Chapter Six

The rain seemed to have set in and showed no sign of easing up any time soon. Mud had taken over the main street of his small town and Tiny would normally have found it annoying as he tried to keep his stable clean and dry. For once, he was grateful to see the thick clay mud and hoped it meant two things. It would bring travelers into his livery as they stayed put in town, thus bringing much-needed income and it would hopefully keep his new young friend from running away. He had managed to convince Joe to stay on for a while longer until the inclement weather eased up by offering him a job of sorts. In exchange for his efforts at keeping the stables mucked out, horses cared for and any other sundry jobs the blacksmith could come up with, his horse would be fed and so would he as well as earning a little coin on the side. A warm, dry bed was the final selling point and Joe had agreed, if not enthusiastically, at least he had seen the logic in the idea. Tiny felt a tinge of guilt as if he was taking advantage, but he knew the boy had no money on him and no other options.

He whistled as he pounded away at a new plough blade he was part way through bending into shape and could hear the sound of an axe on the other side of the wall. Whatever else he had come to surmise about the stray he’d taken in, someone had taught him a fine work ethic. The wood pile outside the smithy was looking far better than it had in recent weeks and he nodded approvingly as Joe piled more logs on top of the ones he’d already split. As Tiny plunged the heated plough share into a trough of water, it sizzled and spat water all over his apron. He laid it aside on a length of timber to cool and pulled a hood over the coals to damp them down for the night.

“Hey, Joe!”

The sound of the axe carried on and he smiled as he walked towards the outer door.

“Joe!”

“Yeah?” Joe dropped the axe beside the woodpile and grabbed a swig from the canteen as he walked back inside.

“How’s about you go and see if my Annie’s got supper ready yet? After all, us growin’ fellas need to keep our strength up!” Tiny patted at his stomach as he talked and he was rewarded with a grin. He’d already prepared his wife that he was sending their resident stray that evening and he knew that she’d do her best to sweet talk him a little. Maybe between the two of them they could break through the tough shell the boy had wrapped around himself and give them some answers.

As the boy wandered out in the direction of his home, Tiny heard horses entering the livery. He rubbed his hands on his apron and made his way into the stable, expecting to find travelers looking for lodging for the night. Two men stood side by side, shaking the water from their hair and trying to stomp the mud off their boots. It was a short conversation as he agreed to stable the horses and pointed the two men in the direction of the town’s only hotel. Suddenly one of the two nudged the other one and hurried towards the back of the livery.

“Hey! What’s the problem?” Neither man seemed intimidated as Tiny quickly followed them.

“This horse! How long has he been here?”

Tiny frowned as the two strangers stood beside the stall holding Joe’s pinto. Something in the question raised his hackles and he sidestepped it.

“What’s it to you?”

The closer of the two reached out a hand and ran his fingers over the unknown brand on the horse’s leg.

“This horse is stolen! That’s what it is to me. Some kid stole him from my old boss a coupla weeks back.”

The other one joined in the lie and nodded at Tiny. “Yeah, the boss was real mad, since this horse belonged to his youngest boy.”

Merv barely contained a smile at his own clever explanation and quick thinking.

“And that kid was real spoiled like!”

Tiny took in the curl of the man’s lip as he described someone he clearly didn’t like much.

“And just who might your old boss be? I ain’t never seen that brand around here before.”

Merv pointed again at the pinetree brand. “That there’s a Ponderosa brand. Can’t imagine you’ve never heard of it, even in this backwater town!” The sneer on his face irked Tiny immensely, but he held his tongue as the man continued on, hoping to glean some information from the two of them. “Them Cartwright’s big spread outside Virginia City. Only the biggest ranch in alla Nevada. We’re both just movin’ on to another job, but last I heard, he was postin’ a reward for the horse’s return. ”

“That so?” Tiny scratched behind his neck as he considered the two men in front of him. For all that Joe had kept secret from him, he’d seen the way the boy cared for this particular horse and knew the men were lying. There was no way that Joe had stolen the animal. He didn’t know why they would lie and he also knew that Joe’d be back any minute unless Annie had managed to keep him talking. He needed to get the two men out of his livery before Joe stumbled on them, even though he couldn’t rightly define just why. He’d learned a long time ago to trust his gut and right now, his gut was shouting at him.

“Well, I bought this here horse from some fella a few days back. Said he needed the money for a gamblin’ debt. I got the paperwork for the sale back home. What say tomorrow I run it by the sheriff and check it’s all legal like?”

One of the two men looked nervous at the comment, but the other just nodded enthusiastically. “You do that and we’ll send a wire to the Cartwrights. Let ’em know where the boy’s horse is so’s they can come and get him. Who knows? You might even get yourself some reward money; after all the fella’s loaded.”

“Well, you’ll have to do that from Carson City since we don’t have no telegraph lines out here.”

Before Tiny could add anything further, the two men decided to head for the hotel and a hot meal. He took their payment for the single night and once again pointed them across the street to the saloon as he pocketed the money. He watched as the two of them walked off into the gloom of the early evening before setting to work with taking care of their two horses. He pulled the saddle from the first one, taking particular note of the brand on its hind leg. It didn’t match the pine tree brand on Joe’s horse and he quickly checked the second horse to see it had a different brand again. There was nothing unusual in two men with horses from different places, but he could not shake his unease at their accusations. Having spent many years in a people business, Tiny considered himself a reasonably good judge of people. He decided he didn’t like anything he’d seen of his two latest customers.

Joe ambled back through the door just as Tiny finished filling the horse’s feed troughs with a measure of oats for each of them.

“Miss Annie said you’d better get on home before your supper’s ruined.”

Tiny watched as the boy settled himself on a hay bale and removed the cloth from his plate of stew and dumplings. The smell wafted across to him and he smiled as Joe dug into the rich gravy-covered meat. He knew his serve was waiting on the stove at home and his stomach growled in anticipation. He held back the myriad of questions the two strangers had generated and debated whether or not he’d spook the boy by asking any of them. Something about the men bothered him more than he could explain and he watched the boy as he devoured his wife’s good cooking. He made a show of putting away brushes and tidying the bench as he allowed Joe time to finish eating.

Joe looked up to see Tiny looking at him oddly and he felt his stomach do a wild flip.

“Something wrong?” He mopped up the last of the gravy with a chunk of bread and stuffed it into his mouth as he tried not to react to the strange look on Tiny’s face.

“Don’t s’pose the name Cartwright means anythin’ to ya does it?”

Joe blanched as he stared at the man in front of him and he tried to keep himself from overreacting.

“Should it?”

“Why don’t you tell me … Joe Cartwright?”

Tiny took a gamble on his hunch and knew he’d hit the jackpot as Joe almost fell off the hay bale. He stepped a little closer and frowned as Joe backed away from him.

“Now don’t you go gettin’ no dumb ideas there, boy.”

Joe looked like he was about to bolt for the door and Tiny reached out to grab his arm. As Joe tried to twist out of his grasp, Tiny held on.

“You don’t need ta run nowhere, just ’cause I figured out ya name.”

“You don’t understand!”

“You bet I don’t understand! Ya told me ya had no family waitin’ for ya. That’s a lie and you and I both know it.” Tiny allowed that to sink in a little before he softened his tone again. “So who hurt ya, boy? Your pa?”

“No!” Joe glared at him as Tiny held fast to his arm. “He’d never …”

As the bluster in the argument faded away, Tiny noted the mixture of emotions on the boy’s face.

“He’d never do that? Then what would he do when he found ya was missin’?”

Joe swallowed a gulp of air and tried again to loosen the man’s grip.

“Let me go. You have to let me go!”

“Don’t ya get it yet, boy? I’m tryin’ ta help ya!”

“You can’t help me!” The anguish in Joe’s voice wasn’t lost on him and Tiny tried again. He felt like he was dealing with a spooked horse that was readying itself to break free and he dropped his voice accordingly.

“Why don’t ya try me?”

“How’d you find out my name? Was it on the wanted poster?”

Tiny dropped his hand as if he held a hot coal. That certainly wasn’t on his list of possibilities and he stared at the boy in front of him.

“What?”

“I told you that you couldn’t help me so if you really want to do something for me, why don’t you just let me get out of here while I still can?”

Tiny’s jaw gaped open as he took a fresh look at the boy in front of him. He thought he’d worked out some of the kid’s story and yet the last comments had just left him confounded. Suddenly the men’s accusation that the horse was stolen took on a whole new meaning. In Nevada, horse thieves usually wound up at the end of a noose.

“Joe … I don’t know just what ya done to make ya think the law’d be after ya, but ya gotta let me help ya, boy. It can’t be that bad.”

Joe was edging his way towards the stall where Cochise was tethered and Tiny tried desperately to think of some way to stop him.

“If that horse is stolen, just leave him here and I’ll let ya get away. Ain’t nobody gonna get ya description from me. I’ll bet whoever he belongs to would just be happy ta have him back.”

Tiny knew he was talking nonsense, but he couldn’t think of anything else to stall what he could see unfolding. Joe had his saddle blanket flung over the horse’s back and was half way through hefting the saddle on top when he suddenly exploded.

“He’s my horse! I never stole anything from anybody!” Desperation shone in his eyes as he dared Tiny to try and stop him taking Cochise from the livery.

“Then hold up and tell me what’s really goin’ on.” Tiny had edged behind Cochise and blocked the way out of the stall. He could see Joe getting jumpy as he knew he was trapped in the stall, but suddenly whatever was driving him seemed to collapse as Joe leaned his head into his horse’s neck. His shoulders were shaking as he gripped at the horse’s mane and Tiny waited until Joe slowly pulled himself upright.

“I’m no thief.” The whisper was barely audible and Tiny slowly shuffled closer.

“I know ya ain’t. I seen the way ya care for that animal. He’s all yours.”

Joe still gripped at Cochise as if he needed the horse to keep himself standing. The colour had drained from his face and even in the light of the lanterns, Tiny could see he looked ill. Eventually he reached a tentative hand out to the boy and pulled him slowly towards the hay bale he’d been sitting on before. Tiny stood in front of him with his arms folded across his chest. Joe glanced up to see the man staring patiently at him and it was enough to break his resolve. Something in the man’s stance was too much like his father as he waited for Joe to speak his mind.

“So … do ya reckon it’s time to start tellin’ me the truth?”

Joe swallowed down the taste of bile and took a deep breath. “As soon as I’m done, you won’t be so keen to help me as you are now. I’m not what you think.”

Tiny shuffled his feet a little, but his arms stayed crossed and he stared right back at Joe. “Try me.”

“I killed a man.” Joe bit into his lower lip as he waited for the inevitable eruption. To think he was a horse thief was bad enough, but an honourable man like Tiny wasn’t going to have any choice but to call the sheriff with that new revelation. He stared at the man’s boots which hadn’t moved and finally he looked up again.

“The same fella what left ya all black ‘n’ blue?”

Joe stared at the man who was looking at him with something that looked like compassion. He’d expected contempt or something else, but the look on Tiny’s face confused him. He slowly nodded in agreement.

“Then I ‘spect it was self defence, boy.”

When Joe didn’t confirm or reject his opinion, he tried again.

“How’s about ya give me the resta the story? Fill in some o’ the holes I got over here on my side.”

“There was a girl … my friend.” Joe frowned as he recalled how enthralled he’d been by the freckles on Becky’s nose. It suddenly seemed like such a ridiculous thing in light of where he was sitting and he quickly shoved it aside. “He tried to hurt her. I stopped him.”

Tiny stared at the slumped shoulders and the way Joe twisted his hands together. “How?”

“I just wanted him to stop. I wasn’t really thinking. Pretty hard to think clear when you can’t breathe!”

Finally Tiny settled himself on the hay bale next to Joe and prodded again. “How did you kill a grown man?”

Joe licked at suddenly dry lips as Stan’s face was once again looming over him, squeezing the very life out of his lungs.

“I got his gun free of the holster and … and I shot him. I didn’t mean to kill him. I just wanted him to stop and leave us both alone.”

Joe scratched at his fingers as if something was stuck to them and Tiny had a fair idea what he was looking for.

“Tell me the truth, boy. Ya got a family out there looking for ya, don’t ya? Them Cartwrights from Virginia City?”

Joe nodded miserably as he knew his father and brothers would leave no stone unturned as they searched for him.

“Then why are ya runnin’ from them?”

“I’m not.” He felt the sour taste of despair rising up through his gut as he considered how he had deliberately hidden from them and tried desperately to evade them. He still stood by his reasoning, but there was no way to explain that to Tiny. “Not really.”

“Oh that’s right … ya runnin’ from the law.”

Joe decided against arguing the point and just let it be. It didn’t really matter what Tiny thought, he needed to keep quiet and think about how to protect his brothers from the fallout of his stupidity.

“Joe … we don’t have no sheriff around these parts. The town’s too small to pay for one and the nearest law we got is over at Carson City. Nobody here is lookin’ for ya. I promise ya that, boy. We don’t get no wanted posters here and no bounty hunters bother with this place neither, ’cause most maps can’t even tell ya where we are!”

It was supposed to ease his thoughts, but Tiny watched as Joe just mulled over the comments. He stared at the straw on the floor for the longest time before a sudden thought had him on his feet. He paced across the open space and Tiny stayed put on the hay bale as he moved. Finally Joe spun back and pointed a finger at the man.

“How did you know what my name was if there’s no information about me?”

Tiny leaned back against the wall and debated how to answer that. He didn’t want to spook the boy any further, but he suddenly felt a warning bell going off very loudly in his head.

“Two fellas saw your horse. Told me it looked like one from the Ponderosa and said it belonged to the youngest Cartwright kid. I put a coupla pieces together and figured that’s you.”

Joe backed away from him as he spoke and Tiny cautiously rose to his feet.

“What two fellas? What did they look like?”

As Tiny began to describe the two men whose horses were tethered behind them, he watched Joe’s distress climbing rapidly. He knew his gut was right when he doubted the men’s integrity, but he also knew he was still missing something important.

“I have to leave … right now!” Joe clambered over the railing into the stall where he had begun to saddle Cochise earlier and hastily resumed the job. Tiny was almost on top of him before he knew it and he raised his arm to ward off the hand that grasped at him.

“Let me go! You have to let me go!”

“Joe … tell me what’s goin’ on, boy. Who are them two fellas?”

“That’s who I’m running from! Now let me go!”

Tiny laid a meaty hand across the saddle as Joe pulled at the cinch straps. “Those two? Whatta they gonna do to you, Joe?”

As Joe ignored him and continued on with the job, Tiny finally pushed Cochise aside and grasped at Joe’s arms, pinning him up against the railing. Joe kicked at his shins in a desperate attempt to get free, but he was no match for the giant hands that held him tightly.

“Joe … I said … what are them two fellas gonna do to ya?”

“Not me! They’re going to kill my brothers! Now let me go!”

Tiny kept his hands right where they were and waited until Joe finally stopped struggling. Frustration and fear were plastered across his face as he stared back at Tiny.

“Please … you have to let me go.”

“Now you’re just talkin’ in riddles, boy! Your brothers ain’t here.”

Joe went limp in his hands and Tiny slowly eased his hands away while still keeping himself between Joe and his escape route.

“Those two men? It’s their brother I murdered. Before he died, he vowed his brothers would take their revenge on my brothers.”

“And that’s why ya ran.” Tiny shook his head as he considered the frightened youth in front of him. “First up, Joe … ya didn’t murder nobody. No court’s gonna say ya did. Second … them two would need to get through me to get ta you. And last up … they can’t get to ya brothers if they don’t know ya here.”

Joe swallowed down the lump that had buried itself in his throat and scowled at his horse. “They know I’m here. Kinda hard to hide a horse like Cochise.”

Tiny reached out a hand and patted him on the shoulder. “They don’t know nothin’! Told ’em I bought the horse off a fella with a gamblin’ debt. They ain’t seen you and in the mornin’ they’ll just ride on outta here without ever havin’ seen ya. ‘Cause you are bringin’ that there blanket and sleepin’ on my hearth tonight.”

Joe felt his head swimming as he took in the words and tried to think through the consequences. Before he could answer, Tiny had already steered him out of the stall and begun unsaddling Cochise.

“And then tomorrow, after we get ridda them two, you and me is gonna ride over to Carson City and send a wire to ya pa.”

Joe could barely breathe and Tiny nudged him towards the door. “Ya goin’ home boy … and I ain’t listenin’ to any more ideas of ya runnin’ off again!”