Summary:  A gunfight and the resulting collateral damage.  Two Seedling’s Challenge inspired short stories.

Rating:  T  (1,845 words)

Rattlesnake… (aka After the Gunfight)
Two men faced each other in the middle of the street; indicating that they were prepared to face off for some offense, perceived or real, or maybe one wanted to usurp the title of fastest gun from the other. The people of Virginia City didn’t know which nor did they care as those present ran for cover.

The sudden quiet after the noise of people scurrying out of danger drew the attention of sixteen year old Adam Cartwright who was waiting next to the buckboard outside the entrance to the General Store.

Within moments it was over, two men reached for their weapons, two shots sounded. One man walked towards his challenger, who lay sprawled on the ground, a crimson stain spreading across the center of his shirt. The victor opened the cylinder of his revolver to remove the spent casing and inserted a new bullet into the chamber, before he closed the weapon and returned it to the holster hung low at his side. The man turned and walked towards his horse at the hitching rail outside one of the saloons in town.

Sheriff Biggs hurried down the boardwalk after being alerted to the trouble brewing, but was not fast enough to stop the gunfight. He knelt beside the victim and looked up as a shadow fell across the prone body.

“This is for the undertaker,” the man in the saddle stated as he flipped down a twenty dollar gold piece. “It was a fair fight, sheriff.”

“I know your reputation, Bullock. I want you out of my town,” Sheriff Biggs ordered the gunfighter.

“I was already leaving,” Bullock answered as he respectfully tipped his hat towards the lawman.

Sheriff Biggs began to call for volunteers to take the body to the undertaker when he, and everyone nearby, heard a woman’s piercing scream.

*****

Upon Ben Cartwright’s arrival in town, Sheriff Biggs informed the agonized father that he’d carried the unconscious young man to the doctor’s office before sending word to the Ponderosa. After investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting of Adam Cartwright, Biggs had determined the errant bullet was fired from the nameless challenger’s weapon.

*****

It was early evening before the doctor agreed to allow his patient to return home, but the young man would sleep through the trip with the help of a strong sedative. Their good friend and town physician, Paul Martin, had stated that the bullet wound would heal and only leave a small scar along his temple; he sent home powders to help with any residual headache.

*****

Later that night, after Ben Cartwright had seen his wife to a medicated sleep in their room, he sat a bedside vigil with his oldest son. Never before had he come so close to losing his first born, never had he thought his son would be caught up in the aftermath of a gun fight. As he sat in the dimly lit room, Adam’s life played out in his mind’s eye.

*****

It was nearing four in the morning when Adam began to wake from the medication the doctor had given him for the trip home and to hopefully help him sleep through the night.

“Son?” Ben cautiously asked.

“Pa?” Adam answered as his dark eyes fluttered open. “Oh, my head.” The young man reached to alleviate the pain to find a bandage wrapped around his head. “What happened?”

“Don’t you remember?” Ben nervously asked as he assisted his son to sit up so he could drink from the glass of water he had poured.

“There was a gun fight… I was worried for Marie… I tried to go into the store to make sure she and the others were away from the windows… But I didn’t make it… He was so fast, Pa; faster than a rattlesnake striking out. I tried Pa; I tried to warn her… Is Marie alright?”

“She’s sleeping right now; Doc Martin gave her something to help her sleep. She was extremely distraught over finding you unconscious in the doorway to the General Store and all the blood, she feared the worst.”

“I’m sorry, Pa.”

“Adam, it wasn’t your fault. You did nothing wrong, and it pleases me to hear that you tried to warn Marie… to keep her and Little Joe safe.”

As his son settled back to sleep, Ben thought on what could have happened had his son reacted just a few moments quicker or just a few moments slower; one instant either side of that point in time could have been enough for the wayward bullet to have killed his son.

~The End (Sort of)

************************

Readers kept wanting to ‘Kill a Cartwright’, so this story was easily morphed into another version.

Rattlesnake #2
Two men faced each other in the middle of the street; indicating that they were prepared to face off for some offense, perceived or real, or maybe one wanted to usurp the title of fastest gun from the other. The people of Virginia City didn’t know which nor did they care as those present ran for cover.

The sudden quiet after the noise of people scurrying out of danger drew the attention of sixteen year old Adam Cartwright who was waiting next to the buckboard outside the entrance to the General Store.

Within moments it was over, two men reached for their weapons, two shots sounded. One man walked towards his challenger, who lay sprawled on the ground, a crimson stain spreading across the center of his shirt. The victor opened the cylinder of his revolver to remove the spent casing and inserted a new bullet into the chamber, before he closed the weapon and returned it to the holster hung low at his side. The man turned and walked towards his horse at the hitching rail outside one of the saloons in town.

Sheriff Biggs hurried down the boardwalk after being alerted to the trouble brewing, but was not fast enough to stop the gunfight. He knelt beside the victim and looked up as a shadow fell across the prone body.

“This is for the undertaker,” the man in the saddle stated as he flipped down a twenty dollar gold piece. “It was a fair fight, sheriff.”

“I know your reputation, Bullock. I want you out of my town,” Sheriff Biggs ordered the gunfighter.

“I was already leaving,” Bullock answered as he respectfully tipped his hat towards the lawman.

Sheriff Biggs began to call for volunteers to take the body to the undertaker when he, and everyone nearby, heard a woman’s piercing scream.

*****

Upon Ben Cartwright’s arrival in town, Sheriff Biggs informed the agonized father that he’d carried the unconscious young man to the doctor’s office before sending word to the Ponderosa. After investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting of Adam Cartwright, Biggs had determined the errant bullet was fired from the nameless challenger’s weapon. The lawman had not had time to check on the condition of the Cartwrights; he’d seen several women helping Marie Cartwright walk to the doctor’s office, with another woman carrying a sleeping Little Joe quietly behind them.

*****

Their good friend and town physician, Paul Martin, had the hellish duty of informing the aggrieved father that he had tried his best, but it would only be so long before Adam’s body succumbed to the loss of blood and trauma inflicted by the errant bullet. Though he abbreviated the exact cause, he informed Ben that Adam’s brain would ultimately die due to the swelling caused by the force in which the bullet struck and how hard his head hit the ground as his body crumpled.

*****

Later that night, after Ben Cartwright had seen his eldest son’s body transported to the understaker’s, he wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders as they sat side by side on the bench seat to the buckboard and drove home. Time had no meaning to the adults as the horses slowly walked home, receiving no command to pick up the pace. The little boy sleeping upon the sacks of coffee and rolls of fabric was oblivious to the devastation suffered by his family.

After seeing his wife to their room and taking care of the horses, Ben left the supplies for someone else to unload. Numbly he entered the home his son had helped design. Never had he believed he could lose his first born, never had he thought his son would be caught up in the ugly aftermath of a gun fight. In the dimly lit room, he sat a vigil next to the empty bed of his oldest son and cried as Adam’s life played out in his mind’s eye.

*****

It was nearing four in the morning when Little Joe woke and bounded into his oldest brother’s bedroom, eager to play and talk horses. Faster than a rattlesnake’s strike, Ben startled awake as Joe decided to jump on his father’s lap; the boy had yet to realize the implication of the empty bed.

Ben struggled with what to tell his younger sons; though Hoss knew his ma had died when he was an infant neither he nor Joseph had ever experienced such a tragedy. How did you explain the death of a beloved brother?

Ben allowed Joe to rattle on and talk of the sights he had seen on their trip into town and the candy his momma had purchased, but with the early hour of the morning, Little Joe was soon asleep in his father’s lap.

As his son settled back to sleep, Ben thought on what could have happened had his oldest son reacted just a few moments quicker or just a few moments slower; one instant either side of that point in time could have been enough for the wayward bullet to have missed killing his son.

~The End (for sure)

*****

NOTE: Sheriff Roy Coffee didn’t arrive in Virginia City until the second season of Bonanza, so in keeping with the first season (Death at Dawn), I elected Sheriff Biggs to be sheriff in this prequel story.

Story Tags: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Death of a Cartwright Challenge (Inca’s), Marie Cartwright, multiple stories, Paul Martin, Rattlesnake