1<\/strong><\/p>\nXxXxX<\/p>\n
Joe laughed so hard his stomach hurt. Professor Brodermann made Adam sound a whole lot more na\u00efve and gullible than Joe could ever have imagined.<\/p>\n
“I presented lies as though they were facts,” the professor said pointedly, “until he began to believe every word.”<\/p>\n
Adam’s jaw went tight and his lips, thin. “You said those facts of yours had been based on the latest scientific studies, about which the public had yet to be informed.”<\/p>\n
“I said it to prove you neither\u00a0did<\/em>\u00a0nor\u00a0could<\/em>\u00a0know everything you believed you knew.”<\/p>\nSighing and looking like he’d just lost a chess match, Adam admitted, “You said it to put me in my place.”<\/p>\n
“Quite right. You were trying much too hard to prove yourself when what you really needed to do was to open your mind.”<\/p>\n
“Quite right<\/em>,” Adam repeated flatly.<\/p>\nThroughout the conversation, Joe had noticed the professor taking frequent glances toward the window across the room. Now the man pulled out his pocket watch. “Well, my friends, I’m afraid it’s time for my medicine, and I am forced to admit I could not find it amongst my things when I unpacked.”<\/p>\n
“I wish you would have said something sooner,” Pa answered. “We could have asked Doctor Martin in town to\u2014”<\/p>\n
“No, no,” the professor countered. “There was no need to trouble anyone. It might simply have fallen out of my valise into the buggy. Young man,” he added, turning to Joe, “would you be so kind as to check for me?”<\/p>\n
“Of course,” Joe said, jumping to his feet. “And if I can’t find it, I’ll head back to town and see what Doc Martin can do for you.”<\/p>\n
“Sure you will,” Adam said as Joe headed for the door. “And you’ll also see what a beer or two can do for\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0down at the Bucket of Blood.”<\/p>\n“All I ask is that you check the buggy, dear boy. If the bottle is not there, I shall be fine until tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
Joe was still giggling after he closed the door behind him. The professor’s tales about know-it-all Adam made it clear Joe’s oldest brother didn’t know everything, after all. Joe couldn’t wait to tell\u2014<\/p>\n
Something sharp slammed into him as he stepped down off the porch. He stumbled, barely keeping his feet as he looked at the shaft of an arrow that had embedded itself in his chest.\u00a0Where\u2026? How\u2026?<\/em>\u00a0It didn’t make sense. He was at his own home\u2026and Winnemucca wouldn’t\u2026.<\/p>\nThink, you idiot!<\/em>\u00a0But the point of that arrow seemed to have skewered his thoughts.<\/p>\nPart of him knew he should dive for cover and shout a warning to his family. But he couldn’t seem to do either. The “Pa,” that formed on his lips found no volume. And diving was given over to spiraling downward until\u2026.<\/p>\n
He lay on his back, gazing up at a blood-red, evening sky and listening to Hoss’s belly laugh. It spilled out of the house like a bucket of cold water, and was just as chilling. He had to warn them, had to….<\/p>\n
“Pa,” he tried again, but his pa was laughing almost as hard as Hoss; and Joe’s soft cry was nothing to all that laughter.<\/p>\n
Then that blood-red sky went black.<\/p>\n
And everyone in the house was still laughing.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
Adam was glad his favorite professor had finally paid him a visit. The man had been promising to make a trip west for several years. Still, Adam would have been happier if the stories of his first term at Harvard had been left to the two of them. He found it uncomfortable to hear his family laughing at his expense, especially Joe. Little Joe’s incessant giggle was bound to taunt him in the days\u2014and weeks, maybe even\u00a0months<\/em>\u2014to come.<\/p>\nWhile Pa wiped a new round of tears from his eyes and Hoss doubled over with a hearty guffaw, Adam finished the last swallow of coffee in his cup, and then reached for the pot on the table in front of him. As he did so, he noticed Joe’s cup sitting cold and untouched. Surely Joe should have been back by now. Frowning, Adam glanced at the door before deciding he had the perfect excuse to separate himself from the professor’s unintended mockery, if only for a few minutes. He would go out and see just what was keeping his young brother.<\/p>\n
Those brief moments as he walked to the door, moving himself out of the center of attention, helped Adam to breathe easier. It also helped him to remember how much he appreciated the professor’s visit. After all, the man had traveled a long way specifically to see Adam. Considering that fact alone served to build Adam’s spirits, giving him some assurance that Professor Brodermann had not been “presenting lies as though they were facts<\/em>” when he’d acknowledged Adam as a favorite student.<\/p>\nBy the time he pulled the door open, Adam had relaxed enough to draw his lips into a small smile. He might even be able to withstand Joe’s humor in another minute or two. But just as he was about to call out to his little brother, Adam’s gaze landed on a horrific image that stole his voice and jabbed a dagger of ice into his spine.<\/p>\n
Joe was on his back with an arrow in his chest, and\u2026worse\u2026an Indian had one hand tangled in Joe’s hair, yanking Joe’s head back, while a knife in his other hand hovered near the top of Joe’s forehead.<\/p>\n
Adam was one heartbeat away from watching his little brother get scalped.<\/p>\n
“No!” he hollered, rushing out into the yard with no weapon and no thought for his own safety. He probably looked like a savage himself, a rabid, toothless pup threatening a full-grown wolf.<\/p>\n
The Indian froze nonetheless, his eyes going wide, his knife never quite reaching Joe’s skin. And then\u2026astoundingly,miraculously<\/em>\u2026he turned away, running for the cover of the trees.<\/p>\n“Joe!” Adam called out as he dropped to the ground beside his brother. “Joe,” he said again, grasping Joe’s shoulders.<\/p>\n
The groan that escaped Joe’s lips at that moment was both wretched and amazing. It proved he was still alive.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
2<\/strong><\/p>\n“I just can’t figure it,” Hoss said after Joe had been settled on the settee. “Why would that Indian run off like that when you weren’t even armed?”<\/p>\n
Adam cast him a quick glance before focusing once more on the growing shadows beyond the open doorway. “Frankly, I don’t care. I’m just glad he did.”\u00a0One more second, just one more, and that Indian would have taken Joe’s scalp<\/em>. He looked inside again as Pa sat down on the coffee table, setting to work gently prying Joe’s shirt away from the arrow shaft.<\/p>\n“Thank you, Hoss,” Pa said in a tone of dismissal, clearly intended to stop Adam’s middle brother from hovering. “Hop Sing and the professor will help me here in a moment, as soon as they’ve finished collecting what we’ll need. Why don’t you keep an eye out over at the front window? And Adam, close that door! You’re just making yourself another target!” Pa barely looked up as he spoke; he was too focused on examining Joe’s wound.<\/p>\n
Adam could have told him that arrow was not going to come out easily. He\u00a0could<\/em>\u00a0have told him, but he didn’t. Maybe somehow he hoped his pa would find a way other than cutting it out.<\/p>\n“Adam!” Pa yelled, this time giving his oldest son his full attention. “I said close that door!”<\/p>\n
Sighing, Adam looked out toward the trees once more before stepping back into the room and easing the door shut.<\/p>\n
“What’s wrong with you?” Pa went on. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”<\/p>\n
“I don’t think they’re still out there, Pa,” Adam admitted.<\/p>\n
“You don’t think? You don’t\u00a0think<\/em>? I don’t care\u00a0what<\/em>\u00a0you think! Your brother has just been attacked right here on the Ponderosa! And until someone can prove to me it isn’t going to happen to another one of my sons, we are\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0going to assume it\u00a0can<\/em>, and take every precaution against that possibility!”<\/p>\nPa was both angry and worried, so there was no point to arguing. From the string of Chinese complaints coming from the kitchen, Hop Sing’s disposition was no better. Adam knew he should go in to rescue Professor Brodermann from the tirade; but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He had more important things on his mind. Besides, it was highly unlikely George Brodermann needed rescuing. The professor was a man of theory and discourse; the thrill of a verbal fight was in his blood, and debate, his weapon of choice. Then again, it was also unlikely Professor Brodermann had ever been challenged by an angry Chinese man who considered himself a patriarch of the Ponderosa every bit as much as Adam’s pa, albeit from a far different perspective.<\/p>\n
Adam smiled sadly. Pa and Hop Sing both had good reason to be angry and worried\u2014not only for Little Joe, but for the Ponderosa, in general. Adam’s family had worked hard through the years to maintain peaceful if not always pleasant relations with their Shoshone and Paiute neighbors; but one Indian raid could be enough to tear all that peace apart. The last thing anyone wanted was to see the Ponderosa turned into a battleground.<\/p>\n
“Hey, Adam?” Hoss called from his new post by the window. “What makes you think they’ve gone already?”<\/p>\n
“What?” he asked absently before remembering what he’d said to Pa. “Oh, right.” He moved closer\u2014 although, now that he had shut himself away from the shadows outside, he found it difficult to pull his gaze from that damnable arrow still skewering Little Joe. “They had every opportunity to kill you, me\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0Pa before any of us thought about taking cover or arming ourselves. They didn’t even try.”<\/p>\n“No. No, they sure didn’t. I wondered about that, too.”<\/p>\n
“And<\/em>,” Adam added, “that Indian could easily have taken Joe’s scalp before he ran.”<\/p>\nHoss looked as sick as Adam felt. “Why do you reckon he didn’t?”<\/p>\n
“I don’t know. There was something\u2026odd\u2026about him.”<\/p>\n
“How do you mean?”<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure. I think I frightened him, for one thing. Maybe\u2026.”<\/p>\n
“Maybe what?”<\/p>\n
“Maybe he was acting alone.”<\/p>\n
“Why would he do that?”<\/p>\n
“To prove himself, somehow?”<\/p>\n
“Ain’t never known one of Winnemucca’s men try to prove himself by attackin’ folks for no good reason.”<\/p>\n
“What makes you so sure he was one of Winnemucca’s men?”<\/p>\n
“That arrow’s Paiute, ain’t it?”<\/p>\n
“Yes. But I’m not so sure the man was. In fact, the more I think about it, I’m not even sure he was Indian.”<\/p>\n
“He sure looked Indian to me.”<\/p>\n
“You only saw him running away. He was dressed like an Indian. He also\u00a0acted<\/em>\u00a0like an Indian\u2026that is\u2026until I frightened him.”<\/p>\n“Just ’cause you scared him don’t mean he’s not an Indian.”<\/p>\n
“No, it doesn’t. But there was something\u2026. I wasn’t paying particular attention at the time, but\u2026looking back on it, I could almost believe the color of both his skin and his eyes was too light.”<\/p>\n
“A white man?”<\/p>\n
“Maybe.”<\/p>\n
“What would a white man be doin’ dressin’ up like an Indian and shootin’ an arrow at Little Joe?”<\/p>\n
“I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”<\/p>\n
When Hop Sing’s tirade grew in volume, Adam turned to see him coming out of the kitchen carrying a tray laden with bandages, an empty bowl, and what looked to be\u2026yes\u2026a small selection of knives. Adam’s stomach turned yet again. Then he realized the professor, who was walking beside Hop Sing with a pitcher of water in his hand, was uncharacteristically quiet.<\/p>\n
No, Adam corrected himself as he watched the professor give Hop Sing’s shoulder a quick, gentle squeeze. Professor Brodermann was simply exhibiting another aspect of his character. For all his love of argument, George Brodermann was a man of infinite compassion. It was a trait that had secured him a place in Adam’s heart years ago when sickness had plagued the Ponderosa, taking the lives of three cowhands and threatening to take Adam’s brothers, as well. It had been the professor who had intercepted a telegram warning Adam to cancel the trip that would have brought him home for the first time in more than a year. Professor Brodermann had then taken it upon himself to both deliver the devastating news to his young student, and provide the fatherly support Adam had truly needed at the time.<\/p>\n
Now Adam’s youngest brother was facing a different threat against his life. And the professor was making it clear he would provide Adam and his family\u2014including Hop Sing\u2014all the support they needed.<\/p>\n
“Joseph! No!” Pa’s urgent shout lent speed to Hop Sing’s previously slower shuffle and pulled Adam’s attention to the settee. Joe was not only awake, he was flailing about, seeming intent to pluck the arrow out himself. “Leave it, Joe. We’ll take care of it, but you must leave it be!”<\/p>\n
“Get it out!” Joe cried softly. “Please\u2026can’t\u2026.”<\/p>\n
“Easy, Joe,” Pa said as he grabbed hold of Joe’s arms. “Easy.”<\/p>\n
Joe’s chest was heaving erratically, in halting, catching breaths. “Can’t\u2026. Can’t breathe.”<\/p>\n
In an instant, Hoss and Adam both came forward to help quiet their brother. But when Adam noticed the professor drawing Pa toward the dining table, he left Joe in Hoss’s more than capable hands to join the conversation.<\/p>\n
Brodermann seemed relieved to see him. “Adam,” he said the moment Adam was close enough. “You know I’m good friends with Frederic Beaumont, one of the finest surgeons in Harvard’s teaching staff?”<\/p>\n
“Yes. Why?”<\/p>\n
“I have audited his lectures and demonstrations often enough through the years to practically call myself a surgeon, had I a mind to\u2026except for one very important thing.”<\/p>\n
“What’s that?”<\/p>\n
“I have never made the attempt nor would I ever deign to try to hold a surgeon’s knife.”<\/p>\n
Pa drew his shoulders back, seeming as indignant as he was frustrated to have been pulled from Joe’s side. “I had no intention of\u2014”<\/p>\n
The professor held up a hand. “Please, let me explain.” He waited for Pa to close his mouth, glance back at Joe and Hoss, and then give the man his impatient nod. “I provided you this glimpse into my background to make certain you could recognize I speak from a degree of experience to warrant your respect with regard to the\u2026observation<\/em>\u2026I feel it necessary to provide.”<\/p>\n“Pa!” Joe’s pain-wracked cry further tensed Pa’s already taut shoulders.<\/p>\n
“Just tell me what it is you are trying to say!” Pa complained. “We don’t have time for\u2014”<\/p>\n
“That arrow,” Brodermann said pointedly, “lodged where it is, could very well be the only thing keeping your son alive.”<\/p>\n
“That’s absurd! You can’t expect us to leave it\u2014”<\/p>\n
“No. You’re right. I fully admit that it must come out. However, I feel an obligation to warn you of what I believe might be a terrible risk. If the point of that arrow has embedded itself in his lung, then that lung will collapse the moment the pressure is released, and your son will suffocate. There is nothing that can be done, should that occur.”<\/p>\n
Adam felt as though his own lung collapsed at hearing that statement.<\/p>\n
Pa looked no better. “But\u2026but we don’t know that’s the case. Do we?”<\/p>\n
“His breathing is labored, which could indicate one of three things. Either he is simply experiencing a degree of shock and pain to cause the difficulty,\u00a0or<\/em>\u00a0the lung is punctured\u2026or the arrow is causing pressure to be exerted against the lung. If the latter is true, then a careful surgeon stands a good chance of succeeding in removing it, but a\u00a0careless\u00a0<\/em>surgery could in fact drive the arrow deeper\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0removing it, in which case the lung could yet be punctured.”<\/p>\n“Then it’s decided,” Adam said. “We need to get Paul out here.”<\/p>\n
“We can’t!” Pa replied quickly. “At least,” he added an instant later, his shoulders sagging, “not until morning, when we stand a better chance of seeing the men responsible for this.”<\/p>\n
Or the\u00a0man<\/em>, Adam added in his thoughts.<\/p>\n“Hoss!” Joe cried. “Help me\u2026please\u2026! Get it\u2026out!”<\/p>\n
“We can’t wait that long,” Adam decided. “Joe<\/em>\u00a0can’t wait.”<\/p>\nPa nodded slowly. “I’ll go.”<\/p>\n
“Joe will do better with you here.”<\/p>\n
“I won’t risk this happening to you.”<\/p>\n
“Hop Sing go,” the Ponderosa’s alternate patriarch announced.<\/p>\n
Surprised and aghast, both Pa and Adam shouted, “No!” in unison.<\/p>\n
“If I may?” Professor Brodermann interceded. He waited for all three men to look at him, and then added, “From what I understand, most Indians will not attack at night. Is that true?”<\/p>\n
“Usually,” Adam said.<\/p>\n
“Not always,” Pa added.<\/p>\n
“Well then, the risk is at least minimized. And since Adam is younger and leaner, and will no doubt ride more swiftly\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Thank you,” Adam cut in before swiveling around to hurry toward the front door.<\/p>\n
“Maybe I ought to go along and watch your back,” Hoss called after him.<\/p>\n
Adam stopped for a moment to watch the calm but uncompromising way Hoss held Little Joe, and then smiled sadly. “Then who will watch yours? No, Hoss. You stay here with Joe. I’ll be faster on my own, anyway.”<\/p>\n
“You be careful!” Hoss hollered as Adam closed the door behind him.<\/p>\n
Pa said nothing, but his silence made his own concern very clear. And Adam had no intention of letting a stray arrow find him.<\/p>\n
One man<\/em>, he told himself again and again. There was just one man responsible for that arrow in Little Joe, a white man who was playing at being an Indian. Adam was sure of it. And with any luck, that one man would have already had enough\u2026excitement<\/em>\u2026for one night.<\/p>\nXxXxX<\/p>\n
3<\/strong><\/p>\nAdam wasn’t sure if he was blessed or cursed by the clouds rapidly overtaking the barely formed stars. As black as this night was promising to become, he should be able to make his ride without being accosted. Any Indians\u2014or white men\u00a0acting<\/em>\u00a0as Indians\u2014 who might be watching would have a hard enough time seeing him, let alone trying to attack him. But it would be equally hard for him to see them. And any ride on the darkest of nights could still pose plenty of other dangers.<\/p>\nAs if in answer to the turn of his thoughts, a small disturbance caught his eye in trees that were not yet quite as black as they soon would be. He eased Sport from a slow canter to a full stop, and then patted the animal’s neck while he gazed into the woods surrounding him.<\/p>\n
Nothing moved.<\/p>\n
Whatever had drawn his attention\u2014probably a foraging animal\u2014was likely already gone. Even so, it had left him with a sense of both dread and doubt. On any other night, Adam would return his horse to the barn and put off his ride until morning. But this was not any other night. And Adam would gladly face such dangers as a dark ride might present if it meant saving his little brother. But what about Paul Martin? Should the same be true for him? Was Adam being selfish expecting the good doctor to ride out to the Ponderosa on a night as black as this, especially with the possibility\u2014remote as Adam thought it was\u2014that an Indian attack was imminent?<\/p>\n
Yes<\/em>, he decided\u2014although it would not be selfish for him to explain everything to the good doctor and allow the man to make his own decision. Besides, Adam needed to inform the sheriff. Whether Joe had been attacked by a real Indian or a make-believe one, Roy Coffee would need to know.<\/p>\nAdam was about to urge his horse forward again when he heard something\u2026a soft but disturbing sound that made him freeze, listening\u2026.<\/p>\n
He heard it again, and was almost certain it was someone crying\u2026and sniffling\u2026.\u00a0A child<\/em>?<\/p>\nSport huffed loudly, seeming impatient at the delay.<\/p>\n
“Shh,” Adam soothed, patting the animal once more. Then, focusing,\u00a0listening<\/em>, he heard only silence. “Hello?” he dared to call out.<\/p>\nThere was no reply.<\/p>\n
“Who’s out there?” he tried again. “Do you need help?”<\/p>\n
A long, quiet moment passed. Sport danced anxiously sideways.<\/p>\n
Maybe he’d heard nothing, after all. But\u2026just as he put his heels to the horse’s flanks, he was sure someone called out his name.<\/p>\n
He pulled the animal back around and said again, “Who’s there?”<\/p>\n
“Mr. Adam?” The reply came in the tiny, frightened voice of a young child. “Is that you?”<\/p>\n
Instantly concerned, Adam dismounted. “Where are you?” He turned a full circle, looking out into the blackness of the trees. “Hello? Do you need help\u2014”<\/p>\n
The child rushed forward like a crazed animal flushed out of hiding, and then collided with Adam’s legs, nearly toppling him.<\/p>\n
“Billy?” Adam said as he recognized the towheaded boy in nightclothes. Small arms wrapped around Adam’s thighs. “What are you doing out here?”<\/p>\n
The boy only cried in answer, his face pressed up against Adam’s leg.<\/p>\n
“Did you run away?”<\/p>\n
Adam felt Billy’s head rolling back and forth against him; but the child did not look up or say a word.<\/p>\n
“Did you get lost out here?”<\/p>\n
Sobbing, the boy gave his head another rolling shake.<\/p>\n
“Well, I’d better get you home. Your grandfather is probably pretty worried by now.”<\/p>\n
The boy cried louder, his arms pulling harder around Adam.<\/p>\n
Suddenly Adam felt as worried as Mr. Hinckley must be\u2014perhaps more. He tugged at Billy’s arms, gently prying them away so he could kneel down. “Tell me what happened.” He kept his voice low and wiped at the child’s tears with what he hoped was a feather touch.<\/p>\n
“Indians.”<\/p>\n
Fear clutched Adam’s heart. “Where?” He could barely get the word past the tightening in his throat. “Were they at your house?”<\/p>\n
Billy nodded.<\/p>\n
“Did they\u2026?” Adam’s jaw clenched; but he had to ask. He had to know. “Did they hurt your grandfather?”<\/p>\n
The boy nodded again, sobbing louder, harder, and then he dove forward, burying his face this time in Adam’s chest.<\/p>\n
Enfolding the boy in his arms, Adam was about to tell Billy it was all right, that he would see to it Billy’s grandfather got the help he needed, when the boy said something that stole all of Adam’s words away.<\/p>\n
“They cut off his hair!”<\/p>\n
God, no<\/em>.<\/p>\nAdam rose in an instant, still holding the boy. He was barely conscious of mounting Sport and aiming the animal back home again. He only knew he’d never been more grateful to see the welcome lights in his own house, or to hear his father’s concerned greeting.<\/p>\n
“Adam? What\u2014?” When Pa saw the boy in Adam’s arms, his eyes went wide.<\/p>\n
“Ralph Hinckley was attacked.” There was no need to say more.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
Hoss let out a long breath after Joe passed out again. He felt his own muscles loosen, as though the air he’d sucked in\u2014and held in\u2014during the battle to keep Joe still had locked them all up on him. And it\u00a0had<\/em>\u00a0been a battle. Little Joe might be small\u2026and hurt\u2026but he had a whole lot of strength in him, enough to make him hurt even more\u2014on account of the fact that, hurtin’ like he was, he just didn’t have enough sense to keep still like he ought to. All that time he’d twisted around, Hoss could tell the arrow had gone on twisting against him, digging deeper and cutting his brother a whole lot more than Joe could take.<\/p>\nIt cut deep into Hoss’s own heart the whole time. And when Joe finally collapsed from it, all the fight going right on out of him, Hoss felt ready to collapse, too.<\/p>\n
Rising, Hoss still couldn’t pull his attention away from Joe, not even when he felt Professor Brodermann’s hand on his shoulder.<\/p>\n
“I am sorry,” the professor said softly. “It looks like I was wrong to recommend waiting for the doctor. That wound is getting worse. He’s driving that arrow deeper all on his own with all that thrashing about.”<\/p>\n
“Yeah,” Hoss answered absently, barely aware he’d even spoken.<\/p>\n
“I can watch over him, if you’d like to join your father and see why Adam has returned.”<\/p>\n
Those words cut through Hoss’s stupor as effectively as that arrow had first cut into Little Joe. He turned to look at the professor, feeling somewhat lost. He’d been so focused on his struggle with Joe he’d only been dimly aware of the sound of a horse in the yard. He hadn’t even realized Pa wasn’t there next to him anymore.<\/p>\n
Saying nothing, Hoss swiveled back to face the door. In three quick strides he’d skirted around the settee when a sound in the distance behind and above him turned him again. Someone was climbing the back stairs.<\/p>\n
“Take up that shotgun over there.” Without looking, Hoss pointed to the weapon that had been set on the credenza. “An’ wait here.” He grabbed his revolver from the table behind the settee. And then, sucking in another muscle-tensing breath, he hurried up the main staircase.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
“Adam?” Hoss was both relieved and startled to find it was his own brother who had snuck in the back way. He was even more surprised to see the boy in Adam’s arms.<\/p>\n
“I found him by the road,” Adam offered in explanation, “or rather, he found me.” He glanced at the child whose arms were wrapped tightly around his neck, and then returned his attention to Hoss. Gesturing toward the great room downstairs with a tilt of his head, he added, “I couldn’t let him see\u2026.”<\/p>\n
Hoss’s own thoughts returned to the settee, where Little Joe lay with that ugly arrow sticking out of him. “No,” Hoss answered quietly, his voice hampered by something sticking in his throat. “No, I guess you couldn’t.”<\/p>\n
“How’s he doing?”<\/p>\n
Hoss met Adam’s gaze for a long moment, probably\u2014hopefully<\/em>\u2014saying everything he couldn’t. When he finally answered, all he said was, “We can’t wait no more.”<\/p>\nAdam nodded, but his eyes made it clear he didn’t like Hoss’s answer. Hoss couldn’t blame him; he didn’t like it any better.<\/p>\n
“Pa’s bedding Sport down for me.” Adam’s voice was light, like he didn’t have anything to worry about. “I figured I’d bed this little guy down in my room for tonight.” He even managed a smile. It was hollow; but it was a smile, even so.<\/p>\n
Of course, it didn’t matter much. The boy never saw it. He pulled himself higher in Adam’s arms, wrapping himself so close around Adam’s throat it almost looked like Hoss’s brother was gonna start choking.<\/p>\n
“It might take awhile,” Adam added.<\/p>\n
“I can see that.”<\/p>\n
“I’ll help as soon as I can.”<\/p>\n
Hoss knew Adam was telling him to go on ahead taking care of Joe without him. He also knew Adam didn’t like having to tell him that at all. If the professor was right about that arrow keeping Joe alive…. Well, Hoss didn’t want to think about what it might mean to take it out of him. But if\u2026well, if\u2026.<\/p>\n
They should all be there if anything like that happened. All of them. Including Adam.<\/p>\n
Sighing, Hoss gave Adam a quick nod. He’d run out of words. And he sure couldn’t ask all the questions he had churning around in his head.\u00a0Why had the boy been by the road? Where was Mr. Hinckley?\u00a0<\/em>And, most important, how much of a threat were them Indians out there?\u00a0<\/em>Or that one Indian, anyway.<\/p>\nHe couldn’t ask a word of it as long as that boy was listening.<\/p>\n
Hoss settled for patting him lightly on his back. “You sleep well, Billy.”<\/p>\n
He was disappointed to see the friendly gesture didn’t soothe the boy none. It just made Billy cling tighter to Adam. He was as scared as any little fella’ Hoss had ever seen. The worst part was, Hoss didn’t even know why.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
4<\/strong><\/p>\nAdam had finally gotten Billy tucked in and settled when a horrific wail from downstairs gave them both a start. And then, before Adam even knew whether his own heart was still beating, the boy was crying again.<\/p>\n
Closing his eyes briefly and wishing he could close his ears as well, Adam forced out the words of yet another song. “Fr\u00e8re Jacques, Fr\u00e8re Jacques, dormez vous? Dormez vous\u2026”<\/p>\n
It was maddening. Joe’s cries provided evidence of the surgery Hoss and Pa were trying to perform on their own\u2026without benefit of a doctor to guide them\u2026with nothing more than a philosophy professor’s poorly qualified observations to prevent them from a “careless surgery<\/em>” that could cause more harm than good. And Adam could do nothing except to play nursemaid, singing nonsense songs to a little boy who was supposed to be in his own home, in his own bed.<\/p>\n“\u2026Sonnez les matines. Sonnez les matines. Din, din, don. Din, din, d\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Come now, Adam,” the professor called in from the bedroom doorway. “Surely you can do better than that! The child needs a\u00a0bedtime<\/em>\u00a0story, not a song about waking up to the ringing of bells!”<\/p>\nIt had been many years since Adam had thrown angry words back at his old mentor; and his anger in those days had generally been misplaced, the result of youthful, thick-headed arrogance. But at that moment he knew if he were to say anything at all, angry words were inevitable. He had neither the time nor the patience for a lively discussion about the benefits of bedtime stories compared with those of childish songs. His little brother might be dying downstairs!<\/p>\n
Clipping his song short and clenching his jaw against words he knew he should not utter, Adam felt his entire body tense. There was nothing to do to release that tension except to rise and face Professor Brodermann directly\u2014man to man this time, rather than student to mentor.<\/p>\n
But when he sought the older man’s gaze, Brodermann was looking at Billy, instead.<\/p>\n
“My boy,” the professor said in a deep and booming tone as he moved to take the seat Adam had just vacated. “Have you ever been pricked by a thorn?”<\/p>\n
Stunned, Adam watched young Billy watching the professor. The boy nodded, his confused gaze riveted to the man.<\/p>\n
“I imagine it was quite painful. Is that true?” Professor Brodermann’s voice reverberated through the room. It would have been impossible for Billy not to listen. “Well then, can you imagine if you were to have a thorn stuck deep in the palm of your hand and you could find no one to help you take it out? Oh!” the professor cried out dramatically. “Oh, such pain! Oh, such torment!”<\/p>\n
Billy’s eyes went wide, his tears momentarily forgotten.<\/p>\n
The professor smiled back at him. “Now, do you know what a lion is?”<\/p>\n
Billy nodded once more.<\/p>\n
“Lions are the kings of the jungle are they not? Well, once upon a time, many years ago, a great and fearsome lion stepped on a thorn, whereupon it became stuck in his paw\u2026.”<\/p>\n
The professor began to play-act, as though he were performing on a stage, shaking his hand and grimacing like the fabled lion itself. And suddenly Adam realized not only were Billy’s tears forgotten, Adam was forgotten as well.<\/p>\n
The professor had given Adam the opportunity to join his family.<\/p>\n
It was strange then to discover he was hesitant to move. For a long moment he stood transfixed, fear holding him in place.\u00a0What would he find when he reached the bottom of the stairs<\/em>? He focused his attention beyond the professor’s tale only to realize\u2026Joe had gone silent.<\/p>\n“Hoss!” Pa shouted. “Press harder! Hop Sing! We need more bandages!”<\/p>\n
“If I press any harder I’ll break his rib!”<\/p>\n
Over Hoss’s anxious reply, Hop Sing complained in a cacophony of Mandarin.<\/p>\n
And over all of it, Professor Brodermann spoke louder.<\/p>\n
Adam felt his heart beating faster, more intensely. But still his feet remained rooted in place\u2014until his father shouted Joe’s name.<\/p>\n
And then, before Adam even realized he was moving, he found himself at the bottom of the stairs, wide-eyed and breathless, looking at Little Joe\u2026who was looking at him.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
Ben had been relieved when Joe passed out\u2014and then horrified when his young son’s eyes came open again. He dreaded jabbing that needle into Joe’s skin. But the wound had to be closed. And surely no stitch could match the pain Joe had endured while Ben had removed the arrowhead\u2014it had been buried deep and wedged between two ribs.<\/p>\n
Yet after Ben drew the needle upward, dragging a line of thread through Joe’s flesh, he came to realize Joe was enduring it well.<\/p>\n
Too well.<\/p>\n
“Joe?” he said. “Little Joe? Look at me, son.”<\/p>\n
Joe’s gaze, his eyes red and clouded, remained locked across the room\u2014on the staircase, from what Ben could tell.<\/p>\n
“Joe!” Ben called louder.<\/p>\n
Still his son did not respond. Joe made no movement. He gave no indication of having heard Ben at all.<\/p>\n
Frantic, Ben called Joe’s name again and again. He felt Hoss stiffen beside him\u2026and heard thumping on the stairs, a sound that gave him an unexpected degree of comfort. Adam was coming\u2014as though Ben believed that somehow, just by standing close, Adam could pull them all through this horror.<\/p>\n
All this blood\u2026.<\/p>\n
There was so much of it. On Ben’s hands, and Hoss’s\u2026splattering the sheets they’d placed beneath and around Little Joe…absorbed deep into the fibers of gauze strips that had been hastily tossed to the floor\u2026.dappled on Hop Sing’s apron and shoes.<\/p>\n
And more was still pulsing from Joe’s wound.<\/p>\n
Yes<\/em>! Ben realized. Blood was still pulsing. Joe’s heart was still pumping.<\/p>\nA hand fell on Ben’s shoulder, and he sagged in relief. Closing his eyes\u2014only for a moment\u2014he drew a deep breath to stifle the sob he knew there was no need to release.<\/p>\n
“Why don’t you let me finish, Pa?” Adam’s voice was soft, calm\u2026comforting.<\/p>\n
Dully, Ben nodded. With hands that were inexplicably shaking\u2014for how long had they been shaking?<\/em>\u2014he gently placed the threaded needle onto a cloth resting on Joe’s chest.<\/p>\nThe boy didn’t move. But his lids eased shut again, as though he, too, had found relief.<\/p>\n
He’s going to be all right<\/em>, Ben told himself.\u00a0He’s going to be just fine<\/em>.<\/p>\nXxXxX<\/p>\n
It wasn’t until later in the night\u2014after all the evidence of Ben’s horror had been washed away and Joe lay sleeping in his own bed under Hoss’s watchful eye\u2014that the elder Cartwright was finally able to think clearly enough to wonder at the oddities of both the attack on Joe and that on Ralph Hinckley.<\/p>\n
“Did the boy say anything?” he asked finally, breaking a silence that had been reigned over by the crackle of burning logs in the fireplace beside him. “Anything at all, to either of you?” He looked first to the professor, sitting quietly in Adam’s chair, and then to Adam, who was standing at the hearth with one arm resting on his knee, staring into the flames.<\/p>\n
“While I was up there with him,” George Brodermann said softly, “young Billy was far too tired and frightened to speak.” The professor seemed almost too tired to speak, himself\u2026although something about his demeanor suggested to Ben that his weariness might be more mental than physical.<\/p>\n
Adam nodded. “And all he told me was the Indians took his grandfather’s hair\u2014or rather\u2026that they had\u00a0cut<\/em>\u00a0it off.”<\/p>\n“Don\u2019t you find that strange, Adam?” Ben asked.<\/p>\n
“Very.”<\/p>\n
“What is strange about it?” the professor asked. “Isn’t that what Indians do?”<\/p>\n
Adam’s jaw tightened visibly. “Indians collect scalps as trophies. Ralph Hinckley’s scalp could hardly be considered a trophy. He has\u2026had<\/em>\u2026more skin than hair; and he wouldn’t be considered a man of such prominence that evidence of his death would give a warrior prestige of any kind.”<\/p>\n“Your brother,” Brodermann said, his voice even softer than it had been a moment earlier, “you saved him from\u2026from being\u2026. Well, I can’t help but wonder. You don’t think this Hinckley fellow\u2026you don’t think he was still alive when he was scalped\u2026do you?”<\/p>\n
“I hope not,” Adam answered, almost equally soft. “And if he was, I hope he didn’t stay that way for long. I had to get Billy to safety. I couldn’t\u2026I just couldn’t go back for him.”<\/p>\n
“Of course, you couldn’t!” Ben said in as stern a voice as he could muster.\u00a0You were needed here<\/em>, he thought, holding his silence.\u00a0You are<\/em>\u00a0needed<\/em>.<\/p>\n“I should have.” Adam’s own voice was barely a whisper as he absently studied the tip of his thumb gliding across a fingernail. An instant later, he turned abruptly from the fire. “If it was you\u2026or Hoss\u2026I\u00a0would<\/em>\u00a0have. It shouldn’t be any different for any other man.”<\/p>\n“But it is,” Ben asserted. “You know it is.”<\/p>\n
“It shouldn’t be. Don’t you see that? Any man’s death diminishes me.\u00a0Any<\/em>\u00a0man\u2026.”<\/p>\n“But\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0in equal proportions!” Professor Brodermann said more sternly than Ben, suddenly speaking louder than before\u2014almost as loudly as when he’d been reciting the tale of Androcles to young Billy Hinckley. He sat taller as well, Ben noticed. “You are not John Donne. And this situation transcends philosophical debate.”<\/p>\n“Why?” Adam asked pointedly.<\/p>\n
“Because it is real!” the professor shot back with equal vehemence.<\/p>\n
Adam’s brow fell, his gaze narrowing in dismay. He glared at his old professor. “Isn’t that what philosophy is all about? What you\u00a0taught<\/em>\u00a0me it was about? Questioning the fabric of reality? Of what makes things real?”<\/p>\n“The reality of our current situation is far more\u2026real<\/em>\u2026than that damnable tree falling in the proverbial forest!”<\/p>\n“No, it most certainly is not!” Adam insisted. “When Ralph Hinckley fell he assuredly cried out, even if neither one of us was there to hear him!”<\/p>\n
Ben was aghast. “What is going on with the two of you? A man is dead, for heaven’s sake! Or\u2026or at least presumably so\u2026.”<\/p>\n
“That<\/em>, Pa!” Adam shouted, pointing an angry, accusatory finger at nothing at all. “That<\/em>\u00a0is what’s going on! What if he’s still alive out there, even now? I left him there. I abandoned him to\u2014”<\/p>\n“No!” Ben shouted right back at him. “You did not abandon him. You saved his grandson. You did what you had to do.”<\/p>\n
“Well, then now it’s time to do what\u00a0else<\/em>\u00a0I have to do.” Turning his back on his father, Adam strode purposefully toward the front door. “What I should have done the moment after I brought Billy back here.”<\/p>\n“Adam?”<\/p>\n
He grabbed his gunbelt from the credenza.<\/p>\n
“Adam?” Ben rose, moving toward his son. “What do you think you’re doing?”<\/p>\n
“I’m going to see to Mr. Hinckley.”<\/p>\n
“You can’t! You mustn’t! We don’t know if\u2014”<\/p>\n
“I can, and I must!” Adam set his hat on his head and reached for the latch. “If he is alive, I’ll take him straight to Paul Martin.”<\/p>\n
“Adam! Please!”<\/p>\n
“And if he isn’t, I’ll take him to the sheriff.”<\/p>\n
“God help me, Adam! It’s\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0I’m more concerned with.”<\/p>\nAdam sighed, the tense set of his shoulders easing. “I know, Pa,” he said in a softer tone. “I’ll be careful.”<\/p>\n
“You still don’t know what we’re facing. If it\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0Indians\u2014”<\/p>\n“Wait,” Professor Brodermann interrupted.<\/p>\n
Ben saw him rise slowly. The man seemed older somehow, as though the past hours had worn him even more thin than Ben’s family\u2026as though\u2026. “Your medicine!” he remembered suddenly. “We forgot. We all forgot. I’m so sorry! Adam, could you\u2014”<\/p>\n
“No.” The professor turned to face them. “Please. There’s something\u2026something I need to explain.”<\/p>\n
“Later,” Ben suggested, confused by the man’s timing. “Can’t it wait until\u2014”<\/p>\n
“You\u00a0know<\/em>.” Adam’s eyes were locked on the professor, his glower even more accusatory than his pointing finger had been a moment earlier. “Don’t you? You\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0who’s responsible.”<\/p>\nGeorge Brodermann’s responding sigh was so profound it caused his shoulders to sag. “I sincerely hope I’m wrong. I truly\u2026truly<\/em>\u00a0do. But\u2026perhaps\u2026yes; there is a chance that perhaps I do.”<\/p>\nXxXxX<\/p>\n
5<\/strong><\/p>\nHoss sat watching his little brother sleeping. He wished that’s all there was to it: Joe was just sleeping. But it was a lot more than that\u2014a lot more\u00a0worrisome<\/em>\u00a0than that. And none of it made any sense. The Indian who’d done this\u2026well, he sure didn’t act like no Indian Hoss had ever known. And if he really was a white man like Adam thought\u2026well dangnammit,\u00a0why<\/em>?<\/p>\nIt was probably a good thing the sound of raised voices coming from downstairs pulled Hoss from his thoughts, muddled as they were. But then a few moments later those same sounds pulled him from Joe’s side, too. What in tarnation was all that arguing about?<\/p>\n
Curious, he stepped into the hallway while keeping his eyes on Joe, and tried to listen to the conversation.\u00a0Did Adam just say he was going to check on Mr. Hinckley<\/em>? As curiosity turned to concern, Hoss let go of his attention on his little brother. Joe was sleeping pretty deep, anyway. And if Adam was going anywhere, Hoss sure didn’t want to find out about it after it was already too late to stop him.<\/p>\nOr to help him.<\/p>\n
Moving to the top of the stairs, Hoss looked down to see Pa, Adam and that professor fella all standing by the door. Adam was wearing his holster.\u00a0Oh no you don’t, older brother<\/em>. He took one step down, but then froze when he saw Adam give that professor one of those narrow-eyed glares of his.<\/p>\n“You\u00a0know<\/em>,” Adam said. “Don’t you? You know who’s responsible.”<\/p>\nHoss held his breath to listen to the professor’s response. And then he gripped the railing so tight he darned near tore it loose. Because Professor Brodermann admitted Adam was right.<\/p>\n
“Three years ago,” that professor told Adam and Pa then, “I found myself taking to a young student much the same as I took to you, Adam.”<\/p>\n
“This isn’t time for one of your stories,\u00a0professor<\/em>.” Adam’s voice was going as loud as it’d gotten when he’d pulled Hoss away from Joe. Maybe louder. “Get to the point!”<\/p>\n“Very well. I have reason to suspect these attacks have come at the hands of that very student. Heaven knows I hope I am wrong; but if I am not, then the only plausible explanation is that he has given in to madness.”<\/p>\n
Pa looked about ready to attack that professor, the way his shoulders rose up and his hands balled into fists at his side. “What sort of madness would turn a student into something so\u2026so savage?”<\/p>\n
The professor shook his head\u2014not a lot, just a little bit, almost like he wanted to turn away. “Last year, our discussions focused on the subject of educating Indians. An entire group of us spent hours debating the possibility of turning savages into civilized men.”<\/p>\n
Hoss took another two steps. He was ready to tell that man a thing or two about the differences between Indians\u2026and civilized men\u2026and\u00a0savages<\/em>. But then he froze again, because Adam said it even better.<\/p>\n“Whoever attacked Joe is more of a savage than any of Chief Winnemucca’s men ever were!”<\/p>\n
The professor inclined his head, like he agreed. “Which could in fact prove out the reverse\u2014that it is possible to turn a civilized man into a savage.”<\/p>\n
“What are you saying?”<\/p>\n
“Bradley\u00a0Decklin\u00a0has for many months insisted both hypotheses could prove true. Frankly, I’d been rather proud of his tenacity\u2026as well as his sense of compassion for Indians. Once he learned Sarah Winnemucca had attended school in California, he spent weeks developing a theory on the subject, one that favored the education and\u2026enlightenment<\/em>\u00a0of Indians.”<\/p>\n“How does that have anything to\u2014”<\/p>\n
The professor held up one hand. “Hear me out, Adam. Please. Young Mr.\u00a0Decklin\u00a0preceded me out here and enlisted my aid in testing that very theory.”<\/p>\n
“You!” Adam accused. “You sent Joe out there on purpose! That medicine of yours was nothing more than a\u2014”<\/p>\n
“A ruse.”<\/p>\n
“A\u00a0trap<\/em>!” Adam said almost over top of the professor.<\/p>\nThe professor shook his head this time like he meant it. “Not a trap. Not at all. I had no idea what Bradley was planning. He simply asked me to provide him with an opportunity to encounter your young brother privately. I honestly thought his purpose related to Sarah Winnemucca. In one of your letters you told me young Joseph had attempted to court her.”<\/p>\n
“You had no right to share that information with anyone!”<\/p>\n
“I saw no harm in doing so. Believe me, Adam\u2026and Ben\u2026I had no idea what exactly Bradley\u00a0Decklin\u00a0had planned. None at all. I didn’t want to know; I didn’t want to influence the results of Mr.\u00a0Decklin’s\u2026experiment<\/em>.”<\/p>\n“An\u00a0experiment<\/em>? He tried to kill my brother! Not to mention almost scalping him! You call that an\u00a0experiment<\/em>?”<\/p>\n“Indeed not. I call it madness. I never suspected his intentions could involve anything so horrific. To be honest, I thought he might simply ask Joseph for an introduction to Chief Winnemucca and his daughter.”<\/p>\n
“Then you’re slipping professor.” Adam’s voice was low and cold\u2014but strong enough to pull Hoss slowly, quietly the rest of the way down the stairs.<\/p>\n
“Slipping?” the professor asked.<\/p>\n
“Surely you used to be intelligent enough,” Adam’s voice started rising again, gaining volume with each word, “to realize it is far easier to ask for an introduction by first introducing yourself with a knock on the front door!”<\/p>\n
“Yes. Well. I also suspected he wanted to keep you\u2014and perhaps your father also\u2014unaware.”<\/p>\n
“Why?”<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t know.”<\/p>\n
Adam’s shoulders rose up, and Hoss almost expected him to bring up a fist then, too.<\/p>\n
But Pa eased his shoulders down a mite with a touch of his hand. “Professor\u2026,” Pa said, “George<\/em>\u2026all this speculation aside, do you really believe this Bradley\u00a0Decklin\u00a0could be capable of such cold-blooded\u2026savagery?”<\/p>\n“If you had asked me that question this morning, I would have said absolutely not. But\u2026.” The professor sighed heavily. “The more you have talked about the differences between these attacks and common Indian behavior has led me to examine Mr.\u00a0Decklin’s behavior more closely in my mind. I am forced to admit I have seen troubling signs in him over these past months. The changes have been subtle, but very real. And\u2026.”<\/p>\n
“And what?” Adam prodded when the professor’s voice trailed off, the man’s gaze moving to the ground as though he could see something there.<\/p>\n
“And\u2026well, there are two seemingly extraneous facts that suddenly appear to provide substantial circumstantial evidence against him. First, there was a series of disturbing animal\u2026mutilations\u2026occurring on the grounds back at Harvard before Mr.\u00a0Decklin\u00a0went on holiday. Raccoons and dogs, mostly. They’d been killed and\u2026scalped. Not skinned. Not butchered. Just\u2026scalped.”<\/p>\n
Hoss bristled, feeling his own hands ball into fists even tighter than his pa’s had moments earlier. When he walked up beside the professor, Pa gave him a small nod. It was enough to let Hoss know they stood together, but too danged subtle to loosen Hoss’s fists.<\/p>\n
“And what’s the second fact?” Pa asked, the set of his jaw as firm as Hoss’s felt.<\/p>\n
“Bradley\u00a0Decklin\u00a0is a champion archer.”<\/p>\n
Hoss couldn’t keep quiet anymore. “Sounds like evidence enough to string a man up. Maybe the man who put him up to it, too.” He felt Pa’s hand on his shoulder; but Pa should know better than to think he could hold Hoss back now. It didn’t much matter that Adam had looked up to Professor Brodermann all these years. Hoss was sure looking\u00a0down<\/em>\u00a0on him now. That man had sent Little Joe out there to die!<\/p>\nThe professor didn’t seem to know what was going on in Hoss’s thoughts. Or maybe\u2026in a way, he did. He inclined his head toward Hoss like he had with Adam earlier. It wasn’t quite a nod, but it still looked like he agreed with what Hoss had said. Like he agreed but wasn’t scared for his own self\u2026like he knew he’d done something he shouldn’t\u2026like he regretted it, and was ready to face up to it.<\/p>\n
And then Hoss realized his thoughts got all muddled again.<\/p>\n
“It was important for you to know this,” the professor said, “all of it, before you go out there and put yourself at potential risk. I can’t begin to guess what Mr.\u00a0Decklin\u00a0might do next, or who else he might choose to harm. His actions are simply beyond my comprehension at this point.”<\/p>\n
“Thank<\/em>\u00a0you, professor,” Adam said stiffly before turning his attention again to the door. “At least now I know what we’re up against. One man is a lot easier to avoid than a war party.”<\/p>\nHoss wasn’t so sure. Throwing one final glare at the professor, he gave his attention fully over to his older brother. “One man or not, he’s a killer, Adam. A cold-blooded killer. I’m goin’ with you.”<\/p>\n
“Joe needs you here.”<\/p>\n
“No he don’t. He’s got Pa and Hop Sing to look out for him. You need me more. Between the two of us, that animal won’t stand a chance.”<\/p>\n
“Please.” The professor’s sudden, urgent appeal surprised Hoss. When he looked the professor’s way again, he saw the fear he’d expected a moment before. Only\u2026only it still didn’t seem to be directed at his own self. It sure seemed like he was afraid for Hoss and Adam, instead; and Hoss felt a prickle of fear creep up his own spine. “Be safe,” the professor added. “Don’t let him harm anyone else.”<\/p>\n
Then Pa cleared his throat, and Hoss felt that prickle fade away. “Once you reach Virginia City,” Pa said, “stay there tonight. I don’t want either of you on that road before dawn. It’s bad enough you have to go out now, dark as it is. It’s only for Mr. Hinckley’s sake I’m allowing it at all. There’s no point to being out any longer than absolutely necessary. Is that understood?”<\/p>\n
Hoss shared a worried glance with Adam. “But Joe\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Joe is fine for now!” Pa said it like he was daring God to prove him wrong. “He will be fine long enough for Doctor Martin to get out here tomorrow. And as for the two of you, ride back with a posse, if you can.”<\/p>\n
“We will, Pa,” Adam answered before Hoss had a chance. Then he took hold of Hoss’s arm, making it clear he was ready to pull Hoss right out the door with him.<\/p>\n
Hoss didn’t even have time to glance up at the empty staircase where his thoughts wanted to take him. He just grabbed his holster and headed out after Adam. And then he wasn’t sure what he was really aiming to do. Did he want to avoid that madman they knew was out there\u2026 or find him?<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
6<\/strong><\/p>\n“God go with you,” Ben said silently as he watched his sons ride into the darkness. But after he stepped back into the house and closed the door behind him, finding himself face-to-face with the professor, God’s grace was suddenly the furthest thing from his mind. “Experiments!” He spat the word, wanting no part of it. “Games!” he corrected then. “How dare you play games with people’s lives?”<\/p>\n
The professor shook his head. “I had no idea. You must understand, I would never have asked Joseph to\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Not just Joe. No. You played a game with that\u00a0Decklin\u00a0boy’s life just as much as you did with Little Joe.”<\/p>\n
The professor’s expression changed then, shifting from guilt-ridden to offended. He drew his back up straighter and met Ben’s glare with a milder one of his own. “Bradley\u00a0Decklin\u00a0was my student. I treated him no differently than I did Adam, when\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0was under my tutelage.”<\/p>\nBen saw it then. He saw it so clearly he could hardly comprehend how he had overlooked it before. “Yes,” he said softly, coldly, turning the word into a small hiss. “I imagine you did, at that.\u00a0Just<\/em>\u00a0the way you treated Adam.” He shook his head and walked to his desk. “You played games with Adam, too. And I laughed. I saw how uncomfortable those stories of yours made him, and yet I laughed. How could I have been so cruel to my own son?” He asked the question quietly, expecting no answer\u2026knowing the answer he needed to hear would never come as he gazed longingly\u2026guiltily at his picture of Adam’s mother, Elizabeth.<\/p>\n“Your son needed to be enlightened with humility, Ben. Most young men do at that age. As you saw yourself, he grew to appreciate those lessons.”<\/p>\n
Gently setting the picture back in its place, Ben swiveled around to face him. “No. Not lessons.\u00a0Games<\/em>. Adam grew to appreciate the spirited discussions, the arguments that stretched his way of seeing the world. But the games? No. He was as uncomfortable as I have ever seen him while we sat in that room and laughed at how you had\u00a0enlightened<\/em>\u00a0him with humility. We should all be ashamed. You, most of all.”<\/p>\n“I disagree. My methods have\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Your methods have turned a young man into a savage,\u00a0Professor<\/em>\u00a0Brodermann. Do you feel no shame in that?”<\/p>\n“Surely you know madness is a disease. There was nothing I could have done to cause it\u2026or to stop it.”<\/p>\n
“How can you be so sure? You, yourself, talked about turning civilized men into savages. What greater madness could there be than that?”<\/p>\n
“Please! You are over-simplifying a highly complex series of\u2014”<\/p>\n
“No. You are complicating a very simple fact. Bradley\u00a0Decklin\u00a0has been afflicted with a madness that has turned a civilized man into a savage. Whether or not you caused it, you most certainly encouraged it.”<\/p>\n
The professor sighed. “I am sorry you see it that way. Of course I understand how your current emotional distress could color your thinking; and for that I see no point to further debate on the matter.”<\/p>\n
“Well, you’re right in one regard. There is no point to further debate. Now you will have to excuse me. I have an injured son to look after!”<\/p>\n
Angered almost beyond thought, Ben started toward the stairs, his stomach churning with concern for all three of his sons, when a heavy thud at the front door pulled him back. The professor stiffened, looking suddenly more curious than affronted\u2026and not the least bit afraid. But Ben\u00a0was<\/em>\u00a0afraid. What if Adam and Hoss had been forced to turn back? Yet if they had, what would stop them at the door, preventing them from opening it?<\/p>\nHe had no thought to his own safety when he hastily pulled the door open to what was very clearly a grim message from Bradley\u00a0Decklin, himself. The nearly hairless scalp of Ralph Hinckley had been skewered with a knife planted deep into the thick wood.<\/p>\n
“Good lord!” Professor Brodermann said in a horrified whisper.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Ben should have closed the door then, but he didn’t. He stood in the threshold looking out into the yard.\u00a0Decklin was there. He could feel the man watching him. “Show yourself!” he shouted. “If it’s savagery you’re after, allow me to teach you the meaning of the word!” He could feel his eye twitching. His fingers curled inward, instinctively trying to grip the gun he’d left holstered on the credenza. “Even an Indian knows when to accept a challenge! Are you so much of a coward you would refuse\u2014” An arrow plunked into the doorframe beside him. “Yes. A coward! No Indian brave would blindly shoot an unarmed challenger!”<\/p>\n
There was a rustling in the bushes beside the barn. And then another, further back.<\/p>\n
Ben started when something brushed his hand. Professor Brodermann was trying to get him to take hold of his gun. “No,” Ben said softly. He cast another quick glance around the yard, and then closed the door. “I won’t go after him. That’s exactly what he wants me to do.”<\/p>\n
Instead, Ben prepared himself for a long night of watching and waiting. And then he went into the kitchen to prepare Hop Sing.<\/p>\n
At least one thing gave him peace of mind. If Bradley\u00a0Decklin\u00a0was there at the house, Adam and Hoss were safe. Now all Ben needed to do was keep that monster from getting any closer than he already had.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
7<\/strong><\/p>\nAdam and Hoss encountered no trouble on the road to the Hinckley farm. Nor did they come across anything unusual when they arrived. While still mounted, a cursory search of the main property around the house revealed nothing unusual. The corral had not been disturbed; the fencing remained secure and unbroken. The barn was closed up as would be expected for the night. The house was quiet, with only a thin, red glow showing through the open front window\u2014most likely the last embers of a dying fire.<\/p>\n
All in all, there were no signs of a struggle.\u00a0And where was Ralph Hinckley<\/em>?<\/p>\nSharing a bewildered glance with Hoss, Adam dismounted and reached for the lantern he’d affixed to his saddle. He was both grateful he’d had the foresight to take it with him, and fearful of how the light would affect his vision, stealing his ability to see clearly beyond its small circle of illumination. It couldn’t be helped if he wanted to find Mr. Hinckley amidst the depths of this particular night’s shadows.<\/p>\n
But it wasn’t the light that proved to be his undoing. It was the act of\u00a0lighting<\/em>\u00a0the lantern. His attention to the details around him was given over just long enough to make him jump like a skittish dog at the feel of Hoss’s hand tapping his arm.<\/p>\n“Hey, Adam,” Hoss whispered. His own lantern had been left on the ground an arms-length away. “I think we got company.”<\/p>\n
Adam’s skittishness increased tenfold. He held the lantern outward, keeping it low to lessen the glare on his eyes, and started to scan it around in a circle. “What’d you hear?” he whispered back.<\/p>\n
“Nothin’. It’s my gut tells me we ain’t alone here.”<\/p>\n
Relaxing, Adam started to swivel toward Hoss when he realized the outer edges of the light seemed to have touched something no more than twenty feet away. He swung the lantern back only to find a dark object, a shadow where no shadow ought to be. His free hand moved to the gun at his hip.<\/p>\n
“Hold, Adam Cartwright,” a gruff voice called from where the shadow stood. It sounded familiar\u2026yet\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0at the same time, and was somehow neither friendly nor threatening.<\/p>\n“Who’s there?” Adam called out. “Show yourself.”<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, the shadow obliged. Adam’s light landed first on a moccasin, then on the leather fringe of an Indian brave’s trousers. Next came a sinewy fist wrapped around a lance set butt-end on the ground. Finally, Adam saw the painted face of a Paiute, a man he recognized from Chief Winnemucca’s tribe\u2014a man who had threatened Little Joe once before\u2026.<\/p>\n
The man Sarah Winnemucca had been destined to marry when Joe had tried courting her.<\/p>\n
“Lean Knife?” Adam’s hand remained poised above his gun. He knew it would be foolish to draw now, with six Paiute braves ready to kill both him and Hoss. But he wanted to. Oh\u2026he wanted to. It had been the Paiutes all along! How could he have gotten it so wrong? Even Professor Brodermann had been wrong. His student hadn’t attacked Little Joe.<\/p>\n
“I do not come to fight you, Adam Cartwright.”<\/p>\n
“No,” Adam shot back, as angry at himself as he was at Lean Knife. “It was only Little Joe, wasn’t it? You’ve hated him all this time. So why did you wait until now? And why Ralph Hinckley? He never\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Hold,<\/em>\u00a0Adam Cartwright!” Lean Knife stepped closer. “I come to fight only one man, a man whose name is\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>Cartwright.”<\/p>\nAdam stared at him. It made no sense. Nothing made any sense anymore. “Ralph Hinckley?” He could not keep the disbelief from his voice.<\/p>\n
“No. I come to fight the man who killed Ralph Hinckley.”<\/p>\n
Suddenly anger gave way to curiosity. “You know this man? You’ve seen him?”<\/p>\n
“Lean Knife not see him. He-who-is-no-longer-my-brother see him, give him Paiute clothes for white man’s clothes and firewater. Bring shame to Winnemucca.”<\/p>\n
“I don’t understand.”<\/p>\n
“He-who-is-no-longer-my-brother return to Winnemucca’s camp wearing white man’s clothes. Stink of white man’s firewater. Say white man take Paiute clothes.”<\/p>\n
” \\Decklin,” Adam said through clenched teeth.<\/p>\n
“Deck-lin?”<\/p>\n
“That’s the man’s name, the man who took your brother’s clothes. He tried to kill Little Joe. Apparently, he wanted to make it look like a brave from your tribe was responsible.”<\/p>\n
“If he only\u00a0try<\/em>, not kill, then Adam Cartwright know this man\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0Paiute brave.”<\/p>\nStrangely, Adam smiled. It was a cold smile, borne of his relief to find the Paiutes truly had not been at fault. “He wasn’tany<\/em>\u00a0kind of brave, that’s for sure,” Adam offered, remembering how Bradley\u00a0Decklin had run from him in the yard. “But you’re right. I knew he wasn’t a Paiute, although he did everything he could to make himself look like one.”<\/p>\nAdam tried once more to pull all the pieces together. “Now, if you didn’t see him kill Mr. Hinckley, how do you know he did it?”<\/p>\n
“Lean Knife not see. He-who-is-no-longer-my-brother see. Return to camp. Risk death to tell Lean Knife white man do these things. He-who-is-no-longer-my-brother see white man dressed like Paiute attack Little Joe. Then follow white man here, see attack on Ralph Hinckley.”<\/p>\n
“Wait just a minute,” Hoss interrupted. “You’re tellin’ us this brother of yours watched both attacks? Why didn’t he try and stop ’em?”<\/p>\n
Lean Knife’s eyes grew dark. Dangerous. “He-who-is-no-longer-my-brother say he can bring white man to Chief Winnemucca to punish. Restore honor. But wait to give proof, show Winnemucca he not lie.”<\/p>\n
Adam stiffened. “What kind of proof?”<\/p>\n
“He-who-is-no-longer-my-brother return to Winnemucca’s camp with body of Ralph Hinckley. No white man wearing Paiute clothes.”<\/p>\n
So it was true. Mr. Hinckley was dead. Adam realized he felt a wash of relief along with remorse at hearing this news. It would be better to be dead, he thought, than to endure the agony of being scalped. Of course, poor Billy would probably not agree. The boy had already lost his parents. Now his grandfather was also gone.<\/p>\n
“If he didn’t catch him,” Hoss asked, “why’d he go back to Winnemucca?”<\/p>\n
“To warn of white man bringing dishonor to Winnemucca.”<\/p>\n
“That’s got to count for somethin’ in gettin’ his own honor back,” Hoss said hopefully. “Don’t it?”<\/p>\n
“He-who-is-no-longer-my-brother fail. Lean knife will not fail.”<\/p>\n
Adam met Hoss’s confused gaze and gave a small shake of his head.\u00a0Don’t push it. The man is probably dead or dying by now for causing so much dishonor<\/em>.<\/p>\n“Lean Knife will protect Winnemucca honor,” the Paiute added.<\/p>\n
“I believe you,” Adam said honestly.\u00a0Lean Knife will find\u00a0<\/em>Decklin, all right. And God help that boy when he does<\/em>. “We intend to look for him also. We’re going into Virginia City to get a posse together. Come morning, there will be so many men on his trail, he won’t stand a chance.”<\/p>\n“Come morning<\/em>,” Lean Knife repeated, “no need for posse. Lean Knife find\u00a0Decklin tonight.”<\/p>\n“You can’t be serious,” Hoss said. “It’s too dark out here now to pick up a trail.”<\/p>\n
There was something in Lean Knife’s glare that told Adam he already\u00a0had<\/em>\u00a0found a trail. “You know where he’s gone?”<\/p>\n“To Ponderosa.” Lean Knife nodded his head forward, just once. “To house of Adam Cartwright.”<\/p>\n
Adam felt the chill prickle of fear lift his spine up straighter. They should have stayed home.\u00a0Dammit<\/em>! Why hadn’t they just stayed\u00a0home<\/em>? “I’ll go with you, if you don’t mind,” he said then. “Hoss, you go on to Virginia Ci\u2014”<\/p>\n“No,” Hoss cut in. “Ain’t no way I’m leavin’ you right now.” Adam saw the way his brother’s eyes lingered on Lean Knife’s small but dangerous war party, making it clear Hoss didn’t\u2014or wouldn’t\u2014fully trust them. “If Lean Knife here thinks he can find this\u00a0Decklin fella’, won’t be any need to get a posse anyhow.”<\/p>\n
“I suppose you’re right.” Suddenly Adam\u00a0did<\/em>\u00a0feel confident it would be all over by morning. One way or another, Bradley Decklin\u00a0would be brought to justice for what he’d done to Little Joe\u2026and to Ralph Hinckley. Privately, Adam hoped the man would face Winnemucca’s justice rather than Sheriff Coffee’s. But outwardly he knew he had to do what he could.<\/p>\nAdam had to at least\u00a0try<\/em>\u00a0to make sure Bradley\u00a0Decklin\u00a0was still drawing breath long enough to be introduced to the Virginia City jail.<\/p>\nXxXxX<\/p>\n
8<\/strong><\/p>\nA wisp of sound pulled at Joe. He felt it brush his cheek and tingle along the top of his hand. A breeze? No. A sound.<\/p>\n
Arguing.<\/p>\n
Pa was arguing with someone. But they were a long way away. Or a long time. An echo riding the back of a leaf that could never quite settle\u2026a leaf Joe wanted to grab out of the air, to take hold of in the hand it tingled.<\/p>\n
But his hand refused to move. And the leaf was drifting further away.<\/p>\n
Pa?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nHe couldn’t speak. His pa had a voice, distant, but true. And yet Joe had none.<\/p>\n
The leaf brushed his nose with a light, feathery flutter, and Hop Sing’s voice joined Pa’s. They rode the swells of rain-washed echoes\u2026drifting closer.<\/p>\n
Pa?<\/em>\u00a0Joe tried again. This time he could feel the word forming on his lips; still no sound came.<\/p>\nThe leaf became a boat he couldn’t quite reach, drifting tauntingly close only to move away again, further and further away. He was floundering in a heavy current that wanted to pull him under.<\/p>\n
“Pa?” he had to reach that leaf. That\u2026boat<\/em>. Finally, his fingers curled, clutching…fabric.<\/p>\nAnd the leaf came to rest, settling onto the mattress beside him. In its wake he crested a wave that thrust him straight into the jaws of a monster.<\/p>\n
His chest…oh, God, it hurt!\u00a0<\/em>With every breath. With every….<\/p>\n“Pa,” he breathed. It was a whisper that needed no leaf to guide it.<\/p>\n
Joe opened his eyes to his own darkened room. Lit only by the dim glow of the lamp on his nightstand, it was enough to show him he was alone, except for the stray that had curled up beside him.<\/p>\n
Pa would be furious when he discovered a dog was in the house. But Joe liked the feel of it there next to him, especially with Pa shouting so angrily downstairs. It made him feel\u2026not alone.<\/p>\n
Joe was in trouble again, wasn’t he? And this dog was just going to get him into more trouble. But it was here already. Shooing it downstairs would only make Pa madder. Joe might as well let it stay right where it was.<\/p>\n
He closed his eyes again, ready to settle himself back to sleep, when the dog shifted in its own sleep, sniffling and wrapping its tiny hand around Joe’s arm.<\/p>\n
Its hand?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nJoe’s eyelids flew open. He turned his head just enough to look at the dog…at the\u00a0boy<\/em>\u00a0in the bed beside him…a boy he knew…a young orphan who had been sent to live with his grandfather after losing his parents to an outbreak of influenza.<\/p>\n“Billy?” This time Joe found himself saying the word in something more than a whisper.<\/p>\n
Still it wasn’t loud enough to pull the boy out of his slumber. And maybe…maybe Joe\u00a0shouldn’t<\/em>\u00a0wake him. Billy’s cheeks were streaked with tears that were only just beginning to dry. Joe didn’t have the heart to make him start crying again. He saw himself in that little boy, crying himself to sleep, curled up in big brother Adam’s bed during all those long, lonely nights shortly after his mother had died.<\/p>\nNo. Joe couldn’t wake Billy. He didn’t know why the boy was there\u2014why he was even in the house\u2014but since he was, Joe might as well leave him be.<\/p>\n
Although… Billy would get cold, lying like he was on top of the bed covers rather than tucked underneath. Joe started to push himself up, to remedy that situation. But the stab the movement brought to his wound was as bad as it had been when the arrow had first found him.\u00a0Worse<\/em>, even. And just as the shock of that arrow plunging into him had spiraled Joe into darkness, the shock of this simple movement in his own bed sent him spiraling once more.<\/p>\nXxXxX<\/p>\n
When he opened his eyes again, Joe could tell time had passed; the currents of it felt different around him. He had no idea how\u00a0much<\/em>\u00a0time, but the shouting downstairs had ended. The house was silent…almost painfully silent. He heard nothing but the soft breaths of the sleeping child beside him.<\/p>\nBilly<\/em>. There was a blanket draped over him now, proof that Pa had come. And gone.<\/p>\nAs bewildered as Joe had been to find the boy there earlier, he was even more confused now to know that Pa had let Billy remain. Joe knew his wound couldn’t be jostled. Even the slightest movement stole his breath and threatened to send him spiraling again. Pa would know that, too\u2014better than Joe, even, knowing Pa\u2014and would enforce whatever demands he had to, to prevent Joe from moving, let alone being jostled.<\/p>\n
But Pa had let Billy remain.<\/p>\n
And Joe was glad. There was something comforting in the feel of that child beside him, as though, somehow, just having Billy there could be enough to keep the darkness at bay. There was something cold in the darkness, something\u2026chilling. But the boy was warm. And as Joe closed his eyes this time, he floated on the currents of sleep rather than sinking into darkness.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
The next time Joe opened his eyes, he found himself facing a different kind of darkness. His heart was already beating hard and heavy against his chest, heavy enough to cause his wound to throb angrily, burning like fire. He struggled for every halting breath. But\u2026why?<\/em><\/p>\nA crash downstairs made him tense, turning the fire into a blade. He fought against the spiral. Something was wrong. Very wrong.<\/p>\n
“Take it!” Pa shouted.<\/p>\n
“I will not harm that boy!” The professor\u2026. Joe had almost forgotten about the professor. Professor Brodermann had wanted Joe to get his medicine for him. But\u2014<\/p>\n
“Take it!” Pa shouted again, louder this time. “He’s a\u00a0savage<\/em>! A\u00a0killer<\/em>!\u00a0Not<\/em>\u00a0a boy!”<\/p>\nThe boy beside Joe kicked out, punching his small foot into Joe’s thigh\u2014nudging Joe just a little\u2026just enough to reawaken that stabbing fire in Joe’s chest. He held his breath as the darkness swirled around him, pulling him downward. He could hear nothing but the rush of a river\u2026a raging river\u2026the river of his own blood, pulsing through him with every violent throb of his chest.<\/p>\n
And then\u2026it was quiet again.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Joe took a breath\u2026and another\u2026and looked up at his ceiling. His gaze traveled in a path toward his closed door\u2026and then shifted\u2026moving to the window. The open window.<\/p>\n
A cold breeze was flitting through the curtains, causing them to wave out like two flags\u2026two white flags of surrender.<\/p>\n
No. Joe wasn’t going to surrender. He knew that even without knowing what sort of a fight he was facing.<\/p>\n
As the boy stirred beside him, Joe turned his gaze\u2026and saw a blue-eyed Indian looking down at him.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
“You’re supposed to be dead,” the Indian said. “I can’t do this if you’re not dead.” He didn’t sound like an Indian any more than he looked like one. His speech was\u2026too clean.<\/p>\n
“Then don’t do it,” Joe answered, wishing his voice was stronger. Wishing\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0was stronger. The white flags of his curtains flapped toward him again. He willed himself to ignore them.<\/p>\n“I have to. But how can I?”<\/p>\n
There was a noise downstairs. Men talking. Not just Pa and the professor this time. No. There were others. Adam was there, too. And Hoss.<\/p>\n
“You have to be dead.”<\/p>\n
Joe had forgotten the Indian. He’d been floating on the sound of voices, listening for Pa’s and wondering what his brothers were saying, wondering also who else was with them. Hearing the strange Indian’s voice right beside him again surprised Joe. He turned his head and looked into eyes as blue as Hoss’s, but far less certain. “You’re afraid,” Joe realized. Shouldn’t\u00a0Joe<\/em>\u00a0be afraid? The blue-eyed Indian clutched a knife, his fingers loosening and tightening their grip by turns. But his blue eyes weren’t right. They weren’t angry or cold, just\u2026afraid.<\/p>\n“I’ll have to kill you first. Why didn’t you just\u2026just die like you were supposed to?” His brows pulled down\u2026not in anger, but confusion.<\/p>\n
While that blue-eyed Indian was getting more and more confused, Joe was finding his own thoughts getting less muddled. “You shot that arrow?” He received nothing more than a somewhat less bewildered gaze in response. “Why?”<\/p>\n
“It’s easier that way.”<\/p>\n
“What is?”<\/p>\n
“Killing. It’s\u2026surprisingly easy.” The blue-eyed Indian sounded like a polished easterner. “Have you ever tried it? From a distance like that, it’s almost like playing a game.” Confusion gave way to excitement. His blue eyes grew wider, more\u2026alive.<\/p>\n
“You’re not sane.” Fear\u00a0did<\/em>\u00a0begin to creep in then. Joe could feel it in the heavier beat of his heart, the more painful throb of his wound.<\/p>\n“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m just trying to prove that we are the same, Indians and white men.”<\/p>\n
“You don’t need to kill to do that.”<\/p>\n
The blue-eyed Indian started to look confused again. “It would hurt too much if you weren’t dead.”<\/p>\n
“What?” Joe’s thoughts were getting muddled again. He couldn’t make any sense of the blue-eyed Indian’s words.<\/p>\n
“Scalping.” He said it like the answer should have been obvious, almost\u2026scoffing<\/em>\u2026at Joe for needing to ask. “Seems to me, a man would rather be dead. And it’s only natural you’d fight me.”<\/p>\nJoe’s heart beat heavier still. His fingers curled into the bedding. “Scalping?” Was it possible this polished easterner who dressed like an Indian would actually go so far as to scalp someone? It was\u2026insane<\/em>, just as Joe had thought earlier. The man was mad. And he was in Joe’s room. And Joe\u2026. Joe had no strength to fight him. None at all.<\/p>\n“Indians collect scalps as trophies, you know. If I want to prove myself to Sarah Winnemucca, I have to give her yours.”<\/p>\n
“Sarah?” Joe choked on the word, his voice fading as the darkness began to swirl around him again. “Sarah’s my friend.” He forced the words out through clenched teeth while the curtains fluttered again. He couldn’t give in. Not now, not\u2026 “You would never survive the\u2014”<\/p>\n
“No!” the blue-eyed Indian said excitedly. “It’s more than that! Don’t you see?” He waved his hands like a conductor in front of an orchestra, the knife acting as his baton. “She’s\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0than your friend. You wanted to court her.”<\/p>\n“How could you know th\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Your brother might not have said it directly, but reading between the lines\u2014”<\/p>\n
“My brother?” Joe’s voice fluttered like the curtains. The strange Indian ignored him.<\/p>\n
“It seems pretty clear she wanted to\u00a0let<\/em>\u00a0you court her. But she’d already been spoken for to a man she had no choice but to accept. It’s a classic story, a plot that’s been visited again and again throughout history. It transcends cultures.” He was grinning then. “I just\u2026I need to prove that. If I can reach the Paiutes through Sarah, I can show them that we’re driven by the same motives, the same hopes and fears and yearnings.”<\/p>\n“By killing me?”<\/p>\n
“Well\u2026no. Not really. I told you. It’s not about the killing. It’s about the trophy, the gift for Sarah, to show her I understand.”<\/p>\n
“But you\u00a0don’t<\/em>. You don’t understand.”<\/p>\n“Apparently, I am the only one who does! But my work will change all of that.”<\/p>\n
“All you’ll do is get yourself killed.”<\/p>\n
“No!” the false Indian shouted. And then his blue eyes went dark, after all. “I already told you!” He pointed the knife accusingly at Joe. “You’re not listening! Why can’t I get anyone to listen to me?”<\/p>\n
Joe felt a stirring beside him.\u00a0Billy<\/em>\u2026. “Look,” he said softly, his voice coming out as little more than a breathy whisper. “Why don’t you get out of here now? While you still can.”<\/p>\n“It’s not finished. I have to\u2026have to finish it.”<\/p>\n
“It\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0finished. You can’t\u2026. And Sarah\u2026.” Joe was finding it harder to breathe. Each inhalation brought agony, and the darkness kept spiraling, trying to pull him in. “Sarah’s married. It’s too\u2026too late.”<\/p>\n“No,” the blue-eyed Indian’s voice changed from angry to pleading. “It’s too important. Don’t you see? This could change everything. Everything.”<\/p>\n
Billy screamed. Joe jumped at the shrill sound, jerking at his wound. His head swam. He could feel the boy grabbing at his arm, but he couldn’t do anything in response. All he could do was fight to stay afloat.<\/p>\n
And then he felt fingers in his hair.<\/p>\n
His head was yanked backward. A sharp sting cut into the top of his forehead. He heard the curtains flutter, but could no longer see the white flags. It didn’t matter. He had no choice but to surrender.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
9<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile Lean Knife explained to Adam’s father why his fellow Paiute braves were prowling around outside, Professor Brodermann had his eye on the staircase. Adam watched him edge ever closer, finding himself curious, maybe even suspicious as to why.<\/p>\n
By the time the professor reached the foot of the stairs, Adam decided it was time to find out. “Something bothering you, professor?”<\/p>\n
His old mentor gave him a bewildered look. “I’m not sure. I thought perhaps I heard some\u2014” A piercing scream from above cut him off.<\/p>\n
Adam reached the top landing almost before he’d even realized he was moving. As the screams continued, he followed them to Joe’s room, where he found a sight as bizarre as it was horrific. The false Indian, Bradley\u00a0Decklin, had one hand wrapped around the scruff of young Billy Hinckley’s neck. In his other hand was a knife, and Billy was doing everything he could to make him drop it. The boy’s arms were thrashing wildly about, landing punches on\u00a0Decklin’s chest and arms. Poor Joe was in the midst of it all. Though his face was obscured in the melee, it looked as though Billy was stepping on him to get closer to\u00a0Decklin. Adam found himself hoping Joe wasn’t conscious.<\/p>\n
When Billy kicked out at\u00a0Decklin’s groin, Adam took it as an opportunity to stop\u00a0Decklin\u00a0where he stood. He rushed forward\u2026but the boy’s kick wasn’t as hard as Adam had hoped.<\/p>\n
Furious and now aware of Adam’s presence,\u00a0Decklin\u00a0wrapped his arm around the boy, pulling Billy to his chest. He swiveled to face Adam, stepping away from Joe’s bed and holding the knife to Billy’s throat. Adam was sick to see the blade already glistening with fresh blood. Thank heavens it didn’t look as though the blood was Billy’s. But that meant it could only be Joe’s.<\/p>\n
Feeling sicker still, Adam didn’t dare pull his eyes away from\u00a0Decklin. “Haven’t you done enough harm already?”<\/p>\n
Decklin’s eyes were wide, his chest heaving with panting breaths. He was trapped, and he knew it. But was he a man or an animal? A trapped animal would have nothing to lose, but a trapped man might still be able to reason.<\/p>\n
“Let the boy go,” Adam went on, surprised to find that he sounded calm despite the fear and anger roiling inside him. “You’ll gain nothing by hurting him.”<\/p>\n
“Mr.\u00a0Decklin!” Professor Brodermann’s voice behind Adam was commanding enough to make him jerk. It was the same for Bradley\u00a0Decklin; Adam saw him flinch. “You are to release that boy at once. Do you hear me?”<\/p>\n
Billy started crying.\u00a0Decklin’s grip loosened, lowering the boy by inches, the knife pulling away but still held dangerous close. “You have to let me finish,”\u00a0Decklin\u00a0said then. “Take the boy downstairs with you and leave me be.” He sounded composed. Rational. Not at all like a disheveled man dressed as an Indian and holding a blood-dampened knife to a child.<\/p>\n
“Leave you be to do what?” the professor asked.<\/p>\n
“What I came here to do. Please. You’ll understand when I complete my research. I’ll be famous. We both will. They’ll be writing about this for decades to come.”<\/p>\n
Adam had heard enough. “What they’ll be writing about is a madman who attacked two innocent men and left them to die. Don’t add this boy to the mix.”<\/p>\n
“No! That’s not it at all. It’s about human nature. It’s about Indians and\u2014”\u00a0Decklin\u00a0 ‘s eyes went wide again. When Adam followed his gaze, he saw Lean Knife entering the room, looking very much like the warrior he was. His back was straight and tall, his eyes cold, his jaw rigid.<\/p>\n
“You are the white man who took Paiute clothes from he-who-is-no-longer-my-brother.” Lean Knife walked forward as though he was oblivious to the stand-off.<\/p>\n
“I gave him my own in return.\u00a0And<\/em>\u00a0whiskey.”\u00a0Decklin\u00a0grinned, clearly expecting approval.<\/p>\nLean Knife scowled instead. “Firewater! You bring shame to he-who-is-no-longer-my-brother. You bring shame to Chief Winnemucca!”<\/p>\n
Decklin\u00a0looked confused. He shook his head. “No. I\u2014 Hey!”<\/p>\n
Billy sank his teeth into\u00a0Decklin’s arm.\u00a0Decklin\u00a0instinctively released his grip, dropping Billy to the floor. When the boy darted forward, Adam scooped him up and passed him back to Hoss, happy to find his brother so close behind him. Then Adam saw Professor Brodermann’s face go pale. He turned back to\u00a0Decklin\u00a0and instantly saw why. Lean Knife had already taken the advantage. He had Bradley\u00a0Decklin’s knife pressed up against Bradley\u00a0Decklin’s throat.<\/p>\n
“You make white men believe Paiute kill for no reason. When Paiute kill, always there is good reason. You make war come to Paiute and white men for no reason!”<\/p>\n
“N-no!”\u00a0Decklin’s Adam’s apple bobbed against the blade. “I only\u2026only wanted to give Sarah a gift!” The blade bit into his neck.<\/p>\n
“You’d be wise to keep quiet,” Adam warned.<\/p>\n
“But Sarah\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Is Lean Knife’s wife!” Adam said flatly.<\/p>\n
“You bring gift to Lean Knife’s woman?” The blade bit deeper. A dribble of blood spilled to\u00a0Decklin\u2019s collarbone.<\/p>\n
“O-only to show I understood. I\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Don’t.” Joe called out from his bed. His voice was weak, but his tone was strong enough to draw Lean Knife’s hand back visibly.<\/p>\n
Startled and relieved, Adam finally looked at his little brother and was shocked to find Joe’s face covered in blood. A closer look showed an ugly cut along his hairline. Adam stepped slowly toward him.<\/p>\n
“This man is not worth Lean Knife’s time,” Joe said softly. “He’s mad\u2026loco. Lean Knife\u2026is a warrior. This man is a\u2026a skunk.”<\/p>\n
Adam felt his lips curl up unexpectedly at Joe’s description. Meeting Joe’s gaze then, his little brother grinned back at him. It looked\u2026disturbing<\/em>\u00a0beneath that blood, but it was a welcome sight, nonetheless.<\/p>\n“Joe’s right,” Adam added. “He is a white man who committed crimes against other white men. Leave him to us. We’ll see to it that he is appropriately punished.”<\/p>\n
“He bring shame to Winnemucca!” Lean Knife argued. “He would bring gift to Lean Knife’s woman!”<\/p>\n
“He’s lost his mind,” Adam reasoned. “He didn’t know what he was doing.”<\/p>\n
“He take Lean Knife’s brother!” This last was said with such vehemence, Adam was taken aback. All this time, Lean Knife had spoken of his brother as though he had already steeled his heart against the man. Yet now\u2026now<\/em>\u00a0Lean Knife showed that losing his brother had caused him pain\u2026a kind of pain Adam could understand only too well, the kind that had been threatening him since he’d first seen Little Joe with that arrow sticking out of his chest.<\/p>\n“I understand,” Adam said sincerely. “But he is mad. Insane. I don’t know your word for it, but he does bad things because he can’t comprehend what\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Stop it!”\u00a0Decklin\u00a0 shouted then. “Stop talking about me like I’m not here! I can speak for myself!”<\/p>\n
“I wouldn’t advise it,” Adam warned.<\/p>\n
“I don’t care what you would ad\u2014”<\/p>\n
“Mr.\u00a0Decklin\u00a0!” the professor demanded again. “If you value your life you will hold silent this instant!”<\/p>\n
Adam looked at his old mentor, losing himself for a moment to memories of a time when that voice of authority had meaning for him. But now\u2026now the man sounded like nothing more than a father scolding his child\u2026a young and foolish child. Had the professor sounded like that all those years ago? Had Adam simply outgrown it? Or had the professor somehow lost\u2026something<\/em>\u2026between then and now?<\/p>\nLean Knife’s far more authoritative voice cut into Adam’s thoughts as he called each of his braves to him. And then, speaking only in his own language, he propelled Bradley\u00a0Decklin\u00a0 into the arms of two of his men. In an instant, the Paiutes led\u00a0Decklin\u00a0away. There was nothing the Cartwrights could do for him without risking more lives\u2026without risking the start of a senseless and inevitably bloody war.<\/p>\n
Somewhere in Adam’s heart, he would always be left to wonder if that were really true, if he’d even tried at all. But for that moment, all that mattered was Adam’s family was safe. And Joe\u2026well, Joe was safe, too. He was bloodied and beaten, yes. But at least he was safe.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
10<\/strong><\/p>\n