Summary: \u00a0A slight mishap brings the old Indian blanket that hangs on the stair rail to Joe Cartwright’s attention.\u00a0 His questions about it bring odd looks and just a little bit of pain.\u00a0 When his Pa breaks down and tells him the story of how the blanket came to be there and what it means, Joe realizes he will never look at it or his mother the same way again.<\/p>\n
Rated PG-13<\/p>\n
Word count: 17,653<\/p>\n
Author’s note: The Indians or Native Americans actions in the following chapters may seem a bit harsh to some readers, especially where children are concerned. I wanted to note that I work at an historic site and the man whose home I direct tours through was an Indian agent in the early to mid-19th century. The Indians actions are based on historical fact as related by Mr. Johnston.<\/p>\n
Though She Be But Little<\/strong><\/p>\n Prologue<\/p>\n Seventeen-year-old Little Joe Cartwright was one confused man.<\/p>\n He lay on the floor of the Ponderosa ranch house blinking away mental\u00a0 cobwebs and trying to remember how the heck he\u2019d ended up on his backside in the midst of one royal mess consisting of a broken vase and a dozen or more scattered flower stems, with his Pa\u2019s red, white, and black Indian blanket under his head. \u00a0\u00a0He must have grabbed it on the way down.\u00a0 Good thing too, otherwise his head would have hit the wood.<\/p>\n And that would have hurt!<\/p>\n Joe winced as a light flickered into existence on the second floor.\u00a0 It was quickly followed by a chorus of mixed voices and the thunder of a half-dozen slippered feet.\u00a0\u00a0 A second later he heard the click of a gun.<\/p>\n \u201cWho\u2019s there?\u201d his father called out.\u00a0 \u201cShow yourself!\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe if he just pulled the blanket over his head they\u2019d miss him.<\/p>\n It was worth a shot.<\/p>\n \u201cPa.\u00a0 The railing\u2019s gone,\u201d Adam remarked as causally as if he had just told them the sun was up or dinner was on the table.<\/p>\n A moment later he heard his brother Hoss snort.\u00a0 \u201cLittle Joe, what in Tarnation are you doin\u2019 layin\u2019 on the floor, boy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Unlike his brothers, his father\u2019s tone was concerned.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cJoe!\u00a0 Are you all right?\u201d\u00a0 A few seconds later the older man was kneeling at his side.\u00a0 He felt the familiar touch of a rough hand on his face.\u00a0 \u201cSon?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNext time you try to sneak out, Joe, you might remember there\u2019s a turn at the bottom of the steps,\u201d Adam remarked smugly as he finished descending the stairs and came to a halt beside them, arms folded over his chest.<\/p>\n Joe hid his smile as his father shot his brother an angry look.\u00a0 Older brother shifted and straightened up and tried to wipe the sneer off his lips.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t do a very good job.<\/p>\n \u201cCan you sit up, Joe?\u00a0 Are you hurt?\u201d Pa asked him as his hand cupped his neck.<\/p>\n You know, he hadn\u2019t really thought about it.\u00a0 Now that he did, he realized he was pretty uncomfortable.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, it felt like he was layin\u2019 on a bed of rocks.<\/p>\n Or shards of pottery.<\/p>\n Joe winced.\u00a0 \u201cSorry about your vase, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not worried about the vase.\u00a0 I\u2019m concerned about you.\u201d\u00a0 His father looked at the broken rail and then at the floor.\u00a0 It was a good five feet from one to the other.\u00a0\u00a0 Turning back to him, he asked. \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe he was sleep-walkin\u2019?\u201d Hoss offered, his voice hushed, as if there was something strange and wonderful, but just a bit sinister about the idea.<\/p>\n \u201cGosh, Pa,\u201d Joe answered honestly, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I remember goin\u2019 to bed. \u00a0The next thing I knew I was layin\u2019 here on the floor.\u00a0 I must have lost my footing or something.\u201d<\/p>\n His father had helped him into a seated position.\u00a0 Pa reached for the Indian blanket and scowled as he picked it up and noted the jagged shards of pottery it covered.<\/p>\n Hoss had made it to the floor.\u00a0 His brother bent and picked up one of the shards.\u00a0 \u201cDoggone it, Joe.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good thing that blanket ended up under your head.\u00a0 You could\u2019a been hurt right bad!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems Marie is still looking out for him,\u201d Adam remarked in a quiet voice from his post on the stair.<\/p>\n Joe saw the look that crossed his Pa\u2019s face \u2013 a funny look, like maybe Adam was right.\u00a0 Turning his head hurt, but Joe did it to look at Hoss \u2013 who looked like he\u2019d seen a ghost.<\/p>\n It was at that moment that Joe Cartwright realized he\u2019d never asked where that Indian blanket had come from or why it was in such a prominent position on the stair.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you mean mama\u2019s still lookin\u2019 out for me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour brother is being sentimental, Joseph.\u00a0 That\u2019s all,\u201d his pa said in a funny voice.<\/p>\n \u201cAdam?\u00a0 Sentimental?\u201d\u00a0 Joe snorted.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThe next thing I know you\u2019ll be tellin\u2019 me brother Hoss is goin\u2019 to Yale!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow, you watch it, little brother,\u201d \u00a0Hoss growled.\u00a0 \u201cI ain\u2019t so stupid I couldn\u2019t go to that there Yale if\u2019n I wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n His Pa had stood up and was offering him a hand.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think your brother meant to imply you were stupid, Hoss.\u00a0 Simply that it\u2019s as unlikely that you would want to go to an Eastern college as your brother Adam being carried away by sentiment.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss was scowling.\u00a0 \u201cHuh?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cForget it, you big galoot!\u201d Joe snarled as he limped over to the settee.\u00a0 As he settled in, his Pa began to run his hands over him, checking for injuries. \u00a0\u00a0Joe endured it, hoping there was nothing to find.\u00a0 He\u2019d never live it down if he got injured tumbling down the stairs.\u00a0 When he started as his Pa reached his ankle, he knew that hope was in vain.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything seems to be intact with the exception of his ankle,\u201d his father remarked.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the exception of a good night\u2019s sleep,\u201d Adam groused as he ran a hand over his eyes.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow.\u00a0 I think we should all go back to \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n Joe was looking from one of them to the other.\u00a0 \u201cNow, you wait a minute.\u00a0 You can\u2019t say something like that about my mama and not tell me what you mean by it!\u201d\u00a0 Joe\u2019s gaze went to the Indian blanket that was now wrapped around his body.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s this blanket got to do with Mama lookin\u2019 out for me?\u201d<\/p>\n His father sucked in a breath and then seemed to come to a conclusion.\u00a0 \u201cActually, your mother was looking out for all of us.\u00a0 You wouldn\u2019t remember it, Joe,\u201d he added softly, \u201cyou were only four.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe frowned as he looked from his father to his brothers.\u00a0 \u201cSo you just decided not to tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou never asked,\u201d Adam said. \u00a0\u201cAbout the blanket, I mean.\u201d<\/p>\n He realized now that that blanket had been there all of his life \u2013 at least for all of his life he could remember.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I\u2019m askin\u2019 now.\u00a0 What\u2019s up with the blanket?\u00a0 How come it\u2019s so important?\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss was lookin\u2019 at his feet.\u00a0\u00a0 Adam had a strange look on his face, like the thought of it made him a little sick.\u00a0 Pa had gone really still.\u00a0 The older man hesitated and then reached out to touch the vivid red cloth worked in black and white.<\/p>\n \u201cThis blanket isn\u2019t important, Joseph.\u00a0 It\u2019s priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe looked at the blanket.\u00a0 Though its colors were bright, it was a bit tattered about the edges.\u00a0 \u201cPa….\u201d\u00a0 he said slowly, \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone would give you a dollar for that old thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Unexpectedly, Adam snorted.\u00a0\u00a0 He tried to turn it into a cough, but he wasn\u2019t fooled.<\/p>\n \u201cAdam?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone gave Pa a good bit more than that for it,\u201d his older brother remarked, tight-lipped.<\/p>\n Again, Joe looked at them like they had gone out of their minds.<\/p>\n \u201cIf someone gave Pa somethin\u2019 for it, then how come he\u2019s got it?\u00a0 And what\u2019s that got to do with Mama?\u201d\u00a0 His head was hurting almost as much as his ankle.\u00a0 \u201cCome on!\u00a0 Someone fess up!\u201d<\/p>\n His father sat on the table beside the settee and reached out to touch the cloth.\u00a0 His touch was almost reverential.<\/p>\n \u201cThough she be but little, she is fierce,\u201d his father whispered.<\/p>\n And then he began to talk.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chapter One<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe we could just give him to the Indians,\u201d ten-year-old Hoss Cartwright sighed, rolling his eyes.<\/p>\n His sixteen-year-old brother\u2019s lips twitched.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a tempting thought,\u201d Adam admitted, \u201cthough I doubt Chief Winnemucca would go along with it.\u00a0 While Joe\u2019s got the lungs for battle cries, when it comes to stealth and silence….\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss winced as another long, loud,<\/em> determined cry split the air.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, well, \u2018quiet\u2019 just ain\u2019t in Little Joe\u2019s vocabulary.\u201d<\/p>\n The older boy chuckled.<\/p>\n Anything but.<\/p>\n From the moment his littlest brother had entered the world, Joseph Francis Cartwright had made sure everyone knew what he was thinking.\u00a0 They knew when\u00a0 Little Joe was happy, sad, mad, tired, hungry, or, like now, all of the above.\u00a0 The women at church all made over him, pinching his cherubic cheeks and declaring Marie\u2019s boy was an angel.<\/p>\n They knew better.<\/p>\n Adam glanced at Little Joe and Marie where they stood, well \u2013 knelt \u2013nose to nose.\u00a0 Marie was determined that Joe would ride beside her in the carriage instead of in the wagon with him, while Joe was just as determined that he wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019s ride with Adam!\u2019 the four-year-old declared as he dug his heels into the dirt and wrapped his grubby little fingers around one of the spokes of the carriage wheel.<\/p>\n Now Marie was, well, he hesitated to say \u2018permissive\u2019, but more often than not she gave Little Joe his head.\u00a0 He supposed it was one way to learn \u2013 plow straight into something and if it hurt, don\u2019t do it again.\u00a0 The trouble was Marie didn\u2019t quite have a clear grasp of life in the West.\u00a0 Though she\u2019d lived in it for nearly five years now, she\u2019d been fairly sheltered from the harsher aspects of its realities.\u00a0 Her greatest adventures were trips into town to visit the millinery and take tea at the Reisen House.\u00a0 Oh, she and Pa had traveled a bit, but Pa always took her back to the civilized world, where she thrived.\u00a0 They\u2019d come home with new baubles for the ranch house each time \u2013 velvet curtains, beaded shades, silver tea sets and transferware china.\u00a0 Marie even ordered a French settee that had to be hand-delivered to the house.\u00a0 \u00a0In a way, his father\u2019s third wife was a bauble as well \u2013 an embellishment to a household of men.\u00a0 \u00a0Pa bloomed at her pleasure and wilted when she was unhappy.\u00a0 Looking again at his baby brother, with his long brown curls and…slightly citified outfit…he wondered which way Marie\u2019s \u2018petit Joseph\u2019<\/em> would go.\u00a0 It was his own dream to go to college.\u00a0 Maybe it would be the same for Joe.\u00a0 By default, Joe spent more time with Marie and Hop Sing than he did with their father or either of them, and while he wouldn\u2019t say the boy was spoiled, there was<\/em> a certain sense of entitlement.<\/p>\n Adam shook his head and sighed.<\/p>\n Keeping the boy alive until he made it through school might prove to be a full time job.<\/p>\n Turning his attention back to the pair, Adam drew in a sharp breath.<\/p>\n The candy had come out.<\/p>\n \u201cYep,\u201d Hoss breathed slowly.\u00a0 \u201cBribery.\u201d<\/p>\n Their Pa would have had a fit. \u00a0Adam thought back to his own very<\/em> different childhood.\u00a0 While Pa had not been mean or meant any harm, in his younger days Ben Cartwright had been stern and unbending.\u00a0 If he\u2019d acted like Little Joe was now, he wouldn\u2019t have been able to sit down for a week.<\/p>\n And he certainly wouldn\u2019t have been offered a handful of taffy.<\/p>\n Joe was eying the candy, apparently weighing out which was more important \u2013 his sense of independence\u00a0 or the sweets.<\/p>\n In the end Marie\u2019s fledgling decided there were benefits to remaining in the nest.\u00a0 Little Joe released his hold on the wheel. \u00a0After Marie handed him the candy, he cast his wide green eyes to the ground and toed the dust.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Mama,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Law school, Adam though.\u00a0 Or no, politics.<\/p>\n The kid was a natural.<\/p>\n Marie\u2019s anger deflated as she gathered the seemingly repentant little boy into her arms and smothered him with kisses.\u00a0 Of course, she couldn\u2019t see the look of triumph Joe flashed at them over her shoulder, grinning from ear to ear and waving a stick of taffy like a flag of victory.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m gonna kill him, one day, Adam,\u201d Hoss growled. \u00a0\u201cI swear, I\u2019m gonna kill him!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMon nounours<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n Their little brother was now seated in the carriage sucking on a piece of taffy as if that was where he had wanted to be all along.\u00a0 Marie was approaching them.\u00a0 \u00a0She held a stick out to Hoss and said, \u201cJoseph wanted you to have this.\u201d\u00a0 Then she looked up at him in the driver\u2019s seat of the wagon and held out another piece.\u00a0 \u201cYou, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Definitely<\/em> politics.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you, Marie,\u201d he said as he took the candy.<\/p>\n There it was.\u00a0 That sad little wince she made whenever he called her \u2018Marie\u2019.\u00a0 As he straightened up, Adam considered his inability to do otherwise \u2013 to call Marie \u2018Mama\u2019 as Hoss and Little Joe did.\u00a0 He told himself it was because he was too old.\u00a0 Nothing else really made sense.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t like he\u2019d ever known his real mother.<\/p>\n Still, for some reason, he just couldn\u2019t do it.\u00a0 In the beginning Pa had been furious with him, but over time his father had come to accept if not respect his choice.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are most welcome, Adam,\u201d she replied in the same fashion.\u00a0 Little Joe was \u2018mon petit\u2019<\/em> and Hoss, \u2018mon nounours\u2019<\/em> or \u2018my little bear\u2019.<\/p>\n He was just Adam.<\/p>\n At that moment the door of the house opened and closed.\u00a0 Adam looked and found his father had stopped just outside the door.\u00a0 Pa was pulling on his gloves; his saddlebags leaning against his booted feet.\u00a0 Their father was taking off for a ranch just south of Dry Diggin\u2019s to look at a string of horses.\u00a0 With the war breaking out between America and Mexico, Pa thought they could make a nice profit by training and selling horses to the army.\u00a0 Adam ran a hand over his forehead, thrusting back a wayward lock of coal black hair blown there by the breeze.\u00a0 There were soldiers in the area right now.\u00a0 Pa\u2019d frowned when he\u2019d seen a column of them passing by at the edge of their property the day before.\u00a0 Apparently, they\u2019d stirred up some kind of trouble with the Indians.<\/p>\n A movement to his left brought Adam\u2019s attention back to the present.\u00a0 He turned and saw his father lifting Marie into the carriage.\u00a0 Once she was settled, Pa leaned in to ruffle Little Joe\u2019s hair \u2013 which set the boy to giggling.\u00a0 After giving the beautiful woman a kiss, he headed his way.\u00a0 His father\u2019s step was straight and purposeful.<\/p>\n He knew what was coming.<\/p>\n \u201cSon,\u201d the older man said as he took hold of his brown bay\u2019s reins.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll keep them safe, Pa.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to worry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll help too, Pa,\u201d Hoss said, not realizing he was one of the \u2018them\u2019 he had just promised to take care of.\u00a0 \u201cYou don\u2019t need to worry none with Adam and me on guard.\u201d<\/p>\n Pa smiled as he stepped over to where Hoss stood by the wagon and laid a hand on the large ten-year-old\u2019s head. \u00a0\u201cI know that, son,\u201d he said, all business.\u00a0 \u201cI appreciate your offer of help, but you need to listen to Adam and do whatever he tells you.\u00a0 I\u2019m counting on you to keep an eye on that little brother of yours while Adam is busy getting the supplies and your mother goes for her fitting.\u201d<\/p>\n They were just going into town.\u00a0 You\u2019d have thought they were traveling to the other side of the world.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, sir,\u201d his younger brother promised solemnly.<\/p>\n Their father cast a glance at the carriage as he returned to his side.\u00a0 Little Joe was on Marie\u2019s lap now.\u00a0 He had the reins in his hand and was pretending to drive.<\/p>\n \u201cYou be sure to keep a close eye on that little scamp as well,\u201d Pa said, worry in his tone.\u00a0 Their father knew that Little Joe\u2019s…enthusiasm…for life tended to get him \u2013 well, all of them \u2013 into trouble from time to time.\u00a0\u00a0 Pa looked right at him. \u00a0\u201cYour mother…Marie tends to be a bit permissive with the boy.\u00a0 I\u2019m counting on you, Adam, to make sure nothing goes wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n No pressure there.<\/p>\n \u201cSure thing, Pa,\u201d he said with an easy smile.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got plenty of water?\u00a0 It\u2019s hot today.\u201d<\/p>\n Like he didn\u2019t know.\u00a0 \u201cSure thing, Pa.\u00a0 Hop Sing loaded down the carriage with canteens and food.\u00a0 The horses are complaining.\u201d<\/p>\n The older man stared at him a moment and then laughed.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s because Little Joe has the reins.\u201d<\/p>\n Now there<\/em> was an understatement.<\/p>\n \u201cI should be back day after tomorrow,\u201d his father said as he looked up at the blazing sun and the empty, sky.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a long, hot, dusty ride, but I don\u2019t want to let those horses get away from us.\u201d He said nothing, but his father could always read his thoughts.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sorry you can\u2019t go with me , son.\u00a0 I know you wanted to.\u00a0 But your mother….\u201d<\/p>\n His mother.<\/p>\n His mother was a calm, cool, sophisticated New England beauty with black hair named Elizabeth.\u00a0 She stared at him out of the frame on his father\u2019s bookshelf.\u00a0 It was a credit to Marie that she hadn\u2019t insisted his father remove the image of his former wife from his office.\u00a0 He liked Marie.<\/p>\n But she wasn\u2019t his mother.<\/p>\n \u201cI know, Pa.\u00a0 You need me here.\u201d<\/p>\n The older man placed a hand on his arm.\u00a0 \u201cThank you, son.\u00a0 I can always count on you.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam nodded. \u00a0That was him \u2013 good old reliable Adam.<\/p>\n \u201cYou better get going, Pa, if you want to reach Dry Diggin\u2019s by nightfall.\u201d<\/p>\n The older man nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cYou take care, Pa,\u201d Hoss said, his young voice breaking just a bit, revealing his fear.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t let no rattler get you or nothin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPapa!\u00a0 Papa, look!\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe\u2019s high-pitched voice turned all their heads toward the carriage. \u00a0His baby brother was swinging with the gold fringe in the breeze, dangling like an acrobat from the surrey\u2019s wire frame.<\/p>\n Marie was clapping.<\/p>\n It was going to be a long <\/em>ride into Eagle Station.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Marie Cartwright took hold of her young son\u2019s hand and marched him straight across the street and toward the millinery.\u00a0 A cloud of dust followed them as surely as the words she had heard as they exited the mercantile and stepped into the street.<\/p>\n Ben Cartwright\u2019s fancy woman.\u00a0\u00a0 Soft as a goose feather pillow and just about as useful.<\/em><\/p>\n Funny how that little\u2019un don\u2019t look nothin\u2019 like his pa.<\/em><\/p>\n A sharp thrust from a rapier\u2019s tip would have been more merciful!<\/p>\n \u201cMama.\u00a0 Don\u2019t cry.\u201d<\/p>\n The beautiful Creole woman sniffed back her tears.\u00a0 She firmly planted a smile on her face as she looked down at her little boy.<\/p>\n \u201cMama is not crying, Joseph.\u00a0 The dust has gotten in her eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n Her son stared long and hard at her and then looked back at the lazy men leaning against the wall of the mercantile.\u00a0 She watched as one of his little hands formed a fist and then, without warning, the child broke free and took off across the street.<\/p>\n \u201cJoseph!\u201d she screamed as the untold wagons, carriages, and horses racing up and down what passed for the main street of the settlement bore down on her child.\u00a0 Joseph paid them no mind. His whole being was fixed on the men on the boardwalk who were pointing and laughing \u2013 and doing nothing to stop him.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cJoseph!\u00a0 No!\u201d<\/p>\n A cowboy on a horse passed between them, taking her breath away as the bulk of the creature blocked her sight.\u00a0 Heedless of any danger to herself, the moment he was gone, Marie began to run.<\/p>\n Only to stop and begin to cry.<\/p>\n Adam was standing in front of the mercantile holding her small son who was flailing his arms and shouting, fighting tooth and claw to break free.<\/p>\n As if toting a raging whirlwind was the most ordinary thing in the world, her husband\u2019s eldest began to walk across the street.<\/p>\n \u201cYou lose something?\u201d he asked with a grin.<\/p>\n \u201cYou puts me down, Adam!\u201d Joseph shouted.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m gonna beat up them men who were mean to Mama!\u201d<\/p>\n She saw Adam hide his smile.\u00a0 \u201cYou know what, champ, I bet you could. \u00a0But then Deputy Roy would have to put you in jail and I don\u2019t think Pa would like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Joseph fought for a moment more and then went very still.\u00a0 \u201cYou mean Mister Roy\u2019d lock me behind them bars?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u00a0 \u00a0And you know what, little buddy?\u00a0 They don\u2019t serve taffy in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMerci,<\/em> Adam,\u201d she said, her voice hushed.<\/p>\n The boy had a beautiful smile when he deigned to grace her with it.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve got just a little bit more to\u00a0 load onto the wagon, Marie.\u00a0 Hoss was helping and he\u2019s all tuckered out.\u00a0 I was thinking maybe Little Joe could help me finish up while you go pick up that dress.\u201d<\/p>\n Her young son\u2019s green eyes went wide with delight.\u00a0 \u201cCan I Mama?\u201d\u00a0 The child paused and then added with a scowl, \u201cI ain\u2019t gonna have no cheeks left after that old Mrs. Kennedy gets done pinchin\u2019 them!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoseph….\u201d she began.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m right there with you, buddy,\u201d Adam said.\u00a0 \u201cI barely made it out alive.\u201d<\/p>\n Joseph was watching her.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou got dust in your eyes again, Mama?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n Marie blinked.\u00a0 This time it wasn\u2019t dust.<\/p>\n It was tears.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adam watched his stepmother walk away and then turned and started down the street with his little brother perched on his shoulders.\u00a0 He walked fast, his pace matching his fast-beating heart.\u00a0\u00a0 He hadn\u2019t let Marie know, but Little Joe had been about a foot short of disaster when he\u2019d snatched him up and out of the way of a slightly inebriated cowboy whose attention was on the saloon girl he\u2019d just bid goodbye and not on the dusty, well-worn path that divided the settlement or the small boy who had bolted out into it.<\/p>\n He should have known better. \u00a0Marie might be Little Joe\u2019s mother, but she was barely more than a child herself.\u00a0\u00a0 Or at least she seemed to have no more sense than a child who, after having been stung once, picked up a second bee and then was surprised when it stung them too.\u00a0 Sometimes he wondered what his father had been thinking, bringing her out West.\u00a0 Marie was a beauty and he could see why she\u2019d turned Pa\u2019s head, but Eagle Station was no place for her.\u00a0 There were too many dangers.\u00a0 A man \u2013 or woman \u2013 had to be on their guard every moment.\u00a0 Adam hesitated as his little brother leaned forward and circled his neck with his arms.\u00a0 Joe needed to understand that.\u00a0 He needed discipline.<\/p>\n Otherwise, it was very likely he wouldn\u2019t live to see five.<\/p>\n All of a sudden his brother let loose a long, girly giggle.<\/p>\n \u201cLook!\u00a0 Adam, look!\u00a0 Hoss is sleepin\u2019 with his hat on his nose!\u201d<\/p>\n He looked and sure enough his ten-year-old brother was sound asleep in the back of the wagon using the sacks they had loaded as a bed. \u00a0Hoss\u2019 white hat was tipped over his face and he was snoring.<\/p>\n Joe leaned in close.\u00a0 His breath tickled his ears.\u00a0 \u201cHe ain\u2019t supposed to be sleepin\u2019 in the middle of the day.\u00a0 Let\u2019s wake him up!\u201d<\/p>\n He shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Really.<\/p>\n But he did.<\/p>\n Seconds later Hoss was…er…rudely awakened by the sudden descent of a heavenly body.<\/p>\n After all, Little Joe was <\/em>an angel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was heading toward sundown by the time they left the settlement.\u00a0 Marie\u2019s fitting had taken longer than expected and then they had had to pay a visit to the reverend who had recently lost his wife and then<\/em> stop by the haberdashery to pick up the hat that matched his step-mother\u2019s new dress.\u00a0 \u00a0She and Pa were leaving in about a week to go to the governor\u2019s ball and you would have thought the world would have stopped turning if both the hat and dress \u2013 which were boxed and firmly ensconced under the front seat of the carriage \u2013 had not been ready.\u00a0 They rode mostly in silence.\u00a0\u00a0 After his little brothers had had it out \u2013 Hoss pretending to pummel Little Joe and then letting Joe think he\u2019d beat him \u2013 both of them had fallen asleep in the back of the wagon.\u00a0 Glancing at his step-mother, who rode alone in the carriage, he couldn\u2019t help but smile.\u00a0 One thing he would say for Marie, she had a way with horses.\u00a0 It was almost as if the animals realized they had a beautiful woman driving them and felt the need to impress her.\u00a0 Both were in their best form with their heads up and their powerful legs lifting high.\u00a0 As they moved along, Marie began to hum and then to sing.\u00a0 He knew a little French, partly from exposure, but mostly because you needed to know French to read many of the novels that were currently popular.\u00a0 Pa bought him books, but it was Marie who made sure he had a ready supply and ones of a great variety.\u00a0 Of all the family she understood his love of literature and, in truth, shared it.\u00a0 Once they\u2019d bedded down both\u00a0 boys and Pa had gone up to bed or wandered into his office to work, they often sat and talked over what they had read, debating and discussing plotlines, artistic choices, and verbiage.<\/p>\n It was one of the things that endeared her to him.<\/p>\n Silence brought him out of his reverie \u2013 that and the fact that Marie had reined in her prancing horses.\u00a0 The beautiful woman looked at him, frowning slightly.<\/p>\n \u201cDid you hear that?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n He\u2019d been too busy thinking to hear anything.\u00a0 With a shake of his head, he said, \u201cNo.\u00a0 What do you think you heard?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomething,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cIt sounded like a bird.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut it…wasn\u2019t a bird?\u201d<\/p>\n Her green eyes were wide.\u00a0 She shook her head.<\/p>\n Instantly on the alert, Adam drew the wagon to a halt beside the carriage.\u00a0 A quick glance showed him his brothers were still asleep in the back.\u00a0 Rising to his feet, he reached for the rifle he had propped against the wagon seat. \u00a0As the young man\u2019s fingers brushed the polished wood stock two things happened: there was a strange sound, a sort of twang and then a whoosh<\/em>, and then his stepmother screamed.<\/p>\n Just as the arrow struck his shoulder and sent him toppling out of the wagon and to the ground.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chapter Two<\/p>\n Ben Cartwright reined his mount in, halting Buck in place, and reached for his canteen.\u00a0 Uncapping it, he took a swig of water, relishing the tepid feel of it as it slipped down his dry throat.\u00a0 The day was almost gone and, with the descent of the sun, the summer heat was abating.\u00a0 Still, it had been a long hard and hurried ride.\u00a0 As much as he wanted those horses and the promise of all they could bring, he was never quite at ease when he was any distance from home.\u00a0 While Adam was quite capable and unusually mature for his age,\u00a0 the truth was his eldest son was not quite a man yet.\u00a0 The life Adam had been forced to live, due to his own relentless pursuit of his dream, had made the boy grow up far too fast.\u00a0 Adam had broad shoulders, but he was all too aware that the burdens he placed upon them were far too heavy.\u00a0 Adam was his right hand; his second self.\u00a0\u00a0 It was unusual for tough cowhands and wranglers to respect a boy of sixteen and accept him as their boss, but they did.\u00a0 Adam was a sensible boy, a responsible boy.<\/p>\n One that was far too introspective and sober for his own good.<\/p>\n After taking another swallow of water, the rancher capped his canteen and let it dangle from the saddle horn.\u00a0 Yes, he could trust Adam with anything when it came to running the ranch.\u00a0 It was leaving him in charge of his two young brothers and in the company of Marie that had him worried.<\/p>\n Marie was the beating of his heart, the breath in his body, and the light of his life.\u00a0 She was also a willful, strong-minded, fiery and fierce little woman who wouldn\u2019t hesitate to challenge Adam\u2019s orders especially <\/em>where it came to his two youngest sons.\u00a0 Marie had made it very clear that she was upset with him for leaving Adam \u2013 a child \u2013 in charge.\u00a0 She was perfectly capable of looking out for herself as well as Hoss and Joe, she had declared with a stamp of her petite foot.\u00a0 He told her he agreed \u2013 under ordinary circumstances \u2013 but living in the West was far from ordinary and especially now with the threat of irate Indians hanging over their heads.\u00a0 The march of Kearney\u2019s army from Kansas to California had unnerved many of the native inhabitants of the Nevada territory.\u00a0 The Indians were under the impression that the soldiers had come to drive them out and their young men were determined that would not happen.\u00a0 There had been several raids on settlers\u2019 homes recently.\u00a0 People had been killed.\u00a0 Chief Winnemucca assured them that the raids had been carried out by a band of renegades disassociated from the tribe, but that mattered little.\u00a0 The soldiers had retaliated and had been \u2013 as soldiers were \u2013 thorough.\u00a0 \u00a0An Indian village had been wiped out.\u00a0 The losses included a woman and two children.<\/p>\n They were sitting on top of a powder keg.<\/p>\n He should have ordered Marie to remain at the ranch, but with the governor\u2019s ball so close, she had begged and pleaded to be allowed to go to the settlement to pick up her dress and its myriad accessories.\u00a0 He\u2019d relented only after Adam assured him he would ride shotgun, so to speak.\u00a0 He regretted now that he hadn\u2019t told Adam everything, saying only that the Indians were restless.\u00a0 He\u2019d learned from\u00a0 a friend just a short time back that the soldiers had turned around and were scouting the hills, bent on revenge.<\/p>\n Ben eyed the road before him.\u00a0 Perhaps he should turn back.<\/p>\n Suddenly, he heard his wife\u2019s voice with its lovely French accent in his ear.\u00a0 \u2018Mon cher, you are worse than a mother hen!\u00a0 You must have faith.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n The rancher closed his eyes.\u00a0 Like the faith he had when he pleaded for Elizabeth to live; the faith that had assured him Inger would<\/em> live \u2013 until she died.<\/p>\n Ben Cartwright drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly as his eyes went to the horizon where the sun dipped behind the mountains.\u00a0\u00a0 He had suffered a great deal of loss in his life.\u00a0 Parents, siblings, dear friends and comrades, and two beloved wives.\u00a0 To be honest, he didn\u2019t know how much more he could take.<\/p>\n If something were to happen to one of his boys or to Marie….<\/p>\n The rancher failed to suppress a shudder.\u00a0 His horse, sensing his unease, snorted and stamped its foot. Reaching down, Ben patted his friend\u2019s neck and then he twisted in the saddle and looked toward home.\u00a0 A moment later, he turned back and urged Buck on his way.\u00a0 It took everything that was in him not to head back to the Ponderosa.\u00a0 All of his life he had experienced what others called \u2018presentiments\u2019.\u00a0 \u00a0Some proved true.\u00a0 But there were times when they proved to be nothing more than a sign of his continual struggle to trust in the Almighty.\u00a0 Marie and the boys would be all right.<\/p>\n After all, they had Adam to look after them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reality bled back into existence at an agonizingly slow pace. \u00a0Adam Cartwright stirred and then regretted it as pain shot through him, almost causing him to black out again.\u00a0 It took him a moment to gather his wits enough to realize he was lying on his back on the ground.\u00a0 The moon was up, but it was only a sliver.\u00a0 \u00a0Diamond hard stars bedded in an ebon sky winked at him, reminding him of the rhyme his little brother liked.\u00a0 They would sit in the window after one of Little Joe\u2019s nightmares chanting it together.<\/p>\n \u2018Twinkle, twinkle, little star….<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cHow I wonder where I are,\u201d the young man breathed between clenched teeth.<\/p>\n Though everything that was in him wanted to go back to that dark place where he\u2019d been \u2013 where there wasn\u2019t any pain \u2013 Adam fought against it. \u00a0He steeled himself and, with a grunt, sat up.\u00a0 Even more stars appeared \u2013 exploding in his vision this time \u2013 as he did. After a moment they faded away to nothing.<\/p>\n Nothing but white hot pain.<\/p>\n Once he had his balance, Adam looked around.\u00a0 In the dusky light, he could make out the silhouette of a wagon wheel close by.\u00a0 Only one arm was working and so he used that one to pull himself over to the wheel and then fell exhausted against it.\u00a0 His eyes closed.\u00a0 He fought the encroaching darkness again by forcing his mind to remember.<\/p>\n To remember what had happened.<\/p>\n Marie\u2019s face rose before him. \u00a0Worried. \u00a0Scared.\u00a0 His step-mother had heard a sound \u2013 the call of a bird that wasn\u2019t a bird.\u00a0 He\u2019d risen from the wagon seat and reached for his rifle.\u00a0 That<\/em> was when the arrow had winged out of the dark to strike his left shoulder, knocking him from the wagon.\u00a0 Marie had screamed.\u00a0 He vaguely remember glancing up to see Hoss throw his arms around Little Joe.\u00a0 Joe was wide-eyed.\u00a0 As well he should have been.<\/p>\n He\u2019d remember another thing.<\/p>\n The Indian.<\/p>\n An Indian warrior \u2013 his cheek marked with a red hand-print, indicating he was on the path of war \u2013 pulling Marie out of the carriage.<\/p>\n Sucking in a breath, Adam prepared himself by grasping the spokes of the wagon wheel and then attempted to rise, using them as a brace.\u00a0 The arrow was still embedded in his shoulder, so it took every bit of grit he had.\u00a0 At first he thought he couldn\u2019t make it, but then something \u2013 probably that image of Marie \u2013 galvanized him and gave him the strength to do it.\u00a0 Once he was on his feet, he closed his eyes and waited for the world to stop spinning.\u00a0 You never knew with Indians.\u00a0 \u00a0Sometimes they were looking for prisoners, but more times they were looking to send a warning, to instill terror.<\/p>\n Then, they simply killed.<\/p>\n Of course, the fact that he was still alive was a good sign.<\/p>\n He hoped.<\/p>\n A whispered prayer crossed Adam\u2019s lips, carried by his expelled breath.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t know what he would do if he opened his eyes and found Hoss and Little Joe…dead…in the back of that wagon.\u00a0 His father wouldn\u2019t survive it.\u00a0 He knew that for a fact.<\/p>\n Just as he knew he <\/em>couldn\u2019t survive it.<\/p>\n His knees were like jelly, and so he placed his right hand on the side of the wagon before he looked.<\/p>\n God was merciful.<\/p>\n It was empty.<\/p>\n Relief flooded through him even as a new fear began to take hold.\u00a0\u00a0 Slowly, using his hands, he circled the wagon and headed for the carriage.\u00a0 The young man saw immediately that it had been ransacked.\u00a0 Marie\u2019s elegant gown for the governor\u2019s ball lay in a ruined heap on the back seat.\u00a0 The hat box had been turned upside down and emptied.\u00a0 The hat lay crushed nearby.\u00a0 But the most curious thing of all was that there was a red, black, and white Indian blanket on the front seat.\u00a0 On top of the blanket were two objects \u2013 a child\u2019s club and a small doll made of cornhusks.<\/p>\n The groan that rose to Heaven as Adam slipped down the side of the carriage to once again sit on the ground was only partly due to the pain caused by the arrow that was still lodged in his shoulder.\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019d heard the stories, of course, but had no reason to believe them until now.\u00a0 Before he left Pa had told him a little about the soldiers and the Indians.\u00a0 There\u2019d been trouble, a woman and two children had been killed, but it hadn\u2019t happened anywhere near the Ponderosa.\u00a0 \u00a0There was no reason to believe it would effect them.<\/p>\n Adam turned to look at the empty wagon.\u00a0 Then he rested his head against the carriage wheel and let the tears flow.\u00a0 His own situation was desperate.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t get the arrow out himself and if someone didn\u2019t come along, most likely he would die either of blood loss or from infection.\u00a0 He could feel the fever licking at the edge of his senses even now and knew he had, most likely, a few hours of coherent thought left.\u00a0\u00a0 The young man snorted as he shifted, trying to find a more comfortable position.\u00a0 Coherent thought.\u00a0 Who would have ever thought he\u2019d<\/em> consider that a bad thing?\u00a0 His eyes closed and again, he saw the image of that red, black, and white blanket and the trinkets left on it \u2013 one each for the kidnapped members of his family.<\/p>\n What the white men had taken, the Indians had reclaimed.<\/p>\n Marie, Hoss, and little Joe were as good as dead to them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hoss\u2019 blue eyes were wide as Bigler Lake.\u00a0 He\u2019d heard tell of Indians but never seen them before \u2013 least not out in the wild where they lived.\u00a0 A few came into Eagle Station now and then to trade.\u00a0 They were mostly old or young men, dressed in white man\u2019s clothes, looking to bargain for goods or seekin\u2019 a handout.\u00a0 Pa was always one to help them.\u00a0 He said the red man had owned this land long before the people they came from had settled here and they were to be respected.\u00a0 The ten-year-old boy swallowed hard over his fear as he gathered his little brother closer, stiflin\u2019 Little Joe\u2019s cries in the fabric of his tan shirt.\u00a0 These Indians were different.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t lookin\u2019 for anythin\u2019.\u00a0 They had what they wanted.<\/p>\n They had them.<\/p>\n Little Joe\u2019s fingers clutched his shirt collar.\u00a0 Joe was shiverin\u2019 not only from fright but the cold night.\u00a0 They\u2019d expected to be home before dark so none of them had brought anythin\u2019 warm along.\u00a0 And, while they was cold, so far, the Indians had pretty much ignored them \u2013 which he figured was a good thing.\u00a0 Still, Joe was tremblin\u2019 and he was tired and he was wantin\u2019 his mama.\u00a0 Hoss blinked back tears as he looked toward the fire that burned a dozen feet away from them.\u00a0\u00a0 He wanted his mama too.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, so did two of them Indian warriors.<\/p>\n There were about a dozen of them in all.\u00a0 Mama\u2019d screamed as them warriors come swoopin\u2019 out of the trees, wakin\u2019 both him and Little Joe.\u00a0 He\u2019d looked up just in time to see Adam go over the side of the wagon.\u00a0 \u00a0After that it was hard to keep count of what happened.\u00a0\u00a0 One of the Indians grabbed Mama and she started kickin\u2019 and screamin\u2019.\u00a0 Pa sure would have been proud of her.\u00a0 But then, another Indian \u2013 a real mean one \u2013 had grabbed Little Joe by the hair and hauled him up out of the wagon and while Joe was swingin\u2019 his arms and swearin\u2019 to kill them if they hurt his ma, that Indian took out his knife and pressed it into Joe\u2019s ribs.<\/p>\n Mama stopped fightin\u2019 right away and told Joe to stop fightin\u2019 too.<\/p>\n Hoss sniffed as he placed a hand on his brother\u2019s head, mashin\u2019 his golden-brown curls.\u00a0 \u201cYou hush now, Little Joe,\u201d he cautioned.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou hear me, boy?\u201d<\/p>\n As Joe nodded against his chest, the ten-year-old\u2019s gaze returned to the fire. \u00a0The men had made a circle and Mama was in the middle of it.\u00a0 There was an Indian woman on either side of her, holdin\u2019 onto one of her arms, but them Indians didn\u2019t have to worry. \u00a0Weren\u2019t no way Mama would run off and leave them all on their lonesome.\u00a0 Every once in a while she\u2019d turn and look their way.\u00a0 When she saw him lookin\u2019 back, she\u2019d smile, but the smile didn\u2019t reach her eyes.<\/p>\n Mama was scared.\u00a0 Real <\/em>scared.<\/p>\n So was he.\u00a0 In fact, he didn\u2019t think he\u2019d ever<\/em> been as scared in his whole life as he was now.<\/p>\n Well, that wasn\u2019t completely true.\u00a0 He\u2019d been awful scared when that Indian warrior had put his hand on his shoulder and made him walk away from the wagon and he\u2019d seen brother Adam, pale as the moon above, layin\u2019 in the dust all covered with blood, with an arrow stickin\u2019 out of his shoulder.<\/p>\n Hoss closed his eyes as tears formed in them.\u00a0 One escaped and splashed on Little Joe\u2019s nose.<\/p>\n He felt his brother\u2019s tiny fingers reach for his face.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t cry, Hoss.\u00a0 It\u2019ll be all right.\u201d<\/p>\n Imagine, the little squirt comfortin\u2019 him.<\/em><\/p>\n The ten-year-old took his brother\u2019s hand in his.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, it\u2019ll be all right.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see.\u00a0 Pa will be here soon enough,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n Joe\u2019s eyes blinked and then his own tears fell.\u00a0 \u201cHoss, I want my papa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know you do, Joe.\u00a0 So do I.\u201d\u00a0 Hoss\u2019 jaw tightened.\u00a0 He could just see their pa comin\u2019, stormin\u2019 in like God himself, ready to tear them Indians apart for what they done.<\/p>\n \u201cHoss?\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe\u2019s voice was so small he hardly heard it.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you think….\u201d A sob escaped the little boy.\u00a0 \u201cAdam\u2019s…dead, ain\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n He pulled his brother closer.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cNow, Joe, you know old Adam. \u00a0He can take care of hisself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut Hoss, his shirt was all…red…just like Jake\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019d been sorry Little Joe had seen that.\u00a0 One of their hands had been thrown from a horse he was breakin\u2019.\u00a0 Part of the fence post broke off and went through his chest.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t make it.<\/p>\n His brother\u2019s little body was shakin\u2019 like a leaf in a winter wind.\u00a0 Joe had begun to sob and that sobbin\u2019 was attractin\u2019 attention.\u00a0 He knew from what his pa had told him that Indians didn\u2019t cotton to weakness.\u00a0 There were stories of them just leavin\u2019 little ones like Joe behind to die if they thought they weren\u2019t strong enough to contribute to the tribe.<\/p>\n Takin\u2019 hold of his brother\u2019s shoulders, he pushed him out a little ways away.\u00a0 \u201cJoe.\u00a0 Little Joe, you look at me!\u201d<\/p>\n Lashes long as a girl\u2019s blinked, brushin\u2019 tears aside as his brother did what he was told.<\/p>\n \u201cYou gotta be strong for Mama and for Adam, you hear me?\u00a0 We gotta do whatever it takes to get Mama away from here and get back to older brother.\u00a0 Them Indians….\u201d \u00a0\u00a0His gaze went to the men surrounding the fire. \u00a0Several of them were lookin\u2019 their way and scowlin\u2019. \u00a0\u201cThem Indians don\u2019t take to little boys cryin\u2019.\u00a0 You gotta show them you\u2019re strong as they are.\u00a0 Can you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe sniffed and looked over his shoulder.\u00a0\u00a0 A second later he said, softly, \u201cThey\u2019re awful scary, Hoss.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey sure are, but that don\u2019t mean we gotta let them know we\u2019re scared.\u00a0 You remember, Little Joe, how you and me pretended to be like them army scouts?\u00a0 They ain\u2019t scared of no Indians.\u201d\u00a0 He drew in a breath and let it out with a whispered prayer that his brother could do as he asked. \u00a0\u201cHow about you and me pretend right now we\u2019re as brave as they are?\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe thought long and hard about it.\u00a0 Then he nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of them tries to take hold of me again,\u201d the little boy snarled.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m gonna pop him in the nose!\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss rolled his eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, Joe, maybe you don\u2019t need to be that<\/em> brave.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ben Cartwright winced in the face of the mounting light.\u00a0 He felt like an idiot.\u00a0 That, or a fool.\u00a0 There was a string of good horses waiting for him, with the promise of expanding his interests and providing him with enough money to take care of his family through the winter to come, and here he was on the road, headed back home.<\/p>\n He really was<\/em> an old mother hen!<\/p>\n It was late morning.\u00a0 He\u2019d made camp shortly after halting to take that drink and then had lain awake most of the night thinking about his wife and sons.\u00a0 Maybe it was the atmosphere of the settlement at the time that he\u2019d left.\u00a0 He\u2019d run into two of his neighbors on his way out.\u00a0 They\u2019d been in Eagle Station and had heard rumors that the renegade band of Indians was in the area.\u00a0\u00a0 Among the Indians were two warriors who had lost their wives and an older woman who had lost her children in the army raid.\u00a0 It was a well known fact that the natives felt it was perfectly acceptable to replace lost members of their families with white women and children in what they considered a \u2018fair\u2019 trade.\u00a0 There\u2019d been no reason to even consider such a thing could happen to his family. \u00a0Indians were rare on the road between Eagle Station and the Ponderosa.<\/p>\n Rare, but not unheard of.<\/p>\n He\u2019d tried to sleep and had succeeded for a few hours, but those few hours had been spent tossing and turning with visions of his beautiful young wife being torn from her children\u2019s side and taken away by an Indian warrior to be his woman.\u00a0 Sailors were a superstitious lot and he knew some of his misgivings came from his years spent among them.\u00a0 It was hard not to be infected by such things.\u00a0 And yet, he had to admit that he had seen their fears prove true more than once when\u00a0 a sudden storm blew up or a man fell from the crow\u2019s nest to his death after one of his mates had dreamed of it.\u00a0 Hop Sing had given him a different perspective on dreams as well.\u00a0 His Chinese housekeeper and cook put great store in them.\u00a0 Hop Sing had told him shortly before he left that it was only the white man who dismissed the voice of the gods.<\/p>\n The voice of the gods…calling him home…to what?<\/p>\n Gently, Ben pressed his knees into his mount\u2019s side and started Buck moving again.\u00a0 He figured he was still nine or ten miles from home.\u00a0 He\u2019d arrive just as the family sat down to breakfast.\u00a0 He could just see them now.\u00a0 Adam would look at him sideways, believing he hadn\u2019t trusted him to get everything done and make sure his stepmother and brothers were all right.\u00a0 He\u2019d have to be sure to let the boy know he did.\u00a0 Marie would probably scold him, with a twinkle in her eye, while Little Joe wrapped his arms around his knees and Hoss plowed into him with enough force to take them all down.\u00a0\u00a0 Ben was still chuckling at the image as he rounded a pile of boulders that thrust out into the road and then stopped dead at what he found.<\/p>\n A wagon, abandoned.\u00a0 By the wagon, an all too familiar carriage. \u00a0And by the carriage \u2013<\/p>\n \u201cDear Lord!\u201d the rancher exclaimed as he dismounted and ran toward the still figure lying close by the carriage\u2019s wheel.\u00a0 It was only as he took hold of Adam and turned him over that he saw the arrow jutting out of his son\u2019s shoulder.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cDear Lord,\u201d he whispered again, this time as a prayer.\u00a0 \u201cLet him be alive….\u201d<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s skin was hot to the touch.\u00a0 His color was bad.\u00a0 It was obvious from the ground around him that his boy had lost a good deal of blood, though the flow had been staunched by the fact that the arrow was still in embedded in his flesh.\u00a0 One blessing cancelled out the other though.\u00a0 The fact that the arrow remained meant infection was more likely.\u00a0 His son\u2019s high fever was the proof of that.\u00a0 Ben hesitated for a moment, then ran back to his horse.\u00a0 He grabbed a canteen and several kerchiefs out of his saddlebag before returning to the boy.\u00a0 The rancher steeled himself as he walked past the wagon toward the carriage.\u00a0 The presence of both vehicles was all too sure a proof that Marie and his younger sons had been with their older brother.<\/p>\n And weren\u2019t with him now.<\/p>\n Kneeling, Ben placed the water and cloth on the ground and then lifted Adam up and slipped in behind him.\u00a0 With his son leaning against him, he took hold of the canteen, opened it, and then began to dribble the water into the boy\u2019s mouth.\u00a0 At first Adam didn\u2019t respond, but then he began to swallow and when he wet the kerchief and began to wipe the sweat from his son\u2019s face, roused.<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s hazel eyes blinked several times and then he mouthed the words, \u2018Pa?\u00a0 How?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cProvidence, son,\u201d he replied softly.\u00a0 \u201cGod\u2019s providence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c…tried, Pa. …couldn\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0A tear escaped his son\u2019s eye.\u00a0 \u201c…failed. \u00a0Lost them….\u201d<\/p>\n A cold hand clenched Ben\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n \u201cLost…them?\u201d he echoed.<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s fingers gripped his sleeve.\u00a0 He tugged feebly at it.\u00a0 \u201cGo.\u00a0 Pa, go….\u00a0 Took them.\u00a0 Indians…took them.\u201d\u00a0 His son sucked in air. It came out in a sob.\u00a0 \u201cLeave me….\u00a0 Please<\/em>, Pa.\u00a0 Go….\u201d<\/p>\n Ben winced.\u00a0 \u201cSon, the first thing I have to do is get that arrow out.\u201d<\/p>\n The boy weakly shook his head.<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u00a0 And then I need to get you to a doctor.\u201d\u00a0 Ben glanced at the empty carriage, seeing for the first time Marie\u2019s ruined dress and the squashed hat nearby.\u00a0 \u201cThe Indians…took your mother and the boys?\u201d \u00a0As Adam nodded, he finished, praying the words he spoke were true.\u00a0 \u201cThen they wanted them.\u00a0 They won\u2019t hurt them.\u201d\u00a0 His hand caressed his son\u2019s fevered cheek.\u00a0 \u201cI have to see to you first.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s eyes were clouded with pain, but he was lucid.\u00a0 It took a moment, then he nodded again.\u00a0 \u201cGet it out, Pa,\u201d he said between clenched teeth.<\/p>\n It was a thing he dreaded.\u00a0 He knew other fathers who had been forced, due to circumstances, to dig bullets out of their boys.\u00a0 He had never had to do such a thing \u2013 cause a son of his untold pain in order to save his life.<\/p>\n With a trembling hand Ben gripped the shaft of the arrow.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s going to hurt, son.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s fingers wrapped around his wrist.\u00a0 \u201cI…trust you, Pa,\u201d he said softly.<\/p>\n And then he screamed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chapter Three<\/p>\n Marie Cartwright strained against the ropes that bound her hands together.\u00a0 She had been placed at the back of the lodge and, from where she was sitting with her back up against the hide wall, watched the woman who was her guard go about her business.\u00a0 The woman had not spoken to her.\u00a0 In fact, the only attention she had paid to her was to spit in the dirt at her feet and then thrust a bowl of some sort of disgusting mash into her hands.\u00a0 The Creole woman\u2019s lips quirked as her eyes went to the far wall of the lodge where, even now, the thin gruel was dripping down and soaking into the dirt floor.<\/p>\n Her belly might be empty but her pride was intact.<\/p>\n Even as that triumphant thought entered her mind, she heard her mother\u2019s scolding tone.\u00a0 \u2018Marie!\u00a0 Pride goes before destruction!\u00a0 A haughty spirit before a fall!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n Fall.<\/p>\n She could see him falling.<\/p>\n Her husband\u2019s beloved oldest son, falling with an arrow in his chest.<\/p>\n Marie closed her eyes, seeking to shut out the image, but it would not go away.\u00a0 She saw the look of surprise give way to fear in Adam\u2019s golden-green eyes.\u00a0 He\u2019d turned toward his brothers as if he would protect them.\u00a0 Instead the movement propelled him over the side of the wagon and to the ground.\u00a0 Adam didn\u2019t make a sound as he hit.\u00a0 He lay there as several pair of moccasined feet stepped over him as if he was nothing more than an unfortunate bit of debris in the road.<\/p>\n The beautiful blonde woman blinked back her tears.\u00a0 Ben had warned her about the Indians.\u00a0 He had told her, if she ever came across them, not to show weakness; not to show that her heart was breaking \u2013 that her arms were aching for her sons.<\/p>\n She had no idea where Hoss and her sweet petit Joseph<\/em> were or even if they were alive.<\/p>\n The hard-looking woman who watched her was making bread.\u00a0 She lifted her eyes from the flour covered stone to glare at her and then struck the thick dough with her fist as if making a point.\u00a0 The men who had taken them unawares spoke English.\u00a0 She did not know if this woman did.\u00a0 Twice now the man who had dragged her from the carriage had come to the lodge.\u00a0\u00a0 She did not think the two were man and wife.\u00a0\u00a0 Brother and sister, perhaps, for they fought like wild dogs over a bone.\u00a0\u00a0 It was after the last time the man had come that the woman had offered her food.\u00a0 She would not eat their swill.\u00a0 She would do nothing they wanted until they let her see her sons!\u00a0 She had told the man that.\u00a0 She had stood toe to toe with him, looking up into his unblinking black eyes, and demanded he bring her children to her.\u00a0\u00a0 He had laughed.<\/p>\n Long and hard.<\/p>\n That, of course, had been her undoing.\u00a0 She\u2019d brought here heeled boot down on his foot encased in soft leather and grinned as he hopped about as though he had stepped on a fire.\u00a0 But her joy had been short-lived.\u00a0 Fuming, the man towered over her and had raised his hand as if to strike her.\u00a0 In spite of that, she hadn\u2019t backed down.\u00a0 She\u2019d held his gaze, praying with fury that the fear in her heart would not shine out of her eyes.\u00a0 \u00a0As he lowered his hand, the hard woman said something.\u00a0 The man shouted at her and then turned and grabbed a rope that hung on the wall.\u00a0 She could not win against his strength.\u00a0 He had quickly bound her hands and driven her to the back of the lodge, where he forced her to sit down.\u00a0 He loomed over her, as if to remind her that she was at his mercy, and then turned and left.<\/p>\n At that moment her mother\u2019s voice had reminded her of another thing.\u00a0 \u2018Mon petite, remember, one gathers more flies with honey than with vinegar\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018Piss and vinegar\u2019, that was what her beloved Benjamin had told Hop sing once that she was made of \u2013 when he thought she was not within hearing, of course!<\/p>\n As Marie sat there, considering her fate and that of her small sons, the door of the lodge opened and the Indian man came in again.\u00a0 She thought his name was Black Arrow, but she was not sure.\u00a0 She had heard it in passing.\u00a0 The name fit the warrior for he was tall and dark, both in manner and looks, and like an arrow, seemed bent toward revenge.\u00a0 She had overheard enough to know that his wife had recently died at the hands of their enemies and that she had been taken to replace her.<\/p>\n Marie swallowed over her fear.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBenjamin,\u201d the beautiful woman murmured under her breath, \u201cmon cher<\/em>, come soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Black Arrow paused and looked back.\u00a0 A moment later a small form shot into the lodge, aimed straight for her.<\/p>\n \u201cMama!\u201d her small son shrieked as he caught hold of her, his little fingers twining in her hair and about her neck.<\/p>\n Her heart broke that she couldn\u2019t hold him.<\/p>\n \u201cShh, mon petit<\/em>,\u201d the blonde woman cooed as her eyes looked over his head, taking in Black Arrow who was watching them.\u00a0 \u201cShh.\u00a0 Everything will be all right.\u201d<\/p>\n Joseph shuddered and then pulled back so he could look into her eyes.\u00a0 \u201cP…promise?\u201d he asked, his little voice trembling.<\/p>\n What could she say?\u00a0 She prayed her words would prove true.\u00a0 \u201cI promise, little one.\u00a0 Nothing will happen to you or to \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n Marie sucked in air.\u00a0 Black Arrow had wrenched Joseph from her grasp and was holding him, dangling above the lodge floor.\u00a0 The woman who was her guard said something that made him laugh.\u00a0 A moment later the woman rose.\u00a0 As she came to the man\u2019s side, she withdrew a knife from her belt.\u00a0 Taking hold of Joseph\u2019s curls, she pressed that blade against his skin.<\/p>\n \u201cMy sister says the boy\u2019s curls will make\u00a0 a soft cushion for her head,\u201d Black Arrow announced.<\/p>\n Joseph had grown very still.\u00a0 His little mouth opened and formed the word, \u2018Mama?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cYou will not<\/em> harm my son!\u201d she warned.<\/p>\n The woman spoke for the first time.\u00a0 \u201cThe white boy is of no use.\u00a0 \u00a0He is too small to carry wood or water.\u00a0 \u00a0Too young to hunt.\u00a0\u00a0 Winter comes.\u00a0\u00a0 Those who do not give to the tribe will be left behind. \u201d<\/p>\n Her heart ached.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cPlease.\u00a0 Please, don\u2019t hurt him,\u201d she pleaded.<\/p>\n Black Arrow nodded to his sister.\u00a0 \u00a0The woman anchored the knife in the sheath at her waist and then reached up and took Joseph from him.\u00a0\u00a0 Her son shrieked and was cuffed into silence as the woman headed for the door.<\/p>\n Marie followed her son\u2019s departure with tear-filled eyes until her vision was filled by Black Arrow.\u00a0 \u00a0The warrior knelt before her and then reached out to take hold of a strand of her hair.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat will the white boy\u2019s mother give to keep him alive?\u201d<\/p>\n The Creole woman closed her eyes.\u00a0 Behind them, she saw the man she loved reaching out for her, begging her to be brave \u2013 promising her he would come to her rescue.<\/p>\n What would she give?<\/p>\n With tears streaming down her cheeks, Marie told him.<\/p>\n Anything.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAre you sure he\u2019ll be all right?\u201d Ben asked Eagle Station\u2019s only doctor.\u00a0 He\u2019d managed to get Adam into the carriage before the boy lost consciousness again.\u00a0 After hitching Buck to it \u2013 all the other horses were gone \u2013 he had driven it like the wind to the settlement.\u00a0 Providence had been with him in that the buckskin had tolerated the loathsome duty and<\/em> the physician had been in his office and not out on his rounds.\u00a0 Rounds that could have taken him anywhere from one to one hundred miles away.\u00a0 \u201cI mean, I thought….\u201d\u00a0 He shuddered as the image of his son \u00a0laying on the examining table, his face white as the sheet hat covered him, flashed before his eyes.\u00a0 \u201cThere was so much blood.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Martin\u2019s hand came down on his shoulder.\u00a0 \u201cYou did what you had to and a good thing too.\u00a0 The infection was spreading.\u00a0 I know it was hard, Ben, but removing that arrow probably saved Adam\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded and then, suddenly weak-kneed, collapsed into the closest chair.<\/p>\n \u201cHow long has it been since you\u2019ve had anything to eat?\u00a0 Or more than an hour\u2019s sleep?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have time.\u00a0 I have to go after Marie and the boys.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got to \u2013\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEat and get at least a few hour\u2019s sleep,\u201d the doctor insisted.\u00a0 \u201cThat is, unless you want to fall out of the saddle or , if you find them, make a mistake you\u2019ll regret.\u201d<\/p>\n His head came up.\u00a0 Paul saw his look.<\/p>\n The doctor cleared his throat. \u00a0\u201cWhen<\/em> you find them.\u00a0 \u00a0You have to admit it, Ben.\u00a0 You\u2019re not superhuman.\u00a0 Even you can\u2019t manage on sheer willpower alone.\u201d<\/p>\n He considered it \u2013 for a second.\u00a0 \u201cI have to get out there.\u00a0 The trail is already growing cold.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSheriff Olin is on it.\u00a0 Roy\u2019s with him.\u00a0 There are a dozen men ready to ride.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo!\u00a0 I don\u2019t want a posse.\u00a0 If the Indians see a band of men coming after them, they might….\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOlin\u2019s not going to just sit by.\u00a0 He thinks these men were a part of the renegade band \u2013 the one that raided that ranch and killed the Parkers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, and then the army went out and killed their wives and children!\u00a0 Paul, where does it end?\u00a0 I don\u2019t want these men dead.\u00a0 I…understand their anger.\u00a0 I just want my wife and children back safe and sound.\u201d\u00a0 Ben paused, exhausted.\u00a0 \u201cI have to go alone.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul had walked over to a table.\u00a0 He was fingering the Indian blanket that lay on it; the one that had been left in the carriage.\u00a0 He\u2019d used it to cover Adam to keep him warm on their journey to the settlement.<\/p>\n \u201cAdam told me that the Indians….\u00a0 That they \u2018paid\u2019 for Marie and the boys with this and a few other trinkets.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe spoke to you?\u201d\u00a0 The rancher rose to his feet.\u00a0 \u201cIs he awake?\u201d<\/p>\n The doctor shook his head . \u201cSit back down, Ben.\u00a0 I gave him something to make him sleep.\u00a0 He\u2019ll be out for hours.\u00a0 The boy needs rest to replenish the blood he\u2019s lost.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben sank back into the chair.\u00a0 He stared at the blanket in the physician\u2019s hands.\u00a0 \u201cYes.\u00a0 They \u2018paid\u2019 for them.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s why I<\/em> need to go.\u00a0 I\u2019m Marie\u2019s husband.\u00a0 Joseph and Hoss\u2019 father.\u00a0\u00a0 I need to….\u00a0 I will have to buy<\/em> them back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGood Lord, Ben!\u00a0 Payment for that could be your life!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf God wills it so….\u201d\u00a0 The rancher blinked.\u00a0 Then he started.\u00a0 He had actually started to nod off.<\/p>\n How could he?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ll want to talk to Adam before you leave.\u00a0 The boy needs, well, reassurance that what he did was enough,\u201d Paul Martin said, his tone gentle.\u00a0 \u201cI have an extra cot in the room.\u00a0 Go lay down for a bit.\u00a0 When Adam wakes, you\u2019ll hear him.\u201d\u00a0 The older man came to his side and looked down.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s your son too, Ben, and in spite of what Adam thinks, he\u2019s still a boy.\u00a0 He needs his pa.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben ran a hand over his stubbled cheeks.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t know you had a prescription for guilt,\u201d he said, all too aware of the irony in his tone.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got everything in that little black bag I need,\u201d the doctor replied with a wry twist to his lips.\u00a0 \u201cNow, are you going to listen to me or do I need to add a dose of blackmail?\u201d<\/p>\n Ben frowned, and then he laughed, though the gesture brought a twinge of pain.\u00a0 \u201cAll right.\u00a0 But only until Adam wakes.\u00a0 Then, I am going to bring my wife and sons home.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Marie looked down at the dress she was wearing.\u00a0 It was made of buckskin and decorated with beads and tiny little silver cones that jingled.\u00a0 Her own dress had been ruined, but she had fought before giving it up.\u00a0 The green silk day dress was a tie to a world she was quickly coming to believe she would never see again.\u00a0 She had heard Black Arrow talking outside the lodge with one of his men.\u00a0 They did not intend to stay in this camp for long.\u00a0 The warrior feared the army was looking for them.\u00a0 She had no idea what, but apparently the Indians had done something a few days before to warrant the soldier\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n That meant she had to act quickly.<\/p>\n In fact, there was no time to lose. \u00a0\u00a0In spite of \u00a0what Black Arrow had promised, his sister \u2013 her name was Ankeboat <\/em>or Two Hatchet \u2013 had made it clear she wished to leave Joseph behind.\u00a0\u00a0 Hoss, she praised for his strength and size, but her poor petit<\/em> Joseph was seen as weak and unworthy. \u00a0\u00a0One of the women who attended and dressed her \u2013 her name was Silver Spring \u2013 had been raised by missionaries and spoke English.\u00a0 She\u2019d taken pity on her and told her of Two Hatchet and how, when the woman\u2019s husband and children had been killed by white men, she\u2019d taken up his weapons and gone to war in his place and brought home five scalps.<\/p>\n Two Hatchet, she said, was without mercy.<\/p>\n Walking over to the lodge door, Marie peeled the skin flap back and peered outside. \u00a0Black Arrow was out front with his sister.\u00a0 They were arguing.\u00a0 Marie gave a little laugh.\u00a0 She was sure she knew what over \u2013 her!\u00a0 Before they left this camp behind, she was to be joined to Black Arrow in a ceremony performed by their medicine man.\u00a0 The short hide dress she wore, the feathers and multi-colored beads dotting her now loose, flowing hair, and the silver bracelets circling her neck and wrists were a pledge of his intentions.\u00a0 His sister had made it clear that she was against it.\u00a0 Two Hatchet believed her as weak and useless as her son and predicted she would die before the winter was out.<\/p>\n Her salvation lay in the fact that Black Arrow seemed to want her in spite of his sister\u2019s misgivings.<\/p>\n Marie closed her eyes and reached up, toward her throat.\u00a0 Silver Spring had kindly left the crucifix she wore alone.\u00a0 It was still around her neck.\u00a0 She grasped it and whispered a quick prayer to the Holy Mother, asking for strength.\u00a0 She had agreed to go through with the ceremony in order to buy time for her Benjamin to find them.\u00a0 Her beloved would know by now that they were missing.\u00a0 Most likely he had found the rig and….<\/p>\n Adam.<\/p>\n Marie sucked in terror as the image appeared before her eyes again.\u00a0 She saw the boy, lying in a crumpled heap on the ground; the shaft of an arrow sticking out his shoulder.\u00a0 Black Arrow had assured her as they rode away that Ben\u2019s oldest child was alive.\u00a0 She had no reason to believe him.\u00a0\u00a0 If Adam had…died…Ben would be overwrought.\u00a0 He would have to attend to…details.<\/p>\n He might not be coming.<\/p>\n As the lodge door was drawn aside, Marie took a step back and pulled herself up to her full height.\u00a0 Drawing in a breath, she steeled herself to face the savage who, out of a misguided sense of justice, believed he was owed a wife and she was it.<\/p>\n Marie\u2019s lips twisted with irony.<\/p>\n Well then, she\u2019d make sure he got what he deserved.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adam Cartwright groaned as he shifted on the bed.\u00a0 He blinked several times and licked his lips.\u00a0 Swallowing was hard and speaking nearly impossible.\u00a0 All he managed was one soft and nearly silent word.<\/p>\n \u201cPa…?\u201d<\/p>\n His father was seated beside him.\u00a0 The older man came instantly awake.\u00a0\u00a0 One rough callused hand took hold of his while the other brushed the hair back from his glistening forehead.<\/p>\n \u201cAdam.\u00a0 Son.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0There was a pause.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThank God.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCan I…\u201d he began.<\/p>\n \u201cAnything, son.\u00a0 What do you want?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c…water?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf course.\u201d\u00a0 A moment later Pa lifted his head and a cup was pressed to his lips.\u00a0 The water was cool.\u00a0 Refreshing.<\/p>\n Needed.<\/p>\n So was some information.<\/p>\n Gripping his father\u2019s sleeve, he pulled him close.\u00a0 \u201cPa…Marie.\u00a0 What about…Marie and….\u201d He choked.\u00a0 The thought of his little brothers taken by savages was more than he could bear.\u00a0 Marie was a grown woman.\u00a0\u00a0 But Hoss and Joe….\u00a0 \u201cMy brothers?\u201d<\/p>\n Adam read the answer in his father\u2019s face.<\/p>\n \u201cGo!\u201d he choked out as he released his grip on the older man\u2019s shirt and feebly pushed him away.\u00a0 \u201cPa…go!\u201d<\/p>\n His father looked up.\u00a0 \u00a0He wondered why for a moment, but then Pa asked, \u201cPaul?\u00a0 Is he out of danger?\u201d<\/p>\n Adam blinked again and rolled his eyes to the left.\u00a0 It was too much effort to turn his head.\u00a0 Eagle Station\u2019s doctor was standing there, staring down at him.\u00a0 The look on his face wasn\u2019t promising.<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t lie to you, Ben.\u00a0 There\u2019s always a risk of infection.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ll know by tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n His fingers sought the cloth of his father\u2019s shirt again and twisted it.\u00a0 \u201cYou…have to go, Pa.\u00a0 Hoss and Joe, they\u2019re…so little.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 And Marie.\u00a0 Pa…you know Marie….\u201d<\/p>\n His father nodded.\u00a0 They both<\/em> knew Marie.\u00a0 One minute she was fragile as a fine china vase, and the next she was as tempestuous as the furnace it was fired in.\u00a0 Like his littlest brother, Adam\u2019s step-mother leaped before she looked, consequences be damned.<\/p>\n \u201cMarie\u2019s concern will be for the boys,\u201d his father said, as if assuring himself it was true.\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019ll do what she has to do to keep them safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s strength was running out, but he found enough for a wry smile.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah.\u00a0 And Heaven help the man who took her.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ben stopped in the doorway of Paul Martin\u2019s surgery to look back at his son.\u00a0 Adam\u2019s brief moment of wakefulness had cost him.\u00a0 The boy had fallen unconscious again and his temperature begun to creep up.\u00a0 The doctor assured him it was to be expected, and that the slight rise was not indicative of the spread of infection.\u00a0 Still, leaving him was hard.<\/p>\n But necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll keep a close eye on Adam.\u00a0 You know I love those boys of yours like they were my own.\u201d\u00a0 Paul paused.\u00a0 \u201cEspecially that little scamp I brought into the world.\u201d<\/p>\n He turned to look at his friend.\u00a0 There were tears in Paul\u2019s eyes.\u00a0 There was fear there too.\u00a0 They had all heard the stories of white women who were abducted and made to marry into the tribe, and of their children \u2013 some who lived and others who were abandoned as unworthy.<\/p>\n Joseph was so small.<\/p>\n Words failed him, so instead he nodded.<\/p>\n His friend\u2019s hand came down on his shoulder.\u00a0 \u201cWhat will you do?\u201d<\/p>\n Paul\u2019s touch lent him strength.\u00a0 Ben straightened up and a steely light entered his eyes.\u00a0 \u201cWhat I have to,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cWhatever<\/em> I have to.\u201d<\/p>\n With one last glance at Adam who lay turning and tossing in his bed, Ben walked to front of the doctor\u2019s office where he had left his hat and gun belt hanging on a peg.\u00a0 As he fastened the belt around his hips, he turned back to look at his friend.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m leaving, Paul.\u00a0 I want you to promise me that you won\u2019t tell anyone where I\u2019ve gone.\u00a0 I\u2019ve dealt with the Paiute before.\u00a0 They\u2019ll respect one man\u2019s courage.\u00a0 If they see a dozen men riding hard for their village, they\u2019re liable to….\u201d\u00a0 He swallowed over his fear.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re liable to cut their losses and run.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBen, you can\u2019t go alone.\u00a0 It\u2019s too dangerous!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have to!\u201d he all but shouted.\u00a0 Then, softening his tone, he repeated, \u201c Paul, I have to.\u00a0 If there\u2019s any chance of saving Marie and the boys, I have to \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n Paul suddenly looked distracted.\u00a0 The expression on his face was hard to read.<\/p>\n A moment later a voice, low and gruff as a grizzly\u2019s growl said, \u201cI\u2019ve been told I would find Benjamin Cartwright here.\u00a0\u00a0 Is that you, sir?\u201d<\/p>\n Without looking, Ben knew who and what it was \u2013 and \u2018what\u2019 it was filled him with terror for his wife and his missing sons.<\/p>\n The army officer removed his hat as he stepped into the surgery.<\/p>\n \u201cSir, we need to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chapter Four<\/p>\n \u201cC\u2019mon, Little Joe, get up!\u00a0 You can do it, boy!\u201d\u00a0 Hoss\u2019 whisper was fierce as the beating of his heart.\u00a0\u00a0 Their pa didn\u2019t mince no words.\u00a0 He\u2019d taught them the Indians had their own way of livin\u2019 and it was what they needed to do to survive.\u00a0 Weren\u2019t nothin\u2019 wrong with it for the most part, but one thing they didn\u2019t cotton to was weakness. \u00a0\u00a0In the white man\u2019s world a little spud like Joe wouldn\u2019t be expected to do more than help in the kitchen and maybe follow after his brothers and toss hay to the animals.<\/p>\n Here, they expected him to work like he was a man.<\/p>\n Joe\u2019d been haulin\u2019 logs nearly twice as big as he was.\u00a0 His little hands was all torn and tears trailed down his dirty cheeks, but he\u2019d kept at it.\u00a0 That was until one of the Indian boys decided to walk right up to him and knock him down for no other reason than he wanted to.<\/p>\n It had been all he could do not to knock that bully boy on his arse right there and then!<\/p>\n But then, that was another thing Pa\u2019d taught him.\u00a0 Not to \u2018antagonize\u2019 the Indians.\u00a0 That was a mighty big word and he\u2019d chewed on it for a while.\u00a0 Finally he decided it sounded like \u2018agony\u2019 and that wasn\u2019t somethin\u2019 he wanted for him or for Joe.<\/p>\n \u201cHoss…I…can\u2019t,\u201d Little Joe said, sniffin\u2019 back tears.<\/p>\n A group of Indian boys had gathered around them.\u00a0 They were all pointin\u2019 and laughin\u2019 at his brother.\u00a0 For the most part they was scrawny as bed slats turned sideways, but a good hand or two taller than Joe.\u00a0 He knew he could take them in a heartbeat.\u00a0 But he also knew he couldn\u2019t fight Little Joe\u2019s battle for him \u2013 not if he wanted his brother to live.\u00a0 There was another thing too.\u00a0 Outside the circle of boys that mean old woman was watching.<\/p>\n The Indian boys called her \u2018war woman\u2019 and were afraid of her.<\/p>\n \u201cYou gotta, Little Joe! ,\u201d he insisted. \u201cYou gotta show them how strong you are!\u201d\u00a0 Pa had told him once that the Indians didn\u2019t always take care of little people the way they did.\u00a0 That if the Indians thought someone couldn\u2019t pull their weight \u2013 if they were a threat to the tribe \u2013 they\u2019d just leave them behind, \u2019specially with winter comin\u2019 on.\u00a0 Hoss sucked in air and thought furious as a storm.\u00a0 \u201cYou remember, Joe, them bully boys at church who called you a \u2018baby\u2019? \u00a0You remember what you did?\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe\u2019s eyes narrowed as he ran a hand under his nose.\u00a0 \u201cPa told me not to.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, Pa ain\u2019t here and I<\/em> am!\u00a0 You get up and you show them what you\u2019re made of!\u201d<\/p>\n His brother\u2019s green eyes blinked.\u00a0 Joe looked at the circle of cruel red faces surrounding him. \u00a0A second later his jaw set in defiance.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s it, Little Joe,\u201d Hoss whispered to himself.\u00a0 \u201cYou do what you gotta do.\u201d\u00a0 Then, with no words, he added a silent prayer.\u00a0 \u2018You keep him whole, God. \u00a0You make sure he ain\u2019t hurt bad!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n As the big boy watched, his little brother rose to his feet.\u00a0 He almost laughed as Joe hunkered down and lifted his fists in a pose Adam had taught him.\u00a0 It was one used by them pugilists who came into the settlement. \u00a0\u00a0Adam said Joe was little like his ma and he might always<\/em> be little and he was living in a big man\u2019s world and he had to know how to defend himself against great big bullies.<\/p>\n Like the Indian boy who\u2019d shoved him and\u00a0 was laughin\u2019 his head off right now.<\/p>\n The boy was about twice Little Joe\u2019s size when he was standin\u2019. \u00a0They was about the same size right now since the bully was bent over, clutchin\u2019 his stomach and guffawin\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 Little Joe glared at the boy and then turned his way as if to ask permission.<\/p>\n Hoss drew in a breath and gave it.<\/p>\n Danged if a second later that little dynamo didn\u2019t plow right into that Indian boy and knock him over!\u00a0 By the time the boy had recovered, Joe was sittin\u2019 on his chest, hammerin\u2019 away at his face and the blood was flyin\u2019.\u00a0 For a second none of the other Indian boys had anythin\u2019 to say \u2013 then they started whoopin\u2019 and hollerin\u2019.<\/p>\n And some of that whoopin\u2019 and hollerin\u2019 was for Little Joe!<\/p>\n For a minute, he thought Joe might come out on top, but once that Indian boy got his wind back, he brought his knees up and whacked Joe hard in the back \u2013 so hard his little brother went flyin\u2019 over the boy\u2019s head.\u00a0 Joe landed on all fours and scrambled to his feet as fast as he could, which was a good thing because he was able to jump out of the way when that bully went for him.\u00a0 It looked like he\u2019d got away too, but then one of the other Indian boys \u2013 one of them watchin\u2019 \u2013 stuck out a foot and tripped Little Joe and sent him sprawlin\u2019 in the dirt.\u00a0 That was all it took.\u00a0 The boy Joe\u2019d been fightin\u2019 straddled his brother.\u00a0 He took hold of Little Joe\u2019s curls, pulled it up, and hit him in the face.<\/p>\n Weren\u2019t a heartbeat later there was a knife at Joe\u2019s throat.<\/p>\n For a second Hoss was stunned, and then he was on the run.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t make it though.\u00a0 One of the Indian men who\u2019d been watchin\u2019 held him back as another stepped into the circle of boys and shouted somethin\u2019 in Paiute.\u00a0 The boy with the knife snarled and shook his head, refusin\u2019 to do whatever he\u2019d been told.\u00a0 Little Joe\u2019s eyes were wide, but he was doin\u2019 a good job of pretendin\u2019 he wasn\u2019t afraid.<\/p>\n All them times they\u2019d played cowboys and Indians was doin\u2019 his baby brother in good stead.<\/p>\n The Indian turned to look outside the circle.\u00a0 It was kind of funny to see all them Indians \u2013 big and small \u2013 lookin\u2019 like they was facin\u2019 down a grizzly.\u00a0 But then, maybe they was.<\/p>\n Two Hatchet was comin\u2019.<\/p>\n The war woman entered the circle and walked over to where the Indian boy still held Joe by the hair.\u00a0 She looked at him and then at Little Joe and then, without warning, back-handed that Indian boy and sent him flyin\u2019.\u00a0 She watched as he scrambled to his feet and ran and then turned back to tower over Joe.\u00a0\u00a0 Baby brother had this look when he made up his mind.\u00a0 His jaw went tight and the corners of his mouth pulled down, while them little nostrils of his flared out like an angry stallion\u2019s.\u00a0 Most of the time that look made him \u2013 well, all<\/em> of them \u2013 laugh.<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t laughin\u2019 now.<\/p>\n Two Hatchet hadn\u2019t moved.\u00a0\u00a0 She was still starin\u2019 at Little Joe who was starin\u2019 back at her.\u00a0 \u201cAhiga Ipa Abukcheech,<\/em>\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The warrior laughed and nodded.<\/p>\n Now, Two Hatchet\u2019s face was what Pa would have called \u2018stern\u2019.\u00a0 She looked like some old maiden school teacher what caught a boy in the act.\u00a0 Placing a hand on Little Joe\u2019s head, she said, Ipa Abukcheech<\/em> again \u2013 dang it!\u2019<\/em> \u2013 if she didn\u2019t say it with a little bit of a smile!<\/p>\n Then she slapped another Indian boy \u00a0and sent him runnin\u2019 along with his buddies.<\/p>\n Hoss held his breath as the war woman turned her attention to him.\u00a0 She came to his side and looked him up and down, and then glanced at Little Joe.\u00a0 Two Hatchet let loose with another string of them words he couldn\u2019t understand before turning and walking away.<\/p>\n For a moment he just stood there,\u00a0 starin\u2019 after her and then \u2013 with a glance at the warrior who was still watching\u2019 them \u2013 ran to his brother\u2019s side.\u00a0 \u00a0Little Joe was shiverin\u2019 like a leaf in a gale, but he was still on his feet.\u00a0 \u00a0Without a word, the ten-year-old circled his brother\u2019s shoulders with his arm. \u00a0Joe hesitated and then leaned into his embrace.\u00a0 \u00a0The tears were there, but he held them back.<\/p>\n The warrior was approaching them.<\/p>\n As he came closer, Hoss saw he was the man who\u2019d led the raid that brought them where they were.\u00a0 He was the one who took mama away.\u00a0 They hadn\u2019t seen her in almost a day.\u00a0 He knew the Indians did that to keep people under control.\u00a0 They sure wasn\u2019t gonna run without mama.<\/p>\n \u201cI am Black Arrow,\u201d the warrior said.\u00a0 \u201cWhat are you called?\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss cleared his throat and answered.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cMy name\u2019s Eric, but everyone calls me Hoss.\u201d\u00a0 He looked at his brother.\u00a0 \u201cThis is Little Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo longer,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n The boy frowned.\u00a0 \u201cHuh?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnkeboat<\/em> has given him a new name.\u00a0 Ipa Abukcheech<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe sniffed as he found his tongue.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s that mean?\u201d he demanded.<\/p>\n The Indian\u2019s lips quivered with amusement.\u00a0 He placed a hand on Joe\u2019s head.\u00a0 \u201cFrom now on, you are \u2018fierce little mouse\u2019.\u00a0 Two Hatchet has claimed you as her own.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s that mean?\u201d he asked as his brother\u2019s fingers clutched at his shirt.\u00a0 Hoss pushed Joe behind him.\u00a0 If them Indians wanted to take his baby brother away from him, they was gonna have another fight on their hands!<\/p>\n \u201cMy sister\u2019s children were killed by the horse soldiers,\u201d Black Arrow said. \u201cYou will now be her sons.\u201d<\/p>\n And with that, the man turned and walked away.<\/p>\n He couldn\u2019t help it.\u00a0 He had to know.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat about Ma?\u201d Hoss called after him.\u00a0 \u201cWhat about our Ma?\u201d<\/p>\n Black Arrow turned back.\u00a0 \u201cTomorrow she will be my wife.\u00a0 You will be sons to me as well.\u00a0 I will teach you to hunt and to kill the white man.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut…we\u2019re<\/em> white men.\u201d<\/p>\n The Indian warrior did not look back as he walked away, but he answered.<\/p>\n \u201cNot any more.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Marie\u2019s heart was in her throat.\u00a0 \u00a0She\u2019d been forced outside of the lodge by Black Arrow and made to watch as her tiny son fought an Indian boy twice his size.\u00a0 The Indian women who stood to each side of her would not let her go to him, not even after the fight had ended and that awful woman, Two Hatchet, headed for him.\u00a0 She\u2019d tried.\u00a0 Oh, how, she\u2019s tried!\u00a0 But they had taken hold of her arms and held her until the fight was over and now were escorting her to another lodge where some sort of pre-nuptial ceremony was to take place.\u00a0 Her only friend \u2013 Silver Spring \u2013 had told her the actual ceremony that would bind her to Black Arrow would take place the next night.<\/p>\n That didn\u2019t leave long.<\/p>\n She thought it through and come to a decision.\u00a0 It about killed her to play the part of a docile, meek woman, but she\u2019d decided \u2013 for the time being \u2013 that it was for the best.\u00a0 Marie\u2019s lips quirked.\u00a0 Ben would say that \u2018docile\u2019 and \u2018meek\u2019 were not in her vocabulary.\u00a0 Still, she had come to realize that any untoward action could get her \u2013 or worse \u2013 her sons killed.\u00a0 Whereas, if she played at being the compliant female, it might free her to act.\u00a0 It was dangerous, she knew.\u00a0 If she managed to escape with the boys, they would be hunted down like animals.\u00a0 Her prayer was that her husband would find them first and by some miraculous means, free them.\u00a0 Sadly, a whole day had passed and there had been no word from him.\u00a0 No sign.\u00a0 Marie sighed as she was dragged along.\u00a0 The only thing she could imagine that would keep him away was that Adam was deathly ill or had, in fact, died.<\/p>\n One of the women who guided her was Silver Spring.\u00a0 As a little groan escaped her lips, the young Indian woman looked at her with sympathy.<\/p>\n Marie smiled back and then sucked the smile in as Two Hatchet\u2019s stony face appeared in her field of vision.<\/p>\n A sharp order from the war woman sent them flying back to Black Arrow\u2019s tent.\u00a0 \u00a0As they neared it, she stumbled and had to be pulled to her feet.\u00a0 A moment later a cry went up as a man rode into camp.\u00a0 Marie saw a flash of red against a horse\u2019s tawny coat first and then the rider.\u00a0 Relief flooded through her at the sight of her husband. \u00a0She opened her mouth to call out to him, but stopped as Two Hatchet caught her eye and pointed.\u00a0 Across the camp two small figures were being hustled into a lodge.\u00a0 Hoss was on his feet. \u00a0Her sweet petit Joseph had been slung like a sack of potatoes over an Indians\u2019 back.\u00a0 His face was turned toward her.<\/p>\n He reached out for her.<\/p>\n \u201cTurn your back,\u201d Silver Spring warned.\u00a0 \u201cYou must not do anything or your children will die.\u201d<\/p>\n Marie glanced at the woman and read both sadness and truth in her eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cYour God will protect them when you cannot,\u201d she said, her black eyes on the crucifix that graced here throat.\u00a0 \u201cYou must believe.\u201d<\/p>\n Nodding, Marie did as she was told.\u00a0 Then she bent her head and entered the tent without so much as a a glance at her husband or children.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ben Cartwright pulled on the reins and brought his horse to a halt.\u00a0 There was a great deal of movement within the Indian camp.\u00a0 Women and children fled to their lodges while their men \u2013 about a dozen of them, armed to the teeth and looking fierce \u2013 formed a line between him and their makeshift village.\u00a0\u00a0 Slowly, he dismounted and then reached up to take hold of the red, black, and white blanket he had brought with him.\u00a0 The children\u2019s toys were held in its wooly embrace.\u00a0 Ben turned to face the Indians, letting them take a good look at him. \u00a0He wanted them to know that he came in peace; that he wasn\u2019t armed and was without any means to defend himself.<\/p>\n He only wished he could have said the same of the dozen or so soldiers who were camped several miles away.\u00a0 Colonel Jeffries had given him three hours \u2013 three short <\/em>hours \u00a0in which to negotiate the release of his family \u2013 and then he intended to move in.\u00a0 The army wanted these men.\u00a0 \u00a0They had killed a half-dozen soldiers and left even more wounded and maimed.\u00a0 It was the eternal question of the West.<\/p>\n Which man \u2013 white or red \u2013 \u00a0had the right to defend his home and his own?<\/p>\n To the army, the Indians were conquered foes who had<\/em> no rights.\u00a0 They were all prisoners of war or enemies on the run.\u00a0 To the red man, the settlers who had come here to make their homes were trespassers and usurpers.<\/p>\n Including him.<\/p>\n In a way they were right, though the land he\u2019d bought had long since been traded or purchased \u2013 or perhaps, taken from the original occupants of the land.\u00a0 He had not moved any of them out.\u00a0 It was not he who had chased them off their land.<\/p>\n But he was the beneficiary of those who had and, at times, that brought him a deep sense of regret.<\/p>\n As he watched one of the Indians broke off from the line to approach him.\u00a0 He was a tall, imposing man whose face and form bore the scars of many battles.\u00a0 He had a broad face, intelligent and keen black eyes, and black hair that reached to his waist.\u00a0 Since winter was coming, there was no need to cut it for fear an enemy would catch hold of it in battle.<\/p>\n And this<\/em> was a battle of an entirely different sort.<\/p>\n Just as the man stopped before him, a sound caught Ben\u2019s attention and drew his eyes to the area of the hastily erected lodges and tents.\u00a0 For a moment, he thought he had heard….<\/p>\n There was no one there.\u00a0 No one but a few women and a smattering of Indian children, peering out of the lodges\u2019 doors; their eyes wide with fear at the sight of a white man.<\/p>\n Ben forced his attention back to the man before him.\u00a0 He held out the red blanket, careful to balance the toys on its brightly colored surface.<\/p>\n \u201cI return your property.\u00a0 I\u00a0 do not accept your price,\u201d he said, his tone solemn.<\/p>\n The warrior said nothing.\u00a0 He simply took a step back and shook his head.<\/p>\n Undaunted, Ben gestured to the horse that trailed his own.\u00a0 It was laden with items he knew these natives could use to pass the winter \u2013 warm coats, a rifle, food and drink.<\/p>\n \u201cI return your price and offer one of my own.\u00a0 All of this for the woman and her sons \u2013 my <\/em>sons.\u201d<\/p>\n Marie would have his head if she\u2019d heard him call her that.<\/p>\n The man\u2019s dark eyes flicked to the horse and the gifts it bore.\u00a0 He could see he was tempted, but again the warrior shook his head.<\/p>\n \u201cGo home, white man,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n So, he spoke English.\u00a0 \u201cI would give you my name,\u201d Ben replied.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I ask yours in return so we may speak as equals.\u201d<\/p>\n A woman came to stand beside the man.\u00a0 At first Ben took her for the warrior\u2019s wife, but then he realized the body language was wrong.\u00a0\u00a0 There was a bond between them, but no tenderness.<\/p>\n A sister perhaps?<\/p>\n The warrior listened to the woman.\u00a0 He answered her with a brief shake of his head before turning back.\u00a0 \u201cMy sister would see you dead,\u201d he said without preamble.\u00a0 \u201cAgain, I say, go home white man.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy name is not \u2018white man\u2019,\u201d the rancher answered, growing hot.\u00a0 He\u2019d dealt with Indians before and knew what they respected \u2013 which was strength.\u00a0 \u201cIt is \u2018Ben Cartwright\u2019 and I do not intend to go home without my wife and children. \u00a0Now, I ask again what your name is so that I may carve it on the stone I place above your grave.\u201d<\/p>\n The woman snorted.\u00a0 Curiously, she seemed pleased by his threat.<\/p>\n The man considered it.\u00a0 \u201cI am Black Arrow,\u201d he said at last.\u00a0 \u201cThis is my sister, Two Hatchet.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben drew a breath and let it out slowly to calm his nerves.\u00a0 \u201cWhy does Black Arrow insist on keeping what is not his?\u00a0 Is he a thief?\u201d<\/p>\n Black Arrow bristled at the insult.\u00a0 His fingers brushed the handle of the knife he carried on his belt as his lips curled in anger.\u00a0 \u201cYou will leave, white man<\/em>,\u201d he said again.\u00a0 \u201dBefore I kill you!\u201d<\/p>\n Again, Ben held out the blanket and the other trinkets.\u00a0 \u201cI do not accept this,\u201d \u00a0he said as he deliberately let it and the items it held fall to the ground.\u00a0 \u201cYou seek to buy a mountain with mud.\u201d<\/p>\n The warrior moved so fast he had no time to react.\u00a0 Seconds later the rancher found himself on the ground with the knife blade pressed against his throat.<\/p>\n \u201cI buy your woman and children, white man<\/em>, not with mud but with blood!\u201d \u00a0Black Arrow snarled from his position astride his chest.\u00a0 \u201cThe blood of my woman and my sister\u2019s children!\u201d<\/p>\n Ben swallowed against the blade.\u00a0 \u201cI…had nothing to do…with that.\u00a0 Nor did my wife and boys.\u00a0 You can\u2019t \u2013 \u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou have taken all from us.\u00a0 You leave us nothing!\u00a0 You drive us from our land into lands unknown.\u00a0 You kill those who did you no harm and then expect the Indian to forgive!\u201d\u00a0 The blade nicked his flesh.\u00a0 \u201cI do not forgive!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI <\/em>did…nothing….\u201d<\/p>\n Black Arrow\u2019s eyes narrowed.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou were born.\u201d<\/p>\n In the back of his mind Ben ticked off the time he had been speaking with Black Arrow .\u00a0 A good part of the first hour given to him by the army was gone.\u00a0 Two hours at most remained until the soldiers attacked and the Indian camp became a war zone \u2013 with his wife and his children caught in the crossfire.<\/p>\n He\u2019d have to try another way.<\/p>\n Black Arrow\u2019s head turned toward his sister as she spoke.\u00a0 He listened a moment before turning back.\u00a0 \u201cTwo Hatchets says I should kill you.\u00a0 She says if I let you go, you will bring the horse soldiers back with you.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben\u2019s gaze shot to the woman.\u00a0 Her age was hard to determine.\u00a0 He would have placed it between thirty and forty, though her eyes were decades older.\u00a0 \u00a0She might have been pretty once, but hatred had burned any beauty away, leaving only a tough, hardened shell.<\/p>\n He considered his words carefully.\u00a0 Only one<\/em> misspoken could mean the death of them all.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you kill me, you<\/em> will bring the soldiers here,\u201d he said at last.<\/p>\n The Indian warrior stared at him, weighing the truth of his words. \u00a0After a moment, Black Arrow rose to his feet and shouted out something in his native tongue.<\/p>\n Instantly, the village was on the move.<\/p>\n Turning to one of the other warriors, he ordered, \u201cBind the white man so he cannot speak or move.\u00a0 Place him in one of the lodges.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben struggled valiantly as a pair of native men grabbed him and drew him roughly to his feet.\u00a0 \u201cNo!\u00a0 No, you can\u2019t!\u00a0 Please<\/em>, you have to listen to me.\u00a0 You\u2019ll all be killed!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Marie sat with her hand wrapped around her knees.\u00a0 Tears streaked the face that rested on them. \u00a0\u00a0She had been shoved into the corner of a lodge and told to remain there; her heart torn in two. \u00a0Somewhere across the camp were her two young sons.\u00a0 Their father, the man she loved more than life, was at its heart.\u00a0 Ben had come to rescue them.\u00a0 She knew it.<\/p>\n She feared the Indians would kill him.<\/p>\n As she sucked in her tears and readied to stand, determined to go to the entrance to the lodge and break through the wall of flesh that guarded it, Marie heard her husband\u2019s voice rise in panic.\u00a0 Determined to do something to help him, she looked around for an object she could use as a weapon.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t much, but in the end she found some sort of mallet, probably used to mash grain.\u00a0 Palming it, Marie sucked in a breath and then charged the entry to the lodge. \u00a0The man guarding it was not ready for the strike of a mallet on his foot and then his knee.\u00a0 He fell back, for just a moment stunned into inaction.<\/p>\n She used that moment to bolt out of the lodge and run straight toward the man she loved.<\/p>\n At first, he didn\u2019t see her.\u00a0 Ben was fighting against the two men who were dragging him away. \u00a0Her husband was not a small man.\u00a0 Heritage had made him broad and tall, and forging an empire had given him strength in both in spirit and form.\u00a0 In spite of the danger, Marie smiled as she watched Ben break free.<\/p>\n Her smile died quickly as an arrow embedded itself in the ground near his feet.<\/p>\n It was then he saw her.\u00a0 Her love\u2019s eyes quickly scanned the length of her, noting the Indian garb and noting as well that she appeared to be unharmed.\u00a0 \u2018The boys?\u2019 he mouthed.\u00a0 She nodded.\u00a0 Then she turned and looked at Black Arrow.\u00a0 The Indian man was watching them closely, a strange expression on his face.<\/p>\n Drawing a breath, she turned and walked up to him, mallet in hand.<\/p>\n \u201cI will speak to my husband,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Indian shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cI<\/em> am your husband now.\u201d<\/p>\n Marie\u2019s jaw clenched as a righteous fury took over, outweighing all thoughts of behaving as this man thought a woman should.\u00a0 Her words were fierce as her anger.\u00a0 \u201cBlack Arrow, you may possess my body, but you will never<\/em> be my husband!\u201d she proclaimed, her jaw tight.\u00a0 Pointing at Ben, she added, \u201cGod <\/em>has bound me to this man and whom God has bound together, no man \u2013 not a white or a red<\/em> one \u2013 can put asunder!\u201d<\/p>\n Behind her, she heard Ben\u2019s warning whisper. \u00a0\u201cMarie….\u201d<\/p>\n She glanced at him and then back at Black Arrow.\u00a0 Marie paused as her gaze went beyond him.\u00a0 Two Hatchet was standing at the entry to one of the lodges.\u00a0 Hoss was beside her, his crystal clear blue eyes wide.\u00a0\u00a0 He clenched his brother\u2019s hand tightly.<\/p>\n Joseph was crying.<\/p>\n For a moment, she couldn\u2019t breathe.\u00a0 Then, finding her courage, she crossed over to where the red, white, and black Indian blanket lay on the ground. \u00a0Picking up both it and the small toys, she returned to Black Arrow.<\/p>\n \u201cIs this all that your wife and your sister\u2019s children are worth?\u201d she demanded, thrusting the blanket toward him.\u00a0 \u201cDo you think my husband would be content with these?!\u00a0 He will never stop looking and I will never<\/em> stop trying to escape.\u00a0 I will do whatever it takes to free my children and myself and to return to the man I love!\u201d\u00a0 Marie hesitated, and then tossed the blanket and toys at his feet.\u00a0 \u201cYour wife would be ashamed of you!\u201d\u00a0 Trembling, she turned her rage on Two Hatchet.\u00a0 \u201cAnd you!\u00a0 You are a mother!\u00a0 Do you not know that your children are in Heaven watching you even now?\u00a0\u00a0 Do you not hear them crying out?\u00a0 \u2018Mama, they are saying, \u2018do not do to another child what was done to us<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n Other than the sound of Joseph\u2019s tears, the camp had fallen silent.<\/p>\n Marie sucked in air like a drowning man.\u00a0 Her heart was running wild as her fears.\u00a0 She looked at her sons and then turned toward the man she loved.\u00a0 No one held Ben back, but he remained still, as if sensing this was something she alone had to do.<\/p>\n Returning to Black Arrow, Marie chose to do something that was hard for her.\u00a0 She dropped the mallet.\u00a0 Then she humbled herself and fell to her knees.\u00a0 Lifting her hands up to Heaven as much as to Black Arrow, she said….<\/p>\n \u201cMon Dieu.\u00a0 Merci<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ben Cartwright held his breath as he stared at the strange tableau before him.\u00a0 His beautiful wife \u2013dressed as a native woman, her golden hair long and loose and wafting in the breeze \u2013 knelt before a powerful Indian warrior, her hands raised as if in prayer.\u00a0 It took everything that was in him to remain where he was.\u00a0 His instinct was to rush to her side, to protect her, but he held back, sensing this was something she had to do.\u00a0 He had not missed the appearance of his children and, while relief had flooded though him at the sight, neither had he missed the warriors standing to either side of them \u2013 or the fact that they were in the hands of Two Hatchet.<\/p>\n A woman who bore arms.<\/p>\n So, instead, he added his silent voice to his wife\u2019s prayers.<\/p>\n The only way he had to tell time was by the beat of his heart and it seemed a full minute passed before Black Arrow moved.\u00a0 The rancher watched as a full act of emotions played over the man\u2019s face \u2013 anger first, then outrage, quickly followed by pain and finally \u2013 thank God! \u2013 finally, shame.<\/p>\n In the silence that followed Marie\u2019s last words, Two Hatchet came to her brother\u2019s side, leaving the boys behind.\u00a0 She said something to him in their language, which caused him to shake his head.\u00a0 The war woman protested.\u00a0 A sharp gesture of the warrior\u2019s hand cut her protest off. \u00a0Then, Black Arrow\u2019s gaze returned to Marie.\u00a0 The warrior stared at his diminutive wife for a moment and then knelt to retrieve the blanket.\u00a0 As soon as he was upright, he reached out, indicating Marie should take his hand.\u00a0 She shot him a look and then did as she was asked.\u00a0 The warrior hesitated only a moment before draping the blanket around her shoulders.\u00a0 Turning, he glared at his sister who had taken up the toys but not moved.\u00a0\u00a0 A short command sent her back to the lodge where his children waited.<\/p>\n After that, Black Arrow brought Marie to stand before him.\u00a0\u00a0 His wife was trembling, but she held herself as if she was not afraid.\u00a0\u00a0 Marie\u2019s green eyes met his.\u00a0 In them he saw a mixture of hope and fear.<\/p>\n Sensing what the man was about, Ben asked softly, \u201cYou will take nothing in return?\u201d<\/p>\n Black Arrow shook his head.\u00a0 Ben noted with relief that his sister was slowly leading the boys toward them.\u00a0 Each of his young sons held a toy in their hands.<\/p>\n \u201cYou do not win, white man,\u201d Black Arrow said, his voice cracking with grief.\u00a0 \u201cWhat you offer is not enough to pay.\u201d\u00a0 As Ben stiffened, fearing the battle to come, the warrior continued.\u00a0 \u201cI give this blanket and these toys \u2013 as well as your woman and sons \u2013 as gifts<\/em> from Laughing Water, my wife, and from Falling Leaf and Bear, my sister\u2019s daughter and son.\u201d<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t know what to say.\u00a0 \u201cI….\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBen,\u201d Marie breathed and started toward him \u2013 only to be held back by a deeply tanned arm.<\/p>\n Black Arrow waited until he met his eyes.\u00a0 \u201cI ask only one thing, white man.\u201d<\/p>\n He swallowed hard. \u00a0\u201cWhat is that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat you keep this blanket in a place where you will see it always, and that…you remember them.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben nodded.\u00a0 \u201dYou have my word,\u201d he said solemnly.\u00a0 Then clearing his throat, he added, \u201cI would give a gift to Black Arrow as well, if he would accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n The native frowned.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are soldiers nearby.\u201d\u00a0 As anger flickered in the warrior\u2019s eyes, Ben added quickly, \u201cI did not want them to come.\u00a0 I had no choice.\u00a0 But I have a choice now and I warn you that they will be here within two hours.\u00a0 You and your people must flee.\u00a0 I will do everything I can to misdirect them, but you have to go now.\u00a0 Do you understand?\u201d<\/p>\n Two Hatchet\u2019s hands had found the weapons she wore tied to her belt.\u00a0 She was ready for the red path of war.<\/p>\n Her brother, thank Heaven, chose the white path of peace instead.<\/p>\n \u201cTake your family, Benjamin Cartwright, and go home,\u201d the warrior said and then turned his back on them and said no more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Epilogue<\/p>\n It was late the next night.\u00a0 Joseph Cartwright sat on his mother\u2019s striped settee, staring at the red, black, and white Indian blanket that had been returned to the stair rail.\u00a0 Adam and Hoss had repaired it while he was up in his room being tortured by Doc Martin.\u00a0 Joe glanced at his bandaged ankle and placed a hand in the hollow of his back where his body was bruised the worst.\u00a0 Paul had told him he had a few deep cuts as well as a nice imitation of that stair rail on his skin.\u00a0\u00a0 The Doc had also said that he\u2019d be all right in a day or two, but that he had to take it easy on his ankle for a little longer than that.<\/p>\n Which meant he had a lot of time to think.<\/p>\n It bothered him a little that he couldn\u2019t remember anything about what had happened with Black Arrow and Two Hatchet. \u00a0He\u2019d had a vague sense of unease when he\u2019d heard the woman\u2019s name, but that was it.\u00a0 After Pa had finished telling the story he\u2019d asked what happened to the Indians.\u00a0 Pa said he didn\u2019t know.\u00a0 He\u2019d never seen them again.\u00a0 True to his word, he\u2019d led the army in the wrong direction allowing them to escape.\u00a0 One of the soldiers had taken him and Hoss and Ma back to the Ponderosa, Pa said.\u00a0 Later he found out Doc Martin had brought Adam home and they\u2019d both been there to greet them.\u00a0 Older brother had turned a corner and was going to be all right.\u00a0 Adam had added how he remembered watching both Mama and Pa walk over to the stair and, together, hang that old Indian blanket on the railing. The toys went up to his and Hoss\u2019 rooms.\u00a0 He realized now he had one of them hangin\u2019 on his bedroom wall.<\/p>\n Driven by an urge he didn\u2019t understand, Joe levered himself up and off of the settee and limped over to the stair.\u00a0 He stood at the bottom for a moment and then went up to the landing and sat down.\u00a0 Once there, he thought about what he wanted to do and whether Pa would approve. Then, he decided, the older man would understand.\u00a0 Taking hold of the blanket Joe pulled it down and held it in his lap for a moment.\u00a0 Then, he raised it to his nose and drew in a long breath, seeking the scent he remembered of lavender that reminded him of the beautiful, feisty woman who had given him birth and died far too young.<\/p>\n Unbelievably, he found it.<\/p>\n Joe began to cry.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As the dawn light broke through his window, Ben Cartwright stirred. \u00a0He ran a hand through his graying hair and yawned, and then reached for his robe.\u00a0 Tossing it on, he headed for the door.\u00a0 His night had been filled with memories of the last woman he had loved \u2013 of her voice, her touch; the feel of her slight form in his hands.\u00a0 He was grateful his mind had gone to happy times and not to Marie\u2019s \u00a0loss or to the terror of that day when she and his sons had been taken by Black Arrow\u2019s band.\u00a0 Still, he felt the need of a cup of coffee and maybe a few minutes alone to settle himself before the day began.<\/p>\n So, it was to his surprise, that when he began to descend the stairs, he found someone else was already up.<\/p>\n Or, at least, someone else was not in bed.<\/p>\n Ben stood for a moment, frozen by the sight of his youngest boy wrapped in the old Indian blanket Black Arrow had given him and sound asleep on the landing.\u00a0 Joseph was his treasure.\u00a0 The boy was so much like his mother \u2013 so deep of feeling, so tender; so brave.\u00a0 After a moment, the rancher decided to make his presence known. \u00a0\u00a0Stepping back into the hallway, Ben coughed loudly and then made his footsteps heavy as he rounded the corner.<\/p>\n Joseph hadn\u2019t moved, but he was awake.<\/p>\n Sheepishly, his son said, \u201cMorning, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGood morning, Joseph,\u201d he replied as he came down the stairs. \u00a0\u201cHave you been there all night?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe ran a hand through his unruly curls.\u00a0 He ducked his head.\u00a0 \u201cSort of.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben sat on the landing beside him.\u00a0 The morning light was spilling in the window over the dining table as well, turning the air in the room as golden blonde as the boy\u2019s mother\u2019s hair.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you all right?\u201d he asked his son.<\/p>\n Joe shrugged. \u00a0\u201cI guess so. I mean, it bothers me a little that I can\u2019t remember.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou were only four.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know.\u201d\u00a0 His son paused.\u00a0 He looked down at the blanket that wrapped him as surely as his mother\u2019s arms would have had she lived.\u00a0 \u201cYou know, it still smells like her.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben smiled.\u00a0 \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe blinked.\u00a0 Then he laughed.\u00a0 \u201cI guess I should have figured you would.\u201d\u00a0 There was another pause. \u201cI wonder whatever happened to Black Arrow and his tribe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe can only hope they got away. Maybe to Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah.\u201d Joe studied the blanket again for a moment and then he looked toward the window.\u00a0 \u201cMa was awful brave, wasn\u2019t she?\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Ben reached out to touch his son\u2019s face.\u00a0 \u201cI have her to thank that you are with me now.\u00a0 You and your brother.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe was fingering the cloth.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLaughing Water.\u00a0 Falling Leaf.\u00a0 Bear.\u201d\u00a0 He looked at him.\u00a0 \u201cI won\u2019t ever forget them<\/em>, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben looked toward the window as well, imagining the spirits of those slain who had looked down upon him and his wife and children with love.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of us will, Joseph, so long as that blanket hangs on the stair.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it always will.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tags:\u00a0 Adam Cartwright,\u00a0Ben Cartwright,\u00a0Family,\u00a0Hoss Cartwright,\u00a0Indians,\u00a0Joe \/ Little Joe Cartwright,\u00a0kidnap,\u00a0Marie Cartwright,\u00a0SAS,\u00a0wife \/ wives<\/p>\n