Summary:  In the last of the series, the story is all about Adam, Hoss, and Joe.  There’s a hunting trip with their dogs, a hero who emerges after a case of mistaken identity, and then the plot for their sweet revenge.  Some of this material was originally in the previous story, but when I edited it out, I saved it to create this story.  You may notice how it overlaps part of what happened in that story.
Rating:  T   Word Count:  10,703

Not Guilty series:
Not Guilty: Part One, Justice Denied (by BettyHT)
Not Guilty: Part Two, Justice Delayed (by BettyHT)
Not Guilty: Part Three, Moving Forward (by BettyHT)
Not Guilty: Part Four, The Dogs (by BettyHT)

 

---

Not Guilty: Part Four, The Dogs

Chapter 1

Hoss had tears in his eyes as he talked to himself and cared for the large staghound who whimpered in his care. All of his thoughts were for this brave dog and his master.

“Captain, you got to take this broth. Please. I know you got to get your strength back if you want to go hunting with Adam again. Yep, that perked you up, didn’t it. Just hearing his name. Now, you drink this broth and get stronger. There you go.”

Joe could imagine what Hoss was thinking. He had been thinking the same since he had returned. Now it was Hoss’ job. I have to keep Captain alive. If Adam wakes up, no, when Adam wakes up, I want him to be able to have this dog by his side. They deserve some time together after what they been through. Just a month or so ago, I would have thought we had only good times ahead. Then Pa got kidnapped, and we might have lost him and Adam, but that turned out all right. Pa’s married and off on his trip, and Adam and Beryl got their little boy. But, dadburnit, this came out of nowhere and slammed us back some. I wish we could go back to those good times.

It was only a short time after Adam and Beryl had moved to their new house in Carson City, that Hoss had a request. He missed the staghound that was on the Ponderosa while Adam and Beryl were building their house. Even when they were in Carson City at a rented house, they left their dog, Captain, on the ranch. However, when they moved, the dog went with them, and Hoss really felt the loss. It was like he had lost a friend. He asked if Adam could help him get his own dog, and told him to never mind the smart mouth answer. Adam gave him one anyway, saying of course he could, but did Hoss want him to do that. Regardless, on a Monday morning, they headed out to do exactly that.

Slowly, they were rebuilding their relationship as brothers. Hoss didn’t think it could ever likely be as good as it was once, but hoped maybe it could be close. The trip was a chance for them to have some serious conversation which they did first and some fun brother talk after that mostly about their little brother, Joe. They were both still laughing some when they pulled into the ranch yard where they were going to buy another staghound hopefully from the same litter that had produced the one Beryl had gotten for Adam. The owner seemed a bit reluctant to talk to them about that so Adam was blunt.

“Is there a reason why you don’t want to show us what’s left of that litter?”

“Your wife picked out a good dog for you. I don’t know why you’re so all fired worried about the litter.”

“I’m not worried, but it seems you are.”

“Well, if you got to know, one of the dogs can’t see too good and the other one that’s left is small for the breed. I didn’t want you to think we were selling you inferior stock. We were about to get rid of those two so nobody would think that of us.”

Hoss was worried about how the man said that. “What do you mean get rid of them?”

“Oh, you know, we’re not cruel. We take ’em out back and give them a little treat, and when they’re busy not looking at us, we shoot ’em in the head. They never feel a thing, and then we bury ’em.”

Hoss was shocked. “You’re gonna kill ’em just because they didn’t turn out perfect?”

“We got a reputation here to worry about. We only sell the best kind of dogs.”

When he said that, Hoss made him an offer. “Well, what about giving them to me. I won’t never say where I got ’em, and your reputation will stay perfect.”

“It don’t seem right you getting two dogs free.”

Hoss found it frustrating talking to that man. “Mister, make up your mind. What do you want?”

“Well, say you give me half-price, and you don’t say where you got them?”

At that point, Adam took over. “You were going to get nothing. How about we pay half-price for the small one and nothing for the one who doesn’t see well. That one’s likely to be a pet at the house that no one will see anyway. It can’t hunt if it can’t see the game. The small one might be seen, but we can say we wanted a smaller one to get through the brush on our property where the bigger dogs can’t go. If he’s hunting, men will want to know where we got him.”

“Now that might work. Some folks might even come to us and ask about smaller dogs.”

“We can sweeten the pot by paying full price for a large dog.”

Hoss got worried then not knowing what his brother was thinking. He should have known better though. Adam’s always thinking things through.

“Adam, I don’t want three dogs. I only came to get one.”

“You aren’t getting three dogs. I’m taking the one that can’t see well to be a pet. I think Beryl will like having a dog at the house when I’m gone. I’ll gift the little one to Joe, and now you can go pick out a dog that fits you.”

Hoss stared at him for just a little before all he could do was grin. Like usual, Adam had surprised him, but in a good way.

“Damn, you are good.”

Now they had brought some food and water for the trip back but not enough for three dogs so they had to throw a little extra money at the man and got some treats to take with them. The dogs seemed pretty comfortable in the wagon being together so that worked out well. They did have to stop a couple of hours down the road to let them run a bit and do their business. Adam lured them back into the wagon with the treats, and they settled down quite contented apparently with their new owners and happy as can be to ride in the back of the wagon with them. Seems like they took to the two as family pretty easily.

When they got back to the ranch, Joe and Beryl came out to right away, but Pa and Jamie weren’t far behind. Hoss and Adam could see Beryl’s eyes twinkled as she saw the three dogs because she knew there had to be a good story there. Problem was that anyone could see Joe was upset probably thinking his brothers had all these dogs while he had none. With the hint of a scowl, he had to ask.

“Three dogs? I thought you were only going to get one?”

“We were, but our plans changed. We saw the opportunity to do something else and we took it.”

Taking the dog with the poor vision, Adam led him from the wagon and pointed him at his wife.

“Beryl, this dog doesn’t see well so he’s going to be a pet, a house dog. I thought you would like him. They were going to get rid of him, and you know what that means. He was free. He’s very nice but don’t move too fast when you’re by his face. He startles easily.”

There were no words to adequately describe the smile Beryl had for Adam. He pulled the big dog forward to walk toward his wife. Adam tossed one of the dog treats to Beryl who held it out for her new pet.

“Thank you, Adam. I love him already. Come here, Free.”

With a tail wagging, the big dog went to Beryl who wrapped an arm around his neck and whispered to him as he gobbled the treat she gave him.

“Free?”

“You said he was free, so I think we know what his name is.”

It was time to tell Joe more of what was going on.

“Joe, this big tall one is mine. I picked her out from all the others. The owner said I had good taste in dogs as she was the best of the dogs he had for sale. Charged me enough for her. It’s a different litter with a different bloodline than the one Adam’s dog came from so we might even get them together to have a litter someday.”

“She’s really nice. What about the smaller one?”

“That’s up to Adam to say.”

“He got another dog?”

Taking the smaller dog by its collar and lightly tugging, Adam got him to jump down from the wagon where he stood obediently by Adam’s side even as his eyes darted from one to the next of the people there.

“I bought him because they were going to get rid of him too, but because he’s small for a staghound. I already have two dogs and that’s enough. He’s certainly a curious dog and quite active. He needs someone to keep him busy and train him. We think he could be very effective hunting in low brush country where other staghounds have a difficult time seeing the game. He could go right in and find it. No, this one is for you. I hope you want him because otherwise I’m going to have to find someone else who wants him.”

“Want him? Of course, I want him. How much do I owe you?”

“It’s a gift, Joe. He’s all yours.”

“Gosh, Adam, thank you. Thank you. It may be the best present I got since I got Cochise. I’m going to call him Taza. Taza is the son of Cochise, you know. Hey, Hoss, we both got dogs now. We can train them together. What are you going to call your dog.”

“She’s Venn. It means friend in Norwegian. Adam told me the meaning. He remembered Ma telling him that.”

Ben decided to remind them of his rule which Adam had ignored while he and Beryl had stayed on the ranch. “Well, I hope you don’t plan to have these dogs in the house.”

But it was already too late. Hoss was already headed inside with Venn, and he wasn’t changing his plan. Taza ran to catch up, and Joe and Jamie hurried behind him. Pa sighed like he does sometime and turned to Adam. Hoss heard what he said and what Adam said before Hoss got inside because Venn had to sniff everything on the way inside.

“There’s just no end to changes around here now. Oh, well, are you staying for dinner?”

“No, we need to get home and get this dog settled and let Beryl get some rest. With only a couple of weeks to go, she has to take it easy. I have a meeting tomorrow too.”

Well, Adam missed his meeting because Beryl had their baby that night. Hoss and Ben went with them to their home, and Free showed how agreeable he could be. He sat beside Hoss as he drove the wagon, and he created no problems during the ride and at the house neither when he met Captain. Free was agreeable to letting Captain being in charge and did the same with Marjorie, the housekeeper and cook who worked for Beryl. Everything seemed just about perfect.

Just like after Pa’s kidnapping, everyone thought everything was going to be all right. Now we got a problem again. Hoss prayed it was going to be all right again. They sent a telegram to Pa but there’s no way to know if he got it. It broke Hoss’ heart to go in the house now to see Beryl sitting by Adam’s side holding their little boy and waiting for Adam to wake up. Hoss didn’t care what that doctor said. The longer it takes for him to wake up, he said, the worse the chances he ever will. Well, Hoss said something different than that

“My brother never gives up. He’ll wake up. He has to wake up.”

In the barn, Hoss talked to Adam’s dog in much the same way.

“Now, Captain, you got to fight hard too. I see it in your eyes that you ain’t gonna give up. You know Adam is fighting to be with you and all of us again. He’s gonna want to see you and thank you for all you done. You just gotta get better, you hear me?”

Wondering if he could help, Joe had walked to the barn when he saw Hoss going there with a basin. He didn’t interrupt though when he saw Hoss cradling Captain’s head, talking to him, and gently urging him to eat. He could imagine the thoughts his brother had as he did that especially in what he could hear him say. Joe felt guilty about what happened. He guessed it was a trait he shared with Adam. It was because of him even though he had done nothing wrong or at least as far as he knew and neither had his oldest brother. Greedy men did the evil, but somehow he still felt like he should have known they might do what they did. Who would have thought a simple hunting trip could turn out to be so devastating. When he asked Hoss and Adam to go hunting, he frankly had been surprised that Adam had agreed. Hoss had reminded him later though how much Adam had liked hunting when he had lived on the Ponderosa and how good he was with a rifle, probably the best of the three of them at long distance shooting.

“Besides, I think he misses some being with family.”

“That’s hard to believe since he wants to be his own man and not be part of the Ponderosa.”

“Joe, Adam and Beryl could live anywhere they want. They live in Carson City. That ought to tell you something especially after everything that happened. I hope you’re thinking and talking more positive on this trip. Remember who gave you Taza too.”

“I’m sorry. I guess I’m so worried about the timber contract and all the financial issues with the ranch right now. But I want to go on this trip too.”

“We’re ahead on the timber contract, and we still got the cattle drive and the horse sale for money coming in. We should be fine by fall. Isn’t the timber contract ahead of schedule too?”

“It is. You’re right. I’ve got to learn to relax.”

As Joe recalled that conversation, he felt even more guilty. If only he and his brothers could go back and start over only being more careful this time. If only Adam hadn’t volunteered to get their horses and gear. It was his turn, but one of them should have helped especially with the possibility of a storm coming in. There were so many ifs and so many questions as to why it had happened the way it did that Joe knew he might never shed the guilt. All they knew so far was that when the man who did it was accidentally shot and then taken down by their dogs, they asked him why he shot Adam, and he had answered in a way that left more questions.

“I didn’t shoot Adam. I shot Joe Cartwright. Somebody else must have shot that Adam guy.”

The man had died then without being able to answer any more of our questions, and there were so many questions.

 

Chapter 2

The hunting trip started well. Adam recounted the conversation he had with Beryl before he left. She had asked him why he wanted to go on the hunting trip with his brothers. Stopping to make sure he knew it wasn’t criticism, she said too that she was glad he had the opportunity to go. But curiosity about his enthusiasm made her wonder about his motives. He had told her he wanted to rebuild his relationships with his brothers knowing that they had been trying to make it seem more normal.

“Is that how you really feel?”

“Yes, Joe, it is time to move forward, and a chance to go hunting together with our new dogs is a chance to do that. It’s something none of us have done before so it should get interesting. It will be fun to see what these dogs can do.”

Hoss had to grin and tease a little. “And here I thought you were missing going hunting.”

With a grin, Adam had to agree. “Well, there is that too. I did miss those opportunities, Hoss. In the last six years or so, I only hunted when it was necessary and too often it was not as successful as I wished.”

While they were packing up to head out, two men were meeting in a hotel room in Virginia City to discuss their plans. Their company had lost a timber contract to Joe Cartwright and they thought they had found a way to reverse that at only minimal cost.

“He’s going hunting with his brothers. Their foreman was in picking up supplies and talked quite a bit about what they needed and why. A talkative sort, he and the old sheriff had quite the conversation and this man even told where the three of them were headed. Put a bullet in Joe Cartwright, and they’ll be stuck up there for a few days at least. Sabotage the flume at the same time, and they’ll never make that contract deadline. They’ll pay a hefty penalty and probably forfeit the contract as well. Cartwright won’t likely even get the notification. Then we step in and take over at our price.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“It is. Send one man with a rifle to shoot the Cartwright riding the black and white. We already have our man on their timber crew so we get word to him to put the powder under the flume supports. Two men do two jobs, and it’s done.”

“It’ll get done, but those two men can implicate us in criminal activity.”

“We’ll send them back to California when they’re done here.”

“That’s a relief.”

“You were worried that I would want them killed?”

“Well, it is a level of violence in this plan that I’m not used to seeing in what we do.”

“Yes, but he’s only going to put a bullet in Cartwright, not kill him.” He paused then because he could see a problem his partner had already seen. “Tell him to be careful. We don’t want a potential murder here. Everyone knows how those Cartwrights are. If someone dies, they will never stop in trying to find out who was responsible.”

Relieved, the second man nodded. “I’ll make sure both men know that no one is to be killed.”

Only two days later, after Adam took a shot at an elk and missed or perhaps wounded him slightly, he and Joe got into a conversation that had Hoss worried.

“Maybe if you were as good a shot as you say you are, we would have a blood trail to follow.”

“Maybe if you had some tracking skills, we wouldn’t need something so obvious as drops of blood to find something as big as an elk.”

“I have tracking skills. I tracked plenty when you weren’t around.”

“Really? From what I’ve seen you couldn’t track an old cow in the snow.”

“Then you’re not very smart and certainly not as smart as you think you are.”

“At least I’m not a half-wit.”

“No, you would have to study up to be a half-wit.”

Hoss didn’t see Adam start to laugh at that one. Looking at Joe and shaking his head, Adam had to admit his younger brother had bested him that time in the trading of insults. Coming up behind his brothers and hearing the exchange, Hoss thought they were in the midst of a real argument.

“You two got as much brains as a turtle got feathers. We don’t find that elk, we’re gonna be real hungry come dinner time.”

Then Hoss heard the laughter and didn’t know if they were laughing at what he said or something else. It didn’t matter much as long as they were laughing and not fighting. This had happened several times since they had been on the trip and Hoss found it a bit unnerving but Adam and Joe seemed to enjoy the mock fighting.

“Adam probably found it already.”

“Probably?”

“Best we can tell, it slid down this slope. We’ll have to go get the horses and head to the bottom. Probably better to make camp down there anyway. There’s water, wood, and more natural shelter. Adam thinks there’s bad weather coming in.”

“I had that feeling too. All right, who’s gonna hike on back to get the horses?”

Both Hoss and Joe looked at Adam then. He shrugged knowing it was his turn to handle the horses.

“All right. Do you mind if I ride one of your horses down? Sport has been favoring his right foreleg, and I don’t want to push him on a steep grade like this.”

“Sure, go ahead and ride Cooch. Chubb can carry most of the gear and the bedrolls can go on Sport. That shouldn’t be too much for him.”

“Thanks, Joe. That should work out well. The dogs will watch over the elk for us until we all get down there.”

Up on the hill above the three brothers, a rifleman waited. With a perfect position for shooting, he held his fire because he wasn’t sure which one to shoot. They said the dark-haired one riding the pinto, but there were two with dark hair, and neither one had been riding that day as they worked their way through the trees with their dogs looking for game. He could see them as they split up and wondered where the third was going. Deciding to wait until that one headed down the slope to join the other two, he settled in and frowned as he watched the clouds building up to a storm. Disgusted that he couldn’t get the job done and head back before the bad weather struck, he was in a foul mood until he looked down and saw one of them riding a pinto down the hill. In a hurry, he got his rifle sighted in to do the job he was sent to do and fired. The man was jolted from the saddle and rolled to the edge and then slid off the side of the trail. That wasn’t part of the plan, and the assassin had to hope he didn’t die by falling too far.

At the sound of the rifle shot, Hoss and Joe jumped up from where they had been resting and looked up the slope. There was nothing to see until the horses came rushing down the trail. It was a difficult job to grab them before they could run off. Then it was time to mount up and ride back up the trail to see what had happened to Adam. They rode all the way back to their previous camp and found nothing. Coming back down the trail more slowly, they found where he had fallen and slid off the side. Looking down, they couldn’t see him. Both called to him, and at first, got no response. Then there was a weak call for help at about the same time that all hell broke loose in the sky with lightning and thunder. Suddenly Captain was there and pushed his way through the brush and down the slope before Hoss or Joe could stop him. Joe was going to follow but Hoss did stop him.

“Joe, wait, let me put a rope on you.”

With a rope secured around his waist, Joe followed Captain and found Adam and his dog in a precarious position.

“Hoss, Captain has Adam and is stopping him from slipping over the edge. It’s about a twenty-foot drop-off into brush and trees. He’s got one leg caught on a root, but if Captain let’s go, he’ll fall.”

“Can you grab him?”

“I can, but if I grab him by the coat, it will take Captain’s hold away, and he may fall.”

“Is there any other way to do it cause we got rain on the way and it’s gonna get worse down there.”

“No other way that I can see.”

“You got to do it then, Joe.”

Looking at Captain, Joe said he was sorry. Then he moved closer to Adam and reached under his arms to pull him up. When he did so, Captain relinquished his grip letting Joe grab Adam more securely.

“I got him, Hoss.”

Hoss began to pull his brothers up the slope with Chubb’s help. As he did so, Captain began to slide backwards and had no way to stop the inevitable. He went over the side even as Joe got Adam up into the brush area and told Hoss to stop pulling.

“You’re going to have to get in here and help me lift him through the brush.”

When they got Adam back to the trail, there wasn’t enough light to see what his wound was so they loaded him on Chubb and headed down to where they were going to make camp. There they quickly made a large lean-to and got Adam under it. With a fire going, they had light and began an evaluation of his condition. He had a long wound across his buttocks that exited in his upper thigh. He also had a head injury from the fall from his horse.

“Somebody shot him in the ass.”

“It would be funny if he wasn’t bleeding so much. Hoss, what can we do about that?”

“We’re going to have to clean it up as much as we can and then put pressure on it. If that doesn’t work, there’s only one other thing we can do up here.”

“Cauterize it? That’s an awful big wound to cauterize.”

“I know, and that’s why I’m hoping the pressure works. Now, we need more firewood before the rain starts pouring down. I’m going to start cleaning him up if you’ll take care of everything else.”

It was midnight before they had Adam bandaged and wrapped up in a bedroll. He had blessedly remained mostly semiconscious for his ordeal. Venn and Taza were laying by his side helping to keep him warm. The rain hadn’t lasted long. With some hot food and coffee finally, Hoss sat by the fire and began wrapping bloody cloths around a long stick.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to go look for Captain.”

“Now?”

“He saved our brother, Joe. It’s the least I can do. If he’s still alive, I gotta see if there’s anything I can do for him.”

“Well, take a slicker or a blanket with you. You’ll need something to carry him in either way.”

“Yeah, good idea.”

Lighting his makeshift torch, Hoss headed to where he thought he would find Adam’s dog. Less than a few minutes later, Joe heard footsteps and was surprised. He didn’t think Hoss would be back so soon. He wasn’t.

“Toss your gun over here.”

The assassin had lost his horse when it spooked in the loud storm. Realizing he would never likely find it, he decided to go get a horse he could find. Watching Hoss walk away and knowing one of the three was shot, he guessed it would be his best chance to take a horse. In fact, he planned to take all three to slow any chance of pursuit and keep these three in the mountains a lot longer.

Not willing to take a chance on Adam being hurt any further, Joe tossed out his gun. However Taza and Venn didn’t like it. They sensed the danger to Joe and to Adam. Bounding from where they lay behind Adam, they startled the assassin and caused him to fall backward as he stumbled over the firewood stack and unfortunately for him accidentally discharged his weapon into his own leg. Then the two dogs were on him too and they made sure he wouldn’t hurt anyone in the camp. Joe had to call them off before they killed the man. Hoss hurried back carrying Captain and was shocked by what he saw. Joe was kneeling by a badly wounded and mauled man asking him why he shot Adam.

“I didn’t shoot any Adam. I shot Joe Cartwright. Somebody else must have shot that Adam guy.”

Before any more questions could be asked and answered, the man closed his eyes. He never opened them again. Shock and blood loss were more than he could survive.

“What did he mean by saying he shot you instead of Adam?”

“Adam was riding Cooch. Hoss, he meant to shoot me but shot Adam instead.”

“Why would he want to shoot you? I mean we were thinking it was some case of Adam’s that got somebody after him, but why you?”

“I have no idea.”

“We need to get him buried before all this blood attracts some visitors we definitely don’t want. We’ll need to have another fire as it is. I’m glad that rain stopped. I need to see to Captain. He’s still breathing, but he’s hurt bad too.”

“We’re not going to get any sleep tonight, are we?”

“When we get these things done, we’ll start taking turns.”

“That’s a plan.”

“Glad we got that elk.”

“Damn, I forgot we got to dress him out yet.”

Groaning with the additional task, Joe walked into the darkness to gather more wood for the fires they needed. Hours later, he lay down beside his oldest brother who seemed to be resting easy enough and finally got to close his eyes. Hoss was sitting up with Captain and roasting some elk meat over the bigger fire. Taza and Venn were obediently staying with Adam, but all but drooling over the prospect of meat after not eating for so long.

By morning, there was some good news. Adam awoke and was alert although in pain and weak. He was seeing double but otherwise seemed to have few ill effects from the head injury. He couldn’t walk anyway with his injury but they assumed if he had tried, he would be too dizzy to do it.

The meat meant they had supplies for an extended stay, but Adam needed medical care and they had no way to move him because he couldn’t sit on a horse. Joe wanted to ride for help, but once the situation was explained to Adam, he concurred with Hoss that Joe shouldn’t go anywhere.

“He meant to shoot you and shot me by accident.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s not your fault, Joe. Don’t feel guilty about it. What I’m saying is that I agree with Hoss that it’s not safe for you to leave. If they find out their man missed, they’ll try again.”

“But who are they?”

“Well, little brother, who would benefit by you being wounded?”

“Or killed you mean.”

“No, I don’t think so. That man wasn’t that far from me and hit me in the ass. I think he meant to hurt me not kill me. A shot a foot higher and you would be carrying me home across my saddle.”

“That’s true, Joe. He couldn’t have been more than fifty yards away from Adam when he shot. That’s heavy cover above the trail up there. He wouldn’t have had a shot at all if he was higher.”

“So we’re back to who would benefit by you being wounded.”

They were all thinking the same thing at that point, but none could think of a reason why Joe being wounded could make a difference. After drinking some thick broth, Adam fell back asleep. Waking hours later and in great pain, he stared at Joe and Hoss for only a short time before he coughed and got them even more worried. Then in a hoarse voice, he told them why he thought someone wanted Joe wounded.

“There’s going to be some terrible trouble at the timber camp.”

Joe’s first inclination was to deny it, but both he and Hoss thought about it and got worried even more. Now Adam was getting sick as well as being wounded, and his theory made sense. What they didn’t have was a way to deal with any of it.

 

Chapter 3

As Adam slept for a couple of hours, Hoss tended to Captain and Joe collected more firewood. It was cool where they were with sunlight reaching them only in the late morning and then gone by late afternoon. The dogs spent quite a bit of time resting next to Adam and that helped in keeping him warm, but if another storm came, it might not be enough. The brothers worried about that and how they were going to get Adam out of the mountains and home.

“Joe, maybe we only need to get him down to the line shack in the northeast pastures. A wagon or carriage could get that far.”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be too hard on him, but it would still take at least a day with him on a travois.”

“Yeah, I know. He’s not ready for even that yet. He should rest here for another day or two. Meanwhile who knows what kind of trouble is happening out there.”

While they talked, Adam must have been listening because he offered his opinion that it was a good plan except for one thing. Then he began coughing and couldn’t continue. Hoss propped him up and Joe helped him sip some hot coffee until the coughing fit eased. Then both brothers told him not to talk anymore as it was too hard on him.

“I wouldn’t except you’re missing the obvious answer.”

Coughing again, Adam had to stop and drink more coffee. His brothers wanted to tell him not to continue but both wanted to hear what he had to say after that brief comment. When he could continue, he began speaking but only said a little in between sips of coffee so he could talk without giving into a coughing fit.

“Hoss should go. Joe stays here. Hoss can take care of the camp. Send someone to get help. They won’t be expecting him. Dress different. Take the dogs.”

“Now Adam, you need them dogs to stay warm.”

“Sleep on coals.”

“Damn, I should have thought of that. Yeah, Joe can handle that. I can get started right away.”

Hoss packed up what he needed to take, too Adam’s hat instead of his own, and called to Taza and Venn to come with him. He assured Joe he would handle things and get help to them as soon as he could. When he left, Joe turned to Adam and shrugged.

“I’m sure you two think I can do it, and I’ve heard the two of you talk about it, but I’ve never done this bed of coals thing.”

“Dig a trench about a foot and a half wide and maybe four feet long. Build a fire in it and let it burn to the coals. Spread the coals out. Bury them under about a half foot of sand. No leaves or needles or anything that could burn. Lay a thick blanket or some canvas tarp over that. Put a bedroll on it and it should be good for at least twelve hours.”

“I might like one of those too.”

Adam grinned then and continued to sip coffee as Joe got to work. Once the two coal beds were ready, Joe put two bedrolls there and moved the lean-to there. Next he looked at Adam knowing the next part would be the most difficult.

“Dragging you is probably going to be the best way to do it.”

“I agree. I can roll when we get close enough.”

It sounded so much easier than it worked out. Both were covered in sweat by the time they were done, but Adam had a nice warm place to rest, and Joe would have one too when night came. Then Joe took care of Captain moving him to where the lean-to had been and constructing a lean-to from branches around him. He gave him thick broth and water to drink. Then he covered him with a blanket and left him to sleep.

“Is he going to make it?”

“Hard to say, Adam. Hoss says he’s hurt inside. All we can do is wait.”

“He saved me, didn’t he?”

“He did. He’s quite a dog.”

Pausing then because he didn’t quite know how to say what he was thinking, Adam finally just blurted it out.

“Why didn’t you object to me saying it was Hoss who should go?”

“Because it made sense and I was thinking the same thing.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“It seemed kind of like putting him in the line of fire to save myself.”

“Sometimes, that’s the kind of thing we have to do.”

“It’s not easy having to do that, is it? I’ll feel terrible if something happens to Hoss.”

That night both prayed nothing would happen. In the camp that night, Hoss found out what had happened and was furious. Someone had taken black powder from the supplies and blown up the flume injuring several men who were working down the hill repairing a section of it. He wrote out everything that needed to be done when the foreman told him all the problems they were going to have getting the contract filled by the deadline.

“I need a man to ride to the ranch with this tomorrow. I’m asking my father to send every available man up here to help and send the supplies you said you needed. He’ll have to send help to Joe and Adam too. Meanwhile, we need to find out who did it and is still here because you said nobody left.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“I got my way.”

In the morning, Hoss had all the men line up and walked around speaking directly to them. He stood taller than each one and towered over many. Doing his best to be intimidating, he spoke from the heart and promised a bonus if the deadline was met.

“Some of you been with us a long time. I trust every one of you. Some of you are new, and new don’t mean we don’t trust you. Most of you do a hard day’s work every day for the money you get paid. But one of the new hires is a rat. That rat put every man here in danger whether you’re an old hand here or a new hire. He doesn’t care if you live or die. He doesn’t care if you have a job or get paid one more payday. No, he’s only out for himself. What we need from you is to help us figure out who the rat is. Watch the men around you and report any suspicious activity. Now don’t do anything to him. We’ll let the law handle it. That’s all I got to say. We need you all to get to work. We’re going to go into that new stand of timber where we won’t need the flume. When I get more men up here, we’ll work on getting that flume working again and get back to the sections you were working before the rat blew up the flume. All right, the foreman has the cutting maps. Thank you for your hard work, and remember that bonus you get if we make the deadline.”

Once all the crews headed out, the head cook and the foreman talked with Hoss and he asked if they had any idea who the saboteur was. Both had different ideas and Hoss had another man in mind. All three had looked nervous while Hoss was talking. The cook and foreman headed to their work, and Hoss went to work cleaning up the area where the flume had collapsed in the explosion. When it was the break for lunch, Hoss was surprised to see a man tied to a tree near the tent where the men ate their meals. Gagged, bruised, and battered, he looked otherwise all right. Inside the tent, Hoss asked about him.

“He snuck away from where we were cutting. Two of us followed him and caught him trying to steal your horse to get away. We grabbed him and hollered for some help. He decided to fight. It wasn’t a good idea.”

The foreman came up to Hoss then and handed him some papers and gold coins.

“We found these things in his pockets. It appears he’s too stupid to get rid of the evidence or put his money in the bank or someplace safe.”

Unfolding the paper, Hoss read the instructions for how to best disable the flume and how to set off black powder. It was damning evidence of the man’s guilt. Walking back outside, he asked the man who had hired him.

“I’m not telling you. For what I did, I’ll get a short prison term. I tell you who hired me, and I’ll likely end up dead.”

“I hope you didn’t like your partner too much. He’s already dead. He shot my brother so I don’t feel bad about that neither.”

“Arch is dead?”

“He is. We buried him up in the mountains.”

Tears ran down the man’s face. That did soften Hoss’ heart a little.

“We was together for over ten years. He was just like a brother to me. We were only trying to earn a little money. We never meant to kill nobody or be killed. He was only supposed to wound your brother to keep him away from here. I was supposed to leave after I blew up the flume, but I didn’t know how to leave. I didn’t have a horse.”

“Poor planning by both of you then. Your brother shot the wrong man, and you didn’t have your escape planned.”

“He shot the wrong one?”

“Yeah, I’m here because we didn’t know who might be doing it, and if they would come after Joe if they knew he wasn’t shot.”

“It wasn’t personal. It was only so he wouldn’t come here and take care of things. I think we’re the only ones they sent out to do anything. They said it was going to be easy. I think they thought we could do it and then go back to California.”

“Who are they?”

“I don’t know their names. They’re the owners though of the S and L timber and lumber operation that’s on the California side of the Sierras. They lost that contract to you and got real upset. They need some money to pay off some loans or lose their company.”

“All right, you keep being so helpful, and maybe you won’t spend as much time in prison as you might otherwise. Lucky for you that no one died here.”

Hoss had the men lock the man in a storeroom. By late in the day, extra men began arriving promising that more would be there in the morning and supplies were promised too. When he asked about Adam and Joe, he was assured that Jamie was on the way with help for them. Hoss was worried though because it had gotten colder.

The cold was only one of the problems Joe was facing though. Both brothers slept well and stayed warm, but Adam was too warm and seemed disoriented when he woke. He was running a fever and within a short time had the chills too. When he slipped into a semi-conscious state, Joe knew he had to do something and fast, but there wasn’t much he could do except head for home. Working as fast as he could, he put together a travois keeping an eye on the cloudy sky hoping the weather would hold. Once he had Adam secured on the travois, he worried about how to keep him warm enough because he guessed it would take the whole day to get to the first line shack if they could even get that far. Heated rocks would make the travois much heavier and wouldn’t work for long. Then he saw Captain looking up at him from where he lay.

“Buddy, you get another chance to save my brother’s life. I was feeling awful guilty about having to leave you, but now I don’t. It will be slower going, but you’re riding with Adam.”

Somehow, it seemed that Captain perked up with Joe’s words. Joe knew he couldn’t possibly understand what was said, but the tone of them must have affected the dog. He tolerated everything Joe did to get him situated on the travois with Adam. He weighed about as much as rocks would but he would stay warm all day. Whenever they had to go uphill, Joe walked and had Cochise help Sport pull the travois. They took frequent breaks, but made good time by his estimation. Those dark clouds followed them though and in the late afternoon, they let loose with torrents of rain. Even with the slickers wrapped around Adam and Captain, Joe guessed they weren’t going to stay completely dry and he was soaked and completely chilled by the time he saw the line cabin in the distance. He almost cried when he saw smoke coming from the chimney stack though and horses in the small corral behind the building. Riding up, he fired three shots in the Ponderosa signal for needing help. If those were Ponderosa hands inside, they would rush out to help. Joe almost held his breath until that door opened and three men came out pulling on slickers and slapping hats on their heads. When they recognized Joe first by his horse and then him, they rushed to his side to offer help.

“It’s Adam on the travois. He’s hurt pretty bad and has a fever. We need to get him inside first.”

“What about the dog?”

“Him too.”

When that was done, two men stayed with Joe and Adam and the third volunteered to go out into the storm to take care of the horses. Candy and the other man first stripped down Adam and told Joe to do the same. They had dry clothing for Joe to wear and dry blankets for Adam. There were no questions until they had bandaged up Adam and gotten him settled in the cot that they moved near the small stove. He was wrapped in blankets, and Joe had one wrapped around his shoulders and sat on a chair with a cup of hot coffee. Captain lay on another blanket between the two men..

“All right, now you want to tell us what the hell happened to you, and where’s Hoss?”

“I’ll tell you, but I’m surprised to even see you here.”

“Your littlest brother got jumpy as a cat on hot coals after you three left. Roy came out to talk to him and the rest of us. Seems a timber and lumber company is in town trying to hire men to work saying there’s going to be a bunch of jobs coming up in the Sierras when they get a contract by default in a few weeks. Now he only knew of one contract running hear here and you Cartwrights have it. If we had any idea where the three of you had gone, Jamie would have sent word, but no one knew where you were. So, instead, Jamie sent groups of us to the far line cabins to as he put it, be on the lookout for rustlers.”

“That’s crazy. Rustlers wouldn’t take cattle from the high pastures. They would have to drive them through the heart of the ranch to get them anywhere to sell them. You should have told him that.”

“He knows that. We all know that.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess it was an excuse to send help closer to us if we needed it. And we needed it too. Especially Adam needs help. He really needs a doctor.”

“A revenge shooting?”

“No, the man thought he was me because he was riding Cochise at the time.”

“All right, maybe you ought to start at the beginning so it makes more sense, but first tell us if Hoss is all right.”

“Hoss is all right as far as I know. Now, the rest of the story.” And Joe told the story from the rifle shot to that morning and the decision to pack up and head for home.

“That’s one hell of a dog he’s got there.”

“He is. I don’t know if he’ll recover, but he’s a hero.”

“What do you think is wrong with your brother?”

“Shock, infection, blood loss, a cough, and he has a head injury too. It could be any one of those but probably all of them. Sleeping in the cold air didn’t help. He hasn’t had much to eat either.”

“We can take care of some of that, but he needs a doctor, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, so we need to get him home.”

“There’s an old cart out back. If we take off the bench seat and lead the horses pulling it, there would be room enough for him to lay in there. We could pad it with the mattress from the cot, and we have plenty of blankets. We could probably rig some canvas over the top too.”

“Is there room for Captain?” He saw the skeptical looks. “I used him keep Adam warm.”

“Ah, we wondered about that and why you would bring the extra weight that must have slowed you down. Makes sense now.”

The next day, in the early afternoon, they met the rescue group from the Ponderosa who had gotten the message from Hoss and as promised, headed out almost immediately. With a mattress in the back, medical supplies, and some soft food, they were able to take better care of Adam, Joe, and Captain. Adam was still semi-conscious though. Jamie told them that Doctor Martin should be at the house by the time they returned. He had sent word to Beryl who would be there too.

That was the plan and it worked out. Candy and the others headed up to the timber camp to help out taking additional supplies with them. There were two weeks left before the deadline. It was going to be tight, but they hoped it was going to get done. Two days later, Hoss was back with an update and to see how Adam was doing, and a day after that, Joe headed out to take charge at the timber camp. The next morning, prayers were answered when Adam opened his eyes and said his first words in days.

“It’s hot in here.”

His voice croaked from disuse and from the effects of fever and infection, but the words woke Beryl from her nap in the chair by Adam’s bed. She grasped his hand and asked if he wanted some water. She got a frown as if that was a silly question. Quickly filling a nursing cup, she held it to his lips and let him drink. Then she went to the door and called softly for his brothers who rushed to the room. In a few minutes, Hop Sing was there with broth and a biscuit as if he had known Adam would awaken about then. When the doctor arrived to check on his patient, he was propped up in bed and alert. Looking at Hoss, the doctor had to admit, Hoss was correct.

“Never underestimate the fight in a Cartwright.”

From that point on, it was all good news. Adam’s recovery went smoothly. Hoss continued to take care of Captain who also recuperated well. Two days before the contract deadline, Joe rode back with Candy and the hands who had been helping out. Hoss and Jamie went out to greet them.

“What now?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We’re done, and I told the men they could have an extra day off as well as the bonus.”

“Oh, you did, did you?”

“Hoss, sometimes, you sound just like Pa.”

“We, thank you, Joe. That’s one of the nicest things you ever said to me.”

“Is Adam still here?”

“Yeah, he’s still pretty damn mad about what happened and wants to talk about what we do next.”

“Next?”

“Yeah, he figures there has to be payback of some kind to let them know and let everybody else know not to try this kind of thing again with any of us.”

“Does he have a plan?”

“That’s what we have to talk about.”

The brothers headed inside then to celebrate and to plan.

 

Chapter 4

As a result of the brothers planning, for a few months, Adam was busy quietly buying up some land that was relatively cheap in the Sierras. He didn’t buy any of it under his name but used a number of his employees names as well as aliases. Aliases that were not used fraudulently were legal. He also had a number of small corporate entities that could buy property. He also didn’t do any of the buying directly sending his men to do the buying acting as agents for whatever alias or entity he was using to buy the land or property. He paid fair prices in acquiring the parcels having no interest in cheating anyone there. When he had enough parcels purchased, he alerted his younger brothers that they could proceed with the next step in their plan. Beryl had questioned if Adam wanted to use so much of their money buying all this property, but he had an answer.

“Property is wealth. I think we should keep all this land after this scheme takes down these scoundrels. I rather like the idea of owning so much. We can take a tour of all of it when the whole plan has run its course. I think you’ll like what you see. There are a lot of opportunities there, some now and some for the future.”

“All right then. Joe and Hoss will spread the rumor. What do you have to do?”

“I’m heading up that way to buy up a few small parcels now in my own name. It will add credence to the rumor.”

Meanwhile Joe and Hoss went to town, had a few drinks, and began to talk loudly enough to be overheard about a big railroad project to cross the Sierras north of Lake Tahoe. They talked of huge contracts for timber and lumber, but also that land values would inflate substantially when the railroad moved in to buy up the right-of-way. Even if they used eminent domain, they would have to pay fair market value and that could mean substantial profits to any who bought the property cheap before landowners found out that the railroad was coming.

The two main owners of the S and L Timber and Lumber Company heard soon enough about the possible spur line. They were skeptical until word reached them that Adam Cartwright was there starting to buy up land. That spurred them into action moving to talk to land agents and putting earnest money down on as many properties as they could. The land agent told them the properties were sold often and fairly cheaply. Rather than pay full price for a few properties, they gambled and put earnest money down on as many properties as they could afford.

“Are you sure we should do this?”

“Of course we should. We’ll be ahead of everyone, and when we go to the bank and show them how cheap we got the options to buy the properties and ask for loans, they’ll bend over backwards to accommodate us. When we sell those properties, we’ll easily pay off the loans and pocket the substantial differences.”

“That does sound wonderful.”

The next step was the meeting the following month with the railroad where the next set of projects on which companies could bid were to be announced. The two scoundrels, as Adam called them, saw Joe Cartwright there and did their best to avoid him. In the meeting, everyone got the list of projects, but there was no mention or even a hint of a railroad north of Lake Tahoe. They had to ask.

“What about your project building a line north of Lake Tahoe across the Sierras?”

The railroad men chuckled.

“Perhaps sometime in the future if we ever have money we want to throw away.”

The other men in the room chuckled in response to that. The weather in winter in that region made rail travel a seasonal possibility only. Railroad companies preferred to build where they could operate year-round.

“But we heard you were going to build there.”

“Sorry, you heard wrong.”

“Joe and Hoss Cartwright said you were going to build there.”

“Now, wait a minute. Hoss and I were drinking in town one night and talked about that. We were kidding. No one should listen to two men who are drinking especially me and Hoss.”

That also got the men in the room to chuckle.

“But, we, ah.”

And the man had nothing more to say.

Outside the room, the two men were in shock.

“What do we do?”

“I don’t know. If we don’t buy those properties, we lose the money we put down. We won’t be able to get loans though so we can’t buy.”

“We could ask for the money back and explain our mistake.”

“Would you give the money back if it was you?”

About that time, Joe Cartwright was walking out of the meeting room and walked near them. He paused to address them before he left.

“Gentlemen, my brother, Adam, is earnestly hoping you don’t try to take a shot at us again. He is the vindictive sort when anyone messes with anyone in our family. He never forgets. I rather like his attitude and support him completely in what he does. We’ll be watching to see what you do next.”

Then Joe was gone, and both men had a sudden need to use the water closet.

“I don’t think it was a coincidence that he used ‘earnestly’ in talking about his brother, Adam.”

“He also mentioned taking ‘a shot’ so they must know it was us who sent that man to shoot Joe.”

“But he didn’t.”

“No, but he shot Adam and that was worse. We all know what he’s capable of doing. We need to get out of town.”

Knowing bankruptcy was in their immediate future, they raided their bank accounts and the company bank accounts and headed east abandoning their company assets as well as forfeiting all the earnest money they had put down on the properties Adam owned as well as on some others.

On the Ponderosa, Hoss, Joe, and Jamie listened as Adam explained what he was going to do. Beryl already knew so she listened with a smile sitting beside Linda who had some idea that it must be good news with the smile her friend had.

“I got the earnest money from those two scoundrels. I don’t really need it. However there are a bunch of men who need jobs in that timber and lumber company they abandoned. I want to put the money in there and restart that company.”

“Why are you asking us or rather, I guess, telling us like we have a say in it? Hoss and I don’t have anything to do with your business. You made that clear when you took on your own business.”

“Well, like Pa said, I am still part of this ranch even if I don’t work here on a daily basis. I can’t run an operation like that. I have too many other things to do. However, it could be coordinated with the operation here and made getting contracts that much easier. I would like to rename it Ponderosa II and make it an addition to the ranch with all of us part owners as we are here, but with one in charge as the other work on the ranch is divided. One in charge but the others would have some input as to the operation and would help as much as needed.”

That left the younger three brothers speechless for a time. Jamie was the first to break the silence.

“Who would run it?”

“I would guess you or Joe, but you’re rather young yet to be bull of the woods. I guess the one who has to make the decision is Joe. It’s up to him. Otherwise, the best course of action for me would be to let the S and L be sold to someone else.”

That did it for Joe.

“So it would become a competitor and take business away from us.”

Adam was wise enough to stay silent on that front. Hoss had to fight back a smile. Jamie saw that and after thinking about things, had to do the same. Both had to give Adam a lot of credit for staying so serious.

“You’re not giving me much choice. It’s either another major competitor or I have to take on this huge project that’s going to be a tremendous amount of work and keep me away from here sometimes for days or even weeks.”

“I guess so. Sorry, Joe.”

In his best martyr voice, Joe gave his final answer.

“I’ll do it. It’s good for everyone else.”

“I’ll take care of it and get all the papers ready. You’ll probably have to go there within a week or two to get things back in operation.”

“I know. I know. Meet the staff, see what the supply situation is, see what kind of timber there is, and so on. I know what I’m doing, Adam.”

“Well, then, we’re heading back home.”

Outside, with big grins, Jamie and Hoss bid goodbye to Adam and Beryl. Hoss had to say one thing.

“I can’t wait to write the letter to Pa about this. I wish I could be there to see his face when he reads it.”

Adam grinned. “That would be something to see, wouldn’t it?”

Then Adam and Beryl were gone, and Hoss and Jamie went back inside to have some fun with Joe. He had cooled down and had a funny expression as a grinning Linda sat waiting for the rest of the entertainment.

“They were a competitor already, and he took them out of the competition.”

“Yup.”

“He made us a major competitor that will give us an advantage over almost everyone else.”

“Yup.”

“We all just got a lot wealthier.”

“Yup.”

“I was a jackass again, wasn’t I?”

“Oh, yeah, and we had a great time watching it happen. My guess is that Adam and Beryl are laughing all the way home.”

“Why do I do this to myself?”

“Nobody knows, Joe. Nobody knows.”

About a month later, Ben and Marjorie returned from an excursion to southern Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba to find three letters waiting for them. The first detailed Adam being shot and the crisis of the contract. The second was that all was well. The third made Ben sit down and shake his head.

“Ben, is everything all right?”

“My sons never fail to surprise me.”

“What’s happened?”

“They’ve made the Ponderosa bigger by adding a Ponderosa II on the California side with a timber and lumber operation. They drove the S and L Company out of business and then bought it. Apparently the owners of that company were responsible for Adam being shot, but my sons didn’t have enough to prove it. So they exacted their own form of justice.”

“Very clever like their father. Now, what are we going to do next. Apparently, we won’t run short of funds with the way they’re running the ranch.”

“Well, Marjorie, my love, that is a very positive way to look at all of this.”

THE END

 

Tags:  Adam Cartwright, Hoss Cartwright, Joe / Little Joe Cartwright, SAS