RIVER
BOAT GAMBLER
PART THREE
Author
Notes: This story deals with Joe’s
wanting to be seen as
grown up and able to make decisions on his own about his future.
Understandably
his family are a little concerned at how Joe plans
to
deal with his idea of responsibility.
Ben
Cartwright has always taught his sons certain values that
made
them into the proud men they are today.
Someone from
Ben’s
past wanting to seek revenge plans to take all of those values
and the special bond forged between Ben and Joe and tear them
apart.
Somewhere
in the beginning of my story I made the mistake of calling Joe’s mother Marie
Dubois – a reviewer advised me of this mistake
and I thank her for that.
However, to keep continuity with the story
for what I have planned in the future I have kept Marie’s name the
same the whole way through. This
will become a bit more apparent
in future chapters where the use of Marie’s name come at critical
points
Also,
my portrayal of Marie’s past and certainly that of Jean her first
husband may not strictly be to canon.
I apologize for that, most of the
background I have provided is made up for the sake of this story. There
are references to Jean, Inger and Clay, but minor ones and I hope they
fit into the whole scheme of the story I am trying to tell.
I
hope you enjoy the next chapter of this saga:
The stagecoach that travelled from
Adam and Hoss took care of the majority of the important details, like getting some meagre supplies, talking to the head foreman and letting him know that the family would be absent for some time. Exactly how long they weren’t able to gauge at this stage.
Hoss booked the stage for 3 passengers, but secretly hoped that nobody else would be travelling with them. For one, even with just the three of them, the trip would be tedious and cramped for space. Secondly, and most importantly, he knew that his father wasn’t in a particularly good frame of mind and would prefer not to have any other company for their journey.
Adam knew that there were a lot of pieces to this puzzle that didn’t seem to fit, or his father was the only one with any details of. It was going to be a very long time on the road to San Francisco, plenty time for him to brooch the subject and try and get what little information they would be allowed.
Ben’s reaction back at the bank and the
sheriff’s office had been a surprising one, and possibly a worrying one for
Adam and Hoss. To them their father
was a strong person, more so than most other men they had encountered. But when it came to putting a finger on his
weaknesses, their was only one that came to mind; a curly haired young man with emerald green
eyes and named Joseph.
While they had waited for the last of the luggage to be secured on top of the stagecoach, Roy Coffee came personally to deliver an urgent telegram message to Ben. He was sure he was going to be able to reach them in time, so went as fast as he could.
“Ben!
Ben Cartwright, I have an urgent telegram for you,”
“It’s from the Major Keith Brandon in
Ben’s face turned slightly grimmer though as he read the words on the page. Somehow this just confirmed what he already knew to be true. “He says that Joe arranged to meet him at the bank yesterday to make the deposit for the horses, but never showed up.”
“Maybe Joe just got delayed a little, Pa,” Adam said, trying to think of another explanation for his brother missing such an important meeting.
“Doesn’t sound like short shanks though, Adam,” Hoss said in his younger brother’s defence. “He might be carefree sometimes around here, but not when it comes to them horses that he breaks. You know how he gets when he is set on fulfilling a contract.”
“Yes, your right, Hoss,” Adam agreed,
knowing what was being said to be true.
“We should meet up with this Major Branson and talk to him as soon as we
reach
“That’s if he waits around that long,” Ben said. “Branson says he didn’t want to leave the money with the bank, but he is required to head back to his Fort posting at short notice,” he added, giving what other few details there were in the telegram.
“We can worry about the money later,
“If something has happened, Joe can take care of himself. We have seen him in a few scrapes before now and he always seems to come out on top,” Adam commented.
“
“Sure Ben, I will help out any way I
can. While you are still on the stage, I
will contact the local police constable there and see if he can try and find
Joe,”
“Come on, time is wasting,” Ben now said, hoping to get as started as soon as possible. They had a long way to go and even less time to get there in. Every minute counted and they couldn’t afford to lose time. Every minute was one more away from finding Joe.
Adam and Hoss bid goodbye to the Sheriff as
he headed back to his office to send the wire to the local police in
The journey to bring Joe back safely had begun, but all of the anger that Ben had felt towards Marchant Seline drained away, leaving only a great deal of worry behind. Seline was one man that he had thought he wouldn’t have to face again. Now, he couldn’t help but hear Marie’s warning from all those years ago, sounding in his ears that Marchant was someone to watch out for.
Ben sat on one side of the stage, Hoss and Adam, the other. To begin with there wasn’t any conversation at all. Only concern for what might be happening to Joe while they were forced to take the long and arduous journey.
It almost tore Ben’s nerves to shreds being forced to sit and do nothing when he suspected that Joe’s life was in danger. Seline was a manipulative man and would use all of Joe’s resistance, will and spirit just to see his father broken. Joe was the victim, no doubt about that. Ben couldn’t be sure though who else would have to pay a price.
Adam and Hoss made idle comments to each other about the route the stage would take over the next few days. Ben watched his two eldest son’s, knowing that deep down inside they were trying to deal with the disappearance of their brother too.
Ben looked over at Adam and Hoss, his face
portraying his inner most feelings.
The patriarch of the Cartwright family seemed almost nervous, which
usually was no ordinary feat. He looked
across at his two son's and asked: "Do you really want to know?"
“Know what, Pa?” Hoss
asked, not used to seeing this side of his father very often.
Adam was a little more astute
than his younger brother sitting next to him, and asked a question of his own
in return. “How much do you know about
this Seline character?”
“I suppose it is better
that I start at the beginning. We have
a long trip, so we have the time. I am
just not sure how much of the story you want to hear,” Ben stated.
“We are not little boys anymore,
“The real beginning starts along before I even met
Marie. Your mother, Inger had not long
passed away Hoss. I guess I was still
trying to find myself after losing her.
You would have been a lot younger Adam, and Hoss you were too young to
remember much of those times,” Ben explained.
“We had just arrived here on the Ponderosa and I
was trying to immerse myself in the work around here to deal with my grief,” he
said, smiling wanly at Hoss. He had
loved each of his wives, and wanted for his son’s believe that their mothers
had a special place in his heart.
Their deaths had been shattering blows on every occasion and it had
taken a long time to pick up the pieces and start over again.
“It wasn’t until I saw how harshly my grief was
affecting you two boys that I decided to take a break to
“Those were hard times, Pa,” Adam reassured his
father. “Hard on us all, yes, but on
you most of all I suspect.” And he knew
he spoke the truth. The Ponderosa had
not been the sprawling cattle baron’s pride that it was perhaps today. The house was still under construction and
they were still trying to find their feet amongst the good citizens of
“One day as you know, I came across Joseph’s mother
Marie,” Ben laughed as he recalled that memorable morning. “You know she tried to accuse me of deliberately
trying to get in her horse’s way. Told me that I should have been looking where I was going instead
of day-dreaming.”
Adam and Hoss chuckled slightly, it sounded just
like her son to them.
“I think I was day-dreaming. Her beautiful face took my breath away so
completely that I couldn’t even find the words to reply. I watched her ride away, but I knew I had to
see her again.”
“Finally I drew enough courage to get to know her
better. Over a short
period of time. She had just lost
the death of her husband Jean and the supposed loss of her baby son.”
“Clay?” Adam surmised. His mention of that name
bringing up a whole host of mixed emotions. He was happy for Joe that he got to meet
his long lost brother, but angry at Clay Stafford himself for the seeds of
doubt, and hurt that he had unduly caused during his brief and untimely visit
to the Ponderosa.
“Marie never did get to know that her son was
alive. Something I know that hurt Joe
deeply when he first met Clay. In the
end their worlds were too far apart, even though they shared her as a mother,”
Ben responded.
“When did Seline come
into the picture, Pa?” Hoss asked, feeling a little
lost in the discussion. He had no
intentions of interrupting his father’s train of thought however. He would be patient for as long as it was
necessary.
“Seline tried to stop
Marie from seeing me right from the very beginning. He voiced his opinion to
strongly. Marie came to me on occasions
crying because of the vicious way he had slandered her reputation and our
impending union.”
“Marchant Seline was a business associate of Jean, Marie’s
husband. After Jean’s death, he tried
to push the bare friendship in another direction. One that Marie was not prepared to take. He was very domineering and tried to bend
her way of thinking to his own,” Ben told his two sons.
“I remember Marie’s strong will and spirit well,”
Adam recalled fondly. “He must have
held something over her to try and get her to change her mind,” he though logically.
“Marie couldn’t prove it of course, but she truly
believed that he had something to do with the death of Jean. There was never enough evidence and a proper
motive couldn’t be established. It was
her say so against many others, including her family. They object to our marriage in addition to Seline,” Ben continued.
“I hope Little Joe doesn’t get to hear any of this
about his mother’s background,” Hoss thought as he listened. “He knew that anything to do with his mother
was a sore point, and Joe would defend her regardless of the rumours and
gossip.
“We both agreed that the best way to avoid him and
all of the troubles was to leave
“Seline even went so far
as to try and talk her out of coming with me on the night before we were due to
leave. Marie wouldn’t ever tell me what
transpired between them, or the exact words spoken. But I suspect it was along the lines of
threats to hurt me or even so far as hurting the two of you if he could.”
"Marie was scared of what he might do and it
showed. At first there were letters
coming to the Ponderosa, ones of bribery.
He offered her a lavish lifestyle that she had become accustomed to in
"Then Marie fell pregnant with Joseph. I don't know how Seline
found out about it, but somehow he did.
That's when the contents of the letters began to change. He no longer offered bribery, but threatened
to hurt her and the unborn child, whom would become your younger brother
Joseph.”
“Doc Martin was always concerned for her health back then,” Adam commented, grimacing a little as he was forced to remember some of the unkind words he had spoken to Marie.
In the beginning, Adam had seen Marie as a threat to what remained of his family, Hoss and their father. Being too young to understand himself, he wasn’t quite sure if she her intentions to love his father were genuine. If only he had the luxury of knowing the background he was only beginning to learn now.
“There was a time not long after she started reserving those letters that she would scarcely leave the Ponderosa for fear that Seline might have been lurking in the shadows,” Ben murmured.
“When she did
venture into town, Marie would constantly be looking over her shoulder, making
sure she wasn’t being followed. That’s
how much of an impact Seline’s threats had on her
life and ours when she came to live in
“What I want to know is why now, Pa?” Hoss asked straight-forwardly. “I mean, if what your saying is true and Marie was worried about him all those years back, even before short shanks was born.”
“I know what you’re trying to ask, son,” Ben interjected. “I tried to ask myself the same thing since I saw Seline’s name written in that hotel register yesterday. There must have been dozens of opportunities to get even with me or even with Marie before she passed away.”
“Maybe that’s just it though, Pa,” Adam began to suggest. “If this Seline fellow is as devious and vindictive as you say, then it would make more sense that he is trying to extract his revenge now. He obviously has been watching Joe for a while. He must have been doing that just to gauge Little Joe’s movements over the past few days.”
“If I had to hasten a guess, Adam, I would say he has been doing it much longer than that. I would say he has probably being watching Joseph since he found out about Marie’s pregnancy. In the beginning he may not have done it himself. He might have offered a few dollars to somebody locally to watch any one of us and report back to him,” Ben voiced.
“What about them hands and ridge riders that Joe took alone with him? Even if Joe is missing, they must still be there somewhere. No doubt drinking their fill in some run down saloon after such a long, hard trek with the horses.
“Yes, Hoss, good thinking. We can ask at the hotel if any of the other men checked in there with Joseph. They might have seen something odd or someone else that might have been hanging around,” Ben commended his larger son.
“We are going to work together on this, for Joe’s sake. If Seline really has taken Joe, then we have to know everything about him to think of where he might take Little Joe. Also, he is probably not doing this alone. If Joe is missing, someone must have seen him at the hotel before or after he left Major Branson.”
“Your right Adam, but if I am any judge of character, Seline will probably be hiding out at the moment, waiting until the right moment to make his move. We need to talk to this Major Branson first I think and then see the hotel staff where Joe was staying,” Ben said, using what little knowledge he had of Seline.
The major problem was, that Ben and Marchant Seline only had a few brief encounters, and those were a long time ago. Most of the assumptions he had made today talking to Adam and Hoss, were based on what he had known a long time ago. He had learned some of the man’s traits from Marie’s experiences and from the hand-written letters that she had received.
“The good thing in our favour with this stage coach is that it follows the same route that Joe would have taken with the horses. Hopefully we will be able to talk to a few of the people at the stops and ask if they remember anything that happened along that part of the journey. Maybe one of them saw Seline turn up at a certain point,” Adam said, trying to be as positive as he could under the circumstances.
If Joe was truly in
trouble, then at the moment, they had very little information about his trip to
With
the plans put into place about who they would speak to first about Joe upon
arrival in
While his family
bumped along the rutted road by stage coach, Joe was being treated with a
little more tenderness in
Seline’s original plan of loading Joe onto a boat headed to
Although not happy with the situation, there were very few other alternatives. He had to be assured that any passage they undertook would remain secret. To have Ben Cartwright to show at a most inopportune time would ruin everything.
The extra time delay should ensure that Joe could recover sufficiently from his head injury before their set sail.
After being brought in from the alley way, Joe had been secretly taken to another hotel, and hidden away in one of the larger suites rented by Seline.
The blow had knocked Joe senseless for quite a number of hours. Seline had already summoned a doctor to examine the young man and see that no permanent damage had been inflicted. The doctor had yet to arrive to make his diagnosis.
Joe had been laid on a single bed mattress, still dressed in the clothes he had put on back in his own room. The collar of his shirt was now stained brown with dried blood from the wound on his temple.
Little Joe had yet to stir at all since the alley way. Seline was getting a little concerned that perhaps the young man was more injured than they first thought. Though his plans involved the eventual death of Joseph Cartwright, at his hand. He didn’t want the game he had so meticulously planned, to go astray this early.
Yeager and Edwards had carefully taken up position at a small table in the lobby of the hotel, sipping at coffee. They would be alerted to anyone entering the hotel, in this case Joe’s family. They were also instructed to await the arrival of the doctor and told to show him promptly to the suite.
Bonnie had been left in charge of seeing to cleaning Joe up and making him more comfortable before the doctor arrived. Seline left the room and probably wouldn’t be returning before the doctor came.
The young woman carried in a large basin, some strips of cloth and other medicinal essentials. A second trip brought water, some for drinking when he awoke. More in a bucket to bathe him.
The silence in the room was enjoyable. Bonnie found herself being able to stare at this handsome young man, without fear of being watched in return. Joe’s eyes were closed. His lips slightly parted and soft breaths could be heard coming from them.
The lips were a little paler than they had been the night before when she tended him in his own room. She remembered how her fingertips had tingled at the thought of touching them softly.
Bonnie had promised herself a long time ago that life had dealt her too many bad cards over the years. She couldn’t afford to let her emotions get the better of her or show openly on her face. The young man laying on the bed was no different than many others that she had seen over the years. Handsome perhaps, but her hardened heart forced her to believe that he would be no different.
The woman looked at the remains of Joe’s tattered and dusty shirt, trying to decide how best to achieve cleaning him up. She started by undoing the buttons down the front of the shirt, pulling it open. Her fingers touched his leanly muscled chest briefly. She caught herself drifting away again and pulled herself back to the task at hand just as quickly.
The young man’s arms were limp and unresponsive as she lifted the right and undid the cuff button, ready to withdraw his arm from the sleeve. As she did this, Joe uttered a slight moan, making her pause and keep her eyes focused on his face for any sign that he might be waking.
The moan was repeated a little louder when she took his left arm out of the sleeve. All that was left now was to lift him up slightly and remove it from underneath him. She was a strong young woman, and very gently, leaned forward as she sat on the edge of the bed and pulled the young man forward to her chest, lifting his shoulders from the bed.
Joe made a few more incoherent sounds, his warm breath tickling at the nape of her neck as his head lolled and drifted softly against her shoulder, his face turned towards her. She quickly took the shirt away and laid him back down again, carefully supporting his head with her hand until he reached the pillows again.
The curls against the palm of her hand were soft and silky. She hadn’t felt hair so soft and luxurious on a cowboy before. She brushed a few stray strands out of his eyes, noting that they fell over his forehead in a manner that made him appear younger.
Her patient was now stripped to the waste, his feet still clad in socks, but the boots removed and laying on the floor. She rose from the edge of the bed and picked up corner of the quilt, draping it over him up to his chest. Although she had no desire to get to know him any better, she did what little she could to keep him comfortable.
Taking some of the warmed water from the bucket and pouring it into the basin on the bedside table, she dipped the corner of a strip of cloth into the tepid liquid, squeezing out the excess. She then jabbed every so lightly at the corners of his lips, noting that they appeared a little cracked and dehydrated.
Joe turned his face towards the soft touch, sighing a little and his eyes fluttering slightly, but not quite opening. Bonnie’s heart skipped a beat as she thought he was about to awaken before she finished. Another part of her anxiously waited to see what colour his eyes were behind those closed lids. She had wondered the same thing the night before as he slept.
Refreshing the cloth, Bonnie turned her attention to the head wound, a little hesitant about doing anything until the doctor arrived. She chided herself though, knowing that she was only cleaning away a little dried blood. That wouldn’t have any affect on the doctor’s diagnosis.
She started at the base of his neck and collar-bone, where the blood had soaked through the linen shirt and dried in a smudge. Then slowly, replenishing the water on the cloth as necessary, she moved her way up his neck and down the side of his face. She took particular care around his ear lobe, noting how delicate and rounded they were.
Bonnie had been so intent on her administrations to Joe, that he failed to hear someone enter the room. There were two men standing in the doorway, watching the woman sponge the blood from the side of Joe’s face with all the care of a mother.
“You do that real well, Bonnie,” Seline commented, smiling as the woman startled at the sound of his voice. He always liked to have the upper hand when it came to women. For them to know that he was in control of the situation.
“I see our young man has still not awoken though,” he added, walking over to the bed and surveying the efforts the young woman had made during his absence. It was then that Bonnie noted a second man, carrying a small black bag.
“Bonnie, this is Doctor Carl Wilson,” Seline said in introduction. “The doctor has kindly agreed to using his services on our young patient here. Of course he will be totally discreet and keep no record of having treated Mr Cartwright.”
Seline had been watching the Doctor more than Bonnie as he made this statement, wanting to be assured that the physician knew his role and what would be required of him. He had paid handsomely for the man’s secrecy, but it was still to be seen if he would carry out all of his employer’s requests.
“Miss Bonnie,” the doctor said in greeting, holding out his hand to the young woman, his eyes immediately drifting to the intended patient lying unconscious on the bed. He could see she had successfully removed his shirt and cleaned some of the blood away. The doctor set his bag down on a nearby table in the room, preparing to take a closer look at the source of the bleeding.
“Has he shown any
signs of regaining consciousness at all?”
“He moaned a couple of times and he looked like he might have been trying to open his eyes once. But he didn’t. He didn’t move anymore than that,” Bonnie informed him, stepping away from the bed and making a little distance between herself and the young man.
“There is a little
more swelling around the wound than I would normally like to see,”
Bonnie nodded her head in agreement, noting the slightly crimson tinge to the basin of now cold water. The cloth she had used also bore a few bronze blood stains on it.
“Will he recover?” Seline asked sharply, trying to act non-committal to the whole situation.
“Yes, I suspect
so. Though he is probably going to have
one powerful headache when he does finally awaken,”
“What sort of complications? Seline demanded, thinking that he had quite enough interruptions to his plans already without the additional ones an injured hostage might create.
“He may develop a fever, or the swelling may take considerably longer to go down than I anticipate,” the doctor informed him coolly. “Head injuries are most unpredictable at any time and in this case, the young man has been struck with a blunt object, using force.”
“I think you are just jumping to conclusions,” Seline said sharply, thinking that the doctor was overstepping his boundaries. He knew full well how Joe Cartwright had been struck and how hard. It was he that delivered the second, necessary blow to render him unconscious.
“Hmph!” the doctor muttered under his breath as he gathered his black bag and prepared to leave the room. “I will be back in tomorrow to see how he is progressing unless you have need of my services sooner.”
Just as he was about to close the door to the room, he made mention of one other thing that might have eluded Seline at this stage of the game. “Regardless of whether there will be any complications or not, I suggest that he might become a bit more of a handful once he is awake. If you truly wish to keep him as a prisoner, you may need to revise method of restraint that will prevent his escape.”
Doctor Wilson left the hotel thinking hard about the uncompromising position he found himself in at present. As he walked down the street, he tried to think back how all this secrecy had come about in the first place. He was a doctor, and playing with people’s lives in his hands at the moment.
Carl Wilson could
remember back to a time where he had a most reputable practice in
Over the last twelve months though, that reputation had been gradually eaten away, along with the funds in the bank. The patients stopped coming and his rather luxurious lifestyle was dealt a heavy blow. That is when he had been approached by Seline to help with his scheme concerning Joseph Cartwright.
Seline’s money had been sizable and too much of a temptation not to take. All he had to do was supply some mild sedative to keep the young man quiet until his family came up with the intended ransom demand. That was what had been agreed upon initially and had been the only role which he carved out for himself.
Then he had one of Seline’s men come to his door only a few hours ago, saying that the plan had gone astray and his skills were required because the young victim had been injured and was unconscious. He now regretted, more than ever his involvement in the entire plot. He inwardly kicked himself for going against the oath of office he had taken as a young medical student all for the promise of financial freedom. What price was he willing to put on the young man’s life?
In the back of his
mind,
The doctor knew he would need to be careful though, for his sake as well as that of his unconscious patient. Seline would no doubt have somebody watching his every move. If he was going to help the young man, then he would have to do so discreetly and without being seen.
As the doctor left, Bonnie moved to go past Seline to replenish the water in the basin and complete her task of cleaning up Little Joe. The man barred her progress into the room with his arm, daring her to look directly at him as he spoke.
“I sincerely hope, for your sake, that taking care of him doesn’t alter your feelings towards him,” Seline warned in a low and deep tone. Bonnie wasn’t to be fooled though and knew he meant the words as a threat rather than an idle comment.
“It doesn’t,” she returned forcibly. “He is just another good looking cowboy who needs to be cleaned up,” she continued.
“So glad that you know where we stand. If would be most unfortunate for both, if you were to develop any sympathies for him. He is to be taken care of for now, until his family are within striking distance. I intend to see him suffer a painful death in front of his father, Ben Cartwright,” Seline whispered coldly in her ear.
The mere feel of his closeness to her at the moment, wanting her to scream and retch. She knew better than to try and double-cross him or aid the young man in any way. Bonnie forced herself to hide her deep sense of loathing and hatred and ignore his attempts to threaten her.
On the outside, she knew she needed to show herself, calm, reserved and willing to obey his requests. On the inside, she had to remember why she took up his offer of money in the first place. The motive and incentive that drove her to betray who she really was and her longing for things to be the way they once had been before Marchant Seline entered her life.
Bonnie turned her attentions away from Seline back to the young cowboy she was paid to take care of. Seline continued to watch for a few more minutes, but then left, knowing that his words would be enough to keep her loyal and trustworthy until he had no further use for her.
She was once again alone with Joe Cartwright, once again taking up the cloth from the fresh basin of warm water and continuing her administrations. The young man began to moan a little and shift of the bed, indicating that he was coming back out of the foggy grey cloud that had held him unconscious for so long.
Bonnie was quite relieved that Joe was starting to come around. She moistened the cloth again and wiped it gently across his forehead to hasten the process. Joe began turning his head on the pillow and he tried to lift his arm off the bed.
“Pa………..,” came the words from his lips, barely a whisper and laced with a grimace at the resulting throb in his head from the effort.
“Shhhh……….,” Bonnie cooed to him softly, continuing to use the cloth and allowing him to awake at his own pace. “It’s alright Mr Cartwright, just open your eyes slowly now.”
However, Joe heard himself being addressed as Mr Cartwright and instantly knew that something wasn’t right. His father certainly wouldn’t address him that way. Now he came to thinking harder, even without opening his eyes, everything around him felt foreign.
The confusion began to show more openly on his face and Joe made an even greater effort to open his eyes to see where he was. The room’s air smelt a little musty, as if the windows had been closed for a long time and the furnishings not given sufficient time to breathe. Instead, they retained a stagnate stench, once that made his stomach become nauseous .
“Mr Cartwright,” Bonnie said, as she saw the emerald green eyes looking back at her pale blue ones. The young man’s eyes were barely open, but showed a great deal of pain and were glazed with uncertainty and unfamiliarity.
“Who are you?” came the brief question through parched lips from Joe.
“Can you sit up for a moment and I will give you a drink of water,” Bonnie said, ignoring the question and seeing the young man’s need to drink rather than talk.
Joe didn’t respond right away, finding it difficult to make his limbs obey his intentions because of the painful headache that was assaulting him at present. Grimacing and groaning loudly at the sharp pain that coursed through his skull, Joe finally managed to pull himself up on his elbows, but no further.
How he had become so weakened he couldn’t rightly remember for a moment. But the more the headache plagued him, the more he began to think back and recall. He gratefully accepted the cup of water held at his mouth, drinking in large gulps at first, but a voice beside him commanding him to take it slower and in smaller amounts. His stomach also voiced it’s strong protest, churning as the liquid ran down the back of his throat and settled uneasily.
Joe eventually turned his head away when the cup was half-empty, not trusting his voice to be able to convey that he had drunk enough. The nauseousness was becoming even harder to ignore and he wondered if the water would stay down.
Bonnie recognized that he had had his fill. She had wanted to see if he would take a small amount of the salted soup she had ordered from the hotel’s kitchen. Upon seeing him blanche a few shades paler from the water in his stomach, she erred on the side of caution and deemed that food could wait a little longer.
Joe had his eyes closed at the moment as he tried to concentrate on the incessant pain in his head and the urge to throw up coming from his stomach. He opened them briefly and saw the face of a young woman. He recalled asking her something as he woke, but now, the pain had taken away any memory of what the question had been.
The young man was growing more and more confused as the minutes ticked by, but also the pain in his head made him feel increasingly restless. He had an urge to escape the closeness of the air in the room surrounding the bed. Bonnie had moved to put the cup back on the bed-side table, not realising that her patient had any thoughts of getting up.
Joe threw back the covers from the bed, barely acknowledging that they had been laying over his body. He swung his legs over to the side of the strange bed and went to use his arms as support to pulling himself into a standing position.
It had taken almost all of his strength to do this and his limbs were trembling terribly from the exertion. By now he had managed to put his feet upon the floor and had made it to a partially erect position when Bonnie looked over to gasp in alarm at what he was doing.
“Oh no, no, no,” she said and hurried to the other side of the bed, just in time to grab a hold of his shoulders before he toppled over unceremoniously on his face. “You can’t be out of bed, Mr Cartwright. You have a nasty head wound and have only just opened your eyes. You certainly shouldn’t be trying to get out of bed.”
Bonnie found that as she spoke, her grip on the young man’s shoulders needed to become tighter and tighter. Joe didn’t speak and his face was dreadfully pale. His breathing sounded raspy and rather laboured. Joe had tried to raise his hands up to help support himself and pull the restraining arms from around him, but his arms fell back at his sides limply as the dizziness hit with staggering force.
“Oh………..,” Joe gasped out loud as he felt the full impact of dizziness. The room seemed to be tilting on its side and he groped out aimlessly for something to hold onto to prevent himself collapsing. “S-so ……….d-dizzy…..,” he mumbled, resting his head against Bonnie’s upper arm.
Bonnie was trying to coax him into sitting back on the edge of the bed, when gravity took pity on Joe and made his legs fold underneath him. The small amount of strength he had since waking was almost spent. He tried to drag his heavy eyes up towards the person supporting him, but could not do so.
“Where am I,” Joe tried to mouth as Bonnie pushed him back slowly onto the bed. That action was all that was need though to upset his already weakened stomach. His face took on a slightly greyish appearance and the young woman moved quickly to gather the half-filled basin of water from the bed-side table.
Bonnie barely had time to put in underneath his chin and rest the basin on his thighs, when Joe vomited the small amount of water in his stomach into the bowl. His body determined to drag out the punishment even further, continue to make him retch until he no longer had any contents in his stomach.
Seline chosen that particular moment to come into the room once more. He walked over to the bed and was dismayed at the appearance of his captive.
“Here, help me!” Bonnie shouted, forgetting for a moment that he was her employer. She thrust the basin of murky water at him as she tried to readjust her tenuous hold on Joe.
Seline didn’t react to her curt order, instead placing the bowl on the table as she demanded, turning his face away from the revolting odour. He now helped her support the young man’s upper body. Bonnie got off the edge of the bed, allowing Seline to help her lay Joe down across the covers.
Joe had tried to mutter something further, his eyes barely open to slits now, and having no more energy to even feel embarrassed at his current condition among total strangers. Bonnie and Seline felt the young man sag in their grip and loose consciousness, his head lolling to the side and his face slackening.
“Make sure he is on his side; if he is sick again, at least he won’t choke,” Bonnie informed to Seline. The man nodded his agreement and they adjusted the position of Joe’s upper torso and legs so that he was laying on his side.
“He is a little more under the weather than I perhaps anticipated,” Seline thought out loud, contemplating what would happen if they were forced to nurse the young man longer than he had planned.
“Nauseousness is very common with head injuries,” Bonnie informed him, hoping he would only be interested in her comments for their medical basis. “He was somewhat dizzy, but that and the vomiting are usual and easily treatable should they occur.”
“I trust your judgment until the doctor returns tomorrow, Bonnie,” Seline remarked. “I will leave him in your capable care until then. Let me know if you have need of anything to aid in his recovery. We must still try and hold to our original plan. Straying too far from it now could be dangerous for both you and I as well as Joseph Cartwright.”
“Thank you, but I believe if we simply allow him to sleep, his body will be much more healed by morning,” Bonnie stated. The young woman now made to change the basin of water and gather a fresh supply of linens for the room should they be required later. She left Seline alone with Joe while she carried out such tasks.
Seline heard the click of the front door of the hotel room, knowing that the woman had gone to get more water and such. He now looked down at the young man, asleep before him. This was his first real opportunity away from others that he was able to gaze at him and ponder what could have been.
The young man’s build was slight, just like Marie’s had been. He had a well-muscled torso and chest, bronzed by the sun and hardened from many hard days ranch work.
Seline only saw that as another insult thrown in his face by Ben Cartwright.
In his world, Marie and her children would never had had to work so hard to earn their living. Everything they could have ever desired or wanted of a material nature could have been provided. He had the money to do and the power and resources to demand anything.
Joe’s hair was the same colour as Marie’s, falling in soft curls about his ears and forehead, just like he remembered hers doing. He could recall a few occasions when his fingers had ached to merely brush them back from her pretty face. Had he done so, no doubt, there would have been a scowl of disapproval from her emerald green eyes to match.
He had promised her the world, many times over. And yet she shunned him, ignoring his words that she should seek a better life away from that promised with Ben Cartwright. Marie had told him that they could never be more than friends, even though he had tried to convince her many times of that not being true. Especially after Jean’s death.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Seline could see the accusing words from Marie that he had somehow been involved in Jean’s premature demise. Although he had wished on many occasions that he be her husband and not Jean, that was a death that he could not confess to. He had been nowhere near Jean on the night of his death.
Seline brought himself back to reality and forced himself to remember the reason for which he had kidnapped Joseph. He wanted Ben Cartwright to pay for all those days of suffering that he had endured when Marie had left. He would make Ben pay a very dear price indeed for taking away the woman he claimed to love.
Seline stormed from the room, just as Bonnie was re-entering it. The young woman wondered what had caused him to seem so angry all of a sudden, considering the only other person in the room was sleeping from exhaustion.
Joe’s condition seemed no worse from when she had left the room. Joe was still turned on his side; his colour had improved a little, his face no longer holding onto the earlier greyish complexion.
Bonnie pulled up the covers and draped them loosely about his shoulders, knowing she still needed to be vigilant for any further problems for the rest of the day. As she took up a observation point in a wooden chair beside the bed to watch over Joe, she began to wonder who this young man really was.
She had heard him call out to his Pa in his incoherent mutterings, but who was this family that he searched for in his moment of need? Where they looking for him, wondering what had happened to him? Surely someone had begun missing him already and started a search for him. Where were they now?
Back on the stage coach, the group of weary travellers had stopped for their second night. Ben had lost all interest in the surrounding landscape. He had barely spoken a word since telling Adam and Hoss of his previous dealings with Marchant Seline.
Adam and Hoss had forced their father to join them in a much needed hot meal that night, noting that Ben had rarely eaten anything whilst the coach was moving.
Tonight was not all that much better, the plate before their father, laden with a thick, meaty stew. It was rich and hot, leaving a content feeling on the inside of Hoss’s stomach after a miserable day of travelling.
Adam had not had much appetite than his father. For the sake of concentrating on finding Joe and knowing there would be a time in the not too distant future that he would sorely be needed, that he ate as required, not really tasting any of it as it went down with a small bread roll and some water.
Ben’s plate was barely touched, aimlessly he used his fork to drift above the gravy, in and around the peas and potatoes. His thoughts were miles away from their current location, wondering if his son was being afforded the luxury of eating tonight.
“Looks like someone else we know, doesn’t he, Hoss,” Adam jibed at his younger brother. He had seen another family member do much the same motions with his meals when he was worried about something or trying to hide his feelings at the dinner table.
Ben’s attention was brought back to the small way-station, noting from the amused expression on Adam’s face that he was the current topic of discussion. He smiled apologetically, knowing he was not much company for either of his sons this night.
“What were you saying Adam?” Ben asked politely, not having heard any of the comment. His demeanour told a story of not being interested in anything that was going on around him.
“He was saying that you look like someone else we know when you are worried or concerned about something at the dinner table,” Hoss informed his father. What Adam and Ben didn’t know was that apart from the stew being delicious and warming to the stomach, it was also a source of comfort to cure his own concerns about his missing younger brother.
“Oh, and who would that be, young man?” Ben said matter-of-factly, a shadow of a smile gracing his lips. He knew exactly who his two sons were talking about and what they were trying to say in encouragement. He had noticed Joseph doing just what he had been doing moments ago on many occasions when he didn’t want to talk or share his feelings. Like father, like son, he thought inwardly to himself with pride and a touch of sadness.
“Don’t worry Pa, we will find him,” Hoss said, knowing that his words held an empty meaning right about now. His own smile faded as the three of them lost themselves in thought about where their son and brother could while they sat around the table comparing his personal traits and behaviours.
“I know son, I
know,” Ben said, reaching over and giving Hoss’s
large hand an awkward squeeze for reassurance. “Tomorrow is a new day and one closer to
Joe. We should be at one of the last
way-stations before
The night came and went quickly at the way-station, making way for another long torturous day by stagecoach to the next stop. It was barely sun-rise when the three weary passengers climbed back into the coach and covered their eyes and faces with their hands and hats as the horses headed out once more on the dusty trail.
Ben and his boys had been travelling on the stage coach for a good three hours, before Joe had begun stirring in the hotel room where he was forcibly being held.
Bonnie had been by herself again for most of the morning so far. Seline had come by very early, but the woman had nothing unusual to report, telling the man that Joe had slept undisturbed most of the night. Joe had woken on two occasions for a drink of water, but had scarcely recognized his surroundings and gave no indication that he was any the wiser of what had befallen him.
Thankfully, he had had no further bouts of sickness. Long enough for him to accept some soup being spooned to him. Joe enjoyed the salty taste, though he baulked at any more than a quarter of what was offered, still a little afraid that he would bring it back up again.
As he ate the soup and looked back at Bonnie, despite the headache that was still present, Joe found his thoughts a little more coherent today and he began to analyse his lodgings and ask himself who these strangers were.
Joe had gingerly reached up and inspected the area on his temple that bore the wound, wincing a little as the swelling was still present and a touch to the bruising reigniting the pain. Joe inwardly asked himself his name and was pleased that he seemed able to answer. He knew himself to be Joseph Cartwright. There were a few other areas that were currently a little hazy, like why he was in a strange hotel and how he had gotten there.
“Who are you?” Joe asked, a little more understanding of the question today than when he had first asked.
“My name is Bonnie, that is all you ever need no,” she snapped, a little more harshly then she would have liked. She tried to cover her mistake by getting off the bed hurriedly and clearing away the breakfast dishes.
“Sorry if I offended you, but I need to know why I am here and how I got here in the first place,” Joe commented. The conversation was halted from proceeding further when the front door came open and Seline proudly strode in.
“You don’t need to know any more that I decide to tell you, Mr Cartwright,” Seline said sternly. Edwards and Yeager were not far behind him, ready to do their employer’s bidding.
Joe’s eyebrows quirked together as his brain tried to recall who this man was. He seemed to remember Seline’s face leaning over him, but couldn’t place where for a moment. His head was still aching fiercely, and he opened his mouth to protest when the memory came back to him.
Joe remembered the pain as he had been struck from behind and then saw in his mind, the second blow to begin descending towards his head. “YOU!” Joe declared hotly, as he tried to wrench free from the covers on the bed.
“You were hired by ME!” Joe shouted at Edwards and Yeager, pointing an accusing finger at each of them, recognising them from the horse drive. Before Joe could take more than a step from the bed towards them, Edwards and Yeager had grabbed one of his arms each in order to subdue him with a curt nod from Seline.
“Let me go!” Joe yelled, only to have Edwards strike him hard across the face to hold his tongue. “Get off me,” he roared again, angry at having been deceived and restrained.
What he didn’t like to admit is the dizziness that had begun to plague him from such sudden and vigorous movement. His body was still not co-operating as he would like and the strike to his face had almost sent him reeling back onto the bed behind him.
Another desperate effort to release the vice like grip on his arms and Joe found
himself dashing towards the door, roughly shoving Seline and Bonnie out of the way as he tried to stumble his way to the door.
Joe’s gait was anything less than graceful, reaching out to grab a hold of any furniture nearby to keep from losing his footing. His balance was unsteady and his legs were beginning to feel like lead weights already, even after only a few steps towards the door.
“Get him!” Seline roared, as he picked himself up off the floor. He man was beyond mad and aimed to make Joe Cartwright pay for that most grave mistake.
Yeager made a flying leap and tackled Joe around the ankles, bringing him crashing to the hard wooden floor. Joe almost blacked out as his head made contact with the floor, making his headache grow to new heights of pain and giddiness.
Joe shook his head, trying to clear the rapidly descending cloud. He raked his fingers along the floor as Yeager began pulling him back by his legs. Despite his best, but futile attempts at struggling, Yeager soon managed to grasp both of Joe’s arms and pin him down.
Yeager was straddling Little Joe, sitting on his legs, making any further attempts to rise and escape out of the question. Joe didn’t think he had the strength to even lift his head right now.
Seline walked over to where Joe was laying on the floor, determined to give the young man a good swift hard kick in the ribs to consider what he had just done. He forced himself to hold back, knowing that any further inflicted punishment at this stage might prove fatal to the young man.
Instead, Seline walked over to Little Joe and took a good handful of curly hair and pulled his head upwards for emphasis. “I own you, Cartwright. Don’t you forget it!”
“You don’t get to do anything without my say so,” Seline continued, occasionally shaking Joe head to see if he was hearing his harsh words. Even if Joe was hearing the words, he couldn’t be sure if he was comprehending their meaning. Joe’s eyes were glazed over in pain and barely open.
It wasn’t but a few minutes later as Seline continued barking his list of rules at Joe that the young man lost the tenuous hold he had on consciousness. Grateful to be able to fall away and drown in the darkness away from light and pain.
“Get him back on that bed over there,” Seline said to Yeager and Edwards. “Make sure you tie him up this time. He will probably be just as un-cooperative when he wakes. I want to check on the arrangements for the boat before the doctor comes.”
Seline chose this moment to leave the room and leave Joe in the hands of the others in the room.
Bonnie forced herself to turn away from the rough treatment Joe was forced to endure. The two men dragged his inert form up onto the mattress, not being too mindful of any injuries he might have already sustained. Edwards took a long length of thin, but strong twine and cut it in half with a pocket knife. He handed the second piece to Yeager, standing on the other side of the bed.
Edwards and Yeager now secured Joe’s limp wrists together, being a little more lenient in leaving them bound in front of him instead of behind his back or to the bed’s head-board.
Yeager now pulled out a checkered handkerchief and moved towards the unconscious Joe, ready to secure it around his mouth. They couldn’t take any risks about him being able to call out for help or inform someone else in the hotel of his captivity in the room.
Bonnie looked at
the restrained and gagged form of Joe Cartwright with a heavy feeling within
her. Somehow she already knew that the
young man was going to be much more difficult to handle once he came awake
again. The sooner they left here for
Two more long
torturous days in the stage coach, choking on dust saw Ben and his two eldest son’s approaching a small building. This was to be their last stop for the day
and the last one before arriving in
The sign above the
doorway read: PEAKS CROSSING
“Seems to be a well maintained little place, don’t it Pa?” Hoss commented as he looked around at the corrals and a small barn. The area was clean and well looked after.
“Hank Sullivan is my name folks,” a man introduced himself. “If you will be so kind as to follow my wife Lillian into the homestead, she can show you to your room for the night and then rustle you up a nice hot meal after your long trip.”
Ben nodded his thanks, too weary at this point in time to introduce himself or his sons. They would do so once they reached the dining room and the meal. They wanted the luxury of having some soap and water to clean themselves first and remove some of the smell of the trip from their clothes.
Roughly forty minutes later, Adam and Hoss, followed by their father walked into the dining room where Lillian Sullivan greeted them warmly and with a smile. She beckoned each of them to come forward and join together at the well laden table she had prepared.
“It’s not very much gentleman, but like I tell all my travellers, it is nice and hot and there is plenty of it,” she said in introduction. “I am sorry, I don’t seem to know your names yet.”
“I apologize Miss Sullivan, my name is Hoss, this is my older brother Adam and this is my father Ben Cartwright,” Hoss felt comfortable in the small homestead and found himself making the address when normally his father would have completed such introductions.
“Cartwright?” Lillian Sullivan repeated, pausing a moment as she seemed to remember the name recently having crossed her path. “Cartwright?” she said to herself again, drawing her brows together in a questioning glance. Her husband noted her expression and came over to the group, wondering what his wife was having trouble in recalling.
“Everything all right, Lil’?” Hank asked innocently, placing a reassuring arm on his wife’s shoulders.
“Oh nothing to be concerned about Hank, this gentlemen just introduced themselves as Cartwright’s. I thought that named sounded familiar for some reason,” Lil said with no ill felt towards the three men.
“Wasn’t that the name of that young cowboy who came through here about a week ago? He had all those horses with him and those fellows,” Hank said, thinking back to that time.
“Oh that’s right, nice young fellow too. Very handsome I must say, even if he didn’t take to liking you right away after the comment you made,” Lillian poked in fun.
Ben definitely gained more interest in the conversation at this point. He was bursting to ask all of the questions that their generalised remarks had caused. “Please, my name is Benjamin Cartwright as you have heard. We desperately need to know more about this young man that you are talking about. I think he might be my son, Joseph.”
“Yeah, Joe, that was his name,” Hank agreed, seeing the worry and concern on the silver-haired man’s face. “How about we sit down and you can ask anything you like,” he now suggested, thinking that talking in the middle of the dining room like they were might draw undue attention from other patrons.
Ben didn’t want to delay anymore than they had to, but saw sense in Hank’s words and did as he bid, all five of them sitting down to talk over the piping hot plates of stew, bread rolls and jugs of beer.
“If you don’t mind Lillian and I learning more about your family, Mr Cartwright,” Hank began. “Like I said, about a week ago, a young man came through here, with a team of horses he was leading with a few other men. We didn’t talk to all of them, just the young man himself and the other two hands he brought in here with him, Douglas and Nichols.”
“Joseph is my
youngest son,” Ben explained. “He has a
curly head of hair and green eyes. A
couple of days ago, we had suspicions that something unto ought might have
happened to him after he left here and reached
“What sort of suspicions, Mr Cartwright?” Lil asked, seeing how distressed this man seemed to be in the belief that his youngest son was in trouble. Something in her heart went out to him. She wanted to help in any way they could.
“Please call me Ben. It’s rather difficult to explain how I come to know that something has happened to Joseph. Let’s just say that someone I knew a long time ago showed up at an opportune moment. He has certain past issues with myself and my late wife, Marie.” Ben said, knowing how strange it sounded that his hunches were based more on gut feelings rather than actual proof.
“My brother and
father share a bond that is special,” Adam said, weighing into the
conversation. “But apart from that, on
the day we left on the stage, the local Sheriff brought a telegram to us from
the man Joe was supposed to meet in
“That telegram confirmed our deep seeded fears that something had happened to Joe,” Hoss stated. “My brother just wouldn’t miss something important like that unless something bad had happened to him.”
“Oh, Mr Cartwright,
I mean Ben, I just don’t know what to say.
The whole situation seems so awful.
I would hate to think anything had happened to that nice young man. Especially after all of the trouble he had
here that night, before he even left for
“Joe had trouble
here too?” Hoss said, seeing the question already on Ben’s face. This admission only added to their concerns
and fears even more. Had the trouble or
conspiracy against Joe started before he even reached
“Those two fellas he was with, what were their names?” Hank asked, briefly interrupting his train of thought.
“Douglas and Nichols,” Adam stated matter-of-factly, his features turning a little darker at the thought that these two men had had any hand in his brother’s probable disappearance.
‘Yeah, that’s them. They came in here that night and there was a disturbance and argument about how much they were supposed to drink and what they were to drink. There seemed to be some major animosity between them even before that night, but I never did ask,” Hank continued.
“Somehow that
doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Ben said grimly.
“There was an air of jealousy and contempt on Mark Douglas’s part that
he had to follow Joe’s orders. That was
apparent even before they left the ranch.
Nichols just followed whatever
“Yeah, and I guess
I didn’t help things along either Ben, when you son first turned up here. I addressed one of the other men, that
“What happened over the drinking Hank?” Hoss asked, wanting to continue on.
“Joe told the men
that they were only to consume beer that night and to keep it to a few at the
most. Said they had a long trip the
next day to
“Sounds like Joe’s way of operation on a drive,” Adam commented. “His methods might sound a little unorthodox, but he likes the men to keep sober and their minds on the drive. He lets them get away with a few indiscretions, like a beer or two but he won’t let them drink anything stronger until the drive is finished.”
“That
“Did Joe retaliate?” Ben asked plainly, knowing that his son’s temper was sometimes he downfall when pushed over the limit. Especially when other factors were involved, like tiredness and the stress of the long drive and the journey they still had to make the next day. Matters back at home where no doubt weighing on Joe’s mind as well during the drive. The issues that he and Joe had talked about and his demands to wanting some space to find himself.
“No,
not by punching him. He got a little angry, for sure. But he handled it a little differently, and
I’d say he made that
“What did Joe do?” Hoss asked, thinking the conversation was going all around without really coming to a point that proved useful in finding him safe.
“Joe fired them. Plain and simple. Told them that they didn’t work for him anymore,” Hank replied.
“Well, that would have been the correct thing to do, but under the circumstances that would have left him a little short handed for the drive,” Ben commented. He was proud of the way Joe had handled the situation, knowing that he would have done exactly the same thing. Joe seemed to be making all the right decisions without any interference or suggestion from his family.
“Yes it would have, but that’s when those two other men came into the picture,” Hank said, then realising that he had completely forgotten to mention Yeager and Edwards at all.
“What other two men?” the Cartwrights asked in unison, a little dismayed that Sullivan had left out such an important piece of information.
“When Joe first came into the dining room table, there were two men already sitting at a table. They seemed to be keeping pretty good tabs on him since he arrived. Joe got a little edgy over it and a little uneasy with them watching him without a reason. He went over and confronted them, though they didn’t admit to what they were doing,” Sullivan explained.
“They struck up a conversation as it was and Joe seemed to relax a little and they were talking along fine. They introduced themselves and that’s when he noticed the trouble starting to brew with Douglas and the other man,” Hank continued.
“And how do these
two men come into the picture after Joe fired Douglas and Nichols?” Ben asked
cautiously, already not liking where this conversation was headed. There were too many people coming into this
situation that didn’t belong or whose motives were unknown. If these two strangers were indeed watching
Joe like Sullivan suggested; why and
what was their involvement with Joe’s disappearance in
“Well, that’s where
Joe found he had the luxury to fire those two men.
“Joe offered the jobs to these other two men. Both of them admitted that they had some minimal riding experience, so Joe reshuffled the order a bit and put a couple of the other riders in where Douglas and his partner had been and put these other two men in the other two new vacant positions. They wouldn’t have been as good I suppose, but your son seemed satisfied that he would be able to complete the trip,” Hank said surmising at the reasons behind Joe’s actions.
“What else can you tell us Mr Sullivan, though you have already told us a great deal? There are a lot more questions to be asked, and it sounds like Joe had some mighty big trouble before he even left here,” Hoss asked.
“Joe gave the horses from the two he fired to the two newcomers and they rode out of here early the next morning like he planned. Ain’t much more to add than that. I don’t have any other information about who the two he hired were. I think one of them was called Edwards or something, but the other one had a funny sounding name. I can’t remember what it was, sorry,” Hank said in apology.
Later that night, Ben and his two boys tried to mull over in their minds all of the information they had received from the Sullivan’s and work out what it meant in relation to Joe’s disappearance in San Francisco. Somehow since leaving the Ponderosa, Joe had fired Douglas and Nichols after some major disagreement. There possibly could have been some other trouble even before they reached Peaks Crossing.
At Peaks Crossing, two new suspects came into play, apparently watching Joe from a distance until they were confronted. These two men ended up being hired by Joe in lieu of Douglas and Nichols. Had the two new hands planned any of this? It seemed a long shot, with too many variables. But it did hold a little water in the fact that they had been observing beforehand.
No doubt there were
many more questions to be asked once they reached
Seline was behind Joe’s disappearance. Ben was sure of that much, but what of these other men? Were any of them in Seline’s employ? What had happened to Douglas and Nichols after they left Peaks Crossing?
Together, Adam,
Hoss and their father worked out a rough plan of attack once they reached
Even once his two sons had gone to sleep that night, Ben lay awake for quite some time thinking about everything that he had heard. Obviously Seline’s hand had a very long reach indeed. Just how far this man was willing to go to hurt himself using Joe was a guess. He just hoped they could gain some more valuable information soon enough and find Joe.
Ben made one final promise before he drifted off, “I will find you Joseph!”
***************************************************************
During the time that Ben had been travelling to Peaks Crossing and finding out about the events that had transpired with Douglas and Nichols, Joe was still being kept prisoner in the hotel room under Seline’s control.
His body had protested the loudest after his struggle with Edwards and Yeager and for the majority of that day he had slept. Only waking occasionally to be allowed sips of water and a few mouthfuls of broth spooned to him from Bonnie.
The bonds on his wrists were not removed, even at meal times and by the second day of being in place, had begun to chafe the skin red and raw. He had pulled at them a few times, trying to demonstrate his discomfort to Bonnie and Seline. His complaints and suffering though went mostly unnoticed even ignored for the vast majority of time.
Seline had contacted Doctor Wilson had told him not to attend Joe until
the next day upon his instruction. The
doctor now knocked on the door to the hotel room at
Once inside the room, the doctor had to conceal his shock at the prisoner’s state of captivity. He now saw the young man’s hands restrained and a gag placed in his mouth. Although he had suggested some form of preventing his escape upon his last visit, he had no idea that his words would be taken so literally, or that the methods used would be so brash and harsh.
Even a lay man would be able to see that the young man was suffering, both from the head wound, which seemed to have bled slightly again. There was also some obvious chafing to his wrists that would become more painful should the cord remain so tight for any more prolonged period of time.
Joe’s eyes were open as the doctor walked in and the physician was forced to turn away from the pain glazed eyes for fear of giving his disdain away at such abuse and harsh treatment. The patient’s breathing was a little laboured, but overly so. Probably more so from the gag being in place and being forced to breathe in and out of his nose rather than the head wound being a direct cause.
The young man tried to gain the doctor’s attention as he examined him under Seline’s orders. Joe wanted the man to help him get away, even if he was hired by Seline. Joe was hoping that his level of suffering would be suitably noted by the doctor and he would take pity on his patient and demand that he be released.
“We are leaving now,” Seline informed the doctor, knowing that this little piece of information was new to both Joe and the doctor. “I want you to administer the sedative as soon as possible so that we can load him onto the river boat and be gone from here within the hour.”
Joe’s eyes widened in alarm at Seline’s candid admission to the doctor to sedate him. If he was drugged he wouldn’t be able to control anything that happened to him. Seline was talking about travelling by river boat. To where Joe didn’t know, but anywhere would take him further away from a possible escape and his family.
In response, Joe began twisting the knots around his wrists to see if he could gain any loosening at all. He slumped back in defeat when the pain from his efforts and the headache assaulted him with fresh stabs of pain.
“Now?”
“I do not need to advise you of any changes in my plans, doctor,” Seline warned ominously. “The original plans have been altered due to unforeseen circumstances, but we can delay leaving no more. I want him sedated now so that we can leave.”
“Alright, I will do as we spoke of, but I don’t like it,” Wilson said, now concentrating on a bottle of clear fluid from his black bag and inserting a syringe to draw forth the drug.
Joe twisted in futile again with his bonds as the fear within him began to grow even more. He tried to catch Bonnie’s attention, but she had already distanced herself from the immediate vicinity and kept a low profile within the room until her presence was required further.
Doctor Wilson was carefully measuring the amount of drug that would be needed, once again looking over to the victim and gauging the correct dosage according to his weight and build.
“Double it!” Seline said firmly to the doctor, noting how everyone in the room stop mid-breath at his suggestion. None of them wanted to believe that he was even remotely serious.
“Are you mad?”
“Will it kill him if it is double?” Seline asked, wanting to know the risks of what he proposed.
“Well, no,”
“Than what are you waiting for, do as I say,” Seline said angrily, taking a firm grip on the doctor’s hand that didn’t contain the syringe and twisting it slightly for emphasis. “I didn’t ask you to become involved for any other reason than your medical opinion, doctor. You have been paid to keep your mouth shut about this whole deal. Not to cross me or tell me that you object.”
With a shaking hand, and genuine fear for his own life, the doctor continued to draw the liquid from the bottle, until it was double as Seline wanted. He put the bottle back in his black bag and now walked over to the patient with almost an apologetic look in his eyes. It should never have come to this, he told himself inwardly.
Joe fought against the doctor as the man tried to hold his upper arm still long enough to administer the sedative. He didn’t know exactly what was in the syringe, but he knew that he couldn’t allow them to drug him and take control. He had to put up as much fight as possible.
“I can’t hold him
still long enough,”
“Get over there and hold him,” Seline directed Edwards and Yeager who had been standing in the doorway to the bedroom of the hotel suite.
“No you can’t do this!” Joe screamed through the gag, not being able to make the words come out any louder than muffled jargon. “No, get away from me!”
“I am sorry son,”
Joe grimaced at the resulting skin, still trying weakly to struggle, but all of his energy was now spent. He didn’t have any fight left in him. The doctor slowly started to deliver the drug into his system through the needle, depleting the contents of the syringe a little at a time.
“Don’t do this………. please…………,” came a barely muffled cry from Joe, loud enough to be heard and understood by the doctor.
As the doctor began to slide the needle out of Joe’s arm, the effects were already beginning to show. Joe could feel his body becoming heavier and heavier. His muscles no longer had the capacity to obey even his slightest will. A fog started to drift over him, impairing his vision until it became blurring and unfocused.
Joe felt as though he was floating. His eyes already closing under the heavy demand of slumber. It only took a second more for Joe to fall completely under the drug’s intoxicating effects. His body went lax under Edwards hold and his head lolled to the side. Joe Cartwright knew no more.
“I have done what
you asked,”
Seline nodded his head curtly at Yeager to bar any attempt at leaving the room
that the doctor might have taken. He had already surmised from the doctor’s reluctance and questioning attitude that he would no longer be of any use to his plans. The doctor had to be eliminated due to his knowledge and his potential to go to the authorities and tell his version of the story.
Doctor Wilson had his back turned to Seline as he prepared to put the tools of his trade back in their place and leave. Unfortunately he didn’t realise Seline was behind him until it was too late.
With a gloved hand, Seline covered the doctor’s mouth to prevent his screams and then plunged a long serrated knife into the man’s back. He held the doctor upright until the dead weight slumped in his gasp, signalling the doctor had succumbed to an untimely and premature demise.
Bonnie’s eyes were wide with shock and fear. She saw the man was dead, but
didn’t dare say anything against Seline in case the same was to be her own fate. Seline made it quite clear at this point in time that he was playing for keeps and the penalty that any in his employ risked if they crossed him.
Edwards and Yeager hid their fear well, their expressions blank and their hands remaining at their side. They didn’t bat an eye at such a horrific and blood-thirsty death.
“Get rid of the body,” Seline instructed, dropping the knife with a cruel casualness and then ritually going about removing his blood-stained gloves. “Take the knife and these with you. Make sure that it never gets back to me.”
Without a word, Yeager and Edwards did as he asked and between them, began moving the doctor’s dead body into a corner of the room until it could be disposed of once the hallways were clear of hotel patrons.
Seline now eyed the contents of the late doctor’s black bag. He knew that the remaining vial of sedative would prove most useful in the future. There were a few other vials that he recognized, some could be used, others were of little value.
“Take this with us when we leave,” he said to Bonnie, handing her the bag and its contents. “Make sure our guest is sufficiently warm. Take extra blankets with us if necessary. We will need to maintain a regular body temperature during his state of forced sleep if we are to keep young Mr Cartwright alive long enough to use against his father.”
“The next stage of my plan is about to go into affect,” Seline stated. “Ben Cartwright, say goodbye to your precious Joseph.”
TO BE CONTINUED………………………………
Author’s Footnotes – Okay – Joe has not had a whole lot to say in
this chapter, and further more his part in this chapter is somewhat in the
shadow, but I promise he will be more prevalent in future chapters.
As you can probably see already, Bonnie’s
character is a little confusing
as to which side of the
fence she is on. That is mainly because
she doesn’t
really know herself at this
point in time. Her background has been
touched on in this chapter and may be further enhanced in later chapters.
The scenes with Hank and Lillian Sullivan are a diversion from the
original idea I had. I didn’t always
have Ben and his boys finding out about Douglas and Nichols getting fired –just
sort of wrote itself alone with everything else that I have added.
The scenes with Joe being sick from his head injury are also new
additions. Basically this chapter was
supposed to let you know how Seline
and Ben knew each other and Seline’s motivation for wanting to kidnap Joe.
The doctor’s role was supposed to be a longer one with him
travelling
with them to
unplanned, but gives me a few more
ideas for the next chapter and how
Ben and the boys piece together Joe’s disappearance.
I have to sincerely thank Gwynne for her very helpful ideas about
the route that could be taken from
certainly gave way for this story
to become somewhat longer and more
involved. But I hope more intriguing and interesting at
the same time.
Thanks Gwynne. I really
appreciate you input and assistance.
The next chapter will see Seline and Joe
make their way slowly towards
them both. The revenge plot against Ben will take yet
another twist
Ben and his boys will try and piece together Joe’s last movements
and
where he is now.
In my original idea, Joe was never supposed to find out the real
reason
behind his kidnapping. But due to a change in travel plans, that is
about to happen. Also Ben will have a
most charming chat with an elderly lady while searching for his son that will
test his nerves and calm exterior.
Please let me know if you are reading this story so far.
JULES