Chapter 11

“Hey, Shortshanks, watcha doing laying in the snow? Thought you woulda had enough of that before.” Suddenly Hoss saw the bloodstains in the snow and heard the panic in Joe’s voice.

“Get down, get down. I’m shot and whoever did it is a hell of a shooter. I barely heard it, but I sure felt it.”

Dropping down behind the woodpile with Joe, Hoss looked him over. “You hurt bad?”

“Bad enough. I think it’s a through and through though. Got me up high. Luckily he only got one shot because I think he might have sighted in better on the next one.”

“Where is he?”

“Far as I can tell, on top of that hill by those pines. Couldn’t see anything but that’s the general direction and there isn’t much cover there except for those trees.”

“I’m gonna go in the house through the side here and get some help. You just stay put.”

“Hoss, I’m not about to go anywhere.”

In the house, Hoss gave a quick synopsis to the others. Merry wanted to go help Joe, but Adam told her instead to go through the kitchen to tell Hop Sing and then through the washroom to the bunkhouse to tell the few hands that were there in the winter that they needed some help. Ben and Hoss grabbed some cloths and rifles and headed out the side door to help Joe. Adam grabbed a rifle and went upstairs to a window. He would have a perfect view of that hillside. If anyone took a shot, he would return fire. As he raced to the stairs, he saw how terrified Drew was.

“Drew, go in the kitchen with Hop Sing. You’ll be safe there.”

“I want to go with you.”

It would take too much time to argue, so Adam signaled for him to run up the stairs with him, and then had him sit against the wall in Hoss’ bedroom as Adam slowly opened the window so that he could aim to the grove of trees where they thought the gunman was. Adam watched and listened as he heard his father and Hoss get Joe into the house. There was no more gunfire and no movement from the hill. He waited for another fifteen minutes and then shut the window and closed the draperies before standing. He held out his hand to Drew who clutched it tightly.

Downstairs, Hop Sing and Merry were tending to Joe as Hoss and Ben stood by. There was quite a bit of blood, but Joe was conscious and Merry agreed with his assessment that it was a through and through. It had entered just under the collar bone and exited cleanly. No broken bones and nothing major hit. Unfortunately a lot of cloth had been driven into the wound and had to be cleaned out. Adam took Drew into the kitchen and had him sit at the table. He gave him a cup of water to sip, and could tell how frightened he was. What was impressive though was how calm Drew stayed through all the turmoil. Adam had him wait in the kitchen with him until Hoss came in to check on them.

“I want to get some hands and ride up that hill to start tracking the gunman.”

“You’re not going anywhere. Pa and me will go.”

“Why not me?”

“Cause Joe was wearing your coat when he got shot. You know as well as everybody else does, that shot was meant for you.”

“All the more reason that I ought to help catch the one who did it.”

“Adam, that’s just stupid. You’re gonna go out there and give em another chance? You got Merry to think about and Drew. You got your own family now to protect too. You stay here with them and Joe. Pa and me will take some hands and go see what we can find out.”

“That should be me out there in pain and losing blood. It’s my fault.”

“Now you’re plumb wrong about that. It’s the fault of whoever did the shooting. And you don’t want to make it easy for em, do ya? Get your thinking straight and think about who coulda done this.”

“Merry’s mother always comes to mind, but I can’t see her doing this. Otherwise, I don’t know who would be so angry that they would want to kill. Another woman would be Mrs. Waverly or her daughter. I remember her daughter winning some shooting contests on the Fourth of July.”

“I remember that too. She was right handy with a rifle. I’ll mention it to Pa and maybe to Roy if we get near town.”

After Hoss and Ben left with some hands to ride up the hill to see what they could find, Merry finished bandaging Joe. One hand had gone to town to get the doctor. Adam helped Joe up the stairs to his room, and then came downstairs to close all the shutters, and make sure the doors were locked. He handed Merry a small pistol and told her to put it in her skirt pocket. Then he and Merry sat with Drew by the fireplace and waited for the others to return.

Out on the hill where the shots had originated, Hoss found tracks from a woman’s boot which surprised no one except that this woman had to be an excellent shot. All five men felt a little nervous being exposed out there until they found tracks heading toward town and apparently the horse had been going at a fast pace. Once they got on the road to Virginia City though, the tracks merged with all sorts of other tracks. The group headed to town anyway to ask around to see if anyone saw a woman riding into town recently, and then Ben and Hoss went to see Roy.

“Now what brings you two to town, not that I’m complaining cause it saves me a trip out to the ranch?”

“Roy, why were you coming out to the ranch?”

“Well, Margaret is missing. Some folks saw her two days ago carrying a long object wrapped in a blanket. I only found that out cause her house has been dark, and I stopped in to see if she was all right, and no one was there. So I started checking around, and that’s when I found that out. No one has seen her since then.”

“Someone took a shot at Joe today. He’ll be all right, but he was wearing Adam’s coat and that shot came from over a quarter mile away. Whoever shot him was an excellent marksman.”

“Well now Margaret could handle a firearm, but I doubt she could hit anything more than a hundred feet away. You know as well as anyone here that her eyesight isn’t so good. I mean it was all right, but not for shooting at someone from that far away.”

“Adam mentioned Mrs. Waverly and her daughter. We all remember the daughter winning a shooting contest with a rifle on July Fourth. We don’t know her well. She always seemed to be kind of standoffish.”

“Well, I talked to Mrs. Waverly and she was as sweet as could be. Apologized and all for what her husband did. She’s trying to sell the house and stuff they had here so she can get some money to move somewhere else. Says she can’t go with her husband knowing what she knows now. And like you, I wondered about her daughter. Well it seems Waverly wasn’t just after Charlotte and Meredith. His daughter said she was glad he was gone cause she don’t have to worry none about him any more although apparently she threatened to shoot him if he touched her again so he hadn’t been doing that lately.”

“So, we’re back to Margaret and the possibility that she is wearing glasses to see better or has someone helping her. And no one knows where she is?”

“That about sums it up.”

As Ben and Hoss left the sheriff’s office, the would be assassin watched them. She had seen a Ponderosa hand come for the doctor so she knew her first effort had failed, but what she had seen had given her another idea. She would put that plan into motion the next day if the weather was reasonable.

On the Ponderosa, Joe was in a lot of pain. He had thought that Merry and Hop Sing had thoroughly cleaned his wound but Doctor Martin disagreed and irrigated, poked, and prodded until he was sure it was completely free of debris so there would be little chance of infection.

“Don’t let him use that arm for anything strenuous for at least four weeks. The collar bone is not broken but it is chipped so it’s weakened. It should be treated just like a broken bone. Keep the arm in a sling for a week or two, and then only light activity gradually increasing until he gets normal functioning back.”

The only one more relieved to hear that than Joe was Adam who was feeling a lot of guilt over what had happened. Merry too felt that she had brought harm to the family. Ben tried to reassure her that she was not to feel badly. Ben sat with Joe for hours until nearly ten, and Adam told him to get some sleep. Ben objected as he always did whenever someone tried to get him away from a sick or injured son. But Adam was persausive.

“I haven’t done much of anything all day. I’ve been sitting in the house while you and Hoss went our searching and then to town. Hoss wouldn’t even let me go to the stable to do chores. You get some rest, and I’ll call you if there’s any change. You know I’ve taken care of my brothers before, and I can do it again.”

“You’re going to need some sleep too.”

“I’ll wake Hoss later when I can’t keep my eyes open any more. Besides, my bed is already full. Drew is sleeping there, and Merry laid down to rest and fell asleep too.”

“It’s amazing how fast that boy has taken to you.” At Adam’s upturned eyebrow, Ben had to add a caveat. “No, I mean he lost his parents so recently but has latched onto you as a father. I’m just surprised he was able to do that.”

“Pa, I thought about that, and I remember when Inger was killed. I felt so alone, but I still had you. I’ve been thinking lately about how I would have felt if I had lost you too. That’s Drew now. I’m a lifeline to him. He feels lost and needs someone to hang onto.”

“Hey, it’s all very interesting, but could a dying man please get some sleep. All that talking is interrupting my beauty sleep.”

Adam rolled his eyes, and Ben chuckled as he headed to his bedroom. The night passed peacefully, and Adam didn’t wake Hoss until nearly dawn. He guessed he would be indoors again all day and could grab a nap at some point. Ben came in to check on Joe just after the sun rose. Hoss was resting and looking out the window. He smiled as Ben came in.

“No fever to worry about. He’s a little warm, but that’s it.”

The look of relief on Ben’s face was palpable. He smiled at Hoss and nodded whispering that he would bring him some coffee as soon as Hop Sing could pour it.

“Could you bring a biscuit or something too? I’m powerful hungry this morning.”

Drew ended up delivering the tray. Ben agreed with Adam that Drew needed things to do that were normal, and it also would help for him to see that Joe was feeling all right and would recover. Although Ben never wished harm to his sons, he was very glad it wasn’t Adam lying in that bed. The gunman had likely aimed at the coat and not the man. Thinking that Adam was bigger, that bullet would have likely hit him lower. Ben had seen how Joe had hunched that coat up on his shoulders when he left the house. It had likely saved his life. Drew would have been devastated too if Adam had been hurt. Ben was already thinking of Drew was part of the family. In many ways, he was like Adam as a boy: smart, quiet, and full of questions. It was a good match.

Up on the hill where the shots had originated the day before, there were now several stacks of wood and pine cones soaked with coal oil among the trees. The plan was to light the fires and then ride fast to the other side of the ranch house. When they came to check out the fire and stop it if they could, she would be able to get into the house by the back door and her targets would be alone except for the cook. She was confident she could handle him and a wounded man. She still did not know that she had wounded Joe and not Adam. Just as she was about to start the fires, she saw Roy Coffee ride up to the ranch house. That complicated things. She decided to wait to see if he headed this way to take his own look around. If he headed this way, she would start the fires and continue her plan.