We left before the sun had even done stretching as it rose from the horizon, as soon as it was light enough to saddle the horses. I was amazed at how well the kid seemed to be taking the roughness of the trip especially when you considered that he’d been nearly dead not more than a week ago. Whoever he was, he had some resilience to him.

And some nosiness. As we rode he kept peppering me with questions, questions that I didn’t want to answer. At first I brushed him off, hoping he’d get the point. He didn’t.

“Are you always this damn curious?” I asked.

He shrugged, but there was a hint of humor to it instead of bitterness this time.

“Right.” I rolled my eyes. “No, I never found a woman that could put up with me.” I answered his last question.

“I believe it. Especially if you always go around with that look on your face. Like sour milk.”

Which of course, only made my scowl deepen.

“So are you from around the area?”

He’d asked the same question earlier, and I’d ignored it. But I was starting to wear down, though I didn’t want to admit it.

“I was born south of here near the Mexican border. I spent my childhood traveling with my Pa, farther and farther north. Finally we settled down in Montana.”

“What did he do?”

“Odds and ends. When we reached Montana he tried to start a timber company. It went belly up.” He’d never given up, even when it was clearly the thing to do. There are times, like then, when tenacity is a curse. Maybe that’s why I’d never managed to settle down.

“So how did you get here?”

“I rode.” I finally snapped, my patience worn thin. “And I’d rather not talk about me if it’s all the same to you.”

“Well it’s not like we can talk about me.”

He had a point, and I kicked myself for bringing it up. Then I changed my mind.

“Sure we can. I mean, you’ve had almost a week, you must have figured out something about yourself.”

He stared at me incredulously for a few moments, and I met the look with one of my own, one that people quickly learned meant I wasn’t budging. After a few moments he figured it out too.

“I’m comfortable on horseback.” He finally said. “More than comfortable, at home. It’s… reassuring.”

I nodded. I’d figured as much when I’d seen him swing up without a moment’s hesitation despite the fact that I’d had him handcuffed. And then the next time we’d mounted he’d performed a swing mount as easy as breathing.

“Anything else?”

“I’m not a fan of cold weather.”

I snorted. “I’m with you there.”

“Nor am I a fan of the way you make your coffee.”

“Not many people are.” I liked it strong enough to remove whitewash.

“Actually, all of your cooking is pretty pathetic.”

“Well you can cook tonight then.” I growled.

He grinned then the smile wobbled a little before it disappeared. “There’s not much else.” He said. “It’s like there’s a gaping black hole inside my head. Every once in a while I catch a hint of a memory, but it’s like trying to remember a dream; the harder you try the faster it vanishes. I feel like if I had something, even if it was just my name, if would make it easier to remember the rest. But there’s nothing.”

I didn’t say answer, and we rode in a silence as bleak and empty as the kid’s black hole. I was thinking about my past and everything I’d ridden away from. It seemed that every time I stopped I found something else to make me ride harder. I wouldn’t mind forgetting who I was. But it didn’t seem particularly tactful to say so, so I didn’t. Instead I started murmuring words to a song, the rhythm of which went along with Tip’s trotting hooves. After a moment I heard another voice joining in, and I smiled slightly. There was another thing he remembered, even if he didn’t realize it.

We skirted around San Francisco and entered on the north side near the ocean. I didn’t want to have to ride through the city and risk one of us being recognized. It was a long shot, but it was better to be safe than sorry. I didn’t truly relax until we were surrounded by a group of equally doubtful characters as we checked into the cheapest hotel we could find.

“It’ll come with bugs and a sore back, but it’s home.” I swung my saddle bags onto one of the hard beds.

The kid was looking around. “I wish I could say I’ve seen worse.”

“Even if you remembered every place you’ve ever been, I doubt you could say that.” The same wasn’t true for me, and I settled happily onto the mattress, using my feet to pull my boots off.

“I say we rest for a few hours and then start our search.”

He shrugged. “Just how are we going to find this Isaac Clancy anyway?”

“You always look for scum at the bottom of the barrel, kid.”

We spent three nights drinking our way through the bottom of the barrel. I knew that San Francisco had its share of questionable saloons and cheap whiskey, but even I was starting to have my doubts about my ability to swallow another mug of dishwater trying to pass for beer. Then on the fourth night our persistence paid off.

“Sure, he comes in three or four times a week.” The bartender said when I asked him about Clancy. He studied me for a minute. “A lot of the local boys trail after him. I would watch my step if I were you.”

I gave him a wolfish smile. “I think it’s the other way around.” Then I turned and pulled the kid aside.

“You sit in the corner over there so you can get a look at him without him noticing you.” I said. “The bartender wasn’t kidding. Clancy’s one you need to watch your step around, and I’d just as soon know the whole story before you two go trying to knock the daylights out of each other.”

“What makes you think that’s going to happen?”

“I know him.”

He frowned and his hand strayed down toward his gun. He shifted it slightly to loosen it, and a grim look fell over his face. I studied him for a minute. He was another one to watch your step around if only he knew it. But if he could remember without drawing Clancy’s attention, it would be a lot easier. As he went to the corner table I turned around and had the bartender refill my mug of dishwater.

I heard the swinging doors creak as someone pushed through them, and I set my mug down. My hand casually fell to my right hip.

“Thought I recognized your nag outside.” Clancy sat beside me.

I nodded. We’d been dragging our horses behind us every night. At first the kid had asked why we didn’t leave them in the stable, but I wanted to make sure I had a way to get out quick. Plus I didn’t want Clancy to know I was staying in town.

“Buy you a beer?” I asked.

“You have money for beer? Seems to me you should be scrounging for every penny you can find. But I forgot, money doesn’t mean anything to you, does it, Lawson? No, you just throw it away like it’s old butcher paper. Do you use it to start your campfires too?”

I turned to face him. There was a bitterness in his voice that was uncharacteristic for him. Sure, he was hard, meaner than a snake too, but he wasn’t malicious. Even though my face didn’t change, he saw the frown in my eyes.

“I lost a lot more than money then.” He said. His voice had lowered, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the kid lean forward slightly. Clancy didn’t notice. “You left me to rot in jail.” He hissed.

“As if you wouldn’t have done the same.” I took another sip, more in order to look nonchalant than because I wanted to put more bad ale in my system. Something was definitely wrong.

“Well, when you didn’t come back for me someone else did.”

“Sandy? Well he is your dog, I suppose he had to be loyal.”

“Jim.”

My stomach dropped to my toes. Jim Clancy, Isaac Clancy’s brother. And for Isaac to be this deathly mad, it had to mean that…

“He was arrested and hung for jail breaking and killing two men on the way out.” Clancy said. My hand tightened on my gun, but Clancy leaned forward, and suddenly his fingers were on my wrist.

“So, what do you think of the debt you owe me now, Lawson? More than two thousand dollars. I’d say you owe me a life.”

His fingers were like a vice, and even if I’d been able to pull away he would have shot long before I could draw. I clenched my left hand in a fist to strike as Clancy’s hand found his weapon. If I was going to die it would be with my fist aimed at his face.

“Hold it.” Quicker than sight, there was someone by my side, gun drawn. I whistled noiselessly at the show of skill. Just who was this kid?

But Clancy seemed to have some idea.

“You!” his grip on his gun tightened, as if he wished it were someone’s neck instead. “You’re supposed to be dead, Cartwright.”

“Well I’m not.”

I was impressed; he had to have been startled by both Clancy’s recognition and what I assumed was his name, but he’d quickly grasped that this was no time for storytelling. It was life or death. For the moment Clancy was distracted, and I took advantage of it. I reached across and threw the rest of my drink into Clancy’s face. Instinctively he jerked back, and both the kid and I ducked as he gathered himself and drew his gun. Shots rang in the air, and we pushed through the sudden mayhem created by the noise. I only paused long enough to flip over a few tables on my way toward the door. The more commotion the better.

The kid was sending off his own shots now, not at anyone but at the ceiling and the rows of glass jugs behind the bar, just enough to keep the atmosphere in a frenzy. Good riddance. I thought, but I moved forward to stop him. I didn’t know how many people would get involved either in hopes of getting paid or because they’d been spoiling for a fight, but I didn’t wait to find out. I grabbed the kid by the shoulder with one hand while I kicked my foot through the front window. We jumped out and onto our horses in nearly one motion. Pursuing bullets bit into the wood of the hitching post, and I felt a sudden burning in my shoulder, as if I’d bumped up against a hot anvil. No time to look down though; I kicked Tip faster, and the sound of bullets and the mob we’d left behind faded beneath the rattle of our horses hooves.

“And that’s why we tie the horses outside even if our hotel is just down the street.” I said.

“Good thinking. You’re bleeding by the way.”

I touched my shoulder and winced. The slug wasn’t in there, and I could still use my arm well enough, so I figured it was just a crease. But it hurt like hell.

“Damn idiots.” I muttered.

“Who, the people in the bar or us?”

“Both!” I snapped. By now we were out of the city and the light from it was giving way to the shadows that hovered on the edges of the countryside.

“Now what?” he asked.

“For all his craftiness, Clancy’s no good in the wilderness. That’s why he sent Sandy to find me instead of coming himself. We should be alright for the moment now that we’re clear of the city.” I let Tip fall into a jog as thoughts raced through my head, faster than we’d been riding a moment ago.

“Cartwright.” He murmured the word like someone eating pig’s feet for the first time, unsure and cautiously, letting it roll around in his mouth.

“Well at least we got something worthwhile out of that.” I said. More than something since I still had my money, but there was a thought hovering at the back of my mind that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Of one thing I was sure.

“I’ve heard that name before.” I said.

His head whipped around so fast I was surprised it didn’t go flying. “You know me?”

“I think if I’d known you before I wouldn’t have forgotten it. But I know the name.”

“From where?”

I frowned. That was the question, wasn’t it? Now at least I knew how he felt with a name floating around inside my mind that should mean something but didn’t. It was like a fly buzzing around my head that wouldn’t land or an itch I couldn’t scratch. I could feel his eyes on me, intent and hopeful, and I turned to face them.

“I’m not sure. It’ll come to me.” Things always did. Whether they came in time or too late was another matter. I sighed.

“We might as well make camp for the night.” I said. I was a man of action, both of us were, but it was no good riding around in circles. We could be headed in the right direction or we could be going to complete opposite way. Besides that the sun wouldn’t be up for a few more hours. Hopefully by then the meaning of the name Cartwright would occur to me. Sometimes you had to just sit and wait.

We dismounted and led the horses a couple of miles away from the road. I didn’t want to light a fire and attract any potential enemies, so we sat in the dark and listened to the sound of our horses snuffling around through the brush in search of grass.

“So have you figured out how you know Clancy?” I asked to distract myself. My mind was going crazy trying to remember where I’d heard the name Cartwright before.

“What he told you, about his brother… my mind was filling it in as he was talking. I knew what he was going to say before he said it.”

“So you’re a mind reader? That’s who you are?”

His impatient snort made me laugh and then wince as the movement shook my shoulder. I’d cleaned it as well as I could, but it was still sore. I owed Clancy one for that.

“I knew that story.” He said. “I don’t know how, but I did.”

“Alright, let’s think about the pieces. Clancy’s brother was hung for busting him out of jail, which you knew. That means you were somehow involved. Clancy wants you dead, which means you probably had a hand in the hanging rather than the busting. It also probably is why you ended up in the river I fished you out of.”

“You didn’t fish me; you dragged me off the bank.”

“If that version is more flattering to your ego, then fine. But my guess is that this Zeke Sullivan fellow was involved somehow too.” I thought back to the obituary I’d read. Zeke had been a lawyer. The prosecutor?

“Well all this is doing is making me feel more and more like a steer at a barbeque.” He rubbed his forehead wearily, and I nodded. If he’d been thinking nearly as hard as I had his brain probably felt like it was already on the spit, rotating as it was slowly roasted with a stick through it and its juices slowly leaking out to sizzle as they fell onto the fire. My stomach growled.

“Why did you have to bring up steers?” I grumbled. “I could eat ten steaks on end right now. Big, fat, prime steers.”

I closed my eyes and thought about those steaks. At some point I stopped thinking and started dreaming.

I was sitting at a table surrounded by cows, and there were piles of steaks in front of me, all charred on the outside and a tender red on the inside. Only they kept disappearing as I tried to grab them. The cows mooed at me as if they were laughing.

“Just you wait until I wake up.” I warned them. “Then we’ll see who’s laughing. I’ll slit your throat and eat you raw; I don’t care if you are Ben Cartwright’s cows.”

I jolted in my sleep. My shoulder struck a rock and the snap of pain woke me up, but I barely noticed. I jerked upright.

“Cattle!” I practically shouted. “Hey, kid!” I kicked his knee. “It’s cattle!”

“What’s so exciting about cows?” he muttered sleepily.

“Cartwright. I knew I’d remember it.”

“Good for you.” He rolled over.

I kicked him again, harder this time, and he jerked away.

“What?” he demanded, now fully awake.

“I remember now. The Cartwrights are ranchers; they own a spread just outside Virginia City: the Ponderosa.”

His brow furrowed. “How do you know that?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I may have crossed over your land and stolen a couple of cows.” I mumbled.

“You stole some of my cows?” he asked incredulously.

“You knew I was a thief when you threw in with me, and it didn’t bother you. Especially when I was saving your hide.” I snapped. “Besides, that ranch is huge. A man has to eat.”

He shook his head. “I can’t believe you stole some of my cows. Probably cows that I branded myself. Do you know how long a job it is to brand calves?”

“No, but clearly you do.”

A grin broke over his face in spite of his harping. “You know what this means?” he said.

“You decided to perform a citizen’s arrest?” I said drily. I was still slightly irritated by his reaction. I hadn’t known they were his cows.

“You know how to get there.”

My anger melted away. It was impossible to stay mad under his radiant grin. I stood. It was barely light enough to see, and we had a trip ahead of us. Back in the direction I’d already come. Again. Why did this kid constantly have me running around in circles?

“Alright fine, back to the Ponderosa we go. Probably a good thing anyway.” I conceded. “You’ll need an army to keep you safe now that Clancy knows you’re alive.”

“Do you think…” he stopped, and I could see the wheels of his mind begin to turn as a thought flashed through him. “Clancy wouldn’t go there, would he? To find me?”

My stomach sickened. That was exactly what Clancy would do. I swung my saddle up onto Tip. “Not if we get there first.”

We had no way of knowing if we were ahead of Clancy or behind him. He may have waited until morning to leave, in which case we would have a small lead on him. Or he may have pursued us through the night, which would have put us several hours behind him. So we pressed on as fast as the horses would let us, barely stopping for any rest. We didn’t talk much. A grim mood had taken over, and neither of us tried to lift it through chatter. Instead we rode in silence, listening to the rhythm of hoofbeats and wishing it was faster.

Then the silence was broken as we swept past an outcropping of rocks. We’d left the flat terrain behind us and had begun to climb up into the Nevada mountains, passing over onto Ponderosa land.

“I recognize that.” He said.

I glanced at the rocks. They stuck out into the narrow trail like an arrow, and we’d had to press close to the trees on the opposite side to pass.

“You must have ridden this trail before.” I said.

“Does that mean we’re close?”

“Not really.” We still had a ways to go. But we were plenty nearer than when we started days ago, and the closeness of the trees was welcome after days of riding through open country. I closed my eyes for a moment in the coolness. When I opened them, I pointed.

“See that ridge?”

He nodded.

“Once we top that we’ll be able to start heading downhill. It’s still a bit of a ride until we reach the main house though, maybe twenty miles. Like I said, it’s a big ranch.” Then I grinned in spite of myself. “But at least there’s plenty of cattle in case we get hungry.”

He shot me a glare, which I ignored with a laugh. We hadn’t seen any sign of Clancy, and I was certain we would arrive with time to spare. Maybe after I got the kid home I’d take care of Clancy myself. Not shoot him, though I was tempted, but the image of leaving him hog tied in front of the local sheriff’s office was extremely appealing.

I led the way up to the ridge, but I every once in a while the kid pointed out familiar places. We were both feeling a lot more comfortable about our situation until we topped the ridge, and our hearts dropped past our boots.

Five riders were below us. They were close enough to recognize, but even if they’d been farther away we both would have known who they were.

“He must have started the minute we left the bar.” I cursed.

“Who’s with him?” he leaned forward in his saddle and shaded his eyes with his hand in an attempt to see better.

“Sandy. Not sure about the other three; probably some of the local kids the bartender was talking about.” I cursed again. It didn’t help, but it made me feel slightly better. The feeling lasted for a fleeting second, and then my heart sank again. We couldn’t pass them without being seen and becoming targets, and if we went around them we wouldn’t beat them to the Ponderosa. We could kick our horses into a gallop and run down the hill shooting, but there were five of them, and Clancy was a dead shot.

“We won’t make it.” I realized out loud.

“We have to.” He looked around wildly as if the rocks might somehow have a solution. Then his eyes stopped. “Do you think they’d see me if I rode along the ridgeline?”

“See you and shoot you.” I said. Then I looked at him as I realized what he had in mind. “You can’t be serious.”

“It would stop them long enough for you to slip through and get help; you said it was just…”

“That’s the most hair brained…”

“Wade! Listen to me! I’m not letting those men hurt my family for my sake.” His eyes flashed dangerously, and I refrained from pointing out that he didn’t even know his family. There was no arguing with him even if there had been time for it.

“Alright. But you’re not going. I will.”

“You can’t; I don’t know the way from here.”

“You’ll remember it.”

He shook his head. “I can’t risk that.”

“But…”

He took a page from my book and wheeled his horse around, cutting me off and ending all discussion. For a moment I considered going after him and knocking some sense into him. But I turned Tip the other way and hoped that none of Clancy’s bullets found him.

I raced down through the valley, sending rocks skittering behind me. I heard a gunshot, but I forced myself not to turn around. I couldn’t handle the five of them by myself, especially since they now had the high ground. My only chance was that I could get help from the Ponderosa before Clancy caught up to Joe.

Even to my own ears it sounded slim. But I still raced forward. I’ve always said that if you were going to do something, do it, don’t wobble back and forth. Even if the plan was as crazy as this one.

Tip seemed to sense my sudden urgency and flew over the ground despite the fact that she was worn down from the days before. Even so it wasn’t enough, and I resisted the urge to push her faster. I couldn’t afford to run her into the ground.

Trees whipped by, and I had to duck from the occasional branch. One knocked against my injured shoulder, but I barely noticed. I kept hearing the gunshots in my head, one with each pounding hoof beat. In my mind’s eye I could see the grim look on his face, hard, like a sheet of rock. So unlike how pale and small it had been the day I’d found him. I realized that I had never intended to leave him until I brought him home. And I still didn’t. My knees clamped tighter and I leaned forward against Tip’s neck.

“Faster!” I hollered.