There was no one in sight when I tore into the yard, right up to the porch. I dropped my reins knowing Tip would stay and pounded on the door.

Please, let someone be home. I pounded again, this time out of frustration. I hadn’t ridden all this way for it to end like this. Another pound, this one so hard that I winced.

“Mister?”

A voice. I would have been relieved, only there was no time. I spun around to see a large man with a curious look on his round face.

“I’m looking for Ben Cartwright.” I said.

“He’s in town this morning. Should be back any minute though. I’m his son; is there something I can help you with?”

His slow, relaxed way of talking got under my skin, but despite my rush I had to pause for a moment. The kid’s brother? They couldn’t have looked more different. Then urgency caught up with me.

“No time. I…” But the sound of hoof beats interrupted me, and two other men rode up. I could tell just by looking at the one that he was the owner of the place. He carried himself with an air of well earned authority, and he summed me up in once glance as he dismounted. The other one, only slightly less formidable looking, did the same.

“Pa, this man…”

“No time.” I repeated. “Get back on your horses and follow me. I’ll explain on the way.” I whistled and Tip came trotting, albeit reluctantly. She was tired. I changed my mind.

“On second thought, let me saddle a fresh horse, and if yours aren’t rested you should too.” I was walking toward the barn while talking.

“Now wait just a minute…”

“It’s about your son.” I cut Cartwright off. Instantly his demeanor changed from confused sternness to concern.

“Hoss, saddle a fresh horse while this man explains to me what this is about.” His eyes never left me, and I knew the sentence carried two orders, not one.

“A few weeks ago I found your son by the Spruce River. He was pretty banged up and didn’t remember a thing. I mean nothing. Place, names, nothing. So I brought him to Coledale to see if he knew someone there only they thought he killed that someone and we hightailed it to San Francisco so I could pay off a debt, only the man who’d originally dumped him in the river was the man I was paying off, and he tried to kill us, but we got away and then we figured he’d come here, so we came too, but we ran into them, and now your son is trying to hold them off while I get help.” I realized that most of what I’d said had been one sentence. I should have planned out a speech while I was riding; I was sure my story made little sense.

“Who tried to kill Joe?” the other man asked. He had pushed forward closer, and his eyes were almost as intense as Cartwright’s.

“His name is Isaac Clancy.” I saw a significant look pass between the two. “You know him?”

“Joe was the one that apprehended Jim Clancy after he broke his brother, Isaac, out of jail.”

I nodded. I’d known it had to be something like that.

“You say Clancy is here now?” Ben Cartwright asked.

“Just up the mountain. With four other men.” Hoss brought out two horses and I mounted one.

Cartwright followed suit and swung back up. “Lead on.”

I was glad I’d gotten a fresh horse as we raced back up the mountain. We were making good time, much better than I’d made coming down. At times the trail was too narrow, and we rode single file, but when it was wide enough, Cartwright urged his horse beside mine.

“Where did you leave him?” he asked.

“On top of that ridge.” I pointed up to where we were headed. “He may have gone down to the other side.” I reflected that he could be anywhere by now. And in any shape.

“You said there were five men?”

“Clancy, Sandy, and three I don’t know. Sandy’s average, and easy to scare, but Clancy could shoot the wings off a fly. I don’t know about the other three. He picked them up in San Francisco.” I could sense hundreds of questions flashing through his mind like sparks, but he was focused now and only asked the relevant ones. The rest could wait.

We reached the valley I’d come down, and our horses charged up it. The back of my neck kept twitching as if it was expecting a bullet. This was, after all, an ideal place for an ambush. But there was nothing for it; we had to go up this way or go around, which would take too long. And if I had to risk my life, at least I could do it with three grim men behind my back.

We topped the ridge and paused. I wasn’t sure where to go next. Then a gunshot echoed through the wilderness, followed by two more in quick succession.

“This way.” Now Cartwright took the lead, and I was glad to let him do so. We thundered down and reined in our horses behind a pile of boulders.

“There.” Hoss pointed. I could just make out a dark hat sticking out from behind a rock. So that was where Clancy was, or at least one of his gang. Where was Joe?

Almost instantly I heard more shots as if in answer. They came from a pile of boulders several hundred yards down. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man dive for cover.

“They’re trying to get down to him, but he’s holding them off.” The other Cartwright son, Adam, said. “He can’t have much more ammunition, can he?”

I shook my head. And we didn’t have a very good vantage point either.

“Hoss, Adam, go up to those rocks and…” then Cartwright sopped. The man who had been trying to creep up on Joe was moving again, but there was no retaliatory fire. That could only mean one thing.

“He’s out of ammunition.” Adam said.

“New plan.” I drew my gun and started to move as quickly as I could down the slope without drawing fire. I heard Cartwright tell his sons to cover us and he fell in behind me.

“Can you get a shot?” he murmured.

“No.” Clancy’s man kept slipping in and out of the rocks like a fish through weeds.

The top of the rock beside me exploded, and I ducked. We’d been spotted. Immediately there was the echo of returning shots.

“Hoss and Adam will keep them honest.” Cartwright said.

“They’d better.” My common sense told me to wait and stay behind the rock until I knew that Clancy was done shooting. He had a bone to pick with me too, after all. But the other man was only a few yards away from where Joe was hiding. I took a deep breath and lunged forward, throwing caution to the wind.

The sound of a sudden volley of gunshots and me crashing through the rocks made the man turn his head and raise his gun. I pulled my trigger and he was down. Then I threw myself behind another rock just as a bullet whizzed past my head. Behind me, Cartwright was shooting back.

“Alright?” he called.

I nodded breathlessly. I’d felt the wind of the bullet as it had gone by. You didn’t get much closer to biting it than that.

“Joe?” I called and then remembered that he didn’t know his name. “Hey, kid!” no answer. I raised my head an inch above the rock, and then slammed it back down to avoid a bullet.

Adam called something down to us, but I couldn’t hear. I turned to Cartwright, but he shook his head. After a minute, Adam yelled again.

“He says someone else is creeping down. Through there.” He pointed as he yelled, but I didn’t move to look. No way was I lifting my head and having it taken off.

I wasn’t sure how close I was to the rocks that Joe was behind. Less than a hundred feet, but that was a good ways to go when someone was shooting at you. I’d have to run again. Lovely.

“Cover me!” I hollered at Ben. At his nod, I leaped up toward to rocks. Time seemed to freeze as I cleared half the distance in one stride. I tensed, waiting for the sensation of a metal slug slamming into my body. But there was nothing. Just the sound of Cartwright’s shooting as I dove behind Joe’s rocks. For a moment all I was aware of was my heart beating against my skull then I lifted my head.

“I nearly knocked you out.” Joe dropped his hand. In it he held a large rock. “A little warning next time.”

“I hollered.” But I was distracted by the way he was holding his other arm right over his side. He followed my gaze.

“I was heading down the ridge when one of the bullets caught my horse. The next one caught me, and I managed to duck behind here. Did you bring help?”

“Your family. Your name is Joe by the way. I raised my gun and peered around the rocks. Now I wished that I had risked my life for a glimpse of where the other man had been creeping. I had no idea where he was.

“Well at least I got one of them.” I muttered before cupping my hand over my mouth. “Cartwright!” there was no answer. If Joe hadn’t heard me from my position, then Ben Cartwright probably couldn’t hear me from here. I slid open my gun and pulled out two bullets.

“Here.” I gave them to Joe. “Now we each have two.”

“And there are four men left. Genius.”

I didn’t answer. My throat was as dry as his tone. “We could…”

A yell interrupted whatever great plan I had been going to reveal. It was Ben Cartwright. But I couldn’t make out what he was saying. Then with a sudden eruption of gunfire, he burst forward out of the rocks, and I realized that he hadn’t been yelling at me but at his sons on the hill. They were covering him as he ran. But they didn’t see what I saw: a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye. It was Sandy, a little farther down than they must have realized. My body moved of its own violation, and I stood and shot as he lifted his gun to shoot Ben Cartwright. Then I felt a shove and Joe tumbled on top of me as there was another shot. He clutched his shoulder and then his head jerked forward as it struck against the rock. I spun just in time to see Clancy fall to the ground not fifty feet away. I went and bent over him. Dead.

“Joe.” Ben Cartwright was suddenly behind the rock, kneeling beside his son. I holstered my gun and went back over, suddenly full of dread.

His body was limp, as it had been when I’d first seen him. I felt my throat clench, and his head lolled backwards as Cartwright lifted it. His face was grave as he bent down over his son, and all of us held our breath while Ben listened for any sound from the motionless young man that he held. Dimly I was aware of Adam and Hoss coming down the hillside. They must have finished off the other two, I thought vaguely. But all my attention was on the young man that I had protected for more than a fortnight now, lying on the ground because of a bullet meant for me. My fists clenched and I willed him to say something. Anything.

“Pa?”

I nearly fainted with relief, or maybe it was from holding my breath for so long. That was probably it. But I couldn’t keep my face from splitting into a grin, especially as I realized the significance of the one word he’d said. I don’t think Cartwright did though.

“I’m here, son.” He said.

For a moment Joe’s eyes closed, whether from relief or pain I didn’t know. Then he opened them and looked around. “Are you alright, Wade?”

“Of course.” I answered, a little more gruffly than was necessary to cover my own relief. “You think Clancy is man enough to do me in? And just how many times am I going to have to save your sorry hide anyway?” I asked.

“I think I saved you this time.”

He was right, but I wasn’t going to admit it. Instead I helped his Pa lift him to his feet where he wobbled a little and then nearly collapsed. In one motion Ben Cartwright caught him and lifted him up, a movement that I guessed he’d done hundreds of times over the years with each of his sons when they were younger. My heart gave one painful beat and then was still, and I followed Ben Cartwright up the hill.

When we got back to the ranch I found Tip in the barn right where I’d left her with her saddle still on, though she’d managed to eat every bit of hay that she could reach without moving. She gave me a reproachful look when I entered, so while Hoss went to get the doctor, I unsaddled her and began to rub her down with a murmured apology. After giving her what I thought was sufficient attention since I’d left her standing saddled after such a hard ride, I fed her and put her in a small paddock with some hay. If I were forced to admit it, I was feeling a little reluctant to go inside. This was clearly a family affair now, as was evident from the way Adam and Hoss had hovered protectively around Joe the entire way back. I wasn’t sure where I fit. But I couldn’t stay by the barn all night long, so I went inside.

The downstairs was deserted, and I paused awkwardly in the middle of the room. I thought of looking for something to eat, but my legs felt limp, and it seemed like someone had thrown a pound of sand behind my eyes. I blinked several times and I settled onto the settee. Just for a few moments. My eyes closed of their own accord, and I leaned against the back. It was nice to be in a house and not a camp by the road where the next person that passed me by might want to kill me. I would open my eyes and get up in a bit; I just wanted to let them be closed for a minute. Before I knew it I had slipped sideways and tumbled headfirst into oblivion.