The Anniversary
by
Janice Sagraves

ONE

Adam Cartwright sat bolt upright in bed, his dark skin wet and clammy. It had been ten months, give or take, since he’d had a dream like that and now he’d had it three straight nights. It always left him the same: perspiring and shaken with his heart desperately trying to outrun it. He ran his fingers back through his heavy, sweat-soaked hair and flopped back against his pillow breathing like he’d just run a mile. He knew he wouldn’t go back to sleep and was glad for it from fear of what could come if he did, although it never had more than once in a night. Still, there was a first time for everything.

*******

Hoss Cartwright stood near the hitch rail with what remained of his morning coffee. Breakfast was finished and most of the family would soon be starting on what chores they had lined up to do for the day, but that wasn’t what occupied his mind at the moment. His older brother, the black shirt long since shucked, was working at the anvil in front of the barn, the small hand sledge ringing through and disrupting the early quiet.

“He’s been like that for almost a week,” Joe Cartwright said as he stepped next to his decidedly larger brother. “He eats very little, works like a demon, hardly sleeps and if you don’t do just to suit ‘im he nearly takes your head off.”

“I know. He jumped all over me for leavin’ a curry comb layin’ yesterday like I’d just shot somebody.”

“And when was the last time you saw Stretch?”

Hoss glanced at his little brother. “Joe, somethin’s ridin’ him an’ ridin’ him hard.”

“Yeah, but what? Whenever I ask him about it I’ve learned to be ready to duck.”

“Well, last evenin’ Elroy didn’t, leastways, not fasternuff.”

Joe winced and sucked air through his teeth. “Ouch.”

“And we both know that Pa’s noticed.”

“He’s noticed,” Ben Cartwright said as he stepped between his sons.

“Pa,” Joe started, “we have to do something, he can’t go on like this. Sooner or later he’s gonna really hurt himself or somebody else with these flares of temper.”

“An’ you never know when he’s gonna have one ‘cause they come on so quick an’ at anytime over anything. He threw a bit at Elroy last night an’ he didn’t miss.”

“He’s not acting like Adam, or Stretch, for that matter.”

Ben had known from the beginning that something was tormenting his oldest son. He had become even more of a stranger and the thought that he would disappear all together frightened a father. “I know that. I’ve been thinking of talking to Paul about it.”

“Paul?” Joe said as he went perfectly pasty. “Pa, you don’t think he’s getting like Ross, do you?” He glanced at Adam working like a driven man. “I know something’s bothering him, but you don’t really think… Not Adam.”

Ben turned those fretful coffee eyes on him. “We all thought, ‘Not Ross’.”

This darkened Joe’s emerald eyes almost olive, and he looked to Hoss and saw barely a trace of blue. The thought that his brother could be going crazy had been there but he had fought to keep it down. Since what had happened to Ross Marquette they had all been wary, almost as if it were contagious.

“Pa, you really think…?”

“I don’t know, Joe,” Ben said as he rested his hands on his sons’ shoulders. “I just don’t know.” His gaze lingered on his oldest for a few seconds then he turned and went back into the house.

“Hoss, surely you don’t think he’s gonna be like Ross, do you?”

“I don’t know what to think…. Now let’s git to work. They ain’t enough hours in a day to git done what we havta an’ we’re standin’ here wastin’ ‘em.” Then he too went into the house, his coffee long forgotten.

Joe’s attention went back to Adam as the hammer relentlessly clanged against the anvil that he seemed to be taking out his angers on. As he watched, visions of the episode with the headstone the previous year rose before him. Then Adam had simply been fighting back the only way he could, and Joe hoped that was the case now. But fighting back against what? With a heavy sigh he went into the house, and Adam hadn’t even noticed they were there.

*******

It had been a long morning and an unusually peaceful one. Paul Martin hadn’t had a single patient unless he counted himself after smashing his finger in a cabinet door. He let fly with a few choice blue words that would have been contained had a lady been present. That was one of the niceties about being a bachelor that a man could vent his wrath in whichever way he desired without worrying about offending feminine sensitivities.

He was just about to leave to get his dinner at the restaurant in the International House hotel when he heard a horse come into the yard. No one was expected and being a doctor he was used to folks coming to him at all hours without warning. He parted the curtains on the front door glass and looked out and who he saw alarmed him.

“Ben,” Paul said as he as he stepped out onto the porch. “Were you in town and just decided to come by or is this of a more serious nature.”

“I’m afraid it’s serious though I’m not sure how much,” Ben said as he stepped down and tethered Buck at the hitch rail. “And since I’m a bit pressed for time I’ll come right to it. It’s Adam.”

Paul felt his stomach fall into his feet. Since everything that Ben’s oldest son had been through last summer it had made the family jumpy, and he had to admit to some trepidation himself. “I’ll get my medical bag,” he said as he began buttoning his coat.

“It’s nothing like that, Paul,” Ben said as he came up to stand before him, “but it does have us all worried.”

“What’s wrong? Is he sick or in pain?”

“I wish it were that simple. The plain fact is, Paul, we don’t know what the problem is. He’s just not himself and hasn’t been for several days.” Ben took his hat off and smoothed back his silver hair. “The way he had changed when he got home was nothing compared to this.”

“Tell me about it?”

“I guess the best way to start is to just say that he’s become nearly impossible to live with. You have to watch what you say or do because if it doesn’t please him and very little does these days, he blows up. Last night one of the hands questioned him about something, and he threw a bit and hit the man. It led to nothing more than a beaut of a black eye but he doesn’t seem to be sorry about it.”

“Well, have you asked him about it?”

“We’ve all tried and he just becomes belligerent or simply stomps off. And that’s not the only thing. He and food have pretty much become strangers and sleep maybe even more. But the hard work, Paul, I’ve never seen anybody go at the hard work that way. I’m afraid that one of these days he’s just gonna drop.”

Paul’s firm jaw set and his blue-gray eyes locked with Ben’s. “And you’re asking my opinion?”

“I guess I am. Paul, I’m at my wit’s end, and you’re my last hope.”

“Well, I won’t know much without talking to him and even then I can’t make any promises. I don’t suppose you could talk him into coming to see me?”

Ben looked like the doctor had just suggested that he kill him own son. “He wouldn’t even listen to me when I tried telling him that he needed to get more rest.”

“I see. All right, I’ll tell what I’ll do. I’ve got to go check on Laurie Peterson and her new twins and on the way back I could swing by and talk to him. How does that sound?”

“If he will talk to you.”

“Well, I can be pretty persuasive when I want to,” Paul said with a wily grin.

“You haven’t seen him lately; if you had you’d probably back out.”

“Ben,” Paul reached out and reassuringly took his arm, “he’s been my patient since he was a boy, and he and his family have become dear friends. Even if I thought he might shoot me I would be neglecting my duty as a doctor and my friendship if I didn’t at least try.”

A gray, sullen cloud cast itself over Ben’s face. “That’s part of what frightens me to death…. The way he is now I’m not so sure he wouldn’t.”

TWO

It was late afternoon or early evening, however one wanted to look at it, when Paul Martin’s buggy stopped in front of the big roughhewn log house. Ben came across the porch as Paul worked his square frame out and met him half way.

“Am I ever glad to see you,” Ben said as he glanced nervously toward the barn.

“Why? Has he gotten worse?”

“No, but it’s been all we could do to keep him from riding out to the North pasture. We’d just about run out of reasons for him not to.”

“Where is he?”

By this time Hoss and Joe had come out and were standing with their father.

“In the barn mucking out the stalls,” Joe said.

“Then why don’t I just go on in and talk to him?”

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea, Doc?” Hoss asked. “Maybe one of us should come with you.”

“No, I think it’ll be better this way. I don’t want him to think we’re all ganging up on him. And I’ve found that sometimes a patient will talk better to me without others around. Besides, he’s not supposed to know that he is a patient, right?”

They stood and solemnly watched as the doctor walked across the yard.

Cleaning out the stalls was a back breaking, smelly job that became more rank with hot weather. Adam had been going since the crack of dawn and showed no signs of slowing down, though every fiber of him cried out for a respite. The shirt, which had been put back on, hung loose from his britches and unbuttoned down the front with the sleeves rolled past his elbows.

“Hard at work, I see,” Paul said as he left the day’s heat for the cool, shadowy interior of the barn.

Adam’s head shot up for a second but the work didn’t stop. “Well, somebody had to do it, and it’s been a little shy of volunteers.” He loaded a shovelful of dried manure and soiled straw into a wheelbarrow.

“I can understand why,” Paul said and rubbed his finger beneath his nose.

“I didn’t expect to see you today. Nothing wrong, I hope.” He scooped up more and deposited it in the same place.

“Nothing’s wrong, I just came out to check on the Peterson’s new arrivals, and I’m happy to say that mother and daughters are doing well.”

“That’s good,” Adam said with a grunt. “But that still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here.”

It was just like Adam Cartwright to pin him down. “Since I was already out this way I just thought I’d stop by and see how everybody’s doing.”

“I’ve got no complaints, I don’t know about anybody else.”

“That’s good to hear.” Paul crossed his arms over his chest and watched as Adam continued to work as if he weren’t even there. “It’s a little stuffy in here,” he said as he loosened his tie.

“Yes, Paul, it is,” Adam said tersely, “and if you’ve got something to ask me I wish you would because I’ve got work to do.”

“I don’t have any questions, I just thought that since I was already here I’d…” but the words died off as he suddenly found himself the object of an icy glare.

“You didn’t just come out here, did you? Who came to see you? Pa? Hoss? Joe? Well, you can just go right on back to town because there’s nothing wrong with me, I’ve never felt better. Maybe if I swung from the rafters like a monkey, that’d convince you.”

“Adam, there’s no reason…”

“To what, Paul? No reason to what? Maybe if I spelled it out somebody’d listen to me. I’m – all – right. Now if you don’t mind,” he returned to his job, “I still have plenty to do and the day isn’t getting any longer.”

Paul stepped forward and lightly touched his arm and the stark, cold look he found directed at him crawled over him. In all the years he had known this man he had never seen such a look in those dark, expressive eyes. Raising both hands defensively, he backed away and Adam went back at his chore with a vengeance.

Paul knew that was the end of the conversation so he left without another word. As he came out into the sunshine, he simply shook his head as he approached the family.

“Wouldn’t he talk to you?” Ben asked.

“He talked, but what he didn’t say spoke louder than what he did. There is definitely something wrong there, and I got that as much from what I saw in his eyes. But I don’t know what to tell you, Ben, this is out of my field.”

“Is my son losing his mind?”

“I wish I could say one way or the other, but I just don’t know enough.”

Adam stood just inside the doorway watching them from the gloom, his hand wrapped around the shovel’s handle as if to strangle it. He could feel a slow burn rising up along his spine and nibbling at the base of his skull. One of the things he dearly hated was for others to go behind his back and treat him as if incapable of taking care of things himself. For several minutes they continued to talk then the doctor got into his buggy and drove out. When he had gone the family went back inside.

“Enough,” he growled under his breath and let the implement drop then started to the house.

Ben and Hoss and Joe seemed to be milling aimlessly, uncertain of what to do next when the front door opened and slammed as if a gun had been put off in the room.

“All right, whose bright idea was that?” Adam stormed as they whirled to face him.

“It was mine,” Ben said strongly. “Son, we’re worried about you and we…”

“What? Don’t think I’m able to take care of myself?” Adam said as he stomped over to him.

“It’s not anything like that but we can all see that something’s bothering you.”

“You better believe something’s bothering me! You’re bothering me, the way you treat me like I’m six again!”

“Adam, it ain’t nothin’ like that.”

“And you keep out of this!” Adam snarled as he gave Hoss a fierce shove.

“You don’t have to take it out on your brother when it’s me you’re mad at.”

“That’s right, take his part like you always do! Like when he tried to kill me in the bunkhouse over that Miller woman! What was the first thing you asked me? Why was I fighting him! It couldn’t be the other way around!”

“Adam, that was two years ago,” Ben said as he reached out and got his hand slapped away for his trouble.

“I don’t care if it was two hundred; it just goes to prove my point that these two can do no wrong!” Then he reeled and bumped into Hoss. “Hoss, can’t you stay out of the way?” As he started out his eyes caught with Joe’s, who was standing by the bureau. “And I don’t need anything out of you either!” then he burst out and the door closed like an explosion.

The parlor seemed to be enveloped in a vacuum as they simply looked at each other in total bewilderment. There had been no cause for such an obvious overreaction and they didn’t know what to do or think. Ben turned to the dormant fireplace and hung his head and Hoss went to his father and put a large consoling hand on his back. Joe couldn’t decide if he was angry with his oldest brother or not but he knew he just couldn’t let this go.

Adam was in the barn cursing and grousing and throwing things when Joe came in. He had seen his brother irate before, but never anything like this.

“Does that make you feel any better?” Joe asked as a halter hit the wall.

But Adam continued to ignore him as he rampaged.

“Did it help for you to jump all over Pa and Hoss like that…? Adam, we only want to help.”

When he still didn’t get an answer he went over and took his brother’s arm, but he wasn’t prepared for the iron fist that came around and knocked him hard to the floor.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Adam shouted as he hovered over his little brother.

As Joe’s addled senses slowly began piecing themselves back together he became aware that someone was standing over him then, with a groan, Adam stomped out, leaving him where he lay. Shaking the buzzing bees from his head Joe sat up and made sure his jaw wasn’t broken.

Adam blustered back into the house and his long legs wound him toward the staircase. “Not a word! Not one word!” he said as he fanned his father and Hoss back.

They couldn’t look away as he took the stairs two at a time and disappeared down the hall. The windows seemed to rattle as his bedroom door got the same treatment as the front one. As they continued standing there Joe came in and joined them, still working his jaw.

“Joe, what’s wrong?” Ben asked as he noticed him.

“My older brother just flattened me out in the barn,” Joe said as he swiped back a lone dark brown curl.

“Adam hit you?”

“He sure did and it was like getting kicked in the face.”

“He’s never laid a hand on either of you before,” Ben said as he moved closer to the bottom step. “I wish I knew what’s bothering him so I could do something about it?”

“I been doin’ some thinkin’ about that. Tomorrow’s the sixth, ain’t it?”

“Yes, it is,” Ben said as he turned back to his sons. “But what does that have to do with this?”

“We found that feller we thought was Adam on the thirteenth, and he’d been in the ground for three days, which woulda been the tenth, and it took ‘im three or four days to git here, which woulda been the sixth or seventh.”

Realization registered on Ben’s face. “Which was when Adam was attacked coming out of Bantree.” He turned back to the stairs and let his eyes drift to the second story. “So that’s what this is all about…. But what do we do about it?”

*******

The big grandfather clock downstairs had just struck one in the morning when Adam stole soundlessly from his bedroom with his packed saddlebags over his shoulder. Everything that had gone on the day before told him that he had to get away, and he knew exactly where he needed to go. When he got to the top landing he looked back at the doors to the rooms of his sleeping family. He hoped they would understand, but it didn’t really matter if they did or not because this was something he had to do, and he felt like his very sanity depended on it. With a jerk he turned and started down, without looking back again.

Stepping from his bedroom with silent feet, Hoss watched as his brother clandestinely crossed the parlor and went outside. He knew he should stop him or at least try to, but he felt that this may be the only way for Adam to find himself so he said nothing and only observed. The front door closed and the latch clicked. “Watch yourself, brother,” he said softly then went back to bed.

*******

The family had taken their usual places at the breakfast table, Ben at the head with Hoss to his left and Joe to his right. But the chair at the other end was glaringly empty and the setting untouched.

“Joe,” Ben said as he worked on cutting his sausage, “would you go get your brother. He may not think so, but he needs to eat.”

“All right, Pa,” Joe said then wiped his mouth on his napkin and got up.

“He ain’t there,” Hoss said lowly, his gaze never leaving his plate.

“What?” Ben asked as those stern eyes drilled in on his middle son.

Hoss’ nose wrinkled and his face scoonched and he still didn’t look up. “He ain’t there,” he said a touch more loudly.

Ben lost all interest in everything except his second-born and rested his wrists on the table. “What do you mean, he ain’t there?”

“Just that, Pa,” Hoss said with the shake of his head, his eyes locked even more on his food. “He ain’t there.”

“Hoss, would you look at me,” Ben said a bit crossly.

Hoss flinched and forced himself to do as ordered.

“Now, what do you mean that your brother isn’t there? Do you mean he’s not in his room, or not in this house, or not in the barn?”

“Well, Pa…”

“Where is he?” Ben said and his calm steeped with impatience.

Hoss gulped and his eyes darted for support to his little brother. “Well, sometime early this mornin’ he packed up his saddlebags… an’ rode out.”

“And you know this how?”

“’Cause I watched ‘im go.”

Ben turned just the shade of a piece of over washed muslin. “And you didn’t try to stop him?” He came instantly to his feet and threw his napkin onto his plate. “Joe, go round up some of the men then…”

“Pa,” Hoss started as he himself stood, “I don’t think we should go after him.”

Ben’s cheeks colored and his eyes grew more livid as he turned. “You don’t think we should go after him? After the way he’s been behaving lately? Hoss, have you lost your common sense?”

Then Joe got bold. “I think he’s right, Pa.” Now he caught that deadly glare but he forged on. “We haven’t been able to do anything, and have you ever stopped to think that maybe… we’re the problem or at least part of it?”

“Us the problem? Now you’re talking nonsense just like your brother here,” and he jerked his thumb in Hoss’ direction. “We’re his family, Joe, or have you forgotten that?”

“I haven’t forgotten anything, Pa, but I think maybe you have.”

Ben’s eyes turned almost pure onyx, and his fists went to his hips as his mouth pulled into a grim, even line. “Oh,” was all that would come out.

Joe came around the table. “Adam has never been like the rest of us. He doesn’t think like we do, he doesn’t act like we do, and when he has to work something out he needs to be alone, that part of him hasn’t changed…. Pa, I know that you live everyday afraid that it could happen for real, but he’s a grown man and you have to let him live his own life. We can’t hang over him all the time, which is pretty much exactly what we’ve been doing. And that, Pa, I think is why we’re a problem.”

Ben paled again, making his eyes really stand out. Had he been smothering his oldest son in his concern? He had always been protective of his boys, maybe a little too much, he had to admit, but it was fueled by love and the constant fear of losing someone else. But had this driven Adam away at a time when he seemed so agitated and distraught? Ben rubbed his thumb between his heavy black eyebrows and felt Joe’s fingers tighten on his arm then a large, reassuring hand on his back. “All right,” he said and let his lids drop.

THREE

Chris McCutcheon’s day had been another long one, but he didn’t mind since it always made bedtime more enjoyable. He had been working for Lee Haymes since last September with little or no pay, but that he didn’t mind either. The Haymes’ were honest, decent people, and he liked being around them. Lee had become a friend as well as his boss, Kip was joyful to be around, and Becky was a fine woman and an excellent cook. And with the advent of the baby last month the family had grown even more a part of his life. And then there were the sojourns into town to visit with Amelia Banning, so things were good, and he had nothing to gripe about.

He stretched his arms and legs then turned onto his stomach on the small cot. It was black as pitch inside the barn except for the gray shaft of dim moonlight that came in through the partially open door. The animals had become some restive but in his half dozing state he paid no attention. But then a squeak shattered the stillness, and he was instantly awake. Slowly, his hand moved to the floor where his gun belt and pistol lay, and he grasped the cool stock and slid the weapon out. As gently as he could he got onto his back and pointed it toward a large, dark shape that looked to be in the form of man and horse.

“Don’t move, Mister, ‘cause I’ve got a dead bead on you,” Chris said as he cocked the gun.

“I didn’t think you’d mind sharing the barn for a little while that much,” came tinged in irony.

Chris immediately recognized the voice but he relaxed only slightly. Cautiously, he got up and relit the lamp and warm light quickly bloomed around him. “Boss?” he said and his arm fell at his side. “What’re you doin’ here?”

“Just thought I’d come by for a visit. I haven’t been this way in a spell,” Adam said as he came forward leading the big red horse. “You don’t suppose you could find me and Sport a place to sleep tonight, could you?”

“I think I could manage that,” Chris said as he picked up his gun belt and put the pistol back into its holster. “Once I get over almost shootin’ you. I coulda killed you dead.”

“But you didn’t, and I’m too tired to worry about it, so let’s just take care of things and turn in. I’ll tell you more in the morning.”

“All right, Boss. Boy, are the Haymes’ really gonna be surprised and happy to see you.”

“And I’ll be glad to see them too.”

“But what’re you doin’ here?”

“I said I’d tell you in the morning, but right now we’re all dragged out and need some rest.”

“Okay, Boss.”

Adam led Sport to where the other horses were kept but all the stalls were filled. Chris watched him as he began unsaddling the sleek chestnut and couldn’t help noticing how stiffly he moved. He thought it might be simple fatigue but he had known this man long enough to tell that maybe it was something else. But, no matter, he hadn’t seen the Boss since last year, and he looked forward to renewing the friendship.

*******

The morning’s pastel light was just filtering in as Adam and Chris were getting ready to start another day. The dream had come as they always did but these weren’t as violent as they were when he had been here the first time so he hadn’t disturbed Chris, for which he was grateful. They went about dressing with little conversation between them, but Adam couldn’t miss the way the young man watched him and guessed at what was going on behind those teal eyes.

As his fingers did the buttons of his shirt he felt a flutter in his ribcage as he thought of Kip. The boy had been a large part of his life when he had stayed with the family and they had given their home to him when he had none of his own. He had yet to see the newest addition and didn’t even know what gender the child was, but he would soon find out.

“What a rifle?”

Adam looked up and saw Chris standing near his rig.

“Okay if I take a look at it?” the kid asked as aqua sparks danced in his eyes.

“Sure, go ahead.”

Gently, as one would with a piece of fine porcelain, Chris slid the weapon from its scabbard. “A Henry, ain’t it?”

“It’s along those lines, but Hoss and Joe had it made especially for me by one of the best gunsmiths in San Francisco for my birthday last month.”

Chris let his fingertips glide along the steel blue barrel and across the heavily scrolled gold housing then to the polished mahogany wood stock. The pine tree brand had been fashioned from Comstock silver and affixed to either side near the butt plate, which was also silver.

“Boy, that is some gun, all right,” Chris said as he eased it back into its scabbard. “I’d sure like to have one like it someday.”

“You never can tell,” Adam said with the hint of a smile then went back to buttoning his shirt.

“Boss, I been wantin’ to ask you somethin’ since you come last night.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“When did this happen?” Chris brushed his fingers against his top lip.

“A few months,” Adam said as he rubbed his index finger and thumb over the coarse black mustache then turned his attention back to buttoning his shirt.

“Not again.”

Adam looked around and saw that Chris was now standing in the doorway, partially behind the door. Without a word, he went over to stand by him and looked out.

A party of nine mounted men was just coming into the yard as Lee Haymes came out on the front porch, a rifle in his hand.

“I don’t know why you bothered coming back, Glover,” Lee said as he cradled the weapon in his arms. “I told you then and all the times before that my land isn’t for sale at any price. This is our home and we’re not going anywhere. So you might as well just turn right around and ride out again.”

“Well, now, you haven’t heard my latest offer,” reed-thin Jamieson Glover said as he shifted in his fancy saddle.

“It doesn’t make any difference; I’m not selling to you or anybody else.”

“I don’t think you…”

“He said he doesn’t want to sell.”

The men’s heads all came around at once as a big man in black walked around them slipping the loop from the trigger of his gun and stopped at the steps. Glover’s cat-like, yellowish-brown eyes traced over him, and he didn’t fail to notice how closely the man’s right hand was to the pistol on his hip.

“Is there a part of that you can’t understand?” the stranger went on.

“I didn’t think you could afford a hired gun, Haymes,” Glover said as the burgeoning sun light caught in his cunning eyes.

“I’m not a hired gun, I’m a friend, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use this,” he said as his dark hand rested on the walnut grip of his .44. “And it sure doesn’t mean I won’t. Now why don’t you just take your men and ride out peacefully like he suggests.”

“We’ve got you out numbered four to one. Don’t you think the odds are a bit uneven to be talking so big?” Glover said haughtily in his New York accent.

“Maybe, but I guess you haven’t noticed the rifle barrel sticking out of the barn and pointed right at your head. The first shot might get me or Lee but he’ll make sure the second one’s for you.”

Glover went colorless as a cadaver as his head pivoted around and saw that he wasn’t being lied to. As he looked back at this meddling intruder into his lofty plans Glover’s eyes blackened and his fingers knotted on the reins. “This isn’t any of your affair.”

“Well, now, I’m making it my affair,” the man said as he came forward and grasped the bit, and the snow white horse jerked his head. “I really don’t think it’s worth getting killed over, do you?”

“Are you going to let him talk for you?” Glover snapped as he glowered at Lee.

“I think he’s doing a pretty good job,” Lee said as one corner of his mouth turned up. “Now why don’t you take his advice and ride out before somebody gets shot.”

“This isn’t over, Haymes. I’ll have what I want, one way or the other.”

“Then you’ll be buried on it,” the stranger said as his eyes narrowed. “Now get going.”

With an order from Glover they rode out as they had come, but the guard wasn’t let down for several minutes.

Becky Haymes stood at the scarred dining table, waiting for the outcome. Her elegant fingers wound in the folds of her skirt and clear blue eyes stayed on the door.

As Lee stepped inside his face was lit by a broad smile. “Look what the cat dragged in and spent the night in our barn.” Then he moved aside and Adam Cartwright came in behind him.

“Good morning, Becky. I hope you don’t mind if I stay around for a few days.”

“I certainly do not; in fact, I’d be terribly put out if you didn’t. There’s fresh coffee on the stove, Lee would you get him some? There’s something I need to take care of.” And she dashed off for their bedroom.

“Women,” Lee said as he pushed the door together and put his hat on the chest sitting next to it, “always in a hurry to do something.” He then hung the rifle on the rack on the wall. “You go ahead and sit down, and I’ll get the pot and some cups.”

Adam had just parked his full length at the table when a shrill “Stretch!” assailed him from the side. He could see instantly that Kip Haymes had sprouted like a weed and looked like his mother more than ever. The boy flew into his arms and it felt good.

“I didn’t know you were coming,” Kip said as he leaned back and looked straight at him. “How long are you gonna stay? Can we go fishin’? Can I…?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Adam said with a quick grin, “one question at a time. I’ll answer ‘em but first I want to get a good look at you.” The child stepped back and the dark hazel eyes drank him in like a man dying of thirst. “You’ve grown since the last time I saw you.”

“Sure I have. I’m eight now.”

“And he’s a lot of help,” Lee said as he poured the coffee. “He and Nugget help me and Chris with the cattle just like a seasoned hand and his pony.”

“Just like you and Little Bit did when you were my age?”

“That’s right.”

“Adam,” came on a soft note.

He looked up just as a small, quilt wrapped bundle was placed in his arms.

“I’d like for you to meet my other son,” Lee said proudly. “William Adam Haymes.”

Adam’s eyes shot to his face.

“William was my father’s name, and Adam was Kip’s idea, and we agreed wholeheartedly” Lee said and took a sip.

Pulling the quilt back, Adam looked down into the petite visage. His skin and hair were darker than his mother’s and it was plain to see that this little boy resembled his father. Placing a thumb in the palm of one of the baby’s hands, the tiny fingers curled around it, but the infant’s eyes never opened. Adam had never understood his own father better than at that moment.

“He’s a fine boy. They’re both fine boys,” and he flashed a toothy grin at Kip.

“We’ll keep ‘em,” Lee said with a smirk. “Now, Kip, why don’t you go get Chris and tell ‘im that breakfast’s ready?”

“All right, Pa,” Kip said then dashed out of the house.

“Remember when you had that much energy?” Lee asked as he scratched the side of his head.

“Vaguely.” Adam looked back to the baby and began joggling him back-and-forth.

Becky could see that this man was meant to be a father and it saddened her to know that he wasn’t. When he had been with them before she had enjoyed watching the way he had been with Kip. And then when his younger brother had come she had realized where he had developed his rapport with younger folk. She had seen him instinctively draw close to and more protective of the young man before he even knew who he was. She smiled as she continued to watch him and hoped that the right woman would come along soon.

FOUR

After breakfast the men went out to start their work day while Kip, much to his chagrin, had been made to stay inside to help his mother.

“I don’t think I can ever get enough of Becky’s cooking,” Adam said as he patted his stomach.

“I ain’t eat cookin’ like that since I left home,” Chris said. “Even Cookie ain’t this good.”

Then the talk stopped as if they were at a loss for what to say next. It was Adam who broke the silence.

“How long has this thing with that man been going on?”

“Jamieson Glover got here about two months ago from back east. Right from the first he started buying land and had a house built, but nobody paid any attention because it wasn’t claimed.” Lee took a deep breath and shook his head. “Then he decided that wasn’t enough, and he started trying to buy the smaller places. It began as just offers and he seemed pleasant enough…, until nobody wanted to sell.”

“From what little I’ve seen of him he strikes me as the kind who won’t stop until he gets what he wants.”

“He is persistent, I’ll say that for him,” Lee said as his brows lowered.

“Has anybody been threatened yet?” Adam asked as he smoothed back his heavy black hair.

“Those started nigh to a month ago,” Chris said as he sat down on the edge and put his feet on the steps. “And those men he had with ‘im, did you notice the one on the snowflake appaloosa? That’s Chase Wilder. I saw ‘im work once in Santa Fe right before I headed in this direction. Mean clean through and fast as a greased lightin’ bolt. And I ‘spect the others ain’t much different.”

“The kind of money Glover can offer pulls in all kinds from the bottom of the barrel,” Lee said as he stepped forward and looked toward the horizon, “and there probably isn’t a one that cares a bit for human life. But what scares me the most, I guess,” he turned to Adam, “is the women and children. That sort wouldn’t care anymore about killing them than stepping on an ant.”

“I’m afraid you’re right about that,” Adam said. “I recognized the tall one at the back with the long sandy hair and the navies in the double holsters tied low.”

“The one with the steely eyes that could look a hole through a rock wall?”

“That’s the one. That’s Jiff Ryland. We crossed paths in Arizona back in ’63. I saw him shoot a man for bumping him in a saloon and making him spill his whiskey.”

“Why wasn’t he arrested?” Lee asked.

“Me and a couple others told what we saw, but the rest were too afraid or just plain didn’t care.” Adam gave a snort and ducked his head and scratched the side of his neck. “It’s amazing what money and the right sheriff can accomplish.”

“Is he fast?” Chris asked as he leaned forward against his legs.

“Well, let’s just say that I don’t wantta try ‘im if I don’t have to.” Adam’s mouth quirked into an ironical grin.

“Do you think he remembers you?”

Adam went contemplative as he directed his eyes at Chris and the grin flattened out. “The way he was looking at me today…, he remembers. And if he doesn’t, he will.”

They went quiet again, but before they could say anything else Kip burst out of the house.

“I’m all finished helping Ma, and she said I could come out and help you. Is it all right, Pa?”

“Of course it is, son.” He put his hand on the boy’s back and his gaze connected with Adam’s.

They were in for a fight, this they knew beyond any shade of doubt. A man like Jamieson Glover got what he wanted and if others had to be shoved aside or killed in the getting it was of no consequence. Adam had run across his ilk before, he knew how they usually operated, and he also knew how to handle them.

*******

Since the trouble had come down on them it had been agreed that Becky and the boys would never be left home alone. So with one man staying around the house and the other out doing what would go faster with two, things had kind of backed up. But with the advent of Adam things could get done.

Adam and Chris had decided to ride out to Cutler Meadow to check on a small herd of twenty cows with their calves. The grass was extra sweet here and perfect for the growing youngsters and their mothers. It was good to be together again and the turmoil that Adam had been experiencing over the past several days had been put away because there simply wasn’t time for it. Masculine laughter and voices floated on the air as they rode unhurriedly to their destination.

“I dunno,” Chris said with a chortle, “I guess I’m startin’ to settle into the high life. I like goin’ to the Banning’s, and I don’t mind puttin’ my feet up in Mr. Banning’s study.”

“Yeah, but you don’t when Carolyn’s around.”

“You bet I don’t,” Chris said and stiffened his back and sat up straighter. “She’s a real nice lady but she’s set in her ways, and I think Mr. Banning feels the same. I mean, he does love her mightily, but I can tell that sometimes he just needs to cut loose.”

“And what about Amelia? You two making any wedding plans?”

Chris looked quickly at him as a blush rose into his cheeks. “She’s touched on it a few times, but I ain’t so sure about the knot tyin’. She’s a real nice girl, and when I saw her get bit by that rattler and didn’t know if she was gonna die I realized that I love her, but…”

“But marriage kinda scares you. I don’t think there’s a man alive that it doesn’t, at least some. You give up your independence, and you take on a commitment, and then if you’re blessed with children that commitment grows. You’re no longer on your own, and you have a bigger responsibility, but from all I’ve seen it’s worth it.”

Chris had just opened his mouth to say something when firm fingers bit into his arm, and he reined Dunny in alongside Sport. He could immediately see by Adam’s expression that something was wrong. “Boss, what is it?” He followed the dark hazel gaze ahead, and his hand bunched around the reins.

The cows were gone and the ground was dotted with small, inert shapes. Chris could feel a lump building in his throat as he brought his leg over his horse’s back and stepped down. He moved through the tall grass and crouched at one of the still forms and placed his hand against the dead calf and it was cold to the touch. A flame ignited at the base of his head and seared into his brain. This was just one of the many senseless things a man could see out here. “Well, we don’t havta guess who did this, do we?” he said as he stood.

“No, Chris, we don’t.”

“But why?” Chris asked as he came back to his little dun mare and swung into the saddle. “Why take the cows and leave the calves like this? That’s like slaughtering money.”

“Two reasons I can think of. They’d just slow things down and like this they send a good message.”

Chris looked back out across the sea of death. “I guess we oughtta head on back and tell Mr. Haymes about this?”

“Yeah, then I wantta go into town and talk to the sheriff.”

“Mr. Haymes and most of the others’ve already tried that. Sheriff Flanks said Glover ain’t done anything wrong and he ain’t movin’ against ‘im, but I heard Mr. Haymes the others talkin’ and they think the sheriff is in Glover’s pocket.”

“Well, then, I’ll go one better and see Siddon Banning.”

“Mr. Banning? What can he do?”

“You’d be surprised. He’s the reason that town’s there in the first place. He’s a powerful man, and when he talks people usually listen, and those that don’t more than likely regret it. Now let’s get going. I think this thing just picked up speed.”

The horses were wheeled, and they headed off in a pounding of hooves.

*******

Lee slammed his fist against one of the stacked hay bales that made up Adam’s bed. “I have had it with him! Stealing my cattle is one thing, but the mindless killing of those calves is another! And we all know that it’s only a matter of time before those guns are turned on us!” He whirled with a huff toward Adam and Chris and calmed only slightly. “But I didn’t think he was quite ready to make his move yet.”

Adam’s single eyebrow rose, and he pushed his hat back. “I think I may be the reason for that.”

“You?” Lee said with a puzzled tilt of his head. “Why would your coming here push him into this?”

“You saw their reaction to me. They believe I’m a hired gun, even though we both said I’m not.”

“Well, even if you were, I don’t…”

Adam rested a hand on his shoulder. “Lee, if you’ve brought in a gun hand so can the others. Everybody knows that some men’ll sell their gun just for a place to sleep, a hot meal and a little excitement. And others have higher principles than the usual and simply go where they’re needed. He doesn’t want to wait until the deck it too stacked. He sees me as a threat, and he doesn’t want to wait until more come.”

“I see what you mean now. He doesn’t mind taking on a lot of sod kickers with their women and children, but fast guns are too much trouble.”

“And they could ruin all his plans, so he isn’t about to sit around and wait until they get here, and he finds himself facing a force that hits what they aim at, and don’t care who that is if they’re in the opposition.”

“You’re right, of course.” Lee riffled his fingers in his wispy hair. “Well, we’ll do what we can, but for now lets go have dinner, and we won’t tell Becky and Kip about this.”

“No reason we should,” Adam said as he got between his Lee and Chris and put his arms around their shoulders. “Now let’s go eat, I’m hungry as a she wolf.”

They went out and what they had been talking about stayed with the animals.

FIVE

Siddon Banning sat behind his substantial desk in a chair built especially for his impressive frame. He dipped the pen into the cut glass ink well and had just begun writing again when a knock came at the door. His ebony head rose as his hand stopped on the paper. “Come in.”

Mason Giles, their houseman that kept things running smoothly, stepped inside.

“Yes, Giles, what is it? I’m rather busy right…”

“We didn’t think you’d mind the interruption,” Adam Cartwright said as he came in behind Giles. “Besides, you know what they say about all work.”

“Adam,” Siddon said cheerily as he pushed the chair back and rose, “I was wondering when you were going to get back here.” He came around the desk, his large right hand held out in greeting.

Adam took it pumped it heartily.

“Giles, bring us two cups of coffee and some of those gingersnaps you baked this morning.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Banning,” Giles said then backed his lanky self out and closed the door.

“Have you been out to the Haymes’ yet?” He only got a head nod in reply. “Then I don’t think I have to guess why you’re here. Sit down.” He gestured to the black leather-covered sofa then parked himself on the corner of his desk as Adam took a seat. “So, how’s your family? They didn’t come with you did they?”

“No, they didn’t come,” Adam said as he crossed one long leg over the other and leaned back. “And they’re doing all right.”

“That’s good.”

“And how are Carolyn and the girls?”

“Good too. And Amelia has really blossomed like one of the roses in her mother’s garden. They went into town to visit with some friends. They’ll be sorry they missed you.”

Giles came in with a silver coffee service on a matching tray with the cookies on a dainty china plate and placed it on the desk. “While Mrs. Banning and the girls are away I put a little rum in the coffee,” Giles said as he poured and handed the first cup and saucer with a couple snaps on the side to Adam.

“Thank you, Giles,” Siddon said as he received him own. “I’ll let you know if we need anything else.”

With a polite dip of the head, Giles went back out and they were once again alone in the dark paneled room.

“All right,” Siddon took a sip, “why don’t we go ahead and get down to what brought you here.”

“I know I don’t have to ask how you know about what’s going on with the homesteaders and a man named Jamieson Glover. There’s nothing that goes on around here that you don’t know about.” Adam crunched into a cookie and washed it down with the hot, spiked coffee. “What you probably don’t know is that the stakes have been raised.”

“Raised? How?”

“This morning some of Lee Haymes’ cattle were stolen, but the calves were left behind… slaughtered.”

Siddon’s cup hovered over the saucer, and he whistled. “Now the killing starts,” he shook his head. “Well, that certainly does change things…. And for men like he’s got working for him it’s only one small step to turning their guns on people.”

“I know, and that’s why I’m here. I thought maybe you could talk to him and put the fear of Siddon Banning into him.” Adam took another sip as he watched him over the rim of his cup.

“I’ve already tried, and I didn’t get anywhere. He doesn’t frighten that easily, even though I promised him dire consequences if he didn’t back off. He told me that if I thought I could do something I was welcome to try.”

Adam raised that single eyebrow. “Born is the fool who isn’t afraid of Siddon Banning.”

“You’re not afraid of me.”

“I don’t have to be. I’m a friend, and those of us lucky enough to put ourselves in that category don’t have to be. We would never do anything to you to make that necessary.”

“True enough.”

Adam eyed him astutely. “But if I know you, you checked into his background.”

“I did some digging. I learned through my contacts that he comes from a very prominent and very wealthy family in New York City, and aside from the family money, he’s made quite a bit on his own. Most of the dealings were shady, to say the least, and he doesn’t seem to care who he steps on. For this reason, his father has disowned him and they don’t see him anymore, and that doesn’t seem to bother him either.”

“And now he wants to be the big land owner out in the untamed west and make even more money in cattle and horses and whatever else we have to offer out here.”

“That just about sums it up. So what’s next?”

Adam heaved a sigh. “I guess we make a stand.”

“We? This isn’t really your fight.”

“If not for Lee and Becky Haymes and Galen Statler, I’d be pushing up grass now. And the Kelby’s showed me a kindness, so, yes; it is my fight because it’s theirs.” He popped the remains of the second cookie into his mouth and chased it with the rest of the coffee then pushed himself up. “Now I’d better get started back. I came in with Chris McCutcheon, and he’s picking up some supplies at Frederick’s Mercantile.” He put the cup and saucer back onto the tray. “It’s been good seeing you again, Sid, even though I can’t say much for the circumstances, and I’ll try not to be so much of a stranger. Now if you’ll promise to tell those lovely ladies of yours I said ‘hi’ I’ll go.”

“Only if you’ll promise to watch yourself.”

“Oh, I always do that,” Adam said drolly.

They shook hands and Adam left. Siddon continued sitting on the corner of his desk and sipping his coffee, his pensive stare on the closed door. It disturbed him that his friend was walking into peril, but he couldn’t expect him to do otherwise. Adam felt a kinship for these people and owed them for his life, and he would stand with them now if it cost him the very life they had restored to him.

*******

Adam and Chris left town with the wagon pretty well loaded. Chris was driving and Adam rode alongside on Sport, who seemed particularly edgy today, no doubt due to his rider’s unease being telegraphed to him.

“You know, maybe after all this is over, you and me can go into town for a cold beer then spend a few hours at the Banning’s. With this hanging over our heads, today wasn’t the time,” Chris said as the wagon ground along the dusty road.

“I think that’d be real nice,” a wicked gleam sparkled in Adam’s eyes, “and I’m sure Amelia would too.”

The blush rose into the boy’s cheeks for the second time Adam mentioned the girl’s name today. Adam’s rich baritone laughter filled the summer air but was quickly cut off by a pistol shot. He whirled in the saddle and looked behind them. Six men were riding hell-bent toward them with guns drawn.

“Chris,” Adam shouted above the drum of hoof beats, “get going! I’ll hold ‘em off ‘til you can get a good running start!”

“Boss!”

“Go on!”

“Hah!” and Chris slapped the reins against the team’s backs and they took off in a burst of speed.

Adam pulled his rifle from its scabbard as the fractious horse skittered beneath him and took careful aim. The weapon cracked and one of the men came out of the saddle and landed with a thud. By this time, Sport was nearly frantic but held his ground as he’d been taught to do. The loss of a cohort didn’t slow the riders down, and Adam decided it was time to skedaddle. With a tug of the reins, the big chestnut whirled and took off after the wagon.

Flynn and Lorcan O’Brien were out hunting strays that had wandered a little too far from home when they heard the first shot. They brought their horses to a quick stop near a stand of poplars and listened. The echo of a third report reached them and cerulean eyes met cerulean eyes. Without a word, Flynn brought out his rifle and his two-years-younger brother did the same and they were off.

Chris continued driving and slapping the reins as if a pack of rabid wolves were after him. He didn’t dare look back for fear of losing his concentration and of what he would see. The horses were doing the best they could but the heavily laden wagon was holding them back. “Hah!” and he gave the reins another snap.

Adam was hanging back behind Chris in an effort to hold their pursuers off so the boy could get away. He leaned closer to his horse’s neck and looked behind him just as a rifle spoke and another man bit the dirt. With obvious surprise, he looked around as two copper-haired men emerged from the trees, and he shot past them.

With their number dwindled down to four and the odds a little too even to suit them, the bushwhackers decided to break off the chase. The wagon churned on with Adam behind as the two brothers came in on either side of him and they headed in the direction of the Haymes’ place.

SIX

Kip stood next to his father’s chair – his excited soft blue eyes darting from man to man – as Adam and Chris and the O’Brien brothers related their harrowing tale.

“I’m just glad you two was there,” Chris said as he took a slug of his coffee. “If you hadn’t been I figure we’d’ve been goners.”

“Well, when we saw they were Glover’s men and recognized Chris, we knew what was going on,” Flynn said with a glance at the young hand then turned it on Adam. “We didn’t know Mr. Cartwright here and kinda thought maybe you’d…”

“Bought myself a gun,” Lee said as he shot at Adam a look. “Glover thinks the same thing. We think that’s why he decided to make his move now.”

“He came to see us three days back,” Lorcan said, “and he didn’t seem to be in so much of an all fired hurry, though not so polite, so I guess that does explain it.”

“You can talk while you eat,” Becky said as she placed a plate of fried ham sandwiches on the table.

“Thank you, Mrs. Haymes,” Flynn said as he stood and his brother did the same, “but we do need to get back home. Cayle is a trustworthy boy and a crack shot, but we don’t like leaving ‘em alone so long with Glover’s riders on the prod.”

“And I don’t suppose you can take some with you to eat on the way back?” she said as her hands rested on her hips.

Thoroughly chastised, their faces matched their hair. They each took one and thanked her then went out with Adam, Lee and Chris. Kip was going too until his mother called him back.

“Aw, but, Ma.”

“I said to stay here, young man. They need to talk and they don’t need little boys tagging along.”

“I’m all of eight-years-old.”

“You’re still a little boy. Now do as I say.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he said grudgingly.

The five men stood on the porch as the brothers went hungrily after their sandwiches.

“I would’ve thought if anybody could do something about Glover it would’ve been Mr. Banning. It’s for sure that sheriff isn’t going to,” Lorcan said and took a man-sized bite.

“I’m afraid it’s up to us,” Lee said and rubbed the back of his neck. “And I’m afraid when it comes right down to it, it won’t end without blood being spilled.”

“We’ve had those that would try to take the Ponderosa and that of friends and neighbors, and I can tell you from experience that that’s usually the case.”

They went quiet and even the chewing stopped. No one had to tell them that this hadn’t gotten as ugly as it could and most likely would get before everything was said and done.

“Well, we need to get goin’” Flynn announced.

Adam came toward him, extending his right hand, and the man readily took it. “If you and your brother hadn’t shown up when you did, me and Chris’d probably be laying out there cold as two fish. And you could’ve stayed out of it.”

“No, we couldn’t,” Flynn said as he worked the big man’s hand. “Our folks didn’t raise us that way, and if we did our da, being from the old country, would come back from the grave,” he and his brother crossed themselves, “and thrash us, grown men or no.”

“Just the same, I’m mighty glad you were there,” Adam said with a shrug.

Handshakes were exchanged all around then the O’Briens went down to their horses and got mounted.

“If you need us, Lee, you know where to find us,” Flynn said and gave a two-fingered salute which Adam returned.

“And the same goes for you,” Lee said.

The animals were brought around and they rode off in the direction away from the road.

“If the rest of the homesteaders are like those two, Glover won’t have it so easy,” Adam said as he watched them go. “Maybe we’ll lose this thing that’s coming at us, but either way Glover and those that’ve thrown in with him are gonna know they were in a fight.”

*******

Ev Flanks sat behind his battered desk with his gangly legs propped on it when Siddon Banning came in. He didn’t seem too disturbed at seeing this influential man in his office and didn’t even bother taking his feet down.

“Ev, I’ve heard that you don’t plan on doing anything about what Jamieson Glover it trying to do to the homesteaders out beyond the main road fork.”

“Not a whole lot I can do, he hasn’t broke any laws.”

“Well, have you even tried?”

“Nothin’ to try either.”

“You know, I’m the reason you got this job, and I can be the reason you lose it.”

“Aw, now, Mr. B, you don’t wantta do that.”

“It’s MR. BANNING to you!” He swiped the man’s legs to the floor then slammed his hands down on the desktop and leaned forward, his face only inches from the dumbfounded sheriff’s. “And if anything happens to any of those people I’m gonna hold you personally responsible. Is that clear?”

“Yessir, but Mr. Glover hasn’t done anything but talk to those folks.”

“Threaten, you mean. And how much money has he given you to look the other way? It must be a lot to override the trust and confidence of the citizens of this town, or was he able to buy you cheep?”

The sheriff’s crafty eyes narrowed and the lines tightened at the corners of his mouth. “I resent that.”

“You’re gonna regret it if you don’t get off your backside and do something.”

“Like what?”

“Like what a sheriff is supposed to do. Look out for the welfare of those entrusted to his care and do his best to see that no harm comes to them. Arbitrate or use your gun, whichever the situation calls for.”

Flanks leaned back in the chair and it squeaked under him. “Like I told those sod thumpers the last time they was in here, until he does something that breaks the law, my hands are tied.”

“Then will you?”

The sheriff put his hands behind his head and a slow sneer crept over his face. “Get me some more deputies, like about a hundred.”

The man’s smug expression cracked Siddon Banning like a dry twig. Without a word he grabbed the lapels of the sheriff’s vest and jerked him forward against the desk.

Just then Dan Jillian, Bantree’s only deputy, came in. “Mr. Banning!” He rushed forward and tried pulling the former lumberjack off. “Mr. Banning!”

Hearing his name finally brought Siddon to his senses, and he shoved the man back into the chair and let Dan pull him back.

Flanks stood and straightened his rumpled shirt and vest. “Take him outside, Dan, where he can cool off.” Then a cocky cast came over his features. “Before I throw him in a cell for battery.”

With that, Siddon lunged at him again, startling the sheriff so that he jumped back, turning his chair over.

“You’re not worth it,” Siddon snarled. “And remember what I said about your job.” Then he allowed the deputy to steer him outside.

“You all right now, Mr. Banning?” the fawn-haired young man asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Siddon snapped as he jerked his arm away from him. “I rue the day I ever brought him here, and I don’t know why I haven’t gotten rid of him. My girls have more spine than he does.”

“What was that all about?” Dan asked as he glanced back at the office.

“Do you know that he doesn’t plan on doing a thing about this trouble that’s brewing with the homesteaders?”

“Yeah, I know.” Dan pushed his hat back and frowned. “Not long after Glover got here he came to see him. The sheriff sent me out on some fool errand that could’ve waited, and nobody hasta tell me why. I don’t know how much passed hands, I just know it did. The sheriff ain’t exactly tight with money when he has it. So, what’re you gonna do?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet.”

“Well, when you do, Mr. Banning, you can count on me.”

“Thanks, son,” Siddon said and gave him a jovial swat on the arm. “I think I’m gonna need everybody I can get.” Then he gave the kid another pat and started off up the boardwalk.

*******

That evening had settled down from the day’s events at the Haymes’ place. Becky had fed her family well, and she considered Chris and especially Adam a part of that family. The smell of fried rabbit – which the men folk had brought in – bacon, biscuits, cooked potatoes, stewed carrots and coffee, still hung in the warm June air. Birds sang their serenade to the vanishing sun from the dense canopy of trees as a light wind rustled on its way passing through.

Chris and Adam had already gone back to the barn to finish some chores when Kip wandered in. The boy looked around him and heard movement but only saw the animals. “Adam…. Chris.”

“Up here.”

Kip looked up and found himself looking into the hazel eyes of his friend. He went to the ladder and climbed to the loft where they were undoing one of the hay bales stored there.

“Whatcha doin’?”

“Gettin’ the animal’s supper. You wantta help?” Chris asked as he cut the heavy rope binding the block of hay.

“Sure I do.”

“You can help me pull it loose while Chris pitches it down, okay?”

The boy couldn’t agree fast enough and they went at it. For several minutes they worked without any exchange of words until the boy finally spoke.

“Adam.”

“Yeah.”

“Why does that man want to take our home away from us? Is it just because he’s mean or just because he can?”

“Well, Kip, offhand, I’d say it’s a little bit of both with some other reasons thrown in.”

The boy stopped and pondered this then looked at him. “What other reasons?”

Adam threw a glance at Chris, who walked over to them and leaned forward on the pitchfork handle.

Before answering, Chris gave the boss a look and got s light nod. “Well, Kip, there’re some folks who always want more’n they have or have a right to and ain’t ever satisfied with what they got. And if they see somthin’ they want it don’t matter if it already belongs to somebody else. They want it, so they’re gonna take it if they can, by hook or by crook.”

The boy’s face skewed as he thought this over. “Hook or crook?”

Adam grinned. “It’s just a fancy of saying they’ll try anything they can think of, with or against the law.”

Kip thought this through too then crinkled his nose. “Oh.”

“Now,” Adam said briskly, “let’s get back to work. We’ve had our supper and it’s not fair that we make the animals wait for theirs while we chew the fat.”

This widened the boy’s eyes. “Chew the fat?”

This elicited laughter from the two men.

“Talk,” Adam said and ruffled the wispy blond hair.

“Oh.”

This brought more laughter as they returned to the job at hand.

SEVEN

Adam sat straight up on his makeshift bed yanking himself from sleep. His chest heaved almost in keeping with his thumping heart, and his perspiration covered skin glistened in the soft lamplight.

“You all right, Boss?”

Adam’s head snapped around, and he looked into apprehensive teal eyes. Chris sat on the edge of the cot – his elbows leaned against his knees – watching him as a hawk would its prey.

“You still havin’ those dreams after all this time?”

It took Adam several seconds to get his breathing slowed enough until he could talk. “They’d stopped…, but just over a week back they started again.”

“The same ones you used to have?”

“Pretty much, only these aren’t as violent.” He snorted. “But they still play havoc with a descent night’s sleep.”

“You reckon maybe what time it is could have somethin’ to do with it?”

“Time?”

“Yeah, it was this time last year when all that was goin’ on and a whole year gives a man time to think a lot.”

Adam had been so close to the thing that he hadn’t realized what was causing his irritability or the recurrence of the nightmares. Chris’ words had just put into perspective what his conscious mind had been unaware of that his subconscious was and it now stood out clear as a bell. Out on the trail there had been no one to jump onto and once he’d gotten here and found himself in the middle of a possible range war, he’d been too concerned with others to think of himself. Now, in the soft glow of an oil lamp, he could see what had been before him all along.

A tired smile curved his finely sculpted mouth, and he patted the boy on the knee. “Thanks, Chris. Now why don’t you lie down and go back to sleep? I’m all right now.”

“You sure?”

“Quite sure. You go ahead, and I’ll put out the light.”

“All right, Boss,” Chris said then did as he was told.

Adam pulled himself off the bales and padded over to where the lamp sat on a crate, the cool straw sticking to the bottoms of his feet. With a weary puff he blew into the globe and extinguished the flame then returned to his bed.

“Good night, Boss,” came from the darkness.

“Good night, Chris.”

Adam’s mind reeled, and he wondered if he would go back to sleep. Now that he knew what was at the bottom of his problem maybe he could deal with it better. Before he had only been lashing out, usually at those whom he cared about and who cared about him in return. Friends, those who worked for them and his family had all been caught in his rage and frustration. He knew that his behavior had hurt them – two physically – and he had some apologies to make when he returned home. If he lived that long, and the way things were shaping up, that wasn’t a certainty. He turned onto his side, facing the quite cot. It never took Chris long to drift off, and Adam could hear his heavy breathing. “Thanks, Chris,” he whispered then let his eyes close in an effort to do the same thing.

*******

The next morning came as many Nevada sunrises, grand and glorious as it painted the azure sky in broad strokes of aqua and orange and pink. The molten ball gradually climbed toward its zenith and the day was getting off to a warm start.

Turner Kelby was sitting at the small dining table having a cup of chicory, which he found he preferred to the more expensive coffee, and his wife Olivia was at the sink just finishing the breakfast dishes when horses came into the yard.

“Horses,” she said as she turned around, drying her hands on her apron tail. “We have company.”

“And from the sound of it there’s quite a few of ‘em,” he said as he sat his cup down and pushed himself out of the chair. He went to the only window in the room that did double duty as parlor and kitchen and looked out past the curtain. His bushy salt-and-pepper eyebrows drew into a scowl. “It’s Glover, and he’s got eight men with him, as I count it.”

“You’ve told him four times already that we don’t wantta sell.”

“Well, he ain’t the kind to take no,” he said as he took the double barrel shotgun from its pegs on the wall.

“What’re doin’, old man?”

“I’m tired o’ tellin’ him,” he said as he took two shells from the drawer of the little stand table by the door and fed into the monster then snapped it shut. “So since he won’t listen to words maybe he’ll listen to this. Now you stay in the house. This twon’t take long.”

Turner stepped out onto the porch, closing the door behind him and keeping the barrels pointed down.

“Good morning, Mr. Kelby,” Glover said in a honeyed tone.

“It will be when you git outta my part of it. What you want?”

“Well, now, I think you already know the answer to that, Mr. Kelby.”

“I guess I do, and my answer’s still no. Me and my missus’ve been here a long time, and we’re both gittin’ too old to pack up and move, and I figger this is where we’ll both be buried. So why don’t you just turn them horses around and go out the same way you came in?”

“You know, old man, your buryin’ can come a lot sooner ‘n you think,” said the chocolate-haired one with the remorseless eyes on the speckled appaloosa next to Glover.

“I spose, and it can work out that way for you too, young’un.” Turner raised the shotgun. “Now I want you off my land, and you don’t need to come back.”

“Mr. Kelby…,” Glover started.

“I spose you don’t hear so good,” Turner said as his finger moved onto the triggers.

A flock of birds fluttered from a nearby tree as a shot rang out. Olivia burst from the house and all she saw was her man laying there, the dropped shotgun next to him and blood spreading onto the front of his shirt.

“Turner!” she cried as she rushed to him and fell onto her knees. She touched his chest next to the ominous splotch that continued to grow, and her venomous eyes came around.

“He pulled a gun on us, Mrs. Kelby,” Glover said coolly.

Fury and hatred seethed inside Olivia, and her gaze fell onto the weapon her husband had held. Grabbing it, she stood and pointed it right at Glover. “You git outta here before I blow you right off your fancy horse.”

“Mrs. Kelby…,”

“Git!” and her fingers tightened on the triggers.

The dark-haired man raised his pistol again but this time Glover seized his arm. “No, I don’t kill women.”

“Maybe you don’t,” Chase Wilder said as he took careful aim at the woman.

“And I pay you,” Glover said as his glare bore down on the man.

With a sneer befitting a jackal Wilder slid his gun back into its holster. “Whatever you say, Mr. Glover.”

“Next time I may not be able to stop him, Mrs. Kelby,” Glover said then gestured to Turner. “Now you’d better get him to a doctor. And remember what I said.”

With that, the riders wheeled and rode away from the house, but Olivia kept the cannon of a gun trained on them until she was sure they weren’t coming back.

“Olivia,” Turner said feebly.

The weathered and lined face softened as she looked around at him. As she knelt next to him again and laid the gun aside she could see the terrible pain closing in on him. Taking a handkerchief from her apron pocket she undid a button and stuffed it inside his shirt and pressed it against the wound. He flinched and reached out to her, and she gripped his bloodied hand and stroked his craggy cheek.

“Olivia.”

“I’m right here, you old fool.” Tears broke past her soft brown eyes and ran down to drip from her chin.

“Take me…” he rasped. “Take me… Haymes’ place.”

“I’m taking you right to Dr. Statler.”

“No,” and he squeezed her hand. “Haymes…. Lee Haymes… needs to know.”

“No, I havta…”

“Don’t argue…,” he managed to place his other hand against the side of her head and the faintest light of a smile turned his lips, “old woman.”

She kissed the stained fingers and nodded then looked straight into his pained eyes. “I’ll go hitch the wagon, and you wait for me, you hear?”

Reluctantly, she relinquished the cherished hand and started down the steps and headed for the barn. In forty-nine years of marriage to Turner Kelby she couldn’t remember when she had been so frightened or if she ever had. With a glance back she could see him lying there, and he seemed so still, and her heart leapt. “Please don’t take my Turner,” she whispered as her eyes went skyward. “We’ve come too far for it to end this way.” Then she looked back at him again and dashed inside.

EIGHT

Adam had just gone into the shed to put away an adz when he heard the wagon grumble in. Putting the tool to its proper place he turned and went out. He left the little building just as Chris and Lee came from the barn.

Olivia Kelby was driving, and Adam could immediately see that something was wrong. He was the first one to the wagon as she reined in the team. “Mrs. Kelby, what…?”

“Turner,” she said as he helped her down. “They shot Turner.”

Lee and Chris immediately broke into a run and met them at the back of the wagon. Turner Kelby was lying in the bed covered by a faded quilt and only barely conscious. Adam climbed in next to him and pulled back the covering. By this time the blood on the front of his shirt had spread even more and his coloring was that of parchment. His breathing was shallow, and he wasn’t aware of anything or anyone around him.

“Mr. Kelby,” Adam said loudly but got no response.

“Did Jameson Glover do this?” Lee asked as fury rose in his amber eyes.

“It was one of the men who works for ‘im. He woulda shot me too but Mr. Glover wouldn’t let ‘im.”

“Why didn’t you take him to Dr. Statler?” Lee asked as he turned to her.

“Because Turner wanted me to bring ‘im here and you know I have trouble saying ‘no’ to ‘im.” She put her hand to her mouth and started to cry.

“Well, you’re here now and you’re both safe,” Lee said as he put his arm around her shoulders then turned to Chris. “You’d better go for the doctor while me and Adam get him into the house.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Haymes,” Chris said and ran back for Dunny.

“We’re gonna have to be real gentle with him,” Lee said as he took the man’s feet. “I don’t think he can take much jouncing.”

Olivia stood by helplessly and watched as they got her husband out as gently as possible and started for the house.

Becky was sitting at the table paring parsnips over a bowl and Kip was taking the stems off wild greens when the front door came open with a jerk and Olivia entered. Right behind her were Adam and Lee with Turner between them.

“Mr. Kelby!” Becky blurted as she and the boy forgot what they were doing and left their chairs. “What happened?”

“One of Glover’s men shot him,” Lee said as they started toward Kip’s bedroom.

“Shot him? Why on Earth would he do such a thing?” She went to Olivia who was in such a state. “Are you all right? He didn’t hurt you?”

“He didn’t, not the way you mean, but not because he didn’t want to.”

“Kip, get the door.”

Kip rushed to his bedroom and did as his father told him. Adam and Lee took the badly injured man in and placed him on the bed as easily as they could. The women came in behind them and Becky sat next to Turner.

“I’ll take care of things from here,” Becky said as she began unbuttoning Turner’s shirt. “Lee, you’d better go for the doctor.”

“Chris is on the way.”

“Now why don’t the rest of you wait in the parlor?”

“I’ve been with him for the best years of my life, and I won’t leave ‘im now,” Olivia said as she came forward.

Becky smiled and patted her on the back of the hand. “I know he’d want you to be with him.”

They went out and closed the door, leaving the women to their task. Adam could see by Lee’s black look as he trounced to where he kept his rifle and jerked it from its place that the man wasn’t about to take this lying down.

“I know where you’re going with that, Lee,” Adam said as he went over to him, “but it won’t help anything and it certainly won’t help Turner to get yourself shot.”

“He’s gone too far this time, Adam, and something needs to be done about it.”

“And it will be, but making Becky a widow and leaving your sons without a father isn’t the way.” Adam gripped the gun’s barrel and looked deep into the fire-filled eyes.

“Pa?”

Lee looked at his son then back to Adam and allowed the gun to be taken from him and put back where it belonged.

This situation had just taken the next step that these things usually do, and Adam knew that it would only go down hill from there. He couldn’t help but find himself wishing he were back home with his father and brothers, but he knew he was right where he needed to be at this moment. Still, he was only human and it scared him more than a little to think that he would never see them again.

*******

It was moving into twilight as the doctor worked to save the life of a man he had known for many years and who was a close friend. The women stayed in the room, Becky to help and Olivia because she refused to leave her husband.

Adam had made a pot of coffee but only he and Chris were drinking any of it. Kip had fallen asleep on the settee, the remains of his glass of milk sitting on the floor. Lee was stalking back-and-forth like a pent up cougar, his eyes continually darting toward the room where a friend fought for his life as a man who would become a friend had done a year ago. His fists clenched and unclenched as he tried to hold back the fury that raged through him like a firestorm. Turner Kelby had never hurt anyone and always seemed to be there when needed. He and his dear Olivia had been the first people they met when they settled here and an instant bond had been formed. And now they could lose Turner and it infuriated him like few things ever had. When he had found Adam Cartwright lying by the side of the road – brutally beaten and near death – he had felt the same kind of rage. He detested this sort of thing, but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t meet violence with violence if he had to.

The minutest creak shattered the quite like the dropping of a glass and Lee froze in his tracks and all life stopped as the bedroom door opened. Dr. Galen Statler came out, rolling down his sleeve, and closed it behind him.

Breaths were held and it was Adam who asked the question for which an answer was dreaded. “How is he?”

Dr. Statler joined them at the table and thumped his tall self down in one of the chairs out of shear exhaustion. “He’s lost quite a bit of blood, but the wound isn’t as bad as we thought it was at first. I must admit that his age has me concerned, but the Turner Kelby I know isn’t the kind to simply lie down and die.” His face lit with a tired grin. “And I think Olivia would kill him if he did.”

“Well, is he gonna be all right?” Lee asked eagerly.

“There are too many things that could come along and change anything I might say so I think it’s best to just wait and see.” He took a deep breath and ran his fingers back through his thick, silvery hair. “That coffee sure does smell good, and I think I could drink a gallon.”

Without a word Adam sat his down on the table and went into the alcove and got a cup and saucer from the rough sideboard. The pot had been left on the stove so that its contents would stay hot. Adam poured then brought it back to the doctor who took it with a weary ‘thank you’. They watched him take his first sip as if everything hinged on it.

“Ah, that can make a man young again,” Galen said as he rubbed at a kink in his back.

The door to Lee and Becky’s bedroom had been left ajar so they could hear if the baby woke up. Adam, who was closest, looked around as the bawling broke the confines of its sanctuary and entered the parlor. He went in where the youngest member of the Haymes family was kicking up a fuss. In the diminishing light, Adam could only just make out the wriggling form in the cradle, but he couldn’t miss the intense shrieks of displeasure.

“Just hold on there a second, little man,” Adam said as he scooped William into his arms. “You’ve got to be patient with us older folks.”

Adam didn’t really hear anyone come in but caught the merest whisper of a breeze behind him. Before he could turn around Becky was standing next to him reaching for her son.

“I’ll take him now. I’m sure he’s hungry.”

Adam relinquished his small charge to the boy’s mother and watched as she nestled the wailing infant to her bosom.

“I’ll go and let you two take care of things.”

“Adam.”

“What is it?”

“I’m so glad you’re here. I haven’t said anything to Lee…, but I’m scared to death.”

“You have a right to be.”

“Oh, it’s not just this man Glover …, it’s Lee too. He has a bit of a temper that he pretty much keeps under control, but when I looked at him tonight…, it unnerved me. He’ll go after this man now, and I don’t think anyone can stop him.” The corners of her mouth turned. “Unless maybe it’s you…. I don’t know what I’d do if I should lose him.”

Adam smiled and put a hand against her cheek. “Don’t worry, I’ll watch after him.”

“God bless you, Adam Cartwright, and God bless the day you came to us.”

His smile widened, and he gave her a wink then went out and left them in privacy. Becky sat down in the old rocker with the testy baby and began unbuttoning the front of her dress. Fear numbed her and made her movements mechanical and by rote. She knew before this was over that she could lose her husband as Olivia Kelby could yet do and it brought her fright near to panic. The child went quiet and it was comforting feeling him close as he suckled. Her eyelids drifted down and the soft black lashes rested against her peachy skin as near stifling dread welled into her heart. Her lips moved in silent supplication as she prayed for lives to be spared, but deep inside she knew that they would be lost on both sides. “Amen,” she said softly and her arms tightened on her son. A long night was ahead of them all, and she knew that the next day could only bring more sorrow.

NINE

Adam knew that it would be long dark by the time he got to Bantree and then back, and the idea of riding alone at night didn’t exactly thrill him. But he had to do something other than just sit around the house waiting for the other shoe to drop.

He was in the barn getting Sport ready when Chris came in. “Where ya goin’, Boss?”

“Into town,” Adam said as he swung the saddle onto the big chestnut’s back. “I’m gonna give that sheriff one last time to make good or I’m gonna rattle his eyes in his head.”

“Won’t that kinda tip our hand?”

“I won’t tell him everything,” he fastened the cinch and gave it a tug, “but I have the sneaking suspicion he already knows.”

“Well, don’t you think your goin’ in at night is kinda risky?”

Adam snickered and nodded. “But I have to do something other than sit around on my hands.”

“Then I’m goin’ with ya,” Chris said as he started for Dunny’s stall.

“No,” Adam said as he grabbed the kid’s arm, “I want you to stay close. I don’t think they’ll come after dark, but with their kind, you never know. Will you do that for me?”

“Sure, Boss. But what if Flanks won’t do anything?”

“Then I’ll be back and we’ll havta make a stand.”

“It sure does look that way.”

“Now I’d better get going. It’s a long way when you don’t know who’s out there.”

Chris followed him as Adam led Sport outside and watched as the man rode out, and he couldn’t help but wonder what he was riding into.

*******

Adam couldn’t be exactly sure how long he’d been going – it still wasn’t dark yet but would be before very long – when he became aware of the fact that he was being followed. Whoever it was they were coming along at a pretty good clip. With a yank of his left hand Sport obeyed and they melded into the trees and waited. His fingers tightened on the grip of his pistol and his breathing quickened then the rider came into view along the road.

“Chris,” he said through gritted teeth and nudged his horse out into the open.

Chris reined in Dunny as the boss came up in front of him

“Are you trying to get yourself shot, boy? I told you to stay put.”

“Well, Mr. Haymes told me to catch up and go with you, and I’m working for him right now.”

Adam’s mouth drew in, and he glared at the young man. “Oh, all right…. Joe.”

They both grinned at the comparison then started on side-by-side, eyes and minds constantly on the alert.

*******

As they had known it would be, the sky had turned nearly black and was filled with billions of twinkling specks when they rode into Bantree. The town was a bustle of activity and tinny music from the saloons, light and life. It was a Saturday night, and in that respect it wasn’t any different from Virginia City. Lumbermen, like miners, were in a profession that could snuff a man out like the flame of a candle without a second’s notice. And cut pretty much from the same bolt of fabric they liked their fun and had the same need to blow off steam and Saturdays gave the perfect opportunity.

Sport and Dunny were being tethered at the hitch rail near the sheriff’s office when a familiar voice called out to Adam. He and Chris had no sooner looked around when they were met by Mason Giles.

“I don’t think I havta ask what you’re doin’ here,” Giles said as he ambled over to them, “but you needn’t waste your time. Our fearless Sheriff Flanks don’t plan on raisin’ a hand to stop this that’s goin’ on.”

“I thought maybe I could get through to him,” Adam said with a devious twinkle as he rested his hand on his pistol.

“The boss can be real persuasive when he wants to.”

“So can Mr. Banning, and he’s already tried. The deputy had to pull ‘im off before he pulverized the man.”

Adam’s brows arched. “Another fool,” he said half to himself.

“Huh?” Chris asked with puzzlement.

Adam shook his head and looked back to Giles. “If Siddon can’t do it then I don’t even need to bother.”

“I guess we come into town for nothin’, huh, Boss?”

“It looks like it. By-the-way, Giles, what’re you doing in here? You usually stay close to home on Saturdays.”

“Mr. Banning sent me to send a wire to the federal marshal’s office in Sacramento for help. He wants this thing stopped before it gets anymore outta hand.”

“We all did,” Adam said with a stern scowl, “but it’s too late, because it already has.”

“Mr. Banning told me about Mr. Haymes’ cattle being rustled and those calves slaughtered.”

Adam inhaled deeply. “I guess you haven’t heard. They shot Turner Kelby today.”

Giles blanched and his jaw hardened. “Is he dead?”

“Not when we left.”

Giles’ eyes drew in on his aquiline nose then were redirected on Adam. “I guess that pretty much clenches things. They’ve tasted blood and there’ll be killin’ for sure now. Well, if I know Mr. Banning, he’ll do whatever he can, whatever that hasta be.”

“I know he will, but I’m afraid at this point that open warfare is about the best that can be hoped for. Well, we’d better get started back. It isn’t gonna get any lighter,” Adam said as he began untying Sport.

“Why don’t you two stay the night with the Banning’s and head on back in the morning? I know they’d love to have you, especially Miss Amelia.” His eyes darted mischievously to Chris and the single gold tooth glinted in his grin.

“I wish we could, but we need to get back. I don’t think Glover’s gonna hold off much longer now, and I’m figuring he’ll hit us in the next two or three days. He’s made his play, whether he intended to or not, and he has to back his hand. But you might wantta go ahead and send for that marshal anyway, just in case. If worst comes to worst, he can clean up the mess when he gets here.”

They went quiet and a girl’s high-pitched giggle floated around them and only seemed to augment the situation. Adam and Chris remounted and headed back out of town at a gallop while Giles stood in the street and watched them go.

*******

Adam and Chris were about twenty minutes from making it back to the Haymes’ ranch when they became aware that someone was in the road ahead of them. He was hard to make out but they knew for sure that he was on horseback. Slowly and cautiously, they drew closer to him, guns ready to be used if necessary. Less than a foot from the faceless silhouette they stopped. Well aware that this could be a trap they stayed wary and alert with Chris slightly behind Adam. A .44 made an ominous clicking sound in the darkness as it was cocked.

“No need for that,” the disembodied voice said.

“Whadaya want?” Adam asked frigidly.

“Are you two from the Haymes’ place?”

“So what if we are?”

“Name’s Hatch Varnes and I don’t care much for Glover’s way of doin’ things. I signed on because the money sounded good, but I don’t make war on women and children.”

“So, what’re you after? Absolution?”

“I just want out,” the man said as he lit a smoke and his harsh features shown in the orange glow as the match flared, “and I came to tell somebody that Glover’s planning an attack in two days. He’ll start with the O’Briens first then work his way to Haymes. Countin’ himself and without me they’re probably be eight, all told. It made me sick to my boots what Wilder did to that old man, and I want no more part of it.”

“Then ride out and don’t look back,” Adam said as he scrutinized the man the best he could in the gloominess. “And don’t worry. Nobody’s gonna put a bullet in your back.”

“Much obliged, mister.”

“Get going.”

They heard more than saw the horse pass them and head along the road toward town. They stayed on their guard until the hoof beats died away and even after.

“Whadaya think?” Chris asked lowly.

“I think we need to get everybody together at the Haymes’ right tonight and the sooner the better. Maybe he was telling the truth and maybe he wasn’t, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to take chances.”

“We gonna fort up?”

“We’re gonna fort up. We’ll get the O’Briens first and pick up anybody else on the way back.”

“That’d be the Bendells, Wade and his wife and four sons. They live almost right smack dab in the middle, and we havta go past their place.”

“All right, let’s get going. I figure between daybreak and noon’ll be just right for this thing to break loose since we’ve been warned that it won’t come for two days.”

“That’d really catch us by surprise.”

“If that’s the plan, and I wouldn’t put it past Glover. He’s shrewd, and he’s devious, and he thinks we’re all a bunch of dumb hicks. Now let’s burn the trail, we’re not exactly blessed with time.”

The horses were kicked into a run as Adam fell in behind Chris and let him take the lead since he knew the area better. It was going to take a lot to get three families packed into wagons and back to the Haymes’ spread, but it wasn’t like they had a whole lot of choice. Glover was coming, whether Varnes had been telling the truth or not. And if they were to be ready for him they had to move fast and decisively, for Adam read Jamieson Glover as ruthless and the men with him as the kind that gave no quarter. This couldn’t be avoided now and the time for talk was over. Reckoning was at hand and it remained to be seen who would survive.

TEN

Lee Haymes was a lost cause as he stood on the front porch looking out into the night. Light from the windows cut into the vastness of midnight, but extended little farther than the posts. Adam and Chris had left over four hours ago and had yet to return, and his mind abounded with all kinds of sinister images, all guaranteed to chill a mortal’s blood. And simply knowing that Glover and his minions were out there only made it worse.

So consumed by his bleak musings was he that he didn’t hear the door open behind him or pay attention to the wide patch of light it emitted. The footfalls on the wooden planks were also lost to him as they drew closer.

“I brought you some coffee.”

Lee looked around at Galen Statler as the man held out a steaming cup.

“I’ve always hated being out on a night this dark. It’s so easy for a man to get lost.”

Lee accepted it and took a bracing jolt and looked back out toward the road. “How’s Turner doing?”

“He’s asleep, and Olivia is right by his side. I tried to get her to take some food and rest, but she is a very stubborn woman and refused. But I suppose if my Merrielle had lived to old age it would have been the same with us.”

Only the hooting of an owl somewhere off behind the house filled the space between them. Lee took another drag and tried not to let his thoughts go to that ominous place again.

Galen watched him and could almost hear the wheels turning behind those amber eyes. He had known this man and his family since he came there, and he knew no finer. He was welcomed openly by the people living around here and it didn’t take him long to find out how badly they needed a doctor, even though he was in retirement. He was closer and more accessible than the one in Bantree and that had never been clearer than last June when Lee came to him agitated and outraged. The man had been beaten close to death and was unconscious. Cut, bruised, several cracked ribs and internal bleeding all piled on top of each other made him doubtful if the man would live, but he had and thrived, even without his memory. Now Lee was fretting over this man who had become a friend to all of them and the young man that had come to work for him by way of his association with Adam Cartwright.

“A man like Adam Cartwright won’t be that easy to take, and I think young McCutcheon was cast from the same mold. I’m sure they’re all right.”

“I wish I had your insight, because I’m not. There’re just too many things that could’ve happened, most of them bad. They should’ve been back two hours ago and it’s been that doubled and then some.” He looked around at the doctor. “I’d go looking for them but I don’t want to leave the place unprotected and it wouldn’t help anything to ride out in this and maybe fall into Glover’s hands.” He snorted and turned his attention back out across the yard. “He’d love that. And then who’d take care of my family?”

“A man that fights so hard to live isn’t one to give up that easily, so don’t you either.” A sharp breath whistled through his teeth.

Lee looked at him and let his gaze trace over the man’s face. “I will if you will.”

Galen laughed and gave him a smack. “I guess it’s easy to tell others what to do but not so easy to follow your own advice.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Lee said with a nervous titter. “Has Becky gone to bed?”

“She laid down on the bed with the baby a bit before I came out here, and Kip went back to sleep on the settee.”

“I worry about them. I mean, what’ll happen to them, what’ll they do, if I’m not around. Both Becky’s folks are gone and my father passed right after we got here, and this is the only home Kip’s ever really known. And, anyway, I don’t think he’d be happy in the city and Becky wouldn’t either after all this time out here. I don’t want that for my sons. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, I do. I grew up in a city, and I have to admit that there’s nothing like lungs full of this air in the mornings.”

“And then a man like Jamieson Glover comes out here and thinks he can take it all away from us just because he wants it. Galen, I hate greed and even more I hate what it does to people, and if this man costs me the lives of anybody I hold dear, so help me, I’ll string him up to the nearest tree and watch him dance.”

“No, you won’t.”

An inner flame ignited a conflagration in Lee’s face and his fingers gripped the cup’s handle like death. “Oh, won’t I? I was raised that it’s wrong to hate another person, but Jamieson Glover I…”

But he was cut off as a wagon with a woman and four teenaged boys, one driving, rumbled into the yard followed by another one with twelve children in back. Adam, Chris, the O’Brien brothers and Wade Bendell rode in on either side of them, their rifles out and ready for business.

“Thank the Good Lord,” Lee said as he dashed his coffee to the ground. “Do you know what time it is?”

“Sorry about that,” Adam said merrily as he brought Sport around in front of the first wagon. “But things’ve been kinda dull around here so me and Chris thought we’d bring you some company.”

Lee looked around as women and children left the wagons and men got dismounted and looked back to Adam.

“I’ll explain when we get inside,” Adam said as he stepped down, the rifle still clutched in his right hand. “How’s Mr. Kelby doing?”

“He’s sleeping and he seems to be resting all right,” the doctor said, “but I’ll be able to tell more in the morning.” He glanced at the sky. “Better make that when it gets light.”

“Adam!” Kip squealed energetically. “You’re back!” Then his blue eyes scanned the yard until he found who he was looking for. “Chris! I was afraid you both wouldn’t come back.”

“Well, we weren’t about to disappoint you,” Adam said as he came up the steps and tousled the boy’s hair.

Lee could tell by Adam’s expression that he was disturbed about something, and with the trouble they found themselves in he knew it led straight back to Glover.

They went right into the house and got the families settled down and Lee was apprised of the situation and told about what happened on the way back.

Adam sat in one of the dining chairs working on a cup of coffee when Lee came to him with some of his own.

“That is the sweetest little girl,” Adam said as he winked at someone.

Lee followed his gaze as he took a sip. A little one with copper-colored hair shyly hid her petite face against her mother then peeked back at him.

“Little Earie O’Brien, Flynn’s youngest,” Lee said as he watched the child. “She just turned three. All the O’Brien children are good kids, but that one’s special. She came after Lucy was told she couldn’t have any more.”

Adam winked again, and she buried her face in her mother’s shoulder.

“Have you ever thought of getting married and having some of your own?” Lee asked as he watched her.

A sad aura shown in Adam’s dark face, and he took a drink. “More than once, and I did come close one time, but so far things just haven’t worked out. I haven’t given up on it, though, least ways, not yet.”

“Oh, you’ll know when the right one comes along, just like I did with my Becky.”

Adam continued to play with the little girl as the level in the cups slowly receded.

“So when do you think Glover’ll come down on us?”

“If this Varnes was telling the truth, not for two days, but I’m not inclined to believe him. I’ve learned along the way not to trust things to face value. One of the few times I ever have and let my guard down it almost got me killed. I don’t plan on letting that happen again. And there’s too much at stake this time.” He winked again and the angelic cerulean eyes twinkled in the lamplight. “I don’t like the idea of a gun battle so close to them.” His eyes strayed to where Kip sat in the floor with two other copper-haired boys who looked to be about the same age, deep in boyish conversation. “If I have to give my life to keep this from touching them I will, and I know any man here will do the same, if need be.” He took a heavy breath and finished emptying his cup. “Keeping them away from the house is the priority and staying alive is secondary to that.”

Lee put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed and they looked at each other and minds communicated without words. Things were going to get ugly, more than likely before the day was out, and not knowing when or how many men would come left everyone – with the exception of the younger children who thankfully didn’t understand – more that a little on edge.

Adam winked again and waved at the little girl, and her delicate mouth spread showing several pearly teeth then she hid her face. His insides tangled at the thought of violence touching such innocence, and he wished there was something more he could do. “What’s going to happen will happen,” he could almost hear his father say as he had when he and his brothers were children, “and there’s nothing we can do but try.” And try his level best he would, if it killed him.

ELEVEN

By the time the sun peaked over the horizon tensions had grown taught almost to breaking. Tom Bendell, the eldest of Wade and Martha Bendell’s four sons at fifteen, had been posted as lookout on top of the barn. His brothers and Cayle O’Brien hadn’t been happy about being stuck in the house with the women and children, but their fathers had posted them in the bedrooms to keep an eye on the windows and they knew not to argue. He had a bird’s vantage point and could see a good distance in all directions.

The rest of the men folk were on the porch, some with coffee, all armed. Conversation revolved mainly around Glover and the fact that they wouldn’t back down from him or anyone else who tried to take what wasn’t theirs.

Becky had just come outside with the coffee pot and was refilling cups when Tom yelled, “Riders coming!”

“From where?” Wade shouted as he stepped to the edge and looked up.

“The road! And there looks to be about ten or eleven, maybe more!”

“That’s strange,” Lee said. “Glover’s never come from the road before.”

Adam came forward. “Can you make any of ‘em out?”

“No, sir! But the one on the lead horse looks to be a big man!”

“Well, that for sure isn’t Glover,” Flynn O’Brien said as one side of his mouth pinched. “But it could be somebody he hired.”

“To take the lead?” Wade Bendell said as he moved his rifle against his barrel chest. “I don’t think so. Glover don’t trust anybody that much, and besides, he’d want to be in on this.”

Lee went to Becky and tenderly took her arm. “You’d better go back inside.”

“Lee.”

He looked at her longingly and smiled. “Go on,” he said softly.

She put a hand against his cheek and fought back the tears then did as he’d told her, and he rejoined the others.

“How close are they now?” Wade shouted to his son.

“They’re almost here! Do you want me to come down, Pa?”

“No, son, stay where you are and keep out of sight! You’ll be our ace!”

“All right, Pa!”

The men lined up across the porch from one end to the other, standing shoulder to shoulder with weapons held in front of them.

Time drug by like a cold snail until the men came into sight past the trees and headed into the yard. No one said anything as the horses were reined up in front of the house.

“Morning, Sid,” Adam said. “Steve, deputy, gents. Things a little slow in town today?”

“We just thought it was time somebody showed Jamieson Glover that he couldn’t push anybody around anymore,” Siddon Banning said as he shifted his weight in the saddle, “and we figured you could use some help. Is it all right if we get down, Mr. Haymes?”

“You’re more than welcome, all of you, and we can use all the help we can get. You can put your horses in the barn and there’s plenty of hot coffee inside.”

They dismounted and the animals were lead across the yard, Deputy Jillian taking Siddon’s and Steve Balasco’s along with his own.

Lee made introductions as Siddon and Steve joined them, their rifles in hand, and amenities were exchanged. All of the men already knew Steve and were well acquainted with The Wooden Nickel where he worked the bar.

“I can only imagine what Carolyn thinks of this,” Adam said as he pumped Siddon’s hand.

“She doesn’t think much of it, but she didn’t try to stop me. She knows that a man can’t run out on his friends and obligations. Giles wanted to come, but I convinced him that it might be a good idea if he stayed and made sure Flanks didn’t try to get word to Glover, but to tell the truth….”

“You wanted him around to take care of your girls, just in case.”

“That’s about it. I know Carolyn can handle things, but I feel better knowing Giles is there.”

“And I don’t have to ask about your reasons,” Adam said as he slapped Steve on the back. “You’re not one to pass on a good fight, and you’re not one for seeing anybody pushed around.”

“That, and I just plain don’t like Jamieson Glover. He’s gotten just a bit too big for his britches, and somebody needs to take him down a few pegs, and that I wouldn’t miss. And I’ve always stood with my friends when they’ve needed me,” and Steve returned the slap.

At that moment the men came from the barn. Lee told Becky that it was all right to come out for now and to bring more cups. Once everybody that wanted it had some coffee things settled down again and the talk was restrained and muffled, but things seemed a trifle less hopeless since the ranks had swelled by eleven.

Adam was standing away from the others leaning sideways against a post, his rifle back over his shoulder, when Steve walked over to him.

“A drink on me for what’s on your mind.”

“Just wondering when they’ll come. I have no doubt that it’ll be today, nothing was ever so sure, and I figure it’ll be before noon. Glover overplayed his hand.”

“You mean, by having Hatch Varnes waylay you and Chris the other night and telling you about the attack?”

“If he did, and I suppose I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am…. There was just something about Varnes that made me uneasy.”

“And you didn’t believe him. Well, that just may be one of the smartest things you’ve ever done. I’ve met Hatch Varnes, and I wouldn’t believe him if he hold me the sun sets in the west.”

“How do you know him?”

“He’s been in the Nickel more than once, and there’s something about him that raises the hair on the back of my neck. He’s got a look in his eyes that make me think of a rattlesnake. I’d never heard of him until he blew in two weeks ago, but I’ve seen his type before, and I’d guess he’s one of the worst of a bad lot. I say that not because of anything he’s said or done or his reputation, but because I just get a bad feeling whenever he’s around.”

“I only got a short look at him the other night when he lit a smoke, but what I saw didn’t fill me with trust, and then there’s Glover. Something about that man made me think he’d try something like that. Lull your enemies into a false sense of security; let ‘em think they’ve got time to get ready then strike and catch ‘em unaware.”

“That’s Glover, all right,” Steve said with a grimace. “Another snake in a whole nest.” He put a hand on his friend’s back. “But he didn’t reckon on you being smarter.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say I’m smarter.”

“I would.”

“It’s just that I’ve lived out here a lot longer,” Adam continued without missing a beat, “and I know what misjudging others can cause.” He shook his head. “Boy, do I know.”

“More riders comin’!” Tom Bendell sang out from atop the barn.

Everyone straightened and became alert as all eyes went to where the boy was.

“Which direction, son?”

“Back over by the doc’s!”

“How many?”

It went quiet and the men waited for an answer.

“I make it twelve or thirteen, maybe fourteen or fifteen, all riding close together!”

“All right, son, just stay put and stay down!”

“All right, Pa!”

“I think those of us from town should go to the barn. It might be best if he doesn’t know we’re here right at first.”

“Siddon’s right,” Adam said as he and Steve came forward. “It’ll give them a better chance to get the drop on Glover and his guns, if need be.”

Lee agreed and the townsmen headed off for the barn at a run and closed the big door once inside. They didn’t have long to wait for the body of sixteen mounted men to ride in, and they heard them before they saw them. As always, Jamieson Glover was right out front on that snow white horse of his, arrogant and confident as a medieval landowner overseeing his serfs. The men on the porch held their weapons in a manner to let these trespassers know that they fully intended to use them if they had to.

“I see you got over being sick pretty fast,” Adam said coolly as his eyes locked onto Hatch Varnes.

Varnes shrugged and his cruel mouth drew in. “What can I say? The pay’s too good to just walk out on, so I had second thoughts.”

“Kinda figured you would.”

“It looks like my little plan didn’t work.” Glover’s cunning, cat-like eyes latched onto Adam. “I suppose you’re the one who figured it out. I knew I was going to have trouble with you the moment I laid eyes on you.”

“I’m glad to see I didn’t disappoint you,” Adam said snippily.

“I figured you for having guts, Haymes, but I thought you were smarter than this,” Glover said as he turned his attention back to Lee. “Trying to hold all of us off with just the six of you isn’t what I’d call smart. Brave maybe, but definitely not smart.”

“Who says there’s only six, Glover?” Lee said haughtily as his hands tightened on his rifle.

Glover looked around him. “That’s all I count, and I’ve always been pretty good with numbers.”

“Are you willing to take the gamble that I’m lying? I mean, if I am you’ll probably wind up with all our land, but if I’m not you could be dead before you hit the ground. Is it worth it?”

“Aren’t there things you’re willing to die for?”

“Yes, protecting my family and what rightfully belongs to me and helping others do the same, but taking what I have no right to, no. Do you think that’s worth killing or being killed for?”

“Don’t you?”

“No, I don’t and nobody standing with me does either, so why don’t you just turn yourself and your men around and ride out the way you came before this turns into something we can’t walk away from?”

Tiny beads of sweat had begun forming on Jamieson Glover’s forehead but he held his composure and appeared to be thinking over the threatening words. Time seemed to stand still and the beating of hearts was almost palpable and Chase Wilder was not at the center of Lee Haymes’ attention.

“Lee!”

TWELVE

At the sound of Adam’s warning, Lee’s eyes caught the movement just as Wilder raised his pistol, and he dodged. The report of the gun echoed in his ears almost simultaneously with the sting that burned across his scalp and his rifle came up. Suddenly, everything became pure bedlam as the barn door swung open and the enemy’s horses bunched together in confusion, their riders getting off wild shots. Men leapt from the porch and ran for cover while others fired from inside the barn. It was madness as Jamieson Glover’s best laid plans were unraveling.

As bullets whizzed through the air like incensed bees Chase Wilder was the first to leave the saddle and hit the ground to move no more. Glover tried shouting out orders, but in the tumult no one really heard him.

Adam had taken position behind one of the trees that gave him relative protection and a good field of fire. Men would dart into his sights and just as quickly leave them. He squeezed the trigger again but before he could get off another shot he became aware of a feeling he couldn’t really describe and froze for less than a second. Slowly, his head came around, and he found himself looking into those steely eyes. His breath staggered, and he knew the rifle in his hands was less than useless with the big navies trained on him.

“Yeah, I remembered you, friend. Not right at first, but I knew I’d seen you, and it didn’t take long to come to me.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t come for me back in Tucson.”

“I woulda, but the sheriff suggested I ride out before somebody come for me with a rope, and I decided he had a good idea so I did. But I’m a patient man, and I got better things to do with my time than go runnin’ after those that wronged me, and I usually get around to it in nature’s own good time. So I’ll just take care ‘o you now and I’ll get around to the other two someday.” The pistols were leveled on the black-haired man.

“Does it take more than one of those for you to kill a man?” Adam said as he gestured to the guns in the man’s hands.

“Nope, I guess it don’t.” Ryland threw the left revolver aside and returned the other to its holster, his hand staying on the notched grip. “This’un’ll do the job right enough. Now you lay the long gun down and let’s do this fair.”

“Is it fair?” Adam asked and did as told then eased the loop from the trigger of his .44. “Remember, I’ve seen you draw.” He thought he saw uncertainty flit through the vicious eyes and just as instantly vanish. “Whenever you’re ready.” His right hand fell to his side.

Jiff Ryland was fast, but his gun had just come into play when he felt his opponent’s bullet sear into his chest as his own harmlessly plowed into the ground. He could feel the blood rise to bubble out past his lips as his fingers lost their hold on the gun and it dropped with a thud against the hard packed earth. The blackness was coming for him as his legs disappeared into it, and he was unaware when he landed for he was already dead.

One of Glover’s underlings – in the chaos – managed to get onto the porch. With one fierce kick from a booted foot the door swung open and children screamed and cried but he met with more than he bargained for. Martha Bendell’s plump fingers squeezed both triggers of the double barrel shotgun before he could react and sent him right back out.

Chris McCutcheon knew he was exposed where he was and knew the barn would afford him better security. He also knew that running across the expanse of the yard to get there could be suicide, but staying where he was definitely would be. So, bucking himself up and on the count of three, he took off, his rifle tight in his grip.

“Cover him!” Siddon Banning shouted.

The frenzied shooting gained momentum as cover fire wrapped itself around the running young man and the big structure grew tantalizingly closer. He was less than three feet from making it when he felt tearing pain in his left thigh and he couldn’t help but fall, but he kept his hold on his weapon, his lifeline. Death was coming for him – he could hear it whistling about him. He knew this was probably it when he felt strong hands take grasp under his arms, and someone dragging him back to safety, and he looked up into the face of Steve Balasco. He tried helping by pushing with his one good foot and it didn’t take long to get into the barn, but they had no sooner entered when he was abruptly dropped. Chris’ head came around, and he saw Steve lying near him, his face ashen and lifeless. “Mr. Balasco,” he said as he reached out and touched the man.

Chris, for some reason, turned his eyes to the window near the cow’s stall and saw the grinning hyena face of Hatch Varnes as he took aim again. Rage inflamed the boy’s brain and like the flicking of a serpent’s tongue, he drew his pistol and, rolling out of the way, put a slug between the man’s eyes before the wretch could do anymore harm.

Jamieson Glover was the only one still mounted, and he was having trouble controlling his increasingly frenzied horse. He was still barking orders to men who were no longer listening to him as he fumbled for the useless gun on his hip. He had never learned how to use it, though he had made a show of practicing with it a few times. Suddenly, the horse reared, catching him off balance, and he toppled back over the animal’s rump and hit in a hard wad. Collecting himself, he staggered to his feet, once again screaming commands. His side arm was gone, but it didn’t matter since his inability to use it rendered it worthless.

Tom Bendell couldn’t believe his luck; he had the great Jamieson Glover right in his sights. He had yet to fire for he hadn’t been ready to give away the knowledge that he was up there until his shot would count for something. As he looked down the barrel of his rifle at the fool standing there shouting he pulled back on the trigger and the weapon spoke.

As Glover whirled in the middle of the melee a bullet caught him at the base of the throat. At first, he didn’t realize what had happened since there was no pain, only a creeping numb and shock. Raising his hand to it he was stunned when it came away bloodied. Staring at it stupidly, he sunk to his knees. His strength was beginning to ebb, and he could feel his life’s energy gradually leaving his body. In a vane attempt to get up, he fell back against the ground and simply lay there peering into the sky.

He wasn’t aware of the passage of time or that the shooting had finally stopped when a shadow fell over him, and he found himself looking up into a dark face. “You,” he rasped. “Who… are you?”

“Cartwright…. Adam Cartwright.”

Even to his dying mind this registered and his rapidly glazing eyes widened. “Ponderosa?”

“That’s right,” and the rich baritone was without sympathy.

He tried speaking again but it only came out as a gurgle as more blood ran from his mouth and down the sides of his face. He wasn’t ready to give up on life, but apparently his body wasn’t in concurrence. His breath rattled through him as he tried again to get up, but his pupils dilated since they no longer reacted to light and his head fell to one side.

“He’s dead,” said Siddon’s unfeeling voice. “But I can’t say it’s any great loss. You want more than you’re entitled to and don’t care how you get it, death can be the penalty.”

“Well, I can’t say I’m mourning,” Lee said callously.

Adam stepped to Lee and lightly touched the top of his head. “You got you hair parted, boy.”

“I’m lucky I didn’t get my head cleaved, and I probably would have if you hadn’t shouted when you did,” Lee said as he put his hand to his hair and it came away red. “But it doesn’t hurt so bad. Now I want to see my family.” Then he started toward the house.

“I’ll come with you.”

“We’ll put the dead in the barn with the prisoners,” Siddon said as Adam followed after Lee.

They couldn’t help seeing the dead man lying near the steps – his shirt almost completely saturated with blood – and notice the splintered door facing. His breathing quickening, Lee opened the door, but he and Adam instantly stopped. The women and children were gathered in the alcove – many weeping – and the doctor was bending over someone.

“Becky,” Lee said tremulously.

She turned to face her husband, tears staining her delicate cheeks and the baby clutched close. Trying hard to keep herself under control, she came over to them.

“Becky,” Lee said as he touched her then his son.

“It’s little Davin O’Brien,” she said and bit her lower lip.

Amber and hazel eyes shot to the group then back to her. “What happened?”

“A stray bullet must have come in through one of the windows…. Oh, Lee, he’s only four.”

Wiping his hands on a towel, Dr. Statler strode stiffly to them, his steps dragging and his face long and tired.

“Galen?”

The doctor looked at the two men, and his white-tinged dark eyebrows lowered, and he slowly shook his head.

“Dr. Statler! Dr. Statler!”

Adam turned his attention back outside while Lee consoled Becky, and what he saw went through him like a war lance. Siddon was coming up the steps with an unconscious and badly hurt Steve Balasco in his arms, the front of his gold brocaded vest bloodied. Chris, being helped along by Deputy Jillian, hobbled along behind him.

“Oh, my Lord,” Becky said as Lee looked around.

“You can put him in our room,” Lee said adamantly.

Siddon followed the doctor into the room as Chris and Dan entered the house.

“You all right, Chris?” Adam asked as his eyes flitted to the boy’s leg.

“It’s just a through-and-through, and I don’t think it hit anything on the way…. If it wasn’t for Mr. Balasco, I’d be good and dead right about now. I sure hope he’s gonna be all right. He’s a good man.”

“Yes, he is,” Adam said as his eyes shifted to the bedroom, “and a good friend.”

Just then Wade Bendell, with his son Tom, who was finally down from the barn and the O’Brien brother’s came in, breathless with their resounding victory over Glover and his guns.

“We sure showed ‘em didn’t we, Pa?”

“Yeah, son, we sure did,” Wade said as he tousled his son’s thatch of cocoa brown hair.

It was like the air being let out of a bellows as Lorcan’s eyes went to his wife. It felt like a tight band had been wrapped around his chest, squeezing ever tighter, and he didn’t feel his brother’s hand. He unconsciously handed his rifle behind him and someone took it as his legs more or less guessed at what was expected of them and he started forward.

Harriet O’Brien sat in one of the dining chairs cradling her son as she would an infant, his small head hanging back over his mother’s arm. Lorcan stooped in front of her and their grief stricken eyes met over the beloved little body. He looked at the boy and – with trembling fingers – lovingly pushed back the soft, coppery hair. Without a word, he kissed the child’s forehead, then touched his wife’s tear-dampened cheek and stood then started for the door.

He looked at Flynn and the weapon was returned to him then he walked out, loading it as he went. They watched as his driven stride propelled him toward the barn. Less than a minute after his entering, the men came out and stood nearby. The first shot sent alarm through the children and startled the women.

“It’s all right,” Flynn soothed, “it’s only Lorcan having his revenge.”

By the third shot they had calmed, though the sound of the shooting so soon after the fight still frightened the younger ones. After the last short a couple minutes passed before the disheartened father came back out and started toward the house.

“Help?” Lee asked as the man stepped inside.

Deadened cerulean eyes rose as a lone tear broke its boundary. “No.”

Handing the rifle to his brother, Lorcan went back to Harriet and took their son from her then sat down in the floor by her chair and held the child in his lap. She leaned down, resting the side of her face against the top of her husband’s head and closed her eyes while their remaining four children gathered around their parents and little brother. The soft weeping resumed and the lamentations filled the room, but everyone one at the Haymes’ place that day knew it wouldn’t help.

THIRTEEN

The day had drug laboriously into early evening as the grim task of picking up the pieces had continued. Adam now stood on the front porch looking out toward nothing in particular. Siddon Banning and the others had started back to town less than half an hour earlier, barrowing a wagon to cart the bodies of those who had fallen in defense of what was wrong with them. As Glover had been loaded in no one said anything about his bullet riddled corpse, for they all knew that they would have done the same as Lorcan O’Brien. The O’Brien’s had decided that they would stay the night – though it did crowd things up a bit – since it was quite a drive and the women and children needed to rest. The Bendell’s – assured that everything was all right there – had left shortly after the townsmen.

The sky had softened with the approach of dusk and a gentle breeze brushed a man’s skin like the caress of a woman. Adam took a deep breath and felt it expand his lungs and return some of the life that the day’s events had drained from him.

“A beautiful evening.”

“Yes, it is,” Adam said without looking at the doctor.

“Looking at the color of that sky and listening to the rustling of the trees it’s hard to think of what has happened this day…. So many lives lost, and one of them that of an innocent…, and another hanging in the balance.”

“How is Steve?” Adam asked as he finally looked around at him.

“Not very good, I’m afraid, but considerably better than a man I operated on a year ago in this very house. And I think if Mr. Balasco is as strong and determined, he’ll be all right too.”

“And what about Mr. Kelby?”

“Turner’s doing better, though I think that’s due more to Olivia’s fussing over him than my ministrations,” he said with a grin that quickly disappeared, and he sighed roughly and shook his head. “I just wish I’d been able to save that little boy, but that one was simply not meant to be.”

“I know that my presence pushed Glover to desperation, and if I hadn’t…”

Galen took his arm in a steel grip. “No, I won’t listen to that kind of talk, especially from the man who fought so hard to reclaim his life. This was going to happen sooner or later, and Glover’s getting it into his mind that Lee had hired himself a gunman may have brought it about sooner, but it would’ve happened anyway. No, if you want to blame somebody, look to Jamieson Glover and nobody else. Now I’m gonna go back in and check on my patients.” He tittered. “Did you know that I gave up my practice and came out here in retirement for some peace in my later years? I guess once a doctor, always a doctor. When somebody needs you, you can’t walk away in all good conscience.” With a warming smile he gave Adam a pat then went inside.

“When somebody needs you, you can’t walk away in all good conscience,” Adam repeated. His dense eyebrows knit into an anguished frown, and he started down the steps. Without a break in stride he went around behind the house. A large oak had been left standing, and he remembered Becky telling him how she thought they would bury him beneath its shade. Running his hand over its rough bark brought back memories of lazy times spent beneath those that lined the stream bank with Kip. Kip. What a boy. Then his hand tightened into a rigid fist as he thought of young Davin O’Brien and the death of promise that had been lost with him. And what it had been like for his own father when he had thought the same had befallen his first-born son? He felt the weight of all that had transpired bare down on him like the heaviest stone and wished he knew how to lift it.

His ragged sigh rose into the thick branches and dense leaves of the aged tree as he looked up. He didn’t really expect to find anything there, but it was the only place he knew to look, for what he would find inside himself frightened him. With a gulp, he turned and spied the stump that had been left and made a good place to sit.

As he sat on it he stared off ahead into this wild, untamed land that he called home and had for the majority of his life. Thoughts of leaving it crowded into his mind, and after what he had seen and experienced in all these years, was it any wonder? But was that what he really wanted?

The face of that little boy rose up and with him was Ross and Delphine Marquette, Sue Ann Terry, Inger, Young Wolf, Vannie Johnson, and so many others lost through violence. With a faint moan he leaned his elbows on his knees and hid his face in his hands. In the darkness behind his eyelids he let himself get lost and wished he could put it all away from him for the duration of his days on this earth. But did he want to do that? Did he want to forget about those that he had cared for?

As he sat in silence he felt a light touch on his knee and looked into the elfin face of Earie O’Brien. Her dainty mouth was parted into a waiflike smile filled with those tiny teeth, and her soft blue eyes turned the key to release the pain in his soul. “Hello, sweetheart,” he said as he gathered her up and sat her on his leg. “I’m afraid I’m not much in the mood for games right now, but then you don’t understand that, and I dread the day that you do.”

The gradually fading light sparkled in her eyes, and her silky buoyant hair glittered like a new copper kettle. The child was like a tonic and it felt good just holding her.

Lee and Flynn stepped out onto the porch, their eyes searching about them.

“It’s no telling where she could’ve gotten to. They can get away from you so fast,” Flynn said as his hands wadded.

“We’ll find her,” Lee assured him. “Now why don’t we look behind the house first then if she’s not there we’ll look somewhere else. She couldn’t have gotten too far.”

Lee lagged behind an anxious Flynn as they went down and around the side of the house. But as they reached the back corner they froze. Adam Cartwright was sitting on the stump, and they could tell by the minute shaking of his broad back that he was weeping silently. He was holding Earie on his leg, and her delicate little hand was patting on his shoulder and her head rested against his neck. With a nod from Lee, they turned unobtrusively around and left this man to grieve.

*******

Carolyn Banning was a wreck as she stalked back-and-forth in Siddon’s study, nervously twisting the fine Irish linen handkerchief in her slim fingers. She hadn’t wanted him to go, but she had known not to try to stop him. Since early in their marriage, she had known that this big strong man that had swept her off her feet and that she worshipped beyond mere words to express, she would never be able to completely control. She didn’t want to and knew not to even try.

“I have to do this, Carolyn,” he had said as he took the rifle from the gun cabinet. “Flanks won’t do anything, so that leaves it to me and as many men as I can get. I know that I have Steve Balasco and Dan Jillian, and they’re both good men. They’re gonna meet me along with any others at The Wooden Nickel. I’d send for the men from the saw mill, but I waited to see how things would go, and now I’m afraid there isn’t time.”

She had watched as he loaded the weapon then stuck a box of shells into his coat pocket then turned to her. She raised a hand to where he had touched her face and felt his lips once again burning into her own.

“I don’t know when I’ll be back, but Giles’ll be here and if anything should…”

But she had placed her fingertips over his full mouth to kill the words. “We’ll be waiting,” she whispered. “I’ll be waiting.”

Then he had put on his hat and gone out, and the largest and best part of her had gone with him. Now she waited, and it had been interminable. With a brushing sound, since Carolyn didn’t allow the doors in her home to squeak, Amelia stepped inside with a fine china cup and saucer.

“I brought you some tea,” she said as she went to her mother.

“Thank you, dear,” Carolyn said as she stood before the window and looked out into the gathering shadows, “but I really don’t want it.”

“He’ll be all right,” the girl said as she touched the back of her mother’s wrist. “We have to believe that he’ll be all right, and we can’t forget that Adam and Chris are there too.”

For the first time Carolyn realized that the cup was chattering against the saucer in Amelia’s hand. She could see the fright in the teenaged young woman’s face, but especially in the vivid blue eyes that she had inherited from her mother. With as comforting a smile as she could muster, Carolyn pushed the golden ringlets back from her daughter’s shoulders. “Yes, dear, we have to believe that they’ll be all right.”

Taking the tea, she sat it on the immense desk then put her arms around the girl and held her close. She could feel her daughter shivering and knew it wasn’t from being cold. Letting her first-born daughter soothe her troubled mind, she closed her eyes and the waiting went on.

No more than a few minutes had passed when they became aware of a commotion out in front of the house. Amelia pulled away and went out to see what was going on, leaving the study door hanging open. Carolyn stood at the end of the black leather covered sofa, twisting the soft cloth again, and daring not to hope. Then Amelia returned and the beaming smile she wore required no words of explanation. Carolyn felt her heart bound and her skirt and petticoats swished as she rushed out with the girl, but as she got to the base of the grand staircase she stopped dead.

He stood just inside the front door with their two younger daughters, Marjorie and Juliet, who were darker complexioned and with ebony hair and brown eyes like him. Then his gaze met with hers and her hand went to the cameo brooch that she wore at her throat.

“Hello, Carolyn.”

The sound of his deep voice was more than she could stand, and instead of her usual restrained decorum she rushed at him with a whimper. She rested her head against his large chest, his heart beating beneath her ear, and felt his massive arms go around her, and if he broke her she didn’t care, he was home and safe again and nothing else mattered.

FOURTEEN

It had been four days since what was becoming known in town as ‘The Battle of Fort Haymes’, Siddon, who had been out yesterday, had related. Only that morning, Turner Kelby, better and champing at the bit, had gone home with his Olivia, and Dr. Statler had done the same. Lee and Becky had moved into Kip’s room with baby William, since theirs was still occupied by Steve Balasco, and Kip was once again on the settee. Young Davin O’Brien’s funeral had been the day after the attack and Sheriff Flanks had been booted out and replaced by now acting Sheriff Dan Jillian, according to Siddon’s report.

Adam was sitting on the stump behind the house sharpening the pocket knife he always carried on a small whet stone when Becky almost magically appeared.

“Has Kip broken that stool again?” he asked with a mild grin and continued with his chore.

“Mr. Balasco’s awake, and he’s asking to see you.”

He came instantly to his feet and closed the knife and shoved it and the stone into a britches pocket. “How is he?”

“Better, I think, but you can judge for yourself.” Then she turned, and he followed her.

The door to the bedroom barely creaked as Adam pushed it open and stepped inside, closing it behind him. Steve was still deathly pale and close to being the same color as the white bandage that peaked above the edge of the quilt from where it swathed around his middle. Slowly, the charcoal eyes fluttered open as Adam went to stand by the side of the bed.

“You look a lot better than the last time I saw you. How do you feel?”

“I’ve… I’ve been better… been worse.”

“I thought I was gonna lose another friend.”

Steve snorted, and it was followed by a cough and a wince. “I’m too ornery to kill… so easily.”

One side of Adam’s finely sculpted mouth crooked. “I guess I am too.”

Steve’s breathing was arduous, and Adam could see that he was having trouble staying awake.

“Did… Did we stop ‘em?”

“Yeah…, we stopped ‘em…. Glover’s dead, along with Chase Wilder, Jiff Ryland, Hatch Varnes and two others. The rest, except for one that managed to light out, are cooling their heels in jail cells in Bantree along with former sheriff Everett Flanks.”

Steve blinked and tried focusing. “Did we… lose anybody?”

Adam’s head lowered, and he looked down at his feet. “Yeah…. One.” Then the sad dark hazel eyes went to Steve’s wan face. “Lorcan O’Brien’s youngest, Davin.”

“That boy?” Steve clamped his eyes shut tight and moisture ran from their corners. “Why couldn’t it have… been me?”

“Because it wasn’t supposed to be that way, my friend.”

“But he was only a…”

“Yes, only a child.” Adam puffed a sigh. “But whoever said life was fair.”

The shaded room went silent between the two men, but then Steve’s weak voice filled the void.

“And thou art dead…, as young and fair
As aught… of mortal birth;
And form so…”

His eyelids dropped, and his chest rose and fell from the exertion.

Then the rich baritone picked it up.

“And form so soft, and charms so rare,
Too soon return’d to Earth!
Though Earth receiv’d them in her bed,
And o’er the spot the crowd may tread
In carelessness or mirth,
There is an eye which could not brook
A moment on that grave to look.”

Adam reached down and touched the back of one of Steve’s hands, and got no response as he didn’t really expect one. “Rest, my friend…. There aren’t that many out here who like Shakespeare.” He gave a slight pat then went back out.

*******

Four more days passed before Dr. Statler decided that Steve Balasco was well enough to be able to handle the bumpy wagon ride into town. He was loaded into the back on a makeshift stretcher by Adam and Siddon, while Lee and Chris and Kip stood by. Becky came out of the house and tripped lightly down the steps, a towel wrapped bundle in her hands.

“This is my small way of saying thank you,” she said as she handed it to Siddon. “It’s fresh baked apple cake. I want you share it with the men who put their lives in jeopardy to help us. I know it isn’t much, but it’s the best I can do.”

“I certainly will,” he said and held it like a valuable prize.

“Well, if it tastes only half as good as it smells, then it’ll be well worth it,” Steve said as he propped his head on his arm.

Becky turned and – reaching over the side of the wagon – took his other hand. “God bless you, Mr. Balasco. God bless you all.” Dabbing at her eyes with her apron tail, she rushed back into the house before they saw her cry.

“I think my wife expressed the way I feel very well. You don’t always know who your real friends are until you desperately need them.”

“And you find out who your fair weather friends are too,” Adam said as the lone eyebrow rose. “I think Flanks is finding out that it’s a good idea not to be one.”

“That he is,” Siddon said boastfully. “That he most assuredly is, and he’ll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, I’ll see to that. I think young Dan is going to work out just fine, and if he’s so inclined, the job is his for as long as he wants it.”

Chris limped to the side of the wagon and shook hands with Steve. “You could’ve been killed dragging me out of the line of fire like that. I’ll never be able to repay what you did.”

“You did that when you finished off Hatch Varner.” Steve pulled a face and shook his head. “I never did like him anyway, and as long as I’m tending bar at the Nickel, you and Adam and Lee’ll never buy another drink there.”

“What about me?” Siddon said with mock offense.

“You don’t anyway,” Steve said with a knowing smirk.

“Oh, that’s right,” Siddon said and ducked his head then climbed onto the wagon seat and took up the reins. “I think we should all get together for a party at my house some day, after surviving this, we’re entitled. Now I’d better get going before Carolyn has my scalp. After this episode she watches me like a hawk.”

Everybody stepped back as he gave a flick of the reins and they started toward the road. Steve waved from his berth in the wagon bed and they waved back then watched until they were out of sight, and for several minutes no one said anything.

“Well, I guess that’s my cue,” Adam said as he rested a hand on Kip’s back. “I think I’d better start back home in the morning. I know my father and brothers are wondering what’s happened to me.”

“Ah, but Adam, do you havta so soon?” Kip said as he looked up at him.

“No, son, Adam’s right. He has a home and family of his own, and he needs to get back to it, but for tonight I think some of Becky’s fried fish is in order?” Who’s for going fishing?”

“Oh, boy! I am! I am!” Kip gushed as he bounced on his toes.

“But what about the work?” Chris asked.

“Oh, work be hanged. I think we need to relax a bit.”

“And Becky does fry the best fish in the state,” Adam said and winked at Kip.

“All right then,” Lee said as he tousled his son’s hair. “And this time I don’t recommend anybody go swimming with their clothes on.”

This brought a round of laughter, especially from the boy.

“I’ll go tell Becky while you get the poles,” Lee said and started up the porch steps.

“Oh, boy,” Kip said excitedly as he headed off between his two best friends, “I can hardly wait. Fishing is a lot of fun but not so much by yourself.” His forehead creased. “But this time we won’t have Old Bo.”

“Oh, I’m sure we can find plenty to give us a fight,” Adam said and gave the boy a slap on the back and sniffed the air. “I can almost smell it. Now let’s get those poles.”

*******

The sky had lightened though the sun hadn’t cleared the horizon yet as Adam tightened the cinch around the big chestnut’s belly.

“You know,” Chris started as he sat on the cot absentmindedly massaging his injured leg, “I almost wish I was goin’ with you.”

“Well, you can any time you’re a mind to.”

“And I will, someday, but I kinda hate leavin’ Mr. Haymes in a lurch. He and the missus’ve been awful good to me while I’ve been here, and Kip’s got to be like a little brother.” He laughed and ruffled his unruly caramel-colored hair. “I never had a younger brother and it’s kinda nice.”

Adam went still and grinned inwardly. “It is nice having younger brothers.” Then he went back to work.

“I see you’re about ready to ride out,” Lee said as he came in and walked toward them, something bound in cloth in his left hand.

“Just about,” Adam said as he brought the left fender down from where he’d hung it over the saddle’s seat.

“Becky made these up for you. They’re ham between biscuits,” Lee said as he reached the parcel to him.

Adam thanked him and stuffed it into one of the pouches of his saddle bags then fastened the buckle. “These’ll hit the spot. Thank her for me, will you?”

“You can thank her yourself; she and Kip are right outside.”

Chris stood unsteadily and followed along as Adam led his horse outside. Kip stood next to his mother and Becky had baby William. As Adam let the reins drop he found the infant thrust into his arms. Cradling him close, this strong, ardently self-reliant man looked into the innocent, unassuming face and let his mind conjure images of his own brother’s at a younger age. For the first time he realized how much his missed them. But as he stood there another face came to him, little Davin O’Brien, so wan and emotionless, and it made his heart ache. He held the child out into front of him as his own father had done with him many times and kissed the soft, fuzzy forehead and the little one didn’t stir then he handed Willy – which Kip had taken to calling him, much to his parent’s consternation – back to Becky. He thanked her for all her kindnesses, hugged Kip, shook hands with Lee and Chris then got mounted.

“Take care of yourself,” Lee said as he rested a hand on Sport’s withers. “And the next time you’re up this way, don’t be a stranger.”

“I won’t, and if you ever need me, just let me know.”

“I will,” Lee said as he gave the horse a pat and stepped back.

“And you take care of your mother and brother.”

“I will too.”

Then Adam turned the big horse and, giving him his knees, they started toward the road at a lively trot. For the first time since he’d left the Ponderosa he was truly eager to get back and see his family. He knew things had probably piled up some in his absence, and he could just imagine Hoss and Joe grousing about it. So, with a last look back and a final wave, he urged Sport faster and soon disappeared beyond the trees at the fork in the road.

FIFTEEN

The Ponderosa ranch hands had just set down to dinner when someone knocked at the bunkhouse door. Mort Styles, being foreman, relegated his brother Ray to answer it. With a grimace the younger Styles eyed him with irritation then set his cup down and went into the larger bunk room. It wasn’t long before he returned and sat right back down.

“It’s Adam Cartwright,” he said evenly and took a swig of his coffee.

Everybody stopped and looked at him, many in mid-chew.

“Well, did he say what he wants?” Mort asked around a filled mouth.

“He wants to see Elroy,” Ray said and shoveled down a forkful of hash.

“Then I guess you’d best go see what he wants Elroy,” Mort said and went back at his food.

Elroy Gillis looked at the men sitting around him and rubbed his still-blackened eye.

“You best go on, Elroy,” Lou Radburn said and stifled a giggle. “And if you see that he’s got another bit try duckin’ this time.”

The others laughed but Elroy wasn’t amused. “Very funny.” With a metallic clink, he dropped his fork onto the tin plate and left the room.

The laughter started again until Mort quieted his children and told them to eat, but that didn’t stop the childish sniggers.

The eldest Cartwright son was standing near the edge of the porch – his saddle bags slung over his shoulder and looking toward the big house – when Elroy stepped uneasily out behind him.

“You wanted to see me, Boss?”

“Yes, Elroy, I did,” Adam said as he turned around and winced as he gestured to the shiner. “Does that still hurt?”

“Not so bad now,” Elroy said and gingerly touched it.

“Well, that’s what I want to talk to you about. I want to say that I’m sorry. It wasn’t because of anything you did, and I’m not gonna make any excuses for myself…. I was having some problems at the time, but that’s no call for taking it out on you or anybody else…. I want you to know that I’ve never been anything but pleased with your work here,” he crooked a wicked grin, “and if I ever do anything like that again you have my permission to draw back and flatten me. Okay?” He held his right hand out.

Elroy looked at it then took it. “Okay, Boss.”

When Elroy returned to the table the food was forgotten again.

“Well, what’d he want,” Mort asked.

“He wanted to say he was sorry for hittin’ me,” Elroy puffed up, “and tell me that he’s pleased with my work, and then he shook my hand.” Then he started eating as the others just watched him.

Ben and his other two sons were in the middle of having their dinner when the front door opened and their attention went in that direction.

“Adam?” Ben said but got no answer.

As they watched in puzzlement, Adam went straight to the staircase, never once looking at them, and went on upstairs. Joe started to get up but Ben stopped him.

“No, Joe.”

“But, Pa, he’s been gone for…”

“I know how long he’s been gone; you don’t need to tell me. Now I think we should just let him alone until he’s ready, so sit back down and eat.”

Joe obviously wasn’t happy about the idea but he did as he was told, and his top lip curled with the tasteless first bite.

Sitting there and not going to his son was one of the hardest things Ben had ever done. He wanted to know where Adam had been, who he had been with and if he was all right now. But he knew it was time to let Adam alone, even though he didn’t like it.

They had just gotten back into eating, lackluster though it was, when Adam came back down and took his usual place across from his father.

“It looks like I’m just in time for dinner and I’m starved,” he said enthusiastically. “Hop Sing, bring another plate and fork and a glass too!”

The minute the little man appeared with the asked for objects his obsidian eyes lit like candles. “Mista Adam back,” he said exuberantly. “It good you home. Now maybe family settle down.”

“It’s good to be home, and I don’t plan on going anywhere else for a time yet.”

Hop Sing placed the things on the table in front of him then shuffled back into the kitchen. Taking up the water pitcher, Adam filled his glass then stood and cleared his throat.

“Before this goes any further,” he announced, “there are some apologies that need to be made.”

“Adam, I don’t think…,” Ben started.

“Let me do this, Pa. It’s long overdue. I know that for almost a week before I left in the dead of night like a thief that I was an absolute bear to live with. And I know that you all were worried about me, but the truth was that even I wasn’t sure what the problem was, and I was having trouble dealing with it. It’s not like you and I never had arguments before, Pa, or me and Hoss didn’t have harsh words from time to time, but I never raised my hand to either of my brothers and this time I hit Joe and knocked him down. I didn’t apologize then, so I am now. I’m sorry, Joe. I’m sorry for everything I put all of you through.” He plopped back down in the chair.

“Are you all right now, son?”

“I’m fine, Pa. Now let’s eat. I could take the hide off a buffalo.”

“Adam, where’d you go?” Hoss asked.

“To see some friends,” Adam said and seemed to look wistfully past the walls of the house then just as quickly came back. “But I’ll tell you all about it tonight. Right now I want to satisfy this hungry man and get back into the running of the ranch. You’ve been taking up the slack for me long enough.”

Ben sat and watched in prefect satisfaction as his eldest son filled his plate then dug into his food, and his brother’s did the same. Ben didn’t know where Adam had gone or what he had done there, and he didn’t really care if he never did. Whatever it was had returned his son to him and that was enough. He smiled and coffee eyes met briefly with dark hazel and he felt the love surge through him. Yes, Adam was back and, as Hop Sing had said, the family would settle down now.

THE END

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The poetry that Adam and Steve recite is the first verse of a poem by George Gordon (Lord) Byron (1788-1824) entitled “And Thou Art Dead, as Young and Fair”. It probably almost certainly pertains to a young lady but I thought it a fitting epitaph for this little boy.

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