Summary: Adam helps a friend whose spouse was wrongly convicted and executed. The song was the inspiration but has nothing to do with the story itself. Published elsewhere as Deadly Conspiring in a shorter version. There is another version of the story here as Fragments.
Rating: PG  Word count: 3,183

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Proud Mary

Listen to the story of Proud Mary now
Married to Darnell, a man so low

Left a big mess down in the valley
Got dirtier than the rats in the alley.

Big hell forge keep on turnin’
Ooh, ole William keeps on burnin’

And Proud Mary is rollin’ rollin’, yeah,
Sayin’ he didn’t murder no one, heh!

It seemed every time anyone from the Ponderosa went to town, there was another verse about the trial and the hanging. The talk about town was the trial, the verdict, the sentence, and the execution. Always, it ended up with speculation about Adam and the condemned man’s widow. On returning to the Ponderosa, the men supplied the details when the conversation always turned to the latest news about those subjects, and inevitably, the family heard the stories too.

On a break from their work after a couple of weeks of that, Joe asked Adam about their house guest. Mary Darnell was staying on the Ponderosa to escape the abuse she had suffered in town when her husband was accused, tried, convicted, and then executed for the murder of a prominent businessman. With his family’s agreement, Adam had invited her to stay. However, there was a lot of talk then too about Adam because of that.

“Does it bother you what people are saying? I mean, her husband was hanged for murder, and now she’s staying here as your guest.”

“People will always talk, and in this case, it’s rubbish. William Darnell didn’t kill anyone. He was set up. Mary probably isn’t safe either until this whole business about who gets to own those mining rights is settled.”

“If she’s not safe, then neither are you. You’re the executor of his will. That puts you in charge of those mining rights for now.”

“Joe, I am well aware of that.”

Pausing, Adam thought about how much he wanted to admit to his younger brother. Even though that answer had been short, he decided on a full disclosure of what he was thinking. He was ready to open up and talk about it.

“Pa and Hoss don’t mind her being here. They seem to like her, and they feel sympathy for her situation.”

“Damn, I feel the same way about her. She’s a nice lady and doesn’t deserve any of what’s happened to her. But I am worried about you.”

“There are times I feel like I have a target on my back.”

“What are you doing about that?”

“I’m afraid there’s not a lot I can do. Roy is looking into things as much as he can but whoever did it didn’t leave any clues that he has been able to find. We have our lawyer checking things to see if he can find out if there was anything happening legally to point to who might have targeted Will. Without leads of where to look or who to watch, it’s more frustrating than anything.”

“So Pa knows.”

“Yes, that’s why I keep getting sent to work with you or Hoss. He thinks I need to be protected, and that the two of you are my best bets for staying alive.”

“He agrees with me then that you could get yourself killed over this. I think you ought to take a lot more precautions than you are. If you’re right, they killed one man outright, and set up another to die on the gallows for it. We can’t watch out for you all the time. If someone is determined, there’s not much just one protector can do.”

“Joe, I can’t live my life scared of every shadow. We will be careful, and I hope nothing will happen. What other precautions can we take?”

“I don’t know. Maybe set some guards?”

“Where would we set them and what would we tell them to watch for. That’s the big problem. I have to hope staying on the ranch, being careful, and being with trusted men will be enough.”

Those words proved to be wrong. Adam went to take care of business that evening and didn’t return to the house. After a half hour, his father and brothers were concerned, and Hoss stepped out to call his name. There was no answer. A hastily organized general search found nothing. A manhunt began, but in near darkness, there were no clues.

In a dense thicket where he had been thrown, Adam heard noises and prayed for rescue believing that his family had to be searching. Feeling blood flowing from his nose and from scrapes and abrasions, he guessed he might be a target for coyotes or worse. Although as he thought about it, there wasn’t much worse than the coyotes and what they would do to him in his present state. Battered as he was, he knew he would be unable to fight back, and they would go for the soft spots first. Adam had seen enough of what they could do to calves and cows to know what that would be like. He did his best to remain conscious hoping to make some kinds of sounds if the searchers got close enough to find him. Trying to yell had only caused nearly unbearable pain, but he thought a few words calling out to them when they were closer might be possible. As it turned out, he was unconscious soon after he had those thoughts, but it didn’t matter.

It was Adam’s good fortune that his attackers were not professionals and that one of the Ponderosa hands had recently gotten a dog that he was training to track and hunt. The dog found Adam’s trail in the dark. With the dog’s keen sense of smell, the searchers found him in that thicket where no one would have been able to see him easily even in daylight.

“Where is he? I can’t see him.”

“He’s in there, Mister Cartwright. That dog can smell where a bear farted in the woods yesterday. He found him. We only got to find somebody to crawl in there and pull him out. You can see where they pushed him in and such, but pulling him out the same way is likely gonna cause some serious damage. Somebody needs to pull him out more careful like.”

Hoss responded first to that suggestion.

“We could go back to the house and get tools to clear away some of this brush.”

The discussion was brief though as Ben was too worried to allow any alternative to immediate rescue.

“He’s not responding to us so we have to assume he’s badly hurt. We can’t take the time to go back for anything. We need to get him out of there. Who’s willing to get some cuts and scrapes to go in through the opening that’s there?”

Without hesitation, Joe volunteered for the task and took a lantern with him. As he advanced into the thick brush, Ben and the others could see glimpses of Adam. Joe set the lantern on the ground wedging it between a couple of thick branches. Then he got his arms around Adam and began to pull him out of the thicket. The others did what they could to open the way. It was a major concern to Joe that his brother already felt so cold. Even with only the lantern’s light, he could tell that Adam had been battered. As Joe got him nearly out, other hands were there to help pull.

“He’s badly beaten, Pa. We’re going to need Hoss and some men to carry him.”

When Hoss knelt by his older brother’s side to pick him up, he noticed how cold Adam was. When he asked for help to warm him, several men handed overcoats to wrap around Adam. Their warmth helped to ward off most of the chill for the injured man by the time they got him to the house.

With lanterns, everyone had seen the extent of the damage and that his hands were unbruised. He had not been able to defend himself. If he had been left there until the next day, exposure added to his injuries would likely have caused his death. Whoever had done it had probably intended that he die. When Adam awoke later, he confirmed that theory. Most of the beating had taken place from behind and from the side, so Adam’s face was mostly untouched. He could speak even if he did react with some moans and exclamations as his father and Hoss cleaned up his injuries and bandaged him. With his damaged ribs bandaged, he could speak more easily.

“I heard them talking. They said they couldn’t shoot or leave a blood trail because it would be too obvious, too easy to find me or they might be heard. They thought if they beat me and hid me away in that brush, you might not find me right away and it would give them more time to get away. One of them complained that no one had brought a knife along and they couldn’t find a decent sized rock to beat my head in. One said they could kick me to death but another said someone might see the blood on their boots and wonder how it got there when they heard how I died.”

Hoss was angry.

“If we didn’t have that dog, they woulda likely been right too ’bout you dying in those brambles. You got any idea who they was because the other part is right? We can’t find no trace of them. The dog kept going around in circles when we tried to track them. I reckon there was too many tracks to follow.””

“No, it was dark, and they came up behind me knocking me down. They never gave me a chance to see them. I heard the voices though. If I ever hear them again, I’ll know them. One of the voices was familiar. I think I’ve heard it recently.”

Mary volunteered to take over nursing duties until Adam was able to take care of himself.

“Adam, I’m glad to be here to help you, but I’m afraid I may be the cause of you being hurt. I feel so guilty.”

“Mary, it isn’t your fault. None of this is your fault. There are still some people trying to get those mining rights. They are the ones responsible.”

Away from Adam, Ben, Hoss, and Joe had more serious concerns. Ben expressed them first.

“They put together a pretty elaborate scheme to get rid of Mary’s husband. I think they thought they could then move in on her and scare her or trick her into selling the rights they want. Instead, Adam stepped in and made things difficult for them. There’s no elaborate plan now. They’re going to try to kill him. I think they may try to get to Mary too.”

“Me and Joe can talk to the men about watching for strangers and setting up a guard around the place day and night.”

As it was, Adam felt reasonably well after a week and was willing to take a carriage ride to town with his father. With Hoss’ help, he got down the stairs and out to the carriage. He and Ben wanted to meet with Roy and with their lawyer. That trip didn’t end well either. They had not gone far before they were ambushed. It was their good fortune that sunlight reflected off their assailant’s rifle and gave them a warning. Ben veered off the road with the carriage as Adam pulled the rifle from beneath the seat. The exchange of gunfire brought the Ponderosa hands riding in on the alert because of what had happened earlier. They had been watching for a threat coming in from the outside and hadn’t expected anyone on the ranch to be a danger.

“What happened, Mister Cartwright?”

“Someone shot at us. I think it might have been the new man, Ringo. At least, from what I could see, the man looked like him. Whoever it was, the shots came from there.”

Ben pointed at the place in the trees where the shots had originated. If it was Ringo, these men would overtake him. He couldn’t ride well enough to elude them. With Adam leaning back in the seat exhausted, Ben decided to take the carriage back to the house. Two of the hands stayed with them as the others set off in pursuit of the shooter. At the house, Ben helped Adam inside where they explained to Mary and to Hop Sing what had happened. Adam had reinjured those damaged ribs and hurt his leg too. When Ben heard horses in the yard, he went back outside leaving Mary and Hop Sing to tend to Adam.

One of the men must have gone to alert Hoss and Joe because they arrived at the house about the same time as the other men brought Ringo back. He wasn’t in the best condition. The men explained that he had resisted their efforts. Ringo was going to argue about that when Ben had something to say to him.

“Don’t say anything. If you do, that could be a cause for the men here to teach you some manners.”

Still upset that the man had tried to kill them, Ben asked him about that rather forcefully. Ringo never got a chance to answer because Adam had hobbled out with some help from Hop Sing and Mary. He was seated just outside the front door on the chair there as it was all he could manage to do. They had come out when they were alerted by all the noise. Mary leaned down to ask Adam if he was all right. She got a different answer, Too weak to proclaim it himself, Adam asked Mary to tell the others. He was ready to acknowledge what she said was the truth.

“Adam say he’s one of the men who beat him and left him to die. He didn’t recognize him, but he heard his voice when he told him they were leaving him to die, and yes, those were the words he used. The beating started at his order.”

Adam nodded as much as he was able to let everyone know Mary had repeated his story accurately. Exercising all of his willpower, Ben didn’t order the men to exact justice directly then. Instead, he had some questions.

“Who are you working for? Why beat Adam? What did you hope to gain?”

“What kind of deal are you offering?”

“Deal? You talk, and I won’t let my other sons do to you what they want so much to do and what you so much deserve.”

Ringo looked at Hoss and Joe who appeared to be angry enough to kill him. It was no act. After hearing that this was the man who had tried to murder their brother, it was a contest as to which brother was more furious with him. So Ringo told the whole story.

“None of it was my idea. I was hired to arrange for men to kill Whittaker and put the blame on Darnell. It was all so the men who paid me could get two of the larger investment groups out of the way. They wanted to get their mining rights too so they could control the mining on the Comstock and raise the prices. Then they were going to sell to whoever won the contest to control the mines in Virginia City.

“So, it was all about greed? It was murder for money. They wanted Whitakers mine and Darnell’s mining rights.”

“I never killed anyone.”

“You tried to kill my son.”

“He only got in the way. First he nearly got Darnell off, and then he started helping Mary. He would have messed up everything. Besides, we didn’t kill him.”

“You tried to kill him. Your own words convict you on that. And it was all because he did what he could to save an innocent man’s life and then to protect his widow. You ordered murder. In this state, that’s the same as committing it.”

“But what about the men who told me to order those men to do it and paid me to do that? It’s their fault, and you can’t get them without me.”

“That will be up to the courts. We’ll let the sheriff and the prosecutor talk to the judge. You aren’t going to have any say in the matter.”

Turning to Hoss and Joe, Ben asked if they would take Ringo to town to tell the sheriff the whole sordid story. After that, Ben tried to console Mary.

“I hope that helped in some small way.”

“It did in that people will know that William was innocent. They’ll have to live with what they did. I can walk with my head held high again, and if they say Proud Mary, well then, I am. I’m proud that I have friends like the Cartwrights who stand up for the truth and for justice no matter what the consequences. I’m proud to say my husband didn’t do anything wrong, and all those people who were so self-righteous have to live with their guilt because they can never say that. They convicted an innocent man and killed him.”

Taking her hand, Adam smiled.

“Thank you, and you have the right to call yourself Proud Mary. It is a pleasure being your friend. I’m so sorry we couldn’t have found out about this sooner.”

“Thank you, Adam. It has been so kind of you and your family letting me live here. It let me escape some of the torment. Now I can go back to my house and do my best to get on with my life. I’ll still need your help though. I will need to sell those rights, and someone will have to advise me on a fair price.”

“If you’re sure you want to sell them, I can do that.”

“I’ll have to sell them because I need money to live, but I only want to sell to one of the interests that wasn’t involved in this mess.”

“Maybe you could sell half to me so you have money to live, and we could have a partnership. I would run the operation, and you would have a steady income. When it was showing a good profit, it would be worth more, and we could sell to the highest bidder. That would get you a greater amount of money and perhaps enough to live on for the rest of your life so you would have no worries in that regard.”

Grateful to have a plan, Mary gently wrapped her arms around Adam. She wanted to let him know how much she appreciated all he had done but didn’t want to hurt him.

“I’ll take that as an agreement to my plan.”

Within a year, she had a significant sum on which to live comfortably for the rest of her life. She didn’t need to worry much about that though. An attractive, kind, intelligent, and wealthy man was courting her.