Summary: Ben fights progress and his sons, but can he fight with a professional engineer sent to build a railway on Lake Tahoe?
Rating: G (7,800 words)
RIPPLES ON THE LAKE
Oh, how he loved this spot! The blue of the lake, the smell of the pines, the sound of the water lapping on the sandy shore… but most of all the peace and quiet; a peace and a beauty that should be preserved for all tim, a peace that was being shattered now by the sound of axes and heavy logging equipment a few miles away to the north. He stared across the water to Crystal Bay, on the very northern border of his property. The new timber company was stripping the forest from the shoreline – and for miles around it. And they wanted his land and his timber, too. Well, they’d never get it. He’d fight with all he had to keep this land of his from being despoiled by these men. They would come to know that Ben Cartwright was a formidable enemy.
He turned to go, gathering Buck’s reins in his hand, and glanced towards the cove two miles down the shore, towards the grove of trees that sheltered his wife’s grave. She had loved this spot, too. He could remember his sons playing in the shallows, fishing, skimming stones across the placid water, but that was all so long ago…He sighed. He was growing old. More and more he was handing over the running of the ranch to his sons and even that was a source of sorrow. He thought over the conversation at breakfast: Joe of all people had suggested that maybe they should listen to the proposition from the timber company. Perhaps he was wrong to expect them to love the land as much as he did?
“Aw, c’mon, Hoss, he’s got to move with the times. The mill and the railway are going to happen and he can’t stop progress. He’s living in the past. I, for one, think it’s a good idea.” Joe gave his opinion forcefully. The two brothers were relaxing in the comfort of the great room of the ranch house awaiting the call to supper.
Hop Sing was fussing around the table with various dishes and Hoss couldn’t help lifting the lids to check the contents whenever the cook turned his back. Joe was leaning back in his chair, his feet resting on the coffee table.
“If ripping the land apart to feed the mines is progress, then I’d just as soon stay in the past,” Hoss retorted. He cocked an ear at the sound of a horse in the yard and pointed at Joe’s feet, grinning. “And you’d better move them, he’s back.”
Ben Cartwright came through the oak-planked door just in time to see Joe’s feet hit the floor and he frowned. He’d been telling Joe to keep his feet off the furniture for over twenty years. Would he ever listen?
“Oh! Hi, Pa!” Joe said cheerfully, hoping his father hadn’t noticed. “Did you have a good ride?” He pushed to his feet and began to move towards the dining table. Now that Pa was home, Hop Sing would serve.
Ben grunted. “They’ve started logging right on our boundary. I want some men up there tomorrow to see that they don’t cross it.”
Hoss raised his eyebrows in Joe’s direction. He didn’t have to ask who or which boundary. “Sure, Pa. I’ll get Candy onto it first thing,” he said as he, too, moved towards the supper table. At that moment the smell of Hop Sing’s fried chicken was more important than any timber rustlers.
Ben pulled out his chair, then looked around the room. “Where’s Jamie?”
Joe and Hoss both shrugged. “He’ll be here any minute, Pa. No one passes up Hop Sing’s chicken!” Hoss said, sitting down and filling his plate.
As if on cue, the door opened and the youngest member of the family burst in. He stopped when he saw that his father and brothers were already seated – and that three pairs of eyes were boring into him. “I’m sorry I’m late,” he said with a hopeful grin. It wasn’t the first time and he could see that Pa wasn’t pleased.
“You’ve lived here long enough to know what time supper is served, young man. Now why are you late again?” Ben asked sternly.
Jamie looked from Hoss to Joe for support, but they were sitting there with silly grins on their faces. Both had been in similar situations in the past and it amused them to see someone else in the firing line. He sighed. “I stopped to watch the train come in from Reno,” he admitted, pulling out his chair and standing awkwardly beside it.
“Whaddya do that for?” Hoss asked, still filling his plate as he spoke, “It does it same time every day.”
Jamie gave him a pained look. “Sometimes there’s someone interestin’ on it.”
Ben shook his head in disbelief. “And was there?”
“Nah, just another of them loggin’ people. But I did hear somethin’ interestin’… see…”
“Sit down and eat your supper, it’s getting cold,” Ben scolded.
“But Pa, they was talkin’ about the railway. They’re gonna build it over the mountain and along the shore. They got this engineer comin’ out from the East to recommend the route and to supervise it all and Mr. Larsen said…”
“Jamie, that’s enough. I don’t want to hear another word about this crazy scheme to build a railway at Sand Cove. It’s my land and they won’t get a foot of it!” Ben barked.
Jamie flushed and put his head down to concentrate on his supper. It wasn’t his fault and he didn’t see why he should be yelled at because he had brought the news.
Joe grinned and raised an eyebrow at him.
Later, as they all relaxed by the fire, Joe decided to risk another outburst from his father. This was a question that had to be settled before it came to accidental gunplay with trigger-happy guards on either side of the boundary. Joe almost chuckled. A few years ago he would have been hot-headed enough to get involved in that gunplay. Now he was quieter and more mature. His oldest brother would hardly know him, he thought. It was strange – they had argued and fought for years, but now that Adam was back East, Joe missed him.
“Pa…” he said slowly, “we have to talk about the logging company’s offer. We can’t just ignore it. They aren’t going to go away. They need the land too much. If this engineer of theirs surveys the area and decides that Sand Cove is the best spot, then they’ll stop at nothing to get it. It’s not as if it would mean losing the cove itself, the land they want is a good two miles from there.”
Hoss raised an eyebrow and frowned at Joe. He liked a peaceful life and Joe was begging for an argument. Jamie looked up from his homework and waited, quite expecting Joe to receive the same sort of blast that he had endured earlier.
Ben’s lips firmed into a stern expression. “I would have hoped that you had learned to love this land as much as I do,” he said calmly, his temper barely under control. “You were born here and your mother is buried in that very cove. Don’t you have any feeling for your home?”
Joe sighed. “Of course, I love the Ponderosa. But we’ve sold parts of it before and acquired new land. I understand why the cove itself is important and I feel the same way you do, but the piece of land by the stream is just a piece of land with trees and a few scrub bushes. We don’t even use it for anything. Why does it matter so much to you?”
Ben nodded slowly. “Of course, I forget that to you this spot is home. But, you see, it wasn’t always so.” His expression took on a dreamy quality as his mind traveled back many years.
“Yeah, I know the house down by the old creek bed was where you first lived, but what has that got to do with the land by the lake? It’s several miles away from the old house.” Joe interrupted his father’s thoughts impatiently to prevent him rambling on about the “old days.” Why did older folk do that so much?
“To Adam and me, and perhaps even Hoss, the rough piece of scrub you describe is important,” Ben went on, ignoring the interruption.
Hoss nodded, remembering.
“But why, Pa?” Jamie chipped in from his seat at the table, sensing a story to be told.
Ben beckoned to him. “Come and sit by me and I’ll try to explain,” he said softly.
The flames flickered in the massive stone fireplace and a puff of smoke curled out into the room as the wind pushed it back down the chimney and Ben recalled another fire on a cold night in October many years ago. Around that one he had huddled with his young sons, his few possessions in a wagon and despair in his heart, his dream of a new life in a new land shattered by the flight of an arrow, his young wife dead and buried on the prairie miles behind them and his reasons for making the trek to California buried with her.
He remembered a small hand had crept into his, seeking to comfort him.
“It’ll be all right, Pa.”
Ben had smiled down at his small son, not quite eight, but so old for his years. How could he give up when that trusting face was looking up at him? The baby whimpered and stirred in his sleep. Ben clutched him tighter.
“Yes, son, it will be all right.”
The wagons had camped by the lake shore for three days, but winter was drawing near and the long haul over the mountains still had to be accomplished. On the fourth morning Ben had the wagon ready to roll with all the others, but there was no sign of Adam.
“Where is that boy?” he complained to no one in particular.
Ben searched, his temper growing shorter with every step, until he spotted the youngster below him on the sand. Adam was skimming stones across the calm waters of the lake, making them skip three or four times. The intense concentration on the little boy’s face made Ben smile, despite his irritation.
He climbed down until he was only a few feet from the boy. “Adam!” He spoke sharply and the boy’s dark head jerked up guiltily. “How many times have I told you not to wander off? We’re waiting to leave. We can’t stay here any longer.”
“Why not?” Adam asked with all the innocence of a eight-year-old. “It’s got good grass and lots of trees. You said you wanted tall trees and these are the tallest anywhere.”
Ben looked around him. It was a beautiful spot. “Well, because we’re going to California,” he said lamely, no other reason coming into his head.
Adam looked across the lake. “But you said that was California and it looks just the same. I want to stay here.” His small face was set in a stubborn frown. He was tired of traveling, he wanted a home that stayed in one place.
Ben could see a tantrum brewing, so he decided to turn the question around. “Why?” he asked. Adam could always be sidetracked by a grownup discussion far easier than an order.
Adam looked at his father in amazemen;, ’Cos it feels like a good place. We could build a house in the meadows and me and Hoss could play here. It would be home like…like Mama Inger wanted,” he finished apprehensively.
Ben raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you be lonely?”
Adam’s expression turned to one of scorn. “I got you and Hoss, why would I be lonely?”
Ben shook his head slowly and looked up at the mountains. At that moment the rising sun from the east lit up the cross of snow on Mount Tallac and sent warm shafts of sunlight through the pines. The sight disturbed him. “C’mon, we have to get back to the wagons,” he said sharply, taking Adam’s hand and almost dragging him along, despite the boy’s protests.
They arrived back at the wagons just as the wagon master was rounding up the stragglers. “You ready, Mr. Cartwright? We should be moving on, snows aren’t too far off and I don’t want to be caught in those mountains.”
Ben looked down at the unhappy small boy by his side and then back at the mountains. “We’re not going on,” he said softly. “We’re staying here, this is our home.”
Adam’s smile resembled the sunrise. He shook loose from his father’s hand and bounded over to where Hoss was being cared for by one of the women. He carefully took the baby in his arms. “It’s okay, Mrs. Oakes, we’re staying here. We’re home. I’ll take care of my brother now,” he said proudly.
The woman looked at Ben as if he had gone mad. “You’re crazy,” she said. “You’ll kill them both – and yourself, too.”
Ben shook his head. “We’ll stay at Cass’s trading post over the winter. We’ll be fine.” He put a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Like my son says, we’re home.”
Ben shook his head to clear the pictures from the past.
“So you see, Jamie, that piece of land is home to me and to Adam and neither one of us would sell it. We suffered real hardships that winter and the ones that followed, but if it hadn’t been for that view on that morning we wouldn’t be here now and the Ponderosa wouldn’t exist as it does today. It may be scrub and sand to everyone else, but to me it’s an important and much loved piece of land – the place where I began to realize my dream.”
Jamie nodded slowly, understanding the emotions that were tied up in the simple story. Joe flushed a deep red. He had heard the story before, but had never paid much attention to it. It had happened six years before his birth and didn’t have any meaning for him.
Ben smiled at the boy. “That view may not have a use or be a big financial investment, but to me it’s worth more than all the silver in the Comstock. It’s where I fulfilled a promise made to my wife.”
The following day, Jamie once more watched the train arrive, heedless of the fact that he might be late for supper yet again. The first passenger to alight was a fat business man of no interest, then came a lady and her small daughter, too small to catch Jamie’s eye, and finally a tall dark-haired man in a white shirt and dark suit, accompanied by the owner of the Sierra Nevada Timber Company. This must be the engineer that he had heard about. Pa wasn’t going to be pleased. It looked as if the company was going ahead with its plans, even if the Ponderosa opposed them. Jamie rode home deep in thought. After last night he didn’t think he’d mention the engineer, it would only get him shouted at again. Pa sure was in a bad mood these days.
In fact no one mentioned the timber company at dinner and for once it was a light-hearted affair, with Hoss teasing Little Joe about a new saloon girl and Pa trying to look disapproving while hiding a smile behind his hand. Once supper was cleared away, Jamie settled down to his homework at the dining room table and Hoss and Joe began a game of checkers in front of the fire. Ben was deep into his newspaper when there was a knock at the door. He glanced up and waited. The knock came again.
“Joe, would you answer that, please,” Ben said patiently.
Joe moved a checker and then got slowly to his feet, “Why me? Why not Jamie? He’s the youngest now,” he replied, looking over his shoulder to check that Hoss didn’t move the checkers while he was gone.
Ben sighed. “Jamie is doing his homework, which is more than you ever did.”
Joe opened the door in a disinterested fashion – and his jaw dropped.
“I see you still don’t rush to answer the door,” a deep voice said with a chuckle.
Hoss and Ben were out of their seats in a moment and Jamie was astounded to see them both almost run towards the door.
“Adam!” Ben’s voice rose in an exclamation.
“Fine welcome! I had to hire a horse to get here. Didn’t you get my telegraph?”
Jamie pushed back his chair. This must be the other brother – the one he had only heard about. He peered round the corner, anxious to see what Adam looked like – and gasped: it was the man from the train…the engineer.
Pa and Hoss and Joe were hugging him and making a great fuss, but Jamie could only stand and stare. Ben took his reticence to be natural nervousness and, smiling, took Jamie’s arm and pulled him forward.
“Jamie, come and meet your oldest brother,” he said with a broad grin.
Jamie shuffled forward, reluctantly wondering if he should share what he knew. The man was tall and a little forbidding and he didn’t want to be the one to explain. Pa wasn’t going to be pleased when he knew the reason for his oldest son’s presence.
Ben led Adam to a chair and sat down opposite him. Hoss and Jamie slipped onto the sofa and Joe perched on the arm – until he saw his father’s frown and, grinning, pulled up another chair.
“Tell us your news. What are you doing out here?” Ben inquired.
Adam looked around the room; it felt good to be home. “I got the opportunity of a business deal and thought I’d combine it with pleasure.”
Joe chuckled. “That sounds like you, never pass up a chance to make money. Are you a millionaire yet?”
Adam grinned at his younger brother, “Takes time and hard work, Joe. My partner and I are doing all right, but if we can pull off this deal it will give us a reputation outside of Boston.” He leaned back in his chair, thoroughly relaxed in this room where he had spent so many happy hours. “What have you been doing here? I can see there are new buildings and the herd I passed on the way here looks pretty impressive.”
As the evening progressed and the family re-acquainted Adam with all the events since his last letter, Jamie watched in silence, studying the newcomer and wondering when the subject of the timber company would arise.
Finally, it was Joe who opened the can of worms. “You musta heard in town that Sierra Nevada Timber are making us a good offer for the land by the cove? They want to build some crazy sort of railway over the mountain to move the lumber. I mean, that land is straight up and down. What train would run on a slope like that?”
Adam nodded slowly. “The scheme isn’t crazy, Joe. It’s a tram line railway, specially designed to climb steep gradients. Properly designed and engineered – and built on the right sort of ground – it will work and provide a very economical way of moving lumber.”
Ben caught the somber tone of his son’s voice. “You seem to know a lot about it,” he said slowly, a real fear taking hold in the pit of his stomach.
Adam drew in a deep breath and nodded. “I should do. It’s the deal I was talking about. My partner and I have put in a successful bid to build it. It’s the biggest project we’ve had in two years. Could be the breakthrough we’ve been looking for. Our success here could bring in work from all over the world.”
“You know where they’re planning to build it?” Ben asked tersely, all the joy at his son’s homecoming gone from his voice.
Adam bit his lip and tugged at his ear in a gesture so familiar that it tore at Ben’s heart even more. “Yes, I know. I have to do a survey to decide if the land they’ve chosen is suitable.”
“And if it is…?” Ben glared at his son.
“Then I recommend a compulsory purchase of the area. Government money is involved, so…”
“So they can steal it whether I’m prepared to sell or not!” Ben yelled.
Adam sighed and raised a hand. “Pa, it’s not like that. If the land’s suitable and the best site, then you’d be paid the market value for it.”
“‘Market value,’” Ben snorted. “How do you put a value on beauty or memories? Doesn’t this land mean anything to you?”
“Yes, of course it does, but the railway can be built without detracting from the land. The timber company assures me that the landscape would be relatively unscathed. They would replant for every tree they cut.” Adam sat forward, emphasizing his points with his body language, as if trying to convince not only his father, but himself.
“And you believe them?” Ben said scathingly. “You believe that they’ll put aesthetics above profit, conservation above their need to pay their shareholders? Or did you accept their word for it because it suits your purpose?”
Adam’s tight hold on his temper was slipping. “I came out here to engineer a railway because I happen to think I can do a good job. The project is a sound one and it will happen – and, yes, I’d like to be associated with it,” he said stubbornly. “It’s a great opportunity for James and me to make a name for ourselves in the mining world, too.”
Ben pushed to his feet and pointed an accusing finger at Adam. “I can’t believe you’d do this!” He turned his back on him and stormed out of the house onto the porch.
“Welcome home, brother,” Joe said with a wry grin. “You kinda got yourself into the middle of quite a situation this time.”
“I didn’t know which piece of land they were talking about until I got here. My partner and I put in a bid because it’s an ambitious project and one we reckoned we could handle well. Plus I wanted to come home for a while and James trusted my judgment on the deal.” He sighed deeply. “We’ve invested too much to pull out now. I have no choice but to go ahead with the survey and then to engineer the railway as best I can. My company will go bankrupt if we back out.”
“And you’ll tear this family apart and break his heart if you go ahead,” Hoss snapped, getting to his feet to go after his father. “If you came back just to cause trouble, maybe you should’ve stayed back East.” He was standing over his older brother in an almost threatening pose.
Adam lowered his eyes to the floor. He couldn’t take the intensity of anger shining from Hoss’s blue ones without allowing his guilt to show. “I have to do it, Hoss. I can’t let my partner down.”
Hoss leaned toward him and stabbed a finger at his chest. “But you can let him down, is that it? Maybe you should think about where your loyalties lie, Adam. If it weren’t for his sacrifices, you wouldn’t be a successful engineer.” He spat out the words in obvious disgust, then turned on his heel and headed for the door, letting it slam shut behind him.
The silence in the room was oppressive. Neither Joe nor Jamie knew what to say and Adam was too upset to say anything for a few minutes. He got slowly to his feet, looking around the room as if to imprint it on his memory. “Maybe I’d best go,” he said softly.
The Ponderosa foreman shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. He was obliged to report regularly to his boss, but this was one report he didn’t want to make. Ben Cartwright was bent over the accounts books with a deep frown marring his features. Candy cleared his throat to make his presence felt again.
“Sorry, Candy, I can’t seem to get these figures to balance,” Ben said, looking up at the nervous young man in front of him. “Something wrong?”
Candy twisted his hat in his hand. “We…uh…had a kind a run-in with some of them railway fellas. Shots fired…” He held up a hand at Ben’s gasp. “No, no one was hurt, the shots went over their heads, but…” He stopped speaking, not sure how to tell his boss that his oldest son had been there conducting the survey.
“Go on, Candy,” Ben said, stony faced.
“The engineer had a paper signed by a judge saying he could access the land for survey,” Candy admitted reluctantly. “He said he’d have us arrested if we tried to stop him.”
Ben sighed, got to his feet and began to pace up and down. “So, he’s going ahead. Well, at least we know where we stand now.” He stopped and turned back to the foreman. “Keep an eye on them and make sure they do no damage, but don’t oppose them. I don’t want anyone getting hurt. I’ll try for an injunction through the courts first.”
Candy nodded and headed for the yard to deliver the boss’s instructions to the hands guarding the boundary, but as he went he mused on Ben’s use of the word “first.”
The tension on the ranch increased as the survey went ahead. Candy reported back each day and each evening Joe, Jamie and Hoss watched their father become more and more agitated, then more and more despondent. The ranch hands saw it, too, and some who had been with the Cartwrights for years approached Hoss to ask if they should do anything to move the rail men off the Ponderosa. Hoss calmed them down, but, as he said later to Joe, it wouldn’t take much to start a war out there – and if someone got killed their Pa would never forgive himself.
“He’s growing older before our eyes, Joe. If he loses that land because of Adam, it will kill him.”
The brothers were finishing up their chores in the barn and it seemed as if the building of the railway was their only topic of conversation these days. Adam had not returned to the ranch since that first evening and their father never mentioned his name. Hoss worried at the problem daily and now even Joe had to admit that the loss of the land was something to be avoided at all costs.
“I’m going to town to see that brother of ours tomorrow and I’m gonna make sure he backs off, whatever it takes,” Hoss added ominously.
Joe bit his lip and contemplated his brother’s statement. “Then I’m going with you,” he decided finally, putting up the pitchfork and standing in front of his brother as if expecting opposition.
He wasn’t disappointed. “No, you ain’t. You’re just too durned hot-tempered. You an’ Adam was always buttin’ heads when he was home.”
Joe chuckled. “I’m not the one who plans to make him back off ‘whatever it takes,’” he said, throwing his brother’s phrase back in his face.
It was a dirty and tired Adam who arrived back at his hotel the following evening to find his brothers waiting in the lobby to accost him. He had spent the day taking rock samples halfway up a mountain and he was bone-weary and short-tempered. He planned a hot bath and a quiet meal followed by a bottle of whisky, to be drunk in solitary splendor unless he could persuade one of the girls from the saloon to join him. He had discovered since his arrival that old friends sided with his father and wouldn’t speak to him – and that those new ones who sided with the timber company were not ones he wished to speak to him.
His face lightened at the sight of his brothers, then fell again when he saw the mood Hoss was in as he walked towards them.
“Hi, can I interest you in joining me for a drink?” He tried to ignore Hoss’s obvious anger.
Joe moved forward and opened his mouth to speak, but Hoss put a restraining hand on his arm. “Sure, if it’s a farewell drink,” he said sharply.
Adam sucked in a breath. “You got something you need to say?”
“Yeah, I have. Either change your client or get out of town.” Hoss spoke forcefully and Adam was reminded of the only other time he could recall Hoss acting so aggressively towards him since they were kids. On that occasion he had ended the day with a cut lip and bruised ribs, because he had tried to stop Hoss being hurt by a girl.
“Sorry, brother, I can’t do either of those. I don’t like this any more than you do, but I’m seeing this job through and you’ll just have to live with it.” He put out a hand which his brother quickly and harshly brushed away. “If I don’t do this, someone else will. You can’t stop it. The Incline Railway is going to happen. The only questions are ‘where?’ and ‘when?’”
Joe felt compelled to add his plea to Hoss’s. “Don’t you know you’re destroying Pa? This uncertainty and waiting for a verdict is make him old before his time, Adam. It’s bad enough that the land is being threatened, but to have it taken on your say-so will kill him.” For once Joe contained his anger and spoke calmly and rationally.
“Well, he won’t have to wait much longer,” Adam said quietly. “My final samples will be taken tomorrow at the cove and then I’ll report my findings and recommendations to the company. If they accept the costing and recommendations for the route, then the project will start in a few weeks and be completed before the first snows.”
Hoss clenched his massive fists and moved towards his older brother. Joe expected Adam to step backwards and was amazed when he didn’t even blink, but fixed Hoss with a firm stare. “Don’t make me fight you, Hoss, the law’s on my side. No matter what you do to me, you’ll end up losing.”
Joe caught Hoss’s arm. “He’s right, Hoss, and fighting amongst ourselves will hurt Pa, not help him.” He tugged quite forcefully on his brother’s arm. “He ain’t gonna back down, Hoss. I guess since he went back East money’s got to mean more to him than family,” Joe said bitterly.
Adam watched them go with a mixture of sadness and relief. For a moment, he had expected Hoss’s threatening manner to become something more physical. Hoss’s behavior had been out of character, but not as surprising as the restrained and considered actions of his younger brother. In the time he had been back East, Joe had matured far more than he would have dreamed possible.
Somewhere above him the sun glinted on a rifle barrel. It was all the warning Adam needed. A reflex action made him dive for the rocks as a bullet slammed into the dirt not two feet from where he had been standing. He drew his gun and stared into the trees. Another bullet splintered the rock face to his left and he ducked back out of sight. No one knew he was going to be here. Surely he hadn’t been followed from town? Then his heart missed a beat. Yes, two people knew he would be here this morning – his brothers. He couldn’t believe that they would go this far. No matter what their differences, they were brothers. He simply would not accept that it was Joe and Hoss – there had to be some other explanation. Adam looked down at the gun in his hand and took a deep breath before slipping it back into his holster. If there was the remotest possibility that it was Hoss and Joe out there, then he would not fire back. He glanced around him, getting his bearings and trying to decide his best route for an unseen retreat. To the casual observer there was no way to go: the lake was behind him, the gunmen in front of him and to his left and his right was an impenetrable jumble of rocks.
He grinned, remembering a childhood game of tag when he had cornered Hoss in this very spot and figured he had won. Hoss had evaded him by slipping through those rocks. Adam searched his memory until he recalled the opening and then he edged slowly towards it. Yes, it was still there, no rock fall had blocked it in the intervening years. He breathed in and held his breath. Hoss would never get through it now, that was for sure, and he wasn’t convinced he would either. Age had added weight to his frame, too! After a few anxious moments, a torn shirt and a few skin grazes, he emerged on the other side, from where he could climb up above the gunmen unseen.
Below him Adam caught a glimpse of a brown shirt, well hidden amongst the rocks. For a second he was shocked that his brothers would try to kill him, then he noticed the red-checked shirt of the other gunman and a let out a sigh of relief. It wasn’t his brothers. The man in the checked shirt had been with his father’s foreman when there had been gunplay a few days ago. The other man he didn’t know. He stayed partly hidden, but drew his gun.
“Drop your guns and raise your hands!” he called down to them.
Both men swung around in surprise, but, seeing the gun aimed at them, they complied.
“Who ordered you to try and kill me?’ he asked quietly, hoping that he wouldn’t hear the answer he feared most.
The two men looked at each other. The one in the brown shirt spoke. “No one ordered us to and we didn’t plan to kill ya. We jus’ figured it was best to scare ya off. Ben Cartwright’s bin good to us. This is his land and ain’t no one gonna take it away from him while we’re around.”
“How d’you know I was here?” Adam asked, gesturing with his gun so that the men lowered their hands.
The checked-shirted one answered this time. “We heard Joe say you was takin’ the last samples this mornin’. Figured it was our last chance to ‘persuade’ you to find another route.”
Adam nodded. “Well, you failed. If you’ve known my father for any length of time, you’ll know that he would never back down to threats and he taught us the same lesson. I don’t scare easily and my report will go to the company as promised later today. If you wanted it different, then you should have been shooting to kill.”
He gestured with his gun towards their horses. “Mount up and ride out. I’ll leave your guns with Clem at the jail. You can pick ‘em up later.”
Adam watched the men ride off towards the Ponderosa ranch house and, when he was sure they were well away, he relaxed and holstered his gun. When he’d been at college they had never taught him that an engineer needed to use a gun, but out here it came in handy.
He slowly finished off the survey, his thoughts flitting from the project to his family. When he had finished, he packed his gear and climbed aboard the hired horse. He patted the animal absently, wishing it was his own Beauty or even faithful old Sport. He wheeled the horse around and set off along the lake shore. Maybe a ride would blow away some of the doubts he had in his mind about his next actions.
It didn’t surprise him that he headed towards Sand Cove. He had always gone there as a boy when he had a problem to solve. He approached the area where the mining company planned the terminus of the railway and dismounted, going the final distance to the lake on foot. As he drew near the beach, he could hear stones splashing into the water. Someone was there before him.
Jamie picked up a flat stone and angrily sent it skimming across the water. Pa was so upset at the moment that all he did was yell and it seemed that he was the prime target. He ought to be in school and he knew that. If he was caught he’d be in more trouble, but he needed some time alone. This was the perfect place and it was about to be ruined. He spun around as he heard footsteps approaching on the sand.
Adam said nothing, but bent down and selected a flat stone. He concentrated on the stone, ignoring Jamie. He straightened up and grinned as the stone skipped five times.
“Haven’t lost my touch. I taught Hoss and Joe to do that. Guess I missed out on you, but by the looks of your throw Hoss or Joe did a good job,” he said slowly.
Jamie shrugged. “My real Pa taught me. He was real good at teaching me stuff.”
Adam nodded. “Yeah, fathers are the best teachers. It’s hard to lose a parent, must be devastating to lose both…however it happens.”
Jamie looked up at the older man, his face full of contempt. “Hoss and Joe told me about you. They was full of praise and bragged about you. You ain’t nuthin’, though. If you was as great as they said, you wouldn’t do this to him. I wouldn’t do somethin’ like this to him and I ain’t even his real son.”
“We used to play here as kids,” Adam went on, as though Jamie had not spoken. “I taught Hoss to swim here, Joe, too. We fished and played ‘hide and go seek.’ I reckon it was one of our favorite places. See that tree over there? Joe got stuck at the top of that when he was about six and I had to rescue him.” He chuckled. “He said he could see to the ocean from the top. He’d never seen the ocean then.” He sighed. “I’d better be getting back to town.”
Jamie stared up at the dark features. “You gonna give them your report, ain’t you, no matter what anyone says or does?”
Adam nodded, his dark eyes troubled. “I have obligations that I must fulfill, Jamie. There are people who depend on my judgment, people who expect me to do a good job and people to whom I owe a debt. Decisions are never black and white, there are always shades of gray to be considered.”
He looked at the lake one more time and then mounted up and rode off without a backward glance. Jamie watched him go with a sorrowful expression of his own. He had come to love the Ponderosa and his adopted family and he found it hard to understand how Adam could hurt them all for any perceived commitment to a friend or a business deal.
At the hotel Adam wrote out the telegraph flimsy. It was addressed to his partner in Boston and read:
SURVEY COMPLETED SATISFACTORILY STOP MY RECOMMENDATION AND FINAL ESTIMATE ACCEPTED STOP WORK COMMENCING TWO WEEKS STOP WIRE MONEY TO BANK OF CALIFORNIA FOR PROJECT START UP STOP
He read it through once more. It would give James the basic details and he could write more fully tonight. He would send it on his way to the town meeting that the Sierra Timber Company had called to advise the citizens of their plans. It would mean work for the town and in time would increase the prosperity of the area. He was satisfied that he had done his best.
Ben came down the stairs and buckled on his gun belt as he walked towards the door. “Are you two ready?” he said brusquely to Hoss and Joe, who were waiting for him in the great room. Jamie stood hesitantly behind Joe – he wanted to go, but knew he would not be invited.
Ben caught sight of him and pursed his lips. “What do you think you’re doing?” he said, indicating to the jacket over Jamie’s arm.
“Can’t I come with you, Pa? I’d be real good. I wanna know what’s going on, too,” Jamie pleaded, casting glances at his brothers in the hope of support.
“Let him come, Pa, it can’t do no harm,” Hoss took up the cause.
“Humph…” Ben grunted. “You stay by me and do as you’re told.”
Jamie nodded, rapidly slipping his arms into his coat before Pa could change his mind. He hadn’t mentioned his encounter with Adam. There was no point in telling his father that he knew the outcome of this meeting before they went. No point in causing pain before it was necessary.
Hoss put a hand on his father’s shoulder. “It’ll be all right, Pa, whatever the decision. If it goes against us, we’ll fight it. Even the government can’t take the land if a court decides in our favor.”
Ben looked up at him and there was the mark of defeat in his eyes. “I’m too old and tired to fight anymore, Hoss. I always thought that my dream was your dream, too, that you boys would carry on after I’d gone, but I guess I was wrong to think it could mean the same to you. Adam was there the day we decided to stay, it was his decision, and yet he can throw it away without so much as a backward glance. It means that little to him.”
Joe raised an eyebrow at his older brother. They had seen their father face incredible odds, they had seen him fight, they had seen him negotiate, but they had never seen him look so defeated. Joe wasn’t sure he wanted to go to this meeting and allow all their friends and neighbors to see this shell of the man he had been.
The room at the International House was filled with citizens, all anxious to hear the news. Some wanted the jobs it would bring, others had come to see if Ben Cartwright would fight to stop it and a few had come to see Ben Cartwright humiliated.
Hoss pushed his way to the front and found chairs for them all. Ben sat down heavily and dropped his head to his chest. It no longer mattered to him that the land would be lost. He had lost something far more precious: his son. Right up until yesterday, when Hoss and Joe had reported their conversation with Adam, he had prayed that his eldest son would back out of the deal.
Joe watched his father with concern for a moment, then turned his attention to the party now filing onto the platform. The directors of the Sierra Nevada Timber Company were an impressive bunch, but Joe saved his cutting look for the last man to take his seat. How could Adam sit there with these men?
The President of the Company was now on his feet and speaking and Joe concentrated on his every word.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am here tonight to outline our plans for the building of a railway on the shores of Lake Tahoe to carry lumber over the mountains to supply the mines in Virginia City. As most of you will know, this will bring much needed work to the area and I know we will have your support for this ambitious project. We have engaged a firm of engineers from Boston to survey the proposed site and that same firm will be heading the project when work begins in a few weeks’ time,” he indicated Adam with a smile. “Mr. Adam Cartwright has prepared a comprehensive report on the suitability of various routes and I can confirm that the railway will be built at Mill Creek…”
Joe didn’t hear any more, he was in shock. Mill Creek? Mill Creek was several miles north of the Ponderosa border. No one had ever mentioned Mill Creek as a possible site before. He looked up at the platform and stared straight at his oldest brother, but Adam’s face was impassive. The mask Joe remembered from childhood was firmly in place, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. He glanced at Hoss and grinned. His big brother’s face was wreathed in smiles. To his surprise, his father was not smiling, but staring intently at Adam. The look seemed to last forever and it reminded Joe of the looks Pa had given them as children, when he suspected that they were avoiding the truth. Finally, Ben smiled and looked away, his whole body relaxing as he did so.
Outside the hotel the family gathered with a group of neighbors, each one acknowledging Ben and congratulating him. Ben was only half-listening to their conversations, his eyes and ears were attuned to a different person. When Adam eventually emerged from the hotel, their eyes met and they both smiled.
Joe caught his older brother’s arm. “Did you change the site because it’s better – or because of what the cove means to you and the family?” he asked bluntly.
Adam glanced at his father before replying. “I told you before, I had a job to do and I had obligations to my partner and the timber company. Mill Creek is ideal for the tram line. We won’t need to do much blasting and there’s a natural rift in the rock to work with. It has a lot of advantages.”
Ben put a hand on his shoulder. “So this means you’ll be staying around for a while?”
“Yeah, I guess it does; several months, anyway.” He smiled at Jamie, “Long enough to teach my youngest brother how to skim stones and give him a hand with his homework. Maybe even convince him to like school and want to go every day.” He winked at the youngster and only Jamie heard the slight emphasis on the words “every day.”
Ben chuckled. “How about we go have dinner to celebrate?”
“Sounds like the best kinda celebration to me,” Hoss grinned.
They began to walk towards the restaurant and Ben fell in beside his oldest son at the rear of the party.
“Never did like Mill Creek,” Ben said softly.
Adam shrugged. “I fell in there once when I was a kid. Poor place to fish and the stones never did skim so well there,” he replied equally softly.
‘
The Incline Valley Railway was built at Mill Creek and ran successfully for many years.
