Summary:  Little Joe Cartwright was born curious.  He unfortunately was also devious and prone to avoiding work whenever possible. In possession of other traits that could work to his advantage or against him, Little Joe Cartwright could have been the greatest outlaw in the west.  However, he grew up in the right family and learned to use his powers for good.  That was especially important in the life of his oldest brother a short time after Adam returned home from college.

Rated: T

Word Count:  9020

Chapter 1

The setting by the stream was romantic, but the proximity to the church, her age, and the seriousness of their conversation forestalled any romantic endeavors by Adam Cartwright.  He had more important things on his mind with this young lady.

“But what does it mean?”

“Adam Cartwright, a poem doesn’t have to mean anything.  It can be beautiful and not be full of hidden meanings.”

“Why do I find that hard to believe?  Maybe because as you read that to me, you had tears well up in your eyes.  C’mon, we only get to see each other maybe once or twice a month.  At least in these few hours, we should be able to talk honestly with each other.”

“Maybe I think honesty is highly overrated.”

“There, now I know you’re not telling me what’s in your heart.  Here, let me read that poem you wrote.  Ella Jane, you listen while I read it, and then try to tell me that there isn’t some hidden meaning in it.”

With gentleness, the twenty-two-year-old young man pulled the small notebook from the young lady’s hand.  He opened it and read the poem with feeling trying to find the meaning he knew had to be hidden within.  He couldn’t decipher it, and Ella wasn’t in the mood to enlighten him.  She did seem grateful that he was concerned though and let him walk her to the family wagon for the ride back to their home.  As they were going to part, Ella removed her locket and pressed it into Adam’s hand.

“Wear it next to your heart, Adam.  Keep me in your heart so that I may live forever.”

Those words and the words of the poem echoed in Adam’s mind, and he wrote the verses of the poem down as soon as he returned to the Ponderosa knowing he may have gotten a few words of the poem wrong but most of it was intact. Her other words haunted him too as he knew she was afraid but still not willing to trust him with the truth.

Dunes of sand before me lay
rumpled as the drab gray spread of a bunkhouse cot
Lines of flotsam scarred the shore
as crumbs of a late at night snack besmear the spread

 

The water line left a dark wet space like the side of a curtain
That has never felt the heat of the sun
Or how a heart must feel that has never known
the touch of another that meant no harm

 

The sky hung down upon the earth as I raised myself to walk
It was a veil that little hindered my knowledge
I knew what was there
But couldn’t see it

 

Walking with a purpose but not a direction
Waiting for the fog to rise
Strolling upon the sands
My horizons so near and yet so distant

 

I meandered until I reached no sand, no refuge,
and left my steps behind me as the fog rolled out
The waves rolled in and all was clear again
the dunes of sand were still wet and flotsam still discarded.

 

Unfortunately for Adam, he didn’t keep the poem hidden, and Little Joe found it on one of his many secret missions to search Adam’s room. Suspecting that his mysterious older brother with his years in the east must have some hidden history or at least some items that their father wouldn’t want him to have, Little Joe made a number of attempts to find out what those could be. When he found the poem, he read it and tried to understand it too.  Failing in that, he went to Hoss for help with the words and phrases he didn’t understand and then to Hop Sing.  Neither was able to help him, but his queries did get overheard.

“Little Joe, where have you heard such things to be asking such questions of Hop Sing?  What do you mean when you ask about a heart that has not known the touch of another who meant no harm?”

“Ah, um, well, Pa, I was reading a book, and I found that said in there.”

“Oh, you were reading a book and found that said in there, did you?  What book?”

“A book in Adam’s room.  It was a book of poetry, Pa.”

That stirred Ben’s suspicions immediately and his concern.  He had been worried about what kinds of books Adam might have brought back from college and that his younger sons might fight tempting to read. Now that fear was being realized but so was the opportunity to look for himself as to what might be secreted in that room that his eldest son used as a refuge.

“Let’s go find this book then.”

“I’m not sure I remember which book it was, Pa.”

“We’ll look through them until you remember it then.”

There was no form of persuasion capable of stopping Ben Cartwright when he used that tone of voice.  Little Joe couldn’t think of a reason to cry and doubted even tears would work in this circumstance so he proceeded to follow his father up the stairs and to doom.  He hoped he would be able to sit for dinner if he was even allowed to have dinner.  An hour later, he was forgotten though as Adam stepped into his room to find his father going through his things.  All hell broke loose then, and Little Joe was spared.

Well, at least temporarily, he was spared.  Adam stormed off into the early dusk and their father barely said anything except to grumble for most of the evening sending Little Joe and Hoss to bed early.  Neither of them could sleep and heard Adam ride in at about midnight.  Peeking out from behind the curtains at his window, Hoss saw their father walk out to greet Adam.  Worried about what might happen, he watched until it was clear the two were going to talk not fight.  Coming up behind Hoss who was at the window, Little Joe startled Hoss so much that he almost yelled though. The noise he did make alerted Adam and their father that they had been seen.

“Little Joe, what are you doing scaring me like that?”

“Are they gonna fight?”

“No, they’re just talking, but now they know I was watching.”

“Is watching bad?”

“It’s kinda like poking our noses into their business.”

“Ain’t this our business too if it’s our Pa and our brother?”

“Yeah, well you may think so, but I don’t think they think so.”

“There was a lot of thinking in what you said.”

“Oh, go back to bed.”

Down by the barn, Adam and Ben was silent watching the house for more surreptitious activity by the young Cartwrights.  When it seemed that Hoss and Little Joe had retreated, Ben apologized although as usual, it was more of an explanation of his activity than expressing any real regret.

“Little Joe was quoting a poem to Hop Sing and asking for an explanation.  It seemed far too mature for him and made me very worried.  Without thinking, I wanted to see the book from which he got that poem.  I never should have gone into your room to search your things without asking you. That was wrong of me, and I am sorry about that.”

Adam dropped his head not knowing where to begin.  His father misinterpreted his action.

“You don’t have to apologize for running off this evening.  Under the circumstances, it was understandable even if it did add to my worry.”

Shaking his head in disgust at that, Adam led his horse into a stall and began brushing him down.  He had already removed the saddle and taken care of that by the time his father approached him finally realizing that Adam was still upset with him.  There was a bucket of water in the stall already and Ben brought some hay and a small portion of grain.  He never liked it when Adam’s side of the conversation was silent.  It meant trouble, but he had no idea why it would be that way this time.  Adam seemed to understand that too.

“Pa, you have no idea what you have said to me.  I’m a man.  You have no right to search my things.  Asking to do so has nothing to do with it.  What if I said I searched your things and I was only sorry that I did not ask you first?”

About to bluster out an answer that dismissed the question, Ben began to realize the folly of what he had done.  He had treated his son like a boy.  He certainly was no longer that.  Standing there, at least two or maybe even three inches taller than his father, Adam waited for a response.  He was surprised his father hadn’t lashed out at the statement and question he had posed. When his father responded without anger, it was a milestone for them.

“I would have been angry and told you so, but I wouldn’t have ridden off into the darkness and worried you.”

“Maybe I have enough confidence in you that I wouldn’t have been worried.  And maybe I rode off so I wouldn’t say things I would later regret.  My temper still rules my mouth at times.  I wish I could say it didn’t, but that would not be true.”  After a short pause, Adam was curious about something else.  “How did you punish Little Joe for sneaking into my room?”

“Jumping Jehoshaphat, I forgot to do that.  I was worried about you and didn’t do anything about him sneaking into your room again.  I will take care of it tomorrow.”

“Good. I’m tired of him messing up my things on his missions to discover what he assumes must be great secrets I have that he can discover.”

“Yes, he fancies himself a detective of sorts.  Perhaps one day he will work with the Pinkertons.”

“Or use his skills to avoid being tracked down by them.”

“Now, Adam, your brother is no criminal. He is just curious about things.”

“And he likes to ‘borrow’ things without asking and he likes to sneak into people’s rooms to go through their things without permission and he likes to ask questions about things which are none of his business as well as going off and doing things that are not expressly forbidden even though he knows he shouldn’t do them.  You know this list could be much longer.”

“I am not going to be lectured on how to raise my son.”

“He’s my brother, and too often I’m afraid I’m going to have to pull his butt out of the fire if he keeps going like he is now.”

“Adam, don’t be ridiculous.  He’s spirited not out of control.”

Again Adam was silent and Ben knew their disagreement was complete on this issue. There would be no consensus.  He chose to ignore it and get back to the original issue.

“I will not enter your room unless invited.  Little Joe will be forbidden to enter your room unless invited, and I will punish him for having done so already.  I will punish him if he does so again.  Fair enough?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go get some sleep.  By now the two rascals are probably back in bed.  Perhaps they will go to sleep too if we go back into the house.”

“I think I would like a brandy before we go to bed.”

“That can be arranged.  One thing, where did Little Joe find that poem?  I didn’t find anything like it in your poetry books. It doesn’t seem like something you would write yet the copy Little Joe had was in your handwriting.”

Dropping his head, Adam wasn’t sure he wanted to talk about this subject but then decided it might be good to confide in his father this time.

“Let’s talk about it with that brandy.  It’s not an easy thing to talk about.”

“Secrets can be that way.”

“It’s not my secret, and you’re right.  It’s not my poem.  It’s someone else who has that hidden talent of expressing thoughts and feelings in verse.”

Sipping his brandy slowly, Adam told his father what he thought. Ben was shocked and worried as well as concerned not only about Adam but about Ella Jane Johnson.

“So you think someone is hurting her or threatening to hurt her, and that poem is a plea for help yet she won’t talk about it with you?”

“That’s about it. It sounds like she’s looking to escape but doesn’t see a way out, and fears being killed.”

“That’s a rather extreme way to think of it.  Couldn’t it be that she plans to run away?”

“Not if you saw her face when she read it and then I read it.”

“Why would she keep this talent a secret and only let you know?”

“Her mother has taught her many things, but her stepfather doesn’t think girls should learn anything other than what would make them good wives and mothers.  He would be upset to know how well educated she is.  She hides books in her room that I bring to her and sneaks them back to me when she finishes them. Her mother doesn’t even know about that.”

“What do you think would happen if her stepfather found out about it?”

“He would be angry enough to come after me, but worse, I’m afraid he would hurt Ella. I’m worried that he already has.”

“So you were upset about all of that.  That might be why you got so upset with me and with Little Joe earlier?”

Gulping down the rest of his brandy, Adam stood and walked to the stairs and up to his room without acknowledging what his father had asked.  Ben realized he had made another mistake but didn’t know how to correct that one either.

In the morning, Ben told Little Joe to apologize to Adam and to do his chores for him that day.  Adam shook his head and walked out the door without having breakfast.  Little Joe called out after him that he was sorry.  Then he asked a question.

“Where do you hide your secret stuff?”

Hoss answered when Adam ignored Little Joe.

“He’s not dumb enough to hide stuff in his room where you could find it.”

Then he realized what he had said and left before their father could question him.  He came back later for breakfast a little red-faced.  Ben assumed Adam had been upset with him, but they had worked it out.  Whereas Hoss was a little upset, the hands in the bunkhouse were happier than they had been in sometime when Adam entrusted them with a set of postcards, a special deck of playing cards, and two illustrated books.

“Now don’t write on any of them, but you can look at them all you want in the evening.  Keep them in this box though whenever you’re not here and whenever my father is anywhere near this place.  Fair enough?”

“Thanks, Adam.” rang out in a chorus.

One hand asked the obvious question though.  “Why now?”

“I have a little brother who fancies himself a detective and he’s been searching for my secret things.  Can you imagine my father if Little Joe ever found these things?”

“Oh, boy.  So we better hide this with the other secret stuff in here too.”

“That would be my suggestion. Now let’s get to work. You do have something to look forward to for entertainment this evening though.”

Hoss and Little Joe saw Adam come out of the bunkhouse with the men.  They were all quite jovial which was unusual when they were heading out to work.  Hoss suspected what had happened and was relieved.  Little Joe was simply curious, but he knew better than to indulge it with the ranch hands.  They were a lot more intimidating than his father who could be won over with puppy dog eyes and a few tears or even like today with a simple hangdog look that indicated being sorry even when he wasn’t.  The hands never cared about anything like that and could make his life miserable.  He stayed out of their business, and for a while, he was going to have to stay out of Adam’s too. He could fool their father, but not too often. He didn’t want to ruin a good thing.

As Adam rode out to work, there was one secret item that was not in the bunkhouse.  Ella’s locket was in a small velvet bag tucked into the inside vest pocket on the left side. It was going to be next to his heart as Ella had requested. He would carry it with him wherever he went until he saw her again.

**********

Chapter 2

The next day, Ben was late in meeting Adam and Hoss for work because he had to go to school with Little Joe to talk with the teacher.  She was concerned with Little Joe’s inability to remember things and worried about his intelligence. Ben assured her that his son was intelligent enough but that he did seem to have trouble remembering things.  She suggested he carry a small notebook and write things down so he wouldn’t forget to do things like his homework.  Ben agreed and said it might help him to remember to do his chores at home too.  That got a double groan from Little Joe who knew he had worked himself into a corner and now would have to keep a notebook with him, write everything down, and show that to both his teacher and his father.  His memory ruse was getting more and more complicated.  He had to consider if it was all worth it, but that day at school with his classmates reciting poetry again convinced him he had taken the right path.

When Ben recounted the story to Hoss and Adam, they had the same response.

“He sure seems to remember easy enough when he wants to remember.”

“Yes, his memory failures always seem to be to his benefit.  He never forgets anything that’s good for him only what he doesn’t want to remember.”

“Now you two need to be fair to your brother. Just because you both are blessed with a good memory for details doesn’t mean your brother has that.  Of course, a person would remember best those things that are important to them.  That makes sense.  With his limited memory, there’s only so much he can remember so he remembers the best.  Is that so hard to understand?”

Both Hoss and Adam had to concede that was reasonable.  So they accepted their father’s explanation and the solution.  For the next couple of weeks, every time something important was told to Little Joe by any of the three, they were always careful to remind him to write it in his notebook.  To make sure he didn’t forget his notebook, every morning, Ben made sure to remind Little Joe to put his notebook in his pocket with a small pencil.  Little Joe had been told to write in his notebook with a pencil as moisture would make ink run and anything else would smudge.  He hated that his family worked out those issues before he even had a chance to use them as excuses. There was no getting out of chores for the boy with that darned notebook he had to use so he wasn’t in a very good mood. That was especially true with Adam who he felt seemed to enjoy watching him write his chores down in that notebook.

Little Joe was out working on one of those chores one day after school when he smelled smoke or thought he did.  He looked all around and couldn’t find any source of smoke so he went to Hop Sing to ask him what he thought. At first, Hop Sing thought it might be a joke or a ploy to get out of work, but Little Joe was so sincere that Hop Sing stopped his dinner preparations and went outside with the boy.  Immediately he knew what Little Joe meant.  There was a hint of smoke in the air and it was wood smoke.  He told Little Joe they would go to get the ladder and put it up against the barn so Hop Sing could climb to the roof to see if he could spot the source of the smoke.  Soon he yelled to Little Joe to ring the fire bell and make as much noise as he could.  Hop Sing climbed down the ladder and ran for the house as Little Joe was ringing the bell.  Hop Sing came outside with a rifle and fired three times in the air.  It still took about thirty minutes for men to come riding at breakneck speed into the yard. Ben was in the lead and saw that everything looked fine and Hop Sing and Little Joe were safe.

“What in tarnation is going on?”

“I smelled smoke and Hop Sing climbed on the barn roof and he saw fire.  There’s fire toward the Johnson ranch.  He said it’s a big fire.”

Soon, without orders being given, wagons were loaded with barrels of water, burlap bags, shovels, axes, and anything else they thought they might need. Men grabbed gloves and chaps if they didn’t have them as well as heavy jackets to ward off embers that might fly toward them and extra bandanas.  They left to fight the fire.  As more men arrived at the ranch, they did much of the same and headed in the same direction.  Ben left orders that Hoss and a few of the younger men should stay behind to be ready to wet down the roof of the house and barn if necessary and to protect what they could if the fire reached the ranch. One of the last to arrive and find out what was happening was Adam who had been out riding fence lines.  He raced toward the danger area scared for Ella Jane. By then much of the fire had been turned back on itself and the men were confident they were going to have it under control by morning as long as no strong winds came up.  There was no easy way around the fire to the Johnson ranch and the men were surprised to find Ed Johnson, his son, and many of their hands out fighting the fire with them.

“We were out with the cattle doing the same as I guess you were probably doing when we saw the fire.  It went so fast we got cut off from the house and barns and haven’t been there.  We don’t know if my house and my wife and daughter are safe or not. I got all my men fighting this fire as soon as we could, but we didn’t have any real supplies to do anything until all of you got here.  I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.”

Angry that Ed had mentioned the house before his wife and daughter, Adam said nothing.  Ben only sympathized and wouldn’t hold that against a man under pressure like Ed was. As soon as they could, Ed and his son, Tom, rode with a few men around the fire zone and to his house.  Ben and Adam rode with them.  What surprised most of them was that the house and attached bunkhouse were badly burned but the other buildings were hardly touched. It appeared that the house may have been the source of the fire or was caught in the initial wildfire that spread to the trees. The grassy area on all sides of the house was burned too. Adam wanted to rush into the house, but Ben held him back.

“Son, I know why you want to rush in, but we have to move slowly.  If she’s alive, rushing in and making what’s left collapse will surely take her life away.  Now, let’s move slowly and carefully.  I’ll go first unless you think you can control your emotions and test the safety of the building before we move any further into the place.”

Taking a deep breath, Adam agreed with his father’s logic and worked to control himself.  Moving up the steps of the house, he carefully tested each one and then walked across the porch the same way.  Entering the kitchen, he moved slowly too and saw Ella’s mother on the floor.  Kneeling beside her, he felt for a pulse and found nothing.  Controlling his gag reflex as well as he could next to the badly burned body, he turned to his father and shook his head.  Ben talked to the men behind him sending word out that she was dead.  Adam steeled himself for what he was afraid they would find next.  Moving into the next room, he saw that the rug appeared to be covering a body.  He knelt and pulled the rug up carefully and gasped at Ella laying there with severe burns.  Crawling across the floor to her side, he felt for a pulse and found one.

“Pa, she’s alive.  She burned so much.  How do we move her?”

“We need a sheet or a blanket.  We’ll slide it under her and move her with that.  I’ll get two more men.  You stay with her.”

Moving slowly and carefully, the men moved Ella Jane outside and got her into a wagon for the trip to town.  Ben wasn’t sure she would make it because her breathing was so labored.  Adam volunteered to ride in the wagon with her, and Ed said that seemed a good idea.

“She liked you better than either of us anyway.”

Other than that decision, Ed seemed to be in shock not able to decide at all what to do finding his wife dead and his stepdaughter gravely injured.  He looked at his son.

“Tom, what do we do now?  What do we do now, son?”

“Pa, we’ll have to figure things out like we always do. We did all right when Ma died.  I guess we’ll do all right again even if I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

Ben felt sympathy for a man who had now lost two wives, and a son who had lost two mothers.  It seemed the two men were in shock. He offered them housing at the Ponderosa and housing for their hands too until they could get something set up at the ranch.

“You can keep the ranch running at least.  You won’t be able to do anything for Ella in town.  We’ll take care of that for you and let you know what the doctor said.  If you want to go to the Ponderosa, Hoss and Little Joe are there.  They can show you to the guest rooms and get your hands squared away in the bunkhouse.  Hop Sing can get you whatever you need.”

“That’s real kind of you, Ben.  Thank you.”

After Ed and Tom left, Ben asked the hands who were there to keep an eye on the burned area.  It needed watching to be sure no fires ignited again anywhere and began to spread.  The Ponderosa lay directly in the path of any fire that would start up because of the prevailing wind. He told the men to send a couple back for canteens and food because it was likely going to be a long night. Then Ben headed to town to be with his son. That turned out to be a good decision because Adam needed his father’s support.

When Ben got to town, he found a despondent Adam sitting in Doctor Paul Martin’s waiting area.  There had been no update on Ella’s condition.  Then Sheriff Roy Coffee had come in and gone in to see the doctor refusing to tell Adam why he was doing that. While Adam was recounting all of that to his father, Roy was talking to Paul and then stepped out to talk to Ben and Adam.

“Some of the Johnson ranch hands came to town to talk to me.  Ed Johnson asked them to bury his wife.  Now I see how you’re looking, and I agree that is odd.  But you have to admit the man might not be thinking straight after all that happened.  But what they had to tell me was that she seemed to have a bashed-in head or at least the part in the back was bashed in.  Before they headed back to the ranch, I asked them and now I got to ask you.  Was she laying under a big beam or anything else real heavy that could have caved in her skull like that?  It would have taken something heavy to do the damage that was done according to these men.”

“No, she was laying on the floor and there was nothing around her.”

“All right, then I got one more thing to tell you.  That fire was set deliberate-like.  Those men found some coal oil tins and a pattern of somebody throwing it around and some scorch marks where small fires were set to get the big one going.”

“It was murder and the fire was to cover that up?”

“That about sums up what I’m thinking could have happened. I need some evidence though before I can say for sure. It is darn suspicious though. I asked Paul about Ella’s injuries, and I think she maybe was another victim. She couldn’t get out of the house with that head injury Paul says she has.”

A bit overwhelmed by all that had been said, Adam was quiet until he heard that Ella had sustained a head injury too.

“So someone tried to kill her too?”

“It looks that way, but now Adam, we don’t know anything yet.  I’ve asked Paul to do an autopsy on Ella’s mother.  I want to know what killed her.  It could be her injury is related to the fire. It could be that Ella was hurt the same way.  You know as well as anyone that sometimes ranchers burn brush and such on purpose.  That could have happened here and got out of control. Let me find out what happened before you start jumping to conclusions.”

Over the next two weeks, Ella remained mostly semiconscious.  Roy was unable to prove anything other than Ella’s mother was hit twice with something and Ella was hit twice as well before she was burned.  Ella’s mother had no smoke damage to her lungs so she was dead before the house started to burn. The stone and brick construction of the main parts of the house and the wind blowing away from it had stopped it from burning completely which helped save Ella’s life. Also by crawling under the rug, she protected herself from much of the smoke inhalation.  Yet, she was burned, in shock, and had a serious head injury.

On the Ponderosa, Ed said he was uncomfortable infringing on the family setting so after one night in the house, he and Tom moved into the bunkhouse with the ranch hands.  Each night for the next week, they played card games with the other hands.  When Ben was gone, they played poker and Adam was invited to join the men then.  Joe and Hoss went in to watch each time Adam played and were surprised to see Adam lose money.  It wasn’t something he usually did.  Joe thought it was funny and didn’t tell him that two of the players were cheating and certainly didn’t share how they were doing it.  He was tired of how no one thought he knew anything so he wasn’t about to help Adam out.  He thought that if everyone was so smart, they ought to notice what he saw.

Everything might have calmed down with the mystery of who harmed the two ladies forever unsolved except for Tom who couldn’t let a sleeping dog lie. He went to town as often as possible where he heard how his stepsister was still in a semi-conscious state.  It seemed everyone was only too anxious to give him the news.  His response after a few days of that was to start casting about for someone to blame and his target quickly focused on Adam Cartwright. He didn’t make accusations.  He asked questions.

“Where was Adam Cartwright before that fire started?”

“Who else stood to gain by the Johnson’s going bankrupt by having to rebuild their house and bunkhouse when they had no extra cash except the Cartwrights?”

“Who was it who knew right where to find my stepmother and stepsister in a house that was so badly burned? And how did Adam even find my stepsister under a rug?”

“Do you think it’s all right for him to go see my stepsister?  Don’t you think he might be looking for a chance to finish the job?”

The gossip mongers had a good time with all of that and wild theories abounded.  Then Doctor Martin called Sheriff Coffee to his office.  He had bad news about Ella.

**********

Chapter 3

“Roy, I know the talk around town, and I know what I’m going to tell you is likely to make it worse.”

“I don’t know how you could make it worse.  Most folks all but have Adam convicted of arson, murder, and attempted murder all on the say-so of that Tom Johnson.  And him spreading his nastiness around after the Cartwrights done helped him and his father out so much.”

“It is much worse, Roy.  I never examined Ella for this.  I didn’t suspect it and saw no reason that I should do anything more to her than was necessary.”

“Out with it, Doc.  What is it?”

“Ella was badly bruised probably from a beating, and she has broken ribs.  I didn’t realize it until now because she wasn’t moving much and the bruising didn’t show much until the swelling began to decrease. Her breathing was labored, but I thought it was because of the smoke she breathed in. We have been so careful with her because of the burns but now I can examine her more thoroughly.”

“Someone was angry with her?”

“Most likely.  Her wrist is badly hurt too.  She is occasionally conscious now and cannot use her right hand because her wrist hurts so much.”

“Has she said anything about who hurt her?”

“She won’t talk at all to me. She turns her head away whenever I ask a question.”

“I don’t suppose she would answer any questions from me then.”

“I doubt it.  Roy, she might talk to Adam though. He came to town Saturday and Sunday and stopped in to see her.  It’s more than her father and brother did.”

“So in a day, he’ll be here.  It could get ugly though with the mood people are in.  I’ll watch for him and be sure to get him over here safely.”

“You think it’s that bad?”

“I do.  I was thinking of riding out there and advising him not to come to town, but now I know that’s not a good idea. Instead, I’ll meet him and get him here where we can talk.”

“I doubt he knows about the talk.  His family probably doesn’t know either.”

“Paul, I have a question for you.  You did the autopsy on Missus Johnson and said she had a severe head injury.  Ella was hit twice in the head too.  Now would those head injuries have been bloody?”

“Ella had some blood in her hair that alerted us to the head injury, but her mother’s head injury was severe.  There would have been quite a bit of blood, especially with the second blow.”

“So whoever did it would likely have had blood on them?”

“Oh, yes, I would think so.”

“No one we saw that day or talked to about that day has mentioned anything about blood on anyone.  Now, Adam, that day was wearing a gray shirt.  That would have shown blood. He had on those leather chaps and they would have shown blood too.  There was none on him.  How could someone not have blood on them if they did this? Then they spread coal oil around to cover the crimes and that would have left some stain too most likely. Anyone coming close to him would likely have even smelled it.”

“They would have to have access to a change of clothing?”

The two men were quiet for a time. They knew the answer.  It had to be someone on the Johnson ranch who could do all of that and then change clothing. No blood-stained clothing had been found at the scene but Roy was going to go look to see if he could find some. He didn’t.

The next day, Roy waited at the edge of town for Adam who came into town with his father and brothers.  He was riding while the others were in the wagon. Ben greeted Roy wondering why they were being met by the sheriff. Ben explained what had been happening but not how all the gossip had started.  As expected the response to the news was indignation and anger.

“Roy, you know Adam would never have hurt her.  If anyone hurt her, it was more likely her stepfather or her stepbrother.”

“What? Do you know something you haven’t told me?”

“I did and I didn’t.  Adam has something to give to you.”

Reluctantly, Adam gave the copy he had made of Ella’s poem to Roy.

“It’s a poem Ella wrote.  I didn’t understand it when she read it to me.  Now, I’m afraid I do.”

Roy looked very serious as he read it but shook his head at the end.

“I know what you’re thinking, and I’m thinking the same.  The problem is there’s nothing else.  We got no evidence that what we’re thinking could be true. It does mean it’s even more important that you talk to Ella.  Maybe if you can ask her a question about this poem and get her to at least say yes or no to what we suspect.”

“Roy, is there going to be trouble for my son?”

“Ben, there’s already trouble, but I’ll go with him.”

The trouble was worse than they expected, and it only got worse when Roy tried to escort Adam to Doctor Martin’s office to see Ella.  A large group of people formed up in front of the office arguing it wasn’t safe to let Adam see her.  More and more people joined the group as Roy tried to convince them to let them through.

“He’s probably the only one she will talk to. I need him to ask her a couple of questions.”

The crowd was becoming unruly and some men grabbed at Adam trying to pull him from his horse.  In the process, his clothing was pulled and twisted and the velvet bag with the locket fell from his vest pocket.  Picked up by a woman in the crowd who examined it and yelled that it was Ella’s locket, it inflamed the crowd so much that Roy told Adam to ride out of town. He and his deputies prevented anyone from pursuing the young man even as Roy informed Ben what had happened.  Ben and his younger sons turned the wagon and followed Adam from town.

Later that day, Roy arrived on the Ponderosa.  He asked that Ed and Tom be present too as he wanted to question all of them as well as inform them of all that he had learned of the case.  He wanted to see the reaction of the Johnsons to the news he had. After what had happened in town, the men were all uneasy.  Adam and Ben were not yet aware that it was Tom who had been stirring up the trouble in town. Roy wasn’t sure when he ought to bring that up.  He had Clem with him though in case he had to make an arrest. Actually, he hoped he would be making at least one arrest and maybe two.

“Now, I’m going to tell all of you what I know of this case, and I want all of you to be quiet until I’m done.  I don’t care if you have an opinion or not.  You be quiet until I’m done telling what I know. Is that clear?”

No one said anything.  Roy’s tone of voice let them know he would not tolerate any talking.

“Now somebody was beating on Ella Jane Johnson.  Some of her ribs are broken and her wrist is probably broken.  She has two head injuries so she got hit twice with something. She would not have been able to get out of her house on her own.  Her mother may have tried to stop what happened.  She had one blow to the side of her head and another right behind it.  Those two blows killed her.  She had no smoke in her lungs so she was dead before the fire.  The fire was set on purpose probably to cover up what that person probably thought were two murders. It seems Ella got herself under that rug on her own, and the stone and brick of the house as well as the wind direction stopped the house from burning completely.  That fire was started deliberately by somebody spreading coal oil around and then starting small fires to get it going.”

“And we know who that likely was, don’t we Sheriff? He had my sister’s locket on him, didn’t he? She always had that locket with her.  She wore it under her dress where nobody could see it.”

“Now, Tom, you been saying a lot of nasty things about Adam, but you got no evidence against him. You best be quiet unless you got some proof of what you’re saying.”

“What about her locket?”

“I’ll ask Adam about that when you shush. Now, Adam, what do you have to say about having Ella’s locket?”

Unwilling to tell his private business, Adam knew he had no choice.

“She gave it to me and asked me to carry it by my heart. It was our secret.”

“I’m sorry we have to violate your privacy like this, son, but Ella is more important than privacy, isn’t she?”

Adam had to agree.

“Now, this next part you’re going to like even less. Whoever did all this had to have gotten blood and coal oil on their clothing.  They must have changed their clothing before they went to fight the fire.  Hop Sing, would you come out here please and tell us if you washed any clothes like that here since the fire.”

“No see clothes with blood. Only see clothes dirty from fire. Only wash clothes dirty from fire.”

“Thank you. Now I searched on the Johnson ranch, and I didn’t find any there either.  If we can find those clothes, we would have a good idea who the murderer is. Adam, I’m going to have to ask if Clem can search your room.”

“I don’t like it but go ahead.  You won’t find any bloody clothing there because I didn’t do anything to hurt Ella.”

“I know that, but I have to be thorough in my investigation or people are going to ask why.”

Little Joe could hold back no longer.

“I have an idea.”

“Little Joe, you shouldn’t even probably be here, and this is a serious subject, not one that a ten-year-old should be interrupting.”

“But, Pa, maybe I know where the bloody clothing is.”

“What?”

Both Ben and Roy uttered that question at the same time.

“I saw Tom go up into our attic the day of the fire. It was after Hop Sing got that bath ready for him and his pa.  I thought it was funny, but then I thought maybe it was because his clothes smelled like smoke.  He carried a bundle up into the attic.”

Ed jumped in to try to help his son.

“Now they’re all trying to cover for Adam and worse, trying to blame Tom.  This is ridiculous.  I’m sure it was Adam who put those clothes in the attic. His little brother would do anything to save him.”

“No, it was Tom, and I know how to prove it too.  I was supposed to dust those steps and the attic floor, but I didn’t. I said I forgot. I bet you can find his boot prints on the steps and the attic floor.”

“Little Joe, how could we tell they were his boot prints and not someone else’s?”

“Sheriff Coffee, he has a spade and a club carved into the sole of one boot and a diamond and a heart into the other.  He and his father use them to cheat at cards.  He raises his boot and leans it one way or the other to let his father know which cards to pass him under the table.”

“What?”

It was Adam’s turn to ask that question.

“You saw them do that and didn’t tell me?”

“Yeah, aren’t you glad now because it will clear you of murder?”

“Maybe this one.”

Roy took over then and pulled his pistol on the two Johnsons who looked like they were ready to flee.

“Little Joe, you have an amazing memory for details, especially important ones. Clem, would you go with Hoss to the attic and check out those boot prints? Then see if you can find that bundle of clothing Joe says he saw Tom take up there?”

Ed insisted that any clothing found would be Adam’s.  However, when Clem brought the blood-stained clothing from the attic, the plaid shirt and the green pants were much too small to be worn by Adam. They were just the right size for the much smaller Tom. They were also similar to what he was wearing.  Adam didn’t wear plaid shirts.

“You’re a fool.  Why didn’t you burn those clothes?”

“People are so panicky about fire right about now, even the hint of smoke would have brought somebody running.  I figured to bury them when I had the chance, but then you decided we should stay in the bunkhouse. I never got that chance.”

“I’ll take that as an admission of guilt.  You two are under arrest for murder, attempted murder, and arson.”

“I didn’t do anything except help Tom cover it all up.  He’s been terrorizing his stepsister and stepmother for months.  I couldn’t get him to stop.”

“Oh, don’t lay it on me.  You liked beating on both of them. They were as good as slaves in that house. They were tougher than Ma was.  She died when I was pretty young, and you were the only one beating on her.”

“A man has a right to discipline his wife and his daughter.”

“We’ll see what a jury has to say about what you did and what your son did.”

It was a somber mood when Roy and Clem took the two Johnsons away to face justice. Roy told Adam he should come to town again the next day to see Ella. The serious mood couldn’t stay that way long though with Little Joe in the house.

“Little Joe, how did you remember all of those things?”

“I remember lots of things.”

“Your teacher thinks you don’t have a good memory at all.”

“Ah, well, I don’t want to show off for her.”

“Little Joe!”

“Pa, she makes the boys who have good memories stand up in front and recite poetry.  It’s embarrassing.  I’m almost a man.  I don’t want to do silly stuff like that so I let her think I can’t remember things very well.”

“You also let me think that.  You seem to forget how to do tasks, and you forget the chores I assign you to do.  You forget where the tools are and where the paint and paintbrushes are especially when we’re not home to tell you.  It seems you have been hiding that talent for remembering details very well and not just in school.”

“Now, Pa, I did just save Adam from going to jail and maybe hanging.  Now that must be worth something, isn’t it? Isn’t it? C’mon, Adam, help me out here.  I saved your life.  You could do the same here.  Adam, please?”

“I don’t know, Joe.  I’m just a silly man who recites poetry.  I can hardly be expected to stand up like a man and try to save you here.”

“Little Joe, no one can save you from the tangled web you wove and trapped yourself.  Now, as I recall, over the past week, I have assigned a number of tasks to you.  Most of those remain undone.  You can start by dusting the attic stairs and floor as Hop Sing requested and then start on the jobs I assigned. Don’t even think to ask me what they are.”

When Little Joe was gone upstairs, Ben turned to his eldest son.

“Now, what will you do?”

“I want to go to town and talk with Ella if she’ll talk to me now.  Pa, I’d like to stay in town a day or two so I can see her more.”

“Are you serious about her or are you feeling sympathy for her?”

“Mostly sympathy, I think.  She’s still so young. I don’t know if we could have a more serious relationship. I’d like to have a chance to find out. But she needs someone with her mother gone, and now that I know she was being hurt by her stepfather and her stepbrother, I feel somewhat responsible for her.”

“Son, none of this was your fault.”

“I know that in my head, but my heart feels differently.  If only she had trusted me before this all happened.  I don’t know if she will trust me now.”

“Yes, it will be hard for her to trust anyone.”

Ben’s words were prophetic.  Ella didn’t want to talk about what had happened to her.  She told Sheriff Coffee only what she had to tell him to satisfy what was necessary to proceed with the trial.  She met Adam only once and asked him not to come back.  She never wanted him to see her after the bandages came off her cheeks and forehead as well as from her arms and the back of her hands. Forever scarred inside and out, she wanted to leave Virginia City and reached out to relatives looking for someone to take her in.  She found a great-aunt who needed a helper. As soon as Doctor Martin approved her request to travel, she left town.  Adam didn’t know she was going so soon and never had a chance to return her locket to her.  He kept it and sometimes wore it in his left vest pocket near his heart.

Little Joe saw Adam with that locket on more than one occasion. He was a good detective and observant.  As he got older, he became more sensitive to the needs of others even though not everyone realized that.  He never said a word about that locket to anyone except once in private to ask Adam about it. To his surprise, Adam answered him.

“She asked me to wear it next to my heart so she could live forever. She never rescinded the request.”

“Do you ever wonder what’s become of her?”

“I do.  I tried to find out, but she has become like the wind.  I have no idea where she’s gone.”

“Her great-aunt died?”

“She did. Where Ella went next is anyone’s guess.  No one seems to know.”

“You feel guilty about what happened to her, don’t you?”

“You are good at figuring things out.”

“I guess you think you should have known what was happening because of that poem. Adam, you might have if you had enough time and more clues.  She didn’t tell you enough, and you didn’t have time to understand what was happening.”

“Thanks, Joe.”

Little Joe never knew if his words helped or not, but he never saw Adam with that locket again. He thought perhaps his oldest brother had put down that burden of guilt.  At least, he hoped he had. He remembered that poem and knew even the greatest detective wouldn’t have known what was happening based only on what was written there. Then he snapped his fingers because he knew what he should have said to Adam. Ella wasn’t upset so much with Adam as she was with herself.  She had to leave town because she knew that if she had told Adam, he wouldn’t have only saved her, but her mother would still be alive too.  Next time he had the chance, Little Joe planned to tell that part of the story to Adam.

Like many mysteries, when there were enough clues, he could figure them out. With checkers, chess, and cribbage, he might use unorthodox methods to win.  His brothers impolitely called it cheating instead of creative gameplaying.  He would shrug his shoulders at what he considered their narrow-minded attitudes.  However, when it came to putting a puzzle together, he was the puzzle master, and the whole family knew it. Adam’s tragedy turned out to be one of the most serious puzzles he ever faced in his life, but he solved it like he did so many others. He was already on his way to being a detective by the age of ten.

The End

Author’s Note:

Written for the 2022 Ponderosa Paddlewheel Poker Tournament.   The game was Five Card Draw and the words and/or phrases I was dealt were:

writing poetry
memory for detail
wildfire
locket
bloody clothing