{"id":4546,"date":"2008-04-02T20:55:32","date_gmt":"2008-04-03T00:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=4546"},"modified":"2025-02-27T12:12:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T17:12:36","slug":"bank-robbers-belles-and-puppy-dog-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=4546","title":{"rendered":"Bank Robbers, Belles, and Puppy Dog Eyes (by pjb)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary:\u00a0<\/span>Start with\u00a0one fifteen-year-old boy with a brand-new sidearm.\u00a0 Add\u00a0the prettiest twin girls in school, a pair of matching ponies named Floyd and Feather, two inept bank robbers, a worried lawman, several frantic family members, and a best friend who\u2019s game for almost anything.\u00a0 And then, let the chase begin.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rated:<\/span>\u00a0T \u00a0WC 23,000<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Bank Robbers, Belles, and Puppy Dog Eyes<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Monday<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“She sure is a beauty, ain’t she?”\u00a0 Mitch Devlin gave a low, admiring whistle at the sight of his friend’s birthday present<\/p>\n

Little Joe Cartwright grinned proudly.\u00a0 “She sure is,” he agreed.\u00a0 Mitch reached out to stroke the handle, but Little Joe stopped him.\u00a0 “Pa said I wasn’t to touch it until him or Adam or Hoss showed me what to do,” he said.<\/p>\n

Such strict adherence on Joe’s part to any order by his family was so unusual that Mitch thought his friend must have misunderstood.\u00a0 “I’m sure he didn’t mean you couldn’t actually lay a finger on it,” Mitch protested.\u00a0 “He prob’ly just meant you couldn’t practice with it or such.”<\/p>\n

Little Joe shook his head firmly.\u00a0 “Pa said not to touch it–not at all–and I ain’t after getting’ tanned on my birthday,” he said.\u00a0 “And believe me, they’d do it if they caught me messin’ with this.”<\/p>\n

“But you’re fifteen!\u00a0 And it’s your own gun!”\u00a0 The pearl handle shone softly next to the tooled leather of the left-handed holster.<\/p>\n

“It don’t matter.\u00a0 I don’t think there’s much I’d get tanned for at my age, but I can tell you, this would be it.\u00a0 I already had to listen to all three of them go on and on about how it ain’t a toy and it’s dangerous and it can kill a man.\u00a0 Like I don’t already know all that.\u00a0 Just last week, when Adam and me were in Virginia City, I saw a man get shot dead right there on C Street!”<\/p>\n

Mitch’s eyes were wide.\u00a0 “Who was it?”<\/p>\n

“Dunno.\u00a0 I think he was a miner.\u00a0 Somebody said something about him cheating at cards.\u00a0 The fellow who killed him was dressed real fancy.\u00a0 I’ll bet he was a gunfighter or something.”<\/p>\n

“Did he bleed a lot?”<\/p>\n

“I didn’t get to see too much.\u00a0 Adam yanked me out of there too fast.”\u00a0\u00a0Yanked<\/em>\u00a0was an understatement.\u00a0 Adam had grabbed his arm and flung him into the nearest doorway.\u00a0 Stumbling, Joe had knocked the parcels out of Mrs.\u00a0McDonald’s hands, and he’d almost knocked over the lady herself.\u00a0 While everybody else got to go and see what was happening with the gunfight, Joe had been stuck fetching spools of thread that had rolled under every conceivable shelf.<\/p>\n

“Did they arrest the gunfighter?”<\/p>\n

“Sheriff Coffee took him in for questioning, but he let him go.\u00a0 I wanted to go hear what the sheriff was gonna say, but Adam wouldn’t let me.”<\/p>\n

“Adam’s worse than your pa sometimes, ain’t he?”<\/p>\n

“Lots of times,” Little Joe said glumly.\u00a0 “An’ sometimes Hoss is no better.\u00a0 It’s like having three pas instead of one.”<\/p>\n

Mitch considered this.\u00a0 “I reckon you better not touch the gun, then.”<\/p>\n

“Not if I want to live to suppertime.”<\/p>\n

The boys considered the injustice of it all.\u00a0 Fifteen years old, and Little Joe couldn’t try out his own pistol.<\/p>\n

After a minute, Mitch said, “I’ll bet the Belles would think it was pretty fine.”<\/p>\n

“I’ll bet they would.”\u00a0 Joe’s green eyes glowed at the thought.<\/p>\n

The Belles were Annabelle and Dulcibelle Johnson, twin daughters of the local undertaker.\u00a0 The girls were so beautiful, with their blond curls and cornflower-blue eyes, that every boy in school wanted to spark them.\u00a0 Curt Watson and his brother, Alvin, seemed to think that they had the inside track, but the fact was that it was impossible to know who the Belles favored.\u00a0 When they looked at Joe and Mitch with those big blue eyes, the boys were certain they’d won the fair maidens’ hands, but then they’d see the girls looking the exact same way at the Watson boys the next day, and at Clem Garvey and Philip Robinson the day after that.\u00a0 Once, when the Slater brothers had captured the Belles’ attention, Joe muttered to Mitch that the girls probably wouldn’t be any different if they were standing in front of Pa and Hoss.\u00a0 It was just their way, and it could drive a man crazy.<\/p>\n

“Pretty fine-lookin’ weapon, ain’t it?”<\/p>\n

The boys’ heads snapped around.\u00a0 Hoss stood behind them, arms crossed.\u00a0 Joe had never figured out how such a big man could move so silently, but the fact was that Hoss could creep up on his own shadow.<\/p>\n

“We ain’t touched it,” announced Little Joe.<\/p>\n

Hoss looked unimpressed.\u00a0 “You was told not to,” he shrugged.<\/p>\n

“And we did just what we were told,” said Little Joe as though that were something noteworthy–which, in fact, it sort of was.\u00a0 “But now that you’re here, you can show us what to do.”<\/p>\n

“Me?\u00a0 Show \u2018us’ what to do?\u00a0 Little Brother, I think mebbe you been out in the sun too long.”<\/p>\n

“But why not?\u00a0 Pa said I couldn’t touch it unless him or you or Adam was here, and you’re here, and it’s my birthday.\u00a0 Besides, you know you’re the best shot in the family.\u00a0 You’re the natural choice to show me how to handle a pistol right.”<\/p>\n

This speech was accompanied by the expression his family had long ago dubbed Little Joe’s “puppy dog eyes.”\u00a0 Joe would widen his eyes to assume the most innocent, plaintive expression imaginable.\u00a0 Only his eyes moved as he looked up at whoever was being stern or otherwise uncooperative.\u00a0 Already shorter than his father and brothers, he would bow his head slightly, creating the impression of being cowed and intimidated by his big, strong family.\u00a0 Looking small and vulnerable was key:\u00a0 if he and the other person were seated next to each other, he would bow his head until his chin nearly touched his chest so that the same looking-up effect was accomplished.\u00a0 If he had to, he would allow his lips to tremble and his chin to quiver, but he was careful not to overuse these flourishes. \u00a0Tears were permitted to well up only under extreme circumstances.<\/p>\n

Even though they all knew that Little Joe used the expression shamelessly, they all fell prey to it on a regular basis-so regular, in fact, that for years, Adam and Hoss had routinely sent their little brother in to intercede with Pa on their behalf.\u00a0 This was when they discovered that the roster of Joe’s admirable traits did not include philanthropy:\u00a0 by the time he was five years old, he was exacting payment for services rendered in the form of sweets and bedtime stories.\u00a0 As the boy grew, the fee schedule evolved accordingly.\u00a0 At the moment, Joe accepted payment in the form of relief from chores, the granting of a privilege such as a hunting trip or an afternoon of fishing, or cold, hard cash.\u00a0 Adam and Hoss didn’t even want to think about what their baby brother would be demanding in another year.<\/p>\n

Though he was not usually over-burdened by conscience, even Little Joe knew that it was sort of unfair to use puppy dog eyes on Hoss.\u00a0 His big brother was a pushover without the extra persuasion.\u00a0 But when it came to his new gun, Joe felt entitled to use every weapon in his arsenal.\u00a0 Today, he would stop short of the tears–even soft-hearted Hoss wouldn’t believe that he would cry over a pistol–but he would come as close as he needed.\u00a0 If he handled matters just right, it would never occur to Hoss that if Joe’d been speaking to Adam or Pa, they would have been the ones he praised as the best shots in the family.\u00a0 Fact regularly gave way to flattery when Little Joe Cartwright was determined to win.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, Joe didn’t have to work that hard.\u00a0 Hoss had come back to the house with the specific intention of showing his little brother how to handle the gun.\u00a0 After all, it was the boy’s birthday, and Hoss wanted to do something extra-special for him.\u00a0 He knew what it would mean to Little Joe to impress Adam and Pa when they gave him what they thought was his first lesson.\u00a0 Besides, Joe knew that both Adam and Hoss had been younger than fifteen when they first learned to handle a sidearm, and this had been a sore point for several years.\u00a0 It was one of the very few matters where puppy dog eyes had been useless:\u00a0 Ben Cartwright was simply not convinced that his youngest son was mature enough to handle this responsibility.\u00a0 And as much as Adam and Hoss wanted to intercede for their baby brother, they couldn’t honestly argue the fact that, in some ways, the boy was taking his sweet time about growing up.<\/p>\n

But at last, Pa gave in, and now the pearl-handled gun and tooled leather holster were on display before two admiring boys.\u00a0 Hoss wasn’t all that happy about showing Joe how to use the gun with Mitch there, but Mitch didn’t have any older brothers, and his pa was usually pretty busy.\u00a0 Probably better to teach them both at once, anyway.<\/p>\n

“All right, Little Brother, but you better not tell Pa or Adam I did this,” he warned.\u00a0 “And Mitch, you don’t tell nobody.\u00a0 Got it?”\u00a0 The boys nodded solemnly.\u00a0 As Hoss took them outside for their first lesson, a thought crossed his mind:\u00a0\u00a0I’m gonna regret this.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Tuesday<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When Little Joe rode into the schoolyard the next morning, a crowd of boys had gathered at the far edge of the yard.\u00a0 He stabled his horse as fast as he could and made a beeline for the crowd.<\/p>\n

In the thick of it was Curt Watson.\u00a0 He was proudly showing off his squirrel rifle.\u00a0 Joe relaxed.\u00a0 He’d always been taught not to brag about what he had–Pa said it was rude, especially when others didn’t have as much–but it was nice to know that Curt still had a squirrel rifle when Joe already owned his own pistol.\u00a0 Even nicer was the secret knowledge that Hoss had pronounced him a natural at handling it.<\/p>\n

“Good-looking piece,” Joe said generously.<\/p>\n

“You should see Cartwright’s new gun,” piped up Mitch.\u00a0 Joe glared at him, and Curt misinterpreted the look.<\/p>\n

“I’ll bet Cartwright has some fine gun,” Curt said.\u00a0 “Kill a lot of squirrels with it?”<\/p>\n

“It ain’t a rifle,” said Mitch, ignoring his friend’s black stare.\u00a0 “It’s a pistol.”<\/p>\n

All of the boys stared.\u00a0 “You got a sidearm?” Gus Chapman asked finally.<\/p>\n

“Well-it was my birthday,” admitted Little Joe.<\/p>\n

“And you should see the holster!” Mitch added.<\/p>\n

“Hey, Devlin, I gotta talk to you before school,” said Little Joe in an attempt to change the subject.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, Devlin, he’s gotta talk to you,” sneered Curt.\u00a0 “All about how he don’t really have a pistol.”<\/p>\n

“I do too!”\u00a0 It was one thing to be thought of as rude; it was quite another to be called a liar, directly or through Mitch.<\/p>\n

“Yeah?\u00a0 Well, where is it?”<\/p>\n

“It’s at home,” said Joe, as if this were obvious.\u00a0 “Who would be fool enough to bring a gun to school?”<\/p>\n

The words were no sooner out of his mouth than the fool in question tossed the rifle to his brother and jumped the smaller boy.\u00a0 Within seconds, the schoolyard talk had degenerated into a full-blown melee.<\/p>\n

“Break it up!”<\/p>\n

The thundering bass voice brought the fight to an instant halt.\u00a0 The boys turned in time to see Little Joe be plucked out from under the pile of classmates and hauled to his feet as if he were no bigger or stronger than a rag doll.<\/p>\n

“You forgot your lunch,” said Hoss grimly, handing him the pail.\u00a0 He looked from his brother to the other boys.\u00a0 Joe looked furious instead of repentant, which probably meant that he hadn’t started the fight.\u00a0 Still, his little brother knew better.\u00a0 He resisted the urge to check the boy over to be sure he was all right.\u00a0 The kid was fierce and fast, but he was also small and slight of build, while some of his classmates, like the Watson boys, were already quite large for their age.\u00a0 Hoss allowed himself a quick appraising glance and turned to go.\u00a0 Over his shoulder, he said, “Be in the north pasture right after school.\u00a0 That fence is a mess.\u00a0 We lost at least ten head already.”<\/p>\n

“Lucky for you your big brother came along,” sneered Curt, wiping blood from his nose.<\/p>\n

“Oh, Curt, are you hurt?”\u00a0 One of the Belles scurried over to him and pressed her handkerchief against his face.<\/p>\n

“Oh, don’t you worry your pretty head about me,” said Curt.\u00a0 “It takes a whole lot more than Little Joe Cartwright to do anythin’ to the likes of me.”<\/p>\n

Mitch and Joe rolled their eyes.\u00a0 The other Belle knelt beside Alvin Watson, who was still sitting on the ground.\u00a0 “Are you all right, Alvin?” she inquired in that soft, breathless voice that visited Joe’s dreams.<\/p>\n

“I’m just fine, Annabelle,” Alvin said, getting to his feet.<\/p>\n

“I’m Dulcibelle,” the girl said, not even a little bit put out at the mix-up.\u00a0 Curt turned to Joe and Mitch with a triumphant sneer, and Joe glared as the Belles laid their delicate hands on the rough sleeves of the Watson brothers and walked slowly toward the schoolhouse.<\/p>\n

Little Joe had a hard time shrugging off this type of thing. \u00a0Not the fight, but the Belles. \u00a0His frustration went beyond the fact that he had a broad competitive streak.\u00a0 Rather, it grew from his private belief that he was indeed the better man and, as such, he should win the girl.\u00a0 He knew this to be true, because he alone had the secret weapon:\u00a0 Adam.<\/p>\n

When it had come time for the talk about growing up and all that went with it, Pa had been surprisingly awkward.\u00a0 Little Joe didn’t think he was asking unusual questions, but Pa seemed quite taken aback.\u00a0 Joe couldn’t remember ever seeing his pa blush before.\u00a0 He stammered over his answers like he didn’t know what Joe was talking about.\u00a0 How on earth this man had won a woman like his mother was beyond Little Joe.<\/p>\n

The next thing he knew, Joe was in the barn, and Hoss was explaining things.\u00a0 The problem was that while Hoss was just fine with the observable facts of what happened between males and females of other species, he wasn’t telling Joe anything he didn’t already know.\u00a0 Growing up on a ranch, a boy learned certain things early on.\u00a0 Of course Joe knew the difference between a mare and a stallion.\u00a0 After all, he’d seen animals mating all over the Ponderosa all his life.\u00a0 That wasn’t what he needed to know about now:\u00a0 he looking for more personal information.\u00a0 But when Joe tried to ask his big brother about certain matters specific to humans, Hoss got even redder than Pa and told him not to think about those things.<\/p>\n

Right.\u00a0 Like there was a chance of that.<\/p>\n

The next night, Adam commandeered him after supper.\u00a0 Little Joe followed his brother upstairs eagerly.\u00a0 He’d been expecting this, and frankly, he was looking forward to it.\u00a0 Pa and Hoss might have been sort of pitiful, but he felt confident that Adam would tell him everything he wanted to know.<\/p>\n

And he did.\u00a0 Every question was answered, with no equivocation and, thank heaven, no blushing or stammering or telling him how he was too young to hear about such things.\u00a0 They might have been talking about how to rope a steer for all the emotion Adam showed.\u00a0 Little Joe knew his older brother well enough to understand Adam’s approach:\u00a0 deal with the matter head-on, and the whole thing loses all its mystique and its sense of being forbidden fruit, and it won’t be nearly as tempting.<\/p>\n

Like there was a chance of that, either.\u00a0 Clearly, Adam had forgotten what it was like to be young.<\/p>\n

The only hint that Adam might actually have feelings about the whole issue came when Joe asked him about his first time with a girl.\u00a0 Then, a quiet smile stole over his elder brother’s face, and he shook his head.<\/p>\n

“That’s private,” he said.\u00a0 “A man doesn’t talk about those details.”<\/p>\n

“Will you tell me who it was?”<\/p>\n

“Maybe someday.\u00a0 Not tonight.”<\/p>\n

Joe was disappointed, but considering how much he’d learned in one evening, he figured he could wait.\u00a0 Surely, Adam couldn’t mean to keep this to himself forever.\u00a0 Maybe he just thought Joe was too young to know at this point.<\/p>\n

“It ain’t like I’m gonna do anything now,” he assured his brother, fingers crossed behind his back.\u00a0 “I just wondered.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.”<\/p>\n

“You’d better not be doing anything now,” said Adam, lightly threatening as he reached for the hand behind his little brother’s back. \u00a0His voice grew serious. \u00a0“Every girl is to be treated as a lady, and if I ever hear that you did anything else, you’ll have me to answer to.”<\/p>\n

With that, Adam pinned Little Joe with that certain look he had, rock-hard and smoldering, that could make a brave man’s blood run cold with absolute terror.\u00a0 That look said that Adam Cartwright might kill you or just stare at you, and that he truly didn’t care which one he did.\u00a0 Joe had seen that look reduce grown men to quivering without a single word spoken, but before that moment, it had never been turned on him.<\/p>\n

Joe took an involuntary step back.\u00a0 He met Adam’s eyes, lifting his chin defiantly, but Adam was better than good.\u00a0 Hazel eyes bored into green with increasing intensity, hard and unblinking.\u00a0 Joe swallowed hard.\u00a0 Adam moved a step closer, forcing his little brother to look up almost straight up at him.\u00a0 A frisson of fear ran down Joe’s spine. \u00a0The brother he had known and loved all his life was suddenly a stranger. \u00a0This man could choke the life out of him without breaking a sweat.\u00a0 To his horror, he could feel tears building.<\/p>\n

Adam didn’t let up. \u00a0Joe clenched his jaw, holding firm and not looking away, even as he inwardly cursed himself for the tears that were welling up.\u00a0 But then, just as they threatened to spill over, Adam relaxed, pulling him into a quick, rough one-armed embrace.<\/p>\n

“All right, then,” was all Adam said, but Little Joe understood.<\/p>\n

Now, as he watched the Belles strolling across the schoolyard with the Watson brothers, Joe grinned to himself.\u00a0 The Belles might think the Watson brothers were the better men, but he was willing to bet that Curt and Alvin didn’t know half of what Adam had told him.\u00a0 Not that he’d let on, of course.\u00a0 He’d be a gentleman, and not just because Adam would have his hide if he wasn’t.\u00a0 It was the right thing to do, at least for now.\u00a0 Someday, though, when the time was right, he’d find a way to let those girls know what he had to offer.\u00a0 In the meantime, it was just as well to wait.\u00a0 He still needed to get Adam to tell him about his first time.<\/p>\n

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

Wednesday<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The next morning, Little Joe rode into the schoolyard well in advance of the schoolbell.\u00a0 He stabled his horse and lingered next to the gelding, waiting.\u00a0 When Mitch rode up, Joe gestured for him to come close.<\/p>\n

“What’s going on?” asked Mitch.<\/p>\n

“Guess what’s in my saddlebag,” said Joe in a low voice.<\/p>\n

Mitch’s eyes widened.\u00a0 “No!”<\/p>\n

Little Joe nodded.\u00a0 “I ain’t gonna take it out unless Curt Watson starts in on me, but it’s there if I need to show it to him.”<\/p>\n

“You ain’t gonna leave your saddlebags out here all day, are you?”\u00a0 Mitch was horrified.\u00a0 “What if somebody steals it?”<\/p>\n

“I ain’t stupid,” said Little Joe.\u00a0 He didn’t add that taking the saddlebags in with him would be unusual enough for someone to ask about it.\u00a0 After the previous day’s incident, it would only be a matter of time before one of the boys would ask if he had the pistol in there.<\/p>\n

“Is it loaded?”<\/p>\n

It was Joe’s turn to be horrified.\u00a0 “Do you think I want to get killed by my pa before I’ve had it a week?\u00a0 The bullets are in the other saddlebag.”<\/p>\n

“What about the holster?”<\/p>\n

“It’s here, too.\u00a0 Everything’s here.\u00a0 If Curt Watson tries to call me a liar again, he’ll be real sorry.”<\/p>\n

The morning passed with agonizing slowness.\u00a0 Joe had nonchalantly placed his saddlebags under his chair, but he was well aware that everyone had seen him do it.\u00a0 Curt Watson had to be chomping at the bit by now.\u00a0 Pretending to ignore the attention, Little Joe focused so intently on his lessons that even his eldest brother would have been impressed.<\/p>\n

Just before the teacher dismissed them for lunch, there was a commotion out in the schoolyard.\u00a0 Little Joe craned his neck, but he could see nothing.\u00a0 Miss Jones was walking down the aisle, reading aloud about Sir Walter Raleigh.\u00a0 She alone seemed oblivious to the noise in the yard.\u00a0 Mitch kicked Joe’s foot, and Joe shrugged.\u00a0 They’d find out soon enough.<\/p>\n

As soon as they were dismissed, Joe grabbed his saddlebags, and they raced outside.\u00a0 The Belles were already there, and they were in tears.<\/p>\n

“Who could have done such a thing?” one of them sobbed.<\/p>\n

Little Joe Cartwright was no fool. \u00a0Opportunities like this were rare and precious gifts, not to be squandered on the basis of mere propriety. \u00a0He immediately took a weeping Belle into his arms and held her close–solely to comfort her, of course.\u00a0 As Mitch did likewise with the other, Joe caught his friend’s eye questioningly.\u00a0 “What happened?” he mouthed.\u00a0 Mitch shrugged.\u00a0 It didn’t matter.\u00a0 They were holding the Belles, and the Watson brothers were as useless as a sleigh in July.<\/p>\n

Joe would have been content to stand there all day, holding whichever Belle he had, but he heard Sheriff Coffee’s unmistakable voice.\u00a0 He released his hold on his Belle rather than have to listen to a lecture from Pa tonight about acting improperly with an innocent girl.\u00a0 He didn’t know how they did it, but Pa and Sheriff Coffee seemed to have some kind of mental telegraph between them so that whatever one knew, the other knew.\u00a0 He was sure that Pa, sitting behind his desk at the Ponderosa, already knew he’d been holding a Belle in front of God and everybody.<\/p>\n

As the sheriff bore down on them, Little Joe gently wiped away the girl’s tears with his fingertips.\u00a0 The beautiful, sorrowful eyes met his, and for a moment, he thought he might drown in them.<\/p>\n

“It’s all right,” he whispered.\u00a0 “I’ll take care of it.”\u00a0 No matter that he had no idea what he was talking about.\u00a0 At that moment, he’d have promised her anything.<\/p>\n

“Oh, Little Joe!”\u00a0 She flung her arms around him, sobbing afresh.\u00a0 As a gentleman, he had no choice but to continue to hold her.\u00a0 At least the sheriff would see that she had thrown herself at him.\u00a0 Hopefully, that would count for something.<\/p>\n

The sheriff cleared his throat.\u00a0 “Miss Johnson?”<\/p>\n

The girl loosened, but did not release, her hold on Little Joe.\u00a0 For his part, Little Joe kept his arm around her.\u00a0 He had no intention of letting go first.\u00a0 Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Mitch and his Belle stood slightly apart from each other. \u00a0Joe was the only one with a girl in his arms. \u00a0This was turning out to be a very good day.<\/p>\n

“Miss Annabelle Johnson?”\u00a0 Sheriff Coffee looked at Little Joe, who shifted his gaze to the girl in his arms.<\/p>\n

“Yes?” said Mitch’s Belle.\u00a0 Joe breathed a sigh of relief that he’d kept silent.\u00a0 He’d thought he had Annabelle.\u00a0 These girls needed to wear different-colored hair ribbons or something.<\/p>\n

“Where were the ponies stabled?”<\/p>\n

“Right over there,” said Annabelle, pointing to two empty stalls.<\/p>\n

Joe’s eyes widened.\u00a0 The Belles’ ponies had been stolen!\u00a0 Everybody knew that the Belles were devoted to their matching bay ponies, oddly named Floyd and Feather.\u00a0 A Belle in his arms and stolen horses.\u00a0 Yes, sir, this was a very good day indeed.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Coffee looked Joe dead in the eye and harrumphed.\u00a0 Reluctantly, Joe let go of Dulcibelle, nodding conspiratorially to her so that she would know it wasn’t his choice.\u00a0 After a moment, the girl released his neck and turned to the sheriff.<\/p>\n

“Did you see anything?” asked Sheriff Coffee.<\/p>\n

“No, sir,” said Dulcibelle in that sweet, breathless voice that could make a strong man fall down dead with desire.<\/p>\n

“We were still in class,” explained Little Joe.\u00a0 “Do you know who took them?” he added, man to man.\u00a0 He figured it was the kind of question his pa would have asked.<\/p>\n

“Most likely, the men who robbed the bank,” said Sheriff Coffee.<\/p>\n

This day just kept getting better and better.\u00a0 It was like having two birthdays in one week.\u00a0 “There was a bank robbery?”<\/p>\n

“That ain’t a good thing,” said the sheriff flatly.\u00a0 He’d known Little Joe since the boy was born, and he knew how that mind worked.<\/p>\n

“No, sir, of course not,” said Joe.\u00a0 He knew the sheriff, too, and he knew the correct responses.\u00a0 “How come they stole the ponies if they were way over at the bank?”\u00a0 The bank was at least three blocks away.<\/p>\n

“Seems they snuck out of the bank the back way and got this far before the teller came to.”\u00a0 Sheriff Coffee wasn’t quite sure why he was standing around, answering the boy’s questions.\u00a0 He needed to get a posse together and find out just what had been stolen.\u00a0 Still, even though Little Joe Cartwright was ten kinds of trouble, he’d always had a soft spot for the boy.\u00a0 So, he stayed the extra few minutes and told Ben Cartwright’s youngest son what little there was to know about the robbery and the theft of the horses.\u00a0 Later, Roy Coffee would regret this decision, but he couldn’t have known that then.<\/p>\n

After the sheriff left, Dulcibelle threw her arms around Joe’s neck again.\u00a0 Always an agreeable sort, Joe put his arms around her waist.<\/p>\n

“Are you really going to get my pony back?” she asked breathlessly, her cornflower-blue eyes mere inches from his own.<\/p>\n

“Of course,” Little Joe said.\u00a0 He had no idea how to do it, but between his Cartwright upbringing and his southern heritage, one thing was certain:\u00a0 he was not going to break a promise to a lady.<\/p>\n

“Oh, Joe!” Dulcibelle squealed with delight.\u00a0 “Annabelle!\u00a0 Little Joe’s going to get our ponies back!”<\/p>\n

“Oh, Little Joe!”\u00a0 Annabelle squealed just like her sister.\u00a0 She ran over and hugged him, even though Dulcibelle was still hanging onto his neck.<\/p>\n

Everyone, including Mitch, stared silently.\u00a0 After a minute, Curt Watson guffawed.\u00a0 “What are you gonna do, Cartwright?\u00a0 Hire a detective?”<\/p>\n

“I don’t need a detective,” said Little Joe defensively.\u00a0 “It ain’t that hard if you know what you’re doing.”\u00a0\u00a0If you know what you’re doing.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0That was a big\u00a0if<\/em>. \u00a0Still, Hoss had taught him some things about tracking, and everybody knew Hoss Cartwright was the best tracker in these parts.<\/p>\n

“And you know what you’re doing?” challenged Alvin.<\/p>\n

Little Joe had never backed away from a challenge in his life, and he wasn’t about to start now.\u00a0 He looked at the Watson boys levelly, just the way Adam would have.\u00a0 “Yeah,” he said with his elder brother’s quiet intensity, lying outright and doing a damned good job of it.\u00a0 “I know what I’m doing.”<\/p>\n

Deliberately, he let go of the Belles and picked up the saddlebags that had lain by his feet ever since Dulcibelle flung herself into his arms.\u00a0 He knew that everybody already had their suspicions about what was in those saddlebags.\u00a0 Relishing the drama of the moment, he reached into the bag, took out the gunbelt, and strapped it on.\u00a0 Then, as casually as if he did it every day, he dropped the pistol into the holster.\u00a0 No one had to know that the bullets were still secreted in the other bag.<\/p>\n

Both Belles were still hanging onto him.\u00a0 Joe rested a hand on each of their waists and looked over at Mitch.\u00a0 “You ready?” he asked, as if there had never been a question that the two of them were in this together.<\/p>\n

“Sure.”\u00a0 As an adult, Mitch Devlin would be one of the best poker players in Virginia City, primarily because of his ability to remain straight-faced no matter what was thrown at him.\u00a0 He gave all the credit for his development of this skill to Little Joe Cartwright.<\/p>\n

“Little Joe, you’ll be careful, won’t you?”\u00a0 Dulcibelle was holding onto him so tight that she was nearly strangling him now.\u00a0 Even Curt Watson looked uncertain.\u00a0 It had to be the gun.\u00a0 This was definitely one of the best days ever.<\/p>\n

“I’ll be careful,” he promised.\u00a0 As much as he would have loved to remain right there, with both Belles still holding onto him, Joe knew that they had to move fast.\u00a0 The bell for class would ring at any time.\u00a0 “Now, remember, you can’t tell anybody where we’ve gone.\u00a0 Otherwise, the robbers will find out.”\u00a0 He held his breath at the sheer idiocy of the statement, but everyone nodded seriously.\u00a0 As if there was any chance that the conversation in the schoolyard would somehow be passed along to a pair of men who were God alone knew where.\u00a0 The real question was how to keep the teacher from finding out where they were and contacting his pa.<\/p>\n

Inspiration struck.\u00a0 “If Miss Jones asks, tell her Mitch and I had to go out to the Ponderosa.\u00a0 Tell her Adam sent for us.”\u00a0 Miss Jones’ crush on Adam was a well-known secret.\u00a0 If Adam said they were needed, she wouldn’t question it.<\/p>\n

“Bring my pony back safe,” whispered Dulcibelle.\u00a0 Her lips brushed his cheek, just for an instant.<\/p>\n

“Mine, too,” whispered Annabelle, kissing his other cheek.<\/p>\n

“I will.”\u00a0 It was all Joe could do to keep his voice from squeaking.\u00a0 With every bit of self-control he could muster, he picked up the saddlebags and held them close to his body as he strode to the stall where Cochise waited.\u00a0 At last, he understood why Adam had used his fiercest look that night.\u00a0 Turned out, Adam’s glare was barely as powerful as the feelings the Belles had stirred up.<\/p>\n

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

“Where is your brother?” thundered Ben as his two older sons strolled into the house.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to know that myself,” said Adam, not bothering to conceal his own irritation.\u00a0 The kid was supposed to help Hoss look for strays so that Adam could get into town to meet with the lawyer.\u00a0 Instead, Adam had spent the entire afternoon helping Hoss haul a steer out of a bog.\u00a0 The eldest of the Cartwright sons was muddy, sweaty, tired and cross, and he was not inclined to show any mercy toward his youngest brother.<\/p>\n

“Didn’t he show up for work?”\u00a0 Ben was startled.\u00a0 It was very much like Joe to be late, but it was not like him to fail completely to appear.<\/p>\n

“Nope,” said Hoss.\u00a0 He was just as muddy and aggravated as his brother.\u00a0 “Ain’t seen saw hide nor hair of him all day.\u00a0 Prob’ly run off someplace with Mitch Devlin.”<\/p>\n

“He’d better not have,” said Ben.\u00a0 “If he did, I swear, that boy’s going to be eating his dinner standing up!”<\/p>\n

Just then, the sound of hoofbeats caught their attention.\u00a0 “There he is now,” said Adam.\u00a0 All three men strode outside, prepared to confront the youngest member of the family.\u00a0 Instead, they saw Roy Coffee, looking serious.<\/p>\n

“Evening, Roy,” said Ben.\u00a0 “What can we do for you?”<\/p>\n

“Evening, Ben, boys.\u00a0 I’d like to see Little Joe, if I can,” said the lawman.<\/p>\n

“Little Joe?\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Did he do something?”\u00a0 A distinctly uneasy feeling crept over Ben.<\/p>\n

“Well, I ain’t quite sure,” said Roy.\u00a0 “Is he here?”<\/p>\n

“Actually, he’s not,” said Ben.\u00a0 “We were just waiting dinner for him.”<\/p>\n

Roy looked from one Cartwright to the next.\u00a0 “When did you last see him?”<\/p>\n

“Roy, what’s going on?”\u00a0 Ben approached Roy’s horse, peering at his old friend.\u00a0 “Is Joe in some kind of trouble?”<\/p>\n

Roy took a deep breath.\u00a0 “Well, Ben, to tell you the truth, I don’t know,” he admitted.\u00a0 “I was kinda hopin’ to find him here.”<\/p>\n

“Why?\u00a0 What’s wrong?”\u00a0 Adam’s tone sounded almost like a challenge.<\/p>\n

“It’s like this,” Roy said.\u00a0 “There was a bank robbery in town earlier today.\u00a0 Robbers got away with a couple of horses, too.”<\/p>\n

“You’re not suggesting that my little brother robbed a bank and stole a horse!”\u00a0 Adam snorted.\u00a0 The others chuckled at such a ludicrous notion.<\/p>\n

“No, I’m not sayin’ that.”\u00a0 Unlike the Cartwrights, Roy still looked serious.<\/p>\n

“Well, do you think he saw something?”\u00a0 Ben couldn’t make sense of what Roy was saying.<\/p>\n

“I dunno,” said Roy.\u00a0 “Thing is, there’s been some talk in town.\u00a0 Seems that, before I could raise a posse, a couple of riders already done headed out after the robbers.”\u00a0 When the three men looked at him blankly, Roy sighed and spelled it out.\u00a0 “The talk is that the riders were Mitch Devlin and Little Joe.”<\/p>\n

“Joseph?\u00a0 What on earth–”\u00a0 Ben looked flabbergasted, a reaction that Roy privately felt was a bit na\u00efve.\u00a0 It was on the tip of his tongue to point out that, of all the boys he knew, Little Joe was far and away the one most likely to pull such a stunt, but he refrained.<\/p>\n

Adam had darted into the house.\u00a0 He returned a moment later, looking somber.\u00a0 “His gun’s gone,” he announced.<\/p>\n

Ben’s face drained of color.\u00a0 Hoss rested one enormous hand on his father’s shoulder.\u00a0 For a moment, none of them spoke.\u00a0 Finally, Adam asked, “Has the posse already ridden out?”<\/p>\n

“Yep,” said Roy.\u00a0 “But nobody seems quite sure where the boys went.\u00a0 So, they’re tryin’ to track the robbers and just hopin’ the boys are headin’ the same way.”<\/p>\n

“Joe’s a pretty good tracker,” said Hoss.\u00a0 “They’re prob’ly on the robbers’ trail.”<\/p>\n

“Then we need to get moving,” said Roy.\u00a0 “I sent the posse on ahead so’s I could stop and let you know what was happenin’.”<\/p>\n

“Jest let us get some things together, and we’ll ride out,” said Hoss.<\/p>\n

Ben seemed to rouse a bit with that.\u00a0 “Adam, you stay here in case Joe comes back,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Pa, maybe I should go, and you should stay here,” Adam suggested gently.\u00a0 “If Joe gets back before the rest of us, you’re going to want to talk to him.”<\/p>\n

Ben fixed his gaze on his eldest.\u00a0 “My boy is out there with bank robbers and horse thieves,” he said levelly.\u00a0 “I’m riding.”<\/p>\n

“I think we should all go,” said Hoss.\u00a0 “Hop Sing will be here if’n Little Joe gets back before we do.”<\/p>\n

“I could use all of you,” Roy said.\u00a0 It wasn’t actually true, but he needed to move them along.\u00a0 Daylight faded fast this late in the fall, and he had a pair of fifteen-year-old boys in a peck of trouble.\u00a0 He wasn’t about to stand around all night while Ben and Adam argued about who should stay behind.<\/p>\n

“We’ll be ready in ten minutes,” said Ben.<\/p>\n

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

“Okay, where do we start?”<\/p>\n

Mitch probably didn’t mean it to sound like a challenge, but Joe felt challenged anyway.\u00a0 Everybody had watched them leave, so he had no choice but to look completely confident, as if he knew exactly what he was doing.\u00a0 Mitch should have known better, though.\u00a0 If anybody knew when Little Joe Cartwright was faking it, it should have been his best friend.<\/p>\n

Joe regarded the road and Mitch.\u00a0 He was gratified to see that Mitch looked more than slightly unsure himself.\u00a0 At worst, the blind would be leading the blind.\u00a0 But Joe didn’t want to be the blind.\u00a0 He wanted to ride in triumphant, with bank robbers and stolen horses, to the accolades and applause of the entire town, and especially the Belles.<\/p>\n

So, he dismounted and studied the road.\u00a0 Somebody had ridden through there recently, although that hardly identified anyone specific.\u00a0 Nothing had been said about the Belles’ horses having any distinctive tracks–no missing or chipped shoes, no uneven gaits.\u00a0 Cochise, on the other hand, needed to have his left front shoe replaced, something Joe had intended to see to that very afternoon<\/p>\n

“Well?”<\/p>\n

“Well what?”\u00a0 Joe didn’t mean to sound irritable.\u00a0 Sounding irritable was one step away from admitting that whatever he said would be nothing more than a guess.<\/p>\n

“Well, where do we go?”<\/p>\n

“Follow the road west,” said Joe.\u00a0 It made as much sense as anything else.\u00a0 The robbers had headed west from the bank to the school, and they certainly wouldn’t have doubled back and risked coming face to face with the sheriff.\u00a0 So, for the moment, Joe figured they’d all be in it together if they headed west.\u00a0 He took a swig of water and recorked his canteen, riding out with Mitch behind him and his heart pounding with the excitement of the adventure.<\/p>\n

Luck was with him, or maybe not.\u00a0 Not a mile later, he noticed a broken branch off the left.\u00a0 He dismounted, looking at the side of the road as Hoss had taught him.\u00a0 Sure enough, the tracks showed that someone had left the road.\u00a0 Two someones, in fact.<\/p>\n

“Hey, Mitch, look at this.”\u00a0 Mitch looked skeptical until Joe explained what they were looking at.\u00a0 At his friend’s admiring gaze, it was all Joe could do to keep a straight face instead of bursting into an enormous grin that would have shattered his matter-of-fact pose.\u00a0 The boys veered off the road and began to poke through the woods, following broken branches and trampled grass.\u00a0 It was all they could do not to whoop with glee.\u00a0 At this rate, the biggest problem that they were going to have was making the capture sound difficult and dangerous.<\/p>\n

By the time they were a mile off the road, the rain had begun.\u00a0 Even though they hadn’t thought to bring rain gear, Joe couldn’t keep from grinning.\u00a0 The rain would wash out the tracks on the road.\u00a0 The likelihood that the posse would catch up with them would dwindle to practically nothing.\u00a0 This capture was going to be all theirs.<\/p>\n

Hours had passed, the rain had stopped, and darkness had long since fallen when they came upon the camp.\u00a0 Although they would never have admitted it, by this time, they’d completely lost the trail, and the only reason they kept going was the obstinacy of Joe Cartwright.\u00a0 As it was, it was sheer dumb luck that they heard the voices, but Joe threw Mitch a triumphant look, as if this had all been part of his plan.<\/p>\n

“You idiot,” said one rough voice.\u00a0 “Them horses were supposed to be right outside!”<\/p>\n

“What do you care?” demanded another voice.\u00a0 “We got away, didn’t we?”<\/p>\n

“Barely,” said the first.\u00a0 “Hadn’t been for the school, we’d have ended up walkin’ out of town!”<\/p>\n

“Look, we’re here, the horses are here, the money’s here-we’re fine,” said the second.\u00a0 “Ain’t nobody’s gonna find us here.\u00a0 I don’t care you who are, you can’t track over rock, and especially not in the rain.\u00a0 In the morning, we can just mosey on out of here, and nobody’ll be the wiser.”<\/p>\n

“You don’t think somebody’ll be lookin’ in the morning?” said the first sarcastically.\u00a0 “We robbed a bank and stole horses.\u00a0 I’m thinkin’ that, just maybe, somebody ain’t gonna like that so much.\u00a0 An’ maybe they’re gonna look for us for longer than a couple hours!”<\/p>\n

“What’re you so afraid of, anyway?” demanded the second one.\u00a0 “Didn’t it just come off exactly like I said?\u00a0 You don’t see any sheriff around here, do you?”\u00a0 He belched loudly.\u00a0 Joe and Mitch, crouched in shadow, exchanged admiring looks.\u00a0 They’d tied their horses farther down the trail so that the Belles’ horses wouldn’t nicker at them and give the game away.<\/p>\n

The rain had stopped, and the robbers had a tiny fire going.\u00a0 It was enough for the boys to see the bottle being passed back and forth.\u00a0 Again, Joe mentally patted himself on the back.\u00a0 This was going to be the triumph to end all triumphs.\u00a0 At only fifteen years of age, he was going to apprehend the bank robbers singlehanded-well, okay, not singlehanded, because he did have Mitch, but single-gunned, anyway.\u00a0 He patted his sidearm, half with excitement and half with apprehension.\u00a0 He’d loaded it before they left town.\u00a0 His pa would skin him alive if he knew.<\/p>\n

“What do we do?” hissed Mitch.<\/p>\n

“Make the arrest and take ’em back to town,” said Joe with studied casualness.\u00a0 “Go around the other side and keep ’em from escaping that way.”<\/p>\n

“How you figure I’m gonna keep them from escaping when you’re the only one with a gun?” asked Mitch reasonably.<\/p>\n

“They don’t have to know that,” snapped Joe, annoyed at having the obvious flaw in his plan recognized.\u00a0 “Can’t you just pretend?”\u00a0 Mitch snorted his disdain, and Joe said, “You got a better idea, let’s hear it.”<\/p>\n

“I didn’t say I got a better idea,” said Mitch defensively.\u00a0 “But pretending to have gun doesn’t sound like a very good plan.”<\/p>\n

“Well, if you ain’t got a gun, it’s the best we’re gonna do,” said Joe.\u00a0 “So, take the rope and go around the other side and be ready when they try to go that way.”<\/p>\n

“You want me to tie ’em up?”\u00a0 Mitch was incredulous.<\/p>\n

“Unless you think they’re gonna come with us on their own,” said Joe.\u00a0 “And maybe I just don’t know nothing, but it seems to me that two fellows who’re about to get arrested for bank robbing and horse stealing might not be all that happy about gettin’ hauled in, and they’re maybe gonna need to be convinced.”<\/p>\n

“I don’t know about this,” said Mitch unhappily.\u00a0 “It don’t sound like much of a plan.”<\/p>\n

“Well, maybe it ain’t much of a plan, but it’s all we got,” said Joe.\u00a0 “Now, get in position.\u00a0 I’ll count to fifty and then take ’em.”\u00a0 With a skeptical backward glance, Mitch slipped out of sight.<\/p>\n

Alone, Joe evaluated his prey.\u00a0 They were about his pa’s age, but they looked like they hadn’t shaved in weeks or bathed in even longer. \u00a0Even from here, Joe could smell them. \u00a0One of them had gray hair and the other was near to bald and missing a couple teeth.\u00a0 They didn’t look real smart, but they looked pretty drunk by now.\u00a0 Joe figured he could get the drop on them easy.<\/p>\n

Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty<\/em>.\u00a0 He cocked his gun and stepped forward.\u00a0 “Drop your guns,” he said in the deepest voice he could affect without sounding like a complete fool.<\/p>\n

He didn’t know what he’d expected, but he sure hadn’t expected them to laugh at him.\u00a0 Laugh they did, though.\u00a0 They saw him standing there with his gun, and they howled like a pair of wolves.<\/p>\n

“Hey, Clyde, would you take a look at that!”\u00a0 The gray-haired one poked the bald one and pointed to Little Joe.\u00a0 “Looks like we got ourselves caught by the boy sheriff!”<\/p>\n

“I did think Roy Coffee was lookin’ pretty spritely these days, but I didn’t think he was still wet behind the ears,” said Clyde.\u00a0 “Hey, boy, what’re you doin’ up?\u00a0 It’s past your bedtime!”<\/p>\n

“I said, drop your guns!”\u00a0 Joe was tempted to let off a shot, just to show he was serious, but the moment before he did, he realized that he didn’t want to.\u00a0 All he had to do was shoot, and the posse would be on them and making the capture.\u00a0 No, if he and Mitch were going to get the credit, he’d have to do this real quiet.<\/p>\n

So, he strode into the camp, as arrogant as only the young and foolhardy can be.\u00a0 The next thing he knew, he was staring down the barrels of two guns held by two drunken bank robbers.<\/p>\n

“Okay, kid, you drop your gun,” said the gray-haired one.\u00a0 “You ain’t old enough to have a gun, anyway.\u00a0 We’re doin’ you a favor.”<\/p>\n

“I am so old enough!” said Joe hotly.\u00a0 “I got it for my birthday!”<\/p>\n

“When was that?\u00a0 Yesterday?\u00a0 Day before?\u00a0 Boy, you ain’t old enough to be doin’ half of what you’re doin’ right now.”\u00a0 Clyde heaved himself to his feet and stood there unsteadily, waving his gun at Little Joe.\u00a0 “Now, you just drop your birthday present and get the hell out of here, and we’ll pretend we never seen you.”<\/p>\n

“I don’t think so,” said Mitch.\u00a0 He threw the lasso, which would have been a spectacular maneuver if he had managed to catch one of the robbers.\u00a0 Instead, the lasso landed harmlessly between the two men, who doubled over with laughter.<\/p>\n

“Is this your whole posse?” asked the gray-haired man, wiping tears from his eyes.\u00a0 “A couple of kids?\u00a0 This is what Roy Coffee thinks of havin’ his bank robbed?”<\/p>\n

“The rest of ’em are comin’,” said Little Joe.\u00a0 “We’re just the trackers.”<\/p>\n

“Then how come you ain’t waitin’ for ’em?” asked Clyde.\u00a0 “I think Duke’s right.\u00a0 You two young’uns are the whole posse!”\u00a0 He picked up the lasso and pulled.\u00a0 Mitch, who was still holding the rope, stumbled forward.<\/p>\n

“We ain’t the whole posse, but even if we were, we caught you, and we’re takin’ you in!”\u00a0 Joe gestured with his gun.\u00a0 “Now, drop your guns before I get mad!”<\/p>\n

Clyde and Duke nearly fell over at that.\u00a0 Joe was furious.\u00a0 He could feel his face getting red.\u00a0 It didn’t help that Mitch was just standing there, looking like a dumb heifer.\u00a0 How in blazes was he supposed to make an arrest with this kind of help?<\/p>\n

To hell with bringing the posse.\u00a0 These fools deserved it.\u00a0 Joe was just about to fire when Duke whipped around, grabbed Mitch and pressed his gun to the boy’s ribs.<\/p>\n

“Okay, kid, drop the gun,” he said to Joe, suddenly sounding very sober.\u00a0 Mitch’s eyes were wide with terror.\u00a0 Without a word, Joe dropped his brand-new gun onto the wet ground.\u00a0 “Now, kick it over here,” said Duke.\u00a0 “Real gentle-like.”\u00a0 Joe kicked, nice and gentle.\u00a0 “Now, you come over here,” Duke instructed.\u00a0 Joe walked over slowly.\u00a0 When he was within arm’s-length of Mitch, Duke reached out and grabbed him.\u00a0 He pushed them to the ground, and Clyde dropped the lasso around the two boys, neatly tying them together, back to back.<\/p>\n

“Well, that sure was fun,” said Clyde, tucking Joe’s gun into his belt.\u00a0 He picked up the bottle and took a swig.\u00a0 “You kids want a drink?”<\/p>\n

“We don’t want nothin’ from you,” said Little Joe.<\/p>\n

Duke smacked him upside the head.\u00a0 “That ain’t no way to talk to your elders, boy,” he said.\u00a0 “Now, Clyde here offered you a drink.\u00a0 If’n you don’t want none, you need to say, \u2018No, thank you, Mister Clyde, sir.’\u00a0 Now, you want that drink?”<\/p>\n

“Go to hell,” snarled Little Joe.\u00a0 He could hear Mitch suck in his breath at that one.\u00a0 If Ben Cartwright had heard Joe say that to anyone, even these men, Joe wouldn’t have sat down for a week.<\/p>\n

Duke smacked him again, harder.\u00a0 “I can keep this up as long as you can,” he said.\u00a0 “You’re a feisty little thing, but I’m bigger’n you, and I been doin’ this a lot longer.”\u00a0 As if to prove his point, he smacked Joe several times.\u00a0 “And if’n you don’t find your manners, I can do the same thing to your buddy here.”\u00a0 He smacked Mitch.\u00a0 “So, whaddya think?\u00a0 You gonna be polite, or am I gonna have to teach you some manners?”<\/p>\n

Joe seethed.\u00a0 He didn’t care if Duke beat him up, but he did care about getting Mitch in trouble.\u00a0 Mitch didn’t have any brothers, and so he didn’t have nearly as much experience as Little Joe with getting beat up, although he routinely jumped in when Joe was in a fight at school.\u00a0 So, Joe actually considered, for just a second, saying what they wanted to hear.<\/p>\n

But only for a second.\u00a0 Instead, when Duke leaned closer, Joe spat in his face.<\/p>\n

“You little-”\u00a0 Duke hauled the boys to their feet and flung them to the ground like they weighed no more than a canteen.\u00a0 Joe landed face down in the wet dirt, Mitch on top of him.\u00a0 Clyde and Duke laughed as the boys struggled to right themselves.<\/p>\n

“You got spunk, kid, I’ll give you that,” said Clyde.\u00a0 He reached down and pulled on the boys’ arms to help them to sit up.\u00a0 “But I wouldn’t try that again, if’n I was you.\u00a0 Duke here don’t like rude kids.”\u00a0 His tone was genial, but his watery blue eyes were hard and fierce and sent a shaft of fear through the boys.<\/p>\n

Clyde and Duke settled themselves by the tiny fire.\u00a0 “So, where’d you kids come from, anyway?” asked Clyde.\u00a0 When neither boy spoke, Clyde glared.<\/p>\n

“Virginia City,” said Joe finally.<\/p>\n

Pleased, Clyde sat back.\u00a0 “You didn’t walk all the way out here, did you?”<\/p>\n

“No.”\u00a0 Little Joe had to fight the reflex to add “sir.”\u00a0 These two didn’t deserve it, no matter what his pa said about respecting his elders.<\/p>\n

“Where’re your horses?”<\/p>\n

“Why do you want to know?”<\/p>\n

Clyde shrugged.\u00a0 “Just makin’ conversation,” he said.\u00a0 “Bet you got nice horses.\u00a0 That’s a real nice gun you got, too–pretty fancy for a birthday present.\u00a0 You two look like your folks are pretty well off.”\u00a0 He considered the two boys.\u00a0 “I bet your folks are real well off,” he said.\u00a0 “In fact, I bet your folks would pay a lot of money to get you back.”<\/p>\n

Duke grinned.\u00a0 “You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?”<\/p>\n

Clyde nodded.\u00a0 “I am indeed,” he said.\u00a0 “You guard the prisoners.”\u00a0 He scrambled to his feet and, weaving only slightly, headed out in the direction Joe had come in from.<\/p>\n

In a remarkably short time, he returned with the horses.\u00a0 “Looky here,” he said.\u00a0 “Ain’t this about the finest horseflesh you ever did see, Duke?\u00a0 Lookit this paint.\u00a0 He is one fine animal.\u00a0 Bet he’s dumb, though.”<\/p>\n

“He ain’t dumb!”\u00a0 Stung, Joe took up for Cochise.\u00a0 “He’s the smartest horse you ever met!”<\/p>\n

“Smart enough to find his way home?”<\/p>\n

“He’s plenty smart enough for that!”<\/p>\n

“Well, then, let’s just see how good he is.”\u00a0 Clyde fished in Joe’s saddlebags and drew out a pencil and one of Joe’s schoolbooks.\u00a0 He tore out a page and scribbled a note, wrapping it around the cheekstrap of the horse’s bridle.\u00a0 “Now, git!” he shouted, smacking the horse’s rump.\u00a0 Cochise ran off, Mitch’s horse close behind.<\/p>\n

“What’re you doing?” demanded Joe.<\/p>\n

Clyde grinned.\u00a0 “Sending a ransom note.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chapter 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Late Wednesday night<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hoss handed his pa a cup of coffee.\u00a0 Smiling slightly, Ben accepted the tin cup.\u00a0 “Thanks, son,” he said, holding it without drinking.<\/p>\n

“Pa, he’s fine,” said Hoss.\u00a0 “You know Little Joe.\u00a0 He may be foolish at times, but he ain’t reckless.\u00a0 You taught him better than that.”<\/p>\n

Ben shook his head.\u00a0 “I just can’t believe he’d do something like this,” he said.\u00a0 “What on earth was that boy thinking?”<\/p>\n

“He wasn’t,” said Adam with a touch of heat.\u00a0 Even if he hadn’t already been worried sick, he’d be ready to turn the kid over his knee just for what this was doing to Pa.<\/p>\n

“Adam, that ain’t fair,” Hoss protested.\u00a0 “You don’t know why he done it.”<\/p>\n

“I can guess,” said Adam. \u00a0“A brand-new gun, maybe a dime novel, and a best friend who was just as gung-ho as he was.\u00a0 Add it all up, and you get Little Joe Cartwright, range detective.”<\/p>\n

“Y’know, Adam, I know it’s hard for you to remember right now, but he ain’t stupid.”\u00a0 Hoss was trying to hide his irritation so as not to upset Pa.<\/p>\n

“You’re right, Younger Brother,” said Adam, tossing the last of his coffee into the fire.\u00a0 “That’s very hard to remember right now.”\u00a0 He met Hoss’ gaze squarely.\u00a0 “Our fifteen-year-old brother and his fifteen-year-old friend are out here somewhere, tracking men who rob banks and steal horses.\u00a0 Between them, they have one gun, a handful of bullets, and maybe their schoolbooks.\u00a0 You tell me.\u00a0 Just how smart is Little Joe?”<\/p>\n

Hoss grabbed Adam’s arm and hustled him away.\u00a0 “Smart enough not to say things like that in front of Pa,” he said.\u00a0 “Pa’s already worried sick, and you ain’t helpin’.”<\/p>\n

“I’m not saying anything Pa hasn’t already thought of,” said Adam, trying unsuccessfully to escape Hoss’ grip.\u00a0 “Let go of me, you big galoot.”<\/p>\n

Instead, Hoss tightened his grip.\u00a0 “You ain’t gonna say nothin’ else like that in front of Pa, you hear me?\u00a0 He’s got enough on his mind without you remindin’ him what Joe and Mitch ain’t got, or anythin’ like that.”\u00a0 He squeezed harder.\u00a0 “You hear me?”\u00a0 The menace in his tone was unmistakable.<\/p>\n

“I hear you,” Adam said quietly.\u00a0 Hoss released him, and he rubbed his arm.\u00a0 “But just because I don’t say it, that doesn’t mean it’s not true,” he reminded his brother.<\/p>\n

Hoss looked at Adam for a long minute.\u00a0 Then, he turned away.\u00a0 “I know,” he muttered.<\/p>\n

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

Thursday<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Hey, kid.\u00a0 You want some food?”<\/p>\n

For a second, nothing made any sense.\u00a0 Then, Joe blinked hard and remembered why he couldn’t move his arms:\u00a0 he was tied back to back with Mitch.\u00a0 One of the bank robbers–he couldn’t remember which one-was kicking the sole of his boot.<\/p>\n

“Duke here made some grub,” the bald man said.\u00a0 “You oughta eat something.\u00a0 Your folks ain’t gonna pay for you if’n you starve to death.”<\/p>\n

Joe dug down deep in his memory for the name of the other one.\u00a0 Clyde.\u00a0 Duke and Clyde, the bank robbers.\u00a0\u00a0And Joe and Mitch, the damned fools,\u00a0his mind added.<\/p>\n

He wondered if Cochise had gotten home with the ransom note yet.\u00a0 By his reckoning, they were less than a full day’s ride from the house.\u00a0 If Cooch had run, he’d have gotten home before sunup.\u00a0 At that point, Pa and Adam and Hoss were probably already saddling up to go and look for him, so the timing would be perfect.\u00a0 They’d see the note and know to follow Cooch’s tracks, and they’d be here by nightfall.\u00a0 No problem–at least, not until Pa got his hands on his youngest son.<\/p>\n

Not thinkin’ about it,\u00a0he decided.\u00a0 He had more important things to worry about, like how to get free.<\/p>\n

“Hey, kid!\u00a0 You deaf?”<\/p>\n

“No, I ain’t deaf,” snapped Joe.<\/p>\n

“I said, d’you want some grub?”\u00a0 Clyde was peering at him like maybe the boy wasn’t as smart as he’d looked.<\/p>\n

“Sure,” said Joe.\u00a0 He could feel Mitch turning around in protest, and he elbowed his friend.\u00a0 No point in starving while they waited.\u00a0 Besides, maybe if they ate a lot and used up all the grub, Clyde and Duke would want to get rid of them sooner.<\/p>\n

A germ of an idea started to grow.\u00a0 “You’re gonna have to untie us,” Joe pointed out.\u00a0 He wiggled his fingers on the ground as though Clyde might not understand.<\/p>\n

Clyde swore under his breath.\u00a0 “You better not try anything,” he warned.\u00a0 “Don’t forget, I got your gun.\u00a0 Hey, what did I just say!”\u00a0 He grabbed Joe’s arm as Joe tried to stand.<\/p>\n

“I gotta.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.”\u00a0 Joe jerked his thumb toward the woods.<\/p>\n

“Me, too,” Mitch chimed in.<\/p>\n

“Dadburn kids,” muttered Clyde.\u00a0 “All right, but one at a time.\u00a0 The other one stays right here with me, just so nobody gets any funny ideas.”<\/p>\n

“You go first,” Joe said generously.\u00a0 He figured that Mitch knew enough to take his time.\u00a0 No point in rushing to get tied back up.<\/p>\n

As Mitch headed off into the woods, Joe took advantage of the chance to look around the campsite.\u00a0 Much as he hated to admit it, the robbers had chosen well.\u00a0 He could hear a stream nearby, and the clearing was pretty small, but at the same time, you couldn’t get here from Virginia City or the Ponderosa without traveling over rock.\u00a0 Even Hoss wouldn’t be able to track them over rock.<\/p>\n

So, somehow, they were going to have to outsmart Clyde and Duke.\u00a0 Getting mad hadn’t helped last night, and Joe had a pretty good sense that the puppy dog eyes weren’t going to get him anywhere, even if he could bring himself to use them on these yahoos.\u00a0 So, that left plain old cunning.<\/p>\n

He figured he’d start by shaking the old guy up a bit.\u00a0 “You been doing this long?” Joe asked as casually as he could.<\/p>\n

Clyde looked startled.\u00a0 “What’re you talkin’ about?”<\/p>\n

“Bank robbing,” said Joe, just like they were at the Silver Dollar, leaning on the bar and having a couple of beers.\u00a0 “I mean, this isn’t your first time, is it?\u00a0 How many banks have you robbed?”<\/p>\n

“What in tarnation–what kinda question is that?”\u00a0 Clyde’s jaw dropped like Joe had asked how many teeth he had.<\/p>\n

“Just making conversation,” said Joe.\u00a0 “I figure it beats standing here, looking at each other.”\u00a0 He caught himself starting on a variation of puppy dog eyes which involved simple innocence, just as sunny and wide-eyed as if he’d never heard the word “no.”\u00a0 Unlike puppy dog eyes, innocent eyes only worked about half the time, although it was true that his success rate was better with people who didn’t know him.\u00a0 Innocent eyes almost never worked on Adam.<\/p>\n

Just then, Mitch came crashing back out of the woods.\u00a0 “Your turn,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Hey, are we stayin’ around here?” Joe asked as though Mitch hadn’t reappeared.<\/p>\n

“What d’you mean?”\u00a0 Clyde looked nervous, like he thought Joe didn’t intend to head into the woods for his private matters after all.<\/p>\n

“I mean, is this gonna be the campsite, or are we gonna be moving on?”\u00a0 Joe allowed his eyes to widen just a bit-not all the way to full innocent eyes, but closer.<\/p>\n

“We ain’t decided,” said Clyde.\u00a0 “Now, git!”<\/p>\n

Joe shrugged.\u00a0 “Okay,” he said, sauntering toward the woods.\u00a0 Once safely out of view, he took care of business and then settled in to think.\u00a0 He could hear the bank robbers complaining about something or other, but he didn’t hear Mitch talking.\u00a0 Clearly, he was going to need to let Mitch in on the plan.<\/p>\n

“Hey, kid!\u00a0 Get out here!” shouted one of the robbers.<\/p>\n

“I’ll be right there!” called Joe.\u00a0 He nibbled on a pine needle as he considered the situation.\u00a0 On the plus side, he had his gun if he could get it back, and he had Mitch.\u00a0 On the minus side, he had Clyde and Duke.\u00a0 In the middle, there was the money that was hidden somewhere and the Belles’ ponies.\u00a0 The posse that was tracking them was another plus, although when Pa caught up with them, it would be a definite minus.<\/p>\n

So.\u00a0 He had to figure out how to get him, Mitch, the ponies and the money out of here without getting any of them shot.\u00a0 The notion of maybe having to shoot Clyde and Duke made him unexpectedly queasy for a minute, but he told himself firmly that if they shot at him and Mitch first, there would be no choice and he’d be able to do it.\u00a0 He wondered where the posse was.\u00a0 If they were close enough, the sound of gunfire would draw them, but if they weren’t, it would just be foolish to start up such a thing and waste his bullets.<\/p>\n

“Hey, kid!\u00a0 You get out here, or I’m comin’ in!”<\/p>\n

“I’m coming!” snapped Joe.\u00a0 He had half a mind to wait a little longer now, almost like a dare to see if they’d try it.\u00a0 After all, nobody barged in on a man doing his business.\u00a0 It was just one of those things you didn’t do, no matter what.\u00a0 He’d certainly spent enough time with Adam banging on the door of the outhouse to know.\u00a0 If anybody was going to barge in, it would be Adam, and even he never did more than rattle the latch.\u00a0 Older Brother might stand out there and fuss and fume all day, but he wouldn’t open the door.\u00a0 He’d gripe and complain about what had ever possessed Pa to go and have a third son and how they ought to just send the boy off to boarding school while Joe took his sweet time–and, in all honesty, sometimes sat around when he was done, just to make Adam pay for his remarks.<\/p>\n

And at that memory, a grin spread across Joe’s face.\u00a0 If being obstinate could make his own brother want to get rid of him, then just maybe there was something to be done here.<\/p>\n

He got to his feet and allowed himself a good long stretch.\u00a0 As slowly as though he had the whole livelong day, Joe ambled out of the woods, scratching his belly and yawning. \u00a0He wandered into the clearing with a smile as amiable as if he was in his own living room.<\/p>\n

“So,” he said brightly.\u00a0 “Where did you tell my pa to leave the ransom money?”\u00a0 He smiled brightly as he kept innocent eyes focused on a dumbstruck Clyde, but as soon as the older man looked away, he flashed a quick wink at Mitch, who had looked flummoxed at his sudden change in attitude.\u00a0 He was gratified when Mitch nodded.\u00a0 He could always count on Devlin.<\/p>\n

This was going to be fun.<\/p>\n

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

“You see anything?” Ben asked for the thirtieth time.<\/p>\n

“Nothin’, Pa,” said Hoss wearily.\u00a0 If he’d been Adam or Joe, he probably wouldn’t have been able to hold his tongue by now.\u00a0 He knew how anxious Pa was, but that didn’t make it any easier to find tracks on freshly rain-washed roads.<\/p>\n

He heaved himself back into the saddle.\u00a0 There had already been at least a dozen false starts since daybreak.\u00a0 He’d seen some broken branches at one point, but following that trail had only led to a couple of stray cattle.\u00a0 Another time, he saw a hoofprint, but it was leading the other direction, and he felt pretty certain that the bank robbers wouldn’t be heading back toward town.<\/p>\n

When he got his hands on Little Joe, he was going to thrash that boy to within an inch of his life.\u00a0 What had ever possessed him to think that he should be out chasing bank robbers? \u00a0His new gun,\u00a0Hoss’s mind retorted.\u00a0\u00a0And the fact that he thinks he knows how to use it.<\/p>\n

Hoss kicked Chubby’s sides a little harder than necessary.\u00a0 He hadn’t admitted to Pa that he’d shown Joe how to use the gun.\u00a0 He’d caught Adam looking at him last night with that expression that said as clear as words that Older Brother knew something was up.\u00a0 And then, as Hoss was unfolding his bedroll, he’d heard Adam say quietly, “It’s not your fault.”<\/p>\n

Hoss had looked up, startled.\u00a0 Adam’s eyes were somber as he said, “I showed him how to load it.”<\/p>\n

Hoss couldn’t help grinning.\u00a0 “So did I.”<\/p>\n

Adam raised an eyebrow.\u00a0 “You teach him how to fire?”\u00a0 When Hoss nodded, Adam admitted, “So did I.”<\/p>\n

Hoss couldn’t help chuckling.\u00a0 “You suppose he let Pa teach him, too?”<\/p>\n

“Knowing Joe, I’d say it’s likely,” said Adam.\u00a0 He shook his head ruefully.\u00a0 “When I catch up with him, he’s going to be standing up for a week.”<\/p>\n

“Well, I don’t reckon that’ll be much of a problem since he ain’t gonna have time to sit down anyway, seein’ as how he’ll be doin’ all my chores and all yours,” Hoss pointed out.<\/p>\n

Adam grinned.\u00a0 “How did we end up with a brother like him, anyway?”<\/p>\n

“Just lucky, I guess,” said Hoss, grinning at the memory of some of Joe’s schemes.<\/p>\n

Now, in the mid-morning sun, Hoss wasn’t feeling nearly as lucky.\u00a0 Why in tarnation couldn’t he have had a brother who actually used his head for something besides holding up his hat?\u00a0\u00a0Little Brother, you’d better be all right,\u00a0he warned silently.\u00a0 He didn’t even want to think about any other possibilities.<\/p>\n

Roy Coffee and three other men came galloping up just then.\u00a0 “You find anything?”<\/p>\n

“Nothin’ yet,” said Hoss wearily.\u00a0 Dadburnit, why couldn’t the rest of them track anything?\u00a0 He was about to let something like that slip when a curious track caught his eye.\u00a0 He reined in his horse and dropped to the ground.<\/p>\n

“What’s that?” demanded Ben.<\/p>\n

“Shoe with a nick in it,” said Hoss.<\/p>\n

“Doesn’t Little Joe’s horse need a new shoe?” asked Adam.<\/p>\n

Hoss nodded, not looking up.\u00a0 “Left front, if I recollect.\u00a0 This could be it.\u00a0 But-”\u00a0 He squinted at the track, his fingers not quite touching it.<\/p>\n

“But what?”\u00a0 The sheriff leaned over.<\/p>\n

“If this is Joe’s mount, it’s headed back toward the ranch,” Hoss said. \u00a0“Track’s new since the rain stopped last night.” \u00a0He looked up at his father and brother.\u00a0 “You reckon Joe gave up on the bank robbers and went home?”<\/p>\n

“Joe?\u00a0 Give up on something?”\u00a0 Adam sounded incredulous.<\/p>\n

“He might’ve if’n he come to his senses,” Roy pointed out.\u00a0 “Mebbe he lost the trail and figgered he was in enough trouble already.”<\/p>\n

“What about Mitch’s horse?”\u00a0 Mitch’s father dismounted to squat beside Hoss.<\/p>\n

“I don’t see but one set of tracks,” said Hoss.\u00a0 “Would Mitch have cut off earlier to get to your place?”<\/p>\n

“He could have gone over by Buckhorn Meadow,” Ernie Devlin nodded slowly.\u00a0 “When I get my hands on that boy.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.”<\/p>\n

“Well, it sounds like these two done given up,” said Roy.\u00a0 “Ben, if you and your boys want to head back to the Ponderosa, me and the men’ll keep lookin’ for the robbers.”<\/p>\n

Ben hesitated.\u00a0 He knew he ought to lend at least one of his sons to the posse, but right now, he just wanted all of them under his roof.\u00a0 It was one of those things he wouldn’t ever have admitted out loud, but the fact was that he knew he worried about his boys more than the average father.\u00a0 Yes, Hoss and Adam were men and Little Joe was almost a man, and they could all handle themselves, but when all was said and done, he was never quite comfortable with having them too far away.\u00a0 He knew from hard experience how fast things could change, and even though he was well aware that sometimes a man just couldn’t protect the people he loved any more than he already had, it didn’t mean he had to be happy about putting them in the way of avoidable harm.<\/p>\n

He looked up to see Roy studying him.\u00a0 He and the lawman had been friends for a long time, and they’d seen each other through a lot of dark nights.<\/p>\n

“If you’re sure you don’t need us.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.”\u00a0 The offer trailed off.<\/p>\n

Roy nodded.\u00a0 “There’s plenty of us to find two bank robbers,” he said.\u00a0 “You get on home and deal with Little Joe.”<\/p>\n

“That, we will,” said Adam.\u00a0 “Come on.\u00a0 Let’s go see that kid.”<\/p>\n

It was late afternoon when they rode into the yard to see Joe’s pinto standing by the hitching rail.\u00a0 Relief flooded through them all, with fury close on its heels.<\/p>\n

“Joseph!” bellowed Ben before he’d even dismounted.\u00a0 “Is it too much trouble to stable your horse?”<\/p>\n

But there was no answer.\u00a0 No lithe young man came running out of the barn with a wide, innocent grin.\u00a0 No worried face peeked around a doorway, cringing at what was sure to follow.\u00a0 No jaunty wave greeted them from the upstairs window as though nothing could possibly be wrong.<\/p>\n

Instead, Hop Sing came running out of the house, his face grim.\u00a0 “Li’l Joe not here,” he said.<\/p>\n

“What do you mean?\u00a0 His horse is here,” Ben pointed out, refusing to understand even as his heart began to pound.<\/p>\n

Hop Sing shook his head.\u00a0 “Horse come back, no Li’l Joe.\u00a0 Just paper.”<\/p>\n

Ben snatched the note from the cook’s hand.\u00a0 His face went white.\u00a0 His mouth opened, but no words came out.<\/p>\n

“What is it, Pa?”\u00a0 Adam leaned over and took the paper.\u00a0 In the next moment, he was sitting upright, fire in his eyes.<\/p>\n

“What?”\u00a0 In his gut, Hoss already knew, but he had to hear somebody say it out loud.<\/p>\n

“Little Joe’s been kidnapped.”\u00a0 Adam turned to Hop Sing.\u00a0 “Are the supplies ready?”<\/p>\n

Hop Sing nodded vigorously.\u00a0 “All ready.”\u00a0 He scurried back into the house, and Adam and Hoss dismounted.<\/p>\n

“We’ll need fresh horses,” Adam said.\u00a0 When his father didn’t move, he said in a louder voice, “Pa, I’ll get you a fresh horse.”<\/p>\n

Ben remained motionless.\u00a0 Hoss reached up and rested a hand on his father’s arm.\u00a0 “Pa,” he said gently.\u00a0 Ben looked down at him, his dark eyes brimming with yet another tragedy.\u00a0 “Pa, Buck needs a rest,” Hoss said.\u00a0 Eventually, Ben nodded and dismounted, and Adam led the horses into the barn.<\/p>\n

“He’s gonna be all right,” said Hoss softly.\u00a0 “You know Joe.\u00a0 He gets himself tangled up in the dangedest things, but he always comes out of it all right.”\u00a0 He laid his arm around his father’s shoulders, and after a minute, Ben looked up.<\/p>\n

“Let’s go get those supplies,” he said hoarsely.<\/p>\n

Hoss nodded.\u00a0 He wanted to say something else, but there was nothing he could say that would take that look out of his pa’s eyes.<\/p>\n

Only Little Joe, safe and sound, could do that.<\/p>\n

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

Thursday night<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Easy, Ben,” said Clem.\u00a0 His deputy’s star gleamed dully in the lamplight as he stepped in between the rancher and the banker.<\/p>\n

“Ben, I’d give it to you if I had it,” said Josiah Morrison.\u00a0 “I just don’t have the money.\u00a0 Have you forgotten that it was my bank that was robbed?”<\/p>\n

“And what am I supposed to do?” demanded Ben.\u00a0 “Those men are holding my boy hostage!\u00a0 If I don’t show up with the money by noon tomorrow, they’re going to–”<\/p>\n

“Easy, Ben,” said Clem again.\u00a0 He’d been saying that a lot ever since Ben Cartwright had ridden into town and pounded on the Morrisons’ front door.<\/p>\n

“Don’t tell me to take it easy!” snapped Ben.\u00a0 “My boy’s life is at stake!”<\/p>\n

“Ben, Roy and the posse are out looking for those robbers now,” said Clem.\u00a0 “If they’re the same ones who kidnapped Little Joe and Mitch, he’ll find them before you get out to Turner’s Crossing anyway.”<\/p>\n

“If!”\u00a0 Ben’s eyes blazed.\u00a0 “We don’t even know if these are the same men.\u00a0 All we know is that two young boys are out there being held hostage by\u00a0somebody.”\u00a0 He took a deep breath to steady himself at the mental picture of his son tied up in some outlaw’s camp.\u00a0 In a more controlled voice, he said, “All right.\u00a0 All right.\u00a0 If you don’t have the money, where can I get it?\u00a0 Who in this town has that kind of money?”<\/p>\n

Morrison swallowed hard.\u00a0 “To be honest, Ben-the first person I’d think of would be you.”<\/p>\n

Ben took another deep breath, and another.\u00a0 “I told you, I don’t have that kind of cash in the house,” he said.\u00a0 “I have fifteen hundred dollars.\u00a0 Devlin had two hundred.\u00a0 That means we need thirty-three hundred dollars, and we need it in time to get to Turner’s Crossing by noon.”<\/p>\n

“Ben, there is another way,” Clem said.\u00a0 “You could drop off a sack of paper, and we’ll hide nearby and then when the kidnappers come for it, we’ll catch them and get the boys back.”<\/p>\n

Ben glared.\u00a0 “I don’t care about the money.\u00a0 I’m not playing games with my son’s life.”<\/p>\n

“He’s not suggesting playing games, Pa,” said Adam calmly.\u00a0 “He’s suggesting that if you can’t get all the money in time, you need to try something else rather than simply not show up because you’re still trying to raise the rest.”<\/p>\n

“Besides, if you can get them to show themselves, we can catch them and make them take us to Little Joe,” Adam continued.\u00a0 “I don’t get the sense from their note that these are professional kidnappers.”<\/p>\n

“What makes you say that?” asked Clem curiously.<\/p>\n

“For one thing, it doesn’t look like they planned this particularly well,” said Adam.\u00a0 He picked up the torn paper on the desk.\u00a0 It had been ripped from the book of poetry that Abigail Jones made all her students memorize.\u00a0 Across the top of one of Shakespeare’s sonnets was scrawled in pencil, “If you want to see your boys alive again, have $5000 at the bridge over the gully at Turner’s Crossing by noon on Friday.”<\/p>\n

“Maybe it’s just me, but if I were planning to kidnap somebody, I don’t think I’d rely on the idea that he’d have a schoolbook with him that I could use for writing a note.” Adam turned back to the others.\u00a0 “I wouldn’t be surprised if this was just an idea somebody had once they happened upon a couple of kids they weren’t expecting.”<\/p>\n

“You mean.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.”\u00a0 Hoss’s eyes narrowed.<\/p>\n

Adam nodded.\u00a0 “I think our little brother may have found the bank robbers after all.”<\/p>\n

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

Joe and Mitch were straining their ears, but they were having a hard time hearing.\u00a0 They’d caught a couple of snide remarks about how nice it was that those danged kids had finally shut up, but other than that, Clyde and Duke seemed to have enough sense to keep their voices down.<\/p>\n

Blast.\u00a0 Of all times for those yahoos to have gotten some common sense.\u00a0 Joe had spent an entire day waiting for them to either throw them out or at least say something about the ransom.\u00a0 He’d yammered on so long that he was sick of the sound of his own voice, but he hadn’t gotten much for his efforts besides the satisfaction of being a pain in the robbers’ backsides.<\/p>\n

Joe and Mitch had kept up their routine the whole livelong day.\u00a0 Between chattering and going to the woods and eating everything they could get their hands on-and, at one point, Joe singing until Clyde threatened him-they had done their utmost to be the most aggravating hostages in history.\u00a0 Luckily, their captors were so befuddled by this behavior that it didn’t seem to have occurred to them that they could have just gagged the boys, cut the rope in two, and tied them up on opposite sides of the camp.\u00a0 Joe figured that Clyde and Duke probably didn’t have any more experience being kidnappers than he and Mitch had being hostages.\u00a0 The difference was that Joe had fifteen years of experience in the one area that mattered most right now:\u00a0 annoying the people around him.<\/p>\n

The only problem was that they were still here.\u00a0 Keeping themselves amused had been all very well and good, but it hadn’t gotten Clyde and Duke so fed up that they’d kicked them out of camp.\u00a0 Joe and Mitch were going to have to manage that on their own.\u00a0 Either that, or wait for a ransom that might not come in time.<\/p>\n

Because Joe knew enough to see the problem.\u00a0 Depending on how long it had taken their horses to get to their respective homes and how long it would take to get the money together, Joe didn’t figure anybody would be able to deliver the ransom until the next day at the earliest.\u00a0 He knew that Pa would move as fast as he possibly could, but even he couldn’t create money where it didn’t exist, and he and Mr.\u00a0Devlin were going to have the devil’s own time getting money out of a bank that had been robbed.\u00a0 It looked like Clyde and Duke had shot themselves in the foot this time.\u00a0\u00a0Just goes to show,\u00a0Joe mused.\u00a0 Adam always complained that Joe didn’t think ahead.\u00a0 Well, at least Joe wasn’t the only one with that little flaw.<\/p>\n

At first, he’d been surprised that they weren’t packing up and moving on.\u00a0 Then, in one of his many trips to the woods, he’d figured it out:\u00a0 the ransom drop must be nearby.\u00a0 Besides, with four men and only two horses, they couldn’t hope to move fast enough to make it worth the effort.\u00a0 The best they could probably do was to stay right here and try to look innocent if anybody came along.<\/p>\n

Innocent.\u00a0 What a joke.\u00a0 What kind of innocent mountain men would have a pair of matching bay ponies and two kids as well known as Little Joe Cartwright and Mitch Devlin?\u00a0 The first time anybody laid eyes on this camp, it was going to be the end of Clyde and Duke.<\/p>\n

Unless nobody was going to see those two kids.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.<\/p>\n

Joe’s eyes snapped open.\u00a0 Clyde was pretty dumb and he truly didn’t seem to mean them any harm, but Duke had a mean streak.\u00a0 Joe didn’t reckon Duke would kill them in their sleep, but he wouldn’t have put it past him to try something at first light, especially if the posse was getting close.<\/p>\n

“I’m sorry, Pa,” he whispered.\u00a0 All of a sudden, what had seemed like a terrific game was terrifyingly real.\u00a0 Money had been stolen, boys were held hostage, ransom had been demanded–and before it was all over, men could be shot, and even killed.<\/p>\n

Including his own family.<\/p>\n

“No,” Joe muttered under his breath.<\/p>\n

“What?”\u00a0 Mitch’s whisper was faint enough not to be heard, but Joe nudged him anyway as a warning.<\/p>\n

Okay, think like Adam,\u00a0he told himself.\u00a0 Annoying the robbers hadn’t worked.\u00a0 They needed a new plan.\u00a0\u00a0What would Adam say now?\u00a0 He waited, and then he heard his older brother’s voice like Adam was standing in front of him.\u00a0\u00a0Figure out what you know and what you need to know,\u00a0Adam always said.\u00a0\u00a0Piece by piece.\u00a0 What do you know, and what do you need to know?<\/p>\n

I know-I know we’re hostages,\u00a0Joe told him silently.\u00a0\u00a0I need to know how to get out.<\/p>\n

Piece by piece, Joe.<\/p>\n

Joe looked around the camp.\u00a0\u00a0There are two men.\u00a0 They’re drinking.\u00a0 There’s a lot of money hidden nearby.<\/p>\n

Nearby?<\/p>\n

It has to be.\u00a0 Otherwise, they wouldn’t have stopped here.<\/p>\n

Go on.<\/p>\n

They’ve sent a ransom note.\u00a0 Pa’s going to go someplace with the ransom money.<\/p>\n

When?<\/p>\n

They didn’t say–<\/p>\n

When, Joe?<\/p>\n

Probably tomorrow.\u00a0 They wouldn’t stay around longer.<\/p>\n

What else do you know?<\/p>\n

Joe looked around again.\u00a0\u00a0There are three guns-their two and mine.\u00a0 Mine hasn’t been fired, so it’s all loaded.\u00a0 One rope, Mitch’s-that’s what’s holding us.\u00a0 Two horses.\u00a0 He heard the unmistakable pop of a cork coming out of a bottle.\u00a0\u00a0And pretty soon, they’re gonna be drunk.<\/p>\n

Good.\u00a0 What do you need to do to get out of here?<\/p>\n

I don’t know.<\/p>\n

Think, Joe.<\/p>\n

I don’t know.<\/p>\n

Look around you.\u00a0 What can you use?<\/p>\n

He peered through the dim light to where Clyde and Duke were passing a bottle back and forth.\u00a0 Then, he smiled.\u00a0 He knew what he could use.<\/p>\n

He waited until the bottle had been passed back and forth at least a half dozen more times before he made his move.\u00a0 “Hey, mister!” called Little Joe.<\/p>\n

“Whaddya want now, kid?”\u00a0 These blasted hostages were more trouble than enough.\u00a0 If he’d known what these kids were gonna be like, Clyde would have asked for a lot more than five thousand dollars.<\/p>\n

“Um, I gotta-you know.”\u00a0 Joe tried to sound as apologetic as he could.\u00a0 He elbowed Mitch, who was trying not to laugh.<\/p>\n

“What is it with you?\u00a0 You just did that!” grumbled Duke.<\/p>\n

In his most plaintive voice, he said, “I’m sorry, mister. \u00a0I’m tryin’, but-well, I got a-a medical condition.”\u00a0 He elbowed Mitch harder as he felt his friend’s back shake with mirth.\u00a0 This was serious now.<\/p>\n

“A what?” snapped Duke.<\/p>\n

“You’re not gonna make me tell you all about it, are you?”\u00a0 Little Joe whined.\u00a0 When neither of the men answered right away, he decided to make them suffer for their silence.\u00a0 “I was sick a while ago, and–oh, this is so embarrassing.\u00a0 See, when I was sick, it kinda messed with–well, that part of me, and now, when I gotta–well, it ain’t like it used to be–now, it’s more like-”<\/p>\n

“That’s enough, kid!”\u00a0 Clyde and Duke yelled almost in unison.\u00a0 The last thing they wanted to hear about was some kid’s private matters.\u00a0 “Go do what you gotta do,” growled Duke.\u00a0 “Just–don’t talk about it, okay?”<\/p>\n

“Thanks, mister.”\u00a0 He waited a minute before he said, “Uh, mister?\u00a0 You gotta untie me.”<\/p>\n

“This better not be a trick,” grumbled Clyde.<\/p>\n

“Oh, no, mister, I wouldn’t do a thing like that,” Joe said earnestly as Clyde approached.\u00a0 He favored the robber with puppy dog eyes this time and was gratified to see that the look worked just as well on bank robbers.\u00a0 It occurred to Joe to wonder whether puppy dog eyes would have the same effect on the Belles, but he reined himself in.\u00a0 That was a matter to save for another time, when he could concentrate.<\/p>\n

Clyde untied Little Joe, and the boy smiled up at him.\u00a0 “Thanks, mister,” Joe said breathlessly, rushing into the woods as if trying to avoid an embarrassing situation.<\/p>\n

After a few moments, Little Joe started to groan.\u00a0 He could hear the robbers talking.\u00a0 He groaned louder.\u00a0 “Oh, no!\u00a0 Oh, it hurts!\u00a0 Somebody help me!”\u00a0 The robbers stopped talking.\u00a0 In response, Joe fell to the ground and made the loudest rustling noises he could manage.\u00a0 “Somebody help me, please!”<\/p>\n

“It’s okay, Joe, hang on!” called Mitch.\u00a0 “Mister, can you untie me?\u00a0 I gotta help my friend!”\u00a0 Joe could hardly keep from laughing at the urgency in Mitch’s voice.<\/p>\n

“This is a trick, ain’t it?” demanded Duke, his voice harsh and slurring.<\/p>\n

Sure, ’cause we’d tell you if it was, wouldn’t we?\u00a0 Joe was truly rolling around on the ground now as he stifled sudden, absurd giggles.\u00a0 “Help!” he called in his most pitiful voice; luckily, the laughter had made him breathless, and he sounded almost as bad as he wanted to.<\/p>\n

“Mister, somebody’s gotta help him.\u00a0 Him and me’s been friends a long time, but-well, do you wanna do it?”<\/p>\n

Duke and Clyde blustered.\u00a0 “That’s okay, kid, you take care of your buddy,” Duke said hastily.<\/p>\n

Moments later, Mitch ran into the woods.\u00a0 “Joe, are you okay?” he called loudly.<\/p>\n

“Oh, Mitch, thank God you’re here,” Joe said as pathetically as he could while still making his voice carry.\u00a0 “Help me, will you?”<\/p>\n

“What do we do now?” whispered Mitch.\u00a0 “Just run?”<\/p>\n

“Not both of us,” whispered Joe.\u00a0 “You’re gonna run.\u00a0 I’m gonna get my gun back.\u00a0 You head up through the pass, and I’ll meet you there with the horses.”<\/p>\n

“Cartwright, it’s just a gun,” said Mitch, his voice rising slightly.<\/p>\n

Joe shoved him.\u00a0 “Look, Devlin, without the gun and horses, we don’t have a chance of getting out of here,” he hissed.<\/p>\n

“Then we should both stay and get the horses,” said Mitch.<\/p>\n

Joe shook his head.\u00a0 “Too dangerous,” he said.\u00a0 “If you run, that way one of us’ll be out there.\u00a0 If something goes wrong here, you can go for help.”<\/p>\n

“I don’t like it,” said Mitch.\u00a0 “How’re you figuring to get the gun and the horses?”<\/p>\n

And then, Little Joe Cartwright spoke the words which would, in years to come, strike fear deep into the hearts of stalwart men:\u00a0 “I have a plan.”<\/p>\n

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

Joe could hear the bullets whistling past him as he bent low over the horse’s neck.\u00a0 Exhilaration coursed through him. \u00a0He wanted to turn and shoot back, but he was on horseback, and they were still tied up, and he knew that the wisest thing was to get out of range.<\/p>\n

It had been almost too easy.\u00a0 A few well-timed screams as though he were in pain, and drunken Clyde had come rushing into the woods to see what was wrong.\u00a0 Mitch, perched out of sight on a stump, had hit the bald man over the head with a chunk of wood, just as hard as he could, and Clyde dropped like a stone.\u00a0 “Run!” Joe hissed.\u00a0 With only one hesitant backward glance, barely visible in the moonlight, Mitch ran.<\/p>\n

After that, all Joe had to do was keep silent.\u00a0 Eventually, drunken Duke came stumbling into the woods to see what was going on, and Joe dropped him the same way Mitch had dropped Clyde.\u00a0 They were pretty heavy as dead weight, and it was a struggle to tie them both up in the dark, but he’d managed to tie the last knot just as they were coming to.<\/p>\n

“Where’s the money?” he demanded.\u00a0 Not the smartest thing to focus on, he realized later, but at that moment, he was furious.\u00a0 All this trouble and danger for money.\u00a0 These idiots deserved to rot here in the woods.<\/p>\n

“You little-”\u00a0 If they hadn’t been drunk, they probably could have gotten themselves on their feet a lot faster.\u00a0 But Joe wasn’t about to wait around to see how long they took.\u00a0 He threw a saddle blanket and saddle on each pony, and he grabbed one of the canteens and the saddlebags.\u00a0 A quick look inside revealed that these fools hadn’t even bothered to hide the money; it was all right there.\u00a0 Disgusted, he flung himself onto one of the ponies.<\/p>\n

Then, he flung himself off again.\u00a0 “Where’s my gun?” he demanded.<\/p>\n

The epithets that issued from the woods weren’t particularly helpful, but he threw their gear all over the campsite until he found it.\u00a0 Then, he buckled on the gunbelt and marched into the woods.<\/p>\n

“People worked hard for that money,” he said, his voice dripping with contempt as he held the gun them.\u00a0 “You don’t deserve to live, but I’m gonna let you.\u00a0 And don’t worry.\u00a0 The posse’s on its way.\u00a0 They’ll get you back to town for trial.”\u00a0 He threw the other canteen at them, turned on his heel and marched back out, ignoring the curses that darkened the night air.<\/p>\n

He swung into the saddle again as the rustling behind him told him that they were figuring out a way to stand up.\u00a0 “Let’s go,” he muttered to the horses.\u00a0 He was just reaching for the other horse’s reins when the realization of what he’d forgotten hit him like a fist in the gut.\u00a0 Even as he muttered a curse word of his own, he prayed that he would get clear of the camp before their drunken fingers found the guns that were still in their holsters.<\/p>\n

He heard them yelling and shooting as he started down the hill.\u00a0 Then, just when he thought he was clear, he felt an explosion in his right calf, just above his boot.\u00a0 He couldn’t have said for sure, but he thought he saw a blinding flash of light all around him as something slammed into his leg with enormous blunt pressure.\u00a0 It was as if the other horse had pounded up against him, except that that horse was following on his left.\u00a0 The shock of the impact nearly flung Joe from the horse.\u00a0 The entire leg went instantly numb and useless, paralyzed.<\/p>\n

Instinctively, he tried to grip with his legs, but the right leg wouldn’t respond.\u00a0 Confused by his shifting weight and his contradictory leg signals, his mount veered to the right, and the other horse followed.\u00a0 Little Joe twined the fingers of his right hand into the horse’s mane, grasping as tightly as he could and reining to the left to get back to the road.\u00a0 His mount responded, and the other horse nearly ran into them.\u00a0 He couldn’t figure out how to correct the horses.\u00a0 It was as though whatever had hit his leg, had hit his brain.<\/p>\n

All this took but a few seconds.\u00a0 The clear part of his mind told him to slow the horses.\u00a0 The shooting appeared to have stopped.\u00a0 Still clutching the mane, he leaned back to slow his horse.\u00a0 With only one good leg, though, his balance was off, and he nearly fell.\u00a0 He maneuvered the horses off the road, into a little copse of trees, and took a second to look at his leg. \u00a0All he could see in the moonlight was a dark splotch on his pantleg.\u00a0 Blood, but not an impressive amount.\u00a0 He didn’t really feel anything at all in his leg, even though he couldn’t seem to make it move.<\/p>\n

So, this is what it’s like to get shot,<\/em> he mused.\u00a0\u00a0I don’t know what everybody complains about.\u00a0 This ain’t so bad.\u00a0 I can handle this.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was like the hot lead in his leg had been waiting for just such a damned dumb thought.\u00a0 In the space of a heartbeat, the pain began, starting low and flaring to white-hot, like when he turned up the flame on a lamp.\u00a0 It caught him by such surprise that he bent low over the horse’s neck, fighting not to pass out.\u00a0 He held as tightly as he could to the mane and leaned over, barely clear of the horse, to retch.\u00a0 Afterward, he rested his head against the horse’s neck.\u00a0 No coherent thought was in his mind, but something inside him demanded to know why he ever, in a million years, thought that trying to catch bank robbers was a good idea.<\/p>\n

Little Joe didn’t know how long he stayed there.\u00a0 Later, he figured he must have passed out, because the next thing he knew, dawn was breaking.\u00a0 At least he hadn’t fallen off the horse.\u00a0 He didn’t know if this was Floyd or Feather, but whichever one it was, it was now second only to Cochise on his personal list of fine horses, solely because it apparently hadn’t moved since he’d stopped.\u00a0 If he fell off, there was no way he’d ever get back on.\u00a0 Except for maybe a tiny bit of his thigh, the right leg was useless-the effort of holding the leg straight was torture, and bending the knee was beyond excruciating.\u00a0 There was no way that he could put weight on that leg without passing out.\u00a0 At the rate he was going, he’d be lucky to get to Mitch.<\/p>\n

Mitch.\u00a0 Damn.\u00a0 He probably heard the shooting.\u00a0 When Joe didn’t show up, Mitch would likely think he was dead.\u00a0 Joe straightened up as best he could.\u00a0 He had to get up to the clearing.\u00a0 He hoped that Mitch hadn’t come down and tried to look for his body or something stupid like that.\u00a0 Little Joe had heard of war widows doing that kind of thing, looking for their dead on battlefields.\u00a0 Mitch’d better not have tried anything so dumb.\u00a0 He needed to stay out of sight just in case Clyde and Duke got free and came after them.<\/p>\n

“Okay, let’s go.”\u00a0 His voice was strangely breathy even to his own ears.\u00a0 The horse gave no sign of having heard him.\u00a0 He clucked to the horse and kicked with his left leg.\u00a0 The horse considered the odd signal for a moment before moving forward, its companion following.\u00a0 He didn’t dare urge his mount above a walk for fear that he would lose his balance and be trampled by the other horse. \u00a0That would be just his luck today.<\/p>\n

Slowly, painfully, Little Joe held on as the horses sauntered back to the road and ambled along until they reached the trail.\u00a0 As they began to climb, he began to grow light-headed.\u00a0 Almost of its own volition, his right hand dug deep into the horse’s mane, fingers twisting around the rough hair.\u00a0 He could feel himself sliding back toward the horse’s rump as the trail grew steeper.\u00a0 Still holding the reins in his left hand, he twined the fingers of that hand into the mane and let go with his right.\u00a0 He leaned forward, reaching under the horse’s neck with his right arm, his cheek almost resting in the mane, in an attempt to keep from falling off.\u00a0 A strange, clear corner of his brain reminded him that, if the horse should toss its head, he would probably be knocked out, and almost certainly off, but he had no choice.\u00a0\u00a0Just a little further,\u00a0he promised himself.<\/p>\n

The sun was shining brightly by the time Little Joe reached the clearing.\u00a0 He didn’t see any sign of Mitch.\u00a0 He tried to push himself up, off the horse’s neck, but dizziness seized him, and he slumped back down.\u00a0 It felt much colder up here.\u00a0 He listened for any sign of life, but the roaring in his ears blocked out whatever he might have heard.<\/p>\n

“Devlin!” he hissed.\u00a0 Unless he just plain fell off, he wasn’t getting down without help.\u00a0 “Devlin!”<\/p>\n

“Cartwright?”\u00a0 Mitch appeared from the shadows of a rock.\u00a0 “Where the devil you been?”<\/p>\n

“I’m shot.”\u00a0 Little Joe’s breath felt ragged.\u00a0 “Right leg.”<\/p>\n

Mitch walked around to the far side of the horse and peered at the leg.\u00a0 “You sure are,” he agreed admiringly.\u00a0 Then, he sobered.\u00a0 Joe’s pantleg was soaked with blood, as was the horse’s flank. \u00a0His friend’s face was white and drawn. \u00a0“What do you want me to do?” he asked.<\/p>\n

“Help me down.”\u00a0 Little Joe pushed himself up again by sheer will.\u00a0 He had held onto the horse’s mane so tightly that his left hand had cramped, and he had to use his right to straighten the fingers enough to let go of the reins and the mane.\u00a0 He tried to move his right leg to dismount, but the slightest attempt to move the muscles sent flames through it, and he gasped, doubling over.<\/p>\n

“Can’t move it,” he managed.\u00a0 “I’ll get down on the right, but you have to catch me.”<\/p>\n

“Okay.”\u00a0 Mitch braced himself and reached up, supporting his friend as Joe swung his left leg over the horse’s rump.\u00a0 Joe was nearly as big as Mitch, though.\u00a0 His weight was too much for the other boy to bear, and they both fell.\u00a0 The wounded leg slammed into Mitch’s knee, with Joe’s full weight behind it.<\/p>\n

Never in his life had he felt such violent, blinding pain.\u00a0 It was as if a sadistic hand was ripping his leg open and shoving a branding iron deep into it.\u00a0 He heard someone screaming in agony.\u00a0 He felt himself being rolled onto his left side so that nothing pressed on his right leg, but the screaming and the searing torture went on until all knowledge ceased.<\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chapter 3 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Ben looked around as he set the bag by the bridge.\u00a0 He climbed back up the gully and mounted his horse.\u00a0 As though he intended to ride back to the ranch, he started down the road.<\/p>\n

Less than a quarter of a mile away, he veered off into a copse of trees.\u00a0 “I didn’t see anybody,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Neither did we,” said Clem.\u00a0 He had placed Adam and Hoss on two bluffs with mirrors to flash in the event that they saw anybody approach.<\/p>\n

“They’re probably waiting until we leave,” said Ben.<\/p>\n

“Probably,” said Clem.<\/p>\n

“So, what happens when they don’t see me go?”<\/p>\n

“They’re not here,” said Clem.\u00a0 “So they won’t know you didn’t leave.”<\/p>\n

“Unless they’ve got someone posted farther down the road who’s going to report back,” said Ben.<\/p>\n

“What are you saying?\u00a0 You think you should go back?”<\/p>\n

Ben held his gaze.\u00a0 “I’m saying that my boy wasn’t there.\u00a0 I’m saying that I don’t know where he is.\u00a0 And I’m saying that I’ll do anything it takes to get him back safely.\u00a0 If that means riding ten miles down the road so that somebody can see me leave, then yes, I’ll do it.”<\/p>\n

Clem regarded him for a long minute.\u00a0 “Do it,” he said.\u00a0 “You never know.\u00a0 Worst thing that happens is you have to come back the long way around so they don’t see you.”<\/p>\n

Ben’s jaw was set. \u00a0“That’s hardly the worst thing.”\u00a0 He kicked his mount’s sides and rode off before Clem could respond.<\/p>\n

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

Friday night<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Little Joe awoke, it was dark except for the flickering campfire.\u00a0 He blinked hard, trying to focus.\u00a0 Beyond the firelight, he could see someone.\u00a0 He reached for his gun, but his holster was gone.\u00a0 He patted his pockets and tried to sit up, but movement brought fresh pain, and he fell back.<\/p>\n

“Joe?\u00a0 You awake?”\u00a0 The figure moved closer and leaned over him.<\/p>\n

Little Joe relaxed.\u00a0 It was Mitch.\u00a0\u00a0What the dickens is Mitch doing here?\u00a0 Where’s here, anyway?\u00a0 He managed a sound, but it made no sense, even to him.<\/p>\n

“How’re you feeling?” asked Mitch.\u00a0 He sounded terrified.\u00a0 Joe wanted to tell him to relax, that everything would be just fine, but he couldn’t make his mouth form any words.\u00a0 “Here.\u00a0 You want some water?”\u00a0 Mitch uncorked the canteen and lifted Joe’s shoulders a little bit.\u00a0 Joe braced himself on one elbow, grasped the canteen and drank.\u00a0 He’d had no idea he was so thirsty.\u00a0 After a minute, Mitch took the canteen away.\u00a0 “You can have more in a little bit,” he said, helping Joe to lie back on the ground.<\/p>\n

“What day is it?” whispered Joe.<\/p>\n

“Friday,” said Mitch.\u00a0 “You’ve been out most of the day.”\u00a0 He looked like he might have been crying.\u00a0 Joe felt very old and wise.<\/p>\n

“I’m okay,” he said as reassuringly as he could, considering that he couldn’t seem to work up anything more than a whisper.<\/p>\n

“‘Course you are,” said Mitch.\u00a0 He sounded like he was lying.\u00a0 Joe felt his stomach pitch.<\/p>\n

“I’m just shot, right?”\u00a0 Maybe something else had happened that he didn’t know about.<\/p>\n

“As far as I know,” said Mitch.<\/p>\n

“All right, then,” said Little Joe.\u00a0 “If that’s all, I’m okay.\u00a0 Stop looking so worried.”\u00a0 He knew that bullet wounds could be serious, but he couldn’t imagine it was too bad if he was just shot in the leg.\u00a0 He remembered the time, a couple years earlier, when Adam had been shot in the back.\u00a0 Now\u00a0that\u00a0was bad.\u00a0 Pa sat up with him for days, it seemed, and Doc Martin didn’t leave the house for so long you’d have thought he moved in.\u00a0 Little Joe took over all the barn chores while Hoss did his best to oversee the hands.\u00a0 It took a good couple of months before Adam was even able to do light ranch work.\u00a0 A bullet in the leg wasn’t nearly as bad as all that.\u00a0 Mitch was fretting about nothing.\u00a0 And even though Joe felt cold and foggy and weak, and his leg was hurting more than he’d ever imagined a leg could, he wasn’t about to say otherwise.<\/p>\n

“I ain’t worried!”\u00a0 After a minute, Mitch said, “Well, maybe I’m a little worried.\u00a0 We ain’t gonna be able to get you back on a horse, and you need to get home.”<\/p>\n

“I shouldn’t’ve gotten down,” said Joe drowsily.<\/p>\n

“You didn’t have much choice,” Mitch pointed out.\u00a0 “You were about to fall off anyway.\u00a0 Guess we should’ve left the horses and both of us cut up through the pass.”<\/p>\n

“No,” said Joe.\u00a0 “Couldn’t leave the horses.\u00a0 Clyde and Duke would’ve gotten away.\u00a0 Belles would’ve been upset.\u00a0 Had to get the horses.”<\/p>\n

“Where are Clyde and Duke?”\u00a0 Mitch’s eyes grew round.<\/p>\n

“Dunno,” said Joe.\u00a0 “Dunno if they got untied.\u00a0 They shot at me, so maybe.\u00a0 Couldn’t have gotten too far on foot, though.”<\/p>\n

“I just hope they don’t come up here,” said Mitch.<\/p>\n

The thought reminded Joe of something.\u00a0 “Where’s my gun?”<\/p>\n

“I got it right here,” said Mitch, patting his waistband.<\/p>\n

“How come you got it?”<\/p>\n

“‘Cause you were out.\u00a0 Didn’t make much sense to leave it with you when you couldn’t do nothin’ with it.”<\/p>\n

“You just wanted to try it out,” Joe muttered.<\/p>\n

“Did not!”<\/p>\n

“Did too!”<\/p>\n

“‘Sides, even if I did, it’s only fair,” said Mitch.\u00a0 “You’ve gotten to do all the shooting since this started.”<\/p>\n

“It’s my gun,” Joe pointed out.\u00a0 “When you have your own gun, you can do all the shooting.”<\/p>\n

“When I have my own gun, we ain’t gonna be out on fool’s errands like this, that’s for sure,” said Mitch.<\/p>\n

“What fool’s errand?\u00a0 We got the robbers and the horses and the money, didn’t we?”\u00a0 Little Joe blinked hard.\u00a0 He wasn’t sure if he’d dreamed that part or not.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, we got ’em, but now, we gotta figure out how to get back,” said Mitch.\u00a0 “Lemme see your leg.”<\/p>\n

Like you know all about bullet wounds,\u00a0Joe wanted to say.\u00a0 With two older brothers, he figured he knew a lot more about getting shot than Mitch.\u00a0 He moved the saddle blanket covering him to see how bad his leg looked.\u00a0 “Who did that?” he asked, surprised.<\/p>\n

His pantleg had been torn off above the knee.\u00a0 His boot was gone.\u00a0 Something–probably the pantleg–was wrapped around his leg.<\/p>\n

“I did,” said Mitch.<\/p>\n

“Why’d you take off my boot?\u00a0 My foot’s cold.”\u00a0 His sock, which was wet anyway, also had a hole in the toe that he’d meant to have Hop Sing fix.<\/p>\n

“‘Cause your leg’s all swelled up, you jackass,” snapped Mitch.\u00a0 “Look, Cartwright, I did what I had to do.\u00a0 You’d be hurtin’ a lot more if that boot was still pressing on your leg, so just shut up.”<\/p>\n

Mitch never talked to him like that.\u00a0 Little Joe looked closer at his friend.\u00a0 Devlin had definitely been crying.\u00a0 He guessed that Mitch was a lot more scared than he was.\u00a0 It wasn’t like Joe was going to die or anything, but maybe Mitch didn’t understand that.\u00a0 Well, maybe it was sort of scary, being out here all alone with a fellow who’d been shot when you didn’t know what to do about it.<\/p>\n

“Sorry,” Joe muttered.\u00a0 He noticed for the first time that Mitch’s jacket was draped over his shoulders like a second blanket.\u00a0 “Put this on,” he said, trying to sound tough as he held it out.\u00a0 “You’re gonna freeze.”<\/p>\n

“I’m fine,” said Mitch.\u00a0 “We got a good fire here.”<\/p>\n

“Well, you ain’t goin’ nowhere without your jacket,” said Little Joe.<\/p>\n

“I ain’t goin’ nowhere anyway,” said Mitch.\u00a0 “The posse’ll find us soon enough.\u00a0 I ain’t leaving you here all alone.”<\/p>\n

“Don’t be dumb,” said Joe.\u00a0 He tried to sound bossy, like Adam, but it was hard to do when he barely had the strength to draw breath. \u00a0“If you go out and find them, they’ll be back here that much sooner.\u00a0 They’d have to track us over rock to get here otherwise.\u00a0 Hoss is good, but even he’s gonna have a hard time with that.\u00a0 If you don’t go out to meet them, we could be here for days.”\u00a0 He didn’t say what he was thinking, that the posse might not even be anyplace near them.\u00a0 If they’d gone east instead of west back at the box canyon, they were getting farther away every minute.\u00a0 Going over the pass might not have been his best idea.\u00a0 They should have gone the other way, toward Turner’s Crossing.<\/p>\n

Mitch handed him a piece of jerky.\u00a0 “Here,” he said gruffly.\u00a0 “You gotta eat something.”<\/p>\n

“You sound like my pa,” said Little Joe. \u00a0“Where’d you get this?”<\/p>\n

“In their saddlebags,” said Mitch.<\/p>\n

Joe nodded approvingly. \u00a0He took the jerky and wrestled a bite.\u00a0 This must be old jerky.\u00a0 It wasn’t his favorite food by a long shot, but he didn’t remember it being so hard to bite off.\u00a0 Just a couple of bites, and he was too tired to keep eating.<\/p>\n

“I’m gonna take a little nap,” he murmured.\u00a0 He closed his eyes, wondering as he did what Pa had thought when there was nobody to pick up the ransom money.<\/p>\n

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

Saturday morning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joe opened his eyes to see Mitch watching him.\u00a0 “Sorry,” he said.\u00a0 “Must have dozed off.”\u00a0 Darkness had given way to light while he slept.<\/p>\n

“Yeah.”\u00a0 Mitch looked serious.\u00a0 He’d built the fire up more.\u00a0 Joe dragged himself a little closer.\u00a0 If there’d been a way, he’d have jumped right in the middle of it, just to get warm.<\/p>\n

Joe tried to figure out what time it was, but the sky was so overcast he couldn’t find the sun.\u00a0 “Looks like rain,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Yeah,” Mitch said again.<\/p>\n

“Guess you’d better get on your way,” said Joe.\u00a0 “Try and get as far as you can before it starts.”<\/p>\n

Mitch looked at him like he was crazy.\u00a0 “I’m not leaving you here,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You gotta go,” said Little Joe.\u00a0 Mitch looked unconvinced.\u00a0 “How much jerky do you have?”\u00a0 Mitch drew a handful of strips out of his pocket.\u00a0 “That’s not even gonna last us another day.”<\/p>\n

“I’ll shoot us some game,” said Mitch.<\/p>\n

“And then what?\u00a0 Say you get a rabbit.\u00a0 How’re you gonna skin it?\u00a0 Neither one of us has a knife now.\u00a0 Everything was in\u00a0our\u00a0saddlebags. \u00a0These yahoos didn’t have much of anything in theirs except the money. \u00a0Face it, Devlin.\u00a0 The only way we’re getting out of this is either ride out together or you find that posse and bring them back here.”<\/p>\n

“I can make a travois and haul you out of here,” Mitch pointed out.<\/p>\n

“No knives,” Joe reminded him. \u00a0Next time, he was definitely carrying his knife in his jacket.\u00a0 At least that way, if his horse got spooked and ran off, he’d be able to eat.\u00a0 Maybe the Indians had the right idea.\u00a0 He’d heard they carried their knives on their belts, sort of the way he carried his gun.\u00a0 He’d have to look into that.\u00a0 “Besides, there ain’t no way a travois is gonna get down that trail,” he added.\u00a0 “It’s way too steep and narrow.\u00a0 Plus, it’s all rocks.\u00a0 I’d be better off sitting on the horse.”<\/p>\n

The boys fell silent.\u00a0 Finally, Mitch said, “You wanna try that?”<\/p>\n

“Sure.”\u00a0 It was clear Mitch wasn’t leaving him if there was any choice.\u00a0 Slowly, Joe pushed himself into a sitting position.\u00a0 Bracing himself with one hand, he reached up with the other.\u00a0 He tried to hold his right leg steady, to keep it from touching the ground as Mitch took his hand and attempted to pull him up.<\/p>\n

“Okay, I think we got it this time,” said Mitch after several tries.\u00a0 He pulled, Joe pushed, and finally, Little Joe was upright, his arm around Mitch’s neck.\u00a0 “There!\u00a0 You see?\u00a0 We did it!”<\/p>\n

“Yeah, we did it.”\u00a0 Little Joe wasn’t about to admit that he was exhausted just from trying to stand.\u00a0 He looked at where the horses where tied.\u00a0 It was only about twenty feet away, but it might just as well have been miles.\u00a0 By sheer will, leaning heavily on Mitch, he held his right leg out enough that it didn’t touch the ground as he tried to hop on his left foot.\u00a0 He hadn’t gotten more than three steps before he was struck by dizziness so fierce that he felt like he was inside a tornado.\u00a0 “Mitch, put me down,” he managed before darkness overtook him.<\/p>\n

When he came to, he was lying beside the campfire.\u00a0 The makeshift bandage on his leg was wet and red.\u00a0 Mitch’s face was wet and white.\u00a0 “I’m sorry, Joe,” he said.\u00a0 “I’m real sorry.”<\/p>\n

“It ain’t your fault,” said Joe.\u00a0 He could barely do more than whisper.<\/p>\n

“I thought I killed you,” Mitch confessed.<\/p>\n

“Better luck next time,” said Joe.<\/p>\n

“That ain’t funny!” snapped Mitch.\u00a0 Joe tried to shrug off his jacket.\u00a0 “What’re you doing?”<\/p>\n

“My leg’s bleeding again,” Joe said.\u00a0 “You gotta change the bandage.\u00a0 Use my shirt.”<\/p>\n

“I’ll use mine,” said Mitch.<\/p>\n

“No,” said Joe.\u00a0 “I’ll be here by the fire, and I got the saddle blanket.\u00a0 I’ll be warm enough.\u00a0 You gotta stay warm out there.”<\/p>\n

“I’ll be fine,” protested Mitch.<\/p>\n

“It’s November, you jackass,” said Joe.\u00a0 “It could start snowing any minute.”\u00a0 Mitch raised an eyebrow and laid a hand on Joe’s forehead.\u00a0 Joe slapped the hand away.\u00a0 “It could,” he insisted.<\/p>\n

“Cartwright, it’s nowhere near freezing out here,” Mitch said.\u00a0 He didn’t say what they both knew, that Joe felt so cold because his fever was climbing.\u00a0 Without another word, Mitch ripped off his shirtsleeve and started to unwind the blood-soaked bandage.<\/p>\n

“Then you’re taking your jacket,” said Joe.\u00a0 Mitch nodded.\u00a0 The die had been cast.<\/p>\n

After he had rebandaged Joe’s leg and spread one of the saddle blankets over him, Mitch stood.\u00a0 “Here,” he said.\u00a0 “You might need this.”\u00a0 He laid the pistol down next to Joe.<\/p>\n

“You take it,” Little Joe protested.\u00a0 “You’re going out where there’s the likes of Clyde and Duke.”<\/p>\n

“Yeah, but if I run into them, I can ride away,” Mitch pointed out.\u00a0 “If they come here, or some animal does, you can’t go anywhere.\u00a0 You’re gonna need something.”<\/p>\n

Joe considered this.\u00a0 “Just find the posse,” he said finally.\u00a0 “My pa and brothers will be riding.”\u00a0 He closed his eyes for a second as the notion of resting in his pa’s arms washed over him.\u00a0 The next moment, he opened his eyes, steeling himself against softness.\u00a0 He couldn’t afford to think like that.\u00a0 He had to stay alert, strong, tough.<\/p>\n

“I’ll find ’em,” promised Mitch.\u00a0 He laid down the canteen next to the gun.<\/p>\n

“What’re you doing?\u00a0 You take that!\u00a0 You’re gonna need water!”\u00a0 Mitch Devlin was a good friend, but sometimes, he was just the dumbest fellow Little Joe knew.<\/p>\n

“There’s lots of streams around,” Mitch said reasonably.\u00a0 “If I get thirsty, I can get water there.\u00a0 You’re the one who’s gonna need the canteen.”<\/p>\n

“Oh.”\u00a0 Okay, maybe he wasn’t so dumb.\u00a0 “Is it full?”<\/p>\n

“Filled it myself.”\u00a0 Mitch grinned.\u00a0 It looked forced, but Little Joe played along anyway.\u00a0 “You warm enough?”<\/p>\n

“Now you really sound like my pa,” said Joe.\u00a0 The truth was that, even if he was freezing, there was nothing they could do about it, so there was no point in saying so.<\/p>\n

Mitch chuckled.\u00a0 It sounded a little bit more real than the grin looked.\u00a0 “Okay, there’s wood for the fire right here, and I put some of the jerky in your pocket already.\u00a0 If your brother’s any kind of a tracker, they should be almost here, so I won’t be long.”<\/p>\n

“My brother’s the best danged tracker in these parts, and don’t you forget it,” warned Little Joe.<\/p>\n

“Then I’ll be back in no time,” retorted Mitch.\u00a0 He swung up onto one of the horses.<\/p>\n

“Hey!”<\/p>\n

“What?”<\/p>\n

“Which one is that?\u00a0 Floyd or Feather?” Mitch stared at him.\u00a0 “How the hell would I know?”\u00a0 He rode out of the clearing, and Little Joe listened as the hoofbeats faded.<\/p>\n

Mitch was barely gone when the rain started.\u00a0 As the first drops began to fall, a word.<\/p>\n

Pa would definitely not have approved of escaped Little Joe’s lips.\u00a0 He debated for a moment whether to hover over the fire as long as possible or to get under cover and possibly stay a bit drier.\u00a0 He was so cold already.\u00a0 He reached under the blanket to feel his leg.\u00a0 The heat was intense, throbbing, like a blacksmith’s forge.\u00a0 As long as he didn’t move, though, it wasn’t unbearable.<\/p>\n

The drizzle increased to a steady downpour.\u00a0 Cursing under his breath, Little Joe dragged himself back from the fire, to the shelter of a bush.\u00a0 Exhausted by his efforts, he listened to the sizzle of the drops, and he watched as the water overcame the fire.\u00a0 With nothing else to do, he waited for Mitch to return with help.<\/p>\n

He drifted in and out of consciousness as the hours passed.\u00a0 His leg was hot, but the rest of him shivered violently. \u00a0He couldn’t remember ever feeling so miserable. \u00a0When he thought of it, he took a sip of water or a bite of jerky.\u00a0 He didn’t feel hungry or thirsty, but he knew he needed to keep up his strength, such as it was.\u00a0 If something had happened to Mitch, he was going to have to figure out a way to get on that blasted horse and get out of here.\u00a0 He looked across to where the horse was tied.\u00a0 The horse wasn’t that big–a pony, really–but at that moment, to the boy lying on the ground with no way of getting up, it might as well have been a hundred feet tall.<\/p>\n

The wet gray light of day was fading fast.\u00a0 Mitch had been gone all day.\u00a0 Little Joe couldn’t figure out where he could have gone.\u00a0 If Hoss was tracking, there was no way they wouldn’t have been here by now, even without Mitch to show them the way.\u00a0 Maybe the rain had washed away the tracks.\u00a0 Maybe something had happened to the posse.\u00a0 Maybe Clyde and Duke had shot everybody.\u00a0 Maybe his dadblamed foolishness had gotten everybody killed.<\/p>\n

“Stop it!” he said out loud.\u00a0 Adam always said his imagination ran away with him.\u00a0 “They’re all fine.\u00a0 Everybody’s fine.\u00a0 They just-they’re just someplace else.\u00a0 Or something.”\u00a0 He set his jaw determinedly.\u00a0 He was not going to fall apart.\u00a0 He just wasn’t.<\/p>\n

Little Joe pulled the brim of his hat down over his face as the rain drummed on and the last daylight quietly vanished.\u00a0 Mitch had been gone forever.\u00a0 He listened carefully.\u00a0 He heard nothing but the rain.\u00a0 He was all alone.\u00a0 It was pitch dark.\u00a0 He couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face.\u00a0 Mitch would never find his way back here. \u00a0Joe was going to die a slow, agonizing death from an infected bullet wound, and Pa wouldn’t even have anything to bury, because he was so well-hidden that nobody would find his body before he was eaten by a mountain lion that had smelled blood-that is, if Pa and Adam and Hoss hadn’t already been shot and killed by Clyde and Duke. \u00a0And it was all his fault, every last bit of it.<\/p>\n

Feverish and freezing, soaked and exhausted and frightened beyond anything he’d ever known, with his head pounding and his leg screaming and slick with blood, Little Joe Cartwright finally let the mask drop.\u00a0 Scalding tears spilled over at last as his body shuddered with sobs.\u00a0 It was a mistake, the whole thing. \u00a0They should never have done it.\u00a0 They should have stayed at school. \u00a0He didn’t care if Clyde and Duke escaped. \u00a0He didn’t care what happened to the money. \u00a0He didn’t even care if the Belles got their blasted horses back or if the Watson brothers won the Belles.\u00a0 He just wanted to be home with his family, warm and dry and safe.<\/p>\n

The hollow sound of hoof on rock caught his attention.\u00a0 Furiously, he scrubbed at his face, wiping away any signs of tears.\u00a0 He cocked his pistol and waited.\u00a0 He could hear a voice, but it wasn’t loud enough for him to make out the words.\u00a0 It was hard to tell over the noise of the rain, but it sounded almost like Mitch.<\/p>\n

Then he heard it.\u00a0 The voice he’d waited for so desperately. \u00a0The voice that meant that everything would indeed be all right.<\/p>\n

“Joseph!”<\/p>\n

His father’s unmistakable baritone resonated, deep and strong and sure, tinged with panic.\u00a0 Little Joe closed his eyes, gratitude and relief pulsing through him.<\/p>\n

“He’s over here!”\u00a0 He could hear Mitch clearly now over the hooves coming up the trail.\u00a0 He laid his pistol down.<\/p>\n

“Pa!”\u00a0 He tried to shout, like everybody else, but his voice wouldn’t cooperate.\u00a0 He didn’t know whether they’d have heard him if they’d stood right next to him.<\/p>\n

It seemed forever before he saw them. \u00a0“Down here!” he tried to call out as their lanterns drew closer. \u00a0He rustled the branches above him to show where he was. \u00a0He wanted to get up, to run to them, but he couldn’t move without the agony in his leg breaking loose.\u00a0 In the end, though, it was all right, because Pa and his brothers did the running for him.\u00a0 Pa fell to his knees beside him and held him close, knocking his hat off and whispering his name over and over.\u00a0 If Joe hadn’t known better, he’d have sworn that Pa was crying, right there in front of the whole posse.<\/p>\n

“I’m sorry, Pa,” Joe whispered into his father’s chest.\u00a0 “I’m so sorry.”\u00a0 His fingers fumbled for something to hold onto–Pa’s vest, his coat, anything that would anchor him.\u00a0 Pa wrapped his warm hand around Joe’s cold one and held it tight against him.\u00a0 Joe could hear the beating of his father’s heart, strong and steady.\u00a0 Tears leaked out, and he didn’t even try to stop them.\u00a0 It wasn’t like anybody could see his face, buried against Pa’s broad chest.\u00a0 Nobody would know how much he was hurting or how scared he’d been.<\/p>\n

“Ssssh, it’s all right, son,” Pa murmured, his cheek resting in Little Joe’s hair. \u00a0He knew. \u00a0“You’re all right, I’ve got you now.\u00a0 You’re going to be fine.\u00a0 You just hang on.\u00a0 We’ll be home soon and get you all fixed up.”\u00a0 He kissed his son’s forehead, and Joe knew he hadn’t been the only one who was scared.<\/p>\n

“Pa–Clyde and Duke–”<\/p>\n

“Who?”\u00a0 Pa had tossed aside the soggy blanket, and he was taking Little Joe’s wet jacket off him.\u00a0 He had already taken off his own warm coat, and now he wrapped it around his son.\u00a0 Even in the rain, Pa’s coat smelled of pipe tobacco, bay rum and home.<\/p>\n

“The robbers.\u00a0 Did they get away?”\u00a0 Suddenly, it was terribly important that the mission had been successful.<\/p>\n

Pa chuckled.\u00a0 “No, son, they didn’t,” he said.\u00a0 “Sheriff Coffee took them back to town.\u00a0 It’s all over now.\u00a0 All that matters is that you boys are all right.”<\/p>\n

Hoss squatted down beside Pa and Joe, setting down his lantern.\u00a0 “Good to see you, Little Brother,” he said in that husky voice that meant he was trying to stay in control of himself.\u00a0 “Let’s take a look at that leg,” he said, the way he did when a horse came up lame. \u00a0Joe managed a watery grin, and he was rewarded by Hoss’ smile.\u00a0 “You ready?” the big man asked.<\/p>\n

Joe braced himself, nodding.\u00a0 He bit his lip and clutched Pa’s arm as Hoss unwrapped the strip, soggy with rain and blood.\u00a0 The big man’s gentleness always surprised people who didn’t know him, but Little Joe knew that Hoss would never cause him pain if he didn’t absolutely have to.\u00a0 So, he held on tight and tried not to cry out as Hoss checked over his leg as best he could in the light of the lantern.\u00a0 By the time Hoss was finished, Joe could taste fresh blood where he’d bitten through his lip, but he hadn’t made a sound.<\/p>\n

“Bullet didn’t pass through,” Hoss said grimly.\u00a0 “It’s still in there.\u00a0 It’s infected.\u00a0 Don’t look good.\u00a0 From what Mitch said, he’s already lost a lot of blood, too.”<\/p>\n

“Is there any way to get the bullet?” asked Pa quietly, as if he thought Little Joe wouldn’t hear.\u00a0 The terror that had settled down flared again.\u00a0 He peered anxiously from Hoss to Pa.\u00a0 They couldn’t be serious, they just couldn’t be.\u00a0 He’d heard about these things happening on the trail.\u00a0 Fellows tying a man down so that somebody could hack into his flesh with a hunting knife and probe for bullets with dirty fingers while the man screamed in agony, only to have the poor soul die a horrible lingering death after days of battling fever and infection-he didn’t know when he’d heard these stories, but the lurid tales were as suddenly vivid as if they were his own memories.\u00a0 He hid his face against Pa’s wet shirt as panicked tears spilled over.\u00a0 As if he understood, Pa drew him closer, holding the boy tightly and stroking his wet curls.<\/p>\n

Hoss shook his head.\u00a0 “It’s too deep,” he said.\u00a0 “Gonna take some cutting.\u00a0 I think it’s better to just get him home and let Doc do it right if we can.”\u00a0 He sounded like he was going to say something more, but he stopped.\u00a0 Instead, he took off his jacket and tore off his own shirtsleeve to make a fresh bandage.\u00a0 When he’d finished, he smiled at Little Joe.\u00a0 “Good job, Little Brother,” he said, patting the boy’s good leg reassuringly.\u00a0 Weak with relief, Joe managed a tiny, lopsided grin as he wiped his face with his cuff.<\/p>\n

Pa brushed back Joe’s wet hair to feel his forehead.\u00a0 Over his shoulder, he said, “Adam, have Doc Martin meet us at the house.”<\/p>\n

“Right, Pa.”\u00a0 Adam reached down and squeezed Joe’s arm before he disappeared<\/p>\n

“Come on, Little Brother,” said Hoss.\u00a0 “Let’s get you home.”\u00a0 Gently, he moved Pa aside and lifted Little Joe like he weighed nothing at all.\u00a0 An involuntary gasp of pain escaped Joe as Hoss moved his leg.\u00a0 “Sorry, Joe,” Hoss said.\u00a0 “Hold onto me now.”\u00a0 Joe gripped his brother’s neck for all he was worth, closing his eyes against the agony of movement.\u00a0 “That’s it, hang on,” Hoss murmured.\u00a0 “We’ll have you out of here in a jiffy.”<\/p>\n

“I can walk,” Joe protested weakly.\u00a0 It wasn’t even close to true, and he knew it, but he wasn’t about to be carried like a baby in front of all these men-at least, not without a fight.<\/p>\n

“You jest hush,” said Hoss.\u00a0 “We’re all wet enough, and this’ll go a lot faster if we do it my way.”<\/p>\n

“But\u2014”<\/p>\n

“Joseph, you’re in no position to argue,” said Pa firmly.\u00a0 With that, Joe surrendered gratefully.\u00a0 At least now, everybody would know he was just doing as Pa said.<\/p>\n

“Yes, sir,” he murmured, resting his head against Hoss’ shoulder.\u00a0 Then, a thought occurred to him.\u00a0 “My gun!”<\/p>\n

“I’ve got it,” said Pa in a funny-sounding voice that suggested that he, and not Joe, would likely be the one to hold onto that gun for some time to come.<\/p>\n

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

Three weeks later<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mitch walked hesitantly into Little Joe’s room, carrying a basket.\u00a0 “Hey, Joe,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Hey, Mitch.\u00a0 C’mon in.”\u00a0 It was the first day Joe had been allowed visitors.\u00a0 He had only vague recollections of the first few days after he got home, bound up as they were with hot pain and hotter fever.\u00a0 Once his fever broken, he’d improved rapidly, even though there was still some lingering infection in the leg and a whole lot more pain than he would have expected. \u00a0Pa said it was because Doc Martin had to cut so deep to get the bullet, plus the fact that the bullet had cracked the shinbone.\u00a0 Even so, for the past several days, his family had had their hands full, keeping him in bed.\u00a0 It was Adam who suggested that letting Mitch come to visit might keep the boy entertained enough to stay in bed a bit longer.<\/p>\n

As Mitch came closer, Joe dropped his voice.\u00a0 “It’s okay.\u00a0 They won’t yell at you. \u00a0Theain’t even yelled at me.”<\/p>\n

Mitch pulled up the chair next to the bed.\u00a0 “You’re lucky,” he said sadly.\u00a0 “My pa ain’t never tanned me as hard as he did when I got home.\u00a0 First, they hugged me and kissed me like they’d never let go, and then Pa took me out to the barn.”\u00a0 He winced, remembering.<\/p>\n

“Gee, I’m sorry,” said Little Joe. \u00a0He winced in sympathy. \u00a0“Pa said he went over to your place to thank you for doing so much for me.\u00a0 Didn’t that help?”<\/p>\n

“Your pa didn’t come over ’til you were better,” he said.\u00a0 “By that time, my pa had already said his piece.\u00a0 Besides, I don’t think it would have made any difference if he’d come before.\u00a0 I ain’t never seen my pa so mad.\u00a0 I guess him and Ma were pretty scared.”\u00a0 Mitch shook his head.\u00a0 “I can’t believe your pa hasn’t even yelled at you.”<\/p>\n

Joe shrugged.\u00a0 “Guess he thought gettin’ shot was enough.”<\/p>\n

“You’re one lucky son-of-a-gun, Cartwright,” said Mitch ruefully.<\/p>\n

Little Joe leaned back on his pillows.\u00a0 He had to agree.\u00a0 Little boys got tanned; men got shot.\u00a0 “What’s that?” he asked about the basket.\u00a0 He figured he’d change the subject so that Mitch wouldn’t feel so bad.<\/p>\n

“Oh, this is from the Belles,” Mitch said.\u00a0 “They said to tell you that they want to come out and see you, once you’re out of bed.”<\/p>\n

“They want to come out here?”\u00a0 Little Joe couldn’t possibly have heard right.<\/p>\n

“Let me tell you–as far as they’re concerned, we are such heroes, you can’t imagine,” said Mitch.\u00a0 “You especially.\u00a0 I mean, you took a bullet to save their horses.”<\/p>\n

“Is that what they think?”<\/p>\n

“I ain’t tellin’ them different,” said Mitch.\u00a0 “They think we’re both heroes, ’cause you got shot and I saved your life.”<\/p>\n

“You saved my life?\u00a0 Was I dying?”\u00a0 Little Joe was startled.\u00a0 He knew he’d been pretty sick, but nobody had told him this.<\/p>\n

“Well–you coulda been,” Mitch hedged.<\/p>\n

Little Joe rolled his eyes.\u00a0 “Devlin–I was shot in the\u00a0leg, remember?”<\/p>\n

“Yeah, but you were pretty sick,” Mitch said defensively.\u00a0 “You coulda died, maybe, if we’d been out there a few more days or something.”<\/p>\n

Joe narrowed his eyes.\u00a0 “What else have you been telling everybody?”<\/p>\n

“Nothing else, I swear.\u00a0 Really.”<\/p>\n

“Just that I was dying and you saved my life?\u00a0 So you’re the big hero and I’m the dummy who couldn’t get out of the way of a bullet?”<\/p>\n

“No, nothin’ like that.\u00a0 They still think you’re the big hero, ’cause you’re the one who got shot.”\u00a0 Mitch lowered his voice.\u00a0 “But they\u00a0both\u00a0gave me a kiss,” he confided.<\/p>\n

“Both?”\u00a0 Joe’s voice skidded up into its highest registers.\u00a0 Mitch pointed to each cheek, nodding.\u00a0 “And you didn’t even have to get shot!”<\/p>\n

“I know,” said Mitch.\u00a0 “I’m betting that you get a couple of really good kisses out of this.”<\/p>\n

“Doggone it,” said Joe dreamily.\u00a0 “D’you suppose they’d let me kiss them on the mouth?”<\/p>\n

“Cartwright!\u00a0 They’re ladies!”\u00a0 Mitch was less offended at the compromise of the Belles’ honor than he was at the notion that Joe might do better than he had.\u00a0 So far, Mitch was the hero of the schoolyard.\u00a0 He half-hoped that, by the time Little Joe returned to school, the rescue would be old news.<\/p>\n

“But I got shot for them,” Little Joe reminded him.\u00a0 He sighed contentedly at the thought of reclining on the settee, with his feet on the oak table and a Belle on either side of him, kissing him and snuggling with him and feeding him lemonade and cookies.\u00a0 “So, what’s in the basket?” he asked, his practical side reappearing.<\/p>\n

“Cookies,” said Mitch.\u00a0 “From the Belles.\u00a0 I got some, too.”\u00a0 He didn’t want Joe thinking that the Belles were treating them differently.<\/p>\n

“Joseph?”\u00a0 Pa came into the room.\u00a0 “Oh, hello, Mitch.\u00a0 I didn’t know you were here.”<\/p>\n

“Good afternoon, Mr. Cartwright,” said Mitch, rising.<\/p>\n

“That’s all right, keep your seat,” said Pa.\u00a0 “Joseph, Adam’s going to be up in a little while to help you with your schoolwork.”<\/p>\n

“Pa, my leg’s kinda bothering me,” Little Joe began.\u00a0 At his father’s raised eyebrow, he muttered, “Yes, sir.\u00a0 Whenever Adam’s ready.”<\/p>\n

“He’ll be up soon,” said Pa.\u00a0 “What’s in the basket?”<\/p>\n

“Cookies,” said Joe.\u00a0 “Would you like one?”<\/p>\n

“No, thanks,” said Pa.\u00a0 “Where did the cookies come from?”\u00a0 He looked at Mitch oddly.<\/p>\n

“They’re from some girls at school,” offered Mitch before Joe could stop him.\u00a0 “The girls whose ponies were stolen.\u00a0 They were so happy that we got them back that they made us cookies.”<\/p>\n

“What?\u00a0 What girls?”<\/p>\n

Joe glared at Mitch as hard as he could, but Mitch was looking at Pa.\u00a0 “The Bel–the Johnson girls, Mr.\u00a0Cartwright,” he explained helpfully.\u00a0 “The bank robbers stole their ponies, and they were just heartbroken.\u00a0 Didn’t Joe tell you? \u00a0He promised them that he’d get their ponies back. \u00a0That was the whole reason–”\u00a0 Mitch broke off at the look on Pa’s face.<\/p>\n

Little Joe closed his eyes.\u00a0 If he didn’t trust Mitch Devlin with every fiber of his being, he would have sworn that Mitch said this just so that he’d get tanned, too.<\/p>\n

After a long minute when nobody said anything, Pa cleared his throat.\u00a0 “I’ll leave you to visit,” he said.\u00a0 With a warning glance at Joe, he left the room.<\/p>\n

As soon as they could no longer hear Pa’s footsteps, Joe flung a pillow at Mitch.\u00a0 “I can’t believe you said that!”\u00a0 he hissed.<\/p>\n

“I thought you told him!”\u00a0 Mitch hissed back.<\/p>\n

“Do you really think I’d be sitting down right now if I told him that we went out there and did all this so the Belles would kiss us?”\u00a0 Little Joe was trying to keep his voice down, but his agitation was increasing.<\/p>\n

“Didn’t he ever ask why you went?”\u00a0 Mitch was incredulous.<\/p>\n

“I think he was more worried about other stuff,” said Little Joe.\u00a0 Even though his memories were fragmented and fuzzy, he knew that this was true.<\/p>\n

He could remember Hoss setting him in a saddle and Pa swinging up behind him.\u00a0 More than once during that long, cold ride home, he woke to find himself leaning back against Pa, who was holding him tight, like he’d never let go of his youngest son again.\u00a0 Joe was still wearing Pa’s coat, but now Pa was wearing somebody else’s, and he had it open so that Little Joe lay right back against Pa’s chest and the coat was wrapped around both of them. \u00a0He remembered feeling surrounded by Pa’s warmth and strength as they rode through the frigid, rainy night.\u00a0 At last, he could finally stop being strong and tough, because his pa was taking care of everything.<\/p>\n

At one point, when they’d stopped to rest the horses, Hoss had reached up to help him off Pa’s horse.\u00a0 Vaguely, Little Joe recalled hearing his big brother say, “Pa, you need to let go of him.\u00a0 It’s okay, it’s just for a minute.” \u00a0As soon as Hoss set him down under the shelter of a tree, Pa was right there with him again, holding him close and seeming not to care what anybody thought.\u00a0 When they started riding again and it felt like the pain was just too much to stand any more, Pa whispered that he should hang on, that they’d be home real soon, and he remembered thinking that Pa’s voice sounded funny, like he was trying not to cry.<\/p>\n

And then, after he was home and Doc took the bullet out, Pa sat by his bed the whole time until his fever broke.\u00a0 Joe didn’t remember even once that he’d wakened and Pa hadn’t been there.<\/p>\n

Through the whole experience, Little Joe had felt safe and protected.\u00a0 And now, Mitch had to spill the beans.\u00a0 “I can’t believe you said that!” he muttered again.<\/p>\n

“Well, if he ain’t asked by now, maybe he won’t,” Mitch offered.<\/p>\n

“Fat chance, thanks to you and your big mouth,” said Joe.<\/p>\n

“I’m sorry, Joe.\u00a0 I really didn’t know!”\u00a0 Mitch rose to go.<\/p>\n

“Get back here!\u00a0 Don’t you leave me alone with him!”\u00a0 Joe tried to grab Mitch’s arm, but Mitch dodged his friend’s grasp.<\/p>\n

“Cartwright, I really don’t wanna be here when your pa decides he’s as mad as mine was,” said Mitch, picking up his jacket.<\/p>\n

“He would never have known if you hadn’t opened your big mouth!”<\/p>\n

A smooth baritone asked, “Would never have known what?”<\/p>\n

Both boys turned in horror.\u00a0 Adam lounged in the doorway, Hoss behind him, and both were grinning.<\/p>\n

“None of your business!” Little Joe said hotly.<\/p>\n

“Listen, Joe, I’m glad to see you’re doin’ so well, but I gotta get on home.\u00a0 Bye!”\u00a0 Mitch scooted under Adam’s arm in the doorway and was gone.<\/p>\n

Adam and Hoss regarded their little brother for a long moment.\u00a0 “Sounds like you need to have a little talk with Pa,” said Hoss at last.<\/p>\n

“Oh, no,” said Joe.\u00a0 “I ain’t having any talk with Pa.\u00a0 I already got shot, that’s enough.”<\/p>\n

“Enough for what?”\u00a0 Pa’s voice boomed, and all three brothers straightened.\u00a0 “Joseph, I’m starting to get the feeling that, just maybe, I don’t know all there is to know about your little adventure.”<\/p>\n

“Well, you know all the important parts,” said Little Joe hastily.\u00a0 “I mean, we caught the robbers and got the horses and the money back, and I got shot, but I’m getting better.\u00a0 That’s really all that matters.”<\/p>\n

“I’m not sure I agree with that,” said Pa, taking Mitch’s place in the chair by the bed.\u00a0 “I think you need to tell me the whole story.\u00a0 All of it,” he added in the ominous voice that his sons knew all too well.<\/p>\n

Joe swallowed hard.\u00a0 “Well, sir, it’s like this,” he began. \u00a0Haltingly, he relayed the whole story, as commanded.\u00a0 Throughout the telling, Pa’s eyes grew rounder and rounder.\u00a0 When Joe finished, he looked around the room cautiously.<\/p>\n

Pa sat in stunned silence.\u00a0 Adam and Hoss had their hands over their mouths.\u00a0 Little Joe knew that he’d better look pretty frail, or he was going to get turned wrong side up real fast, bullet wound or not.\u00a0 He manufactured a cough and reached for the water glass on the night table.\u00a0 Nobody got it for him.\u00a0 Bad sign.<\/p>\n

Finally, Pa recovered his voice.\u00a0 “Joseph, are you telling me that you did all this–” he waved his hands to indicate the events of the past few weeks “–to impress a girl?”\u00a0 The end of the sentence was a roar.\u00a0 His brothers’ shoulders were shaking as they tried to contain their laughter.<\/p>\n

“Well, not exactly, sir–”\u00a0 He didn’t want to lie.\u00a0 Pa always set such stock by telling the truth.\u00a0 Just maybe, honesty would help.\u00a0 “It wasn’t just to impress a girl–” he began.<\/p>\n

“Then, what was it for?”\u00a0 Pa interrupted.<\/p>\n

“It\u2014It was\u00a0two\u00a0<\/em>girls, Pa!”<\/p>\n

Hoss and Adam couldn’t contain themselves any longer.\u00a0 Their laughter erupted like those volcanoes Miss Jones talked about in school.\u00a0 Joe peeked at Pa.\u00a0 Maybe, after everything he’d been through, he’d appreciate a good laugh, too.<\/p>\n

But Pa wasn’t laughing.\u00a0 He still looked stunned and furious, all at once. \u00a0This was bad.\u00a0 Little Joe tried the puppy dog eyes.\u00a0 That look always melted his pa’s heart. \u00a0Nothing. \u00a0He braced himself for what he would have to do.\u00a0 He tried to sit up straighter, and in the process, he deliberately kicked the wound, hard. \u00a0The shock of the pain was real.\u00a0 He could feel the color drain from his face.\u00a0 He gasped, grabbing for the mattress, his father’s hand, anything to hold onto to ride out the wave of agony.\u00a0 Tears sprang to his eyes, and for once, he didn’t try to fight them back.<\/p>\n

“Are you all right, son?”\u00a0 Pa’s temper vanished like a mist.\u00a0 Wordlessly, Joe nodded, clenching his teeth; any other response would be overdoing it, and Pa would get suspicious.\u00a0 He tried to take deep breaths through the pain as Pa moved the covers and checked the leg to be sure it hadn’t started bleeding.\u00a0 Joe stole a glance down.\u00a0 Luck was with him; there was a little bit of fresh blood soaking through the bandage.\u00a0 Pa was immediately consumed with unwrapping the bandage and ordering Hoss to get more bandages and some alcohol to clean the wound.\u00a0 Joe relaxed.\u00a0 At least for the moment, Pa had other things on his mind.\u00a0 He looked up to see Adam’s hazel eyes on him.\u00a0 He couldn’t have said for sure, but Adam looked like he knew exactly what Joe had done.\u00a0 He considered, for just a second, asking Adam to get him some water, but he thought better of it.\u00a0 If Adam was keeping his mouth shut, better not to push him.<\/p>\n

“Does that feel better?”\u00a0 Pa asked when he’d finished cleaning and rebandaging the wound.<\/p>\n

“Much,” said Joe.\u00a0 He ignored Adam, who stood at the foot of his bed, eyes twinkling.\u00a0 “Thanks, Pa,” he added with what he thought to be just the right amount of pathos.\u00a0 He reached to pull up the blanket, but Pa’s hand on his stopped him.<\/p>\n

“Not so fast,” said Pa.\u00a0 He turned to Joe’s brothers.\u00a0 “Would you two excuse us?\u00a0 Your young brother and I need to have a talk.”<\/p>\n

Joe’s eyes widened.\u00a0 “But, Pa–my leg–”<\/p>\n

“Don’t you worry, Joseph,” said Pa as the door closed behind Adam and Hoss.\u00a0 “Your\u00a0leg\u00a0<\/em>will be just fine.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The End<\/p>\n

*Special thanks to Harper for suggesting that I write this story!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Disclaimer:\u00a0All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary:\u00a0Start with\u00a0one fifteen-year-old boy with a brand-new sidearm.\u00a0 Add\u00a0the prettiest twin girls in school, a pair of matching ponies named Floyd and Feather, two inept bank robbers, a worried lawman, several frantic family members, and a best friend who\u2019s game for almost anything.\u00a0 And then, let the chase begin.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Rated:\u00a0T \u00a0WC 23,000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":2202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23,4],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-4546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-humor","tag-joe","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-4-id"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":3603,"today_views":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/B_TLCSJoe1-1-1.jpg?fit=395%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3340,"url":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=3340","url_meta":{"origin":4546,"position":0},"title":"He Just Wanted To Help (by Lima)","author":"Lima","date":"April 25, 2000","format":false,"excerpt":"Ben is away on business, leaving 22-year-old Adam in charge of the ranch and his brothers. However, a bank robbery in Carson City and Little Joe\u2019s stubborn insistence on helping is more than enough trouble for him. 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(by DJK)","author":"DJK","date":"May 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary:\u00a0The Cartwright boys' belles are left wondering what has happened this time.\u00a0\u00a0 Rated:\u00a0T\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Word count:\u00a01182","rel":"","context":"In "Humor"","block_context":{"text":"Humor","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/brothers.jpg?fit=296%2C226&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13843,"url":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=13843","url_meta":{"origin":4546,"position":2},"title":"The Runt (by HelenB)","author":"HelenB","date":"August 27, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary:\u00a0 The Cartwrights learn that sometimes the best things really do come in small packages Rating:\u00a0 T\u00a0 (3,150 words)","rel":"","context":"In "Drama"","block_context":{"text":"Drama","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/coming-soon-6.jpg?fit=303%2C240&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7694,"url":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=7694","url_meta":{"origin":4546,"position":3},"title":"Sally Lynn, Swimming, and Sweet Revenge (by DJK)","author":"DJK","date":"May 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary:\u00a0 A young Little Joe finds out about feminine revenge. 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