks she gave him. He ordered and ate, but before he left, he had to ask why she was so hostile.

“You have to ask why after what you did? You brought an innocent man here who’s going to be murdered after they put on a joke of a trial. You got your blood money so why do you care?”

“Why do you think he’s innocent?” Brown had no idea what a floodgate that would open.

“I don’t think he’s innocent. I know he’s innocent. I was there. I lot of people were there and know it, but not one of them will be in that courthouse to testify. We know what happened to the sheriff when he dared to stand up to Barrow on this. We can’t save him. We’ll only die with him. I wish that would do some good, but it won’t.”

“What did you see if you were there?”

“I was there. There’s no ‘if’ in it at all. I was the woman that they tried to help, that man and his brother. The younger one stopped Billy from hurting me, and the older one stopped Billy from murdering his brother. The sheriff came and we all told him what happened. He wrote it down and gave that man the letter so he’d have proof if Barrow ever came after him and tried to say otherwise. We never thought he would send bounty hunters to do his dirty deed for him.”

“So his story is true? You’re Jane?”

“I am.” And Jane and Brown spent an hour talking about what had happened five years earlier including the beating she had received from Billy’s father when he found out what happened and blamed her for causing it. Her limp was a result of the broken hip she had gotten when he kicked her as she lay on the floor after he knocked her down. Luckily others had pulled him away before he could kick her any more. She had survived and unable to work in the saloon had taken the job at the restaurant. Brown now knew what kind of man he was working for and what kind of deed he had done. He told Jane what he had seen at the jail and none of it surprised her at all.

“Will Barrow is an evil man. He wants that Cartwright to suffer, but he wants to humiliate him too; to drive him down into the dirt and make him appear less than human. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s treated someone like that before having him killed. Did the new sheriff tell you that the old sheriff had all his teeth knocked out and his nose smashed?” Brown was shocked by that information. “No, I don’t suppose he did. Yes, he died in a fall, but he was beaten so badly that the last fall was the fatal blow only because he couldn’t take any more. He dared to stand up to Barrow one time too many. He was a good man.”

What Brown didn’t know was how he could do anything about any of it. He was one man against a powerful man who had hired killers working for him. He wished he hadn’t done such a good job eluding pursuit because some angry Cartwrights would certainly have been a big help. He might have been relieved although a bit worried too if he had known that Hoss and Joe were only a few miles away from town at that point and had decided that they would enter town at first light instead of riding in when it was all dark. Ben had met with the governor too that evening and telegrams were being sent to neighboring communities to see if there were lawmen who could be sent to Barrow to help the judge get to the bottom of the case or at least delay the trial until all the evidence could be presented and state prosecutors brought in to look at the evidence and the charges. Less than two days ride from Barrow, there were fifteen hands from the Ponderosa ready to do whatever they needed to do to help. The key was that Adam had to survive long enough for any of that to make a difference in the outcome.

Chapter 7

On Monday morning, bounty hunter Gene Brown was watching out his hotel window and got quite a surprise when he saw Hoss and Joe Cartwright ride into town. He looked behind them hoping they had brought more men and was disappointed, but then he guessed they had thought probably that they were only going to have to confront him. He looked at his gunbelt and wondered if he should wear it or not. Considering that Hoss and Joe might want to shoot him, and it might be best to face them unarmed so he thought he shouldn’t but then again, Barrow’s men likely wanted all three of them dead. At least Hoss and Joe would want information from him and wouldn’t likely act until they knew what he knew. He strapped on the gunbelt. Mustering up his courage, he headed down the stairs and outside where they could see him before he walked to the restaurant guessing they would follow. As fast as Hoss and Joe pursued him to the restaurant, he almost didn’t get inside before they were there. Even then, Hoss pinned him up against the wall and Joe was there beside him with fury showing just as clearly in his expression.

“Where’s Adam? What’d ya do with our brother?”

“He’s in the jail. If you let me go, there’s a lot you need to know. I’m sorry I brought him here. I had no idea what I was doing.”

Clearly Brown’s words caught the two brothers by surprise and they didn’t know how to react. Jane stepped forward then.

“I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m the saloon girl you rescued from Billy Barrow. I’m the cause of all of this, and I would like to help if I can. Please, let him go. He was used as much as I was or anyone else. He can help us now, I think. He knows more about the whole situation that anyone probably so you should listen to him.”

“He kidnapped our brother, shot him, and brought him here to be killed, but you want us to trust him? I don’t think that’s possible.”

“I don’t think you have much of a choice. Your brother’s murder trial is today.”

“They’ve set it up that he’ll be found guilty. There’s no possible way for him to be found not guilty. The judge is probably an honest man, but he won’t have a choice but to sentence him to hang. In towns like this, it will be done tomorrow. We don’t have much time. We need to get to the judge somehow or disrupt the trial somehow.”

“I can disrupt the trial. I can go in there and tell the truth. I was there. I know what happened.” Joe was adamant, and Hoss agreed that he probably ought to do that.

“A jury isn’t going to believe you. You’re his brother, and Barrow has paid thugs who will testify that Adam shot Billy down when he wasn’t even looking.”

“My story makes more sense and it will be the same as what Adam says. Jane, will you testify too?”

“If they let me.”

“Why wouldn’t they let you?”

“Well, we’ll see if they let you testify. If they do, and if they let Adam testify , then I will.”

“Of course, Adam will testify. You’ve never met a man who was more dedicated to the truth. He’ll tell it exactly like it happened.”

“Dadburnit, Joe’s right. Adam’s the most honest man you could ever meet. He’ll tell those folks in there the truth.”

At that point, Jane and Brown exchanged looks and Hoss and Joe knew it meant they were going to hear some bad news. It didn’t take long for that part to be divulged as Brown began explaining what he knew of the treatment Adam had received since arriving in Barrow. “I’m sorry, but he did try to escape and I thought he was a wanted man. I shot him in the leg. I stopped in a town along the way and got a doctor to take care of it, but I think he missed something because Adam started running a fever again and wasn’t eating much. He was coherent though and kept drinking. When I got here, I told them he needed medical attention. He never got it. What he did get was a beating. I saw that when I went back to the jail that night. He’s in a cell with no blanket. He has no boots. They’re not giving him food or water either.”

Hoss was visibly upset by all of that. “I may kill a few of ’em with my bare hands before this is all over.”

Joe was equally upset. “You may have to stand in line.”

“As far as I can tell, they want him weak and disoriented by the time the trial starts. He won’t be in any shape to testify. He’ll look the part of an outlaw and a murderer. I don’t know what else they’ll say about his condition, but I’m sure it will reflect badly on him. By the time they’re done, the jury will convict him of any charges they bring. He doesn’t stand a chance.”

Joe wanted to be hopeful. “But with my testimony and with Jane’s and if you tell them what happened to Adam?”

“As Jane said, if they let us.”

“I’ve got to try.”

Jane put her hand on Joe’s arm then. “Be careful. I’m afraid for you. Your brother is already in so much danger. I don’t want to see you hurt too.”

Brown was more practical. “Yeah, I think you do have to try to testify, and I hope it works, but I’m afraid it won’t. Then we’ll have to try something else. You two probably shouldn’t be seen together.”

Hoss was realistic about that though. “It might be too late for that.”

“It might be. He’s got his men watching me all the time.”

That confused both Joe and Hoss, but it was Joe who questioned it first. “Why is he watching you?”

“I don’t think he wants his five thousand dollars to leave town.”

The four of them talked for a time then making plans and contingency plans because as Joe pointed out, Adam would have made a backup plan in case the main plan didn’t work and probably a plan for that too in case it didn’t work. So by the time they had finished talking, they thought they had options worked out no matter what Barrow did, but as Jane pointed out to them, he could be dangerously unpredictable.

“Well, Miss Jane, we got help on the way. The main thing we all got to do is to keep Adam and ourselves alive for at least two more days. By then, I think the army will be here.”

“The ‘army’?”

“We got a bunch of men from our ranch following along behind Joe and me, our Pa talking to the California governor about sending help, and the sheriff in Virginia City sending out telegrams to whoever he can trying to get somebody here to help us. It takes time and that’s what we gotta give ’em.”

There wasn’t anything else left to say. Brown left first because Barrow and his men would expect him to be interested in the outcome of the trial. He headed to the saloon where the trial was to be held. Hoss and Joe waited in the restaurant for Adam to be brought across the street for his trial. As they waited, Hoss poked Joe in the ribs. Even in the gravely serious situation, he couldn’t help but tease his younger brother.

“I think that little gal is smitten with you a bit. She kept looking at you every chance she got, and putting her hand on your arm and such. She never done told me to be careful like she done you.”

“I don’t have time for that now.” But then Joe couldn’t help himself. “But maybe after we get Adam out of this mess, I’ll need someone to distract me from all this hard work we’ve been doing.”

The two brothers might have engaged in more banter except for the shock they received at that point. Adam was brought out from the sheriff’s office. They knew it was him by the hair and the clothing, but otherwise would not have recognized him. His head was down as if he had given up. He shuffled along with a severe limp and unable to walk in a straight line with a man holding him up on either side. He likely would have stumbled and fallen otherwise. His head lolled back and forth by the time he reached the middle of the street, and at one point he raised his head up briefly allowing his brothers to see how badly he had been beaten. He seemed to be grimacing in pain likely from his leg wound. Barefoot, dirty, and unkempt, he looked as disreputable as anyone could look. Barrow had succeeded in creating the perfect image for a criminal defendant if you wanted him convicted and quickly. Doing their best to hold their fury in check, Hoss and Joe exited the restaurant and walked to the saloon to join the throng inside who wanted to watch the proceedings.

The judge took his seat soon after and asked if the prosecution was ready to proceed. The sheriff said they were. Then he asked if the defendant had a lawyer. The sheriff said he hadn’t asked for one.

“In fact, your honor, he ain’t said nary a word since Saturday night. He sits in his cell and stares at the wall like he’s thinking about his guilt over what he done.”

“Sheriff, that’s enough. Please do not characterize the witness. Now, call your first witness please.”

One by one, Barrow’s hired witnesses came to the stand to testify even though none of them had been present the day that Billy Barrow had been shot. When the last of them had finished, the judge turned to Adam who had sat for the entire proceedings with his head down.

“Adam Cartwright, do you wish to testify or do you have witnesses on your behalf?”

As Adam said nothing and appeared perhaps not to even understand what had been said to him, Joe stepped forward. “I can testify on his behalf. I was there. Those other so-called witnesses weren’t there, and every one of them committed perjury in this court. In other words, Your Honor, they lied to you and to everyone here.”

“Who are you, young man, and what gives you the right to disrupt these proceedings?”

Joe was going to answer when he felt a gun pressed into his back. “Say anything, and we shoot your big brother.”

Looking back, Joe could see that Hoss was no longer in the room. He turned to the judge. “I’m his brother and I was there.” The man behind him jerked him backwards and out of the room then as he heard the sheriff address the court.

“Your Honor, he’s a drifter who showed up in town this morning. He’s been drinking, and as anyone can plainly see, he bears no resemblance to this man he claims is his brother. We’ll take him to the jail and let him sleep it off. I’m sorry for the disturbance.”

Brown caught Jane’s eye briefly and nodded. It was on to plan two because their first plan had failed already. They were not going to let Joe say anything and had been far more prepared for him than they had anticipated. As expected, the jury returned a guilty verdict and Adam was sentenced to hang the next day. Wood for the gallows had been stacked in the street before the trial had even begun, and by the time Adam was walked back across the street to the jail, hammering and sawing were underway on the construction. Adam was dropped back onto his bare cot in the cell with Joe and Hoss then as men held guns on Hoss and Joe to keep them backed against the far wall of the cell until the door was locked again. Then the two brothers rushed to their older brother as the sheriff cackled a bit.

“I guess you thought we didn’t know who you were. Mister Barrow did though. He knows all about your family. We thought your silver haired papa would be with you too. I guess he couldn’t keep up. Well he better hurry if he wants to see his boys alive again. Ain’t any of you leaving here upright.”

As Hoss and Joe tended to Adam and tried to get him to respond, Hoss asked if they could have some water.

“Mister Barrow said no food and no water.”

“Give them water now, Marks. I want him to know what’s happening when that noose goes around his neck tomorrow. Give them all the water and food they want now.” Standing behind Marks, Barrow was there to savor some of his victory. He planned to stop in a few more times that day and then to be there the next morning for every step of the way from that cell to the noose until Adam was swinging from the gallows. Only then would he feel that he had avenged his son’s death. That he could eliminate two more of the Cartwright sons only added to his satisfaction. He guessed he could have them shot when he had Brown shot. He envisioned leaving their bodies for the vultures. He smiled. It made him look like one of those carrion eaters.

Chapter 8

At the courthouse, Brown had waited until everyone had cleared out before he followed in the direction the judge had gone. He found him packing up his robe and his legal books. “Your Honor, I’d like to talk with you about a legal matter if I could. It’s very important.”

“Well, I have to stay until the sentence is executed tomorrow. I guess if you would like to accompany me to lunch, you can tell me what it is that you think is so important.”

“I will meet you at the restaurant for lunch. It’s fairly important that no one see us together. My life is at risk, and if anyone sees us together, I’m afraid I would be putting your life at risk too. I’m sorry about that, but it’s the way it is.”

Pausing to study Brown, the judge nodded after a moment. “I have suspected that not all is legitimate about this case, but it is not my job to question the authorities in a community in this county when I am summoned to preside over a case. However, if you can give me any information that I can use, I may be able to do something.”

“That’s all that I ask, Your Honor. I’ll do my best to give you something you can use to at least delay this hanging until others arrive who can do more.”

“Very well, it is highly irregular, but I had some concerns about what I saw and heard in that courtroom today. I shall be at that restaurant within the half hour.”

The judge was obviously a man of integrity and honesty. He was at that restaurant in a half hour as promised. He took a table and Jane served him a meal. When it seemed likely that no one was too curious about him, Brown walked in and sat at the next table. Jane served him a meal as well and he began talking explaining all he knew about the situation including the letter that Adam was supposed to have and that Joe was in fact his brother as was Hoss and that both were now sitting in the jail with Adam so that they could do nothing to stop the hanging.

“But why didn’t the man speak up in court today? Why didn’t he explain all of this to me? I would certainly have let his brother testify in his behalf and let him testify as well.”

“I shot him.” The judge was clearly shocked by that so Brown had to explain of course. “When I thought I was bringing in a criminal for trial, h e tried to escape. I shot him. The wound got infected, and even though I had a doctor take care of it for him, it’s still a problem. I told them here that he needed medical care but they said he wouldn’t need it. They figured on him hanging anyway. I saw by Saturday night that they had beaten him too, and from what we’ve learned, he probably didn’t have any food or water on since I brought him in.”

“So he was sick, beaten, and probably dehydrated in this heat. It’s a wonder the man is still alive.”

“He’s a tough one. As far as we know, his father is seeking help from the state government and they have men coming to help them who should be here in a day or two. None of that will matter though if they hang him in the morning. Jane’s got a story to tell too if you’ve got the time to listen.”

Moving to the table as if to converse with a customer, Jane did a quick summary of what had happened five years earlier. Then she took the judge’s empty plate to the counter and returned with the coffee pot pouring him a fresh cup.

“May I assume that you were afraid to testify in court today?”

“After what they did to Joe Cartwright, yes, I was.”

“In a few minutes, I’m going over to the jail to take a look at the prisoner. I need to see for myself about some of what you’ve said. I don’t want to be part of any miscarriage of justice, but I also have no reason at this point to believe you either.” Jane and Brown were going to object, but the judge raised his hands to silence them. “I have always been taught that the law looks at both sides of any issue and follows the evidence. I will go take a look at the best evidence there is in this situation and that is the man himself. If what I see supports what you’ve said, a stay of execution may be the best course of action. I will make no promises nor state any conclusions until I have seen everything that I can see, but my doubts about how this case has proceeded are certainly greater than they were earlier. That’s all that I can say at this time.”

“Thank you. It’s better than anyone else has offered here.”

“I am surprised a bit though, Mister Brown, to find a bounty hunter with a conscience and willing to put his life on the line for a man who may be innocent. You could have taken your money and left town by now.”

A bit embarrassed to admit it, Brown had to be honest. “Actually, I don’t think I can. I don’t think Barrow intends to let me ride out of here with that money. I’ve been followed and watched ever since I got that money. It’s why I was so careful talking with you. You might be in danger too.”

“He wouldn’t dare do anything to a county judge.”

“He had the former sheriff murdered.”

“That’s a very serious charge.”

“And one that should be followed up once we get Adam out of this mess.”

“If I assess the situation to be as you claim, then I will issue a stay of execution. However if you are correct, then my life may be forfeit too. Before we go any further, I would like some paper to write my final statement.”

Both Brown and Jane were humbled by the extraordinary and dignified courage of the judge who calmly sat and wrote out his opinions of the case, of conclusions he had drawn so far, of the interview he had had with each of them with the information they had given to him, and his intention to go see Adam and probably issue a stay of execution until a more thorough investigation could take place. When he finished, he signed the paper and handed it to Jane.

“I assume that you will likely have a greater chance of surviving this unfortunate set of circumstances than either of us. Mister Brown is, by his own account if it is to be believed, already a marked man. I am inclined to believe him, and that makes me lean to the belief that if I issue that stay of execution, I may be marked as well. Please keep that statement safe. If what Mister Brown says is true, there will eventually be a convergence of men here in numbers sufficient to keep you safe. At that time, turn that letter over to the proper authorities.”

By the way the judge stated that, both Jane and Brown knew that he expected to issue that stay and had a fairly good idea that it could mean his death. He did check his sidearm before leaving the restaurant, looked back at them, took a deep breath, and turned to head toward the sheriff’s office.

In the sheriff’s office, Hoss and Joe had done their best to help Adam, but what he needed was a doctor’s care. His leg was clearly infected, and his fever was rising. He drank the water they gave him, but he wouldn’t eat any of the food provided. What was more upsetting to both Hoss and Hoe was that he didn’t seem to be aware of where he was. He asked for their father on several occasions. Delirium was claiming him. When Barrow stepped close to the cell to gloat, Hoss was furious with him.

“Ya made it so he couldn’t even defend himself. You’re torturing him worse than anyone would treat an animal. He never did nothing to you or nobody to deserve any of this.”

“He murdered my son.”

“He shot your son who was going to murder Joe here. Any man woulda done the same.”

“Then any man would hang the same. No one kills a Barrow and gets away with it.”

“I think that real soon you’re gonna find out that ain’t true at all.”

“You’re in no position to threaten me.”

But Hoss had stood up and the much shorter Barrow backed away from the man who intimidated him even with the bars between them. He would have ordered Marks to have him beaten as well but was worried that his men might not be up to the task especially with the other young Cartwright in the cell too. He decided to leave well enough alone and take his revenge the following day. He was about to leave when Judge Hawkins entered the office without knocking and walked directly to the cell asking Joe to move to one side so he could get a clear view of Adam. The bruises were consistent with what Brown had said. Hoss and Joe had been sponging Adam to try to reduce the fever so his shirt was open showing extensive bruising on his chest and abdomen as well. It was clear that he had in fact taken a beating. Adam’s eyes were closed.

“Is he conscious?”

“He hasn’t said anything to us that makes us think he knows where he is if that interests you. He asks for Pa, but he doesn’t seem to know he’s in jail. I doubt he had any idea he was in a courtroom this morning.”

“So he was likely not competent to be standing trial. He was not morose nor guilt stricken as I was led to believe. He was physically unable to know what was going on around him. I think I have enough now to justify a stay of execution. If I had any more evidence, I would vacate the verdict. I’m almost inclined to do it anyway, but I will not overstep the bounds of my office. However, I will be asking for a full investigation which will likely lead to that result.”

Barrow was incensed. “You can’t do that!”

“I most certainly can. I am issuing a stay of execution. There will be no execution of Adam Cartwright until I sign an order for it. Sheriff Marks, you will see to that. You took an oath of office to uphold the law.”

“I’m the law in Barrow.”

“Mister Barrow, you are not the law. You have presumed apparently to set yourself above the law. You have set up a sham of a case against a man to pursue your personal agenda. That is not acceptable. You have much to answer for in this situation. I suggest you hire an attorney.”

Barrow stormed out of the office then leaving Marks to face Hawkins. “Sheriff, why are those two men in that cell with Adam Cartwright?”

“Mister Barrow said to lock them up.”

“Then there are no formal charges?”

“No, I guess not.”

“Release them.”

“Ah, Judge Hawkins, Your Honor, sir, me and Joe would as soon stay here with Adam. I don’t think he’s likely to live long if we was to leave him.”

“Very well. Sheriff, unlock the cell and allow these two men to attend the prisoner. They are now my clerks and are working for me. Is that acceptable to you two gentlemen?”

“It certainly is, Your Honor. Hoss and I will do a good job for you too. Can we wear our guns while we work for you?”

“Young man, you may do whatever you deem necessary to keep the prisoner safe. I’ll write that out as well as the stay of execution as soon as the sheriff unlocks that cell and gets me some paper and a pen.”

While Judge Hawkins wrote out the necessary papers, Hoss and Joe got their guns and then got a blanket for Adam and his boots. They did their best to make him comfortable and prepared to defend him if anyone came for him. Marks left as soon as he could, and the judge left when he handed the papers to Hoss and Joe for safekeeping.

“Take care, gentlemen. I fear none of us are safe in this town.”

“Judge, I think you’d be safer staying here with us.”

“Probably, but by staying here, I would also be drawing them directly to you. If anything happens, get him away from here.”

With those words from the judge, Hoss and Joe knew that Judge Hawkins expected to die that night after seeing Barrow’s reaction. The man was on a murderous rampage and logic and self-preservation apparently no longer mattered to him. He was consumed by his quest for revenge. It was only a few hours later that they heard a soft knock on the back door of the sheriff’s office. Joe cautiously cracked the door open to ask who it was. Brown was there with Jane.

“You have to leave now. The judge is dead.”

“Dead? They killed him?”

“Yes, he was run over by a freight wagon in the street, twice. A freight wagon fully loaded pulled by a six horse team at ten at night going hell bent for leather down the street: now that was an amazing thing, wasn’t it? And gruesome.” Jane didn’t even like to hear Brown talk about it. She shuddered at the memory of the ghastly scene that Brown had described. “It seems that Barrow likes to send a message too when he kills someone. They’re trying to make it look like an accident so Adam can hang in the morning, you two can disappear along with me, and no one can claim that anything illegal happened. They suspect help is on the way after what the judge said. They want to get this done by tomorrow morning, so c’mon, we gotta move fast.”

“Adam can’t walk.”

“Then we’ll carry him. We’re going to Jane’s house. We need to buy time, and it’s the only place we can think to do that.”

“They know about Jane. They’ll search there when they realize we’re gone.”

“That’s a part of the plan Jane didn’t mention. We’ll show you when we get there.”

The small rough hewn home Jane had was one of the original buildings of Barrow and had existed before William Barrow had arrived and before Barrow was a town. The man who built it had been a trader who needed to hide his trade goods when he was gone. He had built secret compartments into his home and a small secret closet for larger items. It was that small room that was going to be used to save the lives of four men if they could all squeeze into its claustrophobia inducing quarters.

Slipping out into the darkness behind the sheriff’s office, they could hear voices of men approaching and knew they had only a short time to make their escape. Moving as quickly as they could while still keeping as quiet as they could, they hurried to Jane’s house. They weren’t there yet when they heard yells and commotion behind them. They assumed it would take some time for Barrow to guess where they might go but they had to hurry. Adam was mostly a dead weight unable to help at all, but Hoss’ admonitions to him that he had to be quiet seemed to work. He made no sound at all despite the fact that all the movement had to hurt. Apparently the familiar sound of Hoss’ voice broke through his stupor and he followed the instructions of the closest friend he had in the world. When they got to Jane’s house, she showed them the panel that pulled back, and they quickly moved into the dark space so that she could move the panel back into position. Then she took off her shoes and hurried to put on a nightgown without lighting a lamp or otherwise showing any indication to anyone that she was awake. In less than fifteen minutes, there were men banging on her front door demanding entrance. She lit a lamp and hurried to the door.

“What do you want? Why are you banging on my door in the middle of the night?”

“Cause that new friend of yours is missing and so are the Cartwrights. You got them hiding in your house here?”

“Mister Barrow, there are no men in my house that I can see. I only have this small house. I think if there were men here, I would be able to see them.”

“Well of course you could, but I mean, well dammit, we want to search your house and see if those men are here.”

“I only have the two rooms. If you think I somehow hid them in one of the rooms, feel free to look. Be sure to look under the bed. I don’t think four men could fit under there, but you never know.” Jane rolled her eyes and shook her head as if the men had bothered her with some fool’s errand and disturbed her sleep for no reason. “I have to work early in the morning. I would appreciate it if you could hurry up and search everything so I could get back to sleep.”

“You got a cellar?”

“No, but I have a necessary out back, and I have a wash table next to it. Perhaps you think they’re hiding there. Honestly sheriff, all I did was talk to the man. Mister Barrow, I talk to all my customers. I need to get tips to support myself.”

Still wondering a bit about her, Barrow and the sheriff had to admit there was no place for the men to hide in the two room house and with only a necessary, there was nowhere outside her house for them to hide either. Barrow ordered his men to get torches lit and to start a systematic search of the whole town.

“I want you to search every damn building in this town until we find them. That damn Cartwright is going to swing from that gallows tomorrow morning or someone else is going to take his place until he does. Somebody is hiding him and the others. If I have to, I’ll hang some of the people here until the ones hiding him hand him over.”

In the hiding space, the three men heard that chilling message and all three believed that Barrow would do it. They said nothing until Jane pulled open the panel when she was sure that Barrow and all of his men were well away from his house. They decided that they needed another plan to stop that monster from carrying out his dire threat.

Chapter 9

Before any planning could be done, Adam needed some intensive care. In the dark, they couldn’t do what needed to be done, so they found a heavy wool blanket and covered the window in the bedroom so that no light could be seen. Then a lamp was lit, and Hoss finally got to take a good look at the wound in Adam’s leg. He grimaced and asked if Jane had any alcohol in the house. She did have a small bottle so he asked next for boiling water and towels.

“I’m going to open this wound up one more time and drain it. It probably has something stuck in it that’s causin’ it to fester. Luckily it doesn’t seem to have spread up the leg at all. The infection is still all in the leg, but it’s makin’ him real sick.”

After setting a kettle of water to boil on the stove, Jane offered to help. Joe and Brown kept watch and brought the water when it had heated enough. Joe found that Hoss and Jane had stripped the filthy clothing from Adam and used cool water to bathe him, and he seemed to have recovered somewhat from that alone. The next part set him back though as Hoss opened the angry wound, drained it, and then flushed it with alcohol as Adam struggled not to scream with Joe holding his arms down and at one point forced to use his weight to press Adam down on the bed as he struggled to fight against what was being done to him. The cords in his neck stood out as he struggled to be silent and Hoss finally handed Joe a towel. He pressed it to Adam’s face and whispered to him with some intensity that he could scream into the towel. He did and as he screamed, he startled Jane who had not expected that. Even though Adam wasn’t very aware yet, he still seemed able to follow the instructions he got from his brothers.

“I’m almost done now, Adam. I got to bandage this up. Then you kin sleep.”

Taking deep breaths as he tried to fight against the waves of pain still radiating from his leg, Adam didn’t respond. Joe spoke soothingly to him as Hoss and Jane bandaged his leg. Then he fell asleep. Jane helped Hoss pull a light sheet over him after Jane used a dry cloth to wipe the slight sheen of sweat from his chest, arms, and face. Joe held his hand and talked to him trying to reassure him that he was no longer alone.

“The two of you must be very close to Adam. Even nearly senseless, he seemed to know who you were and do what you asked.”

“We been through a lot together. I guess he knows we would never hurt him unless it was needed. We trust each other.”

They waited through the night then occasionally seeing someone pass by with a torch or hearing yells and shouts, but no one came to the door again. Joe spent the night sitting beside the bed and holding Adam’s hand. Hoss came up to him as dawn neared to tell him it wasn’t his fault.

“I know you’re blaming yourself. You see Adam hurting so much and you want to think if you had done things differently, he’d be fine. If it wasn’t Barrow, it coulda been someone else. Adam’s always gonna do what he thinks is right same as you and same as me. Pa taught us that a man ain’t never wrong when he’s doing what he thinks is right.”

“But if I hadn’t gotten in that fight in the saloon, Adam wouldn’t have killed Billy Barrow, and he wouldn’t be laying here suffering like this now.”

“Joe, would you rather let him hurt that little gal?”

“No, of course not, but there must have been another way.”

“Adam ever say that to you?”

“No, he never said much about it at all.”

“There you go. You know Adam as well as I do. Ifn he thought you made a boneheaded play, you think he woulda kept quiet about it all this time? Course not. Like as not, he woulda done the same thing you done ‘cept he mighta pounded on that little creep a mite harder. Now get those crazy thoughts outta yer head. You and Adam need some peace and some rest. We got lots of trouble to face without you making something out of nothing to worry on.”

“Hoss, thanks.”

“You ever thank Adam for what he done?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Then you’re all square. Now rest for an hour and then we gotta talk about what we’re gonna do next.”

In the morning light, it was relatively quiet until it seemed everyone was heading toward the center of town making them all wonder what was happening. That became the crux of their plan. They needed someone to go find out, and it was decided that Jane could go and that Joe could go with a little work on his clothing. Over his shirt, he put on an old shirt that Jane had found in the cabin from the previous owner. She had intended to make something from it but never had. He took Brown’s hat and flattened it somewhat, and Jane found an old brown scarf that he tied around his neck. He wore Brown’s right-handed pistol rig as the last part of his disguise. It wouldn’t bear close scrutiny but should work in a crowd. Jane and Joe headed out then leaving Brown and Hoss to guard Adam and pray that the reinforcements they wanted were going to be there very soon.

When Jane and Joe reached the center of town, they were as shocked as most of the people in town had been. Barrow had ordered the gallows completed and standing on them, he had the town minister there with his hands tied behind his back and a rope around his neck.

“Now I am mighty tired of this man’s sermons, and I know most of the time, he was aiming them at me and trying to stir up the town against me. I didn’t do anything about it, because for one, it never worked, and two, he is a minister, but this has gone too far now. Somebody in town is hiding the man who murdered my son. They’re hiding the men who helped that murderer escape too. If I don’t have that murderer here in fifteen minutes to hang like he was ordered to hang, then the minister here is gonna get the rope he so richly earned. Then, I’ll pick another one of you, and you’ll get another fifteen minutes. I’ll keep doing that until every man, woman, and child in this town is dead or I have that murderer. Is that clear? I sent for more men from my ranch. I’ve got enough guns in town right now to carry out my promise. Anyone doubt me, you only have to look around you to see the guns pointed at you right now.”

Looking back, Joe and Jane saw at least twenty men with weapons pointed at them and the citizens of the town. Jane did something then that Joe wished she hadn’t done but he had to admire her for doing it.

“What if every man here draws his weapon and points it at you. Your hired guns might kill a lot of us, but they won’t do it before you die.”

“These men don’t have the guts to do that.”

The men in the crowd may not have fought Barrow when they thought that by doing so, they would die. They had seen other men die, and they preferred to live. However, when you threaten a man’s wife and especially when you threaten to kill a man’s children, you put the threat in a whole new realm. Barrow had gone much too far. Joe pulled his weapon and switched it to his left hand to aim it at Barrow and suddenly there were more than a dozen weapons aimed at Barrow. Jane was correct. The gunmen could kill many of them but not before Barrow died. Barrow knew it too.

“You men put those guns down or I’ll have to order my men to shoot.”

“You do that, Barrow, and you die now.”

“You’re that Cartwright. You’re the one who started all of this.”

The argument might have gone a bit further except about twenty men rode into town then led by a silver haired gentleman flanked by several men wearing badges and followed by fifteen Ponderosa hands all carrying weapons. Joe whispered to Jane that it was his father and the cavalry had arrived.

“Hey, Pa, you arrived at the perfect time.”

“Joseph, what is going on here?”

“Mister Barrow was about to hang the town minister because we won’t tell him where Adam is, and his gunmen were about to shoot some women and children for the same reason.”

Amazingly there were suddenly only a few gunmen left when Sheriff Marks looked to either side of him. The others had hurriedly left. The newly arrived posse began to ride after them as Joe and his father and the sheriffs and the chief deputies of the two closest towns in the county took custody of Marks and the gunmen who had remained. They surrendered without a fight. Barrow stood on the gallows wanting to do something and completely at a loss as to what to do. Joe climbed the gallows steps with his pistol out ready for anything but Barrow was apparently unarmed. He had other men to do the dirty work. Joe shoved him away from the minister and freed the man.

Down below, Ben looked up at his youngest son. “Joe, where are Hoss and Adam?”

It was Jane who answered first though. “They’re at my house. I can take you there if you wish.”

Joe looked down at his father from the platform of the gallows watching Barrow descend the steps to the waiting sheriff. “Go with her, Pa. This is Jane. She’s been a big help. I’ll stay here and tell these men what’s been happening here. It’s going to take some time to explain it all. We’ll be coming to the house later too. Jane has some papers they’ll want to see. Oh, and don’t shoot the bounty hunter when you see him. He’s been helping us too. He got fooled by this nasty piece of work.”

“This is the man who sent that poster out on Adam?”

“It is.”

Dismounting and stepping up to Barrow, Ben nearly lifted the man off his feet with a powerful uppercut that made his hand hurt but made his heart feel better. Then he turned to Jane. “Yes, I would very much like you to take me to see my other sons.”

Barrow lay in the street with hatred in his eyes, but he was helpless to do anything. Joe looked down at him and turned to the sheriff who stood there looking down on the once powerful man who was now cringing in the dirt.

“He never should have taken on the Cartwrights.”

The sheriff nodded. “I’ve heard of you folks. The reputation is well deserved.” Then he nudged Barrow with his boot. “Get up. I don’t want to get my hands dirty touching you.” One of the townspeople came up and asked what they should do about the ugly gallows in the middle of town. “Leave it here for now. I think it’s going to be needed very soon.”

When Jane and Ben got to her house, Hoss and Brown wanted to know what happened. “Your father wants to see Adam. I can tell you everything that happened, and it’s all good. But first, he needs to see Adam. Has there been any change?”

“Dadburnit, no. He’s still out of it. He don’t answer to nothing we say.”

As they were talking, Jane was leading the way to the bedroom. Adam looked a bit better, but was very pale and noticeably thinner than when Ben had seen him last. He had a good beard too not having had a chance to shave in quite a while. It had been another reason he had looked so unkempt for the jurors during the trial. Even with the beard, like Hoss and Joe, Ben could see the bruises on his face and more on his arms and chest where it was not covered by the sheet. He moved quickly to Adam’s side and touched his shoulder as he took his hand in his.

“Adam, son, it’s Pa. Can you hear me?”

There was no response. Adam had slipped into a coma it seemed propelled by a number of factors. They needed to pull him out of it though so they could give him food and water because without those things, he might grow too weak and never regain consciousness. Hoss had expected that he would be conscious by now and had grown more and more worried as he failed to react. Seeing his father unable to get a reaction, he didn’t know what to do.

“Hoss, how long has he been like this? He seemed to be getting closer to waking up when we left.”

“And since then, no matter what I do, he slips down deeper and deeper. I tried putting a blanket on him to warm him. That didn’t help. I talked to him real soft and soothing like. Nothing helps.”

Jane stepped up next to the bed. “I think he needs a different approach. She sat on the bed and pulled the sheet down to Adam’s waist surprising Hoss and nearly shocking Ben. She began to caress Adam’s chest and tweaked his nipples as she leaned in and kissed him. She wasn’t gentle with the kisses either. She pushed for him to respond to her. She hugged him and pressed her body against his. Ben was about to tell her that she should stop what she was doing when Adam moaned and turned his head from side to side. Jane took his face between her hands and spoke to Adam calling to him to come back to her, begging him to come back to her. His eyelids fluttered a little. About that time, Joe arrived and was as shocked as Ben or perhaps even more so to see Jane stretched out on the bed next to Adam and pressing her body against his, caressing him, kissing him, and speaking to him as a lover might call to a lover. As Adam slowly awakened, Jane cradled him to her chest as one might cradle her lover.

“Hoss, do you have that bottle filled with water?”

Once Hoss gave her the bottle, Jane cooed softly to Adam and coaxed him to drink. No one could complain about the success she was having. Adam was weak but obviously thirsty drinking all the water in the bottle. Hoss filled it again and Jane got him to drink a bit more before he was too tired to continue. She soothed him then telling him he could sleep a little but she would wake him soon so he could eat something. Then she gently settled his head back on the pillow. Looking up at the three Cartwrights, she shrugged.

“There’s no doctor and no nurse in town. I’ve taken care of my share of men who’ve been hurt although usually they’re strangers. It’s the first time I’ve wanted a man to recover as much as I want Adam to be well.”

As Jane cared for Adam then, Ben and his two younger sons did their best to clear up all the legal issues surrounding Adam as well as Joe and Hoss. Brown was invaluable to the authorities as was Jane when they came to the house to interview her. The papers left by Judge Hawkins were perused carefully, and citizens of the town came forward now that they no longer feared reprisals. Some of the men who worked for Barrow who were not implicated in serious crimes were allowed to testify in exchange for amnesty. Barrow was to be tried after only three days because the mountain of evidence against him was enough to easily convict. They had to wait for a judge to arrive from a neighboring county or the trial could have occurred even sooner. All appeared to be settled until a burst of gunfire broke out in the middle of the night startling everyone. Ben as well as Hoss and Joe were sleeping on bedrolls in Jane’s house as she slept on a cot. What they feared was that the fight was going to come closer to them. With Adam slowly recovering, they didn’t want anything to interfere with that. Adam called out for Jane and she went to him asking if someone could please cover the window as they had the first night in the house. It was an hour before they found out what had happened. One of the deputies arrived at the house with several of the Ponderosa hands.

“Barrow escaped. We should have known he gave up too easy that day on the gallows. He had a backup plan. He had held some of his men in reserve, and they rode in here and broke him out of jail tonight about the time nearly everyone was sleeping and we had all let our guard down. We won’t make that mistake again, and neither should any of you. He’ll want his revenge on all of you now.”

Chapter 10

Several days later, Joe was apologizing to Adam for getting him into such a big mess and putting his life at risk. Adam basically repeated everything that Hoss had said but added more.

“I made a lot of mistakes, Joe. I should have taken someone to town with me. I shouldn’t have tried to run. I shouldn’t have taunted the sheriff here. I made things worse for myself in a number of ways. I’ll own the mistakes, but I won’t hang onto them just because I put a lot of blood and sweat into them. I’ll forgive myself for them and move on. You need to move on too. There’s no way you could have known five years ago what was going to happen. I didn’t know it five weeks ago. We should have taken precautions. We didn’t. Make it a lesson learned and move on.”

“It’s that easy for you?”

“It’s been anything but easy for me, little brother, but I have had quite a bit of time to think about things.”

“At least you get something out of it.”

“Something?”

Looking out the door of the bedroom, Joe stared at Jane as she talked with Hoss and Ben before exiting the house on her way to get some things at the mercantile.

“I don’t have Jane.”

“What do you mean? Of course you do. She calls you sweetie and touches you on the cheek. She practically acts like you’re married already.”

Walking into the room, Hoss noted that Joe was looking almost angry, and Adam was looking surprised. “What’s going on?”

Instead of an answer, Adam had a question. “Where’s Pa?”

“He went down to see if they got any information on where Barrow is yet, and don’t try that changing the subject thing with me. What’s going on in here?”

“Joe thinks that Jane is in love with me.”

“Nah, really? Geez, Joe, with the way she looks at you, I woulda thought you coulda figured it out by now.”

“But she calls Adam sweetie and touches his cheek and leans in close to whisper to him and everything. She acts like she’s married to him already.”

“Aw, she only wants to make sure he’s all right cause of what he done for her, and she’s a woman. It comes natural to want to take care of a man who’s hurting. She done all those things cause Adam needed ’em done. He wouldn’t wake up for us. She was using them female type things on Adam to charm ‘im into waking up, and it sure worked great.”

“But whenever she’s in here, she can’t keep her eyes off of Adam.”

“Of course not, Joe. She’s seen me naked.” Adam delivered the line with all seriousness, but the crinkles at the corners of his eyes gave it away to Hoss who began to guffaw and then bent over when he laughed so hard it hurt. With Hoss doubled over, Adam laughed too releasing some of the tension of all that had happened to him.

“If she had, she’d be more scared than anything.” Joe fired one back and Hoss nearly fell down laughing then at the look Adam gave to Joe. A few jibes later, Joe headed outside to find Jane and profess his feeling for her hoping she felt the same. Hoss and Adam felt satisfied that they had done their best to play matchmakers.

“Now, you didn’t have feelings for her, didja?”

“No, not like that. She’s pretty enough, and likable, but there was nothing romantic in how we got along. No, it’s all right for Joe. I have been thinking that there’s a certain lady in Virginia City I ought to see about paying more attention though.”

“I knew if you had time to think, you’d be planning something. Jest didn’t think it would be that.”

“Oh, I’ve been thinking about other things too, Hoss. I’ve had nothing but time to think for a few days now.”

“Oh, lordy, now what?”

“I’ve been trying to think of what Barrow would do to try to get back at us. He might be going to the Ponderosa.”

“What?”

“We came here and took away his little empire. Don’t you think he might want to do the same to us and probably kill us in the process?”

Frowning in thought first, Hoss looked up at Adam after a few minutes. “You might be right, but you can’t travel especially as fast as we’ll need to go, and we can’t leave you here alone.”

“We’ll talk it over with Pa and the others. There has to be a solution.”

Ben had the same concerns as Hoss, but a telegram delivered from a neighboring town pushed them into having to make a decision. Barrow had been spotted in Placerville headed east. It was then that Joe provided the solution even if it was probably for some of the wrong reasons.

“I’ll stay with Adam. You and Hoss can take all the men and head back to take care of the Ponderosa and any threat from Barrow. He won’t be able to do anything against all of you and our friends there. A lot of this is my fault anyway so I ought to be the one to stay.”

Getting frustrated with Joe trying to shoulder the guilt for what had happened, Adam was a bit brusque with him. “It’s not your fault.”

Knowing that the two brothers still had to work out that issue between them, Ben thought some time together with no pressure might help. “It isn’t, but Joe knows more of what went on with this whole case so if the authorities have questions yet, he would be the logical one to answer them. If he’s willing to stay, I endorse his idea. Hoss and I can handle things on the other end.”

“I’ll stay to help too, Mister Cartwright. I feel a bit guilty too about my part in this. Even though those authorities as you call them are willing to ignore what I did, I feel guilty about letting greed override my better judgment. I can make up for some of it by making sure he stays safe here.” Brown had developed an odd sense that somehow Barrow was going to be wherever Adam was. It made no sense so he wasn’t going to say anything, but he wasn’t going to leave either until he knew Barrow was finished and buried because he had no doubt that was his final end. He watched later as Ben and the others rode out. Joe was helping Adam get dressed.

“You’re uneasy.” Jane stood by his side at her front door.

“I am. Barrow is that snake you don’t see until you step on it, and then all you can say is ‘Damn!’ and hope that somehow you’ll find a way to survive.”

“Hopefully those men will catch him and take care of him so we can move on with our lives. I’ll pray for that and for their safety.”

“It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than prayers, Jane. I’m sorry for the vulgarity, but it’s how I feel about it.”

“It’s all right. It’s where he’s put so many of us for so long.”

Over the next few days, Jane and Joe spent a great deal of time together, but Adam and Brown noted that Joe always wore his pistol and the couple was seldom far from Jane’s house. There were times too that Jane and Brown talked about the situation in Barrow and what he thought would happen to the town now that the boss was gone. Adam was limping around better and better each day and starting to eat better so his strength was returning. He and Brown talked, played cards, and occasionally chatted or quietly read books that Brown had found at the mercantile. There were times when Adam and Joe spent time together but there was an edge to some of their conversations yet because of Joe feeling guilty and Adam irritated that he couldn’t get Joe to let go of that. Sometimes all four of them played cards or chatted, and those were the most pleasant times for all of them. At dinner on the third night, Adam had to ask Joe what he was thinking because he knew something was bothering him.

“Adam, it bothers me that Barrow let himself be seen near Placerville. No one saw him for days and suddenly he’s not only seen but seen so clearly that he can be identified quickly and the information sent to us.”

“Anyone can make a mistake, Joe.”

“But what if it wasn’t a mistake? What if he let himself be seen on purpose so we would think he was going to Virginia City because he knew we would think he would want to go to Virginia City so then we would go to Virginia City only he really wanted to come back here and not go to Virginia City at all only he had to go as far as Placerville to make it look like he really was going to Virginia City because he knew you wouldn’t be able to travel and he needed all the rest of us or most of us to be gone because you’re the one he really wants so with almost everyone else headed back to Virginia City, he can come back here which is what he was planning to do all along and never intended to go to Virginia City at all?”

“Joe, you’re making my head hurt and I wasn’t even shot there.”

Brown spoke up then though and agreed with Joe. “Adam, he’s making sense. Think about it. The whole plan Barrow had was to get you. Wouldn’t any plan of his continue to be that? He was obsessed with that for over five years. He’s not going to give it up because it didn’t work out this time.”

“If that theory is correct, he was seen in Placerville well over three days ago. He could nearly be back here by now.”

“We better get ready.”

After alerting the neighbors and enlisting some help, Adam, Joe, and Brown thought they were as prepared as they could be. Joe and Brown were well armed and waited in the secret compartment of Jane’s house. There were dummies of all of them in bedrolls, on the cot, and in the bed making it appear that they were sleeping. Adam was safely in the loft of a neighbor’s small stable with a rifle and a pistol and a vantage position for anyone approaching the house. They left a lantern burning on the porch to give him clear silhouettes of anyone approaching the house if shooting started. Jane was with a neighbor to keep her safe, and a few others were keeping watch as well from their houses. No one in town wanted to see Barrow return, and news that he might be coming back had set them all on edge. Every man and woman there wanted to see him meet his Maker and spend eternity in Hell. Nothing happened until almost dawn when all of them were getting drowsy. Four men emerged from the darkness and ran into Jane’s house smashing their way through the door. Gunshots were heard as they fired repeatedly into each of the dummies. Before they could leave, Joe and Brown emerged from the hiding space and got them by surprise. None of the men was Barrow.

“Where’s Barrow?”

No one would answer so Joe and Brown disarmed them and tied them very tightly to chairs and then gagged them. All three of those men noted that Joe and Brown had an extra pistol tucked into the back of their pants. It seemed an odd thing to do, but it was a precaution that Adam had suggested.

“Now what, Joe?”

“Now we have to wait for his next move.”

What they heard chilled Joe and Brown to their cores. It was Jane’s plaintive cry of their names. They rushed to the door, and Joe would have raced outside except for Brown grabbing his arm.

“You go out there, and you’re dead. Listen for what he wants.”

“Cartwright, I got her. I got guns on that whole little family you stashed her with. You come on out here or she dies, and then one by one that family dies until you walk out here and get what you deserve. You got a minute.”

Joe was chilled more hearing Adam’s response that he was coming out but it might take him some time because he had to climb down the ladder by himself.

“You better hurry. Time’s a wasting. You, in the house, let my men go too if they’re alive, that is.”

“They aren’t.” Joe lied but didn’t think that would matter.

“Then you two come out here too. I don’t like to leave any loose ends around.”

Joe and Brown stepped out onto the small porch of Jane’s home. Barrow told them to stop there and drop their gunbelts. They did. He sent a small boy from the house where he was to pick up the gunbelts. The boy was crying and shaking but did as he was told. Joe told him to take the gunbelts into Jane’s house and stay there. Barrow heard him and laughed. Adam was emerging from the stable. Barrow told him to stop and drop his gunbelt as well. He did and Barrow sent another child, a small girl to get it. Adam sent her into the stable with it. Barrow laughed again.

“My, my, you have to be heroes to the end. You can’t stop it, can you. I should tell you, I’ll shoot them after I shoot you, but I won’t. There’s no point to it. I will probably shoot her, but first I’ll take her with me and let the men have at her. If she survives that, I’ll shoot her in the belly and let her die slowly. I wish I could do that to you, Cartwright, but I’m afraid I don’t have that much time. It has to end now.”

Barrow shoved Jane into the arms of one of his men and ordered him to hold her before he began advancing toward Adam. As he neared Adam, he sneered and paused to savor his victory a little. It unnerved him though that Adam didn’t cower before him.

“You know, maybe if you cried or begged a little, I wouldn’t kill your brother. Maybe I would let him live. I could gut shoot you and let you here to die slowly and painfully. He would suffer watching you die and not be able to do anything about it.”

Adam said nothing. Frustrated, Barrow began to raise his arm to aim his pistol and to step closer to be sure to hit his target, but he never had a chance to do it. Adam drew the pistol he had behind his back and fired at close range but Barrow saw his move and jerked sideways to avoid the fatal shot. However Joe and Brown drew too from behind their backs shooting Barrow several times before he could aim. Barrow did fire once but the bullet went harmlessly into the dirt. Joe and Brown turned and took aim at the men who held Jane. One fired at them and they fired back. The other man fled. In the exchange of fire, Jane was hit and Brown ran immediately to her side. Joe turned to go to Jane too as Adam made sure that Barrow was dead. The mother ran to the stable to retrieve her daughter as the father went to the house to get his son. A large crowd was there in minutes helping to sort everything out.

Cradling Jane in his arms, Brown had checked and found that the wound did not appear to be too serious. She had gotten hit by a bullet that passed through her upper arm before striking the man behind her. It had nicked the bone though so it was extremely painful. Brown apologized profusely for hurting her, but Jane told him it was all right. Laughing, she said maybe it was Joe who shot her. Joe insisted that he was a better shot than that. She said it didn’t matter as they had rescued her so that was what was important. Walking over to see how Jane was doing, Adam dropped his handkerchief into Joe’s hand.

“Better bind that up and get her inside where we can see better. We’ll get her fixed up quickly. And Joe, no need for you to carry any of that guilt any more. You saved my life out there. We’re even. Right?”

Looking up at his oldest brother, Joe had to smile at the concern on Adam’s face. “Right!”

It took several hours to clean up the mess. By then, Jane was so exhausted that she fell into sleep but the others found sleep didn’t come so easily after all that had happened. Late in the morning, a group of citizens arrived and wanted to speak to Brown. He stepped outside and came back in later with a funny look.

“They just asked me to be sheriff here.”

“Are you going to do it?” Joe was always curious and impatient.

“I don’t know. I never thought about doing something like that before. I told them I needed some time to think about it.”

Looking at him thoughtfully, Adam smirked. “You know what the answer should be, but you don’t want to say it. Right and wrong are important to you.”

“You can make mistakes, you know. You aren’t always right.”

“Oh, I know that. This has been one of those situations in which I have been wrong a lot, but I don’t think I’m wrong about this one.”

“Damn, you. You’re not. I do want to say yes, but it’s a scary thought.”

“Scarier than riding around picking up strangers and dragging them through the wilderness to who knows where and wondering if you’re going to have enough money for your next meal?”

“Well, no, not scarier than that.” The two men laughed and Brown left to give his answer to the citizens and take an oath of office. He returned by dinner wearing a badge to tell them that he wouldn’t be able to stay. He told them that he had rounds to make, and that the job included a house. The town had confiscated property belonging to Barrow and one of the buildings was designated now as the sheriff’s residence as long as he held the job. He also got one meal a day, his dinner, to keep him in the center of town when it was the most dangerous with drifters and cowhands at the saloon.

Impressed by all of that, Jane gave him a big hug. He asked her when she was going to be back at work at the restaurant because he said people were asking about her. She smiled and said she hoped to be there within a few days. For the next several days, Jane seemed to put some distance between her and Joe. He didn’t know why, but Adam took him aside to talk about it.

“Joe, how serious are you about Jane? I mean, are you serious enough to think about courting her and taking her back to the Ponderosa?”

“Adam, you’re not my father. What’s this all about?”

Sighing deeply, Adam asked Joe if he would please answer the question.

“If you have to know, I don’t know. I thought maybe with a bit more time, maybe I could think about that.”

“Joe, I think Brown is interested in Jane.”

“Brown?”

“I think he isn’t doing anything about it because of you. She may have some interest in him too especially now that he’ll be here permanently. What do you think you ought to do about that?”

Pursing his lips and frowning, Joe had part of an answer ready. “You know a younger Joe would go over there and punch that Brown right in the mouth.” Adam couldn’t help himself and grinned. “But this older Joe knows better. If we were meant to be together, she wouldn’t be looking around, now would she. I’ll let her down easy and send her off to Brown. Does that sound about right to you, ‘pa’?”

True to his word, Joe had a long talk with Jane. The next day, Adam and Joe were packed up and ready to head home. Sheriff Gene Brown came to say goodbye.

“You know, Adam, I am sorry about my role in this, but I’m not sorry about how it turned out for me. I wanted to be rich, and I let that seduce me into going along with Barrow’s scheme. Now here I am rich in ways I never expected. I guess I learned what it meant to be rich. I have to thank you and your family and this community for teaching me what has value in this life.”

“You take good care of Jane and your community and yourself. Keep in touch. Let us know what happens.” With a big grin, Adam mounted up on his horse wincing only a little when that left foot hit the stirrup, but glad to finally be able to move freely and that was in every respect. He and Joe rode out of town and headed home.

*****

Chasing the Wind

Chapter 1

It was a long ride back from Barrow especially because Adam wasn’t fully recovered. That first day, Joe made an excuse to camp early assuming that Adam knew it was a cover for his desire to ease his brother’s discomfort. That Adam accepted the suggestion without comment was all the evidence Joe needed to know that he was correct in his evaluation of Adam’s condition. He tried to hide his weariness, but the slight slouch and the lack of attention at times were tells. Joe had rather enjoyed this feeling of being on an equal par with his oldest brother. They had worked together more as equals than they had at any time in the past. That first night in camp though showed Joe that there were still facets of Adam that he didn’t understand at all.

“Hey, Adam, I don’t understand why you weren’t interested in Jane at all. I mean, she was pretty, and she took such good care of you. She was as nice to you as any woman could be, and she’s smart and clever. I mean, she seems like the kind of woman you would be interested in, but you pushed her toward me and then toward Brown. Why was that?”

“She was nice enough, but there was no spark there.”

“You don’t seem to find a spark with any woman here since you got back. You haven’t seen any woman except to dance with a few at a social or at a party.” Adam didn’t respond, and Joe kept thinking about it. “Hey, didn’t you write once about a woman named Jane in Boston when you were out there. We thought you were getting serious about her, and then you never said anything more about her and a couple of months later you were home.”

“That’s my private life and no concern of yours.” There was a coldness to what Adam said and a hard edge to his voice when he said it. Joe could have been a stranger for lack of concern in Adam’s response.

“I was only trying to make conversation and show some interest in things you had an interest in. You don’t have to bite my head off or act like I did something wrong.”

Torn between anger and embarrassment, Adam mumbled an apology for his words and stalked off into the darkness with a claim that he had business he needed to do. Joe knew that wasn’t true having seen him take care of things only a short time earlier. He guessed correctly that Adam needed time to compose himself and to come to terms with whatever was bothering him although he couldn’t know that it was Adam’s inability to come to terms with what was bothering him that had brought him home again. He had pushed the issues deep inside hoping not to have to face them ever again, but the pain was there whenever he was reminded of them. When Adam returned to camp, he was businesslike in getting done what needed to be done. There was no further reference to that previous conversation, and Joe steered clear of any mention of Jane in Barrow or of the Jane in Boston even if his curiosity was highly aroused by his brother’s reaction. In the days that followed, Joe stuck to that limitation on their conversations, but he had already decided to talk to Hoss about it when they got back home because if Adam had ever discussed this with anyone, it would have been with Hoss. Adam had been through a very trying time in Barrow, and Joe had no desire to make things uncomfortable for him. In fact, he wanted to make things as good as they could be so he was as cheerful as Adam was dour after their slight altercation. It worked. Soon they were back to their previous mellow manner with each other making the trip proceed pleasantly.

When Adam and Joe returned to the Ponderosa, both of them could see the relief in their father’s eyes. He had been worried to be separated from them with Barrow still alive and a threat to them, and then having heard that they had faced and defeated Barrow, he must have worried that they were hurt but had not told him. He was clearly overjoyed to find that both of them were unhurt and that Adam was recovering well from his previous injury. When he heard about Brown and Jane he was delighted perhaps because it meant that all connections to the whole event would be removed from their lives, but Joe noted the slight reaction from Adam at the mention of Jane’s name. He hadn’t noted that in Barrow, but Adam had been in such a sorry state with his wound, the beating he had taken, the fever, and coma, that it would have been nearly impossible to note such a minor reaction separately from the grimaces and other reactions he had to pain and discomfort in general. Joe noted the momentary haunted look that Adam got when their father proposed a toast to the heroic Jane and all that she had done for Adam even with the behavior that had shocked him but pulled Adam from his coma. In the stable later as Joe and Hoss did the evening chores, Hoss questioned Joe about the earlier interactions.

“Joe, I saw you watching Adam a lot especially when he wasn’t paying attention to you watching. Something happen out there on the trail I ought to know about? He’s really all right, ain’t he?”

“Well, he is and he isn’t. I mean, he’s fine as far as what happened back in Barrow. He’s healing up like new, but there’s something going on in his head that I can’t figure out. I was wondering if he talked to you about it. Hoss, whenever you say Jane, he gets a funny look.”

“You mean like he’s embarrassed about what she done to wake him up back there in Barrow? It was a right clever thing she done too. He shouldn’t feel bad about that. It mighta saved his life.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s saying the name Jane like that Jane he knew in Boston. You know, the one he wrote about and then a few months later, he’s home and he won’t talk about why he’s home only that he didn’t find what he was looking for. He always keeps things close to the vest so when he mentioned her name in his letter, I figured they were as good as getting married. Next thing he’s home and never mentions her ever. Don’t you find that odd?”

“You know, now that you say it all like that, it does. He ain’t never talked to me about his time in Boston. I thought he would, but it’s like he closed the door and locked it. He ain’t going back there even for the memories.”

“It’s more like he dug a grave and buried all of it. Hoss, I think something bad happened, and he didn’t tell us. It’s haunting him, and I think it’s why he doesn’t like women any more.”

“Oh, c’mon now, Adam still likes women. He dances with a passel of women at every dance we go to and every party we have.”

“Does he ever walk with any one of them out into the moonlight?”

“Well no, but he was telling me in Barrow that he’s got his eye on some gal in Virginia City and he was gonna do something about that when he got back.”

“Hmm, that would be the test of what I’m thinking. Hoss, I could be all wrong, but I think this Jane in Boston broke his heart somehow and he can’t get over it. If he does start showing some interest in this woman in town, whoever she is, then I’m wrong, but if it’s the same old thing, then you have to admit that maybe I’m right on this.”

“We’ve got a trip to town coming up on Saturday. We’re getting supplies but Pa said we oughta all spend the day, and then there’s a big social at night. I think you’ll see that Adam is looking around plenty at the eligible ladies.”

The two left the conversation end there, and in the morning, Ben asked at breakfast if Joe and Adam thought it would be a good idea to have a small drive to replace the larger one they couldn’t have because of spending so much time away because of Barrow. He and Hoss had worked out a possible route and only needed to hammer out a few more details if the other two thought it was a good idea.

“Sounds good to me. By the time we get them rounded up and ready to go, I’ll be ready too. Who will be the trail boss?”

There were a few nervous looks exchanged then by Hoss, Ben and Joe before Ben spoke.

“Adam, I thought you could stay here and take care of the ranch business while I went with Hoss and Joe. You need to fully recover before you head out on a cattle drive.”

“Pa, I rode back here from Barrow. Granted, Joe took it easy on me with the pace, but a cattle drive doesn’t exactly move at a fast pace either. I’ll be fine. Now, who will boss the drive?”

Joe looked tense and Hoss looked worried. Ben decided that the only way to do this was to say it straight out and see what happened. “You’ve been gone a long time, and even though this is a small drive, it’s the first since you’ve been back. Our winter losses were too great to have a spring drive. Joe has been bossing the drives so he’ll do this one.”‘

There was a pause while Adam thought about that. He nodded. “I guess I expected that Hoss would have bossed the drives, but I guess Joe is cut out more for the boss job. That makes sense. Hoss, what do you do?”

“I’ve been the ramrod, but ifn you’d like that job like you did when you did drives when you was here and Pa was trail boss, I’d be mighty happy to give it up. It ain’t never anything I’ve liked to do.”

“If you would help me with that job, I’d be happy to do it. I don’t know the men as well as you do and I don’t know the route like you do either after being gone for years. Working together would make more sense, don’t you think?”

“I like that, Adam. We make a good team.”

With the apparent conflicts settled for the time being at least, the family discussed their plans for the following week with most of the attention by Hoss and Joe on the trip to town. On Saturday, they were excited to be together for that and dressed well for the day knowing that at night, there would be a dance. Adam wore his more ordinary clothes surprising all of them especially his father.

“Did you remember that there’s a dance tonight?”

“I did. I don’t plan on attending it.”

Surprised and almost shocked by that answer, Ben looked to Hoss and Joe who shrugged. Turning back to Adam, Ben asked in a softer tone if there was a specific reason.

“Nothing specific, no, I have no interest. That’s all. I thought I would ride home and have some quiet time tonight. There won’t be any of that once the drive starts on Monday.”

“Well, you’re thirty-nine years old so I guess you know what you want. If you change your mind, perhaps you would like to bring a change of clothing with you.”

“I won’t change my mind.”

Once Adam rode out of town that night, Hoss and Joe discussed their theory with their father. They discovered that he too had concerns about Adam’s behavior and demeanor since he had arrived home and the change in his attitude toward his future.

“Adam, wasn’t happy or fulfilled doing ranch work, and I understood that even if the two of you didn’t. He needed more of a challenge in his life. More than anything, he wanted to be able to create things, to use his mind too. He wanted to be able to dream and to follow those dreams, but now that’s all different. There are no dreams. Not only does he seem willing to work on the ranch, he put up no fuss to taking orders from Joe on the drive. He chafed under my orders in the past yet he will accept his youngest brother as trail boss without complaint. Didn’t that surprise you?” Seeing Joe about to offer some objections, Ben was quick to explain. “I know it’s logical and sensible, but your oldest brother likes to be in charge. Don’t you remember always complaining about him being bossy. Well, it comes to him naturally. He spent years being in charge of you two. I gave him that job and it was a difficult one for him to give up after all those years of feeling responsible. Now it seems, that sense of responsibility is gone. He’s a different man in so many respects. I’d like to meet this Jane and find out what happened to my son in Boston to send this changed man home in his place.”

“He’s still a lot like the old Adam, Pa, but it’s like some of the spark in him done up and got put out especially when it come to women. Now that gal in Barrow shoulda been the type to get his blood a boiling seeing as what she done for him and all and how smart she was, but he weren’t interested at all. Fact is, he pushed her away, first toward Joe, and then toward Brown. For a bit, I thought she was more interested in him, but a woman ain’t gonna stay interested long in a man turns his back on her like that.”

“Yes, that’s what I mean, Hoss. In ways like that, he shows he isn’t the same any more. Something happened to make him change his what he values, what he thinks is important. I don’t know though if he’s changed how he thinks about things and what he wants to do, or if he’s here hiding away from what hurt him and trying to make sense of it. He won’t ever talk about his life in Boston.”

“Pa, Hoss and I noticed that too. You can’t bring up stuff, even things he wrote in his letters, without him changing the subject.”

“I’m going to depend on you two to watch over him on the drive. What happened in Barrow seems to have put him even more on edge than he was.” With that, Ben led his younger sons into the dance hoping that one of them would finally find a gal to his liking enough to marry although his thoughts strayed to his oldest all night.

As the three had walked in, a tall man dressed in black rode out from an alleyway down the street. He had seen his father and two brothers deep in conversation as soon as he rode away. Circling around, he had come to the alley to see them talk for quite a while. He guessed he was the subject of their discussion. Since Barrow, he knew that he had let too much of his inner torment out. His imperfect façade had been barely sufficient until then for he understood that the questions about Boston, about his lack of interest in dating anyone, and about his plans for the future were efforts to discover why he had returned home and why he was different than when he left. He knew then that he needed to recommit himself to a much better job of playing the role of Adam Cartwright or at least the Adam who had left years before and not the one who came home with a broken heart and his faith and trust in others shattered.

Chapter 2

The drive went very well with Adam grousing about Joe being in charge and acting the role with which his brothers were more familiar. He did his job efficiently, impressed the men with his skills, and joked in camp singing songs too when there was the opportunity for that. Hoss and Joe gleefully told their father all about it on their return even about the small scuffle that Joe and Adam had because of a disagreement as to the route the herd should take through an area that was low on water. Although Ben wasn’t happy to learn about the scuffle, he was pleased to see a more normal reaction from his son. To him, the report from Hoss and Joe meant that perhaps things were improving. At the dining table, Adam even talked a little about his job in Boston as if it was the most natural thing to do. As dinner was nearly done, there was a knock on the door. Joe and Hoss were already finished with the dessert that Hop Sing had served and headed to the checkers board so they went to see who had arrived at so late an hour. Hoss stepped back inside to tell Adam who had arrived. Hoss was smiling, but Adam wasn’t when he heard who had arrived.

“It’s your friend from Boston. That Jane gal you wrote to us about once. She’s here. She’s got her luggage so I’m guessin’ she expects to stay on here at least tonight.”

Noting how Adam’s expression froze into neutrality, Ben followed his oldest son outside to meet this mystery woman from Boston who seemed to perhaps be the key to the mystery of his son’s transformation. Ben wasn’t surprised to find an attractive young woman with dark hair, green eyes, and a ready smile. It was the bold demeanor too that he thought Adam would have chosen in a woman. She looked Ben in the eye when he offered his hand, smiled, and greeted him with clear interest in meeting Adam’s father. She looked all around obviously curious about Adam’s home and perhaps about everything having to do with Adam. Ben got the distinct impression that Jane was far more than a friend. However Adam wasn’t particularly friendly in greeting her.

“Hello, Jane. This is a surprise. Where do you plan to stay?”

“I was hoping to stay here. If you object, I could go back to town tonight.”

Quickly intervening, Ben said it was much too late to have her drive back to town. “You are most welcome to stay here tonight. Adam has been remodeling one of the bedrooms upstairs but the guest bedroom downstairs is available for your use. Joe, why don’t you take her things inside? Hoss, can you take care of her carriage? Please, Jane, come inside.” Ben offered his arm and escorted Jane inside with Adam walking stiffly behind them.

When Hoss and Joe joined them, Jane regaled them with tales of her trip west and the people with whom she had traveled and the sights she had seen. She was gifted as a storyteller which was another trait that the family knew Adam would appreciate. If she could sing and liked Shakespeare, they guessed she would be perfect. It was a mystery why there was such a frigid atmosphere then between the two of them. Sensing that Adam and Jane needed to talk, Ben excused himself to retire early and with his eyes did his best to get Hoss and Joe to do the same. It took a moment but they both caught on leaving Adam and Jane in the great room by the fireplace with Adam in the blue chair and Jane on the settee next to him.

“Jane, what are you doing here? Why now? Why come all this way? Surely you don’t hate me so much that you’ve come to torture me.”

“Adam, I don’t hate you. I love you. I made a mistake, a very big mistake. In Boston, I thought I could pressure you into doing what I wanted.”

“You mean what your father wanted.”

“Well, yes, what my father wanted, but I wanted that too. I wanted the big house, and the influence, and everyone in the city looking up to me and wishing they were me. I wanted to be proud of my husband.”

“No you wanted to be proud of a wealthy husband because he had more money than anyone else, but you didn’t care how he got it. Jane, there is no possible way for me to have lived that way. I thought you knew that about me, but obviously you didn’t or thought you could change me or mold me into something that you wanted.”

“You see, that’s what I understand now. It’s you I wanted all along and didn’t know. You must feel the same way. Isn’t that why you never filed the divorce papers? You’ve had nearly a year and nothing has been filed.”

“If you wanted the divorce, you could have filed them. You have grounds. I deserted you so you don’t have to wait for me to file papers any more. You can file them yourself.”

Turning away from Adam, Jane stood and stared into an empty room. She said nothing. Adam waited knowing how dramatic she liked to be but when she was still silent after a couple of minutes, he stood and stepped closer to her reaching out to turn her toward him. She resisted his efforts to turn her until he used both arms and pulled her around to face him. He was shocked to find her crying. She closed her eyes and tried to act as if she wasn’t, but the tear stained cheeks gave her away. Taking his handkerchief from his pocket, Adam gently wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“If I didn’t know what an accomplished actress you were, I might think those were real.” Turning her head from him, Jane grimaced and tried to pull away from his grasp. Adam wasn’t as sure of himself then wondering if she was actually crying. “I’m sorry. After what happened between us, I guess I’m overly suspicious.”

“You were always suspicious. You questioned everything. You were moody and angry often, and it was hard to please you.”

“It sounds as if nothing has changed. So why are you here?”

Softly but with intensity, Jane said only a few simple words that shook Adam immensely. “Because I have a proposition for you.” Immediately, Adam stiffened as he worried about what that could mean. “Spend the night with me, one night, and then tell me you never want to be with me again. If you can do that, then I’ll go back to Boston and file the papers and say you deserted me and that there is no hope that we can be reconciled.”

“Jane, do you think a romp in bed is going to make me go back to Boston?”

“Maybe not, but I need to know if it is enough to make you come back to me. I need to know if we have a future because since you left, I feel as if my life is in limbo. I can’t even think about another man because I compare any man I see to you. I know we argued and had difficulties, but we had great times together too even if our time together was so short. We’re passionate people regardless of what others may think. Some believe we each have a heart of ice, but not one of them knows we have hearts that burn hotter than any others and we need that iron will to hold ourselves in check. You were the only man I ever met who could match me, who could challenge me, who ever had a chance to tame me. There were times with you that I felt a peace and calm I never knew before. I want that again if I can find it. If you can find it within yourself to take a chance on us for one night to see if it’s still there, then I had to try, I had to know.”

“Even if we did find that passion again, a relationship for the two of us would be difficult. We don’t see the world the same way.”

“We could fight that out the way we fight about everything else.”

“I don’t want to fight with you.”

“What do you want to do?”

For so many months, Adam had tried to forget her, but her images had invaded his dreams and memories of her came unbidden to his thoughts during each day. Little things reminded him of her, and the time in Barrow staying with Jane especially when that Jane had used her body to coax him from his coma had made him think for a moment that his wife had returned to him. More than anything that had shaken his core and made him question his decision to abandon her. Now she was here, and all that effort to forget her was for naught. Her scent reminded him of that first time they had met on the train from New York to Boston sitting beside each other in uncomfortable silence until he had dared to address her only to get a stinging retort for his audacity. He had laughed and it had broken through her reserve. He remembered the first time she had yielded to his kiss and opened herself to his embrace. Most of all at that moment, he remembered their wedding and the first night they had lain together. Now she was offering another such night, and his mind argued against it, but his heart and soul begged him to agree to her proposal.

As Jane watched him, she saw the telltale signs that his resolve was weakening. She pressed her advantage by reaching out a hand and touching his chest. She wasn’t too bold or too suggestive. She knew the touch would be enough if he had been suffering the same kind of loneliness she had suffered. She felt as much as heard the small intake of breath when her hand came in contact with him for surely he felt the warmth of her hand through the fine fabric of his shirt. He raised his hand and she held her breath as she waited to see if he would sweep her hand away from him or hold it to him. He placed his hand over hers.

“There’s a huge gulf between us, and your father is a storm bearing down on us as well. Does he know you’ve come here?”

At that moment, Jane had to call upon her acting talents. “He didn’t want me to come.” She told part of the truth because she wasn’t sure any more what the truth was or how much of the truth Adam would accept. In Boston, she had been reasonably sure. On the way west, she had many doubts assail her as she thought about things because she had so much time to think. Then when she arrived in Virginia City, met a few of Adam’s friends and heard them talk about him, and took the ride to the ranch, her resolve was already faltering. When she met his brothers and then saw him walk out of that house, her insides had been in turmoil and nothing since had helped her settle them down. She didn’t know what she was doing any longer except that she was driven now to be with him. More than anything else, she wanted him to hold her, to kiss her, and to make love with her. Somehow, she had a crazy idea that things would work out if only that would happen even if that was her father’s plan to cause an entirely different result eventually. In her mind, she knew how ridiculous her idea was and how her father would laugh if only he knew how she was thinking, but her heart and soul wanted to be with Adam for this night no matter what she thought of herself in the morning.

“I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.”

“You think this is foolish. You want to be the wise man and do the right thing. But I know that verse too. And I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and it was the same as madness and folly, for I learned that it, too, is a chasing after the wind. We can quote scripture and philosophers and pursue logic and none of it is likely to help us here.”

“Actually, I believe I was quoting scripture, and you were paraphrasing it.”

“And some things never change.”

“I can quote scripture on that too.”

“I don’t need to hear any more of Ecclesiastes tonight.”

“Yes, I think you’ve made it clear what you want tonight.” Adam’s voice had gotten lower and he moved closer to Jane touching her cheek and tilting her head back. “What will you do if I go to bed with you and have my way with you, and it makes no difference in what I want to do?”

“I’m afraid that I’ll have to live with the torment, but I’ll feel that part of me has died and will never live again.”

Leaning down, Adam pressed his lips against Jane’s as her arms came up to wrap around his waist. He touched her cheek gently cupping her face and tilting it back to kiss her more deeply and passionately wrapping his other arm around her and pulling her close to him. They kissed like that for several minutes losing themselves in that moment and letting all the rest drift away. Bending slightly, Adam slid his arm behind her knees and picked her up in his arms carrying her to the guest room. She wrapped her arms around him holding him close, inhaling his scent, and reveling in the warmth of having him so close.

Chapter 3

Undressing his wife had been one of Adam’s favorite activities in his short marriage. He much preferred it to finding her already in a gown or undressed for bed. So it was exactly the way he enjoyed lovemaking to begin by unbuttoning her dress and slipping his hands inside and pushing the dress from her shoulders helping it slide to the floor. His hands touched her bare flesh under her chemise then as he told her to raise her arms and he removed that too. Item by item, her clothing was removed with soft touches and caresses as he kissed her lips and neck and shoulders until she was resting on the bed naked. Adam removed his clothing quickly and joined her there pressing his body lengthwise along hers wrapping his arms around her as he kissed her. She kissed him as passionately and their lovemaking was fiery and fast after having been apart for so long with both dreaming of the other during that time. Resting in each other’s arms afterwards, neither said anything but both softly touched the other and began kissing and becoming more intimate in the caressing until they made love a second time savoring the sensations and doing more to please the other and taking pleasure from that as much as from the physical release. Emotionally and physically exhausted then, both fell asleep until Jane was awakened by the most wonderful sensations as the first light of dawn had begun to brighten the room. Adam was lying behind her spoon fashion by then and was moving his hand in a most exquisite way to wake her. Languorously, they made love again taking their time moving as slowly with each other as they had furiously rolled together the first time. When they finished, they kissed and held each other close.

“Now what, Adam?”

“I’m not sure. This is wonderful. This has always been wonderful. We never have had a problem in bed and it was a great way to make up after our disagreements, but what’s wrong may be too great to resolve this way.”

“But every morning could be this way.”

“It could be but at what price?”

“There are times when I wish I had never met you. I was so confident that I had life by the leash and that I was in control of where I was going. Not many women ever have that feeling.”

“It wasn’t real though.”

“No, it wasn’t. My father was indulging me and was ready to marry me off for business advantage as soon as he could make the best deal. Then you came along and ruined his whole plan.”

“I didn’t know I was ruining his plan.”

“To be fair, neither did I until you asked me to marry you. Then he made me an offer I could not refuse. I could marry you, but I had to get you to work with him. Somehow, I should have known what he meant by that.”

“That he was planning a colossal fraud and that he wanted me to be the one who would take the fall for it and go to prison freeing you of me at the same time as providing him with an even greater fortune?”

“It sounds so cold when you say it that way, and did he know it was a fraud?”

“Jane, it was cold. It was as ruthless and cold as a man could be. He had to know. Nothing added up from the beginning. If I had not suspected my new partners of collusion and gone to the authorities immediately, I would be in prison in Massachusetts right now. Instead, I lost just about everything and had to fear for my life. Then you wouldn’t come with me. You took your father’s side that he would have somehow rescued me from that plot. You know better now, I assume?”

“I do, I guess.”

Pushing away from Jane and sitting up in the bed, Adam looked down at her. “I can’t believe you! I told you that the only way we could ever be together was for you to trust me. Now you tell me that you’re not sure that your father was plotting against me?”

“Adam, he’s my father. I have to trust him too. It doesn’t have to mean that there can’t be trust between us, love between us.”

Sliding from the bed, Adam began to dress. “I said he was a liar and a fraud. He’s a crook and a bully. You cannot trust us both. You need to make a choice. Until you do, there is no us. There can’t be. You can freshen up and dress. Breakfast will be on the table soon. I’ll ride to town with you after breakfast and see to some accommodation for you until you want to leave.”

“Adam, what about the divorce?”

Pausing at the door before opening it and without looking back, Adam spoke very softly. “That’s your decision. You still have the same grounds in Massachusetts. I did desert you, and my reputation there is sullied enough that any court will likely grant you that divorce as soon as you ask for it.” Adam pulled open the door and stepped out pulling it closed behind him.

Whispering at the closed door, Jane’s eyes brimmed with tears. “I don’t want a divorce. I want you. I love you, you damned impossible man.”

Outside the bedroom, Adam met the angry glare of his father who sat at the dining room table and the slightly bemused expression of Hoss who waited for him to address his father. There wasn’t much for Adam to say except the truth, but that was likely to stir up a whole hornets’ nest of questions that he didn’t want to answer so he said nothing about being married to Jane.

“I’ll get the carriage ready, and I’ll ride to town with her after breakfast.”

Joe, who had been coming down the stairs when Adam exited the guest room, arrived at the table as Adam left the house. “Well, that answers one question. He’s still interested in women.”

“Joseph!”

Hop Sing waited to serve breakfast, but Ben told him to bring it out when it was clear that Adam wasn’t returning and that Jane wasn’t coming out. After breakfast, Adam came back in the house and without saying anything, he entered the guest bedroom after knocking only once. A short time later, he carried Jane’s valises and escorted her out of the house to the carriage. Not knowing the circumstances, Ben avoided the two of them and counseled Joe and Hoss to do the same. He did expect Adam to give a full accounting later, but at that moment, he was too angry with his oldest son to say much of anything to him.

On the way to town and only a few miles from the ranch house, Adam noted that the carriage was not following a straight path. He rode up beside the carriage and told Jane to pull up. She did but refused to look at him. He dismounted and climbed into the carriage beside her, reached over, and gently touched her chin to turn her face to him because he knew by then that she was crying.

“I am sorry.”

“But being sorry doesn’t help. Being sorry doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t make anything better than it was before.”

“Jane, I don’t know what you want from me.”

“I want a chance. After last night, I want a chance.”

It was Adam’s turn to look away as he stared down the road toward Virginia City. He took a deep breath and blew it out forcefully. “Then I need to ask you an important question. Did your father send you out here?” Turning back to Jane, he waited to see her response physically as well as to hear what she said. He knew that any future they had rested on what she said next and how honest she was.

Jane knew it too. This was a crossroads but it was one of those that once crossed could never be retraced. She was forever going to lose her relationship with her father or with Adam, but if she chose Adam, it was still in doubt. She could lose both of them by being honest. Adam saw the conflict within her by how she struggled to answer.

“I guess that’s answer enough. You can’t tell me the truth.”

“I can, but you don’t understand the price you’re asking me to pay.”

“Then tell me.”

“Yes, my father sent me out here to reconcile with you. He wants me to be with you so he can exact a final revenge on you. He was going to wait until we were back together and then he was going to stage a kidnapping and demand an exorbitant amount of money from you. He meant to ruin you financially.”

“And where would you be?”

“I would be traveling safely back to Boston.”

“And I would be dead. Your father is even more vindictive than I thought.”

“No, he only wanted to take your wealth away from you. He said you would mortgage the Ponderosa to get me back because you hate it when someone takes something from you that belongs to you and you would do whatever it took to get it back.”

“Jane, I never treated you like I owned you.”

“No, but I did think you would pay a fortune to save me from kidnappers.”

“Yes, but who is it that acts like he owns you and can use you as a pawn?” Jane said nothing for she knew whom he meant. “Do you know the penalty for kidnapping?”

“Of course, but I wouldn’t really be kidnapped.”

“But I wouldn’t know that, and if I delivered the money and didn’t get you free from them, do you think I’d rest before I found you?” That sobered Jane because she had never thought about the aftermath other than she and her father getting revenge on Adam. “The men who got the money from me would know all of that. They would never let me live. Anyone who knows me would know that I wouldn’t stop unless I was dead. Your father would know that. His revenge would be complete then.”

“Adam, I can’t believe that. I can’t think of my father as a murderer.”

Ignoring that comment for the moment, Adam had another question. “When did you decide not to follow through on the plan?”

“I started to get doubts about it as I traveled here by myself. Without my father constantly talking about how you humiliated me and betrayed me and betrayed him as well, it was easier to think about things. When I got to Virginia City and met your friend Roy Coffee and a couple of other people and heard them talk about you, I started be ashamed of thinking only of the bad things and began to think more of all your wonderful qualities. Meeting your family and being with you again, I knew that I had let the poison of my father’s anger taint every thought about you that I had. Did you know that I was going to follow you when you left?” Adam was shocked by that information. “I guessed you would be surprised considering our last conversation, but I do love you and I knew how you were hurting. I wanted to be with you, but father sent the coachman away and had me get in his carriage and come to his house.”

The two sat silently for a time until Jane touched Adam on the arm. “Now what?”

“I think we need time to think about things and time to talk about things.”

“So you will give me a chance?”

“I’ll get you a room in town. We’ll see what happens. I won’t make any promises. At this point, I don’t know what I’m feeling or what to think. But yes, I’ll give you a chance. I’ll give us a chance. There are still some nearly insurmountable difficulties, but as you said, we’re fighters. We don’t back down from a challenge.”

Leaning down, Adam kissed Jane lightly on the cheek. “I do love you. If love truly conquered all, then this would be easy. Now, let’s head to town and get you that room. I’ll be back to see you tomorrow evening if that’s all right. Could we have an early dinner?”

“Yes, I would like that.” Jane knew she would have a lot of time to worry and think before that time, but also knew that Adam needed the time. She planned to do a bit of praying as well. It couldn’t hurt.

On the Ponderosa, Ben waited for Adam at lunch but was disappointed. Then Hoss and Joe arrived home for dinner and Adam wasn’t with them. At the dining table, Ben gruffly told Hop Sing to serve the food as his oldest son apparently had forgotten all about the ranch and his manners as well. Hoss looked over at Joe who cringed and shifted his eyes to indicate that Hoss ought to do the talking. With a sigh, Hoss pursed his lips and nodded. Ben knew then that there was more he didn’t know.

“Well, out with it. There’s no point in holding back now.”

“Now, you see, Pa, Adam was on the ranch working today. He wasn’t exactly in a talking mood though. He skipped lunch, and he told us he wasn’t hungry when we said we was heading in for dinner. Then he said something that stopped us in our tracks, but we didn’t get no more from him. He said he would be back here to tell us all about his wife when he had sorted more of it out for himself.”

“Wife?”

“That’s what he said, Pa. Just like Hoss said it. We were kind of afraid to bring it up not knowing if you knew or not.”

“Of course, I didn’t know. So Jane is his wife or is there another woman he married without telling any of us?”

“Dadburnit, Pa, that’s all he said. He looked pretty, well, you know, all busted up inside about it. We didn’t want to push too hard. I ain’t seen him that upset in a long time. I asked if maybe I should stay and set with him a while, and he asked me not to. Said this was one of them times he wanted to be alone to think on things a bit.”

Not sure what to think, Ben found he didn’t have much of an appetite either. Apparently neither did Hoss or Joe. Hop Sing fussed at them but did say he would put some food aside for Adam who apparently had not eaten all day. As they stood to retire to read or do something quiet for the evening, Joe had one comment.

“We’re getting closer to knowing what happened to him in Boston.”

Ben only shook his head and headed to his chair. After filling his pipe and lighting it, he sat down with a newspaper but Hoss and Joe noted that neither got any attention. About an hour later, they all heard a horse come in and knew it had to be Adam. Hoss jumped up wanting to be the one to go to Adam, but Ben stood and put a hand on his middle son’s arm.

“I want to talk with him. Don’t worry. I’m still his father and I care very much how he feels.” With that, Ben walked out to the stable.

Adam knew that it was going to be his father or Hoss and had hoped it would be Hoss but the lighter step told him otherwise. “Hi, Pa. I know you have a lot of questions, and I know that I should have told you a lot of things, but I never expected Jane to show up here.”

“You could have told us yesterday.”

“I didn’t know what she wanted.”

“And now?”

“I know what she wants. I don’t know if that’s what I want. It’s been a hard day.”

“It may help to say it all out loud. I’ll help you with Sport, and then you can have some dinner. Hop Sing held a plate for you.”

Father and son worked silently, and then proceeded to the house. Adam took the plate from Hop Sing and ate without tasting anything. It was more a way to get more time than anything else. When he finished, he knew without looking that his family was looking at him and waiting. He turned to see those six eyes looking at him, sighed, and moved to the familiar blue chair where he told the short version of what had happened in Boston.

Chapter 4

“It wasn’t all bad. In fact, I wrote to you and told you about the firm where I worked. It was doing some projects that made me proud. I had worked my way up in the firm in the year I had been there. The travel in Europe and the study in France helped immensely. I had ideas and knowledge to apply that no one else had. After only nine months, they sent me to New York to make a proposal to a client there. On the way back on the train, I was seated next to a dark-haired lady, very pretty and haughty. I dared to try to break through the icy exterior by greeting her. She was, shall we say, aristocratic in her response to me.”

“Huh?” Hoss wasn’t at all sure what that meant.

So Joe helped out. “She was bitchy.”

“Joseph!”

“It’s all right, Pa. She was, and she’ll admit it too if you ask her. It was her way of fending off unwanted contact. I laughed though at what she said. She was intrigued and couldn’t help herself. She asked my why I laughed. We started talking, and by the time we reached Boston, we had agreed to meet for lunch the following day. At first we were friends and went to the theatre and such together. As it became more serious, I wrote to you and mentioned her. I had every intention of telling you about her more, but then she was with child, we married quickly, but she lost the child. It all happened in the space of a few months. Within that same few months, I found that her father had maneuvered to put me in a position to take the blame for a huge corruption scheme. Apparently he had agreed to let me marry his daughter only because he thought he could use me. As soon as I realized what was going on, I went to the authorities. It was only that action that kept me out of prison. Even then there were those who wondered if somehow I had been involved and backed out to save my neck. My reputation was shot, but at least I had my freedom. I confronted him, and he denied it of course. He said I shouldn’t have gone to the authorities because if I was in any kind of trouble, he had friends who could have taken care of it for me. I knew what he meant. He had denied involvement but that told me that he was involved as deeply as he could be. I told Jane I was leaving because there was nothing there for me any more, but she wouldn’t believe me about her father. She said she wouldn’t leave with me, and that if I left, she would divorce me or I could divorce her because the marriage was over. Where there is no trust, there is no love or so I thought, but I couldn’t forget her.”

“You didn’t divorce her, and are we to assume she never divorced you?”

Adam nodded to his father’s question. “I thought she would have by now. When she told me she had not, I was shocked. Then she said she wanted another chance. She said she wanted to be with me to convince me we could be together as husband and wife. But she admitted today that she came out here as part of her father’s scheme to ruin me. He wants his revenge. She was to reconcile with me, and then he was going to stage a kidnapping, demand an exorbitant amount of money for her return, but she would be happily on her way back to Boston while I scrambled to come up with the money and deliver it. I told her he meant to take the money and to have me killed. She doesn’t believe that. Once more, she doubts my evaluation of her father’s actions.”

Sitting forward in his red leather chair, Ben wanted to reach out to Adam but could only ask questions. “But instead of carrying out the scheme, she told you. Why?”

“She’s not sure what she wants, and frankly neither am I. She’s going to stay in Virginia City while we work that out. Meanwhile, she’ll have to wire her father and tell him she’s told me the story. He’ll be furious. I don’t know what he’ll do.”

“Dadburnit, Adam, you got yourself in quite a pickle.”

“I know. I’ve been thinking about it all day. I don’t know whether to trust her or not. Right now, I want to trust her, but I’ve been fooled before and she acts well and she loves her father very much. I don’t know if I can be sure that she turned her back on her father to choose me.”

“If she did, there’s no greater love, son.”

“And if she didn’t, there is no greater way to betray me, to destroy me. I have to be careful. I wish I didn’t. I’m having dinner with her in town tomorrow.”

“Adam, under the circumstances, you shouldn’t go anywhere alone. She shouldn’t be alone either once her father finds out what she’s done if it is what it appears to be. She may not be safe in town.”

“Pa, what would you have me do? I can’t have her here as my wife until I’m sure that’s our future.”

And Ben knew without asking that Adam was worried that his wife could seduce him into a decision that he would regret. Although he didn’t want Adam to have to divorce his wife, he didn’t want him to have to live in a marriage in which he had been manipulated and tricked either. He knew that Adam needed space between him and Jane. Ben had noticed the powerful attraction Jane had. When she walked through the room the night before, all of them had watched her. Luckily, Hoss understood as well. He made a suggestion that helped resolve the dilemma.

“Adam, you and me could move on over to Joe’s cottage ifn he was of a mind to let us borrow it for a bit. Jane could stay here. She’d be safe here protected by Pa and Joe and the hands. You’d have me so you wouldn’t be alone neither. Both of us get up early in the morning so we could ride on over here for breakfast. It could work out all right for a bit.”

“It figures you would mostly be worried about not missing out on Hop Sing’s cooking.”

“Well, I mean to help you out. I didn’t think I had to sacrifice myself or nothing like that.” Hoss not only knew how to lighten his brother’s burden. He knew how to reduce the tension in the room as well.

Looking to his father and Joe for their opinions, Adam got their approval for the temporary plan for housing. “I’ll go in a bit early for dinner tomorrow then, and I’ll ask her if she’ll agree to that. I don’t know what she’ll say about living on a ranch. All I can do is make the proposal.”

“Son, don’t you think that her reaction to what you propose will tell you as much about her intentions and her feelings for you as anything she has told you so far?”

“You’re probably right about that, Pa. If she has chosen me over her father, she has to know that she will be living here at least some of the time.”

With that, the four men had little left to say. Adam was exhausted and headed up to bed although sleep came slowly and he slept fitfully and woke early. When he went downstairs in the morning, he was only at the table for a few minutes having coffee before his father joined him and then Hoss was there a short time later. Hoss told him that they ought to work together and then go to town together.

“Hoss, it’s not likely that her father could have anything arranged so quickly. He’s a long way away from here.”

“Well, ya see, I was thinking about that, and I think maybe he ain’t. He was gonna arrange a kidnapping when you two got yourselves back together again. Now ifn Jane was good at that, you two could be practically back together already. You might be except she decided to be honest about some stuff. Ifn she told the story her father wanted her to tell, you’d be well on your way to keeping house with her, and you know it too. I’m thinking he ain’t too far off. So, like I said, I’ll be working with you today, and I’ll ride to town with you too. Cain’t hurt to have a little extra bit of watching out.”

In town, Jane could have used a little bit of that. She was awakened that morning by two men in her room as one put a hand over her mouth and told her not to scream. Once she agreed not to scream, he took his hand away slowly leery of her promise.

“We’re working for your father, and I’m guessing he ain’t gonna be happy at all to find you here instead of out on the Ponderosa. You’re supposed to be bedding that Cartwright so we can go ahead with the next part of the plan.”

“You have no right to speak so crudely to me.”

“We got every right in the world, missy. We got all the power here, and you got none. What do you think would happen if them Cartwrights find out you’re about to swindle them out of all their money? We ain’t done nothing yet, but you already started playing the game.” He saw the look then and got suspicious. “You did do what you was told to do, didn’t you? If you didn’t, I’d like as not strangle you right now.”

“I went out there and did my best, but he’s suspicious and wants to take it slowly. We’re having dinner together this evening.” Jane hoped her acting was good enough. Adam said she was good at it, and she guessed her safety depended on it at this moment. She had a question for them though. “After you get the money from Adam, what will happen to him?”

“What do you care what happens to him after what he done to you?”

“Well, he is my husband. I don’t want to see anything terrible happen.”

“Ah, all right, we’ll make sure it ain’t terrible. Right, Mason, we can promise her nothing ‘terrible’ will happen.”

“Right, Davis, nothing ‘terrible’ will happen.”

“Now, you do your best with him at dinner. We want to see you out there on the Ponderosa real soon. We got a plan for snatching you right from under their noses, but you need to be there so we can do it and leave the note. That’s the only way it’s gonna look like a real kidnapping. Now you play your part right and you’ll come out of this just fine. This is gonna be a big payday for us, and we don’t want nobody messing it up for us.”

“Fine. Now will you please leave.”

Once the two men were gone, Jane locked the door, and the windows that she had failed to lock the night before which clearly had been a mistake. She was shaking and didn’t know what to do. It was obvious that the men had not heard from her father since she had sent off the telegrams when Adam had brought her to town, but that wouldn’t last. She hurriedly dressed and packed her bags but didn’t know where she could go to be safe. She was mad at the two men for invading her room, mad at her father for involving her in this scheme of his, and mad at Adam for not protecting her. That last part may not have been fair because she was the one who had gotten herself in trouble, but she was feeling scared and sorry for herself so she didn’t care at that point. She stayed in her room afraid to leave and afraid to stay hoping that Adam might come early and knowing he probably wouldn’t. The man was known for keeping his word and his appointments. When there was a knock on her door at about one, she hoped it might be Adam but whoever it was said nothing but slipped a paper under her door. She waited until she was sure whoever had done that must have retreated down the hall and cautiously approached the door to pick it up. It was an answer to the telegram she had sent.

Do nothing. Stop. Be there on the morrow. Stop. New plan. Stop. F.

Shocked, she realized that her father had to be closer than Boston. In fact, he had to be very close to be able to be there by the next day. Everything was happening so fast and she was not in control of anything. It was a horrible feeling for her. She sat again and wondered if she was doing the right thing. Her father had not yet rejected her outright so there was a chance they could be reconciled, but then she would lose Adam forever, and she could not bear that thought. In her mind, she began a tally of the pluses and minuses of either path. Finally she shut down that train of thought and realized that there was one thing that trumped all the others. Her life might be shorter with that choice, but she would be happier if it worked out. When there was a knock on her door at three, she was already dressed for dinner and still as scared as she had been earlier. She waited and thought perhaps that her father had sent those two men back to make sure she didn’t do anything more as he had ordered in the telegram. She nearly cried when she heard Adam’s voice call her name as he stood outside her door wondering if she was there. She rushed to the door, unlocked it, and nearly collapsed into his arms. Down the hall, two men were coming from the stairs and stopped suddenly. They couldn’t do what they had been sent to do and could only watch as Adam gently wrapped his arms around Jane and stepped into her room with her.

“You’re shaking. What’s wrong? Surely that’s not because I’m here.”

Once last time perhaps, Jane hesitated. Adam felt her stiffen a bit in his arms and wondered why. Her next words though ended all speculation and began to stitch their relationship back together again. Jane had made the choice that would end all hope of reconciliation with her father and was gambling everything on reconciling with Adam. If that failed, she stood to lose the only two people she had ever loved. She wasn’t at all sure of herself in these uncharted waters of honesty and integrity, but she forged ahead hoping that Adam would guide her if she got off course.

“I got a visit from two men working for my father. Then I got a telegram from my father. I have it in my pocket if you would like to read it. Adam, he’s close, and those men were in my room this morning and woke me up. I’m scared. Where will I go to be safe? When my father finds out not only that I disobeyed him, but that I have betrayed him, I don’t know what he will do. I’m beginning to think you may be right about him at least in some ways.” Suddenly it dawned on Jane that Adam was there at three instead of at the dinner hour that she had expected. “You’re very early. Is there something else that’s happened?”

“Not exactly. I had a talk with my family about everything. I told them what I should have told them when I got home. I never expected you to show up, and I guess I was ashamed of some things and thought I could bury the whole sorry mess, and they would never know.”

“Your damn pride is as bad as mine.”

“Different, yes, but as bad, probably. Well, as we talked, we realized you could be in danger too, but we never expected it to be so soon. I came here early to invite you back to the Ponderosa to stay.” At Jane’s hopeful expression, Adam had to be brutally honest. “No, not as my wife yet. I still need time, or we still need time to work that out.”

“I don’t need any more time. I’ve made my decision.”

“I know you have, and that will make it easier for me to come to terms with some things. But I want some time to think things through. You know how I am. Anyway, you’ll stay at the house where you can be safe. Hoss and I will stay at another place near by. I’ll be there for meals, and I’ll be there to talk with you. We’ll work things out.”

“You’re afraid of me.”

Scowling at her understanding so easily what worried him, Adam could only wait to see what else she would say. In an uncharacteristic move for her, Jane said nothing more, but she did have a wicked little smile as she offered her arm.

“Shall we go to dinner and have them bring these bags downstairs so I can check out and go with you, Mister Cartwright?”

Rolling his eyes, Adam sighed. He escorted her downstairs and told the clerk her plans had changed and she would be returning as a guest of the Ponderosa. He asked if her bags could please be brought down to his carriage outside. He left money to pay for everything and then led her to the dining room for an early dinner and some time to talk privately. He could only guess what the gossips in town were going to do with this bit of information. Later as they drove out of town, two men mounted up to follow them only to turn off when they saw Hoss Cartwright mount up and ride with them. They weren’t willing to take on two of the Cartwrights in a fair fight.

Chapter 5

Frederick Angus Sims arrived in Virginia City and headed to the International Hotel expecting to find his daughter there. The men he had hired informed him before he was able to ask the hotel clerk however that his daughter was once again out on the Ponderosa and had been since she and Adam had left the previous day. Neither of them knew Sims that well of they would have seen the slight tells that indicated how furious he was. He told them to accompany him to his room so that they could talk. Everything that followed only made him more upset and then resigned to having failed in his main quest.

“You were supposed to stop her. I know how headstrong she can be, but she is only a woman. How could you fail to keep her here?”

“Cartwright brought his brother with him. We figured you didn’t want us to make a public mess out of trying to hold her. We got a way of getting her any time we want though. We got a man on the Ponderosa who’s working with us. We can snatch her back right from under their noses any time you tell us.”

“That will not do. My daughter is not the type to be ‘snatched’ and then agreeable afterwards. No, now I shall have to go out to this backwoods hovel and somehow convince her to leave this ruffian who has so mesmerized her that she has lost all sense of her upbringing and station. I will pay you gentlemen a fee but your services are no longer required.”

“Listen here, we was gonna be making a lot of money on this deal. No ‘fee’ is gonna make up for that.”

“There is no possibility that the plan will work any longer so there is no possibility that you will get that money from the Cartwrights. Now, here is more money than you deserve. Be off with you.” Frederick had two men with him, and the two who had been hired to kidnap Jane were unwilling again to challenge other men when the odds were even. They took the money that was offered and left. Once the door closed, one of the other men asked if Frederick was giving up on ruining Cartwright.

“I don’t know, but quite possibly I may have to give that up. If my daughter has truly decided of her own free will to stay with him then I would be ruining her as well. Even though she has made me furious with what she has done, she is my only child. I cannot leave her destitute. I will disinherit her for her betrayal, but I cannot exact a revenge on her as I would on him. Cartwright can support her in decent style from what I know. He seemed to have enough to get by without being deprived even if he had to work to do it. If they have children, they will become my heirs. Perhaps one of them will have more sense than she does or he does, damn him.” Huffing for a bit, Frederick shook his head. “That damn girl is a bit like me in all the wrong ways. She’s stubborn and proud and headstrong. Now if she had any sense of decorum and of acting properly according to her station with a decent amount of ambition, we would never have all this trouble with her. I thought she was making progress in that regard until she met that Cartwright on the train. Damnable invention, that, throwing together all the common elements with their betters.”

One of the men asked if Sims wanted a carriage hired for the trip to the Ponderosa, but it was already afternoon. He decided that he would go the next day. However the next day storms were battering the area with rain, and the following day, strong winds as well as the mud from the rain made travel difficult. So it wasn’t until three days had passed before a frustrated Sims was able to hire a carriage and have one of his men drive him to the Ponderosa.

By then, Adam and Jane had spent a considerable amount of time together starting with that first evening back on the ranch. Knowing more of her story, Ben had welcomed her warmly and told her he hoped that she and Adam could work out their differences. His warm smile and the tone of his statement left Jane knowing that he was sincere. It brought tears to her eyes to know that he should be angry with her for her bad behavior, but instead he had forgiven her already and was willing to look to the future. She hoped that Adam had that same quality as his father. After dinner that evening, she found out that he probably did. Walking outside to the porch to get some privacy, they talked of her father and what he might do. Jane said that she was scared and asked Adam if it would be all right if she asked him to hold her. He didn’t wait to be asked but wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close letting her rest her head against his chest as they stood on the porch. No matter what happened, Adam knew that he loved her and that he didn’t want any harm to come to her. He did worry yet as to whether they could make a success of a marriage especially because her father so heartily disapproved of him. He suspected that Jane was going to be disinherited and knew that was going to hurt her immensely. Even though she knew she had irreparably damaged her relationship with her father, if he did anything to formally sever the ties between them, Adam was sure what the effect might be and if she would ultimately blame him. It could become that black cloud in their marriage that would never go away with resentment that could tinge everything with its poison. It was the biggest question he had about their future and didn’t even know how to bring that up with her. What he needed was to discuss that with someone though and got an opportunity that night with Hoss.

“Looked like the two of you ain’t gonna need all that much time to work out your differences. Seems to me you’re still in love with one another. As soon as you both got over being mad, it was pretty clear how you both feel about each other.”

“But that’s part of the problem, Hoss. We fight, and we fight a lot. We found so many things to argue about it seemed we were seldom able to have peace between us.”

“D’ya think it might be different here without her father interfering and trying always to turn her against ya?”

That gave Adam pause for he had not considered what was to Hoss the most obvious point. “And he was the only family she had left. She said she had brothers but none of them survived to adulthood. One by one they died. Her mother died either of a broken heart or illness. She isn’t sure because she was so young when she died. She was raised by a nanny and a housekeeper and then sent away to school at sixteen. I’m not sure she knows how to live in a family.”

“She’s shur gonna learn how to do that here.” Seeing Adam’s look become even more worried, Hoss had to smile. “Don’t you worry none about Joe. He ain’t gonna be chasing after your wife no matter how she makes a man turn and look when she walks by. She is something, ain’t she?”

“Hoss, she makes my blood boil when I’m around her.”

“I kin understand why you need some distance to be able to think about things. Ifn I had a wife like that, I know I’d only be thinking one thing when I was near her.”

“Please, don’t get me thinking like that. I have to think about what to do when her father gets here.”

“You that sure he’s coming?”

“He’ll be here. He wants to win every time, and to him, this is a contest. Somehow I have to find a way to show him that we can both win her. It’s the only way for me to hold her to me forever.”

“Seems like that might be a mountain of a problem.”

“If I could get some insight as to what he thought was most important, then there’s a chance that I could come up with a plan, but I doubt that the two of us are going to be able to have much of a civil conversation.”

“Jane is a lot younger than you, ain’t she?”

“She is.”

“So he must be not much older than you?”

“About the same: he’s twelve years older than I am, and she’s twelve years younger than me. What point are you getting at?”

“Well, what do men start thinking on as they get older? What starts getting more important to them? You said she’s his only surviving family now.”

“Hmm, grandchildren? Hoss, I hate to think of using children as pawns, and who’s to say we’ll even have any? Jane lost the first one and fairly early. That could happen again. The doctor more or less hinted that could be the case.”

“You don’t know. But ifn you had children, he’d want to pass on his legacy, and he cain’t do it ifn he’s not got a tie to them. If he breaks off his relationship with her then he loses his chance to have a relationship with any grandchildren. What kind of legacy does he have then?”

“But he’s not an honest man. I’m not sure I want that kind of thing for my children at all.”

“Listen, if you raise up your children right, they’ll know what to do about that, and you and Jane will be around to help them make decisions too, and so will the rest of us.”

Smiling then, Adam leaned back in his chair and stared at Hoss. “This is rather funny. Here I am talking about children when I haven’t even made a final decision on my marriage.”

“Oh, I think you have. You just ain’t told yourself yet. You set there a spell and think on it, and I reckon the answer is gonna come to ya.” Standing and turning toward the small bedroom in the cottage, he grinned over his shoulder at his older brother. “Tonight is my turn in the bed. You get the bedroll not that you’re gonna be able to sleep much anyway, I figure with what’s going through your head.”

Hoss’ words were prophetic and Adam didn’t fall into sleep until the early hours of the morning when he was so exhausted he finally was able to shut off his thinking. He was awakened by rolling thunder only a few hours later. Storms had rolled down the slopes of the mountains and pounded through the area. Adam wanted to leave anyway to head back to the main house but Hoss told him that it was too dangerous to try.

“We don’t have any food here. Remember? We planned on taking all of our meals at the house.”

“Dagnabit! It’s still too dangerous to go now, but at the first break in the storm, I’ll be racing you to that little stable to get the horses ready to go.”

“We can pack all of our gear up while we wait.”

Grinning, Hoss slapped Adam on the shoulder. “See, I knew the answer would come to ya if ya let it.”

Hours later at the main house, Jane stared out the window by Ben’s desk watching the trees bend in the wind and the rain pour down. Ben walked up behind her.

“I’m sure they’re waiting out the storm. They’ll be back here when it’s safe enough to ride. So many things can go wrong riding in a storm like this that they’re smart enough to sit tight until it passes.”

Jane had to smile though at Joe’s comment to that. “I don’t know, Pa. They’ve each got a great reason to take a few chances on the weather. Hoss wants to get back here to Hop Sing and Adam has an even better reason to hurry on home.”

Less than a half hour later, the front door opened with a gust of wind and two soaked men and a few well chosen words about the weather before the door was slammed shut again. Ben turned to tell his sons to watch their language but halted when he saw how Adam looked to Jane and smiled broadly. He said only one word to her but it caused her to rush into his arms.

“Yes.”

Hoss apologized for their condition and for making a wet mess on the floor. “I’ll clean it up, don’t you worry. We had to get back here though, and the darn storm didn’t look like it was gonna give us a break today.” Hop Sing came out then, and before he could complain about the wet mess on his floor, Hoss repeated his offer. Seeing Adam embracing Jane openly though was the main cause for Hop Sing to soften his complaints and agree that Hoss could clean it up.

At that point, Ben took charge though ordering Joe to get two blankets. “You two need to get out of those wet clothes first. Adam, you go first. Jane can hold a blanket for you. Once you’re gone, Hoss can go.” Hoss was smirking so much then that Ben thought he was going to start laughing, but he managed to keep it under control. At first Adam was going to head upstairs wrapped in his blanket, but Jane quickly steered him toward the downstairs guest bedroom. Then Hoss did begin to laugh but not too loudly or too long for he didn’t want to do anything that might harm the reunion of Adam and Jane now that they were reconciling. Joe and Ben looked at Hoss who nodded.

“Yep, it’s what you think. He needed some time to be sure of himself, but he wants to make it work. He loves her and they’re gonna have to find a way to work something out with her father even if he is a jackass.”

“All right, you go upstairs and get into some dry clothes. I’ll get these wet things to the washroom. Would you bring dry clothing down for Adam, please? Joe, could you get started on cleaning up the wet floor here?” About to object that Hoss had volunteered, Joe thought better of that when he saw his father’s eyebrows lower and start to come together. He knew what that meant.

In the guest bedroom, Adam held Jane close. “I know it won’t be easy, but we have to find a way to make your father accept this marriage. The only way we can hope to have a long future together is for him to do that. We need to talk about that, but first I need some hot coffee and some food. Can we wait at least that long?”

All smiles even at the mention of the difficulty with her father, Jane agreed knowing they were going to have to do a lot of talking but relieved that Adam had accepted her again as his wife. She was confident they would be able to work out anything else especially with the help of his family. Even this short time with Adam’s father and youngest brother had taught her quite a bit about being in a family, and she liked the feeling it gave her.

“I know there will be problems especially with my father. I know I have a difficult adjustment to make to life out here, but I know you will help me and your family will help me. Over the last two days, I have found that I am happier than I can remember being even with all the trouble we’re facing.”

For the next two days and nights, they spent a lot of time talking, planning, and getting to know more about each other. Without the pressures they had faced in Boston, they learned more about each other faster and with greater understanding. In only a few days, Jane began to fit into the family as if she had been a part of the family much longer. Ben found himself smiling much more, and those dreams of grandchildren seemed more real again.

Chapter 6

Peace and tranquility were shattered the next day about noon however with the arrival of Frederick Angus Sims on the Ponderosa. He stepped from his carriage and was greeted by Ben who had heard the carriage arrive.

“My daughter, Jane Alexandra Sims is here, and I demand to see her.”

“First of all, I’m Ben Cartwright, and you are?”

“My name is Frederick Angus Sims. If I had known you were the owner of this ranch, I would have introduced myself. I didn’t expect the owner to be dressed as a servant, so please excuse my faux pas. Now, I wish to see my daughter.”

“Missus Jane Cartwright and her husband, my son Adam were unable to leave the house because of the weather for the past two days. Jane wanted to see more of her new home, so today they went on a ride on the Ponderosa. My other two sons went with them as protection.”

“Well, when will they return?”

“They should be back within a few more hours.”

“Hours. How long does it take to see a ranch?”

“Oh, they won’t see the whole ranch. They’ll see perhaps a sixth of it or so. It would take a good week to see it all. There’s about one hundred thousand acres and some of the terrain would make travel slower. I’m sure Adam is showing her some of the more beautiful spots. We have four separate cattle operations that are only consolidated for drives to market, and then there is the separate horse breeding operation. The timber operation and lumber mill is too remote for a day trip, and I don’t think Adam would take Jane to any of our mining operations. Adam is an investor in the Virginia and Truckee Railroad as I am though so perhaps he would have taken her to see the newest engines they have purchased. The return on investment there has been quite lucrative for us.” Ben’s boasting had the desired effect in leaving Frederick at least temporarily speechless. Ben and Adam had talked, and Adam had said that Frederick had only ever expressed disdain for Adam’s home and had not ever asked even the most basic questions about the Ponderosa or how Adam had afforded his education or his travels. In talking with Jane, they guessed that Frederick thought they lived on a modest ranch and earned their money from a simple cattle operation. She said that once he had laughed and said it was funny that they had given their ‘little ranch’ a name as if it was a ‘real business’ like those he ran or in which he invested. As Frederick stood there, Ben invited him to come inside and invited the two men with him to sit on the porch. He said Hop Sing would bring refreshments for them as well. He told them if they were cold at any point, they could go in the bunkhouse. Then he led Frederick into the house giving the man another surprise. The house was not grand by eastern standards or even by Virginia City standards, but it was certainly an impressive house to find so far from town and as the main house of a ranch. However all the outbuildings would have told any westerner that this was no ordinary ranch.

Loath to admit any error or weakness, Frederick did have to say some kind words about the house and the furnishings he found inside because those too were a surprise to him. Gold framed portraits, old paintings, and bronze sculptures were not at all what he had expected. A chess board, fine brandy, and a gun collection as well as coffee served on fine china by a servant amazed him even more. He began asking questions about the business side of the Ponderosa and about Ben’s background surprised to learn that he was originally from Boston. Time passed quickly for the two men and when the sounds of horses were heard in the yard, Frederick was startled to learn that hours had gone by already.

“That should be Adam and Jane and my other two sons.” Ben stood to lead Frederick outside but the younger man preceded him quickly quite anxious to see his daughter.

In the yard, Adam helped Jane from the carriage. “You’re shaking again.”

“That carriage has to mean that my father is here.”

“I’m here too. My family is here. We’ll take care of you. You believe that, don’t you?” Jane leaned into Adam and rested her head against his chest taking comfort there. He wrapped his arms around her and spoke softly and soothingly to her.

That was what Frederick saw when he exited the house to see his daughter. He knew then that he had lost. Everything that he had learned from Ben Cartwright, everything that he had seen, and now this scene were all the evidence that he needed. His daughter was going to stay here in what to him was the wilderness of Nevada no matter what he did or said. The only thing left for him to do was to try to get the best deal out of it that he could. He was a hard man but not a stupid one. Someday, he might find a way to get her to come back to Boston and perhaps bring some grandchildren with her, but this was not the time to try to do it.

“Jane, I wish you had told me that you were leaving. I wish I could have said goodbye in a proper manner instead of having to come all this way.”

Shocked speechless, Jane turned from Adam to greet her father but words failed her. Adam kept an arm around her arm to steady her knowing how emotional she was likely to be at this moment and how worried she had been about this meeting.

“Good afternoon, Frederick.”

“Adam, I’m glad to see you are taking good care of my daughter.”

“Always.”

“I expect so.”

“May I speak privately with my daughter.”

“I don’t think she wants to do that, but if you would like to speak privately with the two of us, that can be arranged.”

“Jane?”

“I want Adam with me, Father.”

“Very well.”

Stepping forward, Ben told Adam to take them inside and that he and the others would stay outside until they were done talking. Adam nodded to Frederick who moved back inside. Adam and Jane sat on the settee and Frederick sat in the red leather chair. He would have preferred standing, but when Adam suggested they all sit, it would have been churlish to refuse.

“By the telegram I received, I assume that Jane has told you our plans.” Adam nodded. “Those plans are obviously no longer in play. I paid off the two men I had hired and told them it won’t happen. I’m going to San Francisco to conclude a business deal there, and then I will be going directly back to Boston. I cannot say I approve of this marriage, but I have no choice but to tolerate it.” That was a concession that Adam and Jane had not expected. “Jane, do not expect any visits from me or any special consideration while you are married to Adam, but I will do nothing more to interfere. If the marriage fails, you know where your home is.” He said it however in a tone that indicated that it was more when the marriage failed than if it failed.

“Father, my home is here now.”

“You may say that now, but you will miss all those things you had before and you may find this life boring and stifling. You will miss all the pleasures and ease of living you had. If you change your mind, I will welcome you home again.”

“Sir, you insult me, and that I expected, but you insult your daughter, and that needs to stop now. You’ve said enough. If you wish to have any more contact with her, or with any children we may have, you need to be civil in all conversations with her.”

“I was civil.”

“Only in your choice of words to use. In the future, it needs to include any ideas expressed as well or there will be no communication.” Adam’s tone and demeanor made clear that it was no idle threat. The battle line had been drawn, and Frederick knew that in this case, his forces were in an inferior position. He withdrew.

“Very well. We shall leave things as they are. You have my address. I will expect to hear from you if there is any news you wish to share.”

“I will, Father. I promise that.”

“Then I will be on my way. I plan to leave Virginia City tomorrow. I guess that I shall not see you again. If you ever travel to a city with a photographer, please have a portrait made and sent to me please, at my expense.”

Bristling a bit at that, Adam responded before Jane could. “We will do that, and we will pay for it. It will be our gift to you.”

“As you wish. Goodbye, Jane. Fare thee well.”

With that, Frederick walked from the house, got into his carriage, and accompanied by his two men, left the Ponderosa never expecting to see his daughter again. It left him with an odd empty feeling that he had not expected to feel. Behind him on the ranch, Adam held Jane as she cried. Things had gone better than expected, but she had still lost her father in many ways. It was a huge step she had taken, and she was frightened of the future. Adam could only hold her and assure her that he would be there for her forever and always. The promise he had made on the day they married. She smiled remembering those were the words he had used, but then she reminded him of what had happened. He reminded her that she was the one who refused to stay with him. Then the two of them decided that they wouldn’t talk about that any more. It was in the past, forgiven, and no longer important. Ben, Hoss, and Joe came back into the house to ask how things had gone. Adam gave them a quick summary.

“Well, that was a heap better than you thought he would be, wasn’t it?” Hoss was happy that there had been no angry words. “Now, let’s sit down for dinner and get started on being a family, the five of us.”

Realizing what Hoss was doing, Joe decided to help distract Jane from the sadness of her father’s departure too. “Hey, where are you two going to live? Are you going to stay here in the house with us or build a house for the two of you?”

Looking at Jane, Adam shrugged. “We hadn’t gotten around to talking about that yet. We’ve got a lot of things like that to discuss. What do you think?”

“We’ve got a lot of time to talk about that. Where would we build a house if we built one?”

“That would be another discussion.”

“Adam, I don’t know how to cook. Would we be able to hire someone like Hop Sing? Could we afford that?”

“We could probably afford it, but there is no one like Hop Sing. He’s the best there is, but perhaps we could find somebody competent.” Adam winked at Jane as he said that.

Catching on quickly, she added a bit more. “Oh, I know he’s the best. I never had food this good when I lived in Boston.”

Ben rolled his eyes, but soon Hop Sing was serving dinner and had a big grin. It never hurt to throw out some compliments when he could hear them. After dinner, Adam and Jane sat on the settee quietly relaxing. It had been a long day. Jane’s eyes began to droop so Adam suggested that they ought to retire early. It had been a tiring day for all of them, and before ten, all the lights in the house were out and everyone was in bed.

Outside, one man watched and waited in the grove of trees. It had been easy to approach the house and settle in for the night. His horse was well hidden too. He planned to stay where he was and wait for an opportunity. The money this job was worth would mean he would never have to work again, and that was a powerful incentive to put up with a little discomfort and quite a lot of boredom until he got his chance. That hundred dollars that Sims had paid him and his partner wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy him. He figured he could pull this off and walk away with thousands. There would be no one with whom he had to share it either. The whole plan was already set up. He only had to follow it although he had made a few alterations because it was being done by him alone and not by three men as originally set up, and of course Jane wasn’t going to be cooperating either. However the money had bought him the things he needed to take care of that.

Chapter 7

In the morning, Adam woke Jane early by kissing her shoulder, her neck, and her cheek until she responded. They kissed and touched for about five minutes before Jane pushed back and looked at Adam.

“You shaved.”

“Yes, you were sleeping soundly so it didn’t seem to bother you, and I thought you would appreciate it.”

“I do, and that was very sweet of you. You are a very considerate man.”

“Yes, except for waking you up.”

“Oh, I don’t mind. You can wake me up for this anytime especially if you’ve shaved first. That may have to be a rule. You can wake me up anytime but you have to shave first. How about that?”

“Oh, that seems fair. Now, enough talking. I think we were having more fun than that.”

An hour later, dressed and relaxed, they went out to have breakfast and found Ben already there. He asked what their plans were for the day. Adam said he needed to head up to the lumber mill to see about some orders, and with the threat from Frederick gone, he felt comfortable doing that. Jane said she saw a garden in the back, and if Ben didn’t mind, she thought she might start tending the flowers there.

“I may not be able to cook, but we had a greenhouse, and I loved to work with the flowers and rosebushes.”

“My dear, that would be wonderful. We all try to do something with the flowers around here, but none of us has the time or the talent to do a good job with them. It is late in the season, but if you could coax a few blooms from them yet, I would appreciate that very much.”

“We’ll have to get you some clothing more appropriate to the Sierras and to gardening too. Hop Sing probably had an apron that you can wear over your dress for now. He probably has some gloves that will fit you too.”

Outfitted with an apron, gloves, and one of Joe’s old hats, Jane was ready to head to the garden when Adam left for the lumber mill. He kissed her and promised to be back for dinner. She took the basket and the small tools Hop Sing had provided and headed to the back of the house to begin cleaning up the garden. She had some ideas on how to make it look pretty but first had to clean up dead branches and debris around the rosebushes. Ben worked in the house at his desk and Hop Sing in the kitchen. When Hoss and Joe returned for lunch, Ben asked if one of them would go tell Jane that it was lunchtime.

“She’s quite a worker. She’s been out there all morning.”

A short time later, Joe rushed back into the house. “She’s gone. Somebody took her.”

“What do you mean somebody took her. Took her how?” Ben stood and rushed from his desk to Joe who shoved a piece of paper into his hands.

Adam Cartwright, tomorrow morning by eight you bring twenty thousand dollars to get your wife back. You ride alone to Carson Crossroads and with nobody anywhere around or following you and there’ll be a note there telling you where you’re supposed to deliver the money. Anybody comes with you or follows you and I’ll ride off and you’ll never see her or me again.

“Pa, what we gonna do?”

“Hoss, you go out back and start following the tracks. See if you can follow them. I’ll get some men to go after you. Joe, you head to town to get the money. We may need it. Do whatever you have to but get that money. Take a few men with you in case this is a trick to get you on the road with the money.”

“Pa, what about Adam?”

“If we send someone for him, it won’t make any difference. He’ll get there about the time Adam will be heading back home anyway. It will only make him ride too fast and take too many chances. We can’t do any more than what we’re going to do anyway. Joe, make sure Roy knows but tell him not to come out here. It’s possible we’re being watched and anyone like that coming here could jeopardize Jane.”

“Pa, you think her father done it?”

“I don’t know, Hoss, but I don’t think so. After yesterday, he would know to ask for a lot more money than that. Whoever this is doesn’t have a good idea of what we’re worth.”

“Should we have somebody go stake out Carson Crossroads now?” Hoss wanted to have somebody there to see who planted the note for Adam to find.

“Who do we have that might be able to do it without being seen?”

“Pa, Billy is probably the best one. Being part Paiute and raised by them and all, he can move through the brush like a cat.”

“I’ll ask him if he’ll do that then. Now let’s get busy. We’ve all got a lot to do.”

When Adam returned, he was upset on many scores. Not only was Jane kidnapped, but he hadn’t been told earlier about her being kidnapped. His father explained his reasoning. However that did little good for the distraught husband who could do nothing except wait for the next morning and the ride to the Carson Crossroads. Hoss had found the kidnappers spot in the trees behind the house but had been unable to track the kidnapper any further than the road because he had switched to a wagon there and the tracks blended in with all the other traffic on the road eventually. The hours the kidnapper had as a head start had been too much. Whoever the kidnapper was, he had obviously been waiting for such a chance and taken it.

No one got much sleep that night and everyone was up early. They were going to be waiting well out of range of being seen but hopefully close enough to hear gunshots so that they could be summoned to help. Adam had already left when several of the men pushed one of their new hires to where Ben was getting ready to mount up and leave.

“Mister Cartwright, this one’s got something to tell ya. He’s been acting mighty nervous all morning, and we decided to persuade him to talk to us about why.” Noting that the man was bruised and battered, Ben looked at the hands and wondered why they had done that. The saw the look. “As soon as we started talking about the kidnapping, he started acting real peculiar. We saw it last night and then again this morning. We decided to find out why. Now, boy, you tell him.”

“I was hired to be in on the kidnapping, but then it all fell through and wasn’t supposed to happen. I got paid one hundred dollars to do nothing.”

Forcing himself not to lose his temper, Ben did grab the man by the shirtfront and demanded to know the whole plan including where they were supposed to be holding Jane during the supposed kidnapping.

“Except we wasn’t really gonna be keeping her. She was supposed to be leaving. We were only gonna be waiting there to, ah, get the money.”

“You mean to bushwhack my son and take the money. Get off my ranch. If I ever see you in my lifetime, I’ll shoot you on sight like any other vermin on my ranch. Go, before I change my mind.”

“Pa, you sure you want to let him go?”

“Hoss, he didn’t break the law. He only planned to do it. Now, let’s get going. We’ve got a long ride to get around to where he’s holding Jane. I know that spot and it’s a perfect spot for an ambush. If Adam rides in there, he won’t survive.”

“What’s our plan?”

“We’ll have to come in from all sides, and try to surprise him without allowing him to use Jane as a shield. It may be difficult to do. Joe, you’re the best one to try to intercept Adam on the way without being seen. Watch for Billy. Between the two of you, get to Adam and let him know what we’re doing.” With that, Ben mounted up and the whole group followed him out of the yard, but Joe soon raced ahead as did some of the others with Ben’s blessing. If they could get there sooner, the plan had a better chance of succeeding.

The plan did succeed, but there was a fatal flaw in it. Adam rode in slowly to the designated spot to deliver the money so that the waiting men could spot the movement of the kidnapper when he prepared to bushwhack Adam. They knew that Adam’s very slow approach would likely make him nervous and make him move. They were watching for it, and it worked well. Hoss yelled out for the man to drop his weapon when he spotted him and that made everyone else zero in on where the man was and made Adam move to cover. With no target and encircled by armed men, the kidnapper knew it was hopeless. He knew too what the penalty was for kidnapping. He didn’t want to live that way. He turned to fire on Hoss, but before he got off a single shot, numerous bullets hit him even as Adam yelled at them not to kill him. It was too late. He was dead soon after hitting the ground with a noticeable thud as the echoes of the gunfire died away and the small puffs of smoke dissipated in the light breeze. Adam rode forward desperately looking for any place where Jane might be hidden. Ben and the others joined him in the search.

“Pa, there’s no wagon here. She was never here. This was only where he was going to kill me and take the money. Where could she be?”

As Adam spoke, his voice took on a plaintive sound for he had never felt more hopeless than he did at that moment. He couldn’t bear the thought that he had gotten her back only to lose her. Hoss and Billy began a thorough search of the perimeter of the area and came back to confirm that there had not been a wagon driven there any time recently. There were only the tracks of horses that day. Joe had one piece of information they could use.

“One of the men knows him by name. We can go to town to find out where he got that wagon rig and when he brought it back.”

“Yeah, Adam, ifn we know that, then we know how far he coulda gotten from our place. We’ll get everybody we can out searching.”

Even if his brothers were trying to be optimistic, Adam knew how unlikely it was that such a search would find her in time. She would be cold, hungry, thirsty, and scared, and had already been alone for a day. She had only a day or two more perhaps in this weather. He couldn’t give up though. He agreed, and all of them mounted up to ride to Virginia City to organize a massive search effort. What they found out in Virginia City was puzzling at best. The man had not rented a wagon of any kind from anyone. So they began questioning people all over town and found that he had hitched a ride with some people on a wagon claiming that his horse had a stone bruise and shouldn’t be ridden. Yet he had apparently left town on that horse later the same day. When Joe came back with information that he had apparently purchased some laudanum, Adam rushed to his horse and told the others he thought he knew where Jane must be and he needed Hoss to show him the trail the kidnapper had used as he left the Ponderosa.

“What are you talking about, Adam?”

“He drugged her, Hoss. He had one horse. He couldn’t be seen on the Ponderosa with a woman slung over his saddle. Soon after he took her, he had to stash her some place, but she had to remain stashed so he drugged her and tied her up. By now, she must be frantic. We have to hurry.”

Soon the whole group was following Hoss and searching on either side of the trail as he backtracked from the road toward the house. The trail moved in a meandering line from one grove of trees to another as the man had apparently used cover as much as possible. Each time they reached heavy cover, they hoped to find her, but each time as some men broke away to search, Adam kept going with Hoss. He had a feeling that she wasn’t there yet. As they got to within about a mile of the house, there was an especially dense area of trees and brush that opened up to a straight shot to the house and the grove of trees where the kidnapper had lain in wait.

“This has to be it, Hoss. She has to be here. He would have been scared to death he was going to be caught so by the time he got here, he would have wanted to get rid of her so he could ride on faster.”

“You know, I think you’re right. I think he did go a mite faster after this part.”

On foot, Adam and Hoss began searching along the tracks looking first into any opening into the trees. Adam thought at one point he heard something and asked Hoss to stop moving. They both heard it then but had a difficult time determining direction. Adam called out Jane’s name and asked her to yell louder once and then stop and then yell again. It wasn’t much, but they heard the sound and then heard it again a moment later. She was here in these trees. Adam fired his pistol three times even as he began to work his way through the brush to where he thought he heard the sounds. Then he saw a blanket wrapped bundle and knew he had her. He pulled his pocketknife and slit the ropes binding the blankets around her and rolled her free. She had a nasty bruise on the side of her face and had soiled her dress, but other than having nothing to drink or eat in a day, she was all right. Kneeling, Adam gathered a sobbing Jane in his arms. She was hoarse and could barely choke out any words but managed a few.

“Oh, Adam, I thought I was going to die.”

“Sh, don’t talk. I’ve got you now. Let’s get you home.”

“Water?”

Hoss pushed a canteen into Adam’s hands so he could help Jane drink. He stopped her from gulping the water down but had her take long sips and pause in between. He lifted her in his arms then and moved toward Sport. Hoss stepped up beside him offering to hold Jane while he mounted up and then hand her up to him.

“But Hoss, I’m filthy.”

“Naw, you’re my sister. You’re the only one I got so I got to take good care of you now.”

By then, the rest of the men had arrived as well as Ben and others who had followed behind. The gunshots had alerted them and all were relieved to find that it meant good news. Ben told them he and Joe would ride ahead and tell Hop Sing to get a bath and some food ready.

“We may even help him so that things move along a bit faster. We have to make sure Jane gets the treatment the lady of the house deserves.” Ben thanked the hands for their help and they rode off to their work as Adam and Hoss made their way slowly back to the house. Later as Jane sat in the tub soaking and Adam helped her to eat, she explained what had happened.

“He came up to me as bold as could be. I thought he worked here. Then he hit me and knocked me to the ground and told me to drink that vile stuff. I wouldn’t so he pinned my arms and held my nose shut until I opened my mouth. He poured it in and it was awful. I don’t remember a lot after that until I woke up and I couldn’t move or hardly breathe. Adam, I could hear animals and I thought I was going to die.”

“We’re going to have to have a party and introduce you to every single person who works on the ranch. That’s a good idea anyway. There aren’t that many things to do in the fall so it will be fun. Then I think I’m going to get you a pistol and teach you how to shoot.”

“I was cold too.”

“Yes, we’ll buy you some new clothes too.” She raised her eyebrows. “Including a new jacket, hat, and gloves.” She kept looking that way. “What else?”

“Well, I’ll need more than one of each of those. Some for Sunday wear, and some for everyday wear, and some for going to parties.”

Shaking his head, Adam had to grin. “You didn’t stage this whole thing to get me to go shopping for a whole new wardrobe for you, did you?”

“Now, Adam, would I do something like that?” She batted her eyes at him then like a saucy wench might.

At that moment, Adam knew he had made the right decision for both of them. She was going to fit in very well in the west. She had the spirit and the toughness that was needed, and the west would allow her the freedom to be express herself that the staid rules of Boston did not. He reached over and cupped her face careful not to hurt her for that bruise looked painful. Leaning in, he kissed her soundly.

“Now, Jane, the next thing on the agenda is seeing about some grandchildren for my father. He wants to see children running around this house again. I’d like that too.”

“As soon as you can find me a towel, we can work on that, or you can join me in here.”

“That’s a wonderful idea, but I think we’ll do that next time. Right now, my family would like to see that you’re all right, and Hop Sing has said he has made a special dessert for all of us. Then of course, I think you ought to go to bed to rest.”

“I’ll rest better if you’re there with me.”

“My thoughts exactly. Forever and always.”

*****

Weep For Me, and Rejoice With Me

Chapter 1

The warm breeze ruffling the curtains did little to soothe the exhaustion Adam felt that morning and did nothing to cool the sweat already beading on his body as temperatures began to rise even as the sun barely rose above the horizon. Regrettably in the hot dry air, he lay next to Jane not wanting to pull her close because it was uncomfortably hot to sleep with his arms wrapped around his wife. He missed the closeness but neither of them could sleep when they only made each other even more miserable by being in such close proximity, and the heat wave that caused them this discomfort showed no signs of abating. Working conditions were abysmal with the wind constantly blowing up the dust, unrelenting heat drawing moisture from one with every breath they took, and that blazing sun offering no relief. Tempers were short too with those problems to be faced daily and then everyone had to face nights of tossing and turning trying to sleep in temperatures that were only slightly lower than daytime highs. It was difficult to even summon an appetite to eat a hot nourishing breakfast and wash it down with cups of hot coffee. As a result, no one had the energy they needed no matter how much they tried to force themselves to do what had to be done. The only things in abundance in the heat wave were hot tempers and the triggers that set those off. Adam felt guilty for that very thing on that morning and waited longer than usual to get out of bed because he needed to make things right with Jane or he would have another burden to carry throughout the day. As he felt her stir, he moved closer to her and caressed her arm so that she would turn toward him.

“I’m sorry. I was a jackass last night. I have no excuse. You have every right not to forgive me for what I said, but I hope you will anyway.”

“It was as much my fault as it was yours. All of this has put both of us on edge.”

“Jane, I do want a child as much as you do.”

“I know you do, and it was wrong of me to say you didn’t.”

“I’ll try harder to make that come true for us, but last night I was so exhausted I couldn’t even think about it. I lost my temper too. It seems there are so many things to worry about, and I didn’t want to have to worry about that too.”

“I know. Maybe we can find some time to relax and cool off at the lake. Maybe that would help.”

“It probably would, but I don’t know when. I have to work today, and then tomorrow, I’m heading to San Francisco for those meetings. Pa really wants those contracts so we can try to get out from under those loans he took out. We should have been able to finish paying them off this year, but the losses we’re taking because of this drought could mean we won’t be able to do that unless I get these contracts.”

“I could go with you.”

“I wish you could, but Pa only set up travel for one, and there’s no time now to make other arrangements. At least I won’t be gone long. I should be home in less than two weeks.”

“Maybe by then, I’ll have some news.”

“Jane, it will happen when it happens. Don’t worry. I’m sure there will be a baby in our future. It hasn’t been that long. Now, I need to get up or my brothers are going to be upset with me for shirking my responsibilities especially after I got on Joe yesterday for getting up so late.”

“Are you going to apologize to him?”

That made Adam pause. He wasn’t in the habit of apologizing to his younger brother, but as he thought about what Jane had said, he knew he probably should. He hadn’t asked Joe if there was any reason why he had slept later than usual and knew Joe hadn’t been out the night before so that wasn’t the problem. He had let his temper rule his response and that was wrong. He knew it and looked sheepishly at his wife for reminding him of what he should have known and what he should have done. All he could do was nod. She smiled in that way she had that said she understood. Sometimes that made him a bit irritated too, but he was getting used to it as he realized he was adjusting to being part of a couple and not as stubbornly independent as he had always tried to be. It wasn’t his natural way or the way he had tried to live his life for quite a long time so it was taking some effort to accept.

“There are times you seem to know me better than I know myself.”

“No, I only remind you to be yourself when you forget just as you do that for me and have done for me at very important times in my life.” Jane was reminding him of the very recent dispute with her father that still worried both of them as to whether the man was truly finished with any interference in their lives. Adam had a concern about that but didn’t want to worry her. She saw the look however brief that he had when he thought about it though and guessed what it was because she had the same worry. They talked often about having a baby, but she worried that if they did and it was a boy, her father might reconsider that a male heir might be worth his time and effort. However for the time being, he was out of their lives. It was the elephant in the room though even if they had never talked about it. At some point, it would have to be discussed. For now, Adam needed to resolve any hard feelings with his younger brother though before that flared into anything more serious. He got his chance as soon as he got to the breakfast table. Joe was still there with their father. Hoss had already gone. Joe didn’t acknowledge him arriving even as Ben greeted him. Adam didn’t waste any time.

“Joe, I need to apologize for my behavior yesterday morning. I had no right to question you as I did. I can say my only excuse was my bad temper and that is a mighty flimsy reason to talk the way I did. I ask that you could please forgive me anyway. I will try to curb my mouth despite the difficult conditions we are all facing and the tempers that are all on edge.”

Joe had started to listen with an angry look that quickly turned to surprise and then outright amusement. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He looked to their father to see if he was hearing correctly. “Yes, son, your older brother has issued a full and complete apology. I believe you ought to accept it.”

Turning back to Adam, Joe put out his hand, and Adam took it and shook. “Thanks, older brother. I figured on this being an unpleasant day, but it’s starting out a lot better than yesterday. I know you haven’t asked, but I was not feeling well the night before or yesterday. I feel better today.”

Immediately concerned, Adam had to ask. “What was wrong?”

“An upset stomach, hotter than I ought to be even considering the weather, and dizziness. Pa said maybe I didn’t have enough to drink, but I’m sure I did. You know how Hoss is when you work with him. He makes sure of those things and we took a long break at lunch and laid out in the shade to cool down when we had lunch. Besides, Candy says a few of the hands are feeling the same, and a few are even sicker. Anybody who can is doing light duty like I did yesterday. A few are in their bunks.”

Unaware of that, Adam looked to his father. “Yes, after you went off in a huff, I found out what was bothering Joe and kept him close to home. Hoss knew what was wrong. You were late for dinner last night so you missed that discussion.”

“Jane didn’t say anything.”

“She waited for you so she didn’t have dinner with us either. She didn’t know.”

Looking back at Joe with concern, Adam had another question. “Are you all right to work today?”

“I’m feeling better. I plan to go out to work with you and Hoss. I figure the two of you will look out for me.”

Joe was smiling because he always liked it better when he was on good terms with his brothers. Ben however had a different plan for Adam.

“Adam, I’d like you to go to town today though. I have some contracts that need to be checked over by Hiram as well as some tax documents and other papers. Unfortunately I think I’ve got a touch of what Joe had and some of the others are feeling too.”

It was then that both Joe and Adam realized that their father’s plate was clean. He hadn’t eaten anything. As if by magic, Hop Sing arrived at the table and set a cup of tea by their father’s plate.

“You drink. It settle stomach and make you feel better. Maybe you take nap too.”

“Pa, I’ll do whatever needs to be done. Maybe you ought to listen to Hop Sing. He usually knows best.” Adam’s comment brought that all knowing look from the cook, but Ben only shook his head.

“I’m not sleepy. I already said you can take the trip to town, and I’ll stay in the house and do light work as Joe did yesterday. I’m not as sick as those men who need to take to their bed. I’ll be fine.”

Realizing that if their father could make that kind of response, he probably was being accurate in his assessment, Adam and Joe agreed to do as he asked and left him in Hop Sing’s capable care. Adam did tell Jane all that had occurred so that she was aware she ought to stay away from those who were ill, and he headed to town to carry out the errands his father had set as Joe headed out to work with Hoss who had gone ahead an hour earlier.

As Little Joe arrived in the pasture to help Hoss with the fence repairs and extension, he noted that Hoss didn’t have the usual pleasant demeanor, and in fact, he looked clearly perturbed.

“Where’s Adam?”

“He went to town. Pa told him to deliver some paperwork to Hiram and wait for it to be checked and then bring it back. He likely won’t be back before dinner.”

There was no response from Hoss about that, and he stayed very quiet for the rest of the morning saying only what needed to be said to get the work done. Still feeling tired as an aftereffect of the previous day’s illness, Joe wasn’t in any mood to push Hoss into a conversation and preferred to work steadily although he did think he should tell Hoss that their father was feeling ill. He decided to wait until lunch. At lunch, Hoss moved to the shade of a tree, and Joe was grateful to settle there beside him. After drinking from his canteen and eating a small part of his lunch, Joe decided it was time to find out what was wrong. The answer he got left him wondering as much as he was before he asked.

“Water is powerful ’cause it don’t never give up. That’s where waterfalls come from. The water pushes agin that rock one drop at a time ’til it cuts its way clean through what was solid rock. Well that’s me too. I ain’t never gonna give up. You kin tell Adam that, and you kin tell Pa too for that matter.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Adam coming back and thinking he knows it all, and I’m talking about Pa listening to him instead of to me when I been here all along. What Adam wants to do is all dad blamed wrong, but he and Pa won’t even listen to what I got to say. All they can talk about is fire and drought and all that stuff Adam keeps saying, but neither of them will talk about what I’m saying.”

“Well, I would talk about it if you would tell me what it was.”

“Don’t matter. You see, we don’t matter, and that’s the real problem. Only one that matters on this is Adam. That’s the real problem now, ain’t it? I don’t want to talk about this no more. It only makes me madder than I already was. Now finish your lunch and let me finish mine. We need to get some rest and cool down so we can finish that fence so we don’t have to work all day in the blasted sun tomorrow.”

“It will probably be a good thing if we think about putting everyone on a light schedule for a few days with the number of men who are sick. Pa’s feeling sick this morning too.”

“And Adam left him alone at the house?”

“He’s not alone. Hop Sing is there and so is Jane. Adam went to town as Pa asked him to, and I came out here.” Pausing in thought for only a moment, Joe had another question. “Why aren’t you mad at me for leaving Pa alone at the house too?”

“It don’t matter.” Hoss laid back then and closed his eyes. Joe knew he wouldn’t get an answer from him until he was ready to talk so he did the same. As he rested, he decided that perhaps he ought to talk with Adam to try to find out what the trouble was between his two older brothers because it was clear that Hoss was very upset and unwilling to talk about it.

It was fairly quiet at dinner that evening with Ben sipping tea and not eating much nor talking much. Hoss kept his head down, ate, and then excused himself to go to his room claiming he needed to sleep. Joe asked Adam after dinner if they could talk, and Adam nodded because he had a good idea what it was about. He motioned to Joe to head over to the desk as soon as their father settled into his chair and began to read although his eyes were drooping. Quietly Adam pulled a map from the sideboard and spread it on the desk. There was a thick red line drawn along some of the ridges of the Ponderosa. Joe asked what it was and Adam explained it was a firebreak so that if a major fire broke out, there would be a place to fight it regardless of where it was and there would be access to it as well.

“It would take some time to log those areas, but once it was done, we would be under less threat from a fire getting out of control and destroying all of our timber. As dry as it is in years like now, the danger is great.”

Looking at the line carefully, Joe realized where most of the firebreak lines were. “But almost all of that timber you want to cut lies in the section of the Ponderosa that Hoss is supposed to get.”

“Yes, and therein lies the problem between us.”

Studying the map silently for the next ten minutes, Joe looked up. “And there’s no other way to do it, is there?”

Chapter 2

As far as the illness afflicting the population on the Ponderosa, Joe turned out to be the lucky one. By the following day, there was no question that they had to put the hands on light duty because so many were ill. Ben too was sicker than he had been and was confined to bed. Hoss was sick as well. Jane was fine and kept her distance from the men worried that if she was with child as she hoped she was, she couldn’t take a chance on becoming ill. Adam had no symptoms and packed his valise to take the business trip as planned even though Jane thought he should consider staying home or at the very least taking someone with him.

“That won’t work for the same reason that you can’t come with me, and I have to go. We need these contracts. Now, I’m fine. I didn’t spend any time yesterday with anyone who was ill. I’ll be away for a few weeks, and by the time I get back, this should all be over.”

Reluctantly, Jane agreed with his logic. He was warm when she hugged him and kissed him goodbye, but it was hot as it had been for months. She was too distracted by worry to notice that he wasn’t sweating which should have been a warning sign to both of them. Adam realized by the end of the day of travel that he had been wrong in his assessment of his health. As the day progressed and he felt nauseated by the smells of his fellow travelers and the thought of food aggravated the feeling, he knew he had contracted the malady that had afflicted the others. He avoided meals, asked only for crackers and coffee, and sipped cool water when he could get it. He slept fitfully at the stage station that night, and in the morning, felt weak and knew he should probably return home. However his dogged determination to finish a job as well as his recognition that there was no one at the ranch who would be able to get to San Francisco in time for the meetings if he returned at this late date, made him continue on.

By the time Adam checked into his hotel in San Francisco, he was weak, feverish, and exhausted. Unable to recover from the illness because of the rigors of travel, he was in far worse condition than most who had contracted the illness. He had meetings to attend early the next morning so he ordered a bath and shaved before falling into bed only to awaken late the next day and had to hurry to the meeting. He made apologies but knew he was already at a disadvantage because of his tardy arrival and probably also because of his appearance which was far less than his usual impeccable. He tried to follow the discussion and take notes but found he was often confused by the discussion and had to ask for some things to be repeated which further irritated the men conducting the meeting. It went much the same way the second day. That evening when he sat in his hotel room trying to formulate a contract offer studying his notes and referring to all the information his father had sent along, he found the numbers swimming together most of the time and making little sense to him. He had sent a messenger to summon one of the family lawyers who was also a good friend. When he heard a knock on the door, it was with great relief that he opened the door to find him standing there.

“Adam, you look terrible. Are you ill? You should see a doctor.”

“I have to admit I’ve felt better, but I have work that has to be done. I need your help with some Ponderosa business. It isn’t the kind of work you usually do for us, but you are trusted with confidential work for us so I thought I could trust you to help me with this. I didn’t know who else to ask.”

What ensued was Adam doing his best in his weakened state to give a crash course in contract bids to a lawyer who had never done one. Then the two looked over the numbers that Adam had and worked out what seemed to be a reasonable offer. By the time they finished, it was one in the morning.

“Adam, this probably isn’t the best you would do if you were feeling well, but as well as I can determine, the Ponderosa will make money on this contract and it will be competitive and stand a good chance of being selected.”

“That’s all I can ask of you. Thank you. And these hours should be billed to me personally and not to the Ponderosa.”

“But I was doing work that benefited the Ponderosa directly.”

“It was only because I was unable to do what I was supposed to do. Thank you, but that’s how I want it done.”

“Very well, I’ll do it that way, but I certainly think your father would understand.”

“Maybe, but there have been enough surprises and disappointments that I have caused. I would rather get this job done the way he expected or at least accomplish what has to be done without any of that. Now, I do need to get some sleep, and I’m sure your lovely wife is wondering where you are at this hour.”

“I’ll leave a wake up call at the desk for you. You look like you’ll need one.”

Indeed, Adam did need one and quite a bit more. He was feeling awful the next morning but did manage to get to the meeting in time to submit the contract offer. He waited out the day as the others did but didn’t engage in conversation preferring to slouch in a chair with his eyes closed nursing his sore head. Some of his competitors assumed he had partied the night before but the more shrewd and knowing among them were aware that he was ill and stayed away from him. In the middle of the afternoon, the men were summoned into the room and winning bids were announced. Adam was awarded the bid he had tendered. He accepted it quietly. As he was about to leave, one of the men stopped him.

“It wasn’t the usual bid from the Ponderosa, and I noted the handwriting wasn’t the same, but you did deliver it. It is legitimate, isn’t it?”

“It is. I needed some help to pen it last night.”

“I guessed you were not feeling well by your behavior during the meetings. It wasn’t your usual, but I must commend you. Even at your worst, you did better than some of the others. At least you will get some of our business. I look forward to dealing with you again in the future. Good day to you.”

Adam knew the man was mostly concerned that there wasn’t any underhanded dealing involved in the bidding process. Once assured that Adam had delivered a legitimate offer, the rest of the solicitous conversation was being polite only. But at least the man had noticed. With the signed offer in hand, Adam headed back to the hotel intent on getting as much sleep as he could before he had to take the trip back home which was going to be arduous under the circumstances. He had eaten almost nothing in the previous week and a half and was feeling the effects of that as much as the illness. He wondered if he was even ill any more or if it was the lingering aftereffects that made him feel so awful. It didn’t matter much though. He needed rest and had about eighteen hours to get as much as he could before he began the trip home. By the time Adam endured the bouncing and jouncing of public transportation, the endless attempts of strangers to make small talk, and the nearly unpalatable food that was served at stations and on the train, he was almost as exhausted as he had been by being ill. The one consolation was that he arrived in Virginia City as scheduled and Sport was in the livery stable waiting for him delivered there that morning by his youngest brother. He tied his valise to the back of the saddle and began the ride home taking his time because he didn’t have the energy to do anything more even though he did miss his wife and longed for his bed. The sight of the ranch house brought the familiar feeling in his chest and he felt Sport speed up a little too as home was so close. Jane must have sensed him getting close because she came outside as he rode into the yard, and Adam felt for the most overwhelming sense of love that he could remember feeling seeing her smile and open her arms for him. Her love for him was unconditional. Holding her in his arms, he knew that he didn’t want to take any more business trips without her if he could manage it so he told her that.

“I would like that too.”

“Walk with me to the stable while I take care of Sport?”

“Of course. Adam, you seem thinner. Didn’t you eat while you were gone?”

Sighing, Adam knew he had to tell her the truth so he did but tried to downplay how ill he was by explaining that he was able to attend his business meetings and get the contract for the Ponderosa. He did mention that he got help but asked her to keep that confidential. After he confided in her, he wasn’t even sure why he had told her except that it was becoming increasingly easy to tell Jane whatever was on his mind. In a way, that was refreshing and allowed him a freedom of expression he had never truly had, but it was also something with which he was uncomfortable too for the same reason. At least he could be relieved that whatever illness had stalked the Ponderosa seemed to have run its course and everyone was back to feeling well again. Once Sport was munching on his hay, the couple strolled to the house. Adam was pleased to be able to hand a contract to his father and only hoped that he wouldn’t be too disappointed in the terms.

“Adam, I’m surprised that you allowed such a strong penalty clause to be in here. We haven’t had one like that in a long time.”

“There was a lot of stiff competition for the contracts. I didn’t think we would likely have any trouble making those deadlines and allowed quite a cushion of time considering the size of our crews.”

“Yes, I can see that, but those penalty clauses always make me nervous because of the unexpected, but if it has to be, I guess we can deal with it. I wish the margin was a bit higher but if we get everything done according to the terms, we can pay off those loans so it will do.”

Wanting very much to tell her father-in-law why Adam had been unable to do better, Jane knew she couldn’t break his confidence so she kept her silence. Adam’s pride wouldn’t let him admit that he had been ill. He would rather bear some slight disappointment that his father had in the contract than to admit that he had been physically unable to perform his usual negotiating magic because of illness. She could tell how fatigued he was too so she was even more concerned when Ben suggested that Adam might have to take another trip.

“Your brothers have been very busy catching up on the work that wasn’t done while everyone was sick. No one has been up to the timber camps or checking in at the progress at the lumber mill. You’ve been away, but by tomorrow, I’d like you to take a ride up there to see how things are going.”

Standing at Adam’s side, Jane felt him flinch at the request, but yet he agreed to it. She again wanted so much to argue that he shouldn’t go. It was an arduous right up to the camps, and days up there were from sunup to sundown. However, Adam had to make the choice, and it was clear that he already had. That night, they went to bed quite early and Adam fell asleep almost immediately. Jane lay beside him staring up at the shadows cast by the moonlight coming through the window worried about her husband and what the next few days would be like for him. She worried for three days and was greatly relieved when he arrived home. He needed a shave, needed to bathe, and quite obviously needed some sleep, but he was fine otherwise.

“I can see you were worried. I hope you didn’t lose sleep over this.”

“Not too much. Only at night.” Jane smiled slightly as Adam pulled her close.

“I’m sorry, but the worst is over now. Let’s go inside so I can get cleaned up. It’s Saturday, and tomorrow I think we ought to have a picnic by the lake and finally get that chance to cool off in the water.”

That brought a genuine smile from Jane and an answering grin from Adam for both knew there was going to be a lot more going on than cooling off in the water. They headed to the washroom and Adam was stripping down to bathe when a rider came into the yard yelling that word that they never wanted to hear.

“Fire! Fire! There’s fire on the eastern ridge. Fire!”

Chapter 3

Putting his hands on Jane’s shoulders, Adam turned her to face him. “Stay here. Do whatever Hop Sing tells you to do. He knows what to do in this kind of thing. All right?” As anxious as he was to go help fight that fire, Adam’s first concern was the safety of his wife. Seeing the fear in her eyes, he wanted more than anything to be able to stay with her and make her feel secure, but he knew she understood that he could not do that. She nodded and moved told him to go do what he had to do, but with tears in her eyes she told him to stay safe. For every minute he was gone, she was going to suffer torment. Already the environment outside was chaotic with men grabbing tools, burlap and old blankets, buckets, and various other items and loading them into wagons as others saddled horses and headed off in the direction of the fire. Ben barely acknowledged that Adam was back at first but then turned to him.

“Do you think we can make that firebreak if we put the whole crew to work at it now?”

“Maybe but we’ll probably have to set charges too.”

“Can you get some dynamite and do that part? Hoss and I can get the crews cutting trees, and I’ll have Joe take charge of crews trying to slow the fire while we do that.”

It was a plan born of desperation but had a reasonable chance of succeeding. Adam agreed and told his father that he was taking the large carriage then because the springs were new and would make transporting the dynamite and other materials safer. Ben agreed and said they would meet him near the ridge as soon as he could get there. When he did, they quickly mapped out a line for the firebreak and set to work with Adam placing charges well away from where men were actively cutting. The fire was advancing on them rapidly though so it was a desperate fight and chances were being taken that wouldn’t have been taken if they had time to be prudent. In his black clothing, it was often difficult to see where Adam was in the smoke that was starting to obscure their vision and both Hoss and Ben warned the crews to locate him before they dropped any of the large trees. The firebreak they created was wide enough but was only about a half mile long when the first of the fiery embers starting dropping among them and igniting small flames. Some of the men had to be reassigned to fight those even as Ben worried that Joe and his crews weren’t falling back fast enough and might be caught in the conflagration if the fire crowned.

It was with great relief when those men finally started showing up among his crews and helping. That way they could keep fighting the small fires and could get back to dropping more trees. In the confusion, they lost track of where Adam was with the two men who were working with him until a series of blasts let them know that the cutting crew and the blasting crew were in an uncomfortable proximity. The fire was close then anyway and they fell back to the safe side of the firebreak hoping it would hold and fought the small fires that falling embers continued to start.

By dawn, they knew that they had been successful. There luckily had been no wind overnight and the fire had burned itself out. That morning, some men unfortunately had to stay behind to continue to fight the small flare-ups. Ben promised that there would be replacements there in four hours as soon as some of the other men got breakfast and a couple of hours sleep.

As all the men assembled and assignments were given, it was the first time that anyone realized that two men were missing and unaccounted: Adam and one of the men with whom he had been working. A search was begun immediately starting with the last place anyone had seen them which was on the steepest part of the slope where they had been setting charges. The third man had gone back for more blasting caps but had thought they were unnecessary when he saw the blasts go off and the trees all coming down. After that, there were no more trees to blast so he had joined one of the other crews not thinking that there was any trouble. The man who had been at Adam’s side was found first. He had been trapped by fallen trees and apparently had suffocated when the smoke became too thick. There was no sign of Adam there so the search proceeded further down the steep slope. They found Adam further down trapped as well under downed trees. Because he was further downslope, he had been spared suffocation but he was injured more seriously. Trees felled by the men cutting had started a chain reaction and felled trees that toppled into them even as the first few charges were set off which apparently had further worsened the collapse. It took some time to extricate Adam from the debris. His right leg was badly abraded and was unconscious from a head injury, but at least his family was relieved that he was breathing fairly normally. A sling was rigged with blankets and ropes so that he could be lifted up the slope and within an hour, he was on a wagon and headed home. A rider had been sent to town to summon the doctor who would hopefully meet them at the house. Joe went to the house too to tell Hop Sing and Jane so that they could get things ready for Adam’s care, and then Joe stayed with Jane to try to reassure her that Adam’s injuries had not looked too bad.

“But he was sick in San Francisco and lost weight, and then he was up at the timber camps and the lumber mill without a proper chance to get any rest. He was exhausted already and now this.”

Surprised at those revelations, Joe was worried too that Adam was weaker than usual and might be hampered in his recovery because of that. Doctor Martin had similar concerns when he came out to see the family after tending to Adam.

“Has Adam been ill lately? He seems very thin.”

Ben was going to answer in the negative except Jane and Joe began to explain what Jane had said earlier to Joe. Paul nodded as what they said fit what he had found. Jane asked him then to please tell her about Adam.

“As far as I can tell, he should recover from the injuries, but his recent illness and being so exhausted will likely make the recuperation longer than normal. His leg will need the bandages changed frequently at first as the wounds there are shallow but will likely weep quite a lot at first. His head injury has me concerned but his breathing and other signs are normal so I’m hopeful that it will be nothing more than a concussed brain. He will need to stay in bed resting where it is quiet. With his leg, that should be a practical necessity as well.”

Without waiting to hear any more, Jane went to their bedroom to sit at Adam’s side. Ben felt a pang of loss realizing that he had lost that role and watched his daughter-in-law go do what he so longed to do himself. Instead, he saw the look that Hoss had and knew he had another wounded son to help. After ushering Paul into the kitchen for a good hot meal before he left, Ben sought out Hoss.

“Feeling guilty about Adam being hurt.”

“He coulda been kilt, Pa, and it woulda been all my fault.”

“Only if you dropped the tree on him.”

“Pa, it ain’t funny.”

“I know it isn’t funny, but that’s the only way it could be your fault.”

“But don’t you see? We woulda been making that firebreak a long time ago except I was being stubborn about any trees being cut down for that. Instead, we got lucky. There was no wind hardly at all, and we had most of our men available right off so we were able to split into crews too. Adam was here to set dynamite charges, and we had the dynamite to set cause he ordered it to clear out some stumps. See, we were real lucky. Me being stubborn coulda got Adam kilt instead of just hurt so bad.”

“Hoss, I was the one who held up making the firebreaks. I wasn’t sure they were necessary. It seemed to be a lot of work for what might never be needed. If you want to lay blame, then blame me. I sent Adam off to San Francisco to meetings without ever considering that he might be ill. Apparently he got sick on the trip. Then when he came back, he didn’t want to admit that to me and kept it quiet so I sent him up to the timber camps when he probably should have been here in bed recuperating. There’s always blame to be assessed if that’s what you want to do, but looking back, we can always see how we should have done things.”

“I wish we’d a done ’em all a lot better.”

Further discussion was halted when Hop Sing came to tell them that Adam was awake. They hurried to see him and found Jane spooning some water into his mouth. It was then though that they all discovered that the head injury had left a devastating result. Adam frowned at them as they talked to him and asked him questions. He turned to Jane and watched her carefully as she asked if he wanted more water. He grabbed her wrist and shouted.

“Talk so I can hear.” Even as he did that, his eyes opened very wide and he had a shocked expression. He had not been able to hear himself either. He had felt the vibrations and was fairly certain he had spoken. He saw the expressions of his family and that confirmed that he had spoken for they stood stunned. He saw his father’s lips moving but there was no sound at all. He looked at Jane and she also clearly spoke to him, but again there was no sound.

Reaching over to Adam’s desk, Ben grabbed some paper and handed it to Jane telling her something that Adam couldn’t hear. She wrote quickly and then turned the paper to Adam so that he could see that she asked him if he could hear them. He shook his head. He couldn’t hear them. His world was absolutely and devastatingly silent. What he couldn’t know was that his family stood there in absolute silence too for none of them knew what to say to that news.

The next day when Doctor Paul Martin returned to check on Adam, he checked his ears and anything else he could and had to report that as far as he could tell, there was nothing wrong anywhere else that could explain the deafness. Apparently the head injuries had done something that interfered with Adam’s ability to hear. Doctor Martin could give them no assurances that it would ever clear up and could only say that they would have to wait.

“It could be swelling in the brain. It could be a hematoma or what we would call a blood clot. It’s like a large collection of blood that sits in a spot. Either of those could clear up in time and his hearing could come back partially or completely depending on the extent of damage that may have been caused.”

“Paul, is it possible that my son’s hearing will never come back?”

“I hate to say that, but yes, that is entirely possible. We have no way to look inside the brain to see any damage or fix any damage even if we could see it. He had multiple blows to the head when he went down that slope and ended up with debris piled on top of him. He’s lucky to be alive.”

“I’m afraid my son may not feel that way.”

In their bedroom, Jane had already discovered that as Adam was sinking into an angry depression and pulling away from her and everyone else. He hated being confined to bed in any circumstance, and to be hampered by the loss of hearing unable to even know when someone had entered the room, made him quite upset. Frequently he was startled by someone being there when he hadn’t even realized someone was approaching. His life was changing dramatically, and he didn’t feel that he was the man that he had been. He wasn’t sure what kind of man he could be any more.

Chapter 4

For the next month, Adam’s physical recuperation proceeded smoothly as his leg healed and he walked first with a crutch and then with a cane. However, emotionally, he was more and more affected by his loss of hearing and let that damage his relationships with his family. He slept in the same bed with Jane but turned his back to her every night. He didn’t know how to explain to her that he no longer wanted to be a father feeling that he wasn’t much of a man any more and felt inadequate to be a parent. He felt inadequate in every regard actually but didn’t know how to back out of any other relationship. As his physical health rebounded, he wanted to get back to work, but wondered as did his family how he could work at what he had done previously if he couldn’t hear. He wouldn’t hear warnings yelled if he worked with cattle. He wouldn’t be able to discuss horses. He couldn’t even explain some simple orders with the men. The hands didn’t know how to react to him either because a silent Adam who couldn’t hear them was such a drastic change from the man they had known. A bit of paranoia crept into Adam’s thinking as well. When he walked through the yard and saw men laughing, he began to wonder each time if they were laughing at him. All the stares and conversations that were obviously about him stopped him from going to town and eventually he wouldn’t even attend church services preferring the silence of the house to the silence of a church full of people who might be staring at him, discussing him, or worst in his mind: feeling sorry for him. However he was feeling quite sorry for himself. Joe worked with Adam on his sign language and began teaching Jane some of it too, but it was a slow process both in learning it and in communicating that way especially with the type of things they needed to say to each other.

There no longer seemed to be a place for Adam on the ranch until that morning when Ben discussed at breakfast that two of the line cabins had suffered major damage in previous storms and needed repairs. It meant a stay at the cabin and a lot of tedious work which meant that Hoss and Joe put up a series of reasons why the other one should go do it. That got Adam’s attention and he asked what they were discussing. Ben took a piece of paper and briefly explained what he wanted done. In his voice that was seldom used and which was losing all inflection and some enunciation, Adam declared his intentions.

“I’ll go. I’ll do the repairs.”

At first, Ben responded verbally before he remembered that Adam couldn’t hear him. Jane had already grabbed Adam’s arm to turn him toward her to shake her head showing her disapproval. Ben wrote that Adam shouldn’t go, and then Jane grabbed the paper and added her objections. Adam stood and slammed his fist on the table.

“I’m going!”

It was clear that there was going to be no way to dissuade him so Ben asked Joe and Hoss to decide who would go with him. Adam understood the gist of that request and simply shook his head and pointed at himself letting them know he planned to go alone just as one of them would have gone to do the job. To insist on sending someone with him would have only been a major insult at that point. Ben could see that Jane had tears in her eyes and guessed that Adam must have seen it too, but nothing like that could seem to break down the wall he had built up around himself. He left the table to go to their bedroom to pack the clothing he would need. Within a short time, he was in the stable getting horses to harness to a wagon. Reluctantly, Hoss went out to help him, and then helped him load supplies and tools into the wagon. Jane came out with sacks of food and Hoss could see that she had been crying. He left the two alone hoping that Adam would at least reach out to his wife to try to comfort her, but he doubted that he would. He didn’t and Jane cried with tears rolling down her cheeks as Adam drove the wagon away to do his solitary task. Alerted by Hoss to what had happened, Ben went to her side.

“It’s a difficult time for him. He needs to work out how to live like this and he’s fighting that battle inside of himself.”

“This is my home now, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do either. I’m not really his wife any more. He’s shut me out completely.”

That confirmed Ben’s worst fears of what had happened in Adam’s marriage. “You’re family. You’re in your home, and with your family. We’ve always taken care of each other, and we always will. Adam will work this out. I’m sure of it, but he needs more time.”

“I think he needs more than time, but I wish I knew what it was that he needed. I would give him anything if I only knew what it was.”

“The four of us are going to have to start working on that. Now come inside and have some tea. Hop Sing always has tea for times like this. You look a little pale, and I don’t want my daughter to get sick.”

Out on the wagon, Adam had tears too driven by feelings of guilt and loss. He hated treating Jane the way that he had, but he thought she was better off without him. For the past month, he had pushed her away from him and thought she should leave him and find a whole man who could be a proper husband and a proper father to the children she wanted so badly. Feeling inadequate in both regards, he wanted the best for her and thought he was far too damaged to be of any benefit to her. Apparently, he had forgotten the vows they had taken together because he had only pictured himself protecting and caring for others never imagining a world in which others would have to protect and care for him. So out of his element by being in need of help, he had no idea of how to ask others for it and how to accept it and adapt to that kind of life.

What aggravated things was that he had a nearly constant headache that got worse at times with stabbing pains that were sometimes almost debilitating. He felt lucky that those incidents had never occurred when anyone could see him clinging to a bedpost or sitting with his arms cradling his head rocking back and forth begging for relief. Thankfully those episodes were short even if they left him feeling somewhat weak and light-headed afterwards. The worst one had occurred only two days earlier when he had been chopping wood. He had been thinking that it was a job that had been more satisfying when he could hear the ax slam into the wood and hear the wood split with the power of his blow. Doing the job in utter silence was not nearly as interesting. Nothing was as interesting with silence as the backdrop. A walk or a ride without even the sound of the wind and certainly no sounds of birds made it much less appealing compared to what the experience had been before when he could hear and add all those other elements into the whole. What bothered him even more though was not being able to hear anyone or anything approaching. Often startled by that, it made him feel cowardly and less like a man. He hated it when he was exposed that way. At least up at the line cabin, no one would see him cringe like that. But that day when the severe pain hit and he dropped to his knees and rocked back and forth cradling his head in his hands waiting for the terrible pain to stop was when he decided he needed to be away from his family because he didn’t ever want them to see him like that, so weak and helpless. The opportunity to go to the line shack had been a godsend to him.

It was late in the day before he reached the line cabin and dark before he unloaded the wagon and got the horses in the small corral, watered and fed with grass from the meadow. He had watched for signs all day that he had been followed but had seen none. Hoss was smarter than that though and had circled around to be able to watch from the side and now pulled back to make a cold camp before heading home in the morning where he could at least report that Adam had arrived safely and that there had been no problems. As long as he was at the line cabin, he should continue to be safe. Hoss wished he could stay to keep watch but knew that sooner or later Adam would realize he was being watched and that would be more harmful than letting him be alone. Hoss knew there had to be a better solution than letting him stay there alone for a week or two and thought long and hard on that issue that night and on the ride home the next morning. When he arrived home the next morning, he told his father he needed a few days off.

“I got something I got to go do or at least see if I can do it.”

“You’re not planning to find a way to watch over your brother up at the line cabin. We discussed that and I thought we agreed that we shouldn’t do that.”

“No, I’m not gonna do that, but if my plan works, I may be stopping by to see him at least for a little bit. Now, Pa, you gotta trust me on this. You know I wouldn’t do nothing to hurt Adam.” Ben nodded. “Now, how’s Jane doing with all this?”

“She’s very melancholy. She’s not talking much more than Adam was. She has something on her mind too but isn’t ready to share it with me. I wish she and Adam could find a way to talk.”

“They could ifn he wanted to do it.”

“You think he doesn’t?”

“I think he wants her to leave him. I think he wants her to go away and prove that he isn’t a man any more cause that’s what he’s been thinking about himself. It’s why I didn’t say too much against him going on up to fix up that line cabin. I think it might be good for him to do it. It’ll prove to him that he can do things yet.”

“I only hope nothing goes wrong.”

“Ain’t nothing gonna go wrong that wouldn’t go wrong ifn he could hear. Nobody has to hear to fix up a line cabin.”

“I suppose you’re right about that. Now if you could find a way to get him to fix up his marriage, that would be good too.”

“Well, I got a plan on getting him started on that. It’s why I want a few days off.”

“For your mysterious mission.”

“Well, it may not work out. I want to see what I can do. I’ll be sure to tell you all about it ifn it works. Otherwise, I’m gonna have to come up with a new plan.”

Four days later, Hoss arrived at the line cabin with a dog running beside him. He dismounted and took a good look around seeing that progress had been made. There was a new ladder leaning against the side of the line cabin and the roof had a lot of new boards across it. Adam must have pulled up the boards, tar papered the whole, and replaced boards that were rotting because the whole roof lay in neat order not as a roof that had been patched. Adam walked up from the meadow with an armful of grass for the horses and scowled to see Hoss there. He scowled more when he saw the dog, but Hoss grinned and gave him a thumbs up as he pointed to the roof. Hoss walked into the line cabin and sat on a chair uninvited and the dog walked in with him and lay down in front of the fireplace where a nice fire was burning. Adam came in a short time later still scowling. Hoss pulled a short note from his pocket and handed it to him. Dropping to the chair on the opposite side of the table, Adam read. When he finished, he shook his head no, and threw the note in the fire after crumpling it up. Hoss shrugged, got up, and walked out to his horse to leave. He told the dog to stay and it did. Adam told the dog to leave and it wouldn’t which made Hoss smile inside. The dog was as well trained as the man who sold him had said he was. He hoped that Adam remembered everything that was in that note because he was going to need that information in the next few days.

Furious as he watched his brother ride off, Adam turned back to the cabin where the dog still lay in front of the fireplace. He remembered the name from the note and said it. “King.” The dog stood wagging it’s tail and waiting for whatever Adam wanted him to do next. In disgust, Adam shook his head so King lay back down and waited for his next command. There weren’t any but Adam walked out the door so King followed after a moment wondering if perhaps this new human didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He followed him to the corral where he grabbed two buckets and headed to the creek, filled them, and then carried them back to the horses. Then he took another bucket from the cabin and did the same. While they were at the creek, King took a long drink enjoying the cool water after his long journey. Adam waited for him to finish and they walked back to the cabin together. King walked back into the cabin and flopped down in front of the fireplace and watched as Adam prepared dinner. He was hungry and hoped some of that food was for him. There was a whole rabbit there and when Adam put over half of it on a tin plate in front of him, he wasn’t dainty about showing his appreciation for the meal. He walked over and rested his nose on Adam’s thigh then as if to say thank you. Adam rubbed his head briefly and then went back to his meal. About an hour later, King moved to the door and made it clear that he wanted to go out. Adam opened the door and King bounded off into the meadow to do his business, which made Adam think it might be a good time for him to do the same. If there was anything out there, surely the dog would notice. He decided that there was at least one good reason to have the dog there with him. When King finished, he raced to Adam’s side and got another pat on the head. The two walked back into the cabin, and up on the hill, Hoss smiled and settled back into his cold camp. He had some reasonably good news to bring home. It wasn’t huge news, but it was a start at bringing Adam out of his melancholy state.

Chapter 5

“Hoss, are you feeling better about things now?”

“I am, Pa. I was only thinking about myself before, and that was at least part of the reason Adam got hurt. I feel better now that I got myself straightened out, and I’m thinking about how all of us can do things right. Makes me feel a whole lot better inside.”

“Why do you think Adam feels that way?”

“I’d feel that way ifn I was in his shoes, and he’s got a whole lot more pride than I do.”

Ben felt it was time to bring up another subject that he feared had been festering too long. “Hoss, I know you think I was taking Adam’s side on the firebreak issue, but I wasn’t. I held back my approval for his plan because I wouldn’t do it unless you agreed to it or could come up with a different idea. He agreed to that too, but he was worried that if we told you that, you would simply say no and not even consider the possibility of doing anything. He can be very proud, but we both know how stubborn you can be when you feel strongly about something.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured that all out too.” Looking around, Hoss wondered where Little Joe was.

“He’s teaching Jane more sign language. She wants to go with Adam to the next line cabin. I’ve tried to talk her out of it but she’s determined to go, and the more I’ve thought about it, the more I think she may be right to do it.”

“In the note I gave to Adam about King, I told him to teach the signs to the dog. I hope he does.”

Up at the line cabin, Adam was doing that and finding that King learned quickly. It was reassuring to have someone by his side who could hear and alert him to changes going on. The night before, King had awakened him and had been insistent that he get up. When Adam had looked out the window, he had seen that the horses were very agitated and in the moonlight, he saw that a cougar was stalking them. He fired off a shot through the window killing the animal and saving his horses. King had not liked the noise in the enclosed space, but Adam had not wanted to go outside to face the predator in the dark. He had been able to push the window open without the animal hearing anything apparently because the horses were making so much noise. He hadn’t done anything about them or the cougar until daylight preferring the safety of the cabin until it was light. King was calm though so he guessed there were no more dangerous animals in the vicinity. He skinned the cougar in the morning and buried the carcass before he and King did a little hunting. With a big breakfast of roasted squirrel, both he and King were ready for some work that afternoon. The line cabin was almost done so the next day, Adam planned to head back home to pick up more supplies to move on up to the second line cabin that needed repairs. It seemed like an even better idea now that he had King with him. He even began thinking about trying to talk things out with Jane and find a way to make their marriage work even with him feeling that he was less than the man he ought to be for her.

However that thinking all changed late in the day. Before leaving, Adam decided that he ought to restock the firewood box in the cabin. He gathered wood and sawed it into appropriate lengths with no difficulty. However when he pulled out the ax and began chopping wood, he got one of those terrible headaches and this one was the worst he had ever had. Clasping his hands to his head as the world spun around, he fell because he couldn’t tell where up was. Curled in a fetal position next to the pile of wood, he could only pray for the pain to stop until unconsciousness released him from the torment. He awoke an hour later with King standing guard by his side and doing his best to keep him warm by pressing closely against him. Shivering slightly from being on the ground for so long, Adam stood slowly and made his way into the cabin wrapping a blanket around himself and building up the fire in the fireplace until the cabin was quite warm. He sat that way for a long time with King sitting silently beside him. Finally he got the leftover food from their earlier meal and set it out for King to eat. He wasn’t at all hungry. However he was thinking and the thoughts were quite dark. What he worried about was what if that happened if he was climbing a ladder or riding a horse. He knew there was so much he couldn’t do because he had that worry. It wasn’t only the deafness that handicapped him, but he didn’t want to tell anyone about the debilitating headaches and have them think him feebleminded as well. It was as if King sensed his melancholy state for he came over and rested his head on Adam’s thigh.

“Thank you, King. You don’t judge, do you. I can’t do anything wrong in your eyes. I wish there was some way for me to be that way with everyone else, but there isn’t. I’m damaged goods.”

The next morning, Adam got a late start for home. He was reluctant to try chopping firewood, but there was no repeat of the previous day’s headache and the firewood box was restocked, the cabin was neat and orderly, and all the repairs were completed. After loading the wagon and climbing into the seat, Adam signed for King to join him. King jumped up on the back of the wagon and then climbed up on the seat next to Adam for the ride home looking much like his name, king of his domain. Adam smiled at the way he sat on the seat as if he was being driven to his castle. It was the first time he could remember smiling in about two months. As he approached the ranch house, he saw Jane and began to smile again until he remembered what he had decided to do. He adopted the cool demeanor he intended to use and kept it when he arrived even though he could see how disappointed she was in that reception. Jane did a good job covering it up though he could see that her eyes were glistening and that almost broke his resolve. Jane signed some things to him especially that they should talk later. Impressed by her progress in signing, Adam agreed but later wished he hadn’t knowing that she probably wanted more from him than he wanted to give. He was absolutely correct in that assessment.

Once dinner was over and they were in their bedroom, Jane told him she wanted to go with him to the line cabin when he did the repairs. He said she couldn’t. She said it was her place because she was his wife and had every right and duty to be there. He said it wasn’t a proper and safe place for her. That argument went back and forth silently for probably most of an hour before they settled into bed with the issue unresolved. In the morning, Jane packed her bag and stood defiantly testing whether Adam would physically try to stop her from accompanying him on the trip. At breakfast, Adam tried to enlist his father and brothers on his side but none of them was willing to take a side signing simply to him that is was between him and Jane. Frustrated, he stalked out of the house with his bemused family sitting at the table watching as Jane flashed them a somewhat victorious grin.

“Good luck, dear. I hope this plan of yours works.”

“Papa, I hope so too. Joe has taught me all he can with signing, and Hoss has been coaching me as much as he can about Adam and his thinking and his moods. We’ve discussed as many possibilities as we could. Now it’s up to me. Wish us luck.”

With that, Jane grabbed her bag and followed Adam out the door. Hoss frowned a little at that closing line. “What do you suppose she meant by that. Did that ‘us’ mean her and Adam, or did she mean something else?”

Joe speared some bacon with Hoss distracted by Jane’s statement. “What else could she mean? Of course she meant her and Adam.”

However Ben was intrigued too once Hoss got him thinking about it. “She has been a bit pale lately, and she skipped breakfast again asking Hop Sing for biscuits and tea. You don’t suppose?”

“Maybe, Pa. Maybe.”

“She did buy a couple of new dresses in town when we were there. Those new wrap dresses she’s been wearing.”

“That would fit the idea.”

“What? You two think maybe she is?”

“Could be. And ifn she is, older brother don’t stand a chance against her. Nothing can stop a mama bear when she wants what she wants for her young’un.”

On the wagon, King settled in happily sitting beside Jane and accepting her arm around him. He hadn’t been too sure of her at first because of the way Adam had reacted to her, but she had welcomed him into their home and then into their bedroom making a nice blanket bed for him next to their bed and frequently patting his head and talking to him. He liked that, and she signed to him as well using the same signs as Adam. When Adam helped her up onto the wagon seat, it was all King needed to know. She was important to Adam so she was also important to him. They were three now instead of two as far as he was concerned.

As Adam drove the wagon, he had many mixed feelings. On one hand, he was proud that Jane would be so loyal and strong that she would insist on coming with him and wouldn’t back down. It only reinforced the idea that he had made a great choice in a wife. However, he still felt that he was no longer suitable as a husband, and he knew too that she wanted children so much and he felt inadequate to be a father. He guessed that she wanted to be with him to try to pull him back into an intimate relationship and back into their marriage, which was disintegrating. He was going to have to be resolute to make sure that didn’t happen. He signed to her only those things that needed to be communicated such as when the horses needed to be watered and rested and later when they stopped for a lunch break. Then he let her know later that they would be staying at the first line shack that was already repaired because the second one was further away and would take nearly another day to reach by wagon. Jane didn’t mind because at least it meant that for one more night, living conditions would be reasonably comfortable. Ben and Hoss had warned her that once they reached the second line cabin, she might find herself sleeping in the bed of the wagon for a night or two while the roof was being repaired. She had told herself that she was ready for the sacrifice, but she certainly wasn’t looking forward to it.

Once they reached the line cabin, Adam was very businesslike in his approach getting water and grass for the horses and then water for the cabin. He brought in the extra bedroll and a blanket for King and dropped them on the floor by the fireplace. Jane unpacked food that Hop Sing had sent along for them and set it on the table lighting the lantern that was there. She had already lit a fire in the fireplace to take the slight chill out of the air in the cabin. Staring at the fire briefly, Adam remembered how he had collapsed when cutting that wood and hoped nothing like it would happen on this trip with Jane. He pulled out a chair, sat at the table, and ate his meal without looking at Jane because he was doing his best to try to remain as platonic as possible but her nearness to him all day was making that more and more difficult. The night before he had lain with his back to her and even that had been difficult because he could still feel her warmth and feel her body moving with her breathing. He had not slept well with her so close and yet out of reach by his own decision. Now she was again only a few feet away and as desirable as ever. By the time the meal was over and cleared away, necessities were completed, and the horses were secured for the night, it was time to go to bed. The bed was small but could accommodate two. Jane assumed that they would sleep there but Adam began laying out a bedroll by the fireplace so she pulled a blanket from the bed and went to lie down beside him there. He angrily pointed at the bed and signed that she should sleep there. She just as angrily signed back that as his wife, she had a legal and moral right to sleep wherever he slept. They stood there toe-to-toe as they had the night before, but this time the argument was over much quicker because Adam knew she wouldn’t back down. Angrily he picked up his blanket and hers and stalked to the bed throwing down one and laying on it pulling the other on top of him. He motioned to her to get in beside him. She did and rolled on her side to fit in next to him spoon fashion. King lay down on his blanket next to the fireplace and relaxed in the warmth of the fire.

As they lay in bed, Jane didn’t think Adam would be able to resist her being so close. He had an arm around her simply because that was the most comfortable way to rest, but it put him in close proximity to her body from his nose to his knees. He inhaled her scent and felt her pressed up against him. It had been almost two months since that had happened. She was correct in that he was unable to resist for his body betrayed him and began reacting to her presence. Doing nothing, Jane waited to see what Adam would do. He groaned and pulled her closer to him so she turned in his arms to face him. That was all it took. He kissed her passionately unable to deny his feelings any longer no matter what his thoughts were about his disability or his feelings of inadequacy because of it. Their lovemaking was awkward and rushed but proved to both that their love had survived the crisis. At one point, afraid that he might cause Jane to be with child, Adam had tried to pull away, but Jane held him close. When they were holding each other later, she pulled back a little and spelled out baby on his chest one letter at a time and then took his hand and placed it on her lower abdomen where he could already feel a slight swelling. With the waning light from the fireplace, Jane could see the surprise. She nodded wondering if he was happy about the news. She smiled hoping to see an answering smile and got a small smile in return and then a slowly blossoming big grin, dimples and all. She wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him into another big kiss. They didn’t get to sleep for quite a while. Many times Jane felt Adam’s hand on her lower abdomen caressing that slight bump as if he was in wonder and amazement that they had a baby growing there.

Chapter 6

The next morning, Adam awakened with Jane asleep on his shoulder and his arm was numb, which wasn’t the only reason he needed to move. King needed to go outside and so did Adam. As carefully as he could, he tried to extricate himself from the bed without waking her, but she awoke and smiled at him. He frowned, but she understood and moved to let him out of the bed handing him his shirt as he pulled on his pants, found his socks, and put on his boots. Sliding his shirt on but not buttoning it, he quickly opened the door and headed out with King as Jane dressed too wondering where she could go do the same. By the time she was dressed and outside, Adam was back with King and showed her where she could go to safely take care of her necessary business and then he signed to King to stay with her as he went to check on the horses. Adam was very businesslike, and that made Jane worry that the previous night’s activities might not have made as much an impression on him as she had believed. However when she got inside, she found him busy writing and realized he was writing the words of a hymn that he could no longer sing to her but he wanted her to know that he wanted her to hear the words. He skipped over a few of the verses and stuck to the ones that could have the double meaning that he wanted to convey.

Come and rejoice with me!

For once my heart was poor,

And I have found a treasury

Of love, a boundless store.

Come and rejoice with me!

I, once so sick at heart,

Have met with One who knows my case,

And knows the healing art.

Come and rejoice with me!

For I was wearied sore,

And I have found a mighty arm

Which holds me evermore.

Come and rejoice with me!

For I have found a Friend

Who knows my heart’s most secret depths,

Yet loves me without end.

As she read the lines, she smiled and then wrote the words that came to her as she read. It was from Romans 12:15. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Both of them had a talent for remembering verses verbatim and reciting to each other. In this case, it opened the conversation into more serious topics. They began a correspondence on paper that continued for some time. Jane had brought quite a lot of paper along expecting that at some point signing would be inadequate for what they needed to communicate. She had had no idea that it would happen so soon.

It took some time, but Adam admitted to her how he had been feeling about being inadequate because of his disability. She pointed at the line cabin as proof of how much he could still do and wrote about how he always found a way through adversity. She reminded him too that they would have his family there for support and wouldn’t be alone. What he couldn’t bring himself to tell her was that he was having those terrible headaches. They were getting along so well and things were looking so bright that he couldn’t bear to see worry and fear replace the hope and confidence that she now had. He kept his worry from showing but had to be concerned about how she would react the first time one of those headaches hit and could only hope it wouldn’t be as awful as the last couple had been.

As Adam worried about that, Ben and his brothers had two other worries. One was that they had to meet that timber contract he had signed for them. That meant that Joe was busy and unable to help at the ranch as he had taken responsibility for the contract. In order to make sure that they beat the penalty clause, Joe had taken some of the hands to help. They weren’t loggers but they could handle teams and help haul the logs out. Shorthanded on the ranch with Joe and some of the men gone, Ben and Hoss were facing another problem in that it seemed rustlers were taking advantage of their manpower shortage and were siphoning off cattle at an alarming rate especially from the area where Adam and Jane were headed to repair the line cabin. That news had arrived shortly after Adam and Jane had departed the day before and Ben wondered if they should go tell Adam to return home until the rustlers were apprehended.

“Pa, ifn he does like he did at the first cabin, he’ll stick pretty close to the place doing what needs to be done. With no hearing, he doesn’t like to go too far off where he can’t know what’s going on.”

“And there’s no reason for the rustlers to approach the line cabin because it would only expose them because by now they probably know we’ll be looking for them.”

“Yup, that’s about how I figure it too. That cabin sits a ways away from the pasture up in that grove of trees so even if they was to come after the cattle there, they won’t be that close to the cabin that Adam would see ’em.”

“He only has the team with him too so he can’t ride after them even if he wanted to do that.” Pausing for a moment, Ben decided to broach a subject with Hoss that had been bothering his thoughts for a while. “Hoss, Adam hasn’t made any attempt to ride at all since he was hurt. I would have thought that at some point he would have taken Sport out for a ride, but he hasn’t even gone in the stable to see him. He lets others take care of him as if he doesn’t even want to see him. Do you have any idea why he doesn’t want to ride?”

“I been thinkin’ on that too. It seems a mite odd to me too. I’ve been wondering if there’s something more wrong that Adam ain’t told us. Maybe there’s something that hurts that he ain’t talkin’ about.”

“I thought that too for a while so I watched him when he walked even going up and down the stairs and he seemed to move well. He loaded the wagon with ease and helped Jane up into the seat with no apparent difficulty.”

“So it has to be something else.” Hoss paused as he thought about what was needed for riding that wasn’t needed for driving a wagon. “Maybe his balance is off or something like that?”

“I’m afraid it’s probably the something like that and he’s not telling us because he sees it as a weakness. He’s so damn proud. I found out today in town that he was so ill in San Francisco that he had to hire one of our lawyers to help him draft the contract bid. He paid him out of his personal account. The receipt was in the papers I got from their office. I probably shouldn’t have looked but I thought I should check in case it was something that needed his attention.”

“He always wants to do the right thing no matter what it costs him.”

“I know. I wish I knew why he was like that.” As Hoss looked at his father with a sideways look and his eyebrows up a little, Ben had to shrug and admit. “All right. I know it was because I always expected so much from him when he was younger, but I haven’t been that way with him in years. I’ve told him over and over to take time for himself and that he doesn’t have to drive himself so hard.”

“You know that a colt learns from the stallion and that those lessons can’t be unlearned. Takes a lot to change those habits.”

Smiling gently, Ben couldn’t disagree. After a moment, he had to wonder though how much influence on Adam Jane might have. “Maybe Jane can mellow him out especially if she has the news for him that we suspect.”

“He’s got an awful lot on his plate right now. Hard to say how he’s gonna swallow that news.”

All Ben could do was nod in agreement with that too. Then he and Hoss went out to talk with the men about a plan to try to find where the rustlers were and how they might be apprehended. Riders were sent to neighboring ranches to see if they were having a similar problem or if it was unique to the Ponderosa. That would tell them how many men were likely to be involved.

While Ben and Hoss were discussing the rustlers with the men, the four rustlers were sitting on a hillside watching Adam and Jane unload the wagon at the line cabin.

“Now there’s the Cartwright who was hurt. That must be his wife. I wonder what they’re doing up here.”

“With what they’re unloading, it looks like he means to repair that cabin.”

“Just to repair it or to stay there a while?”

“Can’t tell by watching them.”

“Kinda surprised he woulda brought his woman with him to do a job like that.”

“Maybe he needs her with him. I heard he couldn’t do much for himself any more.”

“He don’t look that bad off.”

“Maybe not, but looks can fool ya.”

One of them by the name of Boston abruptly changed the subject. “By now, the others must have realized we’ve taken quite a few cattle. We can’t take many more without getting caught. The mining camp folks are probably gonna snitch on us too figuring on a reward from the Cartwrights that’ll be better than cheap beef we can sell to them.”

That got the attention of the other three. One had to ask. “Boston, you sound like maybe you got something else in mind.”

“I’m thinking we lay low a few days so if they come looking for rustlers, they find nothing. Then we take those two down there and hold ’em for ransom. One big payday and then we light on outta here and put as many miles between as and them as we can before they can give chase.”

“We can’t hurt ’em though. From what I’ve heard, those Cartwrights would track us down no matter where we went if we hurt ’em.”

“He’s got a dog down there with him too. That could make it hard to get close to him without him knowing.”

“Look, we got a couple of days to rest up, plan it all, and work out those details. We got food and water. We got enough money even if this doesn’t work out. Let’s just see what we can do. If you all don’t like the idea, in a couple of days, we can head out somewhere else to try our luck there. Fair enough?” They all agreed, and Boston leaned back and smiled. He already had a plan starting to formulate in his mind about how this idea of his could work. He even thought he might manage to find a way to have the money all to himself and leave these three others behind to face the consequences. He needed to get some smarter partners anyway. He smiled a nasty smile and the others thought he was thinking of a truly wicked plan. They were pleased not knowing they were probably on the wrong end of that plan.

Down by the cabin, King kept turning to the hill to the east and sniffing the air. Adam noticed as did Jane who asked him what she thought he was doing. Adam sat on the back of the wagon and took the time to sign to her very patiently. “He probably has caught the scent of a predator. It’s a long way off or he would be making more of an issue of it. He alerted me when a cougar was threatening the horses when I was here. He’ll let us know if anything dangerous gets close.”

Jane’s signing was better than it had been, but Adam still had to fill in parts when she signed but he understood her when she signed to him. “He must have a great sense of smell.”

They signed back and forth. “He does. When we hunt for rabbits or other small game, he alerts me when we’re getting close, and when I’m ready, he flushes it out. It’s great working with him.”

“You love that dog.”

Putting his head down and rubbing the back of his neck, Adam didn’t want to admit it, but he did. Jane wrapped an arm around Adam and kissed his cheek. He nodded and pulled her into an embrace and then kissed her more thoroughly holding her close until she pushed back and pointed at the cabin. They needed to get everything inside before it was dark. He agreed and they got back to work. From the evidence inside, the roof did leak, but with no threat of rain, they weren’t worried about that. They had a new mattress for the bed and new bedding. They had all fresh food supplies as well. Jane set about cleaning up the pots, pans, utensils, and the table and chairs as Adam took care of the horses and went to get firewood with King at his side. There was still some firewood in the box so Jane started a fire, but when Adam didn’t return after more than an hour, she went outside to find him. What she found horrified her. Adam lay on the ground curled up in a fetal position with his hands pressed to his head obviously in agony. King was pressed against him trying to protect him and keep him warm. The axe lay on the ground next to him, but he had no injury that she could see. She ran inside and got a blanket to wrap around him and did her best to roll him onto it and then wrap the other part over him as he shivered in the rapidly cooling mountain air.

“King, stay.”

That command was unnecessary but Jane wanted to be sure. She gathered up as much wood as she could carry and took it inside the cabin. She made several more trips until she had as much of the wood inside as they could use. Adam still wasn’t responding so she decided that the only thing to do was to try to drag him on the blanket. It was very difficult work but luckily there was no step up into this cabin as there was at the other one. As King realized what she was doing, he grabbed some of the blanket in his mouth and pulled too. Between the two of them, they eventually pulled Adam into the cabin enough that they could close the door. It was nearly dark by then and the fire in the fireplace was nearly out. Jane moved there to build the fire up for light and for the warmth. She got another blanket and covered Adam with that even as he seemed to be sleeping more now rather than in great pain. She sat on the floor by his side and waited for him to wake. King lay down by both of them.

Chapter 7

When Adam awoke, he had a mix of emotions. Embarrassed, he was worried too about how Jane would react and worried too about how she would feel about his withholding information about the headaches and these attacks from her. He knew he should have told her and would have to admit it, but he was too weak to go through all of that until he rested more. Luckily she expected nothing more than that and helped him to the bed pulling his boots from him and tucking a blanket around him. He was asleep before she lay beside him worried so much that she didn’t fall asleep for hours wondering if he would be all right. King slept beside the bed that night giving her some reassurance that things would be all right. In the morning, Adam awakened first and lay there knowing he had to explain it all and composing in his mind all that he had to write for he knew this was well beyond their ability to sign. As soon as he felt Jane stir, he moved to get out of bed making her almost instantly alert. He signed that he was fine, pulled on his boots, and took King outside with him. She followed a short time later still with that worried look. He signed that he would explain and went back inside pulling out paper and pencil and beginning to write.

In the cabin, Jane stood over Adam’s shoulder and read as he wrote. It wasn’t the most comfortable way for him to do it, but he understood it was only fair. He could have told her his thoughts but he couldn’t hear what he was saying and never knew if he was saying what he meant to convey. It was easier to sign the simple stuff and write out the more complex. That way he was sure that he was communicating exactly what he wanted to say. He began by explaining that he had been suffering from a nearly constant headache ever since the accident, but that the debilitating attacks had started later and had gradually been getting worse with the last two causing him to lose consciousness. She put her hand over his then and signed a question asking him about that two and he had to admit that he had had another incident in which he had lost consciousness. She was clearly angry with him for not telling her that. He had no good reason for it and could only apologize. She stood up and turned away from him because she was so upset and needed to vent. She screamed out “Jackass!” and paused to let her emotions calm down before she could return to the table, but she felt Adam’s hands on her shoulders. He turned her to face him, and she was amazed at his expression. It was a strange combination of amusement, wonder, and hope. He shocked her by asking a question in that strange inflectionless voice he had developed since he had lost his hearing. She wasn’t at all used to hearing him speak since his accident, and he had the oddest look.

“Did you just call me a jackass?”

She nodded but wondered how he could know, but then she got the same look he had. “Did you hear me?” He more or less read her lips and nodded.

“Say something else.” He turned her away from him again.

“I love you.”

Adam didn’t respond so Jane yelled it out loudly as she had when she called him a jackass. He spun her around and kissed her soundly.

“I love you too.”

“You can hear!”

“Some. I can hear some. I sounds like you’re a long way away, but I could hear it.”

“Maybe these headaches are a sign that things are changing or getting better.”

Adam raised his hands. He hadn’t understood all that she had said but had gotten the gist of it. He didn’t know if things were going to get any better, but he had some hearing. It was more than he had so it was an improvement and a reason to hope. He was starting to look at what he had now instead of what he had lost so he was taking those long steps out of melancholy and feeling sorry for himself. No longer was he going to be looking at what he couldn’t do. He needed to start looking at what he could do. He returned to the table to write again, and it was all in that more positive vein. When Jane read those parts, tears came to her eyes. He wanted them to start making plans for a future together whether he got any more hearing back or not by having them discuss possibilities for what he could do if he couldn’t be an active participant on the ranch.

“We can talk about it, but I think perhaps your whole family would like to be part of this discussion too. Just like these line cabins, there’s probably a lot you can do even if you don’t get all your hearing back. Even if you do, perhaps there are things you can do that you aren’t doing now. You’re going to be a father, and that means that we aren’t going to be so willing to see you gone for those long trips any more.”

“Or go with me.”

It was Jane’s turn to do some writing. “Yes, or we go with you. Yes, things need to change. Just like they did with King. I don’t know how much you could know because you couldn’t hear, but your father was adamantly against King living in the house. You insisted though, and I said he was your dog and therefore you were the one who needed to make the decision as to where he lived. Hoss backed us up on that, and when Joe got back, he agreed. Your father wasn’t happy with any of us on that score, but King was a perfect gentleman so all went well. There may have to be other changes too now that we have a child on the way, and everyone is going to have to adjust to those changes.”

Pulling back the the paper again, Adam wrote out some questions about Jane’s father and pushed it back to her to see what she thought.

“Yes, I do think he could be a problem again especially if our child is a boy. He agreed to get out of our life, but a male heir could entice him to interfere again. We’ll simply have to be on guard about that. Mostly I like to believe he won’t interfere especially until our son is older, but I’ve come to know that my father should not be underestimated. But we have the whole family to help us. We Cartwrights are a formidable bunch when we work together.”

The meaning of that wasn’t lost on Adam. He nodded and wrote again probably opening up more than he ever had to anyone. “I didn’t feel like I was me any more when I lost my hearing. So much of who I was seemed to be gone. I couldn’t hear my own voice. I couldn’t sing. I couldn’t talk. Expressing myself was so important to me and I thought I had lost that. I thought I wasn’t much of a man any more. I may have to be a different kind of man, and I have to show some courage that doesn’t involve my ability to fight another man. This struggle is something like I have never fought before and I have never had to ask for help and depend on others like I have to do now. I’m learning to accept it, but it’s very difficult for me. It doesn’t seem natural.”

Reaching out, Jane took his hand and they sat silently for a moment until King got their attention. It was clear that he was hungry. Adam grinned and went to get his shotgun. He motioned to King and signed to Jane that they would be back with breakfast soon. She said she would get grass and water for the horses and put on a pot of coffee. An hour later, Jane had a rabbit roasting as Adam got materials out to start tearing apart the roof in preparation for repairing it. After a hearty midmorning breakfast, Jane covered up everything inside as Adam began to rip away the top layer of boards on the roof. He set a new ridgeline and spread tarpaper over the bottom layer of boards making sure they were sound. Then he weighted down the tarpaper before it was time to quit for the day. Jane’s job had been to sort through the boards he had thrown down keeping a stack of those that were still good, some that could be trimmed into useable pieces, and others that were only good for the fireplace. They had brought quite a stack of boards in the wagon but needed to salvage as much as possible so that they wouldn’t have to make another trip to the ranch for more boards.

The following day, Jane learned how to use a saw wearing gloves borrowed from Adam. She wasn’t too sure of herself but did feel very proud when Adam gave her a thumbs up when he took boards from her to work on the roof. By midday, they had half the roof done, and by the end of the day, it was nearly completed. If it wasn’t so late, they would have been able to finish. Adam told her that they could do the finishing touches the next day and then head home. She was very glad of that because she did want a bath and there was no opportunity for one at the cabin. Washing from a bucket was not very appealing after one day, and after several, it left quite a lot to be desired especially after all the hard work they were doing. She had a lot more sympathy for those women who lived on farms and small ranches and didn’t have the luxuries that the Ponderosa provided.

However the rustlers had been watching and waiting too. There had been no signs of any riders from the Ponderosa out looking for them for the past day. It seemed that perhaps they had decided that the rustlers had given up and moved on. Boston decided it was time to move on with their new plan because it did look like Adam was getting ready to leave packing some of the tools into the wagon at the end of the day.

“Now I figure with that dog, it’s gonna be hard to approach that cabin and get them by surprise, but ifn they was to drive out with the wagon in the morning, we could catch ’em in the open and that would be surprise enough. We send her and the dog back to the cabin on foot and take him and the horses with us. She ain’t hurt then, and we got him to hold for ransom. What do you think?”

The men agreed so they began planning the rest of the kidnapping with who would do what, where, and when. By that evening, they had everything worked out and only waited for the morning and the anticipated movement of Adam and his wife on the wagon out through the trees and into their trap. It worked almost as well as they hoped except King was nervous. With those men on the move, he picked up some scents on the air occasionally that put him on edge when Adam and Jane were finishing up work on the roof and packing the last of the items in the wagon. When Adam signed to Jane that he thought there was a predator in the area and she ought to ride in the back of the wagon while he rode up front with a loaded rifle and shotgun, she agreed only when he said he needed that so that he would have an unrestricted field of fire especially until they cleared the trees. He signed that King would ride with her and that she was to make sure that he kept his head down and didn’t try to go off and protect them. As Adam drove away from the cabin, two riders broke from the trees to give chase so he drove as fast as he could away from them. It was a wild ride for about a half-mile until two more riders came directly at them from the front and rode alongside his team pulling the horses to a halt. Adam was ordered to get down from the wagon. He began to climb down slowly and one of the men dismounted and walked over grabbing him by his coat and jerking him so hard he fell to the ground. There he immediately grabbed his head and moaned loudly as he curled up apparently in severe pain. Boston rode up at that point with the other man.

“You weren’t supposed to shoot him or hurt him.”

“I didn’t do nothing ‘cept pull him from the wagon. He up and fell down all on his own.”

Not knowing whether it was an actual attack or if Adam was pretending, Jane still wanted to go to him. King wanted to attack the men who had hurt Adam. She told King to stay and climbed down from the wagon to go to Adam. “He gets terrible headaches like this and can’t do anything.”

Boston was disgusted. “Great, just great! We get to kidnap one of the Cartwrights and we get a feebleminded one. Damn!” He thought for a while longer as the other men stood by wondering what they could do next. “Take his hat and his gunbelt. Then unhitch those horses. We’re taking those horses with us.”

“You can’t strand us here like this!” Jane was incensed that they would do what they were planning to do.

“You should be happy we’re not going to hurt any of you. You can make it back to your cabin or stay right here. Eventually they’ll likely come looking for you. Meanwhile we aim to get some money for him. Now, we’ll be on our way. We have a note to deliver.”

Not being quite as smart as Boston, the others had to ask what he planned.

“We’ll deliver his hat and gunbelt and say we got him. We’ll say his wife and dog are safe at the line cabin, and we’ll release him there when they deliver the money to us. By the time they get up here to see that we never had him, we’ll have the money and be long gone.” The men nodded in appreciation and did as they were told.

Sitting by Adam’s side, Jane could only fume at them and worry about Adam for the next half hour until he awoke. Then with King’s help, she was able to get a still groggy Adam to walk the long walk back to the line cabin. At least there was some food there and the cabin was safe and secure. She had to pray that the family came looking for them soon. Once Adam was resting in the cabin, she took King for the long walk back to the wagon to get their bags and the rifle and shotgun berating herself for not remembering the weapons when they walked back the first time. She was back at the cabin before Adam awakened. When he did, she told him she wanted to make another trip to the wagon to get the basket of food that was there, but Adam said there wasn’t much there and that predators might have already been attracted by the scent so it wasn’t worth the risk. They had basic food in the cabin and with the shotgun, he could hunt for small game. He too expected that the family would be looking for them soon enough.

Chapter 8

Early the next day, Boston sent two of his men with the note and Adam’s gunbelt and hat to the Ponderosa ranchhouse. They knocked on the door and dropped the items there before returning to their horses to ride away before they could be seen clearly. Sitting at the breakfast table, Ben and his sons heard the knock and the thump of the gunbelt hitting the porch floor. Going to investigate, they were shocked at what they found. It said Adam was being held and they were being watched and any attempt to go rescue Jane and King before delivering the ransom would mean harm would come to Adam. They wanted five thousand dollars delivered to a spot northeast of the Ponderosa and left there by the end of the day. It was a difficult proposition but one they could manage if they chose to do so.

“All right, we’ve been through this before. I’ll write a note to the bank president to deliver to Roy after I leave the bank. You two alert the men that we have kidnappers on the property. By now, they know what to do too. Hoss, can you get men up to that line cabin without being seen?”

“You bet I can, Pa. Nobody knows that part of the Ponderosa better than me. I’ll make sure that Jane and King are safe. You and Joe take care of the kidnappers and make sure Adam gets back safe too.”

Boston had positioned two men to watch the Ponderosa to see what they were doing. He had one man watching to see if they sent any men to the line cabin. He waited near the drop off point for the ransom to see if they sent anyone there. Their plan was to meet at another designated spot after the ransom was delivered. He never planned to make that rendezvous. He guessed that the Cartwrights would be looking for men on the Ponderosa and hoped they would find those three. If he got the ransom, he planned to ride away as fast as he could. If it looked too dangerous, he planned to ride away with the profits they had from the rustling. Either way, he had plenty of money, and he counted on the Cartwrights getting rid of the others so he wouldn’t have to share. It was one of the best plans he had ever concocted or so he thought.

When men began leaving that morning, two men couldn’t possibly keep track of where everyone was going. With the large number of men working on the ranch, teams of men headed out in multiple directions. None headed toward the line cabin but there was no way of knowing if one group would decide to go that way. The two men watching decided that they would have to backtrack to the line cabin and keep watch there. They met up with the third man and two headed up toward the line cabin to see that Adam and his wife stayed put while the third went to alert Boston that there was mass confusion as to what was happening on the Ponderosa. It was about what Hoss had expected and they had men following the men as they went on their way even as Hoss and a few other men were riding hard by a roundabout route to get to the line cabin unseen by anyone.

All along ridgelines, Joe had positioned men who unobtrusively left work groups and took their assigned spots to watch for any riders. They had food and water with them so that they could stay concealed for a long time. Unexpectedly though thunderstorms rolled into the area by early afternoon foiling everyone’s plans. Hoss and the couple of men with him made a miserable camp because even with a day of hard riding, they didn’t make it to the cabin and they halted when the going became too treacherous. They didn’t know that the two rustlers and would be kidnappers had gotten ahead of them by going by a more direct route but had the same difficulty and were camped not much more than a mile away from them. The men following the two had lost them in the storm and stopped not willing to overrun them because they thought they were holding Adam somewhere and didn’t want to do anything to risk his life. They returned to the Ponderosa to get instruction of what to do next. The same thing happened to the men watching for the other two rustlers and would be kidnappers. They never saw them and with the storm, they too returned to the Ponderosa.

Boston had been irritated when he had been met by one of his men only to be told that his plan wasn’t working. When he found that the other two were headed up to the line cabin, he decided to try for the money anyway but the storm ended that option. He and the other man discussed it and they decided to head for the line cabin too. Their new plan was that they would make one more effort to actually take Adam and hold him for ransom turning him over physically for the money. Boston was even more irritated to be caught out in the miserable weather and decided that Adam Cartwright might have to pay for that and certainly the ransom demand was going to have to be higher. After all, he now had to consider splitting it with three other men because there was no way to get rid of the other three with this plan.

At the line cabin, Adam and Jane slept comfortably with a nice fire in the fireplace and a nice dry cabin now that the roof was sound. They had agreed on some basic safety procedures too. All three of them went everywhere together. They had no idea if the would be kidnappers would return and even though Adam has some hearing, he pointed out that it wasn’t much yet. He might not hear Jane if she called for help. She carried the shotgun and he carried the rifle no matter where they were and both were always loaded and ready to use. That worked to their advantage the next day when they were out hunting for lunch when the four men rode up to the cabin thinking that they would be helpless against them. They were far enough away that they could quickly conceal themselves. When the men found the cabin empty, they came outside. Boston stepped out and yelled to them.

“You may as well come on in. Your food and clothes are here. The fireplace is here. We won’t hurt ya none. All we want is some money and when his family pays up, we’ll be on our way. You stay out there, you’ll be mighty cold later and awful hungry, I expect.” Boston waited a short time. When they did not appear, he repeated the message and then again sounding angrier each time. Once more his plan had been thwarted and he didn’t like that at all. He was on his third plan and didn’t have a fourth one.

Jane pulled Adam’s arm to get his attention. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re armed. We have our coats and King. We have rabbits to eat. We can hike down the mountain and find a place to camp. We’ll make a fire.”

“What if it rains again?”

“We’ll make a lean-to.”

Very carefully then, Adam guided Jane away from the cabin and down the mountain through the trees. He doubted that the men in the cabin were going to do any kind of searching. They didn’t seem the type to have that kind of diligence or initiative. Once they were far enough away, they began to walk without worry and put a lot of distance between them and the cabin. Jane tried not to think about the dangers all around them but found that difficult. Eventually they found a small stream and walked along it until Adam found a suitable sheltered location. It even had a rock overhang that would help them stay warmer that night if they were still there.

“What do you mean if we’re still here?”

“We still might see help coming.”

Having forgotten that they were overdue and that those four men had said they were going to tell the family that they had kidnapped Adam, Jane realized that by now the family must be out looking for them. Adam was so calm that it helped her be calm. He set to skinning the rabbits and burying the skins and such before building a fire to roast the rabbits. King lapped noisily at the stream and then came back to stare at the rabbits roasting over the fire. Less than a half hour later, King suddenly stood and pointed as if he was hunting. Jane got worried again but Adam pointed at the dog’s tail wagging slightly.

“Probably Hoss. He can smell food miles away.”

Just to be safe, Adam picked up the rifle and had Jane take cover with the shotgun. It wasn’t necessary. Hoss yelled out a moment later and Jane answered that he should come into the camp.

“Dadburnit, we come to rescue you, but you done rescued me. I was near fit to die of starvation and here you are roasting up rabbits. Me and the boys ain’t had a decent meal since yesterday morning. We come lookin’ for you.”

“We have to share with King too.”

Shrugging, Hoss watered his horse as did the other two men, and then they sat and rested and got the story about the kidnappers from Jane as Adam tended to the rabbits.

“So they’re in our line cabin? Dagnabit, how we gonna get them out of there? We only got the four of us and there’s four of them.”

Grinning, Adam told them the rabbits were ready and all including King stepped forward to get some. Hoss knew it wasn’t the rabbits that made Adam grin so he asked him what he was thinking.

“I think we should steal their horses.”

Frowning first, Hoss began to laugh as did the other two men. “You’re right, older brother. We could easy pin them down in that cabin so they couldn’t do nothing about it and one man could take those horses and lead them on outta there. Without horses, they can’t go nowhere so we leave two men here to keep them pinned down, and we go get some help. That’s a great plan.” Adam nodded making Hoss smile. Hoss ate some of his rabbit and then froze. “Wait a minute, how did you know what I said?”

Jane answered for him. “He can hear a little. It’s enough that he reads lips a little and can follow most conversations pretty well now.”

“Hot damn! You can hear!”

“A little. I heard that. There’s a lot I can’t hear.”

“That’s all right. I been prayin’ that your hearing would come back and now some of it has. Maybe more will come back.”

“Adam and I plan to go see Doctor Martin when we get back to see what he thinks.”

“That’s a great idea.”

The other news Adam and Jane decided to keep to themselves for the time being. They would share it with the family when they got back but didn’t want everyone to know yet. Once they had finished eating and the horses were rested, they headed back to the line cabin with Adam and Jane riding double on one of the horses and the two hands doing the same on another. They halted far enough away to plan out their strategy. Adam was selected as the one to get the horses because as Hoss told Jane he was the best at moving like a cat and they wouldn’t see him or hear him. He and the other two would lay down covering fire to make sure the four men stayed in the cabin. It worked like a charm. An hour later, they had four more horses. The two hands with Hoss took up positions to keep the men pinned down inside as Adam and Jane headed back home with King and the extra horses. They did search the saddlebags to see if there was any food there. They found some and the money the men had gotten from rustling the Ponderosa cattle. They found the running irons they used too.

“Well, Pa’ll be happy to get the money at least. We stopped the rustlers too.”

When Adam and Jane were only a short distance away from the line cabin, they met up with Ben and Joe and a number of hands who were coming to find them and Hoss. They told them the whole story and Adam handed over the money to his father.

“This will help. We still have that contract to complete and that loan to pay off, but you’re safe and the rustlers are as good as caught. Joe, why don’t you ride back with Adam and Jane. Maybe you and Adam can talk about the timber contract and come up with some ideas on how to get that done before the penalty clause kicks in.”

“Pa, there’s more good news. Jane, why don’t you tell him and Joe about Adam’s hearing.”

So Jane launched into that explanation once more and soon Ben and Joe were grinning as much as Hoss had earlier and expressed very similar sentiments. Adam asked if they had found the horses for the wagon, and said when the got the men from the cabin they needed to get them to tell them where they had taken those horses so they could get the wagon back home. Then he and Jane began the ride home with Joe and King bounding along beside them. They told the others they would stop at the next line cabin and be home the next day. Ben assured them that all of them would be home the next day.

Chapter 9

As Adam, Jane, and Joe rode, there was little conversation because it was too difficult for Adam to hear or converse in any format under those conditions. That night at the line shack though, they used all formats as Joe and Adam had a long discussion about what was happening at the timber camps. Lacking experience with mapping timber to be cut and with setting goals, Joe had fallen behind on benchmarks for meeting contract goals. As Adam listened, he had some ideas of how those lost days could be made up.

“Adam, you’re the one who should be running those timber camps for a contract like this.”

“But I can’t. The boss of the woods has to be able to hear and not just a little.”

Nodding but frowning, Joe agreed although he wished it wasn’t true. Then he perked up and looked at Adam. “Is there any reason that the bull of the woods can’t be two people?”

It was Adam’s turn to frown as he mulled over the difficulties of two people handling that job. The more he thought about it though, the more he considered that it might be the best alternative. He looked at Joe, pointed at him, and then tapped his own right arm. Joe reciprocated. They were going to be each other’s own right arm doing for the other what had to be done.

“Adam, are you sure this is the right way to do this?” Jane was worried especially because of the dangers in a timber camp for someone who might not hear the warnings.

“Jane, don’t worry. We’ll go everywhere together. He’s my right arm and my right arm is as important as my, as my, uh, my left arm.” Joe started to giggle then and Jane couldn’t help herself and joined in as did Adam. What was important though was Adam accepting Joe’s help so readily and without argument. He was learning.

However Jane had learned a few things too. “But first Adam has to see Doctor Martin. He has these terrible headaches that come over him and that could be too dangerous. We need to find out what is causing them and what he can do to avoid them if possible.”

A little perturbed that Jane had said so much, Adam glared at her but she stood her ground, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized she was correct. He couldn’t work with Joe without him realizing what might happen. He also was taking a risk by riding a horse and they both knew that, and Jane had decided that it was about time that Joe knew too. Adam relented and nodded telling Jane to explain everything because she could do it so much faster than he could. She did, and Joe was surprised but not as much as they expected.

“We had guessed that there was likely something else going on that Adam wasn’t telling us. We know it’s how he is. I’m glad you got him to tell you because it’s about time he started trusting somebody enough.”

Raising his hands as if in surrender, Adam showed that he understood that he had been wrong to object to Jane being fully honest with his youngest brother, and that he had been wrong in the past to hold back so much from his family. He looked at Joe. “I’m sorry. I’m trying to change, but it is hard to do.”

“You don’t have to tell me about that. I’ve been trying to change for years too. I know how hard it is. We’re both pretty strong-minded when it comes to doing things our own way. All we can do is our best though, right?” That Joe was willing to be so magnanimous meant a lot to Adam who put out his hand. Joe took it. “Now, tomorrow, we’ll head to town instead of directly to the ranch. It’ll save time that way. All right?” Jane liked that plan too because she had a few things she wanted to discuss with the doctor as well. She only wished they had found the team of horses so they could take the wagon instead of riding in. Joe saw her worried look and guessed the problem. “Or maybe we should stop at the ranch and get the carriage. Both of you are going to be getting awful tired of riding. We can grab some clothes and stuff and spend the night in town too. We can leave word for Pa and Hoss so they’ll know what we’re doing and won’t worry.” For that, he got a kiss on the cheek from Jane as Adam smiled knowing she was worried about him as much as she was concerned about all the riding.

As it turned out, Ben and Hoss got to town before they did by going directly there with the four rustlers and would be kidnappers. They were coming out of Sheriff Roy Coffee’s office when Adam and Jane came into town by carriage with Joe riding beside them. As Adam and Jane went to the doctor’s office, Joe filled Hoss and Ben in on all that was going on with Adam and what the plan was for the timber contract if Doctor Martin gave his approval for Adam to go up there to work. All three of them headed to the doctor’s office to find out what the prognosis was as Hoss explained how easy it had been to apprehend the four outlaws.

“They had no horses. There was only beans in the cabin to eat, and they was out of water right quick. Dry beans ain’t so good and they was thirsty. We had three times the guns they had. We told them it wasn’t worth dying. One of ’em wanted to shoot it out, but the other three tied him up and shoved him out the door first and then come out right after him. He was a cussin’ and a swearin’ so bad that Pa had us gag him too. His name is Boston. Ain’t that a hoot.”

“Yes, has Hoss has so colorfully described it, it appears that this Boston was the leader and recruited the others. They seem willing to testify against him so they may get lighter sentences. Boston will get the maximum if I have any influence. He’s the one apparently who came up with the scheme to kidnap Adam. That could have turned out very badly if they weren’t so inept at it and the weather hadn’t turned so awful.”

When they entered Doctor Martin’s office, no one was in the outer room so they sat and waited. It was nearly an hour before Adam and Jane came out. Ben stood and worried because Adam looked so serious. Adam shrugged.

“He doesn’t know if I will get my hearing back.”

Doctor Martin followed the two out and with Adam’s permission, explained what he thought was happening. “Adam has hearing even if it is limited. That leads me to believe that perhaps there is no damage but that there is pressure being applied because of the head injury he sustained in the accident. He may have a large hematoma or what amounts to a very large bruise in his brain. It can take a very long time for the body to deal with one of those. Do you remember Lafe Wallace and that bad accident he had where his leg got pinned between his horse and the corral fence when the horse fell. He had a large bruise there that made his leg numb and nearly useless at first. Slowly he got feeling back and eventually was able to use that leg. It took about six months for that large bruise to be completely dissolved.”

“But Lafe still limps around quite a lot, Doc, don’t he?”

“Yes, he does, Hoss. Lafe did have damage to the muscles and nerves that couldn’t be fixed. But what I’m saying is that the pressure from the bruise that made his leg numb eventually went away. That may happen for Adam too. If there is pressure that is causing his hearing loss, then when the pressure is relieved, he may get some or all of his hearing back. Now that will be a long process. It could be another several months before any significant change takes place.”

“But you ain’t sure.”

“No, I can’t be sure. We have no way to look inside his skull to see, but from what he’s told me, it fits my theory. I don’t think he should do anything that could dislodge any part of that blood clot. I think that’s why things like chopping wood or the fall from the wagon brought on those terrible headaches. He could have a stroke or worse if that happens again. He can do ordinary things but nothing that jars him or would cause a sudden movement. No riding. He said he came in the carriage today. That’s how he should travel until this is resolved.”

“How’s about a wagon if the seat has springs?”

“Yes, Hoss, that would be fine. I can see you’ll be sure to take care of things like that.”

“Paul, Adam wants to go up to the timber camp to work with Joe. Can he do that?”

“If he follows the limitations I set out, yes. If he doesn’t, well, I’ve told you the risks too. Now it’s getting late. Adam and Jane said they were staying in town tonight. That’s a good idea. They both need a good meal and some good rest especially if he plans to go up to your timber camps.”

“But first, a bath.” Jane got chuckles from all of them on that especially Adam who also appreciated a good warm bath after being out on the ranch working. The family went to the hotel together, but Adam and Jane got a room and ordered a bath while Hoss, Joe, and Ben got a meal. At dinner, Ben suggested that perhaps Joe might want to stay too.

“Tomorrow, at breakfast, you and Adam can make plans and talk about what you want to do.”

“C’mon, Pa, what you really want is one of us here looking out for the two of them. Don’t look so worried. I don’t mind at all. I already had some things with me and was planning to stay.”

Smiling as his father shook his head, Joe was rather proud of himself for outmaneuvering his father. At the end of dinner, Joe ordered meals sent up to Adam’s room so they wouldn’t have to come down for dinner. He put a note on the tray telling Adam what room he was in and that they could meet for breakfast. That was the beginning of a very successful collaboration between Adam and Joe on the timber operations. With both brothers acknowledging not only the necessity of changing some personality traits but also the difficulty of doing so there was quite a bit of understanding that developed between them of mutual struggles. There was also the changed role for Joe who now had to assume more of a mature role and make sure that Adam didn’t take any risks. There was one incident at the timber camps that brought that whole relationship into a new realm. Some of the men seemed to resent having to follow plans made by someone that they whispered about as ‘feebleminded’ because of his disability. Because there was quite a lot that Adam couldn’t do because he couldn’t hear and a lot he shouldn’t do because of doctor’s orders, some of the loggers thought that he was less than a man and shouldn’t be in charge. Several wanted to challenge him. Joe stepped in because with Adam’s temper, it was clear that his older brother was about to give them what they wanted. Forcefully, Joe put both hands on Adam’s chest to hold him back.

“You’ve got more sense than this. You have a wife and a baby on the way. You want to risk all of that for some loudmouthed fools?”

“What? You want me to walk away from what they said?”

“No, I want you to let me handle it?”

“But there are three of them and only one of you?”

“And there are three of them and only one of you and you were going to fight them anyway? The rule is one at a time in the timber camp, right?” Adam nodded. Anything less was considered dishonorable among the men many of whom were crowding around at that point. “Most here know you’re not healthy right now. You fought for Pa once when he couldn’t. Let me do that for you now.”

With his jaw tight, Adam thought about it and then reluctantly agreed. He knew Joe was correct. “Please remember what I taught you. Keep those elbows down to protect your middle, and use everything you’ve got to win. They don’t care about keeping it clean.”

Fifteen minutes later, Joe sat on a log next to Adam. He was nursing a set of rapidly expanding bruises as well as a split lip and a nose that was bleeding, but he still managed a smile. “Kept my elbows down the whole time and nobody landed a blow to my middle.”

“I guess I forgot to remind you about protecting your chin.”

“Yeah, I guess you did. They won’t be bothering you any more. Thanks for the lessons though, the ones you taught and the ones I got from watching you fight over the years. You do know how to fight dirty when you need to do it.”

“Sometimes it’s about winning and surviving. These men don’t care about how you fight. They care about who’s standing at the end. It’s a hard life up here. They want to follow the man who shows he can take it all and come out at the end still on two feet. You showed them you had that today, younger brother. You won’t likely have to do it again.”

“I hope not. It may take months to recover from this one. Say, how much longer do we have to stay up here?”

“By my calculations, we have enough timber cut and ready to go to meet the contract. As soon as it’s on its way, we can go home. It shouldn’t be more than two more days.”

“Really? That beats the penalty clause by almost a week.”

“Yes, so even if we have some problems in transport, it won’t be a problem. Will you go with the last of the logs to make sure that there isn’t any trouble?”

“Only if you agree to have one of the men ride back home with you.”

“I can drive a wagon by myself.”

“I know but what if you have one of those attacks while driving? We can’t risk it.”

There was no argument that Adam could make against that no matter how much he wanted to do just that. However, it was a moot point the next day when Hoss showed up at the camp to see how things were going. As they suspected, their father was getting worried and had sent him to check. He was relieved to find all was well, but it also meant that he and Adam could travel back home together as Joe took the last shipment out. Adam wanted to know how Jane was doing, and Hoss said she was having no problems with morning sickness or anything else which relieved him of his worries about that. The next day, Hoss tied Chubb to the back of the wagon so that he and Adam could ride together. As they did so, Adam complained of the squeaky noise from one of the wheels. Hoss looked at him in surprise.

“You can hear that?”

Again, Adam smiled for it meant that he was getting more of his hearing back. That’s how it went for the next several months as bit-by-bit, more of his hearing returned until it was almost normal. By Christmas, he had enough hearing that he could sing some carols with his family but it wasn’t good enough yet for him to tune his guitar and play it. That took a few more months. By early spring, it was probably as good as it was going to get according to Doctor Martin.

As Adam and the family were sitting by the fireplace on a cool evening enjoying hot chocolate and cookies after dinner, they were startled by a sudden wailing from upstairs.

“I’ll go take care of him.” Adam slipped his arm from around Jane’s shoulders. “You finish your chocolate and cookies.” He headed up the stairs to see what little Abel needed but assumed it was probably a dry bottom and some hugging.

Ben watched his son go and smiled. “Months ago we would never have thought he would ever hear anything like that and now he hears just fine.”

Jane thought it was a good moment to add a disclaimer. “There are a few things that aren’t quite right though.”

Turning to Jane, Ben had to ask. “What things aren’t quite right yet?”

“Well at dinner when you asked Adam if anything was wrong because he wasn’t participating in the conversation. It was because the three of you got very animated and were talking all at once. He has trouble hearing anything when people do that. He can’t sort out the sounds.”

“I’ve noticed that he drops out of the talking we do sometimes. I didn’t know why. He shoulda told us. Well I ‘spose it would be hard to tell us that.”

“I think he keeps hoping that it will get better, but Doctor Martin has told him he doubts that it will.”

“Are there any other issues that he’s having with his hearing?”

“Nothing that matters much. There are some voices that he finds harder to hear than others too. People who mumble a bit make it difficult for him. So there are some little problems, but nothing that is of any serious concern.”

They talked a bit more of things that made it difficult for Adam to hear such as people talking softly when they were facing away from him. For most of the conversation, Joe was quiet. Ben noticed. “Joe, you knew these things, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah. Adam told me because he that’s why he wanted me to go with him to the contract negotiations last month. It wasn’t just to show me how it’s done. It’s so he didn’t miss anything. He said we do it better as a team anyway, and Jane likes it better that he isn’t travelling alone. He would have gotten around to telling you but when he was sure it wasn’t getting any better. He’s been trying to find ways to adjust to it for now. He can’t do that if everyone is making allowances.”

It made sense, and Adam wasn’t keeping it to himself because he had shared it with Jane, Joe, and Doctor Martin even if Ben and Hoss felt a little left out because they didn’t know. Ben understood that very well. If they made allowances, Adam would get used to that, but when he was out in public, they wouldn’t know and make allowances and he would be at a distinct disadvantage. He needed to find ways to cope and practicing at home was the best way to do that. They could adjust to that. Jane got up then to go help tend to little Abel.

“Hey, Sis, I thought Adam said he would take care of him.”

“Hoss, he can do quite a lot for our son, but there are some things only a mother can do for her baby.” Jane turned to go up the stairs then stifling the laughter that threatened to erupt at the sight of Hoss’ red faced reaction to that and Joe sputtering over his hot chocolate too. It was amazing to her that she could catch her brothers-in-law occasionally taking a long look at her breasts that were now quite large as she was nursing her son, and yet they were embarrassed to talk about her son suckling at those same breasts. Men, what can you do about the way they think? But she loved one man with all her heart, loved the baby they had together, and she loved living with these three men who were family. Life was good, very good.

 

Tags:  Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Family, Hoss Cartwright, Joe / Little Joe Cartwright