Summary: Adam is ambushed, and everyone thinks they know who did it …

Rated: K+ (20,280 words)

The final page contains reviews/comments from the Old BonanzaBrand Library.

 

Dead Easy

Never was a sight more pleasant to his eyes. A cliché, perhaps. A truism, certainly. As Adam looked down upon the lake he felt the tension lift from his shoulders. He held himself less rigid than he had been doing for the past few hours.

He sighed, leaned forward to look more intently at the lake and the reflections that played upon its smooth surface. It had been right to come, he told himself, today of all days. There was no other place he would rather be than here at this moment of time. Clouds that lazily drifted in a blue sky swam just as lazily upon the blue waters. He sighed again, this time with a slight smile upon the well shaped lips that softened the dark eyes as the anxiety of the morning gradually slipped away.

With a nudge of his heels and turn of his wrist he moved Sport slowly down towards the shoreline until he had reached the area where the grass swayed gently in the breeze and was scattered white with daisies. He was still smiling as he swung his leg over the saddle to dismount. He was still smiling when the sound of a rifle cracked open the silence, sending previously contented birds soaring in protest into the sky, geese rose from the waters with wings wide, squalling their annoyance and Sport, just settling into an ambient mood was startled into a movement that was to have serious consequences for his rider.

He reared up, his front legs kicked out into the air before he came down heavily upon the ground, with a snort and toss of the head, he lunged forward into an immediate gallop. By God’s grace Adam had already got his foot from the stirrup but had yet to release the reins and the hold he had on the saddle horn. The power of the horse’s action, the immediacy and thrust of the animal’s body cast Adam aside as though he were nothing more than an irritating gnat.

As Adam reeled backwards, caught so totally unaware of the horse’s response to the gun shot, his hands initially gripped the reins more tightly so that for an instant of time he was dragged along by the momentum of the animal’s movement, by the time he released his hands he had lost his foothold on the ground and had been dragged some distance before falling totally and rolling some way down the grass covered slope.

It had happened so swiftly, so unexpectedly, that his eyes were still open when he saw the rock ahead of him. Unable to prevent his descent he raised a hand in a hoped for attempt to shield his head from contact with the rock. It was the last action he could remember before everything was brought to a totally black conclusion.

The daisies nodded about his body, and the grasses swayed too and fro around him. The birds settled back onto their branches and the geese returned to the lake, creating slight ripples in the smooth mirror like surface.

Nothing seemed different to the view, apart from the body sprawled upon the grass and obscured by the tall grass and the daisies. Anyone riding along the trail upon glancing down to the lake would not have noticed him. It was still a beautiful view, quiet, peaceful, even serene. A view that Adam Cartwright had looked down upon moments earlier and had relished in the fact that there was no where he knew more pleasant to his eyes.

………………..

“Hi, Pa.” Joe gave his father a wide grin upon entering the main room of the ranch house. He quickly tossed his hat upon the peg and his gun belt was placed on the bureau just as Hoss entered the room,

“Hi, Pa, how’d you make out with old man Murphy? Everything get sorted out?” Hoss raised his eye brows and gave his father an enquiring look, as he unbuckled his own gun belt to place alongside that of his brother.

“Huh, Amos Murphy is a stubborn old man.” Ben grunted, his black brows beetled across his brow above the dark eyes and his generous mouth thinned into a bad tempered tight lipped line.

“Oh, not far removed from yourself then” Joe chuckled, and sat down upon the settee, “Must have been fun, two stubborn old men both wanting the same thing.”

“Not the same thing at all -” Ben snapped, “And you can stop finding it so amusing. Amos won’t sell that land unless I agree to his decisions on the water rights on it.”

“The water there would be invaluable to us, but to be fair, Pa, he has to think of his own livestock too. The Murphy cattle would have to range pretty far and wide to find water if we held back on it -” Hoss ventured cautiously.

“I know and appreciate that, Hoss, but Amos is one thing, I can handle him, he’s reasonable to a degree, but his sons -” again Ben scowled and his lips thinned, “his sons are a different matter. If anything happened to Amos, then Patrick and Danny will use those rights and probably stop the stream, re-divert it and leave us with nothing.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Hoss sighed and sat down heavily, “We ran into them in town.”

“I tell you, Pa,” Joe interjected here, leaned forward, his young face was serious as he continued “It was all we could do to keep from swinging a few punches. They were goading us on to a fight and no mistake.”

“They knew their Pa was here discussing the land deal with you, but it seems to me that they have no intention of selling, leastways, they don’t agree with Amos’ selling the land to you, as far as they are concerned we’re just about the biggest land grabbers in the territory anyway and don‘t want their land adding to it.”

“They’re a couple of knuckle headed young men alright,” Ben sighed and rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully, then he glanced at them both, frowned, “Where’s Adam?”

“Oh, he got into such a temper with them Murphy brothers that he decided to go take a ride out on his own to cool off.” Hoss picked up an apple and bit into it, “I tell you, if it hadn’t been for the fact that you were having that thar talk with Amos I’d have just lammed Danny Murphy flat the things he was calling us.”

“Not only that, they were insulting us loud enough for everyone to hear and we just stood there at the bar and took it, until we couldn’t take it no more and had to walk out or break a few heads.” Joe shrugged, “Wasn’t any fun walking out, I can tell you. I don’t like being insulted, and I particularly don’t like being laughed at.”

Ben nodded, and then leaned over his desk to resume his observation of the map he had unrolled upon it. Amos Murphy was desperate for money, the land was of little value to him and in all honesty not of that great value to the Ponderosa, it was the water on it that made it such an important acreage and would have been an enormous asset to the Cartwright’s.

Hoss chomped on his apple and Joe stretched out his long legs, folded his arms behind his head and closed his eyes – perhaps he daydreamed of clunking a couple of knuckle heads together.

Chapter 2

Hasty rough hands grabbed at Adam’s body and turned him over onto his back. They fumbled over his jacket, into the pockets, emptied them out and examined their contents.

“Well now, isn’t this just my day.” There came the sound of paper rustling, dollar notes flicked through and then replaced into a leather wallet, “Enough here to keep a simple lad like me on the road for some months yet. Easy pickings and no mistake.”

He leaned forward, his face only inches from that of his victim, he smiled and nodded in satisfaction,

“Who’d have thought it would be so easy, and the best thing is that folk will think you just fell from your horse, a little accident – tchah – such a shame. Probably a good thing that bullet missed you, that would have called for explanations, but this way – no explanation is needed.”

He stepped away from the man on the ground and nudged the heavy body with the toe of his boot, then he looked around him and frowned,

“Doubt if anyone will be coming this way for some time. Well, High and Mighty Adam Cartwright, you won’t be looking so good by the time they find you.” He stuffed the wallet into his back pocket and straightened his hat so that it shaded his eyes. After another quick glance around he walked to where his horse was waiting, swung himself into the saddle and galloped away.

Adam Cartwright didn’t move. He was incapable of doing so. Blood formed a scarlet mask over his face, and a light breeze played with the dark hair so that it lifted from his brow, to fall back again in black strands.

……………………

The clutter of cutlery, plates rattling and pleasant smells all signified that food was ready. Hoss was the first to get to his feet, glance at the clock and then at the table, then rather anxiously at the door. Joe, interpreting the look correctly, slapped his brother on the back and grinned,

“Adam’s a big boy now, Hoss, he can make his own way home.”

“Yeah, but it ain’t like him to take this long when he has such a wad of money on him.” Hoss frowned and glanced once again uneasily at the clock.

“What money are you talking about?” Ben asked as he passed them on the way to the table.

“Tucker paid him back the money he owed Adam from about six months ago. Seems he finally struck a seam and he always promised Adam that as soon as he made pay dirt he would refund the loan Adam made out to him.” Joe sat down and pulled his plate nearer.

“Mmmm, yeah, old Tucker’s an honest fellow.” Ben agreed, and looked at the food thoughtfully, “No one saw Tucker give him the money, did they?”

“No one but a saloon full of folk,” Hoss grumbled as he took his seat, “That’s what got the Murphy’s shooting off their mouths. Tucker said he just wanted to square up with Adam before he was tempted to lose it on a poker game but the Murphy’s made it seem as though Adam had twisted his arm.”

Beef steaks, onion gravy, a mound of creamed potatoes were placed in front of them along with a stack of fresh bread, greens. Hoss sighed and as he stabbed into the first of his beef steaks he glanced once again at the clock.

………………………..

Adam released his breath as though he had forgotten how to breathe. He gasped, struggled a while and then coughed. From somewhere in the cotton wool existence he found himself in he succeeded in rearing up into a sitting position, then gasping for breath again, he leaned forward, his stomach knotting as the pain thudded through his skull. His face felt stiff and he raised a hand to it and his fingers touched the dried caked on blood, he explored a little further to find the mass of blood that had congealed around the cut in his head, the gash on his brow that just missed the eye socket. He closed his eyes again and groaned, before very slowly lowering himself back onto the ground.

After some moments he forced himself to open his eyes again and to observe around him, the sky was darkening, night was approaching. His hands were like putty so he didn’t bother to fumble for his watch, although had he done so he would not have found it. He looked at the sky, the first star suddenly appeared and twinkled at him. He realised that from the time he had first noticed the sky darkening and the star appearing some time had elapsed, he deduced from that fact that he must have drifted back into unconsciousness, before coming to again.

The air was warm and pleasant. He could feel no reason, no motivation to leave where he was, even if he could. He closed his eyes again and raised his arm to shield his face but he didn’t know from what, it just seemed the sensible thing to do. His body felt heavy, everything was heavy, his arm, his eyelids, even the hair that fell across his brow, felt heavy. He wondered if this was what death was really like, and decided that if it was then it was a pity to be dying alone.

Chapter 3

“He should be here by now.” Hoss kicked at a log in the grate and frowned, “I don’t like the idea of him racketing about out there on his own. He said he wouldn’t be long, just enough time to cool down.”

“May be he went back into town once we were gone, decided to tackle the Murphy brothers on his own.” Joe surmised thoughtfully, and picked at his teeth with a thumb nail.

“No, he wouldn’t do that, not without knowing how Pa had got on with Amos.”

“Well, stop being such an old woman, Hoss. Adam won’t thank you for it when he gets back.”

“I’m going to go see where he is -” Hoss got to his feet and turned to the door, “You coming along?”

“Well -” Joe frowned, paused a moment to think about it and then nodded, grinned at Hoss and looked over at Ben who was jotting down some figures on some papers, “We’re going out for a short ride, Pa.”

Ben glanced up, nodded, and as Joe closed the door the young man wondered if his father had even heard what he had said.

The night was not of a black intensity, rather it had that purple tinge to blue that came with a pleasant summers night. The stars shone and the moon was bright. Hoss could think of no better night to go riding in, even if it were to locate an errant brother.

They had reached the stable door when there came the sound of hoof beats, Joe and Hoss stopped in their tracks, Hoss’ hand actually on the latch to the door.

“Told you -” Joe began as Sport came into view.

“Told me what, little brother? That Sport would come home without his master?” Hoss replied grimly and hurried to the horse, grabbing at the reins and bringing him to a halt. “Easy now, boy.” he placed a hand on the horse’s reins and then looked over at Joe, “You had better get Pa.”

……………………………..

They cast around looking for indications as to Adam’s whereabouts without success for some hours. Despite the pleasing warmth of the night air, all three men were becoming increasingly chilled by weariness and anxiety, and it took Ben a considerable amount of determination to muster up the conviction that they should abandon the search until the morning, when, with daylight and more men available to assist, they could resume looking.

They returned home in silence, dejected and thoroughly miserable. Hoss felt a gnawing ache in his stomach from the tension, and rather than falling into bed for a few hours sleep he paced the floor worrying at the problem, trying to figure out where his brother could have gone and what could have happened to him.

In his room Ben lay on the bed and stared up at the darkness that hid the ceiling from view. He kept thinking about the Murphy brothers, two young men who had been nothing but trouble from the moment the family had moved onto the ranch bordering onto the Ponderosa several years earlier. He recalled a time nearly 18 months previous when Danny had got drunk, picked a fight with Adam and had threatened to kill him. Adam had laughed it off, nothing had come of the threat and Danny had avoided Adam ever since. Obviously the fact that negotiations with their father about the land sale was now current had given Danny and Patrick the gumption to needle the other men but it all seemed rather nebulous to Ben’s way of thinking. He fell asleep in the early hours of morning with the matter going round in circles in his head.

Joe had sat on the edge of his bed with his elbows on his knees and his chin cupped in his hands. With a concentrated frown on his brow he went over in his mind all that had happened between the Murphy’s and themselves in the saloon that afternoon. Had there been any particular hint of a threat against Adam that they had not noticed earlier? There was that instant when Tucker handed over the money, Danny had been the one shouting the odds about that, and he hadn’t minded who had heard either. The more he thought about it, the more convinced Joe became that the Murphy’s must have followed them out of town and when Adam had branched off on his own – Joe emitted a long drawn out shudder of a sigh – could they possibly have committed murder?

………………..

Adam rolled over onto his stomach and hauled himself along the ground by the use of his arms and elbows. He needed some water and the sound of its calm lapping against the banks upon which he was sprawled was so tantalising that he felt it would drive him mad if he just lay there listening to it any longer. At least he was not dead, nor dying. He clenched his teeth together, clamped his mouth shut and concentrated on inching his way to the lake.

He must have drifted in and out of consciousness throughout the night. It had passed too quickly for a man to have lain out in the open fully conscious throughout the whole time, and he had regained some strength as the time had passed. Now he needed some water, to drink, and to wash the mess from his face.

By the time he had reached his destination he was exhausted and just lay there among the mud and reeds with his hands dangling in the water. Finally he garnered up the strength to cup his hands and fill them, to drink deep and then splash it over his face. The shock of the cold water upon his feverish flesh made him gasp and catch his breath, but he persisted until he felt his skin clean. Then he sunk his head upon his arms, the water soaking into the jacket and shirt, soaking his flesh, lapping through his hair.

Chapter 4

The next time Adam opened his eyes it was to find himself in his own room, the curtains drawn across the window, the bed covers warm and comforting to his aching body and by the side of the bed, his father, patiently waiting with the lamp flame low, just flickering steady.

He didn’t have to ask himself if he had been dreaming, the pain he was experiencing was too real. His father had fallen asleep, his head had dropped forward upon his chest, the book in his lap was about to fall onto the floor. Even as Adam watched it did just so, the soft thud as it landed enough to startle the sleeper awake and in bending to retrieve the book to find himself looking into his sons anxious dark eyes.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, son.” Ben said softly.

“How long -” he couldn’t get the words framed right, but Ben understood, raised his hand gently and placed it on his son’s cheek, very gently, knowing that Adam was not one to want too much attention,

“We found you this morning. You’ve slept through the day.”

Adam heard water being poured into a glass, and when it was offered to his lips he drank it eagerly, sighed and managed a smile. Ben replaced the glass on the table and then looked at his son anxiously once again,

“Paul stitched you up earlier in the day, he’s left some stuff here for you to take if the pain gets too much for you.” He leaned forward, closer to the injured man, “Any idea who did this, Adam? Did you see anyone at all?”

“No.”

“Was it just an accident then? Paul was under the impression that the injuries were the result of a fall, there was blood on the rocks -”

“Yes, that’s right,” Adam’s eyes widened, the pupils dilated as memory returned, “I was getting off – off my horse.” he paused, narrowed his eyes, the memory had shifted, moved into another direction, “There was a gun shot. Sport reared up.”

“Who fired the gun? Was it deliberate?”

Adam closed his eyes, tried to remember, he sighed and attempted to shake his head. Someone had come, he could feel again the rough handling of his body as someone looked through his pockets, a kick in the ribs, and he involuntarily winced at the memory.

“Someone came -” he whispered, “Someone -” then his eyes closed again and he was drifting back to the comfort of sleep.

……………………

“It was the Murphy’s, Pa. I swear it -” Joe thumped the table with a clenched fist, “Who else would do that to Adam? They saw Adam take that money and put it in his wallet – and where’s Adam’s wallet now? Where’s the money?”

“Hold on, Joe. That’s a serious accusation to make with very little proof.” Ben cautioned in an anxious tone of voice, “You said yourself that there were other people in the saloon who saw Adam take the money.”

“There wasn’t anyone there who had a grudge against Adam, Danny Murphy did.” Hoss interjected his opinion, and rubbed his chin before looking at his father, “I’m thinking we should tell Roy about this, Pa. It ain’t right that Adam was nearly killed yesterday and left for dead while they took his money and rode off like that -” he looked at Joe who nodded in agreement, but Ben still shook his head and urged them to be cautious. “I’m going to check the place out tomorrow, Pa. If there’s any proof that those Murphy’s were involved in this, I’m taking it to the sheriff.”

…………………

Adam was neither looking nor feeling in the best of health but had insisted on making his way downstairs rather than spend another day cocooned in his bed. The day was warm and pleasant, sun streamed into the room from the open door through which the very lightest of breezes wafted. He had begun to read a new book, but now set it to one side as he thought over what had taken place during the past few days.

The Murphy brothers were in jail, protesting their innocence volubly and driving Roy to distraction as a result. Hoss and Joe had scouted around the area where Adam had been more or less ambushed, and had found sufficient proof of two horsemen being there at the time. Witnesses had come out in force to declare that they had seen Danny and Patrick leaving the saloon not five minutes after the Cartwrights had left; other witnesses testified seeing them leaving town in the same direction as the Cartwrights only a short while after them. Had they been more likeable characters perhaps the list of witnesses against them would have been far fewer, but then, as Roy said, it only needed one or two to have strengthened the case against them anyway.

Adam leaned forward to pick up his book and restart the story and had just found the page he was looking for when there was a light tap on the open door. He turned and saw Amos Murphy standing in the door frame, the brightness of the day shining behind him as he stood there fumbling with his hat.

“Mr Murphy? Come in -” Adam frowned; the man looked a somewhat shambolic figure, twisting his hat round in his hands and with several days stubble on his face.

“Adam.” Amos acknowledged the younger man with a nod of the head and stepped into the room, “Are you alone?”

“I am.” Adam replied with just the slightest frown indicative of the unease such a question would give any man in such a situation.

“I’m right sorry to see the sight of you looking as you do now, Adam.” Amos came in, and stood awkwardly by the table looking thoughtfully over at the other man, “The thing is, Adam, I come to say -” he paused, frowned, unable to find the words.

“Say what’s on your mind, Amos.” Adam encouraged him kindly and leaned forward with his head to one side, his eyes on the man’s face and a slight smile on his lips.

“Danny and Patrick. That’s what I’ve come about – it’s just that, they didn’t do it. They didn’t harm you, Adam. I know what folks are saying in town, but it ain’t so. I know my sons, I know when they’re lying to me and when they’re speaking the truth, but they didn’t do it.”

“They admit to following us out of town -”

“Yes, they did, but then they took the left fork at the junction because Patrick wanted to see a girl in Genoa he’s smitten with jest now.”

“Then why doesn’t she come forward and testify that he was with her?”

“Because they didn’t get to Genoa.” Amos threw an anguished look at Adam, the look of a father desperate for some help for his sons, “Adam, I swear they didn’t follow you. They turned off to Genoa, then Patrick decided that he was flat broke and wasn’t any point in going there anyway.”

“So they went home?”

“No, fact is, they didn’t. They didn’t get back home until late the next morning. Said they camped out and did some hunting. It was a fine evening, after all, and -” he licked dry lips, “I wish you’d believe me.”

Adam turned his head away and sighed, he stared at the logs in the grate and pursed his lips before looking back at the older man,

“Everything points against them, you know?” he said very kindly.

“I know. But I’m their father, I know they’re innocent.”

Chapter 5

“You what?” Roy dropped his spectacles on the desk and then shook his head, “Say it agin, Adam, slowly?”

“I don’t think the Murphy brothers attacked me, Roy. I want to drop charges against them.”

“You can’t do that, Adam. There are witnesses enough to testify against them -”

“Against their leaving town and seemingly following us – yes, I know – I heard all about that, but the thing is, Roy, I can’t see how it could be them.”

“Most other folk would disagree with you there, Adam. Including, may I say, your brothers and father.”

“Hmmm,” Adam frowned, he shook his head and raised his eyebrows. “Roy, didn’t Danny Murphy say in his statement that he and his brother were going to Genoa to see his girl?”

“That’s what they said, but they didn’t get there.”

“And the reason was?”

“They had no money.”

“But if they had taken the money from my wallet -” he paused and looked at Roy hoping that he had said enough to provide the sheriff with sufficient food for thought.

It had taken a lot to ride into town feeling so battered and bruised as he was, even now as he sat in the chair opposite the older man he felt drained of energy. He wanted to close his eyes and drift back to sleep. Good thing Pa was away on business, he mused, and let a small smile drift over his lips at the thought.

“I get your meaning.” Roy picked up his spectacles and placed them on his nose, “If they’d got the money they would have had plenty to spend on the girl.”

“More than enough, I’d say.”

“If they didn’t do it, then who did? Who else has got a beef against you just now?”

“Does it have to be someone I know? There were strangers in the saloon as well as folk we knew. They all saw me take the money, heard the Murphy’s shouting their mouths off. Perhaps someone followed us out of town with the aim of getting rich quick and knowing who would get the blame.”

“I don’t like the idea of letting them two rough necks loose right now, Adam. Can’t you just leave the matter with me for a day or two? I’ll check around and make some enquiries.”

“Another thing, Roy,” Adam paused and cleared his throat, “Whoever took the money, took my wallet as well. It has the Ponderosa brand on it.”

“You think anyone who took it would be stupid enough to keep it?” Roy’s blue eyes widened.

“Stranger things have happened.” Adam smiled slowly and then painfully eased himself out of the chair, picked up his hat and left the office.
………………………….

“You what?”

Roy allowed a long sigh to slip through his lips and pulled off the spectacles which he placed carefully on the desk.

“Now then, Hoss, before you git yourself all riled up I’m only telling you what Adam said himself.”

Hoss looked at Joe who raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes back at him before they both turned to stare at the sheriff

“HE reckons that THEM Murphy’s are innocent? Is HE crazy or what?” Hoss expostulated, flinging his arms out in a gesture of amazement at the fallibility of his eldest brother.

“He said -”

“Look here, Roy, I KNOW them thar Murphy brothers did it. I saw their tracks, I saw their horses tracks right thar on the spot where they attacked my brother. I saw them with my own two eyeballs. Didn’t I, Joe?”

“Yeah, he did, Roy. Not only that we checked the horses for ourselves to make sure that the prints tallied. We wouldn’t make up a thing like that just for the sake of an arrest. If someone other than the Murphy’s harmed Adam, we’d want to know.”

“’Ceptin’ that they did it. They was thar. I know they was because all the signs are that they were there. Shucks, I even checked out their boots.”

Roy nodded, recalling the occasion when Hoss had carefully examined the Murphy brothers boots much to their annoyance and chagrin, and eventual threats. When Hoss had handed the boots back and declared the prints matched those found at the area where Adam had been bushwhacked it just seemed to confirm their suspicions a hundredfold.

“I want a word with them two.” Hoss growled and turned towards the cell, but Roy rose from his chair and stepped in front of him.

“I promised your brother that I would give these two a few more days in the cells while I checked out on his theory. Now if you go in there and start causing a ruckus, Hoss Cartwright, I might have to let them loose and put you in there instead.”

“I ain’t going to go in causing a ruckus. I jest want an explanation.” Hoss replied, the colour rising in his face and his blue eyes looking earnestly at the older man.

Roy nodded and stepped back, then fell in behind the two brothers as they entered the cell block. The Murphy brothers immediately rose to their feet and approached the bars.

“When are you letting us out, Roy?” Danny asked, ignoring Hoss and Joe as best he could, although they were standing right in front of him.

“Soon. I want to hear what you have to say to Hoss and Joe here, then I’ll consider what to do next.”

The two men turned to regard Hoss and Joe before stepping back a pace or two. Hoss placed his hands on his hips, put his head to one side and narrowed his eyes,

“Guess Roy here has told you my brother Adam ain’t pressing charges against you two murdering back shooters.”

“Yeah, he told us.” Patrick replied, and narrowed his eyes in an attempt to look tougher than he felt.

“And he’s right, we shouldn’t be locked up here on charges of things we didn’t do.” Danny added.

“Fact of the matter is that we know a bit more about what happened that day, a bit more than our brother Adam does.” Joe said very quietly, his voice was deep, very level and emotionless.

“How’d you mean?” Danny glanced anxiously from one to the other of three men standing on the other side of the bars.

“We know you were there on that river bank when Adam was injured. We’ve proof that you were there, both of you.” Joe’s eyes now flicked from one brother to the other, and he saw Danny gulp and Patrick lick his lips nervously, “Why not just tell us how it was-”

The Murphy’s stepped back from the bars, looked at one another. Danny shook his head and Patrick sat down on the bunk.

“In that case,” Hoss shrugged, “Whatever idea my brother Adam has in his head, we’ll just ignore it. We’ll sign the charges against you ourselves.”

“You can’t do that -” Danny said, grabbing at the bars and looking at Roy.

“We can.” Joe said very coldly.

Danny and Patrick looked at one another, then Hoss signed to Roy to open the cell door. As soon as the door swung open Hoss grabbed at Danny’s shirt and pulled him through, ignoring the protests, the arms and legs that gyrated in an attempt to prevent being taken from where he wished to remain. Hoss dragged Danny along to another cell, threw him inside and then slowly began to roll up his sleeves. He spat into his hands and rubbed them together and formed two large ominous fists.

“Right, if you don’t tell me when we ask nice, then I’ll have to beat it out of you.” Hoss growled and stepped forward.

For some reason Roy didn’t move, he just watched with his head to one side as though curious as to what would happen next. Thankfully for him, and Hoss, Danny did just what Hoss had hoped he would, he crumpled.

“Alright, alright – we were there. I swear we didn’t do it, I swear it.” he fell on his knees and grabbed at Hoss’s legs, “We did follow you out of town. We saw your brother ride off on his own and we followed.”

“Don’t say no more, you idiot -” Patrick yelled from his cell but Danny couldn’t stop now, he was nearly in tears with fear.

“We heard a gun shot. Saw your brother get dragged along by the horse before falling down in the rocks. A man rode out and – and went to him. We thought he would be helping but -”

Patrick groaned loudly and clutched at his head in despair. He shook his head before taking up the story.

“When he rode off we went down to see what happened. Your brother looked like he was dead already. The horse had taken off. Danny said that we’d be blamed for sure, so we decided to go to Genoa and fix ourselves up with an alibi. We knew plenty of folk had seen us in the saloon, and leaving town close after you. Guess the good folk of this here town are pretty predictable, couldn’t wait to tell the sheriff what they’d seen and put two and two together.”

“Jest that it weren’t us that did it, we didn’t, Hoss, we didn’t touch him.” Danny pleaded.

Hoss said nothing for a while, he just stared down at Dan Murphy with contempt on his face before pushing the clutching hands away, pushing so hard that the wretched man fell back onto the floor.

“That’s right, you didn’t touch him, did you? You didn’t think to help him, make sure he was safe, bring him home or take him to the Doctors. You just left him there to die ..”

“Yeah, but he didn’t die, did he?” Patrick yelled.

“No, he didn’t.” Hoss replied, and his words were uttered in such a cold manner that Roy knew exactly what he was thinking.

It was with the greatest strength of will power that Hoss Cartwright didn’t bring his fists down upon the hapless Dan Murphy. Instead he heaved in a deep breath and stalked out of the sheriff’s office, closely followed by his brother who had to content himself with casting the two men the most contemptuous look he could muster.

Outside they stood together on the sidewalk, Hoss gulped down deep draughts of air to cool himself down,

“Shucks, Joe, how could they do it? How could they have looked down at our brother and just ride on out of there, and leave him like that?”

It was a question Joe found impossible to answer.

Chapter 6

When the door slammed sending everything that wasn’t nailed down trembling and several pictures skewing at an odd angle on the wall Adam braced himself for his brothers return. He rubbed his chin and closed his book which he set down upon the table before standing up to face Hoss and Joe.

“You got a good explanation for what you did, brother? Because it had better be good otherwise …” Hoss clamped his mouth shut as the ability to say anything else had left him.

Joe flung his hat onto its peg “Look, whatever reason you got for not pressing charges against the Murphy brothers, Adam, just don’t make sense.”

Adam shrugged and placed his hands on his hips “May be not to you, but they do to me.”

Hoss slowly unbuckled his gun belt and set it down on the bureau before walking towards his eldest brother “Look at the state of you, Adam, you kin barely stand on your two legs and yet you went into town -”

“Hop Sing took me”

“Then he shoulda known better than to do that… what were you thinking, Adam? Those two murdering -”

“No, Hoss, they aren’t guilty, they didn’t do it.”

Joe perched himself on the edge of the settee and raised his eyebrows “Then what did they do? You know all the answers, brother, so you tell us what did they do?”

Adam cleared his throat, sniffed and then rubbed the side of his nose before sitting down. He frowned “Amos came here and begged me to think about what had happened. He insisted that his sons hadn’t set out to kill me or rob me. So I got to thinking and realised that they couldn’t have done it, otherwise they would have been able to go and see that girl in Genoa.”

Hoss sat down slowly on their father’s chair and leaned forward, he rested his chin in his hands while his elbows were on his knees and for a moment he just stared at Adam before he shook his head, “You know, for a thinking man you sure are stupid at times, Adam.”

“Thank you, and what brought about such a compliment from you or did you just decide it was the right time to throw in a few insults?”

“I ain’t insulting you, brother. Look, you bin back to where it happened?”

Joe glanced at Hoss and then at Adam, he nodded “You ain’t have you?”

“How am I supposed to get there? As you already pointed out I can barely walk.”

Hoss nodded “Yeah, well, me an’ Joe, we went there, we scoured around and found all we needed to know about them Murphy boys. They was there alright, and sure, maybe they weren’t the ones who shot at you, or stole from you, but they came and walked around where you lay and looked down at you bleeding there, and do you know what they did?”

Adam licked his bottom lip which was still swollen and sore, he shook his head “You going to tell me or do I have to guess?”

Hoss leaned back and raised his eyes to heaven while Joe leaned forward to take an apple from the dish, he rubbed it on his shirt and then looked at Adam, “They didn’t do nothing, they looked at you, speculated on whether or not you’d be dead by morning, maybe even checked your pockets to see if there was anything left to steal, and then they rode away.”

“I don’t believe you.” Adam replied, his eyes shifted from one brother to the other, “Who would do anything like that? No one leaves a man to die, not alone.”

“Well, I’m telling you that they did.” Hoss looked at Joe, “You tell him.”

“Tell me what?” Adam glanced now at Joe, “Tell me what, Joe?”

“They admitted it when we saw ’em just now. Roy couldn’t believe his ears when he heard ’em, to be honest, niether could we, but we knew those prints didn’t lie. The only prints that indicated anyone knelt beside you was the man who came and knelt down to steal your money. The man who kicked you in the ribs as you lay there and then walked away, but the other prints showed two men who came, walked around you and stood awhile and then walked back to their horses and rode away.”

“Perhaps they thought I was dead already.”

“Dadburn it, Adam, why’d you have to be so stubborn. Can’t you get it through that granite head of your’n what we’re telling you. The Murphy brothers left you to die, so far as I’m concerned they’re as guilty as the man who shot at you and stole from you. How many times do I have to spell it out to ya?”

Adam didn’t answer but leaned back against his chair and stared into the fire his lips pursed and his fingers tapping his chin, then he shook his head, “Why? Why would they do that?” he looked from one to the other of them “Did they say why?”

Hoss sighed and scratched his head “They thought they’d get the blame for it and so they rode off to Genoa to fix themselves an alibi, except they couldn’t even get that right.”

Adam nodded, and then leaned forward with his brow creased “What did Roy say about it?”

“A lot.” Joe said with a laugh in his voice, “He called them all the names under the sun and some.”

“Yeah, he’s keeping ‘em locked up for what he calls – what is it, Joe?”

“He called it culpable manslaughter…it means that they could have killed you unintentionally by leaving you to die. Is that right, Hoss?”

“I reckon…” Hoss screwed his face up to think about it a bit and then nodded “Yeah, sounds about right.”

Adam stood up and looked at the clock, then he looked at his brothers and shook his head, “Except I’m not dead.”

“Yeah, but if it hadn’t been for your thick skull and being so dad burned stubborn you would have been. Then they would have been guilty of that what Joe said.”

Joe chomped on his apple and nodded “Yeah, so Roys keeping ‘em in jail until he decides the right times for them to be released.”

Again Joe and Hoss looked at one another and then at Adam who was staring at the fire as though seeing right through it, “You alright, Adam?” Joe asked after a while.

“Yes, I guess so. I didn’t realise they hated me so much.”

“Weren’t a case of hating you, brother, more a case of thinking of their own hides more’n anything else, that’s all.”

Adam nodded “That’s all?”

Joe and Hoss looked at one another and nodded, “Yeah.” Joe said and bit into his apple.

“S’right.” Hoss cleared his throat and stood up, he walked over and gave Adam’s shoulder a gentle slap “C’mon, why not come and get some supper, huh?”

But Adam just shook his head and excused himself in order to return to his bed.

Chapter 7

Roy Coffee removed his spectacles thoughtfully as Amos Murphy entered the office and closed the door quietly behind him. “What can I do for you, Amos?”

“Why, I come to get the boys, we have to get home, there’s work to be done.”

Roy frowned “Now why in tarnation would you be thinking you can come here and ride on home with your boys? What put that fool notion into your head, Amos?”

“It ain’t no fool notion, Sheriff. I done saw Adam Cartwright and he said he would be coming in here and going to tell you that there were no charges to be put against my boys. That means they are free to come back home with me.” he stepped closer to the desk, removed his hat and looked anxiously at the man sitting there, watching him, “Why’d you ask them questions fer? You telling me that Adam Cartwright broke his promise to me? He ain‘t been here, has he?”

Roy nodded “He’s been here, despite the fact he was barely able to walk, but he came here like he promised you and he said he wasn’t pressing no charges.”

“Well then?” Amos looked puzzled and confused, he looked at Roy and then at the deputy, “So why ain’t you releasing them and letting me take ‘em back?” he forced a grin, “Or do you mean that they’ve already been released and are in the saloon waiting for me to pay for their drinks? Is that it?”

“No, that ain’t it, Amos. As it happens Adam was pretty convincing, and he didn’t press charges but then he didn’t know all the facts, did he?”

“What facts? What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t tell Adam that your sons had watched what had happened, and then gone down and looked at him, dying there perhaps, dead maybe, and did nothing to help him. They just looked and then rode on, leaving him to die, to fend for himself.”

Amos shook his head, shrugged again, “I didn’t know nothing about that…” he rubbed his chin with the back of the hand that held his hat, “Anyhows, hardly matters does it? I mean he didn’t die, did he?”

“Don’t you care?” Roy’s voice rose an octave, “Doesn’t it bother you that your two sons could look down on a man, someone they knew pretty well, and then just walk away and leave him?”

“Well, I guess, putting it that way, it does sound rather callous on their part. But I guess they were skeered. They probably thought they’d be blamed for the murder and rode off, quick”

“They sure did ride off quick…so quick they didn’t bother to find out if he were alive or dead. They didn’t bother to check him out and put him on a horse and bring him into town for the doctor or the undertaker to take care of him.”

Amos shook his head “I don’t understand what all the fuss is about, sheriff. My boys didn’t kill him, ‘cos he ain’t dead.”

Roy shook his head in disbelief and looked over at his deputy who merely rolled his eyes. Amos shrugged again “Well? Can I go and see my boys?”

“Go ahead, you know where the cells are.”

“You mean, you ain’t releasing them?”

“Amos, you start up agin and I swear I’ll be locking you up in the cell next door to them. Then you can see them for as long as you like…”

“But Adam Cartwright said he weren’t going to make no statement against them?”

“May be so, but his brothers did, and they are being held on charges of contemplative culpable manslaughter.”

Amos looked from one to the other of them and shook his head “Huh?”

…………….

Adam looked at his breakfast and pushed the food around the plate until Hoss asked him to stop, and if he wasn’t intending to eat the good food that had been provided him, then he’d eat it for him. “Go ahead,” Adam replied and pushed the plate towards him.

“Look, Adam, you got to get your head around what happened.” Joe said pointing his knife at his brother and narrowing his eyes so that he looked like an enraged little bull, “No point dwelling on it. Hoss and me, we agreed on charging them and Roy’s arranging a trial.”

“Yeah, probably by the time the circuit judge gets here they’ll have served their term of jail anyhow.” Hoss grinned and sliced through the bacon with ease.

Adam poured out more coffee “I promised Amos that I wouldn’t press charges.”

Hoss shrugged “That’s alright, you didn’t.” he swallowed the bacon, “We did.”

Chapter 8

Adam drank his coffee slowly, refusing to rise to the bait of his brother’s teasing as they continued to enjoy, in every sense of the word, their breakfast. As he rose to his feet the sound of several horses galloping into the yard heralded some new event, and all three of them had the sudden fear of bad news concerning Ben, who was away on some business in Jacksonville.

Hoss opened the door just as Roy had his hand raised to thud upon it, so that both stepped back as though surprised to see the other. “What’s wrong, Roy?”

It seemed the obvious thing to ask seeing that Roy was looking decidedly annoyed and there were six men on horseback waiting in the yard, all looking equally annoyed and for various differing reasons, being hauled out for posse work being among them.

“Is Adam in?”

“Sure, he ain’t likely to be going no place yet.” Hoss replied as he stepped back to allow the sheriff entry.

Roy swept off his hat and looked at the three of them, then drew in his breath and cleared his throat, “The Murphy brothers have skipped jail.”

Adam sat down on the arm of the settee while Joe got up from the table to join them, “What happened, Roy?” Adam asked, folding his arms across his chest and wondering if he was going to be arrested for not pressing charges as Roy had wanted.

Roy dashed his hat against his thigh and his moustache bristled “Them fool jackasses…fact is Amos came demanding for them to be released because you had told him you weren’t going to press charges.”

“Well, actually I -”

“And when I told him they were staying put because they had left you to die and that amounts to a criminal charge Amos stormed outa the building swearing and cussing and then the next thing is he came back with a buffalo rifle and threatened to shoot me.”

Hoss’ eyes nearly popped out of his head “Amos did what?”

“Of course his boys heard him and started yelling for him to get them outa there, Amos swung round, I pulled a gun from the drawer and dang me if he didn’t fire at me, thankfully the shot missed, made a hole in the desk though. My deputy drew his gun on him and told him to stop fooling around, to which Amos said he weren’t fooling and shot him.”

“Shot him!” Hoss explained his mouth now falling open as wide as his eyes ever were…

“Shot him. Not dead though, but bad enough. I had no choice but to hand over the keys while I went to help Dodds. The three of ‘em, they went off laughing and congratulating themselves, no more thought for Dodds than they had give to you, Adam.”

Adam frowned and stared down at Roys boots “How is Dodds?”

“Dr Martin operated on him, he’s going to be alright. So anyway, I come here to get you boys to join up with me and my posse to hunt them boys down. I always thought they were bad, when they left you for dead made me even more convinced and now I’m more than sure.” he glared at Hoss and Joe “You two coming?”

“Sure, Roy.” Hoss rushed for his hat and gun belt, followed by Joe. Adam stood up,

“What about me?”

Hoss paused in buckling his gun belt and stared at his brother as if he were mad, “You can’t come, Adam. You’re still too knocked about.”

“Yeah, likely to fall off your horse soon as you get on it.” Joe replied, “You know what the Doc said, no excitement for at least a week.”

“That fool Amos – didn’t he realise he was doing more harm than good?” Adam protested.

“Too late to argue that point now, Adam. The man did what he did and that’s all there is to it.” Hoss slapped his hat onto his head and nodded over to Roy “We’ll be with you as soon as the horses are saddled.”

Roy nodded and turned to leave, then looked at Adam, “They’re right, Adam. Don’t try and be a hero by following us, that trip into town yesterday took a lot out of you, so just do as you’re told. Stay put.”

Joe nodded, grinned and winked as he passed his brother, “You heard the sheriff, brother, you just stay put.”

Adam growled something beneath his breath and watched them as they crossed the yard to get their horses, Roy mounted his horse and the posse turned their horses round to leave when Adam called out from the doorway “Where were they headed?”

“Don’t know for sure,” Roy said, “The tracks kind of petered out and got mixed with lots of other tracks which is why we need Hoss’ help.”

“Hmm,” Adam snorted and slammed the door shut. He walked back to the table and sat down to pour himself more coffee, Hop Sing was clearing away the table and frowned “You no eat? How you get better if you not eat food. Good food, take time to cook, all time I cook, you not eat, food waste.”

“Alright, Hop Sing, just leave it here, I’ll try and eat something.” with a sigh and almost in slow motion he dragged the plate towards him.

“Better. You eat good. Then you get fit and go on posse hunt.”

Adam shrugged and stirred sugar into his coffee as Hop Sing removed Hoss and Joe’s plates. “They’ll probably be caught and strung up before I get fit enough to go on a posse hunt.”

“You no grumble. Grumble too much get belly ache. Now – you eat.”

Adam stared down at the congealing egg and bacon on the plate and sighed again. From a distance the sound of horsemen leaving the Ponderosa echoed mockingly in his ears.

Chapter 9

Adam sat for some moments feeling more than a little sorry for himself and when Hop Sing finally came to remove the plate and its congealed contents he got to his feet and walked to wards the door, paused, and then reached out for his gun belt. Immediately Ponderosa’s Mini Tyrant appeared at his elbow “What you do? What you do? You stay put. I hear what sheriff say, he say, stay put, so – you – stay put.”

“Hop Sing, I’ve got a feeling about this and I think the posse are looking in the wrong direction. Trust me on this one, will you?” he reached out to pick up the gun belt only to have it snatched from him. “What are you doing!!? Give me my gun belt back.”

“No. You have injury. You have bad back. You go now you have worse injury …”

A sound from behind them caused them both to turn round to see Amos and his boys standing behind them with their weapons aimed directly at them, Amos grinned “Yeah, Adam, you behave now or you may have a worse injury than the ones you already got.”

“There?” Adam snapped at Hop Sing, “Didn’t I tell you?”

Danny stopped nibbling at a slice of bread and bacon that he had helped himself to as they had passed through the kitchen, “Over there -” he jerked his head towards the hearth, “Put the gun belt down, old man.”

Hop Sing bristled, he glared at Adam as though it was all his fault and put the gun belt down carefully on the bureau. Together he and Adam made their way towards the study area, Amos stroked his chin “Now, if I recall rightly, your Pa always had a stash of money in a box in his desk, ain’t that right?”

Adam shook his head “Amos, you’re making a big mistake. What on earth did you think you were doing letting your boys out of prison? Didn’t I tell you I wasn’t going to press charges?”

“I know that, but then I got to thinking that sometimes the law takes matters into their own hands anyway. My boys – the idiots – should never have left you like they did. Out of common decency they should have brought you home or taken you to the doctors but facts are as they are – they didn’t, and that fool sheriff was going to put them on trial.”

Danny nodded “Yeah, and even you wouldn’t have been able to stop them coming up with a guilty verdict because – well – because we are guilty.”

Adam looked from one to the other then shook his head again “You’re only making matters worse for yourselves. Why did you shoot the deputy?”

“Fer Pete’s sake, Adam, he was gonna shoot us.” Patrick whined, “What were we supposed to do?”

“Just go back into the cells may have been a good idea.” Adam snapped.

“No,” it was Danny’s turn to shake his head “No, I’d had enough of being locked up, couldn’t stand another night of that, especially if your brother were to come back and start shaking us about like he did.”

Adam groaned in exasperation and reached out for the rifle Amos held “Come on, Amos, just hand it over.”

“No, Adam. Our minds are made up. We set down a false trail for the posse to follow, and circled round here to get the money your Pa has in the house. That way at least we git paid for the inconvenience you put us through.”

“Are you delusional?” Adam growled which caused Danny and Patrick to look doubtfully at one another as they wondered what he meant by that, Amos shook his head,

“No, cold stone sober in fact, never more so. Ain’t no point in fooling ourselves any longer, we ain’t going to make it here in Virginia City, but with some money behind us as a stake we could start out better elsewhere.”

“You know very well that your boys will drink the money away or you’ll gamble it all before you ever reach the next town, Amos.”

Danny lost his patience now and stepped forward, prodding Hop Sing with the rifle “If you don’t quit yapping I swear I’m going to put a hole right through this old man right here and now.”

Amos looked at his son and if Adam were hoping the father was going to set Danny straight he was in for a disappointment as Amos just chuckled and nodded “Good thinking, boy. Now, Adam, just go and open the drawer and get the box.”

“Listen to me, Amos, my Pa took all the money from the box to Jacksonville with him. There’s nothing there, believe me.”

“Why should we believe you?” Patrick said and pushed Adam to one side, “I’ll go and git it for myself.”

Adam staggered slightly as Patrick was quite on the large side and as he fell his foot went from under him. In order to save himself from landing on the floor he reached out and grabbed the first thing that came close to hand which was the barrel of Amos’ rifle. The explosion sent Amos falling backwards but the bullet winged its way into Patricks leg so that the man collapsed with a howl onto the floor.

“Dang blast it, Pa, you done shot me.” he yelled clutching at the wound from which blood was spurting liberally.

“You done made me shoot ma boy.” Amos bellowed at Adam while Patrick waved his gun back and forth as he tried to make sense of what and how it had happened.

Adam knelt down beside Patrick and checked the wound with the other two Murphys peering down over his shoulder, “Hmmn, you shot him alright, Amos. Hop Sing you had better get something to clean this up and bandage it up so he can get back on his horse.”

“He can’t go riding with a leg wound like that.” Amos protested.

“I can’t go riding with my leg hurt so bad.” Patrick whined.

“Well, you can’t stay here, the posse isn’t that far off, they’ll have heard that gun shot and will figure out that you’re here. Won’t be long before they head right back here.” Adam replied, as he tore the material of Patricks pants in order to expose the wound more. Danny turned his head and sat down, “That looks bad, that looks real bad.”

“Shucks, you reckon I’m going to die?” Patrick whimpered.

Hop Sing bustled up and elbowed the others out of the way and knelt down to take over the care of the wounded man. He shook his head “Need doctor, bullet still in leg.”

“Shucks!” Patrick hissed and went rather green looking while his father and brother looked at one another. Amos raised his rifle and pointed it at Adam “Alright, we can’t hang around here if the posse is on its way. You -” he nodded to Adam, “Get the money from the cashbox and come with us.”

“Pa, you ain’t leaving me here, are ya?” Patrick looked fearfully at the other two men, but Amos still had the rifle pointed at Adam and Danny had the gun levelled at Hop Sing.

“I’ll have to leave you here, son. You need the doc, you heard what the old man said. Can’t take you bleeding, you’ll end up dead. We’ll come back for you.”

“When?”

“Yeah, Pa, when?” Danny echoed and Amos shrugged “Soon as we can, we got to lose the posse first, you need patching up proper, so – Adam, what are you hanging around for?”

Adam walked to the desk and pulled out the drawer, he drew out the cash box and opened it, glanced over at the Murphys, both of whom were paying more attention to Patrick than to himself, so that he was able to palm the money in the box and slip it under a ledger, then he slammed it on the desk “Here – you can see for yourself -”

Amos eagerly hurried over and then stepped back in dismay, looked at Adam and then at Danny “Ain’t more than $50 there.”

“It’s better than nothing, Pa.” Danny replied.

Amos once again stared at Adam and scratched the back of his head, looked down at Patrick, “Alright, son, we’ll see you soon. Adam, you come with us.”

Chapter 10

The wind was blowing in the wrong direction for the sound of a gunshot to be heard too well but Hoss rose in his stirrups and raised a hand “Did anyone hear that?” he asked no one in particular and no one in particular answered “What?”

“Seemed to be it sounded like a gunshot, coming from the Ponderosa.”

Roy and Joe looked at one another and shook their heads “Are you trying to get out of this?” Joe snapped.

“No, of course not, jest thet I thought I heard a gun shot, is all.” Hoss replied rather crestfallen in having his willingness to assist the law questioned in such a way by his little brother.

“Well, no one else did, Hoss Cartwright. Next think you know you’ll be saying your horse has thrown a shoe!”

Hoss tossed his head in defiance, and turned Chubb back into a gentle lope while he himself kept his eyes cast down to the track, behind him the men followed some looking anywhere but at the track, some gossiping among themselves about how much money they’ll be losing while not at their stores or place of business and a few staring at the track and wondering what they should be looking for anyway.

………..

Amos waited impatiently for Adam to mount Patricks horse, the fact that his hostage was still suffering intense pain made no difference to him at all and several times he yelled at him to move faster. Danny was examining the money he had and shook his head “Pa, you reckoned on there being a whole heap of cash here and all we got is this here measly $50.”

Adam, finally in the saddle, explained yet again that his father had taken most of the cash with him to finalise a deal in Jacksonville. Danny shook his head “That don’t figger …”

“Enough of this here, Daniel. We got to git moving out of here jest in case the posse did hear that gun go off. We don’t want to find ourselves in worse trouble than we already are.”

“You are anyway!” Adam retorted sharply as he nudged the horse to follow the others, “First you shoot a deputy and break out of jail, and now you take me hostage. Things can’t get any worse.” he stopped then before he actually put an idea into their heads and clamped his mouth into a tight line of protest.

“I hope you ain’t gonna jaw all the way to where we’re going,” Danny said as he pushed the money into his pocket, “I can’t stand folk who keep on jawing for no good reason, it makes me itch, and then I start wanting to shoot ‘em.”

He glared at Adam at that and then turned to his Pa, “You reckon we doing right by Patrick leaving him there? He could bleed to death.”

“He’ll be alright,” Amos assured him “One thing you can guarantee with the Cartwrights they take care of folk, not like some …”

Danny nodded “Yeah but it ain’t a Cartwright with him is it? It’s that old Chinese cook they got.”

“Hop Sing will look after your brother,” Adam snapped, “He’ll be better off than you two at the end of the day.”

“Shut your mouth, Cartwright.” Danny snarled and again looked at his father, “Pa, what we supposed to be doing with him anyhow?”

“I got me an idea, now shut up and keep on riding.”

Adam held onto the reins as tightly as he possibly could, every so often his head felt as though it was swimming off his shoulders and he had to hunch over slightly to steady up. If his captors noticed they said nothing but continued to ride on in silence, with Amos in the lead.

………..

Hop Sing bandaged Patrick up as well as he could and dosed him with a fair amount of laudanum as well which had the effect of knocking him out cold which suited the cook much better than having him yelling and rolling around as though he were in agony and about to die. Within another half hour he had Patrick Murphy wrapped in a blanket in the back of the wagon heading towards town where a doctor would be able to dig out the bullet and he could return to the comforts of the town jail.

Riding back towards the Ponderosa were Hoss, Joe and half of the posse, the remainder going with Roy in the fanciful notion that they would be able to track the Murphys down without Hoss’ help. Tight lipped and fuming Joe dismounted “Don’t you look at me like that, Hoss Cartwright.”

“Who? Me? I ain’t looking at you in no way, Little Joe. Ain’t my fault your horse lost a shoe on the trail now, is it? I’m coming back with you outa the kindness of my heart when I know I should really be with Roy helping him.”

“Yeah, and I wish you had -” Joe snapped as he stroked Cochise gently and led him into the stable. “Wait here while I get another mount.”

Hoss grinned and shook his head, “Alright, boys, dismount and rest awhile. Best fill your canteens while you’re here.” he jerked his thumb in the direction of the horse trough and sluice “I’ll just go tell Adam we’re here.”

He pushed the door of the house open and sauntered in, then looked around him. Some sixth sense told him something was wrong, or perhaps the mass of blood on the floor where someone must have lain for some while bleeding, and then being dragged along by the look of the steaks that marked the floor. He yelled his brothers name but received no reply, then shouted for Hop Sing, ran into the kitchen, spun around like a headless chicken and then ran back out again “Joe, Joe – quick – somethings happened.”

“Oh yeah – like what?” Joe strolled out with another horse on a lead rein, “I suppose you’re going to tell me that Adam and Hop Sing have been shot and kidnapped huh?”

Hoss’ mouth gaped open “How’d you know?”

“Look, Hoss, if you want to stay home that’s alright by me, I’ll – what did you say? What did you say’s happened?”

“I didn’t say nothing, you said it. There’s blood everywhere in there, and no sign of Adam nor Hop Sing. Adam’s gun belt is on the floor -.” he paused to think then nodded “With the gun still in it.”

Joe nodded as though he had to take time to think about what was being said, then he mounted his horse “Right, let’s go.”

“Where? Go where, Joe?”

Joe rolled his eyes then fixed Hoss with a grim stare “You can read the sign, you tell us.”

…………………

Ben Cartwright was a tired man. He had concluded his business in Jacksonville and would soon be making the journey home. He ran a hand over his jaw and felt stubble prickle his fingers. Well, perhaps a relaxing hour in the barber shop would be a pleasant indulgence. He took off his hat and entered the building, smiled at the little man who was attending to a younger man and who indicated a chair for Ben to sit upon while he waited.

It was warm and pleasant in the barbershop. The man in the chair had been having a shave and Ben watched as the barber swept the cut throat razor up and over the mans skin, swift and expert twists of the wrist, a flick of the blade and soap and stubble was smoothed away. The young man smiled at his reflection in the mirror, then lifting his eyes he smiled at Ben who returned the smile.

A good looking young man, obviously out to please some young lady the way he was taking care of himself. New clothes, shiny new boots too. Ben hoped the woman would be impressed. He watched as the other man got out of the barbers chair, glanced at his reflection in the mirror again and pulled out his wallet to pay the man.

Just for an instant of time Ben wondered why a complete stranger would have a wallet with the Ponderosa pine stamped in the leather. He only knew of one person who had a wallet like that one, and he had been the purchaser of it for his son, a gift for him some years ago.

He stood up and barred the way to the door.

“Just a moment, young man.” he said in his deep voice, and he put out a hand to prevent the wallet being slipped back into the man’s jacket pocket, “Where did you get that wallet?”

Afterwards the barber could only say how glad he was that the young man had paid him for services rendered before he had resorted to the abrupt measures that brought about the end of his life.

He had underestimated just how quickly Ben Cartwright could draw a gun, and when threatened, was not a man to back down, or be afraid to use it. He may have thought leaving Adam Cartwright to die dead easy but in the end he found it not so easy after all.

Chapter 11

The sheriff in Jacksonville took a dim view of the son of one of its leading citizens being shot in the local barbers. Ben took an equally dim view of the amount of time being wasted as the sheriff laboured over the questions he asked and the answers that he was given. The arrival of the grieving father took some time as well, he was the desk thumping ear splitting demanding shouting kind of man who wanted vengeance before he even understood what was going on but when he did calm down and listened he was like a deflated balloon.

He took the wallet and examined it, listened as Ben described how he had purchased it for his son Adam and that the pine tree was the Ponderosa brand. Further incriminating his son was a letter addressed to Adam from a lady called Ann who had seemed to have problems identifying him from someone called Tom. The addressee was however, obvious and clear. Harrington, the name of the deceased, had been away from home several days and had returned with more money than he had left after having had a dispute with his father.

Harrington Senior agreed not to press charges, especially when the barber’s statement swore to the fact that the young man had drawn first after Ben had asked about the wallet. When Ben told him how Harrington Jnr had left his son to die the older man almost crumpled into tears.

Ben rode out of town without having had his hair trimmed or his chin shaved and later than he had intended. His main thought as he left was that he would return home to find his son healthy and well again.

…………..

Adam stretched his legs and took a swig of water before Amos snatched the canteen away from him, “You feeling better now?” Amos snapped.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Then get back up on that horse, landsakes, you’re losing us time.”

Adam dragged himself up into the saddle and hugged his ribs. He shook his head to clear it a little and looked at the four men in front of him. Two of each man, that boded ill. He sighed again and clung to the saddle horn. Danny looked at him scornfully “You know what he is, Pa,, he’s a waste of a bullet.”

“How’d you reckon on that?” Amos said and looked at Adam again.

“He’s half dead. That’s twice he’s thrown up in the distance we’ve travelled. If he does it again I reckon we should just leave him for the buzzards.”

“Don’t be a fool. If he’s dead how can we hold him to ransom?”

Danny thought about it, so did Adam. He glanced over his shoulder and looked back the way they had come and wondered how long it would take Hoss to pick up their trail. His stomach feel empty, as though it were cleaving to his back bone. He hugged the saddle horn and held the reins tightly and hoped that eventually they would suggest a camp as the night was now drawing in

“Tell you what we could do.” Danny said loudly enough for Adam to hear, “We’ll see how he is in the morning. If he’s still alive we’ll leave him behind but we’ll take some things that would prove we have him … like a finger or an ear.”

Adam grimaced and his fingers tightened around the reins, he was rather fond of each of them ,and his thumbs too come to that. Amos disagreed as well, saying that it wasn’t very ‘nice’ to do things like that… but Danny snorted in derision “Shucks, wouldn’t be any different from doing it if he were dead, would it? He’d be nearly dead, wouldn’t he?”

Amos shook his head “Look, how’d they know it was his finger or ear anyhow? It could be anyone’s, they may not believe us. Anyway, let’s get someplace where we can camp and discuss it further.”

Danny grumbled but eventually grew quiet. Within the hour they had halted outside a rough looking cabin where Adam was helped from his horse and inside while Danny took the horses into a shelter nearby. Amos looked at Adam and shook his head “Don’t mind Danny, he’s always been a bit short tempered. Takes after his mother.”

Adam said nothing but was grateful to fall flat upon the dusty covers of the truckle bed tucked into the corner of the hovel. He closed his eyes and tried to think of some way to escape but knew in his weakened state that his only means to get free of the Murphy’s was to be rescued.

He could hear Amos rattling pans, Danny came and dropped wood onto the floor for the stove, the strike of a match and more pans rattled. The next thing he knew he was being offered a cup of coffee.

“Empty your pockets.” Danny demanded as he put the coffee down on the stool by the bed.

Adam did so and then gratefully took the cup and drank it slowly. Danny looked through what he had put down and nodded then went over to the stove to show Amos. They talked in low voices and seemed, at last, to be in agreement for there were chuckles and some back slapping. Adam finished his drink and lay back upon the bed.

………..

Joe tugged at Hoss’ sleeve “There’s a camp fire ahead, I reckon it’s them.”

Hoss nodded “Yeah, seems likely.” they tiptoed over to where Roy and the posse were waiting, there was some obvious disagreement going on between those who wanted to return home rather than waste another day and those who felt they should make a camp of their own. Roy stopped them from making any further complaints by saying the men they were after were just ahead of them. To dismount and follow him, while he followed Hoss and Joe.

The camp fire flickered odd shadows in the shallow hollow where the camp had been set up. Hoss jabbed Joe in the ribs “Only one man -.”

“The other man must be guarding Adam somewhere out of sight.” Joe whispered. “I’ll go and have a look.”

He and several other men quietly stole around the perimeter of the camp in search of the other Murphy and Adam. Roy sidled up to Hoss “Best to attack now, while they ain’t suspecting us to be this close.”

Hoss nodded, more than anything else he longed to get his brother home safely, it was obvious from the sign left along the trail that he was really still very ill. He wondered whereabouts he had been wounded and the thought of the blood on the floor back home gave him the shivers.

“Now?” he whispered.

“Now!” Roy said and stepped out into the clearing with his gun in his hand.

As Hoss and several others stepped forward Joe cried out “Hoss …psssst…”

“Alright – get up – keep your hands where I can see them and don’t make a sound.” Roy said loudly and he clicked the hammer of his gun back.

Chapter 12

The man huddled in his blankets rolled over and gained his feet, glared around him and seemed to swell in size as he confronted his ambushers “Roy! What the blue blazes is going on here?”

Joe tugged at Hoss’ sleeve “I tried to warn you.” he whispered

Hoss growled in an undertone “Like when?”

Joe hissed “Like as soon as I recognised Buck”

“Joseph. Hoss. Do you mind telling me exactly what is going on here?”

Ben’s voice, loud and spitting out the words in that slow machine gun rattle of a way made his two sons cringe and while Roy and the posse put their weapons away and grumbled amongst themselves the two brothers stepped forward “Hi, Pa.” Hoss nodded.

“Hi, Pa.” Joe echoed.

“Didn’t realise it was you, Pa.” Hoss groaned, “You know, it wasn’t easy to tell exactly who was bundled up in that thar blanket.”

“Hoss Cartwright, if you don’t explain to me what’s going on right this moment …”

Roy stepped forward rather than the altercation become too toxic, he raised a hand “Ben it’s alright, nothing to fret over, it’s just that the Murphy brothers broke jail, shot Dodds, got to the Ponderosa and took Adam hostage.”

Ben leaned forward as though to absorb this information more easily and then stared at the three of them “Adams been kidnapped?”

“Looks like it.” Roy glanced at Hoss who nodded “Well, he weren’t home and there was a whole lot of blood about the place and -.”

“This is supposed to make me feel better?” Ben roared.

“We’re tracking the Murphy’s right now … I mean …we were, but since it was getting dark, we happened to stumble on your camp instead, Pa.”

Ben rolled his eyes and looked at Roy “You’re sure it is the Murphy’s who have Adam?”

“Ain’t no one else we can think it could be, Ben.” Roy replied matter of factly. “We were following their tracks and when we went back to the Ponderosa picked them up from there.”

Ben sighed then glanced up at the sky, “Well, it’s too dark to do any more tracking tonight. The next camper you disturb may not be as kindly disposed to being interrupted as I’ve been.”

“We’ll set off first thing in the morning and pick up their trail again.” Roy nodded and then paused looked around and sighed “Be alright if we share your camp with you, Ben?”

……………..

Adam opened his eyes and carefully turned his head in the direction of the two men whose snores alone would have led the posse to them. He raised himself on one elbow and eased himself from the bed. Despite the pain of his ribs and the ache in his stomach he moved slowly to the table, collected the possessions that had been taken from him and began to make his way to the door.

Being physically weak he stumbled slightly and reached out to regain his balance only to knock over one of the rifles which began to fall, he caught it with one hand, breathed a sigh of relief and set it carefully back down again. It seemed that the door had moved several more feet away from him, but he blinked to get his eyes back in focus and succeeded in getting to the door.

“Is that you, Mary Lou?” Danny mumbled and Adam froze, turned to look back and saw the man move into a more comfortable position, smack his lips and start to snore again.

Amos Murphy yawned, opened his eyes and stared around him but then closed his eyes again so that Adam was able to continue his slow progress to the door.

It opened grudgingly for it had not been used regularly for some years and the hinges were rusted. He had to yank hard to get it wide open enough to enable him to get out and then he hurried, stumbling and staggering across the yard towards the run down shelter where the three horses were stabled.

The Murphys were too slovenly and too lazy to bother with unsaddling and caring for the animals, which for once proved to be a blessing for it meant Adam had no need to worry about doing it himself. He untethered the reins and carefully mounted one of them and then took the reins of the others in his hands and led them out, then he dug his heels into his mount and the horse leapt forward with the two other horses following close behind.

The sound of the galloping horses slowly permeated into the sleeping mens brains, but only caused Danny to dream that he was in the cavalry riding a charge against some Indians and Amos to open one eye, see his son snoring across the table opposite and close it again.

As the sounds of the horses faded away the snores grew louder until Amos finally woke up with a start “Dadburn it, Daniel, can’t a body get a decent sleep with you snoring like that?”

“I ain’t been snoring, Pa. I don’t snore, you know that….”

“I know that you do, now shut up and get yourself busy.” Amos stood up and stretched, the bones in his spine went pop-pop-pop and then he relaxed and rubbed his face “Now, then, let’s get some coffee and then we can think about what to write to the Cartwrights if they want Adam back in one piece.” he glared at his son “I mean, one piece which means altogether and nothing missing, you understand?”

“Sure, I understand. I didn’t mean it about cutting off his fingers, I was jest joshing.” Danny fished in his pocket and brought out a stub of a pencil. “Wal, you got some paper?”

“No. Ain’t you got any?”

Danny rummaged in his pockets and then shook his head “Nope.”

“You idiot. What kind of kidnapper are you to come all this way without any paper?”

Danny shrugged and stood up “Let’s get some coffee boiling first, Pa. I’m mighty thirsty.”

Amos growled in agreement and sat down again, he rubbed his chin “I wonder how your brother is now, do you reckon we did right in leaving him there at the Ponderosa?”

“Weren’t nothing more we could do, Pa. He was bleeding like a stuck pig.”

“Could be dead by now.”

“Yeah, could well be … dang, this match … Pa, the stove done gone out.”

“Relight it then … did you leave the door open last night?”

Danny shook his head as he relit a match and stooped to get the ash covered embers relit. Amos walked to the door and stood there staring out at the horizon, dawn was rising promising a beautiful and for a moment he looked at the sky before turning to regard their prisoner. He then looked around the cabin, scratched his head “You let Cartwright go?”

“Go? Go where?” Danny dropped the match as it burned his fingers and fell upon some paper on the floor.

“Go – just go – where’d he go?”

Amos was flapping his arms about like a demented chicken now and Daniel just stared for a moment at him before looking at the bed, “You mean he’s gone?”

The paper and dried bits and pieces of grass and rubbish were slowly being burned away by the flame of the match, hungrier and hungrier were the flames as the Murhpy’s looked around the cabin for their prisoner. Danny eventually shook his head “I reckon he’s gone, Pa.”

Amos walked to the door and stared out at the dawn bright sky but its beauty was totally wasted on him as he cursed long and hard at the horizon.

Chapter 13

The horses were too much for Adam, the reins slipped from his fingers as he turned his attention to concentrating on staying on just the one horse. Determination alone kept him firmly in the saddle, at times clinging onto the horse’s mane as the weakness trickled over him and threatened to swallow him up.

After some time and he assumed enough distance had been put between himself and the cabin he drew the horse to a halt and glanced up at the sky. A mournful breeze was blowing now which made him shiver, lack of proper sleep and food, combined with the shock to his system from the injuries was intensifying the irritations caused by the least thing. He glanced around and saw, to the left of him, the dark shadows of trees to which he led his horse.

The trees had grown thickly here and the duff upon the ground was springy and dry. Dismounting before he would fall down Adam found himself a pleasant place where he could sleep so after securing the horse and managing to get it unsaddled, he pulled off the bedroll and spread it out and within minutes was asleep on what was the softest bed he had slept upon for days.

Amos Murphy strode over to the stable and stared around him before running frantically back to the cabin “He done stole our horses, the low down thief.”

“He done what? Our horses?” Danny Murphy hurried out and as he did so he fell foul of the rifle, just as Adam had done earlier, but instead of stopping it as it fell Danny ran on and only stopped when the rifle went off, the bullet ricocheted off the stove and hit Danny full force in the shoulder sending him sprawling against his father who was running towards him at the time.

“Dang!” Danny exclaimed as he fell down entangled by his father’s arms and legs.

“What have you done now, you idjit?” Amos yelled as he hit the ground hard with Danny atop of him.

Groaning loudly Danny put his hand to his shoulder and felt the hot blood as it was pumping through his fingers “Shucks, Pa, I bin shot.”

“So you have been, son.” Amos drew out his revolver, and placed his hand upon his son’s back, “Git under cover. That darn Cartwright was jest foolin’ us, he’s inside that shack after all.”

“Guess he was too weak to git out, Pa.” Danny groaned as he pulled himself along towards the decrepit horse trough.

“Yeah, sure fooled us, neat trick turning the horses loose, making us think he’d ridden off.”

Amos got to his feet and crept, doubled over and keeping to the shadows towards the cabin “Alright, Cartwright, I know you’re in there. Come on out and keep your hands where I can see ‘em.”

Behind the horse trough Danny groaned and moaned until he eventually passed out altogether. In side the cabin the tiny flames caused by the match continued to grow, they spread out and gathered momentum, licking up the debris of many years of dust and dried grass and old papers.

A box of live ammunition that Danny had brought to the cabin so that he could replenish his gun belt had fallen to the floor when Danny had jostled the table, several bullets had rolled here and there over the floor. The flames grew hungrier by the minute.

Under the protection of the trees not so many miles away Adam slept the sleep of the weak and exhausted. The horse grazed and gradually settled to sleep itself.

A few further miles along Hoss Cartwright woke up and sniffed the air. The cool breeze brought along with it something else but as he was too tired to think out what it could be he lowered his head and settled back to sleep.

Amos crept closer to the door of the cabin which was now hanging by one rusted screw “Adam, now you come on out right now. Danny didn’t mean it when he said he’d cut off your fingers but dad burn it, if you don’t come out right now I promise you I’ll cut ‘em all off, and your thumbs as well.”

The heat from the fire caressed the bullets and the flames danced around them. Amos shook his head “If you ain’t the orneriest low down thief I’ve ever known, you let our horses loose, shot Danny and now pretending you ain’t there – huh? C’mon on, d’you hear me?”

A bullet exploded and whizzed pass Amos’ ear which sent him flat on his back involuntarily his finger pulled on the trigger of his pistol. His gunshot was the prelude to several other shots being fired back almost immediately as the bullets in the cabin went off. By now the flames had enveloped the back half of the cabin but it was a sight that Amos’ dying eyes caught only a glimpse off, his hand fell back loosely into the dust and the gun dropped from his fingers.

Roy woke up and reached for his gun, he listened intently for what he had thought were gun shots. The night was still despite the cool breeze and he rose from his bedroll and stretched. Noticing that the fire was dying out he put on some more wood and then walked around the perimeter of the camp. One of the posse who was supposed to be on guard was snoring and Roy shook his head, with a yawn he returned to his bed and lay down. He sniffed the air, and smiled drowsily, there was nothing like the smell of wood burning …

Chapter 14

Ben woke up with a sense of apprehension creating a tension within him that caused him to reach for his pistol immediately. He snuffed the air and slowly stood up, eased his bones and looked around him. He could smell fire not the sort around which they were sleeping and was slowing dying out, but the kind that contained things other than wood burning.

He stooped down to shake Hoss by the shoulder and then Joe and finally Roy “Somethings happening.” he said quietly, “Smells like somethings burning -.”

The other three men glanced immediately at their fire and just as quickly dismissed that as the cause of the strong stench that was drifting their way with the breeze. Roy nodded, “Can’t think what it could be unless someone else is camping out hereabouts.”

“Like the Murphys for instance?” Hoss suggested as he fastened on his gun belt, “We’d best be getting going and find out exactly what’s going on.”

Roy shook the other men awake most of whom complained that it had taken hours to get to sleep and now they have to wake up and for what? When Roy said he believed they had located the Murphys there were still some groans among them although they all began to roll up their beds and get their horses saddled ready to ride out.

Danny hauled himself along with the help of his one arm while the other dragged uselessly by his side. The cabin was burning quite fiercely now but he wanted to get to his Pa and save him from being burned alive – or dead.

“Pa? Pa?”

He shook the inert man roughly, slapped his face a few times and then gave a groan of despair “Pa, you can’t be dead, you can’t!”

A joist from the cabin roof collapsed within itself sending up a shower of sparks and flames that were hungrier than ever as the air fed them. The heat was getting too much for Danny, he could feel it beginning to singe his hair. Grabbing a handful of his father’s shirt in his fist he began to haul his father along in the dust, digging his heels into the ground and pulling until he had succeeded in getting himself and the old man to safely.

“Doggone I ain’t got no water, Pa. The canteens were in the cabin.” he looked at the old water trough and managed to haul himself towards it, then pump furiously at the old sluice handle. After a while water splurged out with a huge hic cough of a sound before it splattered everywhere and then became a steady stream which prompted Danny to bury his head in it so that the water cooled down his skin considerably.

He tore off his sleeve and soaked it in the water that was now filling the trough and hurried back to his father, and washed around Amos’ face and then he returned for more until Amos reared up and pushed Danny’s hand away “What you doing to me, boy? Trying to drown me now?”

“No, Pa, I was trying to bring you back to life …”

“Back to life? What fool thing was that for you to do I wasn’t even dead.” Amos staggered upright and felt his scalp that felt as though it were on fire “A bullet must have winged me, here, give me that cloth.”

He soaked the material and then carefully bathed his wound with it, before looking at his son, “You going to stand there for the rest of the night, how about trying to put that fire out?”

At which point the whole structure of the cabin collapsed within itself. Amos shook his head “Too late I guess …”

“Pa – what we going to do now, we ain’t got no horses and Cartwrights done gone burned himself to a crisp in that thar cabin.” he pulled the wet cloth from Amos and placed it upon his own wound “You know they’ll blame us for that, don’t’cha?”

“Aw, an old cabin like that? Won’t take two shakes of dogs tail to rebuild that.”

“No, I meant Adam Cartwright, him being dead an’ all.”

“Oh that – well – is he dead?”

Danny groaned and tried to find somewhere he could lean against as he was feeling giddy from loss of blood “I thought he was …”

“Don’t mean he is though. Who’s to say he is, can you prove it?”

Danny frowned and thought about it, “Wal, someone was firing them bullets at us.”

Amos opened his mouth and closed it again, he scratched his head and agreed that that was a indication that someone had been in the cabin. “Didn’t have to be Adam Cartwright though.”

“Weren’t no one else thar, Pa.”

“How’d we know that? Anyone could have come on in while we were sleeping, Danny.”

“In which case we git the blame for killing him instead.”

“Instead of what?”

“Instead of Adam Cartwright.” Danny looked around him and reached out to grab his father’s arm “Can you hear horses?”

Amos did and with a speed that belied the fact that he was nearly dead not so long ago he hurried towards the old shed where the horses had been kept. “Hide low, son.”

“But, Pa -”

“Hurry.”

Nearly passing out now Danny managed to crawl to the shed and hide under some foul smelling rank straw. Near by him Amos had burrowed beneath some old tarpaulins. Both strained their ears to hear, afraid of exposing themselves.

Roy held up his arm to bring the posse to a stop and then all the men stared around them and at the burning furnace of a shack. Hoss shook his head “If there was anyone in there they would be dead by now.”

Mr Weems the banker dismounted and peered into the shack and then came out, “No one here, although there were some horses here recently.”

Hoss dismounted and followed Weems example, he could see the recently dropped horse dung and nodded “You’re right, Mr. Weems. By the look of it two or three horses I’d say.”

He walked back to the other men followed by Weems, “No horses there, must have left after they’d set fire to the cabin for some reason or other.”

“No one lives here do they?” Joe asked staring at the flames as they roared hungrily skywards, “I’d hate to think anyone was burning to death in there.”

“Burned to death, Joe.” Ben sighed, “I should think some while back too.”

Roy nodded agreement with Ben and then beckoned Hoss over “What happened here, can you tell?”

The sun was well up now and Hoss pushed his hat to the back of his head and squatted down, he looked around him, up and down and then stood up “Quite a few foot prints here, looks like someones dragged himself along the ground a mite…”

“Adam – that must be Adam.” Joe said immediately.

Ben sighed and thought of his injured son with regret, he bowed his head and waited for the feeling to pass before he listened to what Hoss was saying. “Three horsemen, going in that direction.”

They all turned to look in the direction of the woods ahead, Joe frowned “Just three horses?”

“Yeah.”

“But if Adam is with them there should be four horses.” Joe pointed out and counted them out on his fingers “Danny. Patrick. Amos and Adam.”

“Well, Adam was injured, remember?” Hoss said with his hands on his hip and looking aggrieved.

“Still makes for three horses and four horsemen.” Joe replied.

“He’s right,” Weems said nodding and as he was the banker everyone realised Joe was right so nodded and murmured among themselves.

“Wait a darned minute -” Roy said and put up a hand, “We’ve been following three horses all along, haven‘t we?”

“S‘right,” Hoss nodded.

“So where‘s this fourth horseman come from?”

They looked at one another while Ben took the chance to think a little more about his injured son and how ill he had looked when they had left him. He was getting a trifle maudlin when Roy suggested that because Adam was wounded he no doubt rode double up with one of the Murphys, being too weak to ride a horse alone.

Joe was growing impatient he returned to his horse, having dismounted to check the signs that Hoss was trampling all over, “Well, let’s just follow the tracks and see where it leads us.” he suggested swinging himself into the saddle in the masterful way that made the ladies sigh and swoon and young men go green with envy.

The posse swung their horses round and with Hoss in the lead followed the trail of the three horses.

Gasping for air the two Murphy’s emerged from the shed and hurried to the trough where they buried their faces into the cool refreshing water that still remained in it. Danny was in acute pain now and becoming feverish, and when Amos said they would have to walk the younger man simply refused, stating the obvious fact that he was beyond being able to do so.

This brought Amos into checking over the wound which he assured his son was not serious. Using the ripped off sleeve as a makeshift sling, he said once again that they needed to walk before the posse returned and found them there.

“They won’t return, Pa. They won’t have no need to come back. The horses only went in one direction.”

Amos made a clicking sound with his teeth (false) and scratched his head “Can’t stay here all day. We’ve no food, and very little water …”

“But at least we do have water.” Danny said before collapsing in a heap at his father’s feet.

Amos hurried to his son’s side and kneeled down, taking Danny’s hand in his and urging him to open his eyes and get back his senses. He was so engrossed in what he was doing that he didn’t hear the sound of horses approaching but he did hear the click of a trigger being pulled back …

Chapter 15

The man sitting astride his mule looked just the kind one could imagine living in a hovel like the one that was still burning. Beneath his hat, which looked like it was chewed on regularly by his mules, his narrow eyes shifted back and forth, from the injured man and the older man hugging the ground to the flames that were consuming his home.

He sat there some time until Amos found the courage to stand upright “Sorry about your – er – shack. The man inside caused it, not sure how, probably never will now.” he tried a smile but somehow it wasn’t very convincing as the other man’s face became grimmer than ever.

He swung a leg over the back of the mule and took a step towards the two men, then waved the gun at Danny who crouched down a little as though expecting a bullet to wind its way to end his life. He squeaked a little and raised his one good arm while he batted his eyelids frantically to prevent the sweat getting into them.

“Er – my son – he’s wounded. The – the man inside shot him. Shot me too matter of fact.” Amos pointed to the wound that furrowed his scalp. “Er – he took our horses as well.”

The silent man’s eyes widened, narrowed and his face scrunched up into a scowl, Amos cleared his throat “He took our horses and then came back -.” he paused himself then and frowned, mumbled beneath his breath a repetition of what he had just said and shook his head, “I know it don’t make sense but that’s how it happened, and then he went inside and – and -” he shrugged, waved his hands about and then looked at Danny who had passed out.

The homesteader put his gun back in its holster and wiped his hands down the front of his already dirty shirt. He scratched under his armpit and spat into the ground and then led the two mules into the shed. When he came out he was carrying a chinaware flagon from which he was pulling out the cork with his teeth, he hauled it up on his shoulder and took a swig then handed it to Amos.

The cider was strong, strong enough to burn Amos’ insides and his eyes did a bit of spinning so he sat down by the water trough beside Danny’s body and took another sip, just to make sure it really was that strong and not his imagination.

After several more sips he passed out as well. The homesteader shrugged, drank some more and wiped his mouth before settling back himself for some sleep.
……………..

Adam woke up and stared up at the sky that he could see dappled through the foliage of the trees. He felt stronger, but was in no hurry to move so lay there thinking. His horse was grazing close by, he could hear the sound of grass being pulled and chomped on. He could smell …burning.

He sat up then and looked around him. Everything in the woodland was as it should be, birds sang to one another and flew from branch to branch, the horse moved slowly from one crop of grass to another, and a rabbit peered curiously at him before doing an abrupt about turn as though suddenly remembering that these two legged creatures were partial to bunnies, particularly when roasting over a fire.

Adam got to his feet, stretched, winced and felt his ribs, then he rubbed his face and walked over to the horse. The canteen of water was still full, and he drank from it, then poured some over his head and face. His stomach was empty but that was not a new experience for him, he had often been hungry in his life time and could handle that easily. He drank more of the water and after removing all signs of his meagre camp he saddled the horse and mounted it, carefully.

The smell of fire was strong as it blew on the breeze through the trees. He wondered whether or not he should investigate but then decided that he wasn’t well enough to get involved in yet another misadventure. Somehow he had an inkling that whatever the cause of the fire, the Murphys would have had a hand in it.

He turned the horse towards the track that would lead home. Sunlight swathed the way ahead dappling it with shadows that swayed with the motion of the trees and like a shadow, he began his journey.

………….

Joe urged Cochise ahead in order to meet up with his brother Hoss who was concentrating hard on the prints ahead of him. “Hoss, I’ve just remembered something.”

“Anything important?” Hoss said without looking up from examining the dusty soil.

“Well, not really important, just something I remembered.”

Hoss stopped and sighed, his shoulders sagged “Dang, Joe, if that don’t beat all, I don’t know what this guy is doing of but …” he scratched his head and looked around him, “Fact is they split up.”

“Split up?” Roy’s voice came from behind them as he rode up alongside them “How’d you mean?”

“They’re being mighty clever, that’s what I mean. They gone done split three ways.” Hoss replied, and pointed in the three directions the horses had gone.

Roy looked over at the men who were bunched together and beginning to look mutinous. He sighed “You sure?”

“It’s so clear you can see for yourself.” Hoss replied removing his hat and scratching his head.

“Guess we’ll have to split up.” Roy said slowly and turned in the saddle “Guess they’ll want to head back to town.” he chewed on nothing for a moment and then reached for his canteen in order to refresh himself, “I should go and see how Dodds is, then, if he’s dead,
I’ll have to organise another posse.”

Ben cleared his throat and shook his head “You forgetting that they may have killed my son?”

“No, Ben, I ain’t, but I also ain’t forgetting that maybe he ain’t dead, he could be on one of them horses.” Roy rubbed his chin and shook his head, “Those Murphys are proving craftier than a barrel load of monkeys.”

“You go back if you have a mind to, Roy, the boys and me, we’ll just carry on looking.”

Roy nodded and rode up to the posse, and from the expressions on their faces they were all looking very pleased at the prospect of returning to town. Hoss sighed “Well, so much for loyalty.”

“Yeah, I’ve a good mind to cancel my account at Weems bank and go elsewhere.” Joe muttered.

“Didn’t know you still had any money in your account,” Hoss grinned and looked at his father, “Well, Pa, what do you suggest.”

Ben looked around him, the sun was hot and the woods looked as though they would provide some cool shade, he pointed towards them “We’ll follow the horse that went that away.”

They parted from the rest of the posse and rode slowly towards the woods, the sun was getting hotter now and riding was becoming uncomfortable. Joe nudged Hoss’ knee with his own, “Hoss, remember what I was saying before?”

“What? Before what?”

“Before Roy interrupted us…I was going to tell you about that cabin.”

“The one that was burning down?”

“That’s the one. I just remembered who it belonged to…”

“Who?”

“Recall that sad incident when there was nearly a bank run in town and we got accused of stealing all that money when we were really in fact trying to get it and protect the bank from running out of funds?”

“Yeah.” Hoss glowered, “So?”

“Remember we borrowed some mules?”

Hoss winced and rubbed his jaw, “Yeah I remember, the owner weren’t too happy about it either, a wiry little man, weren’t he?”

Joe nodded and waited for Hoss to think it out to the obvious conclusion …by the time they had reached the shade of the woods Hoss was guffawing loudly at the thought that the homesteader had been the owner of the mules they had borrowed and returned..painfully.

Chapter 16

Adam was more than grateful to slide from the saddle and make his way to the house. His legs felt as though they were about to give way every step he took but he clamped his mouth shut and stared at the door as though daring it to move away from him. By the time he had the door open he was about to collapse and did so as soon as the settee was there to provide a soft landing.

Hop Sing shuffled into the room as soon as the door had opened and hovered over the injured man as Adam lay there, covered in dust and sweat while his face had a strange pallor about it that indicated grave problems. Consequently Hop Sing hurried outside to find one of the hands to direct him to town for the doctor, while another two were hustled inside to carry the unconscious man to his room.

By the time Paul Martin reached Adam’s bedside he had been washed and patched up as best as Hop Sing could do, which always annoyed Paul because sometimes he wondered why they bothered to call him out at all. He nodded and swallowed his pride while he paid some attention to the injuries his patient had sustained.

“How is other young man I bring you?” Hop Sing asked as he hovered by the door.

“He’ll survive. Lost a lot of blood but he’ll be alright once he’s had a few weeks to rest up, which he’s guarantee’d to get seeing as he’s in jail.”

“And Deputy?”

“Not so good. Now – if you don’t mind, Hop Sing?”

Hop Sing now swallowed his pride and left the room. He wondered if the doctor would ever get round to accepting that he, Hop Sing, knew enough about medical matters to be respected by a fellow practioner. With a sigh as he padded downstairs to prepare coffee he accepted the fact that it probably would never be so.

Hoss walked over to his father and brother with a nod of the head “Well, someone camped here. Didn’t make up a fire either. Definitely the rider of one of the horses anyway, and travelling light, very light.”

“Do you think it could be Adam?” Ben asked hopefully.

“Pa, how would I know? It ain’t like he left a sign here saying ‘Adam Cartwright slept here’”

“There’s no need to be sarcastic, Hoss. I need something to take the image of that cabin and the fact that my son could have died in there…”

“I’m sorry, sir, I should have realised.” Hoss frowned and returned to where signs of a man and horse having been in the area were most obvious, he got down on his haunches and stared so hard, willing the earth to provide some clues and then with a nod of the head he rose to his feet and returned to where Ben and Joe were patiently waiting, “Well, seems to me whoever was here was limping, dragging his feet kinda. The tracks leading to his horse seem to indicate he had trouble getting the energy to mount it, it could be Adam, Pa.”

‘Could be?’ Ben’s mind repeated the phrase, ‘It just has to be, has to be -’ he nodded at his sons, “Then he’ll be headed for home.”

With a jerk of the reins Buck was turned towards the Ponderosa and with some hope now bolstering his thoughts, Ben set the horse into a steady canter.
……………

The silent man had stood and stared at the smoking ruins of what had been his house for some time, his hands on his hips and his eyes narrowed. He had listened to the two men babbling on some ridiculous story about a man being burned to death inside, but he knew that was untrue, there was a distinct different in the smell of a cabin burning compared to one burning with a body inside it. The sickly stench of human flesh roasting was one he would never forget, just like he would never forget the time he saw his family dying at the hand of some murderous Commanche who then decided to add to their enjoyment of the day by cutting out his tongue.

He turned to the town men and indicated that they should go, quickly, which wasn’t quite as easy as he hoped because Danny Murphy was injured and in losing a lot of blood was considerably weaker than he had been the previous day. Amos waved his arms about and begged for help “You kin see my boy’s hurt, can’t ya? You can’t be so dad burned cold hearted as to expect him to walk anywhere are ya?”

He stared at them and then put out his hand, rustled his fingers together and narrowed his eyes. The meaning was clear, he’d provide help, but at a cost. With a begrudging groan Amos put his hand in his pocket and drew out the money that Adam had taken from his fathers desk. “Here, take it, there’s $50 there, more’n you’d earn in a year.”

He slowly counted out the money and then jerked his thumb in the direction of the shed where the mules were tethered. Amos shook his head in disbelief, how could things have turned so upside down as to leave them without funds and on mules! He glared at his son “You and your stupid brother, if’n you’d acted with any kind of decency at the beginning this would never have happened.”

His son said nothing. He just wanted the day to end. In fact, he’d have been happy being in Roy’s cell, eating some breakfast with his brother chomping there right beside him. He didn’t dare mention that to Amos though, knowing that his father was on a short fuse and injured or not, he’d be the one bearing the brunt of it.

“Where we headed, Pa?”

Amos shrugged as he pulled the stubborn mules from the shed, cursing and swearing that he’d have their hide if they didn’t move faster Amos eventually reached his son and managed to get him on the mule’s back. “You need a doctor, and I need to know how Patrick is …doggone it, Daniel Murphy!”

The homesteader watched them go and then pulled his hat lower over his eyes and shook his head. He had things to think about himself now and as he stared at the smouldering ruins of his cabin he wondered if this was a sign for a new start in life.

One just never knew where such decisions could lead and he flicked through the $50 dollars with a smile and a satisfied nod of the head.
…………

The posse had dispersed quickly as soon as they had reached town. Weems legs were more or less going in two different directions but he managed to reach his home just as his domestic help was preparing breakfast. He longed for his bed but knew that a long day at work stretched ahead of him, as it did for all the men who had ridden with him on that ill fated nonsense of a journey.

Roy threw his hat onto its customary peg and nodded over as Deputy Clem Foster stood up “Hi, Roy. You’ll be pleased to know one of your prisoners in back where he belongs.”

“Really? Which one?” Roy picked up his spectacles and rubbed their lenses clean as though he needed to be able to see clearly this wonder of wonders.

“Patrick Murphy.”

Roy stood in awe for a moment “How come?”

“Hop Sing brought him in, seems he was shot during some altercation at the Ponderosa. The other two Murphys rode off with Adam Cartwright.”

Roy nodded and hitching his thumbs in the loops of his pants he strolled to the cells and stared down at Patrick who was snoring loudly enough to rattle the bars. He grinned at Clem, “One down, two to go.”

By the end of the day he had his wish as the other two Murhpy’s rode into town and asked to be taken into custody where, so Amos said, they felt safer.
…………..

When Adam opened his eyes it was to see his father sitting by the bedside with his face a mask of concern and misery, which brightened as soon as he realised that Adam was awake. He leaned forward and grabbed Adam’s hand “Feeling alright, son?”

Adam nodded, smiled and gripped his father’s hand tight, just to make sure it was real flesh and bone. “I’m alright, Pa. I think I had a strange dream …”

Ben sighed and shook his head “It was no dream, son, not unless we all had the same one.”

There was a twinkle in his dark eyes and the ghost of a smile played about his lips. Some people had the mistaken idea that riding in a posse was just dead easy, but Ben knew that in some cases, it certainly was not.

The End