Summary:   Bravery isn’t the absence of fear as Adam tells Joe, but carrying on as you know you should in spite of it.

Rating:  T  (3,780 words)

 

Courage aka The Mountain Trek

The first blizzards have hit Shetland…it’s freezing…so I thought you might like to share this story with me….Krysytna!

 

“The door of the cabin opened after a slight shove and the three men stumbled inside with heart felt gratitude. God obviously cared for more than drunks and sailors after all! Two of the men helped the third over to a truckle bed and carefully, as gently as they could, lowered him onto it. The smaller of the two knelt down and arranged the mans limbs over the mattress and pulled over a thick blanket and then stood up to survey their surroundings…

 

“There’s plenty of wood ..” he croaked, his voice barely audible from the combination of frozen jaw and stiff mufflers.

 

“l’ll get a fire going…” the taller of them replied, pulling off his mittens as he spoke and striding over to the fire..”How’s Arkwright?”

 

“Well..frozen stiff, dead or just unconscious..it’s difficult to tell at the moment.” Little Joe peered down at the man on the bed and shook his head “I never thought we’d make it…”

 

“Well, to tell you the truth, Joe, if this cabin hadn’t been here I don’t think we would have done..” he rubbed his hands and then struck them under his armpits “Can’t get a match ..my hands are too stiff..”

 

Little Joe looked around the cabin and frowned before coming to stand beside his brother and like him, putting his frozen hands under his armpits to thaw as gently as possible.

 

“This cabin belongs to someone… I mean, it isn’t any old cabin or line shack is it?”

 

Adam glanced around and shook his head “Provisions on the shelf, oil lamps full..place looks like its owner has just stepped out to milk the cow..” he knelt down, shivering as he did so “Joe, try and get those shutters over the window..it’s darn cold in here.” he emptied the matched onto the floor and picked up one with numb fingers that felt like putty. “I don’t think the owner will mind us lighting a fire…” he struck a match and put the flame to the already prepared kindling.

 

“Better that than walking in to see three frozen bodies ..” Little Joe tried to grin, but his mouth was still too frozen so it looked more like a grimace “Do you think they’d mind if we made some coffee…?”

 

“I doubt it they’d mind…would you in the circumstances?” Adam glanced up at his little brother and smiled, knowing full well that no Cartwright would close a door to a stranger..and this particular door had not been locked to any stranger that was for sure.

The fire roared up the chimney and the two brothers warmed their hands on hot mugs of coffee whilst their limbs slowly defrosted. Nothing was worse that too quick a thaw, the pain of blood warming up and coursing through frozen flesh could be agonising. Little Joe wandered back to the bed and surveyed the third man who was proving that he was in the land of the living by snoring..very loudly. Joe frowned and looked at Adam who had now joined him

 

“Do you think he’s going to be alright?” he asked

 

“Well, as soon as my hands have thawed out enough I’ll be able to check his leg. One thing about this weather, it could have saved his life. The blood freezing around that wound stopped him from bleeding to death, that’s fer sure!”

 

Joe lifted the blanket carefully and grimaced

 

“Well, it’s bleeding now…in fact..there’s a lot of blood there, Adam..” and the pulled back the blanket for his brother to see for himself. Adam pulled a face and shook his head

 

“I didn’t realise it was such a bad break…” he murmered and then squatted onto his haunches and very gently examined the mans shin bone which was exposed in rather gory splendour through the torn flesh. “Well, the best thing would be to boil up some water and clean it first .. then we can really see what we’re dealing with…”

 

“It’s getting darker…” Joseph said in a low voice “and it’s only mid day..”

 

“There’s another blizzard blowing this way …” Adam laid a reassuring hand on his brothers arm and smiled “It’s alright, Joe, we’re not out in the open, which we would have been had we not stumbled upon this cabin.”

 

“I’ll light the lamps and get some wood inside…”

 

“Best hurry, before it hits us…” his brother cautioned.

 

Joseph pulled on his mittens and mufflers and as quickly as he could opened and closed the door of the cabin. Darkness was falling quickly in the stealthy manner of some gigantic force whose hands were intent to clutch away the unwary..the cold fixed about his temples like iron bands as though to freeze the life blood flowing to his brain.

 

“Am I dying?”

 

THe injured man shivered violently, not the tremors from the cold, from those of fever and ill health and Adam surveyed him with an anxious look on his face and concern in his dark eyes. For a man who was known to be hard headed and stubborn, who never backed down in a fight, nor steppd back from danger, Adam was a very sympathetic man, able to feel anothers pain and empathise with them..he felt the mans pulse and forced a smile to his lips

 

“You’ve broken your leg..I put some powder in your water there, it should ease the pain.” he frowned “Are you feeling much pain?”

 

“No….just throbs…like a branding iron..” Arkwright groaned and the perspiration popped out over his face as he suddenly writhed and clutched at his leg “Heck…it sure does ..hurt..”

 

Adam stepped back and looked back at Little Joe who was watching them both intently,the raised eye brows indicated nothing good and both brothers stepped away from the bed and closer to the fire.

 

“Well?” Joe whispered

 

“It doesn’t look good…but it is a clean wound, thank goodness. I’ve done what I can for him, that splint should keep it straight..the important thing is to keep it clean and to make sure there’s no poison in the wound..”

 

“And if there is?”

 

“Well, if there is then he could run the risk of …”

 

“Gangrene?” Joe whispered, casting a fearful glance over at Arkwright who had slipped into a feverish sleep

 

“That would be the worse that could happen…”

 

“Oh! And then …what do we do then?” Joe always liked to know well in advance the eventuality of any undertaking, just so that he could prepare his mind, and in this case, his stomache, for the very worse

 

“Amputation…?” Adam raised his eyebrows and opened his eyes wide almost in mock horror and then he smiled “Don’t worry, Joe, he should be alright. Thanks to our provider here..there’s food and drink, warmth..light…” he paused as the darkness outside wrapped around the cabin like a black dense blanket and suddenly the storm swept down upon them.

 

Under the brunt of the winds that screamed about them the little cabin rocked and snow peppered against the windows like pellets from a shot gun.

 

For an hour the storm raged whilst they sat close to the fire, the frail wooden building shook and trembled and bounced back like a determined David against the Goliath of blizzards. Smoke occasionally billowed down into the room making them push back the chairs rather quickly, and at times the building shook so much that the lamps flickered so that Adam decided they had better limit their light to just the one lamp, kept close at hand.

 

After checking on Arkwright and giving him another sedative Adam looked at his watch and surveyed his brother. A tenderness came into his face and he smiled as he looked at this youth. Valient of heart, mischivious in spirit, generous of nature…dear Joseph. Such were the thoughts of the older brother as he pulled a cover from the bed, and draped it over the sleeping youth. He checked the fire, lowered the flame in the lamp, and settled down to sleep.

 

 

The sun was streaming through the windows when they awoke. Adam and Joe rubbed their eyes and looked about them, and sniffed. Something smelt really good…in response to what they smelt their stomaches rumbled. They looked at one another and frowned, surely notArkwright…..?

 

“Wondered when you two would wake up…”

 

They turned in the direction of the voice and found themselves looking at a woman past middle age. She smiled at them and nodded and indicated the table upon which an appetising meal was spread out.

 

“Am I dreaming?” Joseph asked, rubbing his eyes again

 

“If you are, we’re sharing the same dream” Adam muttered.

 

“This is no dream…” the woman chuckled “Thought I’d stumbled on a nightmare though when I came into the cabin and found you three here…best get washed up and then get this food down you.”

 

“The blizzard….?” Joe stammered

 

“Blew itself out and made it easy for me to get back here. I wasn’t that far off, but couldn’t reach the cabin because of the snow. Then the blizzard came and ..” she shrugged “It does that sometimes..one minute you’re eaves high in snow and then the wind comes and blows it away…and there’s a clearing all ready made. Hurry now before this gets cold…”

 

They hurried all right…getting through their ablutions in double quick time. She had Arkwright propped up in bed with a bowl of something delicious in his hands by the time they got to the table.

 

“So? Who are you? What are you doing here?” she asked as she ladled out beef stew and dumplings…Joe couldn’t believe his eyes…dumplings!!!!

 

!I’m Adam Cartwright, this is my brother Joe…the guy over there is a fellow passenger called Arkwright..” he shovelled food into his mouth and gasped, it was hot..but good!

 

“Passenger? Passenger of what?” she sliced thick crusty bread into portions and put down the platter “What happened?”

 

“We were on the stagecoach with three other passengers, and there was an avalanche..not a bad one but …bad enough.” Joe frowned and glanced over at Adam. It had been horrific. Thankfully he had fallen out into soft snow before the coach had tumbled over the boulders….Adam nodded

 

“We were the only survivors.” he said quietly

 

“Who was the driver?”

 

“Charley Ferris” Joe said

 

“Charley Ferris? Thought he’d have had more sense than to drive out with these blizzards on the way…” she snorted in disgust.

 

“He .. well..he felt he had to, ma’am. There’s a settlement we were headed for” Joe shrugged “They needed medical supplies, urgently, and Charley determined to go. ”

 

“We tried to persuade him not to but then when he had set his mind to it, we decided to go along as well…the others wanted to take the chance..” Adams voice trailed away as he thought of the others. “They died…”

 

“And Charley?” she asked

 

“He went with the coach…” Joe said quietly

 

“We buried the ones we found..” Adam pushed away his empty plate. “We found the medical supplies too…”

 

She sat down and looked at them both and frowned. Good looking boys, she thought, honest and clean living too, you just could see that by looking at them. She looked at the coffee pot as though by doing so she would be inspired to say the right words that she wanted to say…instead of stumbling and mumbling as she usually did..”Well, Charley was a good man. We knew him well.” she said quietly “He …dadburn it…he always would take risks, especially when others needed help.”

 

“He was certainly very determined to get to that settlement with those medical supplies.” Adam said

 

“It’s a new settlement…only been there over a year.” she

 

looked at them and narrowed her eyes “My names Tate, Jessie Tate by the way….my husband and I settled here about ten years ago.”

 

“It’s quite isolated…you must have been quite cut off at times” Joe observed

 

“We liked it that way. Henry had the cough, and in these mountains he felt well. He lived near twelve years longer than he would have done had we stayed back east…” she smiled “I buried him this summer.”

 

“And what do you intend to do?” Adam asked, accepting the coffee gratefully

 

“Stay put of course…this is my land, mine and Henrys. We spent the best years of our lives here and when I die, then my son will take over…he’s the doctor in that new settlement.” she sighed “I know how important those medical supplies are..” she shook her head “Well, guess that’s it…”

 

“How do you mean?” Joe asked

 

“Without medical supplies how are they going to get through the winter? There are women and children there..old folk too…all prepared to start new lives in this new country, all prepared to take the risks..like Charley..like Henry and me…” Adam nodded, he knew what she was talking about and mentally added ‘like pa and me…and Hoss….” he glanced over at Joe and raised his eyebrows, Joe nodded

 

“These medical supplies are that urgent?”

 

“Cost a man his life already, haven’t they?” she said snappily.

 

Then she shook her head and shrugged “Sorry. Didn’t mean it to come out like that…jest seems such a waste of life..danged weather. The passes will be full now…the only way to the settlement is over the mountain…” she looked at them “Can’t see anyone prepared to take a chance on getting over them…”

 

Adam said nothing to that but cradled the mug of hot coffee gratefully in his hands. Joe looked out of the window, the sun still shone over even white snow. The sky was so blue it reminded him of his mothers eyes..winter blue skies always did that…he looked at his brother and this time he raised his eye brows and received a wide eyed expressionless look in return.

 

Chapter 2.

“What do we do now?” Joe asked with a slight touch of defeatism in his voice as he looked about him at the towering cliffs. It seemed that wherever he looked there was no possible way out, or rather, no apparently easy way out.

 

“We climb” Adam said and he turnd to observe his brother with a slow smile and twinkling eyes, whilst he waited for him to comment.

 

“I really suffer from vertigo” Joe said “A conditon I inherited from my grandfather, he couldn’t sit on a horse without falling off”

 

“But you sit a horse well enough…” Adam smiled again

 

“Oh sure, but I’m just pointing out that when it comes to scaling mountains I’m not the worlds best…although I’m not scared…” he stared up at the cliff face and shuddered “Well, not much”

 

“At least you’re honest, Joe”

 

“I’d be a fool not to be honest with you.” Joe grumbled

 

“Look, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy, didn’t we?”

 

“I know..” Joe sighed and adjusted the leather strap across his chest. On his back he carried half the medical supplies and provisions for the journey. HIs brother was likewise equipped.

 

“Let’s get going..the longer we hang around the worse it will get.” he concluded.

The sun shone, the brightness glared all about them and dazzled their eyes and momentarily Joe felt blinded so that he had to step back for a minute for his eyes to readjust from snow white to brilliant glare. He was about to comment when Adam stopped and looked back at him “Are you alright, Joe?”

 

“Yeah”

 

“Not too tired?”

 

“Nope”

 

“If you are tired say so…don’t get overly tired or we could be in trouble later…”

 

“I know!”

The ascent was gradual at first. The surroundings and views afforded them as they walked were beautiful and Joe found that he was quite enjoying the trek. As darkness of night began to fall they had a camp prepared and food hot over a camp fire. In the morning they would have to make an early start for who could tell what the day would bring…or..come to that..the night!

 

Coyotes howled their mournful cry to the moon and the stars shone so brightly that Joe felt he could have reached out with his fingers and gathered in a handful as easily as could be…the cold crept icy fingers about them inching deeper into their bones.

 

In the morning Adam checked the bundles and tied the straps securely and then tied a rope around Joe’s waist and the other end around his own. JOe said nothing, his mouth was too dry to spit, speech was impossible. Adams actions alone indicated how much harder he envisaged the days journey to become.

 

By nightfall they were wedged together in a cleft out of the sting of the wind. Joe realised just ow hazardous the journey had become now, and at times, confronted by the sleet and snow lashing at them, their fingers had become too numb to hold onto the rocks and their feet had stumbled. Joe had noticed that even Adam was in difficulties, and when he saw that it made him realise how vulnerable they both were on the face of those cliffs. Time and again they had to stop. They rested and warmed their hands by thrusting them inside their coats against their bodies which sent shivers of ice through their blood. Inch by inch they seemed to crawl along the track, their feet scrabbling at near non existent foot holds and their fingers scrabbling against ice covered ledges which burned and tore their hands. Their faces became cut and scratched from the number of times they had to cling against the ice covered rocks.

 

It was just about possible to sleep. Huddled together they soon became warm through their own body heat and they slept. In the morning they ate cold frozen food swallowed down with snow. Joe felt it was the ultimate nightmare. Not so long ago he had had to face a similar horror, and been haunted by the memory ever since, but this seemed twice, no, ten times worse. Each foot step became so painful that he had to bite his lips to stop from crying out. The cold was so intense that it froze the blood but when they warmed up at night the defrosted wounds would sting and open and bleed. Joe’s one consolation was that Adam looked as wretched as himself.

 

Their fingers were cut and swollen and their nails broken and torn to the quick. After a while Joe stopped thinking, his brain seemed to stop functioning. He just forced his feet to move in the same direction as his brothers and his hands to scrabble for the precious hand holds. When something unusual occurred, like coming across an opening that necessitated their leaving the security of the rock face and actually jump to the other side, Joe just did as he was told without even stopping to think how much he depended on Adams strength and abilities to save him should he plummet down instead of over.

 

It began to rain. Joe signaled that he needed to rest and he slept with his head against his brothers shoulder and Adams arm around him. Adam looked at his brothers haggard worn face and prayed that they would reach level ground soon. He wondered now at the foolishness of having taken on the task..both of them had been exhausted enough from having hauled Arkwright through to the cabin from the stagecoach..he raised his face to the skies and felt the rain against his face..

 

“Put your foot here” Adam said and grabbed Joe’s foot and pulled it to the ledge “Your hand here” he took the cold hands and forced the fingers to hook over the rock “Move your other leg over, Joe, come on now, not much further to go..just move your other leg over…” he put a hand against the small of Joe’s back and steadied hm and slowly they moved, crawled, inched their way along the ledge.

 

“Here now…” he put hishand on Joe’s other foot and pulled it, pulled it hard against Joe’s resistance to move. He pulled it and forced it to the other foot hold and onto another ledge…

 

“Joseph! Joseph!”

 

His name seemed to ricochet around his head and forced him to open his eyes. Adam was looking down at him with a smile on his face and his brown eyes twinkling.

 

“Are you feeling alright?” he asked his brother as he pushed a bowl of hot steaming stew into the bandaged hands.

 

“That was the best nights sleep I’ve had in weeks..” Joe sighed.

 

“Don’t ever ask me to go mountain trekking with you again, Adam, not in winter time…” he buried his face in the bowl and savoured the richness of the food and smiled “Who’d have thought it, the first patients the doc has to treat with the medical supplies we brought him…were us!” and he began to laugh.

 

“They cabled pa and Hoss…told them where we are ..” Adam pulled up a chair beside the bed “You did well, Joe, I’m mighty proud of you, little brother.”

 

Joe said nothing to that for a while, he thought of the journey over those rocks and reminded the steadying hand, the encouraging words, the gentle determination of his brother to succeed…

 

“We couldn’t let them down, could we?” he muttered

 

“No…settlements like these deserve all the help they can get. They’re brave people who have sacrificed everything to make a new world..one day ..let’s hope.. that new world will look back and realise just how much they owe them.”

 

Joseph Cartwright nodded and looked at his brother…his green hazel eyes looked into the gentle brown of his brothers and his heart swelled with the longing to tell this man how much he loved him, and appreciated him

 

“Adam?”

 

“Yes, Little Joe?”

 

“You won’t tell Hoss, will you…about how I got scared in those mountains.”

 

“Did you get scared.Joe?”

 

“Yeah….” he looked at the stew with mortification “Yeah, I did!”

 

Adam smiled very gently and ruffled his brothers unruly mop of hair in the way Ben often did…he nodded

 

“I thought I was the only one…” he said “who got scared up that mountain…”

 

“Did you?” Joe stared at his brother with wide eyes “Really?”

 

“Really!” Adam leaned down and looked into his brothers face and smiled “Every man and woman and child who gets scared but carries on …they’re brave people, Joe…”

 

Joe smiled and took hold of his brothers hand in his

 

“Adam…I do …love you…” he whispered very quietly

 

Adam smiled and nodded….what else was there to say?

 

Outside it was dark with the darkness of the storm…another blizzard…another night of north winds crashing into flimsy buildings…just another night….

 

 

author….Krystyna Woollon

2001

 

Tags: Adam Cartwright, Joe / Little Joe Cartwright