{"id":12883,"date":"2000-01-10T07:00:43","date_gmt":"2000-01-10T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=12883"},"modified":"2025-02-27T12:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T17:04:12","slug":"fourth-wife-1-in-the-dark-of-the-night-by-jenny-g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=12883","title":{"rendered":"Fourth Wife #1 – In the Dark of the Night (by Jenny G)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary:\u00a0<\/strong> Ben takes a fourth wife, but the larcenous Boxer clan proves a distraction, and a tragic misunderstanding causes even more trouble.<\/p>\n

Rating:\u00a0 T (37,900 words)<\/p>\n

Fourth Wife Series:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Dark of the Night<\/a>
\nAll in a Day’s Work<\/a>
\nA Gunfighting Man<\/a>
\nThe Measure of a Man<\/a>
\nFall into Darkness<\/a>
\nPeace on the Ponderosa<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the Dark of the Night<\/strong><\/p>\n

A tale of Marriage, Infidelity, and Murder<\/em><\/p>\n

One
\n\u201c…Cartwright, take this woman to be your lawful wife? To love, honour and cherish her for the rest of your natural life?\u201d<\/p>\n

Surrounded by his friends and neighbours and with his family standing, smiling, at his back, Ben Cartwright turned to the woman at his side and gazed into her eyes. They were beautiful eyes of the deepest sea green, and they shone with love and trust and the promise of the future. As always they took his breath away; he felt he could drown in their sparkling depths.<\/p>\n

He took a deep breath, \u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, I pronounce you man and wife together.\u201d The preacher closed his book with a snap, \u201cYou may kiss the bride.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a long moment longer Ben gazed at the woman\u2019s fragile and lovely face, seeing her love for him, freezing the moment in time and sealing at away for ever in memory. Then he took her in his arms, felt her melt against him and kissed her gently and tenderly on the lips.<\/p>\n

Sound erupted abruptly around them, intruding on their world: shouts and cheers and whoops and hollers and a deafening round of applause that seemed to go on forever. For a moment of eternity they stood isolated, locked together in that world that contained just the two of them. Then, as the kiss ended, they were swept apart into two entirely separate but interlocking, whirlwinds of congratulation. Ben\u2019s back was pounded until he felt the blows would drive him to the ground. His hand was pumped furiously up and down while a kaleidoscope of faces spun before him. He was aware only that the woman ~ his new wife ~ Jenny, was carried away from him in the arms of the crowd, surrounded by her own circle of admirers.<\/p>\n

In turn each of his sons steeped forward and shook his hand. Their pleasure was the equal of his. And each of them made a point of taking his brand new stepmother into his arms and kissing her soundly. Jenny laughed her hearty, gurgling, infectious laugh. She ruffled Little Joe\u2019s curls, especially shorn for the occasion; she squealed and laughingly scolded as Hoss swung her up and around in his big arms; she smiled tenderly as Adam offered his almost shy salute. She was a vision of loveliness in a blue and white brocaded gown, fine lace at her throat and at the edges of the elbow length sleeves. Her long, dark-red hair was loosely coiled into a shining knot behind her head. Her face, while not strictly beautiful in the traditional sense, was strikingly attractive, with high cheekbones and a lean, narrow jaw. Ben found he couldn\u2019t keep his eyes off her. Oblivious to the good wishes heaped on him he kept seeking her out among the crowd.<\/p>\n

Someone put something cold into his hand; \u201cBen, you look as though you could do with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben looked down – at a glass of ice-cold and mildly alcoholic punch, and then up – into the smiling face of the local doctor, a dear friend for many, many years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, Paul. I think perhaps you\u2019re right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBest prescription I can offer.\u201d The doctor smiled and raised his own glass. \u201cIt\u2019s so good to see you all so happy. A complete family again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben smiled broadly and sipped his punch, \u201cIt\u2019s good to be a family.\u201d They were word he had spoken in side his head many times before, in good times and in bad, but never had he meant them more sincerely than now.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen!” Roy Coffee the sheriff and another very good friend arrived with a hearty slap to the back that threatened to drown Ben in the punch glass, \u201cCongratulations! We never thought you\u2019d really go and do it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben was amazed, \u201cYou didn\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, sir. Why, they\u2019ve been taking odds in every saloon in town as to which one o\u2019 your sons that lovely lady would marry ever since she swept into town\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben held up a hand; \u201cRoy, I don\u2019t think…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no-one thought it\u2019d be you that swept her off of her feet!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I\u2019d known about those bets,\u201d Paul said with mock thoughtfulness. \u201cI think I could have made a real killing there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh!\u201d The sheriff dug him in the ribs with a sharp elbow. \u201cBut that would have been abusing a professional priviledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben looked from one to the other of them, saw the sparkle behind their eyes, and abruptly the three men burst into howls of laughter.<\/p>\n

The party spilled out of the big log ranch house into the yard where trestle tables groaned with the weight of the food prepared in a dozen local ranch kitchens. The barn had been specially cleared and cleaned for the occasion and strewn with fresh straw. At the far end the local fiddle band had set up all ready to play. As the Cartwrights entered they played a fanfare on their fiddles.<\/p>\n

Ben and Jenny Cartwright took the floor first, surrounded and admired by their family and guests. They made a handsome couple, he in his silver-brocade waistcoat and a new, silver grey suit and she in her swirling, ground sweeping dress. He held her, gingerly at first, very much aware of all the eyes on them. Then they melted into each other\u2019s arms, drowning in the love in each other\u2019s eyes. For all they knew, or cared, the rest of the world might have ceased to exist. They circled the floor twice with the automatic steps of a slow waltz, and then each of the Cartwright sons, all handsome young men in their own right ~ together with the lady of his choice ~ stepped out on the floor to join them. Soon the improvised dance floor was filled with colour and laughter as the guests joined in, and the party to end all parties got under way.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Little Joe pulled at the stiffened collar of his shirt. Hours had passed, and it was now much later in the day. The barn was still cool, but airless with all the people crowded inside, and the music and the rising tide of high spirits were combining to create a wall of sound that was making his head ring. That, and the fact that his best suit was distinctly tight across his still broadening shoulders, conspired to drive him back towards the wide open doors. His retreat was considerably hampered by well-wishers each one of whom, so it seemed, was determined to encompass all of the Cartwrights in their unstinting congratulations. Outside he took a long draft of fresh air, and then let it out very slowly in a long heartfelt sigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the matter, Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe turned at the sound of the familiar voice. His brother Adam, a resplendent figure in new black broadcloth, was standing just outside the barn door, apparently done with socialising ~ for the time being at least ~ and just watching the crowds that milled in the yard. He held a glass of the patent punch in his hand and wore a pleasant enough expression on his face, but Joe, who knew him as well as any man could, could see that the smile didn\u2019t quite reach his eyes. Adam, as always, had himself under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought you\u2019d have been in there with everyone else having a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same thing could be said for you, elder brother.\u201d Joe\u2019s hazel eyes sparkled with mischief. \u201cI thought you\u2019d be taking that little Moira Turney round the floor another time or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam gazed at him with cool, amber eyes. \u201c I think I\u2019ve about had my fill of dancing for a while. And you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s this suit,\u201d said Joe with a half shrug that stretched the seams of his dark green jacket almost to ripping point. \u201cWhenever I think I\u2019ve done growing and get something tailored up, I seem to put on another two inches and nothing fits. And this collar has so much starch in it I think I\u2019m gonna choke!\u201d He tugged at the neckpiece again<\/p>\n

Adam laughed, and it was a deep, natural laugh, \u201cYou sound as if you could do with getting away from this hum-ding for a while. Why don\u2019t you come and give me a hand rigging up the buckboard for Pa and Jen?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe looked doubtful, \u201cDon\u2019t you think they\u2019d miss us?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam smiled a slightly cynical smile; \u201cWhat do you think, little brother?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe looked round at the amazing mass of people. Everyone who was anyone in the entire territory seemed to be there in an overwhelming swirl of colour and movement. The piles of food were diminishing at an alarming rate, and the white clad Chinese servants, especially hired for the event and all of them related in some way or another to the Cartwright\u2019s cook, scurried hither and wither to replenish them. The drink was flowing freely, fruit cup for the children and the ladies of the church, beer and brandy for the hard drinking men and punch for everyone else. There was plenty of it. No one had been overlooked and no expense had been spared. It was clear that this party would go on for a very long time without much attention from anyone. Neither Cartwright son would be missed.<\/p>\n

Another blast of music and laughter from inside the barn made up Joe\u2019s mind for him. \u201cLet\u2019s go find that buckboard, brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam took a last sip of the punch and carefully set the still almost full crystal cup down on top of a post before leading the way round the back of the barn.<\/p>\n

Hoss Cartwright gazed round the barn. A lot of the noise had died down, though the dancing as still going hard and strong. The younger people had taken over now and were setting up square dancing sets with lots of whoops, and hollering and foot stomping. As far as the middle Cartwright son could see, everything was going well. Everyone was having a wonderful time, and it pleased Hoss just fine to know that his Pa and his lovely new wife were having such a good send off. Every face was flushed and smiling with happiness.<\/p>\n

Every face that is, except, perhaps, for two. And those two faces were, in fact, one and the same face, that of the Boxer twins, William and Teddy. They were about Hoss\u2019s age with hair the colour of old straw, lean pitted cheeks and sun-washed, almost colourless eyes. They were so alike it was said that even their own mother, when she was alive, couldn\u2019t tell them one from the other. They were watching the proceedings with hostile, almost angry expressions from up against the far wall of the barn. The sight of them brought a frown to Hoss\u2019s own broad and unlovely features. He was determined that nothing, absolutely nothing was going to spoil his father\u2019s great day. With an absent nod to the folk on his left, and then on his right, Hoss made his way through the press of people towards the pair.<\/p>\n

The Boxer boys watched his approach with identical expressions of hostility, and Hoss found himself wondering, somewhat inhospitably, why they had been invited to the wedding in the first place. Of course they were neighbours, they, their little brother and their Pa, but Hoss, even with his big charitable heart, regarded them as little more than squatters on a patch of desert land so poor it didn\u2019t rightly warrant being called a farmstead. In fact, Hoss reflected, their land was so poor that it was hard to figure out just how the four of them made a living, especially as it seemed that none of them actually did any work, on the land, or off of it for that matter either.<\/p>\n

Hoss pasted a pleasant, if puzzled expression on his round face as he came up to the twins, \u201cIt don\u2019t look like you two fellers are havin\u2019 much of a good time,\u201d he said quietly, so that nobody nearby could hear. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you go get yourselves some of that punch we got mixed up?\u201d<\/p>\n

The two identical faces appraised him, \u201cWe don\u2019t want none of your punch, Cartwright,\u201d one of them said. It might have been Teddy but Hoss wasn\u2019t sure. \u201can\u2019 we\u2019re havin\u2019 just a swell time as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bemused by the obvious enmity, Hoss felt the frown settle back on his face. The last thing he wanted was any sort of trouble, today, of all days. \u201cWell you sure don\u2019t look like you are. Where\u2019s your folks at, anyhow? Your brother an\u2019 your Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t come,\u201d the other twin, possibly William, said in a voice identical to that of his brother. \u201cOur Pa, he didn\u2019t feel right well, \u2018n our brother …\u201d his thin lip lifted in a sneer. \u201cAndy was sort \u2018a busy today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d The other brother\u2019s lip lifted in a matching expression of contempt. Hoss decided he didn\u2019t like these boys once over, let alone twice. \u201cOur brother got somethin\u2019 better to do than prance around in your barn an\u2019 drink punch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss leaned back on his heels, knowing instinctively that something was wrong, but not knowing what it was, or what he could do about it. He was still unwilling to let anything throw a shadow over the day, \u201cYou two boys put a grin on your faces an\u2019 try at least to look like you\u2019re havin\u2019 fun,\u201d he said finally.<\/p>\n

The Boxer twins smiled thin, mirthless smiles. They understood perfectly, \u201cSure thing, Cartwright,\u201d one of them said, \u201cSure thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Adam backed the last of the two horses up to the buckboard, and Joe set about fastening the traces. As his big-brother had suggested, it was good to take a break from the festivities for a while, just to get a breath of air and clear his head. Adam, being careful to keep his dark suit spotlessly clean, leaned on the horse and watched Joe fasten the last of the buckles.<\/p>\n

Joe straightened and looked at him. Finally he got to saying what had been on his mind for sometime, \u201cHow do you really feel about Pa getting married again, Adam? I know we\u2019ve all talked through it, and through it, but I get the feeling that you\u2019ve never really spoken your mind. For a while Hoss and I, well, we thought it might be you and Jen…\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam\u2019s lips quirked, but the attempted smile never got anywhere near his eyes. He had no intention of letting his little brother know that, for a very brief time, he had harboured thoughts along the same lines himself. \u201cI think Jenny is a very lovely lady, and that she\u2019ll make Pa a wonderful wife,\u201d he said carefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou say that, but you never sound as if you really mean it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam sighed, \u201cThen what do I have to say to convince you, Joe? Pa deserves happiness, and I think that he\u2019s found it. I hope that he has. I\u2019ve seen the way he looks at her, just as you have. I don\u2019t think I could bear to see him torn apart again.\u201d The last, he said as if it came from his very soul.<\/p>\n

Joe gazed at him. He knew that Adam was remembering their father\u2019s previous wives, Adam\u2019s own mother, lost in childbirth, Hoss\u2019s mother, killed by Indians, and Joe\u2019s own\u00a0 dear Ma\u2019ma, dead in a riding accident. Joe had never known the first two women, and sometimes he found hard to remember his own mother, just faint recollection of perfume and a sweet smiling face. \u201cI don\u2019t think I could bear that either,\u201d he said quietly.<\/p>\n

Adam put his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a large handful of ribbons, white and blue, the perfect match of his stepmother\u2019s wedding dress. He smiled at Joe\u2019s stunned expression, and this time, the light did reach the depths of his tawny eyes. \u201cThen why don\u2019t you help me put these on the bridle and pretty this thing up a bit?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe looked from his face to the ribbons and back, and, slowly, a smile lit his own face as he realised the significance of the gesture his brother had made. It seemed that at last they were really going to be a whole family again.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Ben closed the bedroom door and stood for a moment, just holding the cool smoothness of the knob in his hand, looking at the rich polished grain of the dark wooden panels. The noise of the party going on outside could still be heard, under-lain by the sound of high speed fiddling from the barn, but here, in this room, all was quiet and still ~ familiar but somehow strange at one and the same time. This had been his room for so many years. He had built it with his own hands, at first sharing it with Joe\u2019s mother but then, and for so long, occupying it alone.<\/p>\n

Now there was another woman here.<\/p>\n

He turned slowly, almost reluctantly, and there she was, her hands clasped before her, standing between him and the four poster, the light from the window laying lightly on her ivory-pale shoulders. A vision in blue silk and white lace, watching him with compassion and with love in her beautiful eyes. He smiled wryly at his own sudden shyness and took a step towards her, spreading his hands, \u201cI was just thinking…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what you were thinking, Ben,\u201d she said gently. \u201cI know what you were remembering. She wouldn\u2019t mind. None of them would mind. They would all wish you happiness. Wish us<\/em> happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben took another step and put his arms round her. \u201cyou\u2019re right of course. They were all wonderful women. I\u2019ve been four times blessed. No man deserves so much happiness in one lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou deserve it, Ben,\u201d she said softly. \u201cNo-one could deserve it more.\u201d<\/p>\n

She rested her hands, slender and white, fragile looking against his masculine strength, on his upper arms, lightly pressing the bulge of his muscles through the finely-woven cloth. He ran his hands over her shoulder blades and down her back to her waist, feeling the warmth of her body through the cloth of her dress, and through the stiffened thickness of the heavily boned corset that constricted her. Her waist was so small he could span it with his hands. In all his years it had never ceased to amaze him how woman folk could bear to wear such painful contraptions. And then he felt the touch of her breath on his face and smelled the sweetness of the perfume in her hair He became very much aware of the closeness of her body. He forgot about the mystery of the corset.\u00a0 He drew her tightly too him and closed his mouth gently over hers in a long, and lingering, kiss.<\/p>\n

It was she that drew away first. She moved her hands to his chest and pushed him away gently. She opened her glowing green eyes and gazed at him, slightly breathless. \u201cIf we\u2019re leaving today, my love, then it\u2019s time we changed and went down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben barked his rich, hearty laugh, \u201cYou\u2019re absolutely right. Once we\u2019re out of the way all those good people can really start to enjoy themselves!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so..\u201d she said coyly, pulling at the strings of his tie, \u201cCan we..\u201d<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Adam pulled the team to a halt outside the front door and jumped down. He looked at his brother expectantly; \u201cAre they down yet?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Hoss shook his head, \u201cI guess they\u2019ll be a little time yet.\u201d
\n\u201cWell, what\u2019s keeping them?\u201d Joe asked, joining the little family group from the other side of the buckboard.<\/p>\n

His brothers eyed him silently, and he felt the hot colour climbing into his cheeks. He looked from Adam to Hoss; \u201cBut they wouldn\u2019t be … I mean they wouldn\u2019t… Would they..?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam sighed and put a hand on his little brother\u2019s shoulder; \u201cJoe, you should know by now, when you find yourself in a hole, you should stop digging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe, scarlet-cheeked by now, gaped at him \u201cBut Adam..\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHush up, Little Joe,\u201d Hoss hissed, \u201cHere they come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben emerged from the front door of the ranch house to the cheers and applause of the assembled crowd. He was a handsome man still, tall, and broad and vigorous looking in a dark broadcloth suit. His silver hair shone in the afternoon sunlight, and his obvious happiness had stripped years of care from his face. His friends and his neighbours, and in particular, his three grown-up sons, were delighted to see the joy on his face. It glowed in the almost black depths of his eyes. The woman on his arm, his brand new wife, in a deep red travelling suit and bonnet, radiated that same unrestrained joy as she smiled round at all the faces. Ben covered her hand with his, and together, they made a stately progress from the front door to the waiting buckboard. They exchanged a word here, and a smile there, thanking their special friends and all the people who had helped make it such a special day. Finally Ben turned to his sons, waiting more or less in line at the buckboard\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, boys, I guess this is it …\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sure is, Pa,\u201d Hoss grinned.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime you folks got going,\u201d Joe agreed, hoping almost against hope that his father wouldn\u2019t notice his recent discomfiture.<\/p>\n

Ben noticed. He looked with interest at Joe\u2019s ears, which were still distinctly red, but decided to say nothing. He turned to Adam, \u201cI\u2019ll write from San Francisco …\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you bother yourself, Pa. There\u2019s nothing here that we can\u2019t handle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben drew a breath to re-institute an old discussion, then thought better of it, and smiled.\u00a0 He knew very well that Adam could run the ranch in his absence, and that there was absolutely no need for him to worry about anything. Not even about Little Joe, \u201cI guess you\u2019re right, son.\u201d\u00a0 He solemnly shook hands with each of them in turn, and then turned to his wife; \u201cAre you ready, my dear?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny kissed the last of her girlfriends on the cheek, and with a smile that included all three of the boys, offered Ben her hand; \u201cI\u2019m ready,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ben helped her into the buckboard and got up beside her. He set his hat on his head and gathered the reins.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoodbye, Pa,\u201d Adam said, stepping back.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave a real good time, Pa!\u201d Joe called.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn\u2019 we\u2019ll see you \u2019n about a month!\u201d added Hoss with a big beaming grin.<\/p>\n

Ben lifted a hand in final farewell and slapped the reins against the horses\u2019 broad rumps. With a rattle of hooves and the flutter of blue and white ribbons from the horse\u2019s bridles, the buckboard started away to the cheers of the crowd and was soon lost to sight.<\/p>\n

Ben Cartwright\u2019s three sons stood close together in the centre of the yard, an isolated group in the middle of the crowd, and watched as the dust settled along the road. Long after the buckboard had vanished, each of them remained isolated with his own thoughts of the future.<\/p>\n

For Joe, with his naturally sunny outlook, it was a\u00a0 pleasure to look forward to a genuine feminine touch in what, for about as long as he could remember, had been a purely masculine household. It would be good to have her there in the house when he brought his lady friends home to call and good to have the house filled with laughter and pretty dresses. His stepmother\u2019s age was such that he could regard her as a big sister. She would be fun to have around.<\/p>\n

Hoss had quietly searched his soul long and deep. A reticent and gentle man, his father\u2019s new wife had won him over with patience and kindness. She had a joyous spirit that had reached out to the big man. Her love of all the Lord\u2019s creatures, while not exactly rivalling Hoss\u2019s own, provided him with a ready ally in his occasional battles with his father and brothers. And her cooking almost equalled that of the legendary Hop Sing, a factor impossible to ignore. Hoss with his placid and optimistic nature, viewed the years to come with contentment.<\/p>\n

Adam\u2019s view of the future was darker, overshadowed by his memories of the past. He had forebodings born of those memories. The eldest of the three, he had trekked in with father from the east in the earliest days of the frontier. His own mother had died at his birth, but he remembered Hoss\u2019s mother, and Joe\u2019s, and he remembered only too well how their deaths had all but destroyed the strong man that was his father. In recent months, he had seen twenty years fall from Ben Cartwright\u2019s shoulders, and he hoped with every ounce of his soul that this time, everything was going to work out all right; that no more tragedy awaited them just round the corner. He sighed and put an arm across each of his brothers\u2019 shoulders, \u201cWell, boys, I guess we better go take care of all these folks.\u201d<\/p>\n

His voice broke the spell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I\u2019m gonna do, is go inside and get myself somethin\u2019 to eat!\u201d Hoss declared, with sincerity.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s food all over the place!\u201d Joe gestured round at the tables that surrounded them, \u201cJust grab a plate and help yourself!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss screwed up his face, \u201cI don\u2019t want none o\u2019 those fancy itsy-bitsy little bite sized do-dads,\u201d he scoffed. \u201cI want me some real man sized food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe and Adam laughed as he headed for the house.<\/p>\n

Inside, it was cooler and quieter. Much quieter. For once, no pine-log fire burned in the great stone fireplace. Instead, the hearth was filled to overflowing with flowers, and the whole room was perfumed with their sweet fragrance. There were more flowers on the table and a little bit of prettiness here and there. It sure was going to be a whole lot different, Hoss thought, as he headed for the kitchen, with a woman around.<\/p>\n

He had almost made it when he felt, as much as heard, a sound from somewhere in the big room behind him. He turned, and a frown darkened his face. For a moment he didn\u2019t see anything amiss. Then he spotted one of the Boxer boys ~ Hoss didn\u2019t know which one, and, right then, he didn\u2019t much care ~ standing over in the office corner where Ben kept his desk. He was doing his darndest to blend into the background, and failing.<\/p>\n

Hoss took a step forward, his mind wrapping itself round the problem, and coming up with a solution he didn\u2019t much like. He raised his voice in a bellow, \u201cAdam! Little Joe! Get in here quick!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss advanced across the room, his deep frown developing into a glower of rage; \u201cWhat d\u2019you think you\u2019re doin\u2019, messin\u2019 with our Pa\u2019s things?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam and Joe, not having moved far from the front of the house and hearing the bark in their brother\u2019s voice, came running.<\/p>\n

Adam looked from Hoss to the Boxer twin, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on, Hoss?\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t rightly know, Adam,\u201d Hoss was angry and uncomfortable, \u201cI found this feller messin\u2019 wi\u2019 Pa\u2019s desk. He was in here all on his own when everyone else was outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWas he now?\u201d Adam stepped forward. \u201cThen let\u2019s see what he has, shall we?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Boxer twin backed away from Adam until he came up against the bookcase and couldn\u2019t back any further. His voice rose in a whine, \u201cYou stay away from me, Cartwright!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll stay away from you, just as soon as I find out what you\u2019ve stolen.\u201d Adam was very close to him now. He could smell the sharp scent of his fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t doin\u2019 nuthin\u2019!\u201d Boxer put up his hands to fend him off.<\/p>\n

Adam glimpsed the glitter of a blade. Boxer stabbed at him, aiming for his eyes. Adam threw his head back and raised a hand to protect himself. The keen edge of the blade sliced cleanly across the base of his thumb. Ignoring the pain and the blood of the wound, Adam grabbed the knife hand by the wrist and twisted expertly, turning Boxer round. With perhaps more force than he intended to use, he wrenched at the elbow and shoulder and made the smaller man yelp as he all but lifted him off the feet. With his other hand he made a rapid search of Boxer\u2019s pockets and came up with a number of trinkets that rightly belonged in the drawers of his father\u2019s desk. There was an enamelled snuff box that had been his grandfather\u2019s, a huge silver Spanish coin that Ben kept as a lucky piece and a small leather bag that Adam knew contained five dollar gold pieces.<\/p>\n

Disgusted, he threw the things down on the desktop and pushed Boxer away from him; \u201cDo you still say you weren\u2019t doing anything?\u201d<\/p>\n

Boxer glared at him and rubbed his sore shoulder. He said nothing but his face spoke volumes of hatred.<\/p>\n

Worried, Joe looked from the stolen treasures to his brother\u2019s angry face; \u201c I\u2019ll go and find the sheriff, Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam drew a deep breath and released it carefully. Much as he disliked the whole Boxer clan, he was reluctant to spoil his father\u2019s wedding day with a lot of fuss over what was, after all was said and done, nothing more than an act of opportunist petty pilfering. \u201cNo, Joe. Let it go this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe protested, \u201cYou can\u2019t do that, Adam. We caught him red handed!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we did,\u201d Reminded, Adam lifted his right hand and inspected the cut across the heel of his hand. It was deep and bleeding steadily, \u201cBut I don\u2019t want to stir up any trouble today.\u201d He pulled out a handkerchief and wrapped it around his hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Adam… Hoss…\u201d Enraged by the sight of his eldest brother\u2019s blood, Joe turned to his other brother in appeal, \u201cWe have to turn him in!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss screwed up his face in an agony of indecision; \u201cWell, I don\u2019t know, Little Joe, there ain\u2019t no real harm done, except to Adam. He\u2019s the one that\u2019s cut. It\u2019s up to him to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam glared at Boxer, his face was still dark with anger and his hooded eyes glittered; \u201cYou get off our land. You and your brother. And don\u2019t you ever come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boxer looked from face to face to face and found the same enmity in all of them. For once, the three disparate Cartwright brothers all looked the same.\u00a0 \u201cAll right – all right!\u201d Still rubbing his painful shoulder joint he edged carefully round the three furious men and started to back away towards the door; \u201cI\u2019m going. But you haven\u2019t seen the last of me!\u201d This last was delivered over his shoulder as a challenge as he turned and bolted for freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy you..!\u201d Joe set out after him, but Adam caught his arm with his good hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet him go, Little Joe.\u201d He flexed his sore hand. \u201cWe don\u2019t have time right now to worry about the Boxers. We have a whole passel of people that are supposed to be enjoying themselves. I think we\u2019d better go see to it that they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

The last of the wagons pulled out of the yard to the waves and the called goodnights of the Parson family. Ma and Pa Parson were sitting up front behind their oddly matched chestnut pair, and the four smaller Parsons were curled up together on the straw filled sacks in the back. The three Cartwright sons stood in the light of the multicoloured Chinese lanterns strung across the yard and watched them go. As the rumble of the wheels died away a blessed silence descended on the big house. Each of the three let out a pent-up sigh of relief. The last hours of the party had turned into an ordeal of seemingly endless proportions, and they were all heartily glad that it was finally over.<\/p>\n

Hoss gazed round at the disarray that filled the yard. There were empty plates and glasses everywhere. One of the trestle tables had partly collapsed under an enthusiastic game of tag played by the children, and there was a litter of napkins and spent streamers all over the place. Never before had the Ponderosa had looked less like a working ranch and more like a Louisiana Dance hall. Hoss heaved a mighty sigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess we\u2019d better get to work clearing this mess up,\u201d he said gloomily.<\/p>\n

Joe cast a glance at Adam, \u201cCan\u2019t we leave it \u2018till tomorrow?\u201d he asked without much hope.<\/p>\n

To his surprise, for once Adam agreed with him, \u201cI don\u2019t suppose it\u2019s going anywhere,\u201d he said with a hint of amusement, \u201cI guess tomorrow will do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss beamed. \u201cWell, I\u2019m for my bed then. Danged if it ain\u2019t almost midnight already.\u201d He turned towards the house; \u201cYou comin\u2019 Adam?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a minute.\u201d Adam took a deep breath of night air. \u201cI\u2019m a little too wound up to sleep right now. I\u2019ll just take a turn around the corrals before I turn in.\u201d<\/p>\n

With their arms about each other\u2019s shoulders, Joe and Hoss headed for the front door of the house. Adam went in the other direction, taking his time and letting the peace of the land calm his soul. It had been a day that none of them would soon forget, and he needed time to relax and unwind. Besides, other than feeding and watering, the animals had not had the attention they should, and he felt it his responsibility to check up on them before turning in.<\/p>\n

The moon had set, and despite the abundance of stars, it was a very dark night. Adam needed no light to find his way round the back of the barns and on to the holding pens beyond. He knew the layout of the outbuildings and the corrals as well as he knew the pattern of the hairs on the back of his hand. He had, after all, had a large part in designing them himself. That thought brought a renewed memory, and he brought up his bandaged hand, flexing it. His thumb was stiff and sore, and he wondered if he should have asked the doctor to put a stitch or two in the cut before he left for town. It was too late to think of it now.<\/p>\n

The half dozen little heifers they had bought just last week to bring about a long-term improvement in the bloodline of the Ponderosa cattle were huddled up against the rail of their corral. They still looked a little lost, and Adam remembered that they were very young. Probably they were still missing their Ma\u2019mas. Although they were just cattle, he felt a little sorry for them, and paused to stroke a their soft noses and to say a few kind words to them.<\/p>\n

As he left them and turned back towards the house, he became aware of a stir among the horses in the next corral. He hesitated. From the way they were milling around all of a sudden there was something amongst them stirring them up, and Adam for once, was unarmed. He thought about going back to the house for a gun. Then one of the horses – he recognised it as his own favourite mount – gave a sharp whicker of alarm.<\/p>\n

Adam squinted through the gloom. Something was among the horses all right. Or rather, someone! He saw a dark man-shape moving around.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey!\u201d With a yell, Adam ran forward, vaulting the corral rail in one stride.<\/p>\n

The horses stirred round again, clearly agitated. Adam caught a glimpse of the human figure in the midst of the restless animals. He started to cut through them slantwise. One of the horses reared. Under its belly Adam caught sight of the figure again, turning towards him with the light from the house behind. Adam slapped the rump of a horse out of his way, and then something hit him very hard on the back of his head.<\/p>\n

He must have blacked out for a moment. The next thing he knew, he was face down in the dirt of the corral with a mouthful of grit and blood. The horses milled round him. Their hooves churned up the dust, and their shrill cries of alarm filled the air. Adam knew he had to get to his feet or be trampled. He gathered his wits for the effort, but before he could make it, someone grabbed his shirt by the back of the neck and hauled him partially erect. Someone – another someone ~ by now Adam was neither seeing, nor thinking, too clearly ~ buried a hard driven fist in the depths of his belly, and followed it up with a sharp upper cut to the jaw that jarred Adam\u2019s head back and crashed his teeth together. Pain blasted its way through Adam\u2019s body and then through his face. He reeled and would have fallen but for the rough hands that held him more or less upright. Held from behind he was unable to fight back. He couldn\u2019t do anything other than try to roll with the punches as they came. Several more times the fist smashed into his face. His lips split against his teeth. A cut opened up along his cheekbone. His nose bled onto the ruffled, pristine white of his shirtfront. Then another hard punch caught him a long way below the belt, and he doubled up as agony flared upwards, spread out and encompassed the core of his being. A double handed blow landed on the back of his neck, and the black pit of unconsciousness yawned\u00a0 open in front of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam! Adam!\u201d Hoss\u2019s voice came, it seemed, from a very long way away. Adam clawed his way upwards through the darkness and found himself curled on his side in the corral. The horses were still stamping all around him. His vision was distorted. Everything was twisted and out of focus, and sounds were pre-naturally loud. Despite his pain, his instinct was still to get to his feet. Somehow he struggled up onto his hands and knees, still clutching himself where it hurt most. Then there were hands that were helping him, \u201cHey, Adam! Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss\u2019s strong arms were round him, holding him tight against the barrel of his chest. Adam lifted a weak hand as if to fend him off and then shook his head, confused. He struggled to focus his eyes and found Joe on his knees beside him, his face a study of anxiety. He forced words through broken lips, \u201cI\u2019m all right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hell you are!\u201d Joe exclaimed, angry and confused, \u201cWhat the devil happened?! Did you fall? Were you trampled?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Adam tried to shake his head again, and then thought better of it, \u201cThere was someone in with the horses. Hoss, check the horses!\u201d<\/p>\n

With a grunt of alarm, Hoss passed Adam over to Joe, and went to where the horses, a dozen or more, were bunched against the far rail.<\/p>\n

A whole gamut of emotions ran across Joe\u2019s face, rage; concern; fear and determination. He dabbed ineffectually at Adam\u2019s mouth with his handkerchief, \u201cWho was it, Adam? Did you see?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam frowned. He had the memory of a man\u2019s shape, outlined against the house lights, but no more, not enough to identify anyone, \u201cI don\u2019t know. I didn\u2019t see who it was,\u201d He made an effort to get up, and with Joe\u2019s help, made it to his feet on the second attempt.<\/p>\n

Hoss came up, his face as black as thunder, \u201cWhoever it was, Adam, it\u2019s a darned good job you interrupted what they were doing. They were trying to hamstring the horses.\u201d Joe and Adam stared at him with naked fear in their eyes. \u201cIt\u2019s OK, it\u2019s OK,\u201d Hoss reassured them gruffly. \u201cThere\u2019s no real harm done. Just a few cuts. They must have run off after they – after they done what they done. But heaven help them if I ever get my hands on them.\u201d He took a firm grip of Adam\u2019s arm and started him towards the house. \u201cC\u2019mon. Let\u2019s go get you cleaned up and then we\u2019re callin\u2019 the sheriff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two<\/p>\n

Hoss hefted the last of the grain sacks off his shoulder and into the back of the wagon before pausing for breath. He pulled out a large yellow bandanna and wiped the sweat from his face. It surely was a hot day. Without doubt, by the time the sun had climbed to its highest point in the sky it would be the hottest day of the year so far. Already the main street of Virginia City was all but deserted. Apart from the Cartwright\u2019s wagon and team, only a few horses stood at the rails, flicking their tails to ward off the flies. Even the die-hards that customarily lined the boardwalk outside the Silver Dollar saloon had abandoned their posts for the cooler interior.<\/p>\n

Roy Coffee sauntered across the street, \u201cHowdy, Hoss. How\u2019s you brother feelin\u2019 now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss stuffed the bandanna back into his pocket. \u201cHe\u2019s pickin\u2019 up just fine, Roy. You know what a darned hard head he\u2019s got. He\u2019s in the mercantile now, payin\u2019 off what we owe.\u201d<\/p>\n

As if on cue, Adam came out of the store. Even now, a week on, his face still showed signs of the beating he had taken, and he walked as if he were still sore in the joints. He cast his eye over the neatly loaded wagon, then joined the sheriff and his brother; \u201c\u2018Morning, Roy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam,\u201d The sheriff nodded to him, scrutinising his face. The cuts had closed but the bruises and swellings were still clearly in evidence. Roy was heartily glad that Ben wasn\u2019t around to see them. \u201cYou had any more thoughts on who might have done that to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam worked his still bandaged hand; \u201cI\u2019ve had some thoughts, Roy, but nothing I\u2019d care to turn into accusations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss scowled, clenching his big hands into fists; \u201cI\u2019d sure like to get a hold of those fellas. We\u2019ve still got some pretty sick horses over at the ranch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam and Roy exchanged glances and shook their heads in amusement. It was just like Hoss to stay mad longer over what had been done to the horses than the injuries caused to his brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou heard from your Pa?\u201d Roy asked, following the earlier thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just picked up a letter from him.\u201d Adam pulled a slightly rumpled envelope out of a pocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe says they\u2019re having a real good time, but San Francisco isn\u2019t the place to be in high summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy considered a long moment. \u201cWell, I guess I\u2019d better talk to you two boys. Come on over to the saloon, and I\u2019ll buy you both a beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam and Hoss looked at each other, agreeing silently that it was an offer they couldn\u2019t refuse. Roy gave them both a clap on the shoulder that raised twin clouds of dust and led the way.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Joe pulled his horse to a halt in the shade of the trees, took off his hat, and wiped his sleeve over his sweating forehead. That morning, when he had drawn the short straw that meant he checked the lower pastures while his brothers drove into town for supplies, he had been nothing short of delighted. Now, some six hours of hard riding later, he was wondering if his luck was quite what he\u2019d thought it. He took a mouthful of brackish water from his canteen and pulled a sour face. No doubt about it, Adam and Hoss would be in a saloon by now, with one cool beer already inside them and another one on the table in front.<\/p>\n

He hung the canteen back on the saddle horn and spent a minute fanning himself with his hat. Then a slow smile spread across his handsome face. Upon consideration, he decided that he had got by far the best of the bargain after all. The view he had in front of him, of lush pasture-land turning brown and gold in the raw summer heat, of rolling hills and clumps of shade trees, of a blued brass bowl of a sky upturned overhead and the dazzling bright orb of the sun, by far outweighed the inside of any saloon. The fact that his drink was warm while his brother\u2019s would be icy-cold, in no way compensated the difference. He smiled, and sat his horse, and let his eyes rest lightly on the landscape. He was secure in the knowledge that all he could see, as far as he could see, and for a long way beyond, all the way to the foothills of the Sierras, was his family\u2019s land, by deed and in fact, held by the law and the strength of their hand.<\/p>\n

Afar off in the distance, something moved in the shimmering heat haze. Three steers were walking one behind the other across the grassland. Joe squinted up his eyes. There was something odd about the way they were moving ~ a purposefulness that was strange in the middle of the day, when, generally, the cattle would be holed up in a draw somewhere where it was cooler. Cattle, Joe thought, usually had a darn sight more sense than people, but these three mavericks certainly seemed to have something on their minds.<\/p>\n

Then Joe stiffened, sitting up in the saddle. Out from behind the hill, following at a walk in the wake of the cattle, was a horseman. Joe couldn\u2019t see who the rider was, nor could he make out the horse other than that it was a dark one. A gut feeling told him he didn\u2019t know either man or horse. Certainly none of the Ponderosa hands were working the cattle down this way today.<\/p>\n

Someone was sure as heck herding those steers towards the nearest fence line.<\/p>\n

Joe gathered his reins and, keeping carefully in the shadow of the trees, nudged his horse forward.<\/p>\n

The fence had been cut. Joe held the shiny end of the wire in his hand and studied the tracks in the dirt. The three steers, and the lone rider, had passed through the gap not an hour ahead of him. The trail led out onto the dry scrub-land that lay out to the west of Virginia City. Joe had no doubt that he could have caught up with them easily had he had his pinto, but the mare was back at the barn still feeling sore in her legs. The black gelding he had with him was walking tender on a forefoot. He had no choice but to make a temporary repair to the fence and head for home before he found himself afoot.<\/p>\n

Joe put his foot in the stirrup and was about to swing up, when something else caught his eye. Stepping down again, he hunkered down and studied a patch of ground close to the fence post, where the grass was thinner. There in the dirt was a strange mark, as if the horse ridden by here just a short time before had a splayed out hind hoof.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Roy Coffee took a long sup of cold beer. \u201cThere\u2019s somethin\u2019 I think you boys aught t\u2019 know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss wiped foam off his upper lip. The beer sure was good. \u201cWhat\u2019s that, Roy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy pulled a face; \u201cThere\u2019ve been a fair few killin\u2019s to the north o\u2019 here: bush-whackings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone we know?\u201d Adam asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so. Men from the silver workings mostly. Shot from ambush, robbed an\u2019 left t\u2019 die. \u2018Seems to be a gang operatin\u2019 and lately they\u2019ve been working their way further south. Just thought you boys aught t\u2019 know. You got a lot of country out there, just about right for them no goods t\u2019 hole up in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks for telling us Roy. We\u2019ll tell all the hands to keep their eyes open.\u201d Adam finished his beer and set the glass down. The cold drink had been good on his still sore mouth, but now it had started the pain off again. He rubbed his jaw with his hand. \u201cI guess we\u2019d better make a move and get those supplies back to the ranch, Hoss. Thanks for the beer, Roy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time,\u201d The sheriff said cheerfully.<\/p>\n

Hoss contemplated appealing for another beer, but his brother was already on his feet and didn\u2019t look likely to acquiesce. Besides, this beer was already his second. Hoss finished his drink and got up, gathering his tall hat. The three of them made for the door.<\/p>\n

Outside in the street, the heat of the day had just about reached its peak. The air itself was warm to breathe, and the reflected sunlight coming up off main-street was dazzling. Sweat broke instantly from their skins, and they all put their hats on against the glare.<\/p>\n

There were several more horses now, hitched to the rails: a bay and a roan outside the store, two more dark bays and a rangy chestnut at the bank.<\/p>\n

The two Cartwright men said goodbye to the sheriff and started across to their wagon. Hoss was starting to wonder just what might be for supper that night, while Adam was thinking about the six little heifers and how well they were settling in to the small home pasture behind the house.<\/p>\n

All of a sudden there was a ruckus over by the bank. The door flew open and slammed back against the wall. Three men tumbled out of the doorway. Their hats were pulled well down over their eyes, and their mouths and noses were covered up by their neckerchiefs. One of them fired off his gun, aiming back into the bank. The retort was loud in the street. Roy Coffee shouted and came pounding back up the boardwalk. The three men rushed for the horses tied at the rail. Austin Damier, manager of the bank, came to the door, grasping at the frame for support. His hairpiece was twisted awry, and there was bright blood on the front of his dress coat.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop them!\u201d he raised an unsteady hand. There was blood on his fingers as well. \u201cThey\u2019ve robbed the bank! Stop them!\u201d<\/p>\n

The robbers wheeled their horses, two of them setting off at a pounding gallop down the centre of the street. The third, the man on the chestnut gelding, swung his mount round again in a tight circle. He aimed his gun at the bank manager.<\/p>\n

A second shot rang out, and the robber toppled slowly, backwards, out of his saddle.<\/p>\n

The whole thing, from beginning to end, was over in just a few seconds.<\/p>\n

Adam, ready to fire again, realised that it wasn\u2019t necessary and eased back the hammer of his Colt .44. Lightening fast with a gun, and nearest, he hadn\u2019t been about to stand by and watch Damier, whom he\u2019d know for years and like well enough, shot down in cold blood.<\/p>\n

Roy Coffee was the first to reach the fallen man. Adam and Hoss came close second. The sheriff turned him over. Adam\u2019s bullet had taken him full in the chest. He was quite dead.<\/p>\n

Roy sat back on his heels, \u201cNice shootin\u2019, Adam. Let\u2019s see who this fella is,\u201d He pulled the mask down off the robber\u2019s face, and they all looked at him silence for several seconds.<\/p>\n

Adam felt a cold knot of nausea forming in his gut. He holstered his gun slowly and took off his hat, turning it slowly by the rim. He knew the man he\u2019d just killed. Knew him very well indeed.<\/p>\n

Hoss looked at his brother and knew from his face just what was going through his mind, \u201cHey, Adam! You had to do it. You couldn\u2019t just stand by and let him kill Mister Damier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy straightened up, \u201cHoss is right, Adam. It would \u2019a been murder. You did what you had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam drew a long, careful breath, \u201cBut that\u2019s Andy Boxer, Roy. He was just sixteen years old!\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy picked up the well-stuffed gunnysack that had fallen alongside the body and pulled it open. It was crammed full of banknotes. \u201cHe was old enough t\u2019 rob a bank. Old enough t\u2019 shoot a man.\u201d He nodded to where Damier was being led away to the doctor.<\/p>\n

Adam lifted his face to look at him, for the first time looking away from the man he had just killed. Self-disgust was clearly evident in his golden eyes, \u201cHe was just a kid,\u201d he said tightly, and walked away.<\/p>\n

Three<\/p>\n

The stage was only a few minutes late arriving in Virginia City, and all of Ben Cartwright\u2019s sons were there to meet it. The team of four sweating horses came to a halt outside the stage line office. Ben opened the door and stepped down. He looked well, relaxed and happy in a smart, new, dark-blue suit. He turned and offered his hand to his wife as she alighted. Jenny smiled at the boys, her pleasure at seeing them again obvious on her face. She wore a bright blue costume with a very tight nipped in waist and a long straight skirt that flared at the bottom. It was the very latest fashion on the west-coast. Her dark-auburn hair was teased into a cascade of loose curls that tumbled from beneath a jaunty matching hat.<\/p>\n

Ben turned to his sons. \u201cAdam. Joe. Hoss,\u201d Smiling, he shook hands with each of them in turn.<\/p>\n

\u201cPa. You sure look as if you had a good time,\u201d Adam said, including his father\u2019s wife with a pleasant look.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sure did!\u201d Ben put his arm loosely round Jenny\u2019s tiny waist, \u201cAnd now we\u2019re back, and I\u2019m ready to start work!\u201d<\/p>\n

His sons met this announcement with an uneasy silence.<\/p>\n

Ben looked from one to another of them, \u201cYou do have something for me to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

The boys exchanged doubtful glances. Joe and Hoss both looked away, by their silence electing Adam as their spokesman. Adam looked uncomfortable; \u201cWell, Pa, we\u2019ve got it fairly well nailed down at the moment,\u201d he said slowly. \u201cBut I guess… We could find something for you to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taken aback ~ even shocked ~ by the response, Ben stared at him with his mouth open.<\/p>\n

Jenny\u2019s pealing laugh filled the air; \u201cOh, Ben! Can\u2019t you see how they\u2019re teasing you?!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben saw the glimmer of amusement breaking through in his sons\u2019 faces and finally caught on to the joke. \u201cWell, I certainly hope they are!\u201d He joined in the laughter.<\/p>\n

Stepping back, he made room for his sons to greet their stepmother, each with a hug and a welcoming kiss on the cheek.<\/p>\n

When the hellos were over, Ben looked round at the huge pile of boxes that had come down off the roof of the stage. \u201cI hope you boys brought the wagon with you. We seem to have accumulated rather a lot of luggage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe brung it, Pa,\u201d Hoss started tucking boxes under his huge arms. \u201cIt\u2019s over by the International House. Why don\u2019t you, and Jen, go get yourselves a coffee while we take care of all this stuff?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben smiled at his wife as willing hands started to demolish the pile of baggage; \u201cI think we might just do that.\u201d He offered Jenny his arm. \u201cMrs. Cartwright?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMister Cartwright.\u201d She placed her hand on his forearm and together they set off towards the town\u2019s premier hotel.<\/p>\n

It was the best part of an hour later, and the sun was angling towards the west when, with the wagon loaded to capacity, Ben and his wife started out on the last leg of their journey home. Their sons, on horseback, formed a mounted escort round them, and heads turned as impressive little procession drove out of town.<\/p>\n

Ben was surprised at just how much Virginia City had grown. In the few short weeks he had been away, new buildings, new streets and whole city blocks had appeared where before there had been scrub-land and thorn brush. Building work was still progressing apace, with timber frames being thrown up in a day and ready for habitation inside a week. Adam had told him that the town was growing just as fast to the north. With the discovery of rich silver deposits in the northern hills, the town was booming and would soon become a city in more than name.<\/p>\n

If he were honest with himself, Ben would have confessed to having a belly full of the cosmopolitan life. San Francisco had become a frantic, noisy, blight on the face of the earth.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d enjoyed the theatres and the restaurants and the grand hotels, and he\u2019d marvelled at the new gas lighting that lined the streets and turned night into day, but the place never slept!<\/p>\n

Even in the more select districts on the hills above the harbour, the traffic noise had gone on all night, every night. Jenny had relished the big city atmosphere, and Ben had enjoyed escorting her, although, he thought wearily, having sat for hours in every dress shop in town, he must have the patterns of their little gilt chairs permanently imprinted on his backside. Ben had found himself longing for the peace, the beauty and the silence of the Ponderosa. He was more than a little disquieted to find this frenetic bustle invading what he thought of as his home-town.<\/p>\n

But the Ponderosa was still there. As soon as he crossed the boundary line onto his own property he felt the difference deep down in the very core of his being. The majesty of the land with its vast pastures, rolling hills and towering trees brought him peace. With his beautiful wife at his side, and his tall sons riding beside him, he was truly content.<\/p>\n

The sun had set by the time they reached the house, and the sky had become a deep cobalt blue. Inside, the lamps had been lit, and the light glowed in the gathering darkness, welcoming them home.<\/p>\n

Ben helped his wife down and walked her to the front door, while the boys took the horses away. He turned to look at her. The light from the porch lantern was shining on her flawless skin, a soft golden glow that highlighted the look of love in her eyes. He kissed her gently on the lips, then swept her up in his arms and carried her, giggling, over the threshold.<\/p>\n

The boys joined them for supper, and the gathering around the table was a happy one. Hop Sing had excelled himself, and the meal he presented was superb. Try as he might, Ben found it difficult to make sense of the disjointed snippets of information dropped by his sons in conversation. It was not until later, with Hop Sing clearing the table and Jenny gone upstairs to start putting away her multitude of new dresses, that he was able to settle into his favourite armchair with his pipe, and begin to gather the reins back into his hands.<\/p>\n

He found that his son\u2019s teasing outside the stage office had not been so far short of the truth. The ranch was running smoothly, the contracts for beef and timber were on schedule, and the boys, apparently, had got along together remarkably well. In fact, in their own different ways each of them was brimming over with enthusiasm for new projects. It was Hoss that got in first.<\/p>\n

\u201cPa\u201d the big man hunkered down on his haunches beside his father\u2019s chair. His broad features contorted with the effort of putting his thoughts and emotions into coherent words. Ben just sat and waited. He knew his middle son wasn\u2019t the fastest talker and needed time.<\/p>\n

\u201cPa, that idea we had about making a plantation for little pine trees is working out just fine. I\u2019ve got a whole half section all planted out, an\u2019 those little trees are all growing away like all-git-out. I reckon we can aim to put in two baby pine trees for every big tree we cut down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that\u2019s real good, son,\u201d Ben was genuinely pleased. The land had to provide them with a living, but he hated to see its resources depleted. \u201cNow you have to plan where to plant the trees so that they\u2019ll be easy to log when the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, Pa,\u201d Joe hooked his knee over the arm of his chair. \u201cNo one\u2019s going to log those ity-bity little trees for more than a hundred years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s as may be,\u201d Ben said. \u201cBut we have to think about it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam joined the little group, nursing his second cup of coffee; \u201cAnyway, it\u2019ll be closer to two trees and a half for every tree we cut.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDad-burn it, Adam,\u201d Hoss scowled at his elder brother as he struggled with an unknown concept. \u201cHow can you plant half a tree?\u201d<\/p>\n

Little Joe whooped, and Ben smiled indulgently. Nothing had changed, \u201cI\u2019ll explain it to you, Hoss. Now tell me about that other plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, sir,\u201d Hoss frowned, composing his thoughts, \u201cI think we could set aside the whole of that section up by the lake and sort of – do nothin\u2019 with it. Just leave it to be as the good Lord intended, for the trees an\u2019 the plants an\u2019 the animals. We don\u2019t really need to use all that land, and heck, the way folks are flooding into the territory, there plumb won\u2019t be no land left for the wild things if\u2019n we don\u2019t set some aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben sucked on his pipe. \u201cI see what you mean, son. But it might be kind of hard just to keep that land untouched.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe land would need managing, Pa,\u201d Adam put in,\u00a0 \u201cDead trees felled, scrub cleared away, drainage maintained. It would be a lot of work for someone for no return.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss looked up at him, unwilling to see his project put down,\u00a0 \u201cI could do that work, Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll give it some thought and see if it can be done,\u201d Ben said. He turned his eyes to his youngest son, \u201cWhat about you, Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe swivelled round straight in his chair, his youthful face alive with enthusiasm, \u201cPa, how about we start to breed the horses we need right here on the ranch, rather than rely on the mustangs we can catch. That way we can improve the stock the same way we have with the cattle…\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben listened as Joe talked on about bloodlines, and brood stock, and eventually, to Joe\u2019s delight, agreed to finance the purchase of a stallion, but his attention had centred on Adam. To Ben\u2019s experienced eye, there was clearly something troubling his eldest son. Adam wasn\u2019t saying much, but Ben knew from the look on his face, that he had something clammed up tight inside. It wasn\u2019t any use trying to force the pace. Adam would talk to him, but only when he was ready.<\/p>\n

It was getting late when Joe and Hoss finally said their goodnights and went up to bed. Ben tapped out his pipe and contemplated refilling it. Adam sat tucked in a chair staring into the empty fireplace. Ben could follow his thoughts. He missed the dancing flames as well and wondered what visions his son saw. He lay the pipe down.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe mentioned something about rustlers,\u201d he said, \u201cHave we had a lot of trouble?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam turned his head, and his dark eyes focussed on his father\u2019s face. Ben could see him mentally changing tracks from his own thoughts to the question asked. \u201cNot really, Pa. Just a few steers from the west section. Two or three at a time. Probably just the dirt farmers taking a few head to feed their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben frowned. He knew how strongly Adam felt about the plight of the poorer families, and he knew that a few steers could easily be spared, but he had his own equally strong principles and theft was theft.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not something we should condone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a few head, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNever the less, I want those fence lines watched a lot more closely. If we can put a good scare into them, we might not have to call in the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam drew a deep breath, and Ben prepared himself for an argument. But Adam let the breath ebb away in a long sigh. \u201cYes, Pa,\u201d He lowered his eyes and resumed his focus-less gaze into the fireplace.<\/p>\n

Now Ben knew for certain that something was wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam looked at him again. His eyes were hooded and his face shuttered, an expression Ben knew too well. \u201cPa?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard about Hoss\u2019s trees and his plans for a nature reserve, and I\u2019ve heard about Joe\u2019s horses. What I haven\u2019t heard about is the irrigation system you were designing for the lower pastures, or the logging road you were planning to lay, or the railroad spur you were so full of before I went away. So what is it? What\u2019s eating at you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam wrapped his arm around his knees and drew them up tight against his chest. It was an attitude he had adopted since childhood when in need of comfort but unwilling to ask for it. The three brothers had agreed to gloss lightly over the events of the night of the party, but the bank robbery, and its fatal consequences, were another matter entirely, and not something he could, or would, keep from his father. The problem was how to tell it. Despite numerous attempts, he still found it difficult to make sense of his confused feelings, so haltingly, in an emotionless monotone that didn\u2019t fool Ben one bit, he told it in a few simple sentences, exactly the way it had happened. At the finish of it his voice cracked on the words; \u201cI killed a man, Pa. Except that it wasn\u2019t a man. It was Andy Boxer, and he was just a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben wished now that he had re-lighted his pipe. It would have given his something to suck on, something to do with his hands. It was no use telling Adam that the Boxers were a bad lot and had been destined for trouble since birth, even though it were true. He had to say something to assuage the personal guilt that he knew his son, however unnecessarily, was feeling. He fixed Adam with his dark, almost black irised eyes, \u201cAdam, I can only tell you that I believe that what Roy said to you was right. You might have killed a man, but that man was guilty and you saved another, innocent, man\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam hugged himself tighter. Although the summer\u2019s night was warm he felt cold on the inside as well as out, \u201cHe was so young.\u201d He said it so softly that Ben had to strain to hear the words, \u201cHe looked like Joe did only a couple of years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere comes a time in every man\u2019s life when he has to choose his own path. For some it comes sooner than others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep seeing his face. Every time I close my eyes I see his face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know. It\u2019s something you\u2019ll always remember. But the memory will fade if you\u2019ll only give it the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam sighed, \u201cThat\u2019s just it, Pa. How much longer are we going to live by the gun? When is this territory finally going to be civilised?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben knew Adam had harboured these feeling for a long time, ever since his days at college in the east. They were feelings that he was not at all comfortable with himself, but he knew that his son held them sincerely. \u201cCivilisation will come soon enough,\u201d he said slowly. \u201cBut I think it will be a long time before we can give up the gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam unwound himself from the chair and stretched his long limbs. This was a conversation he\u2019d had with his father before, and he knew where it headed,\u00a0 \u201cI guess you\u2019re right. It\u2019s something I\u2019ll just have to come to terms with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben got up and touched him lightly on the shoulder, far from sure he had convinced his son of anything. The two of them turned together towards the staircase.<\/p>\n

Ben was both surprised, and pleased, to find that Jenny had waited up for him. She had thrown a loose soft robe over her under things and was sitting at Marie\u2019s mirror ~ now her mirror, Ben reminded himself sharply ~ brushing out her hair with long slow strokes. The lamplight was soft on the angles of her face, and he saw her smile at him in the glass as he closed the bedroom door.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry I\u2019m so late, my love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou needed to spend some time with the boys,\u201d Jenny lay down the brush and turned, rising from her seat. She saw the trouble in his face and crossed the room to him, \u201cWhat is it? What\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been talking to Adam.\u201d He rested his hands lightly on her shoulders. \u201cHe had to kill a man involved in a robbery. He\u2019s having a hard time dealing with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny watched his face earnestly, seeing there the deep concern for his son and loving him all the more because of it. \u201cAdam will be all right,\u201d she said gently.<\/p>\n

Ben brought his eyes to focus on her beautiful face. \u201cI think he will. He\u2019s a strong man. It just might take a while.\u201d His frown eased, and he reached out for her, running his finger tips lightly up her arms to her shoulders and then down the soft curve of her back.<\/p>\n

Jenny smiled, her green eyes were fathomless. All thought of his son fled from Ben\u2019s mind as she let the robe slip from her shoulders to the floor. \u201cTime for bed, Mister Cartwright,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst things first,\u201d he murmured softly in her ear as his increasingly experienced hands began to unlace the mysteries of the corset.<\/p>\n

Adam closed his door quietly and released a long held breath. The room was comfortable and familiar. His personal possessions made it intrinsically his, his books, his pictures, his guitar, his mother\u2019s musical box on the dresser together with the silver backed hair brushes his father had presented to him on his thirtieth birthday. Polished wood glowed warmly in the glow of the lamp, and the bed, with its\u2019 native blanket throw, looked inviting. Adam moved past it to the window. Despite the tiredness pricking at his eyes, he was unwilling to lie down just yet.<\/p>\n

Adam had killed men before. Not many, admittedly, but enough to know that while you never forgot their faces, after a while they did sort of slip into the back of the mind. The ghost he was living with now was not ready to be laid to rest quite yet. He sat down in the chair by the window and gazed out into the night. It was a long time before he relaxed enough to consider sleep.<\/p>\n

Four<\/p>\n

Benjamin Cartwright, silver haired barrel chested patriarch of the Ponderosa was frightened, and like all big powerful men, when he was frightened he became angry, covering his fear with shouting and bluster. He stood now in the centre of the ranch house living room, hands on hips, his expression as black as a thunder storm and his dark eyes blazing. \u201cI forbid it!\u201d his mighty voice boomed through the house. \u201cI absolutely forbid it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hop Sing scooped up the last of the breakfast things and scurried for the kitchen. The tirade of Chinese muttering was cut off abruptly by the slamming of the door. Ben\u2019s sons would have liked to make an equally expeditious exit, but their irate sire had stationed himself between them and the front door, and none of them felt inclined to challenge him. Instead, each of them was keeping a low profile and trying to avoid becoming embroiled in the argument that raged around their ears. Their stepmother, Jennifer Cartwright, stood in front of the stone built fireplace. She was several inches shorter than her formidable husband, and of much slighter in build, but her stubbornness, her determination and her physical attitude exactly mirrored his.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho do you think you are!\u201d she yelled back furiously. \u201cYou\u2019ve no right to forbid me anything!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m your husband!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband ~ not my gaoler!\u201d The sea-green eyes spat savage sparks. \u201cYou\u2019re turning this house into my prison!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be absurd!\u201d Ben bellowed. \u201cYou can go anywhere, anytime you want to!\u201d<\/p>\n

Collectively, the Cartwright boys winced, knowing from experience that their father\u2019s rage was approaching apoplectic proportions.<\/p>\n

Jenny clenched her teeth.\u00a0 How dare he treat her like a small child? She resisted with all her might the temptation to stamp her foot on the floor and prove him right. \u201cAnd how pray, do you expect me to do that?\u201d she asked icily. \u201cGrow wings on my back and fly?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to go out I\u2019ll drive you!\u201d Ben said in a more reasonable tone, something just short of a roar. \u201cOr one of the boys will drive you!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWherever I want to go?\u201d she demanded. \u201cWhenever I want to go? And how are you going to run this ranch with one of you waiting full time on me? Suppose it\u2019s not convenient? Suppose none of you happen to be here? No, Ben!\u201d She help up her hand to forestall another explosion; \u201cIt won\u2019t do! I\u2019ve made up my mind! I want a horse of my own!\u201d<\/p>\n

For Ben, time flipped back more than twenty years.<\/p>\n

It was another bright summer\u2019s day, early in the afternoon. He smelled the sharp scent of Jasmine from the vine that climbed the front of the house and felt the heat of the sun on his face. He heard the rattle of hooves coming into the yard ~ too fast ~ too fast! He saw a flash of gold in the sunlight as the chestnut mare stumbled and fell ~ saw the woman thrown through the air and heard her scream abruptly cut off. Marie ~ his own, dear, sweet Marie ~ would be dead before he could reach her. He closed his eyes but the vision was still there, burned into his brain.<\/p>\n

He heard his wife\u2019s voice as if from a long way away; \u201cI know what you\u2019re thinking, Ben.\u201d<\/p>\n

He opened his eyes and looked at her; \u201cIf you knew what I was thinking you wouldn\u2019t ask this of me,\u201d he said heavily.<\/p>\n

Jenny gazed at him with sympathy and love, but she wouldn\u2019t give way, \u201cI won\u2019t be held prisoner by another woman\u2019s memory, Ben.\u201d<\/p>\n

He felt his face begin to crumple; \u201cI couldn\u2019t bear to lose you to.\u201d His big voice was scarcely more than a whisper.<\/p>\n

The anger in Jenny\u2019s face finally faded away; \u201cYou won\u2019t lose me, my love. I used to be a good rider when I was a little girl. With a little practice…\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben sighed, knowing that he was defeated. He was still frightened, but his anger was dissipating like smoke in the wind. \u201cYou\u2019ll ride only the horse I choose for you,\u201d he said firmly. \u201cAnd you won\u2019t go out alone until I\u2019m satisfied that it\u2019s safe. And you won\u2019t ride side saddle. Not ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

With each condition imposed Jenny nodded, love, and a glimmer of amusement, shining from her eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery well. You shall have a horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben\u2019s eyes moved round the room as he realised that his sons were still present, and not only were they avoiding his eyes, but they were all trying very hard not to laugh. It was rarely they saw their father bested in an argument, mainly because he could shout louder than anyone else they knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what are you three still doing here?\u201d Ben barked crossly. \u201cDon\u2019t any of you have work to do? Doesn\u2019t anyone in this house do as I tell them any more?\u201d<\/p>\n

He stepped smartly aside as Hoss and Adam with muttered, \u201cYes, sirs!\u201d bolted for the door.\u00a0\u00a0 Joe was a little slower and Ben caught him by the arm; \u201cJoseph, when you have time, cast your eye over the riding stock and let me know which horses might be suitable for a lady.\u201d He shot his smiling wife a severe look. \u201cI want a nice, quiet horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSure, Pa.\u201d Joe grinned at his stepmother, and caught her look that said as plainly as words, \u2018Don\u2019t you dare bring me old Dobbin,\u2019 He winked at her. \u201cI\u2019ll do that, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suspecting the exchange but not certain of it, Ben sighed again, loudly, picked up his hat and followed his sons out of the house.<\/p>\n

********<\/p>\n

The hillsides, cloaked in pine trees and blued with the haze of distance, rose steeply, straight up out of the icy blue water of the lake. A cool breeze came up off the water, ruffling the manes of the horses. Ben sat back in his saddle and took a long deep breath. The air was sweet with the smell of pine and summer flowers. This spot on the headland, with its magnificent, breath taking view, was the place on Earth that he loved the most. The view was one of the things that had caused him to settle this land and that had made him stay and fight for it when times had been hard. One of the things that called him back whenever he had been away for too long. A God fearing man, it was the place he felt closest to his Lord.<\/p>\n

He looked across at his wife, sitting quietly on her horse beside him. He could tell by the expression of pure rapture on her face that she too, had been captivated. The spell had worked again, and the lake had entranced yet another Cartwright with its magic.<\/p>\n

Ben looked out again over the water. Despite his misgivings, he had to confess that Jenny, and his sons when they had sided with her, had been right, and he had been wrong. The horse that he had been manoeuvred into choosing for her was the perfect mount for a lady. The gelding was intelligent and responsive and very well mannered, and although it was a touch livelier than he would have liked, if he were honest the only thing about it he could really object to was its colour. It was a sun bright chestnut.<\/p>\n

His eldest son, Adam, had found a sturdy fore-and-aft rigged saddle and fitted it out with new buckles and straps and oiled and polished it until the leather glowed. Joe had gentled the horse, and Ben himself had helped his wife step into the saddle for the very first time. True to his word, Little Joe had taken it on himself to teach her, and once she had become accustomed to sitting astride, Jenny had learned quickly and well. Ben admitted, but only to himself, that she could now ride as well as any man on the ranch.<\/p>\n

When they had looked their fill, Ben reined his horse round and led the way down onto the narrow strip of sand that edged the water. They dismounted and led the horses.<\/p>\n

Ben indicated with a sweep of his arm the whole of the southern shore. \u201cThat\u2019s the section Hoss wants for his nature reserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny gazed into the misty distance, \u201cCan we really set aside all that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can afford the land, but Adam keeps telling me how much management a project like that would take. I\u2019ll have to give it some more thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

She turned and looked him straight in the eye. She knew that while her husband was not averse to change in principle, he could be very slow to get started. \u201cDon\u2019t keep him waiting too long, Ben.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben frowned. \u201cYou think I should let him go ahead?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHoss is a man, now. Every man has his own dream. Yours was the Ponderosa and you built it with your own hands. Hoss\u2019s dream is to work with, and care for the wild things. Perhaps it\u2019s time to let him try.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work for one man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he encounters difficulties, then he\u2019ll overcome them ~ with our help if he wants it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the same way I\u2019m helping Joe with his horse breeding project?\u201d<\/p>\n

A slight smile touched her lips. \u201cSort of,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Adam?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh yes, Adam.\u201d Jenny scuffed her boot in the sand and studied the patterns she made. \u201cAdam the engineer, Adam the architect, Adam the poet. Ben, I fear that all this…\u201d She raised her eyes to encompass the whole of the landscape. \u201cmay not be enough to hold Adam\u2019s dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben objected but Jenny insisted. She pulled off her high riding boots and peeled off her stockings. She squealed at the icy bite of the water and laughed as the sand squeezed between her toes. She waded out until the water came half way up her calves, holding her skirts high above her knees. Then she sat on a grassy bank and dried her feet on Ben\u2019s handkerchief.<\/p>\n

Feeling rather foolish, he lowered himself down beside her, and they sat side by side in silence for a while watching the ever changing aspect of the lake.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019re right,\u201d Jenny said at last, reading, as she often did, his innermost thoughts. \u201cThis has to be the most beautiful place in the world. I love it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben lay back on his elbow in the grass. \u201cAnd I love you,\u201d he said, meaningfully.<\/p>\n

Jenny gazed at him, a slight frown on her face, a slight smile on her lips. \u201cHere? Aren\u2019t we a little old for this?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m told, reliably,\u201d he said, \u201cthat I need to be more innovative. Now come on down here and I\u2019ll show you just how innovative I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

In an effort to avoid the worst of the ruts, Adam steered his horse to the side of the track, and then let it pick its own way among the stones and the weeds, while he cast his eyes over the farmstead. The colloquialism \u2018dirt farm\u2019 was an apt one, and the place looked all but derelict. The fences were broken, and the fields, which had once been planted with a corn crop, lay un-harvested and un-watered. Even the weeds were having a hard time in the poor dry soil.<\/p>\n

The house, if the two-roomed shack at the end of the track could be called a house, leaned at a distinct angle. Windows were broken and patched with scraps of old canvas, and one end of the roof was almost totally bare of shingles. Even the door of the outhouse was hanging from only one hinge.<\/p>\n

The corral was another matter. The rails and the gate showed evidence of recent, if slip shod repair. There were no animals inside it, but there was fresh manure from both horses and cattle that had not been cleared away.\u00a0 The only other sign of recent habitation was a line of grubby\u00a0 laundry strung from a corner of the shack to a solitary cottonwood tree.<\/p>\n

Adam let his horse come to a halt a few yards from the shack\u2019s single door. His dark handsome face wore a frown and bore the ravages of any number of sleep-deprived nights. He was uncertain of his own motives in coming here, and he had no clear idea of what he hoped to achieve. A compulsion had been building up inside him for days. He\u2019d just felt the need to see for himself what it was like to live like this. Well, he thought, looking round at the abject poverty, now he\u2019d seen, and he didn\u2019t much like it.<\/p>\n

He turned his horse and was about to ride away when a movement caught his eye. For a moment a face appeared behind one of the grubby quarter panes, and, seconds later, the door opened. A woman stepped out into the yard. She was small and thin, starved looking, with painted pink lips and loose lank yellow hair. She wore a man\u2019s pants and a low cut pink blouse with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows.<\/p>\n

She stood hip-shot, with her arms folded, and looked him over. \u201cYou want somethin\u2019, Mister?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam touched the brim of his hat to her. \u201cI was looking for Nathan Boxer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he ain\u2019t here. He\u2019s off\u2019n someplace with his boys. What he\u2019s got left of \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam looked away towards the cottonwoods across the fields and drew a long steadying breath. Just what he needed right now was another dose of guilt. When he looked back the woman was still watching him with narrowed cat-like eyes. He nodded to her and started to gather his reins. \u201cI\u2019m sorry to have bothered you, ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t go.\u201d The woman sauntered towards him across the yard. \u201cNathan won\u2019t be back for quite a while, but you\u2019re welcome to come in an\u2019 set.\u201d<\/p>\n

She reached out a hand and fingered the tooled leather of his saddle flap, moving close. His horse shied away. The woman watched as Adam regained control and kneed the gelding around. He knew the kind of look she had in her eyes. He had seen it a dozen times before, and it was an offer he was not currently inclined to accept. He pulled out his billfold and started to peel off some notes.<\/p>\n

The woman recoiled as if he\u2019d slapped her. \u201cWe don\u2019t want none of your damned money Mister Adam Cartwright!\u201d He reacted to his name, and she laughed at him. \u201cOh, I know who you are! I bin expectin\u2019 you! I\u2019m surprised it took you so long to get here. I know your sort. You just couldn\u2019t stay away!\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman\u2019s shouting upset Adam\u2019s horse again, and he danced away from her. Adam stuffed the money back into his pocket and fought for control.<\/p>\n

\u201cMa\u2019am.\u201d He touched his hat again and turned the horse away.<\/p>\n

The woman spat at him.<\/p>\n

As he rode away Adam could feel her eyes burning into his back. On reflection, he decided, coming here had not been a wise move. Had Nathan Boxer and his grown sons been at home, or had the woman managed to delay him until their return, his reward might well have been a shotgun blast.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Ben stared at his son as if he just suggested something totally preposterous, like a flight to the moon. \u201cWhat do you mean, give cattle to the dirt farmers?\u201d he demanded, his voice already taking on an edge of anger.<\/p>\n

Adam, still holding his hat and wearing his gun belt, stood on the other side of the desk. He held his father\u2019s gaze steadily, \u201cI mean just what I say, Pa. If those folks don\u2019t get some help this winter, they\u2019re going to starve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose next you\u2019ll suggest we provide firewood and building lumber?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam looked uncomfortable. Already he could see which way this discussion was going. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t hurt us any.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019re about it, why don\u2019t we just open up an account for them at the General Store?\u201d Ben\u2019s voice was heavy with sarcasm.<\/p>\n

Adam sighed and glanced briefly heavenwards, a look that was not lost on his father. \u201cPa, if you\u2019ll just listen to me…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I won\u2019t listen to you!\u201d Ben\u2019s mighty voice had swelled to a bellow. \u201cAll this is because of what happened to Andy Boxer, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just the Boxers.\u201d An edge of exasperation was creeping into Adam\u2019s voice now, and nothing he could do would keep it out. \u201cThere are a dozen families who aren\u2019t any better off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow let me tell you…\u201d Ben\u2019s voice dropped dangerously, and he pointed his finger for emphasis. \u201cWe\u2019ve put a great deal of time and effort into fencing those pastures, and now we have to patrol the fences! And we are still losing cattle from that west section. Your dirt farmer friends are already helping themselves to our beef without any help from you!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not my friends, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not the way it sounds to me! This ranch raises cattle as a business, not for charity. And don\u2019t tell me again…\u201d Ben held up a forbidding hand as Adam opened his mouth. \u201cthat it\u2019s only a few head. It looks like we\u2019ve lost more than a hundred head in the last few months!\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam closed his mouth, shocked. He\u2019d been so concerned with his own personal turmoil that he hadn\u2019t realised the losses had been so severe. His mind took another track. \u201cThat sounds like a full scale rustling operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re darned right it is!\u201d Ben muttered, settling back into his chair. His eyes still burned with anger. \u201cWhat we have to decide, is what we\u2019re going to do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam leaned his butt against the desk and turned his hat in his hands. \u201cIf that many cattle were being slaughtered in Virginia City then the sheriff would have to know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben harrumphed and pulled a sour face. \u201cI\u2019ve talked to Roy, unofficially. He says no. My guess is that the dirt farmers have something going with the mining camps. An unofficial contract to supply them with our beef.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you want to do, Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben looked up at him. Now that his son seemed to be back on his side, his anger was abating. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to watch that fence line closer. Find out who\u2019s taking those steers and where they\u2019re taking them too. And then, if I have to, I\u2019ll call in the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam looked unhappy with that. \u201cThat would mean sending men to prison. It would make it even harder on the families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Annoyed again, Ben shot him an angry glare. \u201cIn the old days we\u2019d have hanged them where we found them. That was the only law there was!\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam sighed and acquiesced, glad that at least his father wasn\u2019t advocating a return to barbarism.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

The stallion that Joe brought back with him from his trip east was a truly magnificent animal. Tall and deep chested, he had a fine head and a spirited eye. His coat was coal black and had the sheen of silk. As Joe walked him back and forth in front of his admiring family huge muscles rippled fluidly beneath his skin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s seven years old and a three quarter bred Morgan,\u201d Joe informed his father. \u201cWhen we cross him with our mares, we\u2019ll get sturdier, stronger saddle stock without losing any lightness of foot. We can sell off any surplus colts and by the time his fillies are grown we\u2019ll be able to buy in another stallion to avoid in-breeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben ran his hand over the horse\u2019s powerful shoulder. \u201cYou\u2019ll have to keep careful records, Joe, of which horse you cross with which.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know, Pa.\u201d Joe\u2019s youthfully handsome face radiated enthusiasm. \u201cAdam loaned me a book on it. You write everything down in a big book like a ledger. They call them stud books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss, who had been at the horse\u2019s head making friends, joined them. \u201cThat sounds like a whole lot of work for cow ponies, Little Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam, at the other end examining hoofs, straightened up and dusted off his hands. \u201cI hope you get you money\u2019s worth, Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d Joe was immediately concerned that his brother had found something amiss with the horse.<\/p>\n

Adam leaned on the black horse\u2019s rump. \u201cI was reading in the paper \u2019bout a fella in Germany, called Nikolaus Otto, talking about building an engine that runs on powdered coal. Reckons it could revolutionise transport, do away with the horse altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the sunshine Ben felt suddenly cold, as if a dark shadow from the future had fallen across him. \u201cI hope that revolution doesn\u2019t come anywhere near the Ponderosa,\u201d he said. \u201cAt least, not in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you thought of a name for the horse?\u201d Hoss asked his brother.<\/p>\n

Joe shook his head. \u201cI thought I\u2019d let Jenny name him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smiling, Jenny stroked the stallion\u2019s nose. He snorted softly and nuzzled her. \u201cWe\u2019ll call him Monarch,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ben smiled. They made a lovely pair, the woman and the horse. He had to admit, his youngest son had become the finest judge of horseflesh he\u2019d ever met, and the woman ~ the woman was just perfect. He slapped Joe on the shoulder. \u201cHe\u2019s a fine horse, son.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss sidled up to his older brother. \u201cAdam – is that Germany, Europe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam laughed. \u201cIt\u2019s the only one I know, Hoss. The only one I know!\u201d<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Jenny and Hoss sat their horses on the hillside overlooking the carefully fenced pasture behind the house. They both wore silly smiles on their faces as they watched the small, shaggy animals that dotted the grassland.<\/p>\n

Hoss shook his head in disbelief. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d see the day when my Pa would allow a sheep to set foot on Ponderosa land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny laughed musically. \u201cBelieve me, Hoss, it wasn\u2019t easy!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo ma\u2019am.\u201d Hoss joined in the laughter. They both remembered well the rows that had threatened to lift the roof off the ranch house.<\/p>\n

Ben had been adamant. No sheep on the Ponderosa! Absolutely no sheep! They were tic infested; they contaminated the land; they broke down the banks of the water courses; and, most condemning of all, they cropped the grass to the roots, or at least far too short for the cattle to be able to graze it after them. It was impossible for the two animals to share the same range, Ben had maintained, loudly and at considerable length. The cattle, mainstay of the Ponderosa\u2019s business, would starve.<\/p>\n

It had taken Jenny a long time and a lot of extremely heated argument, together with a certain amount of documentary evidence, to convince him that a small, carefully maintained flock would do no harm at all. Ben had insisted on the fences and on a dedicated water supply and a ruthless examination of the animals skins, but eventually he had given way, somewhat gracelessly, to his wife\u2019s wishes and allowed her to purchase her heart\u2019s desire, a two dozen strong flock of Jacob\u2019s sheep.<\/p>\n

When they had arrived Ben had admitted, grudgingly, that the little creatures with their four in-curving horns and their cream, russet and brown spotted coats were somewhat endearing. Now they were grazing peacefully in their allocated field and showed all the promise Jenny had hoped for.<\/p>\n

Hoss shifted in his saddle. \u201cMa\u2019am, some of those little sheep \u2019re getting awful shaggy. Do we have to get in one of those specialist sheep shearers to cut them coats?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Hoss.\u201d Jenny shook her head, smiling again. \u201cThey shed their hair all year round. You can just pull it off in handfuls, and if you keep the colours separate you can make patterns in the cloth as you weave it. If you\u2019d like, I\u2019ll make you a coat from the first piece off the loom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss gave her his broad, gap-toothed smile, \u201cI\u2019d like that real fine, ma\u2019am Real fine!\u201d<\/p>\n

Five<\/p>\n

The summer days were stretching, long and golden, into autumn. The weather held hot and dry and the grasslands were brown.<\/p>\n

In the main street of Virginia City the temperature, in the early afternoon, had reached oven-like proportions. Joe Cartwright leaned on the post that supported the board walk awning and mopped his face with a black handkerchief. He took off his hat and fanned himself with the brim. The sky was brassy and the sunlight so bright that he had to screw up his eyes to watch the heat devils dance.<\/p>\n

Joe had been looking forward to getting away from the ranch, even if for just a few hours. Hot or not, work on the Ponderosa followed, of necessity, a set pattern, and that pattern dictated that preparations be started for the winter to come. The second crop of hay had to be cut and stored for winter feed, cattle had to be gathered and bunched, building repairs made and, Joe\u2019s least favourite task, a whole winter\u2019s firewood laid in beside the house. His father, while allowing his sons more authority and freedom these days than ever before, believed firmly that they should work alongside the hired help, and he wouldn\u2019t hear any arguments to the contrary. No, on the whole Joe was glad to have come to town, even if the town was sweltering and airless.<\/p>\n

Hoss came out of the hardware store and pulled out a huge red and white bandanna to wipe the sweat from his face. He had loaded most of the wagon, and he was even hotter that Joe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure is hot,\u201d Joe ventured.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure is.\u201d Hoss looked up the street, then down. It was very quiet.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou reckon Pa wants us to head straight back with all this fencing gear?”<\/p>\n

Hoss looked over the wagon, neatly loaded with wire and a couple of kegs of nails. \u201cReckon so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think Pa would notice if we were just a half hour late?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe, I think our Pa knows where we are every second, of every hour, of every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess you’re right,\u201d Joe sighed. \u201cI sure could use a beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe looked sideways at his big brother. \u201cHoss, I don\u2019t think Pa would begrudge us a cold beer on a hot afternoon. After all, we are grown men.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSure we are.\u201d Hoss gazed speculatively at his brother. \u201cI\u2019ll buy the beer, but if Pa yells at us \u2018cause we\u2019re late you can be the one to tell him we was in the saloon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSounds fair.\u201d Joe grinned boyishly, and the two set off along the boardwalk, headed for the Silver Dollar.<\/p>\n

They had just reached the first intersection when a door opened behind them, \u201cHoss ~ Hoss Cartwright!\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Johan Schulzer, the draper, beckoning urgently.<\/p>\n

Hoss nodded to Joe. \u201cYou go on and get those beers set up on the bar. I\u2019ll be there in just a tick,\u201d he turned back to the draper\u2019s shop. \u201cHey there, Mister Schulzer, what can I do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n

The little Austrian draper smiled and bobbed. \u201cI have the package of silk fabrics your mother ordered from Boston, Mister Cartwright. If you would just come inside…\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss followed him into the cool, slightly scented depths of the shop and Joe, amused, went on towards the saloon.<\/p>\n

He had crossed the intersection and reached the front of the harness and leather goods store, recently bought and refurbished by the Kylle brothers, when two figures moved out of the shadows, neatly bracketing him, one on either side. It was the Boxer twins. The two identical faces were smiling but it was not the sort of smile Joe liked. The best way out of this, he thought to himself, was the fastest. He made to step round them but Teddy, Joe thought it was Teddy, moved to block him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are you goin\u2019, Cartwright, in such a hurry?\u201d The other one, possibly William, inquired with a smirk.<\/p>\n

Joe backed off a step and they followed him, toe to toe, crowding him into the saddles and harness that hung on display outside the store. He tried to step round them again, and again found himself blocked. He raised his hands to fend them off as they moved in on him threateningly. \u201cWhat do you fellas want?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do we want?\u201d One of the twins leered across at the other. \u201cJoe Cartwright wants to know what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want you, Cartwright.\u201d The other twin gave Joe a push in the chest that sent him stumbling back. There was some more pushing and shoving that ended in Joe\u2019s back slamming into the wall hard enough to rattle his teeth. Some of the harness fell off its pegs and tangled round him. He could feel his nose starting to bleed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour brother killed our brother!\u201d one of the twins snarled. \u201cShot \u2019im down in the street like he was a dawg!\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe tried hard to keep his voice level; \u201cYour brother was robbing the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou Cartwrights want to mind you own damned business!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna find our how much you Pa likes it to put his boy in a hole in the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna kill us a Cartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just gotta find the right Cartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need some help there, Joe?\u201d\u00a0 The question came over the Boxer\u2019s shoulders, from behind and above them. As one man they turned and found themselves face to shirt buttons with the man-mountain that was Hoss Cartwright. Hoss stood casually, his thumbs hooked in his pants belt, but his pale blue eyes were like chips of flint.<\/p>\n

At one and the same moment both the Boxer brothers thought about the guns on their hips. Their hands twitched spasmodically, but Hoss was quicker. Faster than the eye could follow his huge hands whipped out and caught both of them, one by the wrist and the other by the throat, lifting him up onto his toes. Hoss looked beyond them at his brother; \u201cYou all right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe disentangled himself from the harness and dabbed at his face with his sleeve. \u201cI\u2019m fine. But I think you\u2019d better let that fella down. He\u2019s goin\u2019 a sort of funny colour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yeah.\u201d Hoss admired the Boxer twin\u2019s slowly purpling face. \u201cGuess you\u2019re right.\u201d He lowered the smaller man until he could just take his weight on his own feet. The other twin was whimpering, white faced with pain and sweating. Hoss eased his grip just a little.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou boys havin\u2019 a problem?\u201d The slow drawl belonged to Roy Coffee. Wherever there was any sort of trouble, the grey-haired sheriff was never far away.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo problem, Roy.\u201d Joe cocked him what he hoped was a grin. \u201cWe was just funnin\u2019 around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy eyed the blood spots on Joe\u2019s shirtfront. \u201cJust funnin\u2019? Right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s breakin\u2019 my arm!\u201d squeaked the Boxer that Hoss had by the wrist.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet go \u2019o them, Hoss,\u201d Roy ordered. Hoss sighed with reluctance and let go of both Boxers. One staggered, clutching his throat, the other rubbed furiously at his wrist. \u201cIt don\u2019t look broke to me,\u201d Roy said without sympathy. \u201cYou two boys get on home.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a glare and some muttered curses, the Boxer twins gathered their hats and started to move off. One of them, possibly William, looked back over his shoulder. \u201cMake sure you tell your brother what we said, Cartwright!\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy Coffee watched their retreating backs until he was sure they were going without more trouble, then he turned to Joe and Hoss; \u201cSure is hot, boys. You look like you could do with a beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

A huge smile spread across Hoss\u2019s face. \u201cDad-burn-it, Roy! That\u2019s just what we was thinkin\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss retrieved the brown wrapped parcel that contained his step-mother\u2019s silks, and a few minutes later, the three of them were seated at a table in the Silver Dollar saloon. Three tall glasses of dark beer stood in front of them.<\/p>\n

A frown troubled Hoss\u2019s face. \u201cRoy, you reckon those Boxer twins could\u2019ve been the men ridin\u2019 with their brother the day he was shot?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNope.\u201d Roy supped his cold beer, and picked up a second moustache of white foam. \u201cThose boys keep some pretty bad company, but they got what they call an a-li-bi.\u201d He sounded the strange word out carefully. \u201cThey was in a saloon three blocks over, as drunk as lords and with two dozen men as witness. But it was those two other fellas I wanted t\u2019 talk t\u2019 you \u2019bout.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe and Hoss exchanged looks and prepared to listen. They might have known the beer would not be for free. Roy wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. \u201cThat Andy Boxer, he was mixed up with some real tough hombres from up in the mining camps. I have an idea that they might have been the gang that have been doin\u2019 all the killin\u2019s up that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss\u2019s look of concern deepened, \u201cThat still goin\u2019 on, Roy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThree in the last couple o\u2019 months. They\u2019re still keepin\u2019 t\u2019 the north of town and with the winter comin\u2019 on I expect they\u2019ll go t\u2019 ground pretty soon now. You boys be sure t\u2019 remind your Pa to keep a look out. You got a lot of line shacks up among all them pine trees. Ideal places fer a bunch \u2019o killers to hide out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll remind him, Roy,\u201d Joe said.<\/p>\n

Roy finished his beer and smacked his lips. \u201cSure was good.\u201d He gathered his hat and nodded to the Cartwright brothers. \u201cG\u2019day, boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he had gone Joe took a long swallow of beer, but Hoss merely frowned into his glass. It was plain the big man had something on his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe, do you think those killers might really be hidin\u2019 out in our hills?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe shrugged. \u201cI suppose they might, but they\u2019re more likely to hang out around the mining camps this time of year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was wantin\u2019 to take a ride up into that section that Pa says I can set aside. Take a few days to look around before winter sets in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe grinned at him, he was as pleased as could be to see his big brother embarking on what looked like being his life\u2019s work. \u201cSounds like a good idea, Hoss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was wonderin\u2019 if Adam would come with me if\u2019n I asked him. I\u2019d kind of like him to explain to me about this land management he keeps on talkin\u2019 about. Might be easier to understand if we have the land right there in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sounds good as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss looked up at Joe, his expression both troubled and hopeful. \u201cAdam\u2019s been actin\u2019 kind o\u2019 funny lately, ever since that run in with Andy Boxer. You reckon he\u2019d come with me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSure he would. Some practical problems are probably just what our older brother needs\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll ask him then.\u201d Hoss made up his mind, \u201cNow we\u2019d best be gettin\u2019 back, Joe. We\u2019ve still got all that fencin\u2019 to deliver, an\u2019 tomorrow Pa wants me to check up on those six little heifers we put down in the water meadows. They should be comin\u2019 on a real treat by now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two Cartwrights drank up their beer, picked up their hats, and the parcel, and headed back to where they\u2019d left the wagon.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Adam came down the staircase freshly bathed, and shaved, and all dressed up for his trip to the big city. In his hand he carried a book bound in well-handled green leather. It was one of his favourites.<\/p>\n

With a smile in her eyes Jenny met him in the centre of the room. With a proprietary air she brushed the tiniest speck of lint from the lapel of his dark, broadcloth coat and stepped back admiringly. She was pleased at how smart her tall, handsome stepson looked.<\/p>\n

He held out the book to her. \u201cThis is the novel we were talking about yesterday. I thought you might like to read it while I\u2019m away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, thank you, Adam.\u201d She took it from him, well aware of how much Adam\u2019s books meant to him and what a privilege it was to be loaned one. \u201cI\u2019ll just have time to finish it before you get back. Adam, I\u2019ve written some letters to my family. Would you be kind enough to post them for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

His deep amber eyes smiled warmly into her green ones. \u201cIt will be my pleasure to, Ma\u2019am.\u201d He took the small stack of neatly addressed, cream coloured envelopes and turned to his father, holding out his hand. \u201cI\u2019ll be gone about two weeks Pa. That\u2019ll give me time to talk to our lawyers and visit Major McKenna in the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben shook hands with his son. \u201cGive Peter my best wishes, and make sure you get us the best price for that lumber.\u201d He handed over a briefcase full of papers. \u201cYou take care of yourself, now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben slipped his arm round his wife, and smiling, they watched as Adam shook hands with his brothers, gathered his hat, and his gun belt, and went out of the door.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Two pistol shots in rapid succession, fired into the air. That was the Cartwright family\u2019s signal that something was wrong, and that everyone should come running. Ben and Joe pulled up and exchanged looks of alarm. As one, they turned their horses and set off at a gallop in the direction of the shots.<\/p>\n

Hoss was in the water meadows, down in the thigh high grass near the stream. He had stepped down from his horse and was looking down at something that lay out of sight on the ground. Ben remembered that this was the field where they were grazing the six yearling heifers to get some meat on their bones before winter. He looked round anxiously. The heifers were up on the hill in a little group ~ but not enough of them.<\/p>\n

Hoss looked up when he heard their horses, his broad face strangely puckered up. Ben was off his horse before it had stopped moving. He could see now that two of the heifers lay on their sides in the long grass, and he could tell from the amount of gore around that they were not going to get up again. He joined Hoss, and a second later Joe came up beside him. The three of them stared in horrified disgust at the remains of the young cows.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did this?\u201d Ben asked, his voice low and gravely. \u201cVarmints?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was varmints all right, Pa.\u201d Hoss hunkered down and showed his father some of the grisly details. \u201cIt was two legged varmints. No cat ever did this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about the others?\u201d Joe looked up the hill to where the remaining four cows huddled forlornly against the rail. \u201cAre they all right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss followed his gaze. \u201cI ain\u2019t looked yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGo look them over, will you, Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n

As Joe stepped back into the saddle, Ben turned to Hoss. \u201cSon, I know you were planning to ride up into the reserved section with Adam when he gets back, but with this trouble,\u201d He gestured round. \u201cI don\u2019t think I can spare either of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know, Pa.\u201d Hoss pulled a face. \u201cDon\u2019t you worry about it none.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben squeezed his shoulder and crouched down to take a good long look at the slaughtered stock.<\/p>\n

Hoss had already seen enough of it. He moved down towards the stream, studying the ground as he went. There were a lot of tracks in the soft soil beside the water. It was easy to see where the cattle went down to drink and there were some horse tracks that looked fairly fresh. Among them was the mark of a splayed-out hind hoof. Hoss scowled and with a heavy heart went back to help clear up the mess.<\/p>\n

Six<\/p>\n

If summer had been prolonged then autumn was short. It was a brief period of ever shortening days and cooling nights. Daily, clouds started to form up over the High Sierras threatening rain. They dissipated as they drifted lower, but the streams flowing out of the foothills began to fill, indicating rainfall higher up. Dew lay heavily on the land every morning, and the welcome moisture brought forth a lightening crop of fresh, bright green grass in the pastures.<\/p>\n

In the ranch house log fires once more roared in the stone fireplace. The warmth and the resinous scent of burning pine logs permeated the whole house. Beside the house, despite Joe\u2019s reluctance, the woodpile had grown to mountainous proportions. The smokehouse worked overtime, and the storerooms filled to bulging with preserved and dried goods. To everyone\u2019s delight, Hop Sing\u2019s apple pies became studded with huge ripe blackberries.<\/p>\n

The ranch\u2019s prosperity for years to come was finally assured. Adam had come back with a long term lumber contract safely signed and sealed, and arrangements had been secured to supply Ponderosa beef to the army, the mining company, and the newly opened cannery on the West coast. After careful consultation, Ben and Adam purchased share certificates in the new company mining the shale deposits that spread from the north of the state, across Utah and Colorado, and into Wyoming for something they called petroleum. Adam thought it was the coming thing and Ben, despite his misgivings, had a gut feeling that he was right.<\/p>\n

As predicted, the spate of assaults and killings to the north of Virginia City ceased as the weather cooled, and now that the cattle had been gathered close to the feeding stations in the centre of the ranch the cattle thefts also stopped.<\/p>\n

Then, in the final halcyon days before the weather broke, came the good news that had been anticipated for some time. A railroad spur was to be constructed north and west as far as Reno. The Cartwright\u2019s annual trail drive would be shortened by more than two weeks. Adam immediately got out his drafting tools and began to design a complex of cattle pens for the border of the ranch closest to the new railhead.<\/p>\n

Winter arrived abruptly out of the north west, announced by a tremendous double clap of thunder that split the heavens apart and rattled the glass in the window frames. Rain and hailstones deluged the land. Low-lying ground became quagmires, trails became rivers and rivers raging torrents. It was a relief when, after two weeks, the temperature plummeted and partially solidified the sodden ground. The needles on the Ponderosa pines turned black with the cold. The first snowfall covered everything with a pristine blanket of white.<\/p>\n

Ben took down the huge old family Bible from its place on the shelf. His eyes lingered on the entries, hand written on the front pages, listing marriages, births and deaths in an endless cycle of grief and joy. There was room on the pages yet for more entries. He began to read, as he did every year, at Genesis, Chapter One. By spring he would have read right through to the end of Acts.<\/p>\n

Jenny had the boys unpack, and set up, the loom she had bought in a corner of the sitting room. She had been teaching herself to spin on an old treadle driven spinning wheel, and after a number of coarse and somewhat lumpy practice pieces, had started to produce a fine, even yarn from the wool of her sheep. Her next project was to turn the yarn into cloth.<\/p>\n

It was the first winter that Jenny had lived in the house with them, and Ben was delighted at the harmony she brought to his family. His sons still quarrelled, and sometimes the discussions became furiously heated, but there was none of the on going bitter dissent, or the displays of temper that had characterised recent years.<\/p>\n

The previous winter Ben had started to teach both Joe and Hoss the game of chess. Joe was eager to renew the lessons. He had a sharp agile mind and was developing a certain innovative flare that sometimes took his father by surprise, but he also had a short attention span that would work to Ben\u2019s advantage. Hoss, on the other hand, completely failed to grasp the finer points of the game and found it tedious. He preferred to play checkers with Joe or Jenny, and happily spent long hours discussing land management and resource husbandry with his older brother.<\/p>\n

Adam had saved several new books to read during the dark days of winter, and spent a lot of his time pouring over maps and working at his drafting table. Eventually he produced the plans for the required logging road, and also detailed drawings of the sluices for the proposed irrigation of the arid eastern section. His plan, which Ben viewed with some doubt, was to increase the carrying capacity of the land by some thirty percent.<\/p>\n

Evenings were spent gathered round the fireplace talking, reading or playing games. Sometimes, Adam would bring down his guitar and he and Jenny would sing popular songs together, he snuggled comfortably into his favourite armchair and she on the floor with her head against Ben\u2019s knee.<\/p>\n

As the days foreshortened still further and the snow became deeper, trips out of doors became restricted to checks that the cattle were finding food and water, and a rare excursion to Virginia City. Half a dozen times a day, Ben thought to himself that he would have to have a talk with Adam about the design and deployment of the outhouse.<\/p>\n

Christmas, with all its associated festivities, came and went. True to her word Jenny presented Hoss with a new woollen coat checked with all the colours of the Jacobs sheep, and she gave promises of similar garments to all the Cartwright men, including Hop Sing, as soon as the sheep provided sufficient wool.<\/p>\n

The New Year was barely begun when winter clamped down with a vengeful white hand. Blizzards howled down out of the mountains, one chasing another, burying the land many feet deep. The great pine trees lowered their branches almost to the ground under the weight of snow. All the trails were blocked, and the men had their work cut out merely to reach the cattle that were, by now, depending on them to distribute the hay from the feeding stations. Most of their days were spent digging in the drifts, and after dark, they were to tired to do anything much but sleep.<\/p>\n

To the people confined there, the huge ranch house seemed to shrink daily. Food remained plentiful, but the diet became monotonous. None of them liked to think what conditions were like in the mining camps, or in the poorer parts of town.<\/p>\n

Spring started early for the Cartwrights, much earlier than any of them had anticipated. It was still snowing heavily when the Jacob\u2019s sheep started to drop their lambs. Ben, with a foresight that made Jenny think he knew a great deal more about sheep than he pretended, had built a secure shed for them. It was thanks to that and to the fodder provided that not a single animal had died in that winter.<\/p>\n

Although the ewes seemed quite capable of managing on their own, Jenny wanted to be there as every lamb was born. With a sigh Ben gave up the argument and had a stove and firewood carted down to the pasture, and either he or one of the boys stayed with her.<\/p>\n

Jenny\u2019s main concern was that a higher proportion of lambs than expected were male. Ever a practical woman she consoled herself that when grown they would provide mutton to add to the basic Cartwright diet of beef, pork and chicken.<\/p>\n

The lambs were born mostly in pairs without any help at all, and in a week the little flock had increased two times over, and only one ewe had died. Jenny and Hoss wrapped her two tiny lambs in their coats and carried them up to the house to be hand reared.<\/p>\n

Winter had one final savage fling. A blizzard blasted through Western Nevada from North to South. It lasted two whole days and three nights. On the next morning the sun lifted into a clear blue sky and spring had truly arrived.<\/p>\n

Seven<\/p>\n

Two riders stopped their horses on the crest of the rise and sat a while, looking down into the meadowlands spread out before them. A stream ran through, deep and fast, filled with melt water and icy cold. Willows hung over its banks on either side, their branches a fragile tracery of bursting green. Here and there, in the shadows of the surrounding trees where the sun never shone, patches of snow still lingered. Elsewhere the grass was already showing healthy new growth.<\/p>\n

Adam pushed his hat way back on his head and leaned on his saddle horn. He breathed deeply. The air, still cold and wet, carried the scent of growing things and the promise of summer to come. He looked across at the woman sitting next to him, a sparkle lightening his eyes. \u201cAre you glad now, that you came?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny\u2019s face was pink from the cold and the fresh air, and the sheer exhilaration of their ride. She returned his smile, then threw her head back and laughed with the sheer joy of being alive. \u201cOh, yes, Adam. It\u2019s been such fun!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were small Hoss and I used to sneak here with our fishing poles. Pa thought it was too dangerous, and I guess he was right.\u201d He looked ruefully at the speed of the flowing water. \u201cWe used to race our ponies across these fields to the old oak.\u201d he indicated the solitary, still leafless oak tree almost a mile distant across the meadow.<\/p>\n

Jenny gazed at him wondering when it was that small boy went away. Was it possible to see a mischievous, perhaps naughty child lingering in this introverted, often cynical man? Yes, she decided, the child was still there, buried deep perhaps, but evident now in the up-tilted profile and the far focussed eyes. She gathered up he reins. \u201cWell then,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat are you waiting for!\u201d<\/p>\n

She kicked her horse into motion and in a moment was flying away from him down the hill. Adam, caught totally by surprise, took several seconds to get his horse pointed in the right direction and took off after her. They both hit the bottom of the hill running and were away, their horses stretching into a flat out gallop.<\/p>\n

Waving their hats in the air they whooped and hollered like a pair of Comanche children, quite oblivious to the speed at which the grass flashed by beneath their horse\u2019s bellies.<\/p>\n

The race, for all practical purposes, was a dead heat. They passed on either side of the oak tree and pulled up beyond, breathless and laughing like lunatics. When she could finally speak Jenny pointed a shaking finger at her stepson, \u201cDon\u2019t you ever, ever dare tell your father!\u201d<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Ben rode into Virginia City on a horse that was just beginning to limp. The shoe had been thrown while he was riding the boundaries of the ranch casting a proprietary eye over the land and making mental notes of the most urgent repair work. It had been a shorter ride into town than back to the forge at the ranch house. Even so, it was already fully dark when he arrived.<\/p>\n

Lanterns hung at intervals along the awnings, lighting the boardwalks and casting pools of cool radiance into the street. Many of the stores were still open, and there were a lot of people about. Ben tipped his hat to several that he knew. Further down the street two saloons were doing good business. Ben could hear the music and laughter. Later, he thought, he might buy himself a beer before heading home. That thought reminded him that he would soon have to hire on extra hands for the spring round up.<\/p>\n

The blacksmith\u2019s shop was a well-lit hive of activity. Josh Gillford and his two sons Marty and John were hard at work at separate forges. Ben noted that the boys were fully-grown now; big, hard muscled men like their father. Their arms and their faces shone in the light of the fires, and the ring of their hammers sounded out into the night.<\/p>\n

Ben dismounted and led his horse inside.<\/p>\n

Josh Gillford looked up briefly from his work at the anvil. \u201c \u2019Evening\u2019, Ben. Be with you in a few minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo hurry.\u201d Ben looped his reins round a convenient post and wandered over, \u201cWhat\u2019s that you\u2019re making?\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh was working a very curious sort of horseshoe on the block, sort of blunt and wide with a bracing bar across the open ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a special, Ben.\u201d Josh turned the hot metal, and hammered it, and turned it again. \u201cIt\u2019s for old Nathan Boxer\u2019s horse there. Got that splayed out hind hoof.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben strolled over and looked at the dark bay horse tethered in the stall. It stood four square well enough but the near-side hind hoof was split and splayed.<\/p>\n

Josh came over with the smoking horseshoe in the pincers, and Ben got out of the way. Expertly the blacksmith fitted the shoe in a cloud of acrid smoke, then quenched it in a bucket of water.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow\u2019s that stallion of yours Little Joe brought home?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben laughed. \u201cJoe\u2019s not so little now, you know. Monarch\u2019s just fine. Seems to get bigger every time I see him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh started to nail the new shoe to the hoof. \u201cThat boy of yours sure knows horseflesh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe sure does.\u201d Ben remembered he had recently had the same thoughts himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put him up to any mares yet?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Bout half a dozen I reckon. Joe\u2019s looking after that side of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh put down he horse\u2019s foot and gave him a pat. \u201cThat\u2019ll hold him for another month. Now what can I do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh and Ben walked towards Ben\u2019s horse.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe threw a shoe. He\u2019s walking lame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh picked up the hoof and swiftly trimmed off a few rough bits with his knife.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou seem to be busy.\u201d Ben remarked looking round at all the activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure am. Fella named Kingdom Jones started up a new haulage business out of Sparks. Got a lot o\u2019 wagons and a lot o\u2019 mules.\u201d Josh looked up with a cheerful grin. \u201cMeans a lot o\u2019 horseshoes. I\u2019ll have this fella fixed up for you in about twenty minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I think I\u2019ll just go along and get myself a beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re goin\u2019 over to the Silver Dollar there\u2019s fellas there asking for you. Lookin\u2019 to sign on for the spring drive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben shook his head. \u201cJosh, that\u2019s twice in five minutes you\u2019ve read my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll part o\u2019 the service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every night in Virginia City was celebration night. And if no one was quite sure what they were celebrating, then that didn\u2019t really matter. The town was still booming on the back of the silver lode, and if evidence were needed, then the Silver Dollar saloon provided it. By the time Ben arrived, the place was already overflowing with light, and noise, and music.<\/p>\n

Elaborate contraptions of lamps and mirrors hung from the ceiling. A bar with a vast and hugely expensive mirror behind ran the length of the back wall. A grand staircase swept up to the not nearly so grand rooms above. The patrons were all men, mostly miners and cowhands still in their works clothes, laughing, and shouting, and holding loud conversations across the room. The tables were tight packed, and all of them were occupied. Card games were just getting started. Over in the corner someone was playing the piano loudly and with considerable skill.\u00a0 The only women present were a half a dozen artificially pretty saloon girls in their bright low cut dresses already working the crowd. The whole place smelled of sweat, and dirt, and cheap perfume, and overwhelmingly, of drink.<\/p>\n

Ben pushed his way up to the bar<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t often see you in here, Mister Cartwright,\u201d remarked the bartender, putting Ben\u2019s beer down in front of him.<\/p>\n

Ben sipped appreciatively. \u201cIf the beer\u2019s this good I\u2019ll be coming more often.\u201d He put his money on the bar and hooked his boot heel in the rail.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou Ben Cartwright?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben turned at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. It belonged to a tall whiplash thin man in his late twenties. He had a pleasant face marred by the loss of both front teeth, overlong curly hair and wore the standard western dress of pants, shirt, boots and vest. \u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d Ben said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Auron Prior.\u201d The stranger held out a wide, work-hardened hand. \u201cI hear tell you\u2019re looking for hands this time o\u2019 year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh Gillford said you were asking for me.\u201d Ben looked him up and down with new interest and found himself liking what he saw. \u201cYou know something about cattle?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know everything there is to know about cattle.\u201d Auron Prior said it easily, with a pleasant expression on his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pay a dollar a day and everything you can eat. Round up starts next week, calf branding and then the drive north. I provide remounts, and I might pay a bonus if it\u2019s a good year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auron nodded. \u201cSounds good to me. I got four brothers an\u2019 two friends. You hire them too?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben looked beyond him and found himself confronted by the same face repeated over and over with only slight variations. A practised judge of men, he made up his mind quickly. \u201cI\u2019m hiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The expectant faces broke into smiles.<\/p>\n

Auron made the introductions, and Ben realised that despite appearances, this set of brothers were as different from each other as were his own sons. Aubrey was shorter and quick eyed. Asia was the youngest, still soft featured. Arthur was a powerful taciturn man not quite as big as Hoss and Ashley was pleasant faced like Auron, but with a full set of teeth that he displayed in a wide friendly smile. \u201cWe\u2019re all Priors. You\u2019d better call us by our given names or we ain\u2019t gonna know who you\u2019re talkin\u2019 to. This is Pete Barnes…\u201d Barnes was a small darker man, weasel faced. \u201cAnd Pete Nash.\u201d Nash was balding with a prominent nose and bright blue eyes.<\/p>\n

Ben shook hands all round. \u201cWhere\u2019re you boys from?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re from out Utah, Wyoming way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a long way from home.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the younger Priors, Aubrey, spoke up, \u201cWe ain\u2019t rightly got no home to speak of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do a lot o\u2019 travellin\u2019.\u201d Auron, probably the eldest and obviously spokesman, smiled easily. \u201cWe heard you might be hirin\u2019 an\u2019 we come a long way to ride for you. You got a reputation, Mister Cartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that a fact!\u201d Ben shook his head in wonder, and then smiled back, suddenly at ease in the company of these men. \u201cWhy don\u2019t I buy you all a drink?\u201d<\/p>\n

That night, as he made his way home, Ben reflected that in the space of a half-hour he had hired himself all the extra help he needed. He smiled at the thought of the look on Adam\u2019s face when he was confronted by the names of five A. Priors and two more Petes in the wages book.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

As good as their word, the Prior brothers showed up on the range at sunrise on Monday morning. The Cartwright boys liked them immediately, and it soon became clear that Auron Prior\u2019s claim to know cattle was no idle boast. They could ride, and rope, and brand as well as the Cartwrights themselves, and they knew how to ferret the mavericks out of the brushy hollows and the dry gullies where they liked to hide. Even Charlie, Ben\u2019s foreman for fourteen years and as much a stickler for men pulling their weight as Ben, himself declared himself satisfied. As a bonus, it turned out that Pete Barnes was an expert trail cook. His bacon and beans was as good as any of them had ever tasted, rivalling even Hop Sing\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Roundup was complete, and the branding almost done on the bright spring morning when Hoss came striding in from the yard, a frown screwing up his normally amiable features. \u201cHey, Pa! I was just talking to some of the hands that went into Virginia City last night. There\u2019s bin two more killin\u2019s just outside o\u2019 town. Couple o\u2019 miners shot up an\u2019 robbed o\u2019 their winter diggin\u2019s. Folks saw two fellas ridin\u2019 away real fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben looked up from his breakfast, concern etched deeply into his face. \u201cThat\u2019s bad news, son. I was hoping we were done with all that killing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe shook his head. \u201cUntil the miners get themselves organised, pa, they\u2019re goin\u2019 to be real easy pickin\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben glanced across the table at him, still able to be surprised at his youngest son\u2019s rapidly developing maturity. \u201cYou and Adam checked out the line shacks a while ago. Was there any sign that anyone had been hiding out up there?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo Pa.\u201d Adam set his coffee cup down carefully in its saucer. He was bristling slightly. \u201cNo one\u2019s been up there since we closed them up last autumn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben looked round the table. His gaze lingered on the face of each of the men his sons had become and came to rest, finally, on the empty chair at his side. For some days Jenny had declined to join the family at breakfast, pleading some minor indisposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like the idea of leaving Jenny alone with those killers about,\u201d he said slowly.<\/p>\n

Hoss looked up between bites. \u201cWhat do you plan on doin\u2019 Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that the Priors are on the pay role, I don\u2019t see that we all need to go north with the cattle drive.\u201d Ben saw the looks exchanged around the table. He put a stronger note of authority into his voice, one that brooked no argument. \u201cI shall go myself and I shall take you, Joseph, and Charlie, with me,\u201d Hoss and Adam looked at one another long and hard. Ben ploughed on, knowing they weren\u2019t liking it. \u201cAdam, I want you to start right away on that logging road out of the high country. I\u2019ll leave you enough hands for the job. You\u2019ll give him a hand, Hoss, with the heavy construction work. Then, if you like, you can take that ride up into the reserved section.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss beamed, instantly won over. \u201cSure thing, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam pushed his plate away just an inch and dabbed his mouth with his napkin. He was obviously selecting his words very carefully. \u201cPa, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s altogether fair. You know that I wanted to…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know, Adam. But later in the year I shall need you to go to San Francisco for me. You can take some time off then to visit the theatre, and the libraries, and whatever else. You won\u2019t need to hurry back. In the meantime I shall be happier if I know that you\u2019re here, especially at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only partially mollified and feeling that he\u2019d been out-manoeuvred, Adam sighed heavily. \u201cJust as you say, Pa. He shot Joe a venomous glance, and Joe grinned back at him in delight.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Ben stood up in his stirrups and looked the herd over. Separated out from the cows and calves, the steers had been mustered in a shallow basin ideally suited for the purpose. They looked fit and well, fattened on the spring grass. All he had to do now was deliver them to the cattle pens in Reno without running the meat off them.<\/p>\n

Charlie came riding up the hill. His sorrel cow pony was already putting on a sweat. \u201cThat\u2019s it, boss. All set to go. Final tally comes to fifty head or so more than you need to cover the contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben, who knew that Charlie could neither read, nor write, trusted his count. \u201cThere\u2019s no point in leaving them here eating their heads off. Let\u2019s hope we get a good price for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Old Charlie turned his head and spat tobacco juice. \u201cLet\u2019s get \u2018em there afore we count it,\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben laughed. \u201cYou\u2019re right. Let\u2019s move them out!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, Sir!\u201d Charlie swung the sorrel round and galloped off down the hill.<\/p>\n

The cattle drive was not without incident.<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way Joe Cartwright struck up a friendship with Asia Prior that was to endure for the rest of their lives. They were of an age and shared a love of life, of horses and of pretty young women. Asia, northern born and bred, had northern manners and neatly complimented Joe\u2019s southern influenced charm. The two of them quickly developed a double act that never seemed to fail. Ben worried that they were leaving a string of broken hearts and irate fathers along the trail behind them.<\/p>\n

Pete Browning, one of Ben\u2019s regular cowhands, got thrown from his horse and broke his leg. They had to leave him at a farmstead along the way. Ben went soft in the heart and gave away a horse from the remount string to a couple who had just had to shoot their only animal. He paid the fines of four men who got locked up after a saloon brawl, and docked their wages accordingly.\u00a0 Pete Nash turned out to be a gambling man, and a good one. During the course of the drive he managed to skin every man who would sit down with him, including, much to his shame in front of his father, the youngest Cartwright. Ben sighed and hoped that one day, his son might learn. One man got into an unwise fight with Arthur Prior and ended up with a cracked rib from the inevitable bear hug, and Ben bought his way out of trouble with a far ranging, and hungry, band of Paiute with a handful off cattle.<\/p>\n

Perhaps worst of all, was the afternoon when six steers fell into a hole in a washed out riverbank. The trail crew spent hour\u2019s chest deep in the river, digging in the mud and hauling on ropes, and didn\u2019t manage to save any of them.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

The herd was delivered to Ben\u2019s shipping agents a whole week before the due date on the contacts. Once the losses were tallied up, there were only a few extra head to be sold off, and the price for beef that year was not good. Ben, however, was pleased with the drive and was able to pay the men their promised bonus.<\/p>\n

Charlie promised to round up the Ponderosa hands after a few days of freedom in the big city and herd them back to the ranch. Ben hoped that some of them might still have some money left.<\/p>\n

Outside the stock-yards Ben shook hands warmly with each of the Prior bothers, and with the two Petes. They had proved willing and able workers, and he had grown used to their amiable faces. He was sorry to see them go. \u201cAre you sure you boys won\u2019t come back to the Ponderosa? I guarantee you\u2019ll eat regular.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auron Prior pushed his hat back; \u201cYou make that a mighty tempting offer, Mister Cartwright. It\u2019s sure bin a pleasure to ride for you. But you see, we got what you might call a Prior engagement down Arizona way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, if you happen to be passing by next spring, you be sure to stop by. I\u2019ll be glad to hire you. All of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auron patted the pocket where he\u2019d tucked his bonus pay and gave Ben a last gap toothed grin; \u201cWe might just do that.\u201d He tipped his hat to Ben and to Joe and went off with his brothers to find their horses.<\/p>\n

Sightseeing, Ben and Joe strolled through the busy streets back to their hotel. They ate lunch together in the dining room.<\/p>\n

There was a slight frown between Ben\u2019s eyes as he gazed at his son over the coffee; \u201cJoseph, I told you that when I\u2019ve finished my business in town I\u2019ll be going to visit with the O\u2019Keefs awhile. I\u2019m sure they\u2019d make you welcome if you wanted to come with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe gave him a grin. \u201cThanks, Pa. But no, thanks. You go on ahead and say hello to Mister O\u2019Keef for me. I\u2019ll be just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a big house, and servants, and some real pretty daughters that must be quite grown up by now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe stifled the inevitable sigh that he knew would annoy his father. He had heard all about the O\u2019Keef daughters ~ and their mother\u2019s enthusiastic matchmaking ~ from his brothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be alright, Pa. I\u2019m a grown man now. I can take care of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben mustered as much conviction as he could. \u201cOf course you can.\u201d If he were honest he had serious misgivings about leaving his youngest son alone in the city. \u201cWhat are you going to do with yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe flourished a piece of paper and Ben recognised a familiar handwriting. \u201cAdam gave me a list of addresses. Galleries and museums and places like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben looked from the list to Joe\u2019s face, mystified. His son\u2019s expression was guiless<\/p>\n

Joe shrugged. \u201cI thought I might give it a try. See if I can figure out what makes big brother tick.\u201d Joe thought about that other list Adam had given him ~ the list of names and places of less academic interest such as Belle\u2019s Palace, The Lotus Flower and The Paradise Garden. There were, he figured, things that a grown man\u2019s father just didn\u2019t need to know.<\/p>\n

Ben was not fooled for an instant. He had been a father long enough to know when something was being put over on him. Joe\u2019s expression was just too full of innocence to be true. However, he knew Joe was a man now, just as he\u2019d said, and old enough to make his own mistakes. He just hoped they wouldn\u2019t be big ones. He pulled a roll of bills out of his pocket and peeled some off. \u201cHere\u2019s half your wages, son. I put the rest in the bank. You can draw it when you get back to Virginia City.\u201d<\/p>\n

A flicker of resentment crossed Joe\u2019s face. He would have liked all his money, but knew a whole lot better than to say so. \u201cThanks, Pa.\u201d He pocketed the cash quickly before Ben could even think of changing his mind. \u201cI\u2019ll just spend a few days around town and then I\u2019ll head for home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben nodded slowly, still doubtful. \u201cAll right. I\u2019ll see you back at the ranch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two men shook hands, and Ben headed for his lawyer\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The Lotus Flower was an impressive building of yellow brick. It stood on a corner plot at a busy intersection, and from the number of men coming and going it was doing a brisk trade. Joe looked up at the impressive facade. It was all windows, and every window had curtains and a vase of flowers on the sill. Joe set his hat at a jaunty angle and set off across the street. Older brothers, he reflected, sometimes had their uses.<\/p>\n

Four days later and flat broke, Joe set out for home. With no money for the stage or for lodgings he had to ride horseback all the way and sleep out under the stars. A week later he sat at the familiar fork in the trail. Ahead of him the lights of Virginia City spread invitingly across the landscape. To the right lay the trail to the Ponderosa, a long dark hour\u2019s ride away. For Joe, saddle sore and hungry, it was not a difficult choice to make. He rode into town and spent the night with a friend. In the morning, rested and fed, he set out on the last leg home.<\/p>\n

Jenny Cartwright had taken full advantage of her men folks absence. With Hop Sing\u2019s help she had spring-cleaned the ranch house from floor to rafters. Lamps had been taken down and cleaned, curtains washed, rugs beaten, and the furniture wax polished until it gleamed. There wasn\u2019t a speck of dust anywhere, and the morning sun shone in through spotless windows to pool on the floor. She stood now beside the dining room table humming softly to herself arranging flowers in a shallow bowl.<\/p>\n

Adam sat in his father\u2019s high-backed leather chair finishing up the backlog of paper work. At the sound of her singing he looked up and smiled. In a narrow waisted lilac coloured dress she looked ethereal against the light that spilled around her.<\/p>\n

He stacked the papers neatly on the corner of the desk and slipped the big ledger into the drawer. It was in his mind to take the long ride up to the new logging road, just to check on how things were going. The road was complete now along two thirds of its length, and Adam trusted his work crew, but he knew his father would expect him to keep a personal eye on it.<\/p>\n

Hoss had ridden away into the reserved section a week ago, and while he could be back anytime now, he couldn\u2019t be expected to take another long ride out. The ranch hands that had gone on the cattle drive were drifting home, mostly broke, and he anticipated his father\u2019s imminent return. He knew Ben would want an up to date report on everything, so it was all down to him. Good old Adam, he was always the responsible one. And it was time to get going.<\/p>\n

He got to his feet and crossed the room to stand behind his stepmother. \u201cThat looks real pretty, ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think so?\u201d Jenny tucked the last flower into place and set the bowl in the middle of the table.<\/p>\n

Stepping back to admire her handiwork her hip brushed against his. She stumbled and Adam quickly put out a hand to save her. As she fell she turned, clutching at him. The next thing either of them knew, she was standing in the circle of his arms. Her thanks froze unspoken on her parted lips. His face was very close to hers, his breath fragrant and warm on her cheek, his brown eyes softening, becoming curious, inviting.<\/p>\n

Adam gazed into her face. Her perfume and the clean smell of her hair filled his head and stole away his senses. The heat of her body reached him through the thickness of their clothes. He saw curiosity and wonder in her eyes. He lowered his face towards hers, his lips parting in anticipation.<\/p>\n

Across the room Little Joe stood in the doorway, stunned by what he saw. His father\u2019s wife held in the arms of his brother. Numbed beyond thought he drew back, closing the door silently behind him.<\/p>\n

Adam felt a pang low down as his body responded naturally and pleasantly to the close proximity of hers. His arms tightened, drawing her closer.<\/p>\n

Jenny\u2019s lips trembled, her eyelids starting to close as she lifted her face to him, and then, in the same moment, both of them realized the deadly trap they were falling into. Their first forbidden kiss unborn, they pulled apart. She put her hands flat against his chest as if to push him away, and he stepped back, releasing her.<\/p>\n

He looked away, not able to face her. \u201cI am so sorry, ma\u2019am,\u201d he said in a low voice that shook. \u201cI didn\u2019t mean for that to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny drew a long breath. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t your fault, Adam.\u201d She turned and walked away from him, putting furniture between them and determinedly quelling for ever the intense yearnings his nearness had awakened. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t anyone\u2019s fault.\u201d She faced him directly, by force of will making him meet her eyes. \u201cAnd it won\u2019t ever happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, ma\u2019am.\u201d Adam didn\u2019t know what he felt or what he ought to feel, but he had already made himself that same promise. \u201cWhat are we going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing!\u201d Jenny drew herself up tall. \u201cI am your father\u2019s wife and I love him dearly. You are his son. I see no reason to cause him pain. We will say and do nothing. It didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out in the barn Joe buried his face in his horse\u2019s neck and wept as his world fell in shattered ruins around him.<\/p>\n

Eight<\/p>\n

Hoss led his horse into the barn on a long loose rein. He was a happy man. He was bone tired from long days in the saddle and trying to sleep on the rock hard ground at night, but sated with the majestic beauty of the landscape to which, in his heart and soul, he was quite content to dedicate his life. His head was full of the things he\u2019d seen and the ideas he\u2019d had. He wanted to talk to his family about them and to discuss finance and practicalities with his father and with Adam.<\/p>\n

A big smile split his face when he saw his little brother. \u201cHey, Little Joe! You back now from the big city? How’d the drive go? You get to visit all those fancy whore houses Adam was talkin’ \u2018bout?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe scrubbed his shirtsleeve across his face to remove the last traces of his tears. It had been over an hour since he had heard his eldest brother ride away, and he still couldn\u2019t make any sense of what he felt. There was anger and confusion and grief all mixed up together. He had no idea how he was ever going to look Adam in the face again, or his stepmother, or, worst of all, his father. What he did know was that he couldn\u2019t describe what he\u2019d seen, not now, not to Hoss.<\/p>\n

Hoss\u2019s face was clouding over as he came nearer. \u201cYou all right, Little Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe drew a breath and put a grin on his face that didn’t look anything like right. \u201cI’m fine,\u201d How could he say that the universe had just fallen into ruin? \u201cBeen living a little high on the town I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss looked more than doubtful. \u201c\u2018You sure you’re all right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m all right, alright?\u201d Joe disguised the catch in his voice by burying his face in the horse\u2019s mane.<\/p>\n

Hoss squinted up his face the way he always did when he was trying to figure something out. Then gave it best. \u201cWell, alright, Little Joe, If\u2019n you\u2019re sure…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cC\u2019mon,\u201d Joe gave the horse a slap on the rump to encourage him into the stall. \u201cLet\u2019s get your horse put up, an\u2019 get you some decent coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI sure could use the coffee,\u201d Hoss said slowly, still puzzling with the problem as he started work on the horse. \u201cAn\u2019 I got lots to tell you about. D\u2019you know I saw a little moose calf with his mamma? He couldn\u2019t a\u2019bin above two hours old an\u2019 he was as cute as all-get-out…\u201d<\/p>\n

******<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s primary method of dealing with his problem was one of avoidance. As much as possible he stayed away from both his brother and his stepmother. He took to rising early, before anyone else was about and leaving the house before breakfast. He spent the days working in the farthest flung sections of the ranch, or in town, in the saloon. He soon drank away the rest of his wages. He didn\u2019t eat. He got home late, often drunk, and long after supper, going straight to his room without speaking to anyone. That is, on the nights when he went home at all.<\/p>\n

He changed from his normally sunny and somewhat reckless disposition to one of silence and moroseness, and obviously the abrupt switch in his behaviour could not go unnoticed. Hoss was perplexed, then bewildered, and finally downright worried. He was afraid that his little brother was in some sort of desperate trouble that he was refusing to talk about, or worse, that he was ill. When Jenny spoke to him he mumbled monosyllabic replies and refused to look at her or wouldn\u2019t answer her at all.<\/p>\n

Twice Adam tried to talk to his youngest brother, to ask him what was wrong and if there was anything he could do to help. On the first occasion Joe slammed out of the house, angry and close mouthed. The second time his reaction was one of such violence that he physically attacked his brother, accusations bubbling on the edges of his lips. Hoss had to haul him off and restrain his flailing arms. This time, when Joe fled the house the tears were coursing down his face. The three of them watched Joe\u2019s descent into depression and chaos of the mind in helpless horror and hoped that Ben\u2019s return would bring some resolution to the crisis, and that it would be soon.<\/p>\n

The worst day of all for Joe was the day his father came home. Ben rode into the yard just after nine o\u2019clock one evening, just as it was growing dark. He had pushed hard all-day and foregone the chance to stay at the hotel in town in order to be reunited with his family.<\/p>\n

Joe had only just finished putting his own horse up in the barn, when he heard Ben\u2019s horse outside.<\/p>\n

Jenny and Adam and Hoss came out from the house to meet him with glad smiles on their faces. Ben looked rested and well after his stay with the O’Keefs. He swung his wife up and around in his arms. Her squeals of delight made Joe\u2019s insides cringe and when he saw Ben kiss her soundly he had to look away.<\/p>\n

Ben shook hands warmly with Adam and Hoss, then looked round for his youngest. Joe, still standing in the dark shadows of the barn doorway, came out slowly to say hello. The smile on Ben\u2019s face faded. He could tell at once that there was something wrong. Joe was pale, almost ashen. His face was drawn, and he had lost weight. There was something lurking in the depths of his eyes, something that gave him a haunted, hunted look. Almost reluctantly he shook hands with his father.<\/p>\n

Ben held on to his hand and looked him closely in the face. \u201cJoe, what is it son? What\u2019s the matter?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe shook his head, a study in abject misery. He could barely bring himself to speak. \u201cIt ain\u2019t nothing\u2019, Pa,\u201d He managed finally. \u201cReally, it ain\u2019t nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben gazed at him a long moment longer, his shrewd mind debating endless possibilities, and then came to the conclusion that he wasn\u2019t going to solve anything standing in the middle of the yard. He handed his horse over to Hoss and herded the now rather subdued little group into the house.<\/p>\n

Joe sat quietly in a chair for as long as he could bear while the talk of the cattle drive and Ben’s stay with the O\u2019Keefs and the doings of the ranch flowed around him, steadfastly refusing to be drawn into the conversation. When he could stand it no longer he muttered the requisite \u2018goodnight\u2019 to everyone in general and beat a hasty retreat to the solitude of his room.<\/p>\n

He knew his father would come and got himself into bed and safely under the blankets. When at last he heard Ben\u2019s step in the hallway outside and heard the door start to open he avoided the impossible discussion by the simple expedient of pretending to be asleep.<\/p>\n

Ben stood in the room for a long time looking down at the huddled up figure in the bed. He knew Joe wasn\u2019t sleeping ~ his breathing and his position were all wrong ~ but it was plain that his son didn\u2019t want to talk to him about whatever was wrong, not tonight anyway. With a sigh and a shake of the head he turned away and closed the door silently behind him, leaving Joe to another restless, sleepless night.<\/p>\n

Joe was up early and away from the house even before Hop Sing was awake. He was galloping his horse hard across the range as the sun came up trying to escape the agony that continually knotted itself up in his belly, and the terrible and obscene thoughts that chased themselves round and round, inside his head, until he teetered on the verge of insanity. He was unaware that he wept as he rode and that the wind whipped his tears away.<\/p>\n

He had to talk to someone – had to! Or he would go mad. Evening found him far from home, up by the lake that he loved and that often brought peace to his soul. He followed the shoreline round until he came to the familiar place, then stepped down and tied his horse to a tree. He sat beside the place where his mother lay, and haltingly, at first, and then all in a rush, he told her all about it. Then he cried some more, long and hard, spilling out all the pain, and the anguish and begging, just plain begging, to be told what to do to make everything right again. And then he just sat for hours, dry eyed, trying not to think, just watching the moonlight track across the water.<\/p>\n

There were no answers for Joe, that night. No revelations from heaven and no tranquillity for his spirit. It was late – very, very late – when he finally mounted up and tuned his horse for home.<\/p>\n

The yard was quiet and the house, except for a single lantern turned low, in darkness when he got home. He closed the door very quietly, shed his gun belt and coat and made for the stairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoseph.\u201d His father\u2019s deep voice came softly from the chair beside the fireplace and froze Joe\u2019s foot on the bottom step. \u201cCome over here, son, and sit down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodenly, Joe turned and did as he was bidden. In the low light of the fire he could see his fathers face in contrasts of light and shadow. Ben was puffing on his pipe, a concerned look on his face, watching as Joe settled himself uneasily on the very edge of the chair across from him. Joe gazed into the flickering flames to avoid meeting his father\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

Ben puffed away a moment longer, then took the pipe stem out of his mouth. \u201cJenny and your brothers tell me that you\u2019ve not been a happy man since you came back from Reno,\u201d Ben said quietly. \u201cDid anything happen while you were away that I should know about? Did you get into some sort of trouble?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe shook his head slowly, just once, his face a picture of misery. \u201cNo, Pa.\u201d His voice was little more than a whisper. \u201cI didn\u2019t get into any trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obvious something\u2019s troubling you, Joe. Troubling you very deeply. Is there anything I can do to help?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t help me. No-one can help me!\u201d Joe\u2019s voice caught just short of a sob.<\/p>\n

Ben was silent a long moment. There was nothing he wanted to do more at that moment than to go to Joe and put his arms round him and hold him close while he poured out his troubles, the way he had when he was a little boy and woke up sometimes with a nightmare. But Joe wasn\u2019t a little boy any more, and what he was living through now was some kind of waking nightmare. Ben had the distinct feeling that if he tried the fatherly embrace he would be confronted at best by ridged unyielding shoulders and at worst by outright and perhaps vehement rejection. He suppressed a sigh and, trying to keep his voice level, made one more try.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you sure there\u2019s nothing you want to talk to me about, son?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe stood up suddenly, startling his father. \u201cI can\u2019t talk to you about it, Pa! I can\u2019t ever talk to you about it!\u201d<\/p>\n

He bolted for the stairs and fled, but not before Ben saw the unmistakable gleam, in the firelight, of tears on his cheek. For the second time that night Joe cried himself dry.<\/p>\n

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, before it started to grow light, Joe came to what was certainly the most momentous decision of his life so far. Having seen what he had seen, knowing what he knew, he couldn\u2019t bear to go on living in this house. His father\u2019s house. If he left, if he went away and stayed away, maybe his family could one day find a way to heal itself. Perhaps someday, somewhere, he himself might be able to find a measure of peace. In the morning, before the sun came up and before anyone could try to stop him, he would ride away with no intention of ever coming back.<\/p>\n

With the decision made finally and irrevocably, Joe found a certain peace of mind. He lay down on his bed, just to snatch a little rest before being on his way. His eyes drifted shut and before long his breathing became slow and even. For the first time in a long time, Joe slept.<\/p>\n

When Joe opened his eyes again he was confused. Not only was it no longer dark but the sunlight was streaming in brightly through the bedroom window. Someone, certainly his father, had been in during the night and pulled off his boots and laid a blanket over him. He looked at the clock on the dresser. It was past ten o\u2019clock! In the back of his mind he realized that his father had allowed him to sleep in long past the usual time.<\/p>\n

With the decision of the night before still fresh he sat up on the edge of his bed and pulled on his boots. He rubbed a hand over the stubble on his chin and decided not to bother with shaving. Perhaps a beard would help give him a new identity. Certainly it would make him look older. Making his way alone in the world he was going to need all the advantages he could get.<\/p>\n

He stuffed a few clothes haphazardly into his saddlebags and paused to look round the room. There was so much here that he would like to have taken with him, mementoes of his mother, gifts from his family, memories of happier times. He decided to leave it all right where it was, behind him in the past.<\/p>\n

Very quietly he opened the door and stepped out into the passageway. The house seemed still. By this time in the morning his father and his brothers would be out working on the ranch and he remembered, when he thought about it, that his step mother had been talking about driving into town in the buck board that morning with Hop Sing. It was unlikely that anyone would be about to see him leave, which was just the way he wanted it.<\/p>\n

He closed the door and walked softly to the head of the stairs. The main room with its warmly coloured rugs and comfortable furniture was empty. Joe went down the steps, took down his favourite rifle from the gun rack and helped himself to a box of cartridges from the draw underneath. He debated taking some money from his father\u2019s desk and decided against it. Just as soon as he was out of Nevada, somewhere where the name Cartwright didn\u2019t evoke an immediate reaction, he would have to get a job and earn himself some money. Probably a job with horses. The thought of leaving Monarch and the mares behind, knowing he never see the soon to be born foals, brought a fresh pang of pain.<\/p>\n

He headed for the door, grabbing his coat and his gun belt on the way.<\/p>\n

As he reached for the door handle the door opened and Hoss came in. The two of them met in the doorway and the collision all but knocked Joe off his feet. He stumbled backwards into the sideboard. Hoss looked his brother over, taking in the dishevelled unshaven appearance, the stuffed saddlebags and the rifle. His face folded into a frown as his mind got itself round the implications.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou goin’ someplace, Little Joe?\u201d He asked finally.<\/p>\n

Joe drew a breath, recovering himself, \u201cYeah! I\u2019m going someplace,\u201d he moved to step round his brother but Hoss stood four square between him and the door and wouldn\u2019t budge. Joe pushed him. It was like pushing a rock.<\/p>\n

The frown on Hoss\u2019s face deepened. \u201cWhere is it you\u2019re goin?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe hadn\u2019t quite thought that one out yet. \u201cI don\u2019t know! Any place! Just so long as it\u2019s away from here! Now will you get out o\u2019 my way you great oaf!\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe tried to charge round Hoss but Hoss put out a great arm and stopped him dead. The big man was really worried now, and getting just a bit frightened, \u201cI don\u2019t think you ought to go no place just now, Joe. Not until you talked it over with Pa an\u2019 Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam!\u201d The mention of his brother’s name was just enough to tip Joe over the edge. He backed up, and his voice rose to a shout; \u201cAdam\u2019s the reason I have to go! Don’t you see that! I saw them! I saw what they were doing!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou saw who doing what?\u201d Ben\u2019s voice asked from behind him.<\/p>\n

Hoss looked up and saw his father coming round the corner from the kitchen. Joe spun round, his face draining to paper white. Hoss thought he was going to fall over and caught him by the arm to steady him.<\/p>\n

Ben gave his youngest son a good hard look. \u201cI think, Joseph, you\u2019d better come over here and tell me all about it.\u201d He continued on to his desk with his coffee and sat down.<\/p>\n

Joe followed him as if were walking in a dream. His head was spinning, and he wanted desperately to be sick. His father looked up at him sternly, concern making his dark eyes all but black. Joe half turned to bolt for the door and found Hoss right behind him, still blocking the way, and the big man\u2019s expression said he wasn\u2019t going to move. There was no way of escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019re going to get to the bottom of all this,\u201d Ben said firmly. \u201cWhom did you see doing what?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe wished then that the floor would open up and swallow him right down into hell. He opened his mouth but no words came out. Ben\u2019s expression hardened. Hoss looked from his father to Joe and back.<\/p>\n

\u201cPa, Joe said somethin\u2019 about leavin\u2019 an\u2019 Adam bein\u2019 the reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam?\u201d Ben looked confused. \u201cWhat has Adam to do with it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe shook his head, dumbstruck.<\/p>\n

Ben started to piece the puzzle together on his own. \u201cYou say you saw Adam doing something, with someone. I think you\u2019d better tell me what this is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s mouth worked. \u201cAdam…\u201d he breathed. \u201cAdam and Jenny… They were…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were what?\u201d Ben asked in a dead flat voice that suggested he had already figured half of it out for himself. The silence grew. \u201cWhat were they doing, Joseph?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe let his breath all the way out. He wanted to look away, to close his eyes, to do anything to avoid seeing the pain as it dawned on his father\u2019s face but he couldn\u2019t, his eyes were locked to his fathers by some terrible attraction. \u201cThey were kissin\u2019, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it in a whisper but it had all the import of a mountain falling.<\/p>\n

For Ben it was as if the Earth had stopped turning. He sat quite still in his seat and stared at his son. At that moment there was nothing he wanted more than to leap up and fly at Joe. To make him take back the evil words. To make him admit that he was lying. But Joe wasn\u2019t lying. Joe was white-faced and trembling and frightened, on the verge of collapse, but Ben knew he wasn\u2019t lying. For the fourth time in his life his world had shattered into pieces around him and this time in the worst way of all.<\/p>\n

His head was starting to ring and he realized that he had stopped breathing. Carefully, for fear that something inside might break apart, he filled his lungs.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoseph,\u201d he said, almost gently. \u201cAre you sure? Are you very sure?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe nodded dumbly, and Ben\u2019s face became bleak. \u201cTell me exactly what you saw, Joseph. Exactly!\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe looked down at the floor and then up again, into his father\u2019s face. \u201cThey were standin\u2019 over there by the table, Pa. They had their arms round each other and they were standing awful close.\u201d<\/p>\n

And at that moment the front door opened, and Adam came into the house.<\/p>\n

None of them had heard his horse in the yard, and he had no idea what he was walking into.<\/p>\n

Ben raised his voice in a hoarse command, \u201cAdam! Come here!\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam responded to the tone in his father\u2019s voice and walked directly over to his father\u2019s desk. His eyes flickered from the confusion on Hoss\u2019s face to the anguish on Joe\u2019s to the sudden dawning fury on Ben\u2019s. He didn\u2019t need words to tell him that something very serious had happened. \u201cWhat\u2019s going on, Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n

Very slowly Ben got to his feet. \u201cI suggest that you tell me what\u2019s going on. Between you and my wife.\u201d His voice was very soft. Dangerously soft. He moved round the desk towards his son.<\/p>\n

Adam looked at him in bewilderment. \u201cNothing Pa! There\u2019s nothing going on!\u201d He shook his head, glanced at his brothers, returned his gaze to his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d Ben said with heavy finality.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnow what, Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know about you, and Jenny.\u201d Ben\u2019s voice was level, but it cracked. \u201cI know what you\u2019ve been doing behind my back. You were seen!\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam drew back. \u201cPa..!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were seen kissing!\u201d The level of Ben\u2019s voice rose.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Pa..!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you deny it! Do you call your brother a liar?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam looked at Joe who was weeping openly, and realized with a dawning horror what must have happened that morning. \u201cNo, Pa. But it wasn\u2019t like that!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben raised his hand, his fist clenched so tightly that his nails dug bloody crescents in the palm of his hand.<\/p>\n

Adam made no move to defend himself. He stood quite still, holding his father\u2019s gaze, waiting for the blow to fall.<\/p>\n

For a long moment the tableaux held, and then, very slowly, Ben lowered his hand and unclenched his fingers. He could not, under any circumstances, strike his son.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like you think, Pa,\u201d Adam said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do anything other than what Joe saw. It was an accident. A mistake. I swear it!\u201d He saw the unyielding iron in Ben\u2019s gaze and started to grow desperate. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to listen to me, Pa!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA mistake!\u201d Ben fixed him with a hard eye, the stare never wavering. \u201cYou\u2019ve made a mistake that I think you\u2019ll regret for the rest of your life!\u201d And then he found himself saying words he never thought he\u2019d utter; \u201cI think you\u2019d better leave, Adam. Get out of my house. Go now. Don\u2019t ever come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam stared at him for what could only have been seconds, but seemed like a very long time. The blood drained from his face. Then, abruptly, he turned on his heel and a moment later, the front door slammed shut behind him.<\/p>\n

Ben slumped down in a chair and buried his head in his hands.<\/p>\n

Nine<\/p>\n

It was an awkward night time meeting in the Silver Dollar saloon. The three brothers found themselves a table in the corner, and the bartender brought over a bottle of good corn whiskey and three glasses. Hoss poured out generous measures all round. They all felt as if they needed them.<\/p>\n

Joe sat and stared miserably into his glass rather than look his brother in the face. \u201cI\u2019m awful sorry, Adam. I didn\u2019t mean to cause you all that trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou called it as you saw it, Joe. There isn\u2019t any point in haulin\u2019 it over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI went off half cocked. I should have know better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam made a dismissive gesture and looked at Hoss, \u201cI don\u2019t suppose there\u2019s any point in trying to talk to Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNope. Don\u2019t reckon there is. Not right now, anyhow.\u201d Hoss shook his head. \u201cHe don\u2019t want ta talk about it to no one, an if\u2019n you try, he\u2019s like as not to tear your danged head off.\u201d He took in his brother\u2019s appearance. Adam hadn\u2019t shaved in two days and his clothes looked rumpled, slept in. More than that, his eyes held lurking shadows that hadn\u2019t been there before. It was amazing how much a man could change in just a few days. \u201cYou got someplace to stay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got somewhere.\u201d Adam finished of his whiskey and poured himself another while he thought about the small, bare little room he\u2019d rented in a boarding house on the edge of town.
\nWith his foot, Hoss pushed forward the carpetbag he brought with him. \u201cI managed to pack up a few o\u2019 your things ~ shirts an\u2019 pants, an\u2019 a spare pair o\u2019 boots. You didn\u2019t get a chance ta\u2019 take nothin\u2019 with you when you went.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam tucked the bag under the table. He knew how difficult it must have been for his brothers to smuggle even so few things out under their father\u2019s scrutiny. \u201cThanks, Hoss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss downed his drink. \u201cWe\u2019d better not hang around no longer. If Pa finds out we bin here, he\u2019s like to nail our hides t\u2019 the barn. C\u2019mon, little brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three men stood and shook hands all round. Adam gave Joe a grin that didn\u2019t come anywhere near reaching his eyes, and Joe and Hoss went out into the night to find their horses. Adam sat down again and pulled the bottle closer.<\/p>\n

He was gazing morosely into his third, or it might have been his fourth, glass of whiskey when he felt a feather light touch on the back of his neck. He stiffened, and then relaxed as one of the saloon girls began gently to massage the tense muscles in his shoulders. She was new into town and he hadn\u2019t seen her before. Small and young, the hard lines caused by her profession had not yet formed on her face, and she was still pretty. She let her fingers slide down his arm and she slipped into the seat beside him.<\/p>\n

She smiled at him coyly and asked the time-honoured question; \u201cBuy a girl a drink?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam\u2019s lips twitched in the slightest suggestion of a smile. The last thing he wanted right now was company. \u201cHoney, why don\u2019t you find someone else?\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman studied his face. She had seen him from across the room, sitting all alone with a bottle and steadily pouring the contents inside himself. It was clear that he had some deep misery, but he was a handsome man with smile lines at the corners of his deep set, dark eyes and a firm mouth that would be sensuous if it wasn\u2019t set into a thin, hard line. She let her fingers trace the muscles of his arm through the cloth of his shirtsleeve. They were toughened and corded by habitual hard work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of like what I see here.\u201d She let her fingers trace further, to rest lightly on the back of his sun browned hand. He looked down, fascinated by the contrast of her pale skin against his.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy name\u2019s Mirri,\u201d she said. \u201cI haven\u2019t been in town long, and I haven\u2019t made that many friends yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam looked up into her eyes and found her smiling at him, but not with the forced, brassy,\u00a0 saloon girl smile. It was more a look of sadness and sympathy. Courteously, he exchanged names with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t look like you\u2019ve got all that many friends, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam smiled, briefly, and Mirri saw that she had been right about the way his face lit up. When he smiled, he was darkly, devilishly, devastatingly handsome. She felt something begin to knot up deep inside her and let her eyes travel over him. All dressed in black clothes, he was a big, powerful man. As he sat back in his chair, fully aware of her scrutiny, she could see just how powerful. He had wide shoulders and a broad, deep chest with a suggestion of dark curls in the open neck of his shirt. Her gaze drifted lower, and Adam picked up her little white hand in his.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you really want that drink, Mirri?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

He wondered if he was really doing the right thing.\u00a0 Handsome, wealthy and charismatic, saloon girls were not his normal fare, but right now he was feeling lonely. He wasn\u2019t relishing a night alone in the drab little boarding house room.<\/p>\n

Mirri smiled into his eyes. \u201cI\u2019m not really thirsty,\u201d she said softly, and her fingers tightened on his. \u201cBut if you like, you can bring the bottle along for later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forgetting all about the bag of clothing, Adam picked the bottle up by the neck and followed Mirri upstairs.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Jenny sighed and finally gave up what was proving to be hopeless struggle. There was no earthly way she was ever going to get the laces of the corset done up. She tossed the offending garment on the bed and examined herself critically in the looking glass. There was doubt about it, her slender waist, of which she had always been so proud, was gone. Probably forever. She ran her hands down over her body. Her belly was showing a definite bulge. There was no help for, it she was going to have to present her husband with what was going to be, in the present circumstance, a most unpalatable fact.<\/p>\n

She closed her eyes for a moment, and found, lurking behind the lids, the ever-present memory of the scene that had greeted her on her return from Virginia City. It had been the same day that Adam had left home, now two weeks ago. She had been so happy and so full of the news that the doctor had confirmed for her; so confident that Ben would share full measure in her joy. What she had found was a family torn apart.<\/p>\n

She winced as she remembered the confrontation that had followed. The accusations, the denials, the tears\u00a0 ~ from both of them ~ and finally the awful silence that had lasted ever since. Ben had scarcely spoken a word to her from that day. It was as if he had removed himself to a different world, one in which she had no place at all. He barely acknowledged her existence. He had taken all his things out of the bedroom that same day and moved into the downstairs guestroom. If he could, he avoided being in the same room with her. Certainly he never seemed to look at her, although sometimes, when her back was turned, she felt his dark eyes burning into her like hot coals.<\/p>\n

It was not that he hated her, she was sure of that. The front he presented was one of studied indifference, but neither was that the whole story. The expression she saw, from time to time, on his still handsome face was if anything, one of infinite sadness.<\/p>\n

Well, she thought resignedly, she had already left this far too long. However unpleasant it was going to be, she had to confront him now. She sighed again and buttoned herself into the loosest dress she possessed, a high waisted bronze coloured creation that had come originally from Paris, and turned towards the door. It was not going to be an easy interview.<\/p>\n

Ben was sitting at his desk in the corner of the living room, struggling with what seemed to be an ever-growing pile of paperwork. Jenny, pausing on the landing, felt a pang of sympathy for him. He had never been fond of the book keeping. In recent years, his son Adam had taken most of it off his hands. Now Adam wasn\u2019t there any more, and Ben\u2019s heart wasn\u2019t in it. He looked old and very tired.<\/p>\n

She went on down the stairs and walked steadily across the room to stand before the desk.
\n\u201cBen, I have to speak with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He glanced up, his eyes hard and angry. \u201cI don\u2019t think we have anything to say to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have something to say to you.\u201d Proudly, Jenny drew herself up tall and straight. \u201cAnd you are going to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben harrumphed and shifted uncomfortably in the chair. He was trapped in the corner and had no way to make the escape he would have liked. \u201cThen I suppose you\u2019d better get on and say it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obviously, he wasn\u2019t going to make this easy for her. \u201cI have to explain to you, just one more time, what happened that morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I want to hear it again,\u201d he said gruffly.<\/p>\n

For a moment, anger flared in the green of her eyes. She choked it back. She couldn\u2019t afford to lose control of herself now. \u201cYou will hear it again, because you must understand that it is the truth. I tripped. Adam caught me. For a moment, for one single instant of time, we were tempted!\u00a0 Does it surprise you? You breed fine handsome sons, Ben Cartwright. But there was no more to it than that. Not then, not ever!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben stood up slowly, looking at the beautiful woman before him. Her cheeks were flushed pink and her eyes flashed with green fire. That fire was one of the first things that had attracted him to her. Her dark hair was loose, tumbling down over her shoulders and contrasted starkly with the dress she wore, a curious metallic looking affair with a full skirt that started somewhere just under her bosom. \u201cYou are my wife,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have my name. You live under my roof and you sit at my table. What more do you expect?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny folded her arms around herself protectively. \u201cI expect a little understanding. A little compassion. A little forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

His mouth worked a moment. \u201cPerhaps one day. For the moment I am unable to give you any of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

He moved to step round her. She caught at his arm and stopped him, then let her hand fall, \u201cBen,\u201d she said, \u201cI am going to have a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben stared at her. A dozen different emotions chased each other across his face. His thoughts churned in confusion. It was to his eternal discredit that it was the ugliest thought of all that surfaced first, \u201cIs the child mine?\u201d he demanded, \u201cOr is it Adam\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n

He turned away from her stricken face and headed for the door without waiting for any sort of an answer.<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Adam pulled his horse to a halt at the hitching rail and sat, comfortable in the saddle, looking down at the old man who sat snoozing in the sun on the porch. \u201cYou Kingdom Jones?\u201d<\/p>\n

The old man opened one eye and then the other, looking his visitor over. \u201cI could be. What d\u2019ya want?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam leaned forward in the saddle, easing his butt. \u201cI hear tell you\u2019re looking to hire some\u00a0 help.\u201d<\/p>\n

The old man rocked his chair forward onto all four legs and stood up. He was a lot bigger than he\u2019d looked, sitting, and nor was he so old. He had a sharp face and a keen eye that missed nothing. He ran that eye over Adam, his horse and his gear. \u201cYou good with horses?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI manage well enough.\u201d Adam looked round at the place, taking in the weather beaten shack that served both as home and offices for Kingdom Jones, the neat corrals, mostly empty, and a couple of well kept looking wagons.<\/p>\n

\u201cC\u2019n you write \u2018n figure?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam gave a wry smile. \u201cI can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s yer name?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam.\u201d Adam took a breath. \u201cAdam Cartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kingdom Jones screwed up his eyes. \u201cSay, you one o\u2019 them Cartwrights from over Virginia City way?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam sighed. This was the way the conversation usually went ~ and from here on it usually went downhill. With his father\u2019s influence all over the State, no one wanted to employ a Cartwright. The inevitable question followed;<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you doin\u2019 lookin\u2019 for work when your pappy got all that great big ranch?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam sat back and gave his stock answer. \u201cEven a Cartwright has to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019s eyes narrowed shrewdly. \u201cYour pappy turn you out?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam looked away over the corrals wondering if it was possible that someone hadn\u2019t heard. \u201cSomething like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t steal nothing, did ya?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I didn\u2019t steal anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones looked him over again, carefully. He wasn\u2019t a man to be influenced by anything that other men said. He trusted his own judgement. \u201cI think I like your cut, Cartwright. Why don\u2019t you step right down and set awhile and we\u2019ll see if we can talk us some business.\u201d<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

The little group of cattle, cows and calves numbering, perhaps, a dozen head in all, were moving purposefully towards the Cartwright\u2019s fence line. It was difficult to see for certain just what was going on at such a distance, but it wasn\u2019t normal for cows to be walking that way.\u00a0 Hoss scrunched up his face in a effort to penetrate the heat haze that shimmered over the grass land. Sure enough, after a few moments he made out the forms of horsemen moving the cattle quietly along. There looked to be two of them. Hoss\u2019s face set into a hard expression. Rustlers taking steers was one thing, a wicked crime against the law and something that had to be stamped out, but taking cows and their young ones before they even got a chance to grow was something else again. Hoss just wasn\u2019t going to stand for any such thing.<\/p>\n

The big man pulled his rifle from its scabbard under his knee and urged his horse to a faster pace. He was aiming to cut the rustlers off while they were still on Cartwright land.<\/p>\n

Where the third rider came from, Hoss was never quite sure. He appeared suddenly from behind a fold in the land. He was close enough for Hoss to see the rifle come up, and the smoke come from the muzzle, as the stranger snapped off a shot.<\/p>\n

Hoss\u2019s horse gave a deep cough and started to crumple under him. Hoss kicked free of the stirrups and stepped away as the animal went down on its side. Its hind legs kicked a few times, and then it lay still.<\/p>\n

Hoss said a short and very rude word of which his father would not have approved. He had grown very fond of that horse.<\/p>\n

The sound of hooves coming up behind made him turn. His Pa and Joe pulled their horses up in a shower of stones and stepped down beside him. Ben took in the scene at a glance, the downed horse and the look on his middle son\u2019s face. \u201cWhat happened here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDanged rustlers. I was on to them, Pa. They\u2019re taking the cows now, an\u2019 the little calves. They shot my horse clean out from under me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben put a hand on his shoulder, gazing out the way the cows had gone. \u201cI just thank God it wasn\u2019t you, son.\u201d<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Ahead of him, the trail dipped down sharply into the valley and then curved round to run for a way alongside the fence line of his father\u2019s land. To Adam\u2019s mind, it was one of the prettiest patches of country around. The whole of the landscape spread itself out in front of him like a map. A small river edged with broadleaf trees ran through, with a shallow ford where the road crossed over. There was meadowland with bushes and wild flowers and, further on, some thicker woodlands showing all shades of green in the early summer sunshine.<\/p>\n

Sitting his horse at the top of the hill, Adam shrugged out of his coat and laid it across his horse\u2019s withers in front of him. It was a pleasure just to sit for a while with the warmth of the sun on his back and the scent of growing things in his nostrils and feast his eyes. It was so beautiful, so peaceful and so evocative that he felt, not for the first time, a painful twinge of homesickness.<\/p>\n

In fact, it was almost too peaceful. A slight frown formed between Adam\u2019s dark eyes. Usually the valley was filled with the sound of birdsong and the flutter of butterflies, and if you sat very still for a while, you could hear the rustling of all the small things that lived in the grass. Today there was none of this. Other than the background gurgling of the water where it tripped over a weir there was no sound of any kind.<\/p>\n

The little hairs on the back of Adam\u2019s neck started to prickle. It was a sensation he had come to trust. He studied the country on either side of the road. There was no apparent reason for the desertion of the local wild life, or for his sudden feelings of unease. The only things that moved were the surface of the water and a shimmer of heat haze above the road. Not even a breath of wind stirred the flower heads.<\/p>\n

He gathered the reins and sat up straighter. He had Kingdom Jones\u2019s money in his pocket and an appointment to inspect some mules at a farm up ahead. He\u2019d better be moving on. He put the feeling of disquiet behind him and nudged the horse on along the road down into the valley.<\/p>\n

He had just reached level ground when something up ahead caught his attention. A puff of white smoke drifted lazily up from among some bushes around a half-mile away. Closer, a couple of partridge flew noisily from cover. Instinctively, Adam\u2019s knees tightened, pulling the horse round. There was just time for a frown to form on his face. The retort of the rifle shot, and the bullet reached him at the same moment.<\/p>\n

Ten<\/p>\n

Bone weary, Ben rode slowly home from the logging camp. It had been a glorious God given day with all the fresh promise of early summer. Shifting sunlight dappled the forest paths, and the air was warm and fresh, redolent with the scent of pine and flowers. Up in the pine forests, it had been mostly still and silent but here in the lower woodlands, there was birdsong, and small animals, and once he sighted a group of deer in the underbrush. Their heads had all turned towards him with noses quivering. Deep in his heart, he knew that he should give thanks. In recent days, he had been unable to find grace, or serenity enough, in his soul to commune with his God.<\/p>\n

Once, he had willingly taken up the challenge of this majestic land and carved out an empire, for himself, and for his children. The work had always been hard, stretching both a man\u2019s spirit and his back. Now it was just backbreaking toil, a burden on his shoulders that became greater and greater with each day that passed. As he rode along, he never once lifted his eyes from the trail in front of him to gaze upon the glorious creation of his Lord\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

For the greater part of his journey he followed the new road that Adam had built, turning off when he reached the lowlands onto the older more familiar trails that led towards the house. It was into the second half of the afternoon when at last he turned his horse into the front yard.<\/p>\n

He pulled up abruptly, frowning. It took his tired mind a moment to register that the yard was full of horses.<\/p>\n

His son\u2019s horses were tethered in a row outside the house ~ all of his son\u2019s horses he realized abruptly. Adam\u2019s tall chestnut was among them. At the other rail stood a somewhat shaggy bay he recognised as belonging to Roy Coffee and another horse. Pulled up outside the house was the doctor\u2019s Surrey. His heart starting to rise up in panic, Ben vaulted from his horse before it had stopped moving and broke for the door.<\/p>\n

After that events took on a slow motion quality, as if they happened under water, or in some kind of waking dream. The door slammed back under his hand. His mind, running at lightening pace, catalogued the faces turning towards him, working out which ones were missing. Ben let out a shout; \u201cJenny!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJenny\u2019s all right, Pa.\u201d Joe put out a hand and touched his father\u2019s arm. His face was pale, drawn tight.<\/p>\n

Ben breathed. \u201cAdam!\u201d and leapt for the staircase.<\/p>\n

Hoss stepped in front of him, interposing his big body between Ben and the steps. \u201cYou can\u2019t go up there, Pa,\u201d he said heavily. Hoss\u2019s face was as white as Joe\u2019s and his expression was somehow all twisted sideways. He looked as grave as Ben had ever seen him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss gave that curious little shake of the head so characteristic of him when he had bad news to tell. He was finding it difficult to look his father in the face. \u201cAdam\u2019s been shot, Pa. Little Joe found him and brung him on home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben half turned to look at Joe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was ridin\u2019 the fence line, Pa. I heard the shot an\u2019 I got there as quick as I could. But they\u2019d gone. Adam was just lyin\u2019 there in the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben looked from one to the other. His heart was like a stone in his breast. \u201cHow bad is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss struggled to meet his eyes. \u201cIt\u2019s bad, Pa. It\u2019s real bad. Adam\u2019s bin gut shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben recoiled as if he\u2019d been shot himself. It was as if all the steam had suddenly been let out of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cJen and Hop Sing are up there helping the doctor.\u201d He heard Joe say from what seemed like a long distance away. \u201cThey won\u2019t let us go in there. They say there\u2019s nothin\u2019 we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Privately, he thanked the God up in heaven that his father hadn\u2019t been there a half-hour before when Adam had been crying out with the pain of his wound and the doctors ministrations.<\/p>\n

Ben turned away, his face a study of stunned bewilderment.<\/p>\n

The sheriff stepped forward from where he had been loitering uncomfortably with his deputy. \u201cLooks like your boy ran foul o\u2019 that gang o\u2019 bush-whackers that\u2019ve bin operatin\u2019 outside o\u2019 town, Ben. Either they were lying for him \u2018cause he shot young Andy Boxer outside the bank, or they were after Kingdom Jones\u2019s money he was carryin\u2019. Leastways, they cleaned out his pockets after they shot him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd left him to die,\u201d Ben said softly. He moved slowly to the desk and lightly touched the frame that held the picture of Adam\u2019s mother, a tenuous link with his son.<\/p>\n

Roy and his deputy exchanged looks. \u201cBen,\u201d Roy said, \u201cI need Little Joe to ride out with us to where he found his brother. We need to scout around for sign before it gets dark. Tonight I\u2019ll put a posse together and we\u2019ll ride out first thing in the mornin\u2019. See if we can find the men who did this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss stepped forward. \u201cI\u2019ll be ridin\u2019 on the posse with you, Roy.\u201d He looked at the sudden stricken look on his father\u2019s face. \u201cThere ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 I can do for Adam sittin\u2019 here, Pa. But I can sure as heck try to catch up with them fellas what shot him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy Coffee looked at Hoss sternly. \u201cI can\u2019t say no to you, Hoss. Every man has the right to do that much for his brother. But you ride behind me. You hear?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss gave him a curt nod. \u201cI hear you, Roy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy nodded to Ben and headed for the door, trailing his deputy. \u201cI\u2019ll stop by in the mornin\u2019 an\u2019 pick you up then. C\u2019mon Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe, already wearing his gun belt and hat, gave his father a long look that spoke volumes of regret before following the lawmen out of the door.<\/p>\n

Time took on a surrealist quality marked only be the sonorous ticking of Marie Cartwright\u2019s French, tall-case clock. Just once there was a flurry of activity, when Hop Sing came down the stairs carrying a bowl, covered so that no one could see what was in it, and muttering a torrent of Chinese. He wouldn\u2019t say anything in English to either of the Cartwrights, and soon went up again with a stack of clean towelling. Ben and Hoss took turns in trying to sit still in a chair and pacing the floor.<\/p>\n

The sound of the doctor\u2019s tread on the stair brought them both to the foot of the staircase. The lines of strain were evident in Paul Martin\u2019s face. His troubled brown eyes flicked from Hoss\u2019s face to Ben\u2019s, settling gravely on that of the elder Cartwright.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not good, Ben. The bullet\u2019s out and I\u2019ve cleaned him up inside as best I can, but you know what these belly wounds are like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben suppressed a shudder. \u201cI\u2019ve seen them,\u201d he said steadily.<\/p>\n

The doctor nodded. \u201cThey can turn real nasty, real fast.\u201d He moved aside to let Jenny and Hop Sing pass behind him on the way to the kitchen. \u201cI\u2019m not going to feed you any false hopes, Ben. This is one fight we might not win. About all you can do is keep him quiet and help him ride it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben took note of what the doctor wasn\u2019t saying, \u201cAnd? You can tell me the rest of it, Paul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul sat down with a sigh and accepted the coffee Jenny handed him. \u201cIt\u2019s not totally hopeless, Ben,\u201d he said, seeing the awful expectation his old friends face. \u201cI\u2019ve seen men recover from wounds like that. Not many, but some. In my experience, a man has to have a driving urge to stay alive.\u201d He sipped his coffee and then met Ben\u2019s eyes levelly. \u201cI have to tell you, Ben. I don\u2019t think Adam has that urge. I think your boy might just let himself slip away without a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben drew a long steadying breath. He was just discovering a few home truths about his own feelings. \u201cOh, he\u2019ll fight, Paul. Believe me, he\u2019ll fight!\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam lay so still in the bed that Ben thought he was already dead. His face was ashen, and his closed eyes were bruised looking and sunken back into his head. His breathing was so slight his chest hardly moved at all. Ben stood at the end of the bed not knowing what he could do to avert what he saw as inevitable. This was his beloved first-born son, and despite what Ben had said to the doctor, he was dying.<\/p>\n

Paul Martin came back into the room, all business like efficiency. He checked Adam\u2019s pulse and breathing with his pocket watch, and, briefly, he laid a palm on the pale forehead. He only turned to Ben when he had finished.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve left him something for pain, if it gets real bad.\u201d He indicated a small dark bottle on the dresser. \u201cI\u2019ll call back in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben tore his eyes away from Adam and stared at the bottle. He knew, without being told, that if the pain got that bad, nothing that came in a bottle was going to help. \u201cYou\u2019re going?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t do anything more for him. And I have a man with pneumonia and a woman about to have twins waiting on me.\u201d Paul touched Ben\u2019s shoulder lightly. \u201cI\u2019ll be back tomorrow.\u201d He didn\u2019t add that he thought his visit might not be necessary.<\/p>\n

In the doorway he paused and looked back. \u201cIf you\u2019re on good terms with your Maker, Ben, you could try a few prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss and Jenny came and went a few times, offering coffee and food. At one point in the evening, as it grew dark, one of them lit the lamp. First one, then the other sat for a time in the chair on the other side of the bed. No one said much. All of a sudden there didn\u2019t seem to be a great deal to say. Ben was unable to take his gaze from Adam\u2019s face. He found himself listening for each shallow breath his son drew, always afraid that it might be the last. Adam stirred only once, whimpering as if in a bad dream and tossing his head against the pillow. Ben soothed him and cooled his face with a cloth. He peeked under the covers. Adam\u2019s belly was bandaged, and there was no sign of the hideous wound. There was no blood seeping through. He pressed Adam\u2019s hand between his own and talked to him, but there was no answering pressure, and no sign from his son that he even heard.<\/p>\n

Hoss, eventually, took himself off to bed, knowing that he had to get some sort of rest if he were riding out with the posse. Joe, refusing to lie down, was sleeping in a chair down stairs.<\/p>\n

Jenny opened the bedroom door and slipped quietly inside. Ben looked up at her. In the low lamplight his tired eyes were haunted. Without a word, she sat down in the chair across the bed and picked up Adam\u2019s other hand.<\/p>\n

Ben studied her profile. He felt a well remember burgeoning in his chest, a feeling of love, of possession and of pride. She was a handsome woman, a beautiful woman, a fine woman. She was his wife.<\/p>\n

He drew a deep breath. \u201cYou love him, don\u2019t you?\u201d he asked quietly. His voice was a deep whisper in the quiet room.<\/p>\n

She looked at him then, her face a pale oval in the lamplight, her eyes soft and sad. \u201cYes, Ben. Of course I love him. As if he were my own, dear son.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben lowered his silvered head and closed his eyes. At last he was able to pray.<\/p>\n

A single tear splashed onto the back of his hand where it clasped Adam\u2019s. Jenny reached out a hand to him across the counterpane and Ben met her halfway.\u00a0 Their fingers entwined and locked the three of them together in a triangle of love.<\/p>\n

Later that night, Adam began to burn with fever. His waxy face became wet with sweat, and he fought to throw off his coverings. Ben caught his hands and restrained him, afraid that he would start to tear at his dressings and then at the wound itself. It was something he had seen happen before. He wondered if this was the start of the thing he dreaded most: the hours, perhaps days, of tearing agony that would end, eventually, perhaps mercifully, in death. Adam cried out sharply, and the pain seemed to bring him half way to consciousness.<\/p>\n

Ben bent over him. \u201cAdam? Adam, do you hear me, son?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam\u2019s eyes opened, fevered and frightened. Ben took his hand. \u201cListen to me, you\u2019re home now. Home to stay.\u201d Adam\u2019s breath shuddered as he tried to speak but Ben couldn\u2019t make out the words. \u201cAdam,\u201d Ben put steel into his voice. \u201cI\u2019m right here with you. You have to fight this. Fight hard, son!\u201d For just a moment it seemed as if Adam struggled to focus his eyes. Then he sighed, and groaned with pain, and rolled his head away.<\/p>\n

Ben sank back into his chair and prayed again.<\/p>\n

Ten<\/p>\n

Hoss pulled his cinches up tight and lowered the leathers into place over the cinch rings. His face was set with determination, and his eyes were deep frozen chips of blue ice.<\/p>\n

Joe came out from the house. He looked dishevelled, and tired, and old beyond his years. Hoss looked up at him anxiously and then relaxed. There was no fresh grief in his brothers\u2019 face. In answer to the unspoken question Joe shook his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss let out a pent up breath. \u201cWell, I guess the doc\u2019ll be out real soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s much he can do,\u201d Joe said miserably. \u201cHoss, I\u2019m comin\u2019 on that posse with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss shook his head. \u201cYou just can\u2019t do that, Joe. You gotta stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothin\u2019 I can do here!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe,\u201d Hoss leaned on his saddle and chose his words carefully. It wasn\u2019t easy for the big man to say what he had to say. \u201cIf Adam…\u201d His voice failed, and he had to swallow hard and start over. \u201cIf Adam don\u2019t make it, Pa\u2019s gonna need one of us to be right here. He\u2019s gonna need it real bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s eyes filled up with tears. \u201cI don\u2019t think I could handle that, Hoss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss pulled a face. \u201cYou can handle it, Joe. You can do whatever you gotta do.\u00a0 Just like I gotta do what I gotta do.\u201d He swung himself into the saddle and gathered the reins into his big hands. \u201cYou take good care o\u2019 things, little brother.\u201d Reining the horse round he kicked it into a canter and left Joe in the yard looking after him.<\/p>\n

There were four men waiting for Hoss at the crossroads aside from Roy Coffee and Ol\u2019 George, his deputy. Two of them Hoss already knew slightly by sight, the other two were strangers. Roy reeled off the names by way of an introduction. \u201cThis here\u2019s Hoss Cartwright who\u2019s brother was the man shot down yesterday. Now them tracks we were follerin\u2019 last night petered out right soon, so what we\u2019re gonna do, Hoss, is take another turn through them northern hills, an\u2019 see if we can pick up a trail again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss was unhappy. \u201cAin\u2019t you searched through them hills afore, Roy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe searched \u2019em.\u201d Roy turned his horse, \u201cThen hills is full o\u2019 lil\u2019 hidey holes an\u2019 ol\u2019 mine workin\u2019s an\u2019 such. So lessen you got a better idea..?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I ain\u2019t got no better idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDaylight\u2019s burnin\u2019 then.\u201d Roy kicked his horse into motion, and the posse strung out behind him.<\/p>\n

The posse had tracked back and forth through the low hills to the north of Virginia City for hours. Now it was past noon, and the temperature was soaring. They had stopped for a while in the sparse shade of a cottonwood patch, to rest the horses and themselves. Hoss was both hot and frustrated. To him, they didn\u2019t seem to be getting any closer to the men who\u2019d shot his brother.<\/p>\n

He sipped sparingly at the tepid, flat tasting water in his canteen. Roy coffee was standing at the edge of the trees, his permanently squinted up eyes studying the trail. Hoss wandered over. \u201cRoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHoss.\u201d Roy acknowledged his presence with a nod.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow we ever gonna find these fellas in these hills?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI di\u2019n\u2019t never say it was gonna be easy. I bin chasin\u2019 \u2019em round these hills for nigh on a year now an\u2019 I don’t seem to get no closer. I think them fellas is just movin\u2019 round from one hidey hole to another an\u2019 it\u2019s kind a like tryin\u2019 to hit a movin\u2019 target all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just gotta find \u2019em, Roy!\u201d Hoss\u2019s frustration was showing round the edges. \u201cThey done shot Adam, an\u2019 they killed a lotta other men besides.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it, Hoss!\u201d Roy took off his hat and wiped his face with his sleeve. \u201cI just plum run out o\u2019 places to look! We\u2019ll go on another couple o\u2019 hours over that way.\u201d he indicated with a sweep of his arm. \u201cC\u2019mon, fellas. Let’s mount up!\u201d<\/p>\n

The posse rode more slowly now. The heat had drained the energy, and a lot of the enthusiasm, out of most of them. Their horses followed one another, nose to tail, along narrow trails and deer tracks, and sometimes, what seemed to be no more than rabbit paths, through the brush covered hills. Once or twice, Hoss and the sheriff got down to examine what might have been fresh sign, but there was nothing to indicate who might have passed this way, or when. Finally, Roy called a halt and gestured for Hoss to ride up alongside him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ain\u2019t gonna like it, but we\u2019re gonna have to start back trackin\u2019 now if\u2019n we\u2019re gonna get back to town by nightfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss shifted himself in the saddle. \u201cI ain\u2019t ready to give up on it yet, Roy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how you feel, Hoss, but these fellas ain\u2019t gonna follow on much longer, an \u2019sides these hills get awful cold this time o\u2019 year after dark. It ain\u2019t gonna be no fun tryin\u2019 ta camp out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t you and I go on just a while longer? O\u2019 George can take the rest o\u2019 the fellas back to town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like to split the posse up, Hoss. It ain\u2019t safe, not with them killers ridin\u2019 around loose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss looked round at the landscape. \u201clet\u2019s just take a look over that hill up yonder, an then we\u2019ll turn back if\u2019n we have ta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy shook his head. \u201cThere ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 over there but some old mine\u2019s shacks an\u2019 a couple\u00a0 o\u2019 closed off shafts. Couple o\u2019 my deputies checked \u2019em out just last week. There ain\u2019t no one there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss screwed up his face. \u201cYou said them fellas was movin\u2019 around, Roy. I got me a gut feelin\u2019 that we ought to try just over that one more hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlright then.\u201d Roy kicked his horse on. \u201cOne more hill it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was further ahead than it looked, but at last seven sweating men on their sweating horses climbed to the top of the last hill. Just as Roy had said, there were several ramshackle cabins huddled in a cusp in the land, most of them in the final stages of dilapidation and ruin. Only two of them retained any sort of a roof. Further along, over- grown spoil heaps, and several chunks of decaying ironwork, indicated the location of the old workings. The whole of it shimmered in the heat. It was a depressing footnote of early industrial pollution.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust as I said,\u201d Roy said, \u201cThere ain\u2019t no-one there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss nudged his horse forward, \u201cI just wanna take look in them shacks, Roy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy sighed and shook his head and started his horse on the down slope.<\/p>\n

By the time Hoss had reached the level ground, he had just about come to the conclusion that what Roy had said was right. All that was likely to live in this desolate spot were sand lizards and the occasional snake. Then a flicker of movement caught his eye. Away off to one side grew a couple of old shade trees that looked like they\u2019d been struck by lightening at some time or other. If he screwed his eyes up tightly, he could see something in the darkness underneath. He reined his horse over that way.<\/p>\n

In the patch of deep shade under the trees, stood a couple of saddle horses The were dark coloured and hard to see, but close to, Hoss thought they looked vaguely familiar. One of them was switching its tail, and that was the movement Hoss had seen. Hoss and Roy stepped down.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooks like you were right, boy,\u201d Roy said, scowling. \u201cThem fellas bin watching my deputies check these places out then movin\u2019 right on in as soon as they rode over the hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, Roy.\u201d Hoss straightened up from a rapid examination. \u201cBut there ain\u2019t neither o\u2019 these critters got a splayed out hoof.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy stared at him. \u201cSplayed out hoof? I don\u2019t know nothin \u2019bout no splayed out hoof.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t Little Joe tell you? When he was pickin\u2019 out those tracks last night, over where Adam was shot he saw the marks of a splayed out hoof. Just like I saw down where our li\u2019l heifers was slaughtered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy shook his head. \u201cHe di\u2019n\u2019t say nothin\u2019 t\u2019 me \u2019bout it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGuess he was too upset over what happened to Adam an\u2019 just wanted to get after them varmints.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly horse I know round these parts with a splayed out hoof is Nathan Boxer\u2019s big bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two of them were only just getting their heads round the implications of that when there was a lot shouting from over by the cabins and someone started firing off a gun.<\/p>\n

Hoss and the sheriff hauled out their firearms and ducked down behind a fallen trunk of the cottonwood. The posse was on foot now and their horses went pounding off, alarmed by the gunshots, while the men scurried for cover.<\/p>\n

There were two guns firing wildly out of the best repaired of the shacks. The men inside had been lying low hoping that the posse would pass them but the lawmen had got too close for comfort.\u00a0 They were killers and they were desperate. The first fusillade made everyone keep their heads down. Then it went very quiet. Hoss and Roy made ground by keeping low and running from the cottonwoods to a bunch of scrub brush to the more substantial cover of a pile of half rotted timber. On the other side, George the deputy, was spreading the rest of the men out and trying to get them organised. A few desultory shots were exchanged, and then two figures made a bolt out the back window and hit the ground running. A hail of lead followed them as they made for the old workings. One of them turned and fired back. The bullets cut him down, each one producing a little puff of dust from his clothing as it hit. He went over backwards and lay still on the ground, spread-eagled. The other man kept on running until a bullet took him in the back of the knee, and he went down heavily, sprawled on his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s enough!\u201d Roy Coffee shouted. \u201cHold your fire! Hold your fire!\u201d<\/p>\n

There were a few late shots that went wild and then silence descended. A couple of the younger men whooped with delight at the excitement. They gathered round the body of the first man shot. He had so many holes in him it was a job to tell which one had killed him. There was a coppery smell of blood in the air. Roy and Hoss went on to the other man and got there just as George was dragging him up into a half-sitting position. He was whimpering and shaking with shock, clutching at the leg with the shattered knee.<\/p>\n

Roy kicked his gun away into the brush. \u201cI\u2019m arrestin\u2019 you for the attempted murder of Adam Cartwright, an\u2019 the actual murder o\u2019 twenty or so other men in the last year. He said it all in one breath. \u201cGeorge, get that fella\u2019s leg tied up. Don\u2019t want him t\u2019 bleed t\u2019 death afore we get t\u2019 hang him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss reached past him and, one handed, lifted the injured man off the ground by his shirt front. His thin face blanched, and he screamed with pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cSet \u2018im down, Hoss.\u201d Roy ordered.<\/p>\n

Hoss shook the captive, just a little. \u201cIf\u2019n he\u2019s the fella that shot Adam…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen he\u2019ll get a trial. Now set \u2018im down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss hesitated a second longer, then dropped the man ungently onto the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cC\u2019mon over here away from him.\u201d Roy moved off a yard or so, and Hoss followed, albeit reluctantly. He would dearly have liked to have torn the prisoner limb from limb there and then. Roy hooked his thumbs into his gun belt. \u201cI don\u2019 think that these here fellas are the ones that shot your brother. They ain\u2019t got no horse with no splayed out foot, an\u2019 the day your li\u2019l heifers was butchered, they was a long ways north o\u2019 here doin\u2019 a murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss pulled a sour face. \u201cDad burn, Roy. Reckon you\u2019re right. Reckon I wanna have me a talk with that Nathan Boxer real soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReckon I\u2019ll ride right along with ya. Make that talk official like. Let\u2019s catch up them horses. George, you make sure that fella gets back to town fer a hangin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Ben fetched himself a cup of coffee and lowered himself into the chair across the hearth with a long expulsion of breath. Jenny was sitting upstairs with Adam, having ejected her husband forcibly from the bedroom with firm orders to drink, and eat, and if possible, sleep. The last dictate was out of the question. Ben hadn\u2019t slept in thirty-six hours and he wasn\u2019t about to sleep now.<\/p>\n

Joe put down the book he had been attempting to read. He hadn\u2019t turned a page in a half hour, and he still had no idea what the words were about. He looked up into Ben\u2019s brooding dark eyes. Lines of exhaustion had etched themselves deeply into his father\u2019s face. \u201cHow\u2019s Adam?\u201d he asked in a small voice.<\/p>\n

Ben pressed his lips together. \u201cHe\u2019s quiet.\u201d Ben didn\u2019t like to think about just how quiet his eldest son was. Paul Martin had come that morning and stayed until the dreadful fever had broken. He had been unable to offer any further comfort.<\/p>\n

Adam hadn\u2019t screamed again. Upstairs, he lay like a man already dead, scarcely breathing. Ben didn\u2019t know if that was a good sign or not. As least, so far, he was showing no further signs of the fearful pain a belly wound usually induced as peritonitis set in. It was the thing Ben feared the most, and his palms were sweating in anticipation.<\/p>\n

Joe knew what was going through his father\u2019s mind. It was written in horror on his face. He cast around for something, anything to say to distract his thoughts. He ventured, \u201cD\u2019you think Hoss caught up with them bush-whackers yet?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHuh?\u201d Ben\u2019s eyes refocused. \u201cI\u2019m sure your brother will do what he set out to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least we know that the fella that shot Adam is the same one as was rustlin\u2019 our cattle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben looked at him over the edge of his coffee cup, arrested in mid-sip. \u201cHow do we know that, Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe shrugged eloquently. \u201cLike I told Hoss, I saw that same sign at the river crossing last night as I saw by the cut fence line. A horse with a splayed out hoof. I told you about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben stared at him. \u201cI don\u2019t remember that you did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe looked confused. \u201cI thought I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNathan Boxer has a horse with a splayed out hoof.\u201d Ben said, a dawning awareness on his face as he started to add two and two together.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the Boxer twins threatened to kill a Cartwright.\u201d Joe added. \u201cThey were looking for the right Cartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cartwright that had shot their brother. Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben put his coffee cup down on the table slowly and with exaggerated care. He stood up. His face was settling into a mask of rock hard determination. \u201cNathan Boxer and his sons shot Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe stood up as well, watching his father\u2019s face. \u201cWhat are we going to do, Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben’s mouth worked. \u201cSaddle my horse, Joseph. I\u2019m taking a ride out to Boxer\u2019s farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShouldn\u2019t we get the sheriff in on this, Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law\u2019ll get its chance. I\u2019m taking Nathan Boxer in myself. The Cartwrights look after their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m coming with you, Pa,\u201d Joe said quietly. \u201cI\u2019m a Cartwright too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben looked at him a long moment, seeing the man that the boy had become. \u201cThen saddle your horse as well, Joe. We can be there before nightfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe headed for the barn for the horses, and Ben went upstairs to tell Jenny he was just stepping out for a while.<\/p>\n

Eleven<\/p>\n

The sun had gone down, and a deep twilight was settling among the cottonwood trees by the time Ben and Joe Cartwright arrived at the Boxer farm. There were no lights showing, as yet, in the window of the shack, but there were horses in the corral together with several cows and their calves. There was just enough light left for Ben to make out his own, distinctive, pine tree brand on the cows\u2019 hindquarters. He and Joe exchanged long looks and rode slowly towards the cabin, their hands hovering close to their holsters.<\/p>\n

Ben reined his horse to a stop in the yard and raised his voice to something just short of a bellow, \u201cBoxer! Nathan Boxer! Get yourself out here. I want to talk to you!\u201d<\/p>\n

The response was predictable and very much as expected. If Ben were truly honest, it was what he had hoped for. Someone smashed the shack window out from the inside and poked a rifle barrel through the gap. Someone else started firing steadily from round the back of the outhouse, the bullets coming alarmingly close to their targets.<\/p>\n

Ben and Joe left their saddles in a hurry and dived for what cover they could find.<\/p>\n

Now there were two guns firing from the house and another from out the back, and the lead was flying thickly enough to make both Cartwrights keep their heads well down. There wasn\u2019t a lot of shelter out there in the yard. Joe scooted along the corral rail, keeping low, widening the angle of their return fire. Splinters exploded into Ben\u2019s face, and he retreated behind the corner of the corral.<\/p>\n

Whoever was up behind the outhouse found himself vulnerable from the younger Cartwright\u2019s fire and decided to make a bolt for the house. He was a flitting, shadowy figure in the fast fading light, the gun in his hand spitting spurts of fire along with the bullets. Then he ran out of ammunition and made a desperate dash for the shack\u2019s door. Joe\u2019s snapped shot caught him just under the breastbone, and he toppled head over heels out into the yard.<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t going to be any trouble now, telling the Boxer twins apart. One of them was dead.<\/p>\n

There was a momentary pause while the folks holed up in the house took in what had happened. Ben took advantage of the lull to get round the side of the building, out of the direct line of fire from the window. Joe slipped fresh cartridges into the chamber of his gun, the noise loud in the sudden stillness.<\/p>\n

Ben drew a deep breath; \u201cCome on out Boxer! I\u2019m takin you\u2019n\u2019 your boy in for stealing my cattle and shooting down my son!\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer was a fresh hail of bullets, coming now from just the two guns inside the house. Ben and Joe answered in kind. Their bullets found their way clean through the rough planking that made up the shack\u2019s walls. Someone inside the building screamed, a man\u2019s voice, the cry cut off abruptly. Everything went suddenly very quiet.<\/p>\n

Ben saw Joe start to emerge from his hiding place and waved him back. There was still another gunman in there somewhere. The door of the shack opened slowly, and a man emerged into the last of the daylight.<\/p>\n

He had been a big man once and a proud one. Now he had a thin, wasted body on a big man\u2019s frame, wearing a big man\u2019s clothes ~ what had once been a good dress suit and a stained white shirt. His face was drawn, sunken eyed, hollow cheeked with a small grey beard. He carried a six gun loosely at his side, the muzzle pointed at the ground.<\/p>\n

Nathan Boxer stepped down into the yard and walked to the fallen body of his son. For a long time he stood looking down, then his eyes turned to where Ben was hiding half behind the woodpile.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think you\u2019re a big man, don\u2019t you Cartwright ?\u201d he said slowly in a deep, hollow voice that sounded remarkably like Ben\u2019s own. \u201cYou done killed my boys, All my boys!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben straightened up slowly, coming out into the open. \u201cYou shot my son.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nathan Boxer lifted his left hand, finger pointing in accusation. \u201cAfter he shot mine! An eye for an eye, Ben Cartwright, and a son for a son!\u201d The gun came up remarkably quickly, turning as Boxer swivelled on his heel. The muzzle levelled on Joe\u2019s chest. Shocked, the youngest Cartwright found himself staring down the weapon\u2019s black maw. Boxer\u2019s finger tightened on the trigger. Ben Cartwright shot him between the eyes.<\/p>\n

The beat of hurrying hoofs turned both Joe and Ben towards the road. Roy Coffee and Hoss galloped up out of the near darkness, both stepping down as soon as their horses had stopped moving. Hoss went straight over to his father. \u201cYou alright, Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m all right.\u201d Ben looked past Hoss. \u201cJoseph?\u201d<\/p>\n

His youngest son came up to him, pale and shaken by his close encounter, holstering his gun, \u201cI\u2019m fine, Pa,\u201d he said, with a trace of uncertainly.<\/p>\n

Roy Coffee came back from looking at the bodies of Nathan Boxer and his son, sprawled one on top of the other in the yard. \u201cWe heard all the shootin\u2019 Ben, an\u2019 come arunnin\u2019. What went on here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the way you see it sheriff.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a woman\u2019s voice. As one man they turned. A woman appeared in the open doorway. It was the same lank haired woman Adam had met months before. She looked without emotion at the two bodies laying in the yard, then raised her pale face to look the men in the eye. \u201cBen Cartwright rode in here ta take Nathan an\u2019 his boys in fer shootin\u2019 his son. Nathan set out to kill himself Cartwrights. I guess he got the worse of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy Coffee touched his hat to the lady. \u201cJust as you say, ma\u2019am.\u201d He turned to Ben. \u201cI guess that\u2019s it, Ben. You c\u2019n take your boys an\u2019 git on home ta the rest o\u2019 your family. I\u2019ll clear it up from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben put a hand on each of his son\u2019s shoulders. \u201cCome on boys, let\u2019s catch up the horses and go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

*******<\/p>\n

Adam opened his eyes and closed them again quickly. The light, although it was only lamplight, was just too bright. Seeing the movement in his face, Jenny Cartwright leaned over him, picking up his hand from where it lay on the coverlet. \u201cAdam?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben moved closer to the bed and spoke softly, \u201cAdam, son. Are you awake?\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam let out his breath carefully, finding it not nearly as painful as he had expected. \u201c\u2018I\u2019m awake, Pa,\u201d he said, in a voice hoarse from disuse, \u201cEither that, or I\u2019m dead,\u201d He cracked his eyelids open again and caught Ben with a most peculiar expression on his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not dead. You\u2019re home.\u201d<\/p>\n

He tightened his hand round his father\u2019s, surprised at how weak his fingers were. \u201cI guess, I nearly didn\u2019t make it this time, eh?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben eyes were filling up again. He gave his son the best smile he could muster. \u201cYou\u2019re going to be just fine, Adam, with a little rest…\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam\u2019s eyes were already drooping shut again, but right now he couldn\u2019t afford to sleep. He had a small problem that was becoming increasingly urgent the more he thought about it. He made an effort to look at his step mother. \u201cMa\u2019am, I could sure use a drink. Something warm, from the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny glanced across at Ben, slightly worried. \u201cFrom the kitchen? Are you sure, Adam?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m real sure, ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I\u2019ll get you some milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The moment the door had closed behind her, Adam rolled his eyes towards his father. It was all he felt up to moving at that moment. \u201cPa, I could use you help here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben came closer. \u201cWhat is it, son?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPa,\u201d Adam closed his eyes again. \u201cI really do need to piss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, much later, Ben stepped out onto the porch and breathed deeply of the night air. It was cool and scented with pine resin. He looked up. The moon had set, and the dome of the world was pitch-black and sprinkled with stardust. His family was gathered about him, whole again, sleeping. For the first time in a long time, he knew true contentment. There, in the dark of the night, he gave thanks to God.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Potters Bar 2000<\/p>\n

Next Story in the Fourth Wife Series:<\/strong><\/p>\n

All in a Day’s Work<\/a>
\nA Gunfighting Man<\/a>
\nThe Measure of a Man<\/a>
\nFall into Darkness<\/a>
\nPeace on the Ponderosa<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tags: Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Fourth Wife, Hoss Cartwright, Joe \/ Little Joe Cartwright<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary:\u00a0 Ben takes a fourth wife, but the larcenous Boxer clan proves a distraction, and a tragic misunderstanding causes even more trouble.<\/p>\n

Rating:\u00a0 T (37,900 words)<\/p>\n

Fourth Wife Series, links to all stories of this series included.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9737,"featured_media":14045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,23,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-u","category-drama","category-romance","wpcat-7-id","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-3-id"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":3676,"today_views":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ETG-14.jpg?fit=687%2C544&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11829,"url":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=11829","url_meta":{"origin":12883,"position":0},"title":"Somebody else’s dog (by Inca \/ aka Tye)","author":"Inca \/ Tye","date":"September 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary: There\u2019s been some gossip in Virginia City about Ben Cartwright\u2019s new wife. 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