A Haunted Child

Part 1

by sharie05

Disclaimer: The characters and situations of the TV program "Big Valley" are the creations of Four Star/Republic Pictures and have been used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended by the author. The ideas expressed in this story are copyrighted to the author.

* This story takes place after Heath has been with the Barkley family for two years. Sorry but Eugene does not exist. The first part of this story also deals with the abuse of a child so read with caution. *

Location: A small shack located in the foothills of Mt. Hamilton.

Jessie brought the pine needles nestled in his hands up to his nose and inhaled deeply. He didn't know why but the smell of pine always seemed to sooth him. As he lay back in the tall grass of the meadow, he heard the wind whispering through the trees. He thought if he listened hard enough he just might be able to hear what it was they were whispering about.

As he lay back in the warm soft grass looking up at the blue sky he chuckled to himself as a cloud resembling a rabbit bounding through a field floated into view. How many times had he lay in this very field watching cloud animals float by with his Mama he wondered. Oh how his Mama enjoyed watching the clouds float by on a warm summer day. She always saw a different shape in every cloud; no two were ever a like to her. She would point to one and say, "Jessie, just look at that one there, doesn't it look just like a wild stallion racing with the wind?" He was sure as he looked into her sparkling green eyes that he could just see that big old stallion running up in the sky racing the wind.

His mother always managed to surprise him; she always made him feel that his dreams, opinions and concerns about things really mattered to her. Her interest in these things never seemed patronizing to him in any way, if she was he would surely have seen it in her eyes and he never did. After all how many times did his mother tell him that you could view a person's sole by just looking into their eyes. The older he grew the more he realized just how right his mother was.

Thinking about his mother made him jump up and brush himself off. He still had chores to finish and here he was just dreaming the day away. How would his father feel if he found him just lying around looking up at the clouds? He could answer that one, disappointed, that's what his father would be. After all his father relied on his help running the ranch. With that last thought he took one last look up at the fleeing cloud rabbit and started to run towards home through the meadow.

Coming over the top of the hill behind his house, he heard his little sister's shrill cry. Looking down from the top of the hill he could see his red headed little sister running around in circles pulling at the back of her dress. It looked as though she had been having a tea party in the yard with her dolls before something disrupted it. There were dolls and cups scattered everywhere on the ground around the area she was running. Next to the dolls rolling on the ground clutching his sides laughing was his little brother Thomas. Jessie could see muddy tear tracks running down through the dust on Thomas's freckled face as he laughed hysterically.

"Get it out, Thomas! Get it out!" cried Carrie as she continued running and jumping around in circles pulling at the back of her dress, her red hair flying about. "It's biting me! Get it out Thomas!" Carrie cried again waving her hands.

This only seemed to make Thomas laugh even harder. Through bits of laughter Thomas managed to choke out, "Don't worry Carrie it's just a little old frog, they aint got any teeth!" he laughed as he rolled around on the ground holding his sides.

“Thomas!” Jessie yelled out as he raced down the hill to help his little sister. “Get that frog out a Carrie’s dress now!” he yelled trying to control his own laughter.

By the time he reached his sister she had managed to shake the poor frog free of her dress and was now sitting in the dirt with her arms and legs folded, tears streaming down her face.

“It’s OK Carrie, it was just a little frog, and he’s gone now.” Jessie said as he rubbed his hand across his sisters back trying to calm down her sobs.

“It’s…not…. the frog…. Jessie!” sobbed Carrie. “ He ruined my tea party!” she wailed pointing to the over turned teacups and dolls scattered about in the dirt around her.

Jessie tried hard to stifle his giggles as he took Carrie’s hand and helped her up out of the dirt. “Come on Carrie, let’s get you cleaned up and then I’ll help you set up the tea party again, OK?”

Carrie looked at her big brother, her green eyes smiling through her tears, “Thanks Jessie.” She said calmly.

Sometimes Jessie wondered about that little brother of his, how could he be so mean to his twin one moment and then in the next be so loving? The 7-year-old twins were very similar in most ways but so very different in others. They were both fiery red heads like their Mama, with bright green eyes and a face full of freckles.

Thomas was always on the move, when he was born Jessie thought someone put jumping beans in his pants, he never stopped moving. Thomas loved collecting bugs, snakes, and just about anything else that flew, slithered or crawled. Most of his Mama’s canning jars always ended up out back in the shed holding one or more of Thomas’s many little treasures. Mama was constantly yelling at him for coming home wet and muddy. It’s seems that one of Thomas’s favorite gathering sites was the small creek that ran through the meadow behind their house. He often found Thomas there turning over rocks looking for some new specimen to add to his collection.

Thomas’s unbounded energy always amazed Jessie, that boy was always in motion he just never stopped. He always had his nose in everything, except bath water that was. But Thomas did have a gentler side to him as well. There were times when Carrie would wake up crying from a bad dream or become scared during a bad storm; Thomas would always be the first one there to comfort her. He would crawl into bed with her, cradle her in his arms and talk softly to her until she fell back asleep. If Carrie weren’t feeling well, Thomas would wait on her hand and foot, read her stories, and even play dolls with her. Anything to make her feel better, Carrie always seemed to brighten when Thomas treated her this way. But once she felt better look out, Thomas was up to his old tricks again and his favorite target was his twin sister.

Carrie was almost the complete opposite of her twin brother. She loved helping her Mama with the housework and taking care of their little sister Mary Beth. When Carrie turned five, Mama gave her an apron that was just like her own. Carrie loved wearing her apron and helping Mama, it made her feel so important, so grown up. Whenever she could Carrie enjoyed having tea parties with her dolls, and with Mama if she had time. Carrie would serve tea to her guests with her little finger stuck up in the air while she poured the air tea and passed out her pretend cookies, how silly she looked Jessie often thought.

Jessie remembered asking her one day what she planned to do when she grew up, “I’m goanna be a Mama silly,” she replied, staring at him as if he had just asked the dumbest question in the world. “And I’m goanna marry Papa too,” she added in boldly.

Jessie just about fell over laughing, “you can’t marry Papa silly, he’s already married to Mama,” Jessie laughed.

“I can to marry Papa!” she wailed, “you can’t tell me who I can marry Jessie, your only ten!” And with that she stomped out of the room, tossing her red hair over her shoulder as she left. Boy once Carrie had her mind set on something it was hard getting her to change it.


Carrie continued to cheer up as Jessie helped her dust off her dolls and set up the tea party again. Once the tea party was under way Jessie started to make his way towards the barn, he still had chores to finish before supper. As he rounded the corner of the house he saw his father hooking Daisy and May up to the wagon in front of the barn.

“Where you off to Pa,” Jessie asked as he ran up next to his father.

“Head’en over to the Butlers, Jake says the winter grain we ordered is in,” replied James Thorton.

The Butler’s had a ranch a few miles north of theirs. Jake and Kathy Butler were an older couple without any children of their own. The Butlers had invited Jessie’s entire family over for supper when they first moved here from Minnesota a year ago. Ma and Pa took a real liking to the Butlers, as did Jessie. Other than the Butlers they really didn’t know anyone else in the area. Pa and Jake Butler often ordered grain and seed together so they could get it at a discounted price. It seems the more you bought the cheaper the price was.

“Need any help?” asked Jessie, crossing his fingers behind his back hoping his father would say yes.

“No son, you’d be doing me a big favor if you could stay here and get the loft ready for the grain. I should be back around supper time.” He replied.

“OK Pa,” answered Jessie looking down at his shoes and kicking up dirt.

Noticing Jessie’s disappointment James added, “Don’t worry Jessie, they’ll be plenty of other times you can come with me, after all we have this whole ranch to fix up, right?”

Jessie lifted up his head and looked at his father, “ Don’t worry Pa, I’ll have that loft spit polished clean by the time you get back,” Jessie chimed cheerfully.

Climbing up on the wagon and grabbing the reins James replied, “That’s my boy, I’ll see you in a while.”

If only James could have foreseen the future he would have insisted Jessie come with him. He enjoyed traveling with his son, Jessie shared the same love for the outdoors and the ranch that he did. That boy may be only ten but he does the work of a full-grown man. If only James had known how much time he had left with his son, he surly would have invited him along.

Jessie watched as his father drove off through the pines towards the Butler’s ranch, he really wished his father had taken him along. He enjoyed having his father all to himself sometimes although those times seemed to be to few and far between for Jessie. He adored his father and spent every moment he could with him. When they were alone together his father seemed to be more at ease and open with him, he seemed to relax more, and Jessie loved that. He thought his father knew just about everything, he was great with all types of animals and was just about the best judge of horseflesh in the state. He taught Jessie how to handle himself in the woods, which plants he could eat and which were deadly. He taught him how to set snares and clean and cook his own food, and how to use the stars at night to help him find his way. Yup, his Pa was just about the best Pa around, Jessie thought as he walked towards the barn to ready the loft.

Jessie opened up the barn door and headed for the ladder up to the loft. Climbing up the ladder a strange sensation passed through his head. “Was the barn getting darker?” he thought out loud. It suddenly seemed that the higher he climbed on the ladder the darker it got. “That’s crazy,” he thought out loud, “it’s the middle of the day, it shouldn’t be this dark in here.” As he climbed up onto the loft it felt as if he was looking through a dark curtain, as he struggled to see he felt a sharp pain in his side. He could also now hear someone yelling at him, but who could be yelling at him up here in the loft he wondered.

“Get up Boy!” a very gruff voice growled out at him.

Jessie again felt the sharp stabbing pain in his side; as he struggled to see where the voice was coming from he started to remember where he was.

“NO!!” he screamed. “Please let me stay with them! Please!” he wailed.

Hank looked down at the boy curled up on the floor and kicked him again, did that boy just say talk back to him? “Get up now Boy! Don’t you ever talk back to me!” he snarled at Jessie, looking at him through anger filled eyes.

Jessie cried out in pain, his ribs hurt but his heart felt as though it was being torn right out of his chest. “Please let me stay………please!” he pleaded, as he lay curled up in a ball on the dirty floor.

Hank reached down and grabbed the boy by his upper arms and lifted him effortlessly off the floor. He held Jessie out in front of his sizable frame and started to shake him back and forth like a rag doll. Jessie started to kick at Hank in an attempt to get free of his grasp.

“Wake up Boy!” Hank snarled, “Or your goanna wish you were dead!”

Jessie’s green eyes shot wide open, they were dead he thought, they were really all dead! All of the fight left in him died, and he hung limply from Hanks grasp.

“It’s about time boy!” Hank bellowed at him as he dropped Jessie to the floor. “Now get moving and pack up those supplies boy. We’re heading out a here shortly, we gotta job to do.” Hank unlocked Jessie’s wrists from the chains that stretched up from the floor, gave him a small shove with his foot and turned around to leave. As Hank closed the door to the cabin Jessie realized he was once again alone.

Staring at the floor he rubbed his sore wrists as the tears started to flow. It had seemed so real this time he thought; he could still hear them, see them, and even feel them. Had it really been almost nine months since he’d last seen his home? Oh God, he thought shuddering, tears falling down his cheeks and onto the dirty floor; they’ve been gone for over a year now! All of them, gone forever!

Jessie slumped down onto the floor and drew his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs he began to rock back and fourth sobbing. Get a hold of your self-Jessie, he thought, if Hank comes back in and finds you like this he’d beat the tar out of you. Or god forbid Matt should find you like this.

Matt was Hanks right hand man, he wasn’t as big or old as Hank but he was certainly much scarier. Matt had a thing for knives, he liked using them on people, and Jessie was no exception. Jessie was terrified of Matt, the man had black eyes, Jessie was sure he had no sole at all. “He couldn’t have one;” thought Jessie, “Not with what he’d done to all of those innocent people.”

Jessie wiped his face on the remains of his tattered shirt, not much left of this he thought to himself, I bet one more washing and they’ll be nothing left to put back on. “No use fretting about it,” he thought as he started to gather up the necessary supplies for the trip

“Boy!” bellowed Hank, “You done in there!”

“Almost, I’ll have everything ready in a minute,” replied Jessie, trying to keep his voice from cracking. Jessie quickly gathered up the rest of the supplies and hurried out the door.

They were all ready mounted up and ready to go when Jessie came out of the cabin. Hank was in the lead followed by Matt, then rode Marcus, Dave, Sam, and the brothers Peter and Henry. Dan was driving the wagon, my Pa’s wagon, sighed Jessie.

“Load those things in the back of the wagon and then get down out a sight boy!” Yelled Hank as he started moving the men forward.

Jessie stowed the supplies under the tarp and then crawled underneath himself. He hated traveling this way, the tarp smelled and the air underneath was stale. He hated lying in one position for so long too, his badly healed bones groaned at every bounce in the road. He never knew where Hank was taking them, but he did know he never liked what they did once they got where they were going.

Hank McDonald lead his gang down the hillside and away from the secluded cabin towards Emerald. The sun had just peeked its way up and over the top of the hillside, “Good,” he thought, “we’re going to make it in plenty of time to catch that stage.”

Matt Shaffer walked his horse around to the back of the wagon. He wanted to make sure that little whelp was good and covered; he didn’t want anyone asking questions about the boy. Why Hank had insisted on bringing that boy along all those months ago still baffled and angered Matt, he told Hank that kids were nothing but trouble and that all he was doing by taking that kid was just asking for it.

“You stay down and stay quiet until I come back and get you, boy,” Matt snickered at Jessie as he rode back up to the front to meet Hank. Jessie shook and curled up into an even tighter ball as he heard Matt’s voice, Matt terrified him. He remembered the night they came and took him away from his home, Matt didn’t want Hank bringing Jessie along, and he remembered their conversation like it happened yesterday…

“You can’t be serious Hank!” yelled Matt; “We can’t have a kid tagging around behind us on the trail!”

“The decision is final Matt, he’s coming with us!” Hank hollered back. “We can use him, trust me on this one.”

“Your just asking for trouble bringing that kid along Hank, I can take care of him right now if you want,” sneered Matt. Sliding his knife out of the sheath on his belt, he moved closer to where Hank held Jessie. Jessie stared at the knife and then at the man who carried it, he had black hair and cold black eyes. Jessie was terrified at the blankness the man’s eyes held, nothing, there was nothing in his eyes but cold blackness. Didn’t his Mama always say you could see a person’s sole in their eyes, this scared Jessie. He knew this man was capable of anything, and he was sure that none of it was good.

“How about it Hank, can’t a guy have a little fun.” Matt smiled at Jessie as he brought the cold steel tip of the knife up to the boys face.

“It wouldn’t take me long to skin him, Hank there’s really not much to him.”

Jessie tried to back away but Hank was a huge figure of a man and he had a tight grip on Jessie’s shoulders, there was no way to move him. Matt brought the tip of the knife up to Jessie’s nose. All Jessie could do was stare at the knife; there was no way to move away from it. Matt put the tip of the knife into Jessie’s left nostril and flicked the knife sideways causing it to cut open the nostril. Jessie cried out in pain as the tears started welling up in his eyes.

“Leave the boy alone,” warned Hank, “I have plans for him.”

“What’s the matter Hank,” inquired Matt, “Your not goin and getting soft on me now is ya?”

“Like I told you I’ve got plans for the boy, and having him all marked up won’t help any.” With that Hank picked up the boy, threw him over his shoulder like a bag of seed and headed towards the wagon.

Jessie could barely feel the blood running down his face as he hung limply across Hanks shoulder. Matt had terrified him, my God Jessie thought, his eyes his eyes were black! Black! Jessie barely felt it as Hank dropped him into the back of the wagon, he felt Hank tie his wrists and then his feet together but he couldn’t shake the image of Matt’s black eyes from his head. The way the knife seemed to reflect in his eyes, dead and cold. The next thing he knew he was under the tarp and Hank was talking to him.

“Stay quiet and keep out a sight boy, don’t give me a reason to hand you over to Matt now,” Hank warned in stern voice. The last thing Jessie heard before passing out was the sound of Matt’s snickers.

And now here he was still stuck in the wagon under the very same tarp listening again to those awful snickers. He could picture Matt’s dead black orbs staring at him through the tarp, the thought of those eyes made him shiver. How was he ever going to get away from these men? He remembered back to the one and only time he had ever tried to, and the terrible consequences that occurred because of it.

It was a few months ago, he had been riding in the back of the wagon when he felt the swaying stop, Hank had ordered him out of the wagon and untied his hands. He instructed Jessie to set up camp and get things in order for their return in a few hours. Then Hank mounted his horse and rode away with his gang.

“He forgot to tie my hands,” Jessie thought out loud, “this is my chance to get away”. Following the horses hoof prints he figured he could find his way back to the main road, he knew they had been on a main road for a while because the wagon ride had been relatively smooth. After feeling the wagon turn the ride became very bumpy even going as slow as they were, he felt they must be forging their own trail.

Jessie followed the hoof prints through the woods out to a field full of beautiful wild flowers. “I’d almost forgotten how beautiful the outside world really is,” Jessie said to himself as he ran through the flowers lost in thought. Jessie followed the trail left by the gang and he was soon rewarded there it was, a road! Someone is bound to come by, this road looks pretty well worn he observed. I wonder where it leads? He had no idea where he was, Hank always tied him up and made him travel under the tarp of the wagon, so he never knew where they went.

Right now that didn’t matter to him he was free! Away from those terrible men and especially away from those cold black eyes. Jessie began to run down the road. Even though he’d only gone a short distance, it felt as if he had been running for hours. He was beginning to think he couldn’t go on much further when he spotted a horse and rider in the distance. All the energy drained from his legs and he sat down in a heap in the middle of the road, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A rider was coming down the road, he was actually going to get away, and he was going home! Tears started to stream down his dirty face, as the rider approached he tried to stand, “Help me please,” he cried looking up at the rider.

The rider pulled up his horse and jumped down next to Jessie. “What’s the matter son, you lost?” he asked. The boy looked terrible, he was filthy, his hair was matted, his cloths were dirty and torn, and he was so thin.

“Please help me mister,” Jessie pleaded grabbing the riders hand, “I need help getting home.”

The boy’s green eyes were so sad, the rider could see the boy’s desperation in them. “What’s your name son, and where are you from?”

“Jessie Thorton, sir, my family has a ranch near Willow Creek outside of Merced,” Jessie said with enthusiasm.

“Pleasure to meet you Jessie Thorton, my names Adam Houston,” the rider answered while shaking Jessie’s hand.

“Now what has you so far away from home, and where are your folks?”

Jessie looked up at the rider, he sounded and acted as though he genuinely wanted to help. “He seems to be just about the same age as my Pa,” Jessie thought. His cloths were a little dusty and worn but he’d probably just been on the trail for a while. The riders brown eyes spoke volumes to Jessie; he could see the look of concern and caring they held. Yes, he could trust this man, he had to, he had no one else to turn to.

As Jessie started to speak he suddenly became frightened, what if this man didn’t want to help him after he told him about Hank and his men. What if he just rode off and left him there………

“Come on son, tell me what’s wrong it’s the only way I can help you,” Adam spoke in a low voice as he knelt down and looked the boy in the face.

As Jessie started to speak, tears also began falling down his cheeks. He explained everything that happened from the time Hank and his men had taken him from his home until he came to be standing in the road here. The man pulled out a handkerchief and started wiping Jessie’s face, “Don’t worry son, and let’s take you up to the sheriff in Westley. He needs to hear this story for himself, I‘ll bet he’s going to want to gather up a posse and hunt that gang down.”

Jessie felt total relief wash over his body, the man was going to help him, he wasn’t going to leave him all alone and run away! Adam caught the boy as he collapsed into his arms, “Don’t worry son, you’ll be back home before you know it.” With that he picked Jessie up and carried him over to his horse. “I’ll put you up in the saddle first then I’ll mount up and hold onto you from behind OK son?” asked Adam.

A smile and a heart-felt thank you were just about all Jessie could muster as Adam mounted and the two rode off towards Westley.

Jessie was beginning to wonder how much longer it was going to take to get to Westley when he saw them. He bolted straight up in the saddle eyes wide open with fear. “Their coming!” he screamed. “Please we have to get away!” he said in a panic frantically looking around for a place to hide.

Adam was looking for a hiding place as well; maybe the riders hadn’t seen them yet. Hopefully the glare from the sun had hidden them from view. But where could they run, he certainly didn’t want to tangle with these men. Especially after hearing what the boy said they did to their victims, hearing the boy describe the awful images had made his blood turn cold. He turned his horse off the road and headed for the tree line, hopefully he could lose them in the hills. He knew it would be difficult but he had to try.


“I told you Hank, I told you that kid would be nothing but trouble!” Matt shouted as he stomped around the wagon.

“Shut up Matt, he can’t be very far away!” spat Hank. “Peter, Henry mount up! You two come with Matt and I to track down the boy. Marcus you and Dave get everything set by the time we get back. Dave and Sam you two ride back and make sure no one’s following us, I expect you to take care of them if they are.” Mounting his horse Hank added, “ Once we find the boy we’ll bring him back here and then head back to the cabin. Make sure Marcus that it looks as though no one was ever here.” With that Hank grabbed the reins of his horse and headed of towards the road with Matt, Peter, and Henry following close behind him.

Hank was furious with himself, how could he have forgotten to chain the boy? He knew deep down the boy would run if he had the chance, he could see it every time he looked in the boy’s eyes. They’d had the boy for almost 3 months now, of course he would run, all he wanted to do was get back to that precious ranch of his. “I should have burned that damn ranch to the ground,” Hank thought out loud. “That way he’d have had no where to run.”

The men galloped through the field and up the road a little ways before Matt saw something. Dropping down off his horse, he looked at the footprints in the dust. “Looks like someone came along and picked up the boy, they’re ridding double, headed north.”

“Probably towards Westley,” replied Peter. “It’s the closest town and the roads pretty open all the way there.”

“Well they can’t be moving all that fast riding double,” Henry spoke up, “We should be able to overtake them easily before they reach Westley.”

“Come on let’s move! Who ever he is he’s going to be awful sorry he ever laid eyes on that boy!” Hank shouted ad he started to gallop off down the road towards Westley.



“Please we have to move faster!” pleaded Jessie. He was panicking now; he knew what was in store for them if Hank caught them. He’d consider himself lucky if it was Hank that caught up with them first; if it was Matt he was as good as dead.

Adam looked back over his shoulder; the men were gaining on them. He knew they were in trouble, they couldn’t outrun them like this and there was no place to hide. The boy was trembling in his hands as Adam searched the tree line for a spot to take cover when a shot rang out. He felt a searing pain envelope his lower left back and side. “God it hurts to breath,” he whispered as the blackness overcame him.

Jessie heard the shot and felt the man go limp against his back. “No, No!” he screamed as they went tumbling off the horse together. He hit the ground hard on his left side, blinding pain screamed up at him as his left collarbone broke with a thick cracking sound. As he lay on the ground cradling his left arm he heard them approaching. He tried to open his eyes but they wouldn’t obey, everything seemed to be getting further and further away from him. Just before he blacked out he felt someone grab his shirt lifting him up, “Welcome back Boy!” A shudder pasted through Jessie’s body as he listened to Matt’s evil greeting before the blackness over took him.



He awoke in a world of pain, it felt as though someone was turning a knife around and around inside his shoulder. He realized his hands were once again tied and that he was back under the wagon tarp. The wagon was moving, but how long had he been in here he wondered. Tears started falling down his cheeks, “they had him, and he didn’t get away after all. But where was the man who had tried to help him, what was his name again…Adam, yes it was Adam.” Jessie felt he knew the answer to his own question; they would have killed him that he was sure of.

The wagon’s motion came to a stop and Jessie heard footsteps approaching the rear.

“Leave him be for now Matt,” called Hank. “He’s not going any where for a while,” he laughed.

“I guess I could use a drink before the fun begins,” joked Matt.

“Come on, I’m buying, or should I say the Barkley’s are buying!” joked Hank, “Jarrod Barkley that is. This is one shipment of whiskey that’ll never be delivered.”

“Oh how I enjoy stealing from the rich, they sure do have good taste in whiskey,” laughed Marcus as he joined Matt and Hank.

“Matt did you have to cut up that boy’s suit so bad, I was hoping to get me a new suit.” Laughed Dan.

“And just what would you want with a suit! Even with that fancy suit you couldn’t pass for a gentleman,” added Henry.

“At least I’d have a better chance picking up women with the suit than I would if I hung around you,” Dan said pointing at Henry. “You could wash up in the creek every once and a while, maybe that way the women wouldn’t smell ya before you even enter the saloon!” Dan laughed.

“I may smell but at least I aren’t as butt ugly as you!” Henry snapped at Dan as he walked away from the group towards the cabin slapping is butt check.

“You guys sound like a bunch of babbling old women, let’s go drink some of this fine whiskey,” commanded Hank as he strode off towards the cabin.

Jessie could hear them walking away from the wagon, maybe things wouldn’t be as bad as he had feared. But deep down inside he knew that was just wishful thinking, they had liquor, and that spelled only one thing in Jessie’s mind, trouble. Things could turn ugly fast when those men were drinking and he knew that first hand.

Jessie awoke to the sound of horses riding up next to the wagon, “how long have I been asleep,” he wondered. He ached all over and his entire left arm felt as if it were on fire, but the rest of him was so cold.

“Come on Sam, let’s get in there and get some of that whiskey before those drunks drink it all.”

“I’m right behind you Dave,” replied Sam as he walked up towards the cabin.

Entering the cabin Dave and Sam found the rest of the gang sitting around the table playing cards. There were four or five empty whiskey bottles littered around on the floor.

“So what did you boys find out,” questioned Hank.

“We waited just outside of Emerald like you said for about four hours, we didn’t see any activity at all,” replied Same. “Doesn’t look like we’ll have any trouble.”

“Good, I don’t need any more trouble.” Replied Hank.

“Did you find the boy Hank?” asked Dave.

“Yeah, him and another play toy for Matt,” laughed Marcus sipping his whiskey.

Dave looked at him a little puzzled by the remark. “The boy made it out to the road and found himself a ride,” Hank remarked to Dave, “But they didn’t get far.”

“What’d ya do with them?” asked Dave as he looked around the cabin.

“The boy’s out in the back of the wagon and the fellow’s tied up out back……….waiting,” smiled Hank as he winked towards Matt.

“Yeah waiting for me to teach them a thing or two, about pain that is,” laughed Matt as he ran his fingers up and down his knife.

“Almost makes me feel sorry for them…almost,” choked out Marcus through bits of laughter.

“Come on boys, let’s go get reacquainted with our guests,” snickered Matt as he walked towards the door.

“Remember what we talked about Matt,” Hank warned. “I wanna keep that boy alive, but make sure he never pulls this little stunt again.”

“No problem boss,” Matt smiled, “I’m going to enjoy this!”


They were coming; Jessie heard them, him, laughing as they walked out of the cabin. He couldn’t help himself as he started to tremble, he was coming… the tarp was pulled back roughly and Jessie saw him, Matt, staring down at him with those cold black eyes. Even though night had fallen, with the full moon he could see quite clearly. The moon seemed to be reflected in Matt’s eyes, making them appear as though they could swallow him hole.

Matt grabbed his legs and pulled him towards the back of the wagon, Jessie let out a sharp cry as the motion caused intense pain in his injured shoulder. He felt his legs come over the edge of the wagon; Matt grabbed his right arm and sat him up. Jessie felt sick to his stomach as the pain from his shoulder increased with each movement.

“Get on your feet boy!” shouted Matt as he pulled Jessie from the wagon. “You got a friend waiting for you.”

As Jessie was pulled to his feet in front of Matt, he lost the battle that was raging in his stomach and threw up all over Matt’s boots.

“You little bastard!” shouted Matt as he punched Jessie viciously in the face causing him to topple over backwards in the dirt. “I’m going to kill you!” he shouted as he started to kick the boy.

“Cut it out Matt, you remember what Hank said,” Marcus spoke as he pushed Matt away from the boy. “Besides you can’t have any fun with him if he’s dead.”

“Oh I’m going to have fun with him alright!” Matt replied angrily as he dragged the boy’s unconscious body by the arm towards the back of the cabin.


He could hear screaming, but just who was screaming and where was it coming from? He felt compelled to open his eyes but it was so hard, everything hurt. It was an effort just to even breath but he had to see what was happening, he had to help if he could. The moment he opened his eyes he wished he was blind; there hanging by his wrists from a tree was Adam. Adam was the one screaming, Matt was using his knife on him, carefully pealing his skin off. There was blood everywhere, “how could someone lose that much blood and still be alive,” he wondered. Now he heard someone else screaming too, it took him a moment to realize the other voice was his own.

Hearing the boy scream Hank walked over and grabbed him by the hair. “See what you did!” he spat in Jessie’s face. “You killed him! Your stupidity cost that man his life!”

“No, no, no…you…Matt…killed…. him,” he wept.

He brought the boy up closer to his face, “Not us boy, you! If you hadn’t disobeyed me that man would still be alive now! You see boy it’s all your fault! You killed him! You killed him!”

Hank could see the blank expression on the boys bruised and battered face, they had won, the boy was now theirs to use his will broken.

Jessie stared back at Hank, “it was my fault, all my fault! He’s going to die because of me, because of what I did! He tried to help me and now he’s going to die! How could I have been so stupid! It’s all my fault! It should be me and not him! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sor”… It was too much for him to take and the world started to spin before his eyes, as the blackness over took him all he heard were Adam’s screams.


Tears rolled down his cheeks as he remembered that awful day, that was the day he realized there was no way to get away from these awful men.

They had been traveling most of the day before Jessie felt the wagon come to a stop.

“Come on boy, get things set there’s some hungry, hot and tired men out here,” Hank stated as he pulled the wagon’s tarp back.

Jessie got down and began the familiar process of setting up the camp for the men. “How many times have I done this now,” he wondered. He knew he needed to speed things up a little but his body was sore from riding cramped up in the back of the wagon all day and it just wouldn’t move as fast as he would’ve liked it to.

Matt looked over at the boy, damn he was slow! So what if Hank felt they needed him to cook and clean for them, he was sick of the kid. “I know how to make him move a little faster,” snickered Matt.

Jessie heard someone coming up behind him, turning around he found himself staring directly into Matt’s dead eyes. He immediately dropped his eyes to the ground, he knew if he looked into those eyes for to long he would go insane, just like the man behind them.

“Your awful slow today boy, I think you’re in need of a little motivation,” snickered Matt eying the boys down caste gaze. Grabbing his chin he forced the boy to look up at him, “what’s the matter boy, cat got your tongue?” He didn’t need to hear and answer from the boy; he saw everything he needed to see in his eyes. The boy was terrified of him, he laughed out loud at the boy and shoved him in the chest.

Jessie fell backwards in the dirt biting his tongue; he quickly got back on his feet and continued setting up the camp tears silently falling down his face. “If I get back to work, maybe he’ll leave me alone,” thought Jessie.

“Oh this is fun!” thought Matt as he unsheathed his knife. He walked up behind the boy and poked him in the back with the tip of his knife. “Let’s go boy, faster!” he laughed as he continued to taunt and poke Jessie with his knife.

Jessie was really scared; Matt was poking him in the back with the dreaded knife and forcing him around the camp. He knew Matt wasn’t sticking the knife in very deep but Jessie could feel blood starting to run down his back. He was beginning to wonder, to hope, that maybe Matt would take things to far this time when he heard Hank yell.

“Damn it Matt!” Yelled Hank as he walked towards them. “How many times do I have to tell you to leave the boy alone!”

“I was just trying to get him to move a little faster is all.”

“I’ll take care of the boy, you go and make sure the men are ready for later tonight,” bellowed Hank as he walked over towards Jessie.

The puncture wounds weren’t very deep but he didn’t think the boy would be sleeping on his back any time soon. “What’s the matter with you boy, you know how Matt is why’d you go and anger him?”

Jessie looked down at the ground, there was no way to answer Hank, it didn’t matter what ever he did Matt would still torture him, after all he enjoyed doing it.

“Well hurry up and finish then stay out a Matt’s sight,” Hank barked as he walked away.

Jessie was numb; he had actually hoped Matt would end it all for him a few moments ago. He actually wished Matt had killed him, “my God” he thought, “I’m sorry I just miss them so much and I just can’t find any other way out God. Please help me…”



Heath Barkley sat by the fire stirring a pot of his famous beans. “Boy Howdy!” He thought, “This sure has been one long trip.” Nick and Heath had departed the comforts of the ranch almost three weeks ago on a cattle-buying trip. The trip had started out just fine, the weather had been pleasant and the boys were both in good spirits, the string of stagecoach robberies the area had been experiencing had stopped for a while, and both brothers loved being out on the trail together. But it seemed to Heath that the moment they entered Bakersfield things started to change and they weren’t for the better.

“Come on Heath, I need you there to help me take a look at the cattle.” Nick Barkley spoke as he patted his younger brother on the shoulder.

“Since when do you need my help picking out cattle?” his younger brother grinned up at him. “I’m the one who knows about horses, remember,” He added as he walked off towards the house smiling.

“You don’t expect me to make this big of a decision without discussing it with someone first do you?” Nick stated as he walked along side his brother. “Besides this is as much my ranch as it is yours.”

“I know that Nick, you also know I trust your judgment completely. You don’t have to ask my permission.”

“All right, all right, let’s just say I wanted to take a road trip with my little brother here,” Nick joked as he put his arm around Heaths shoulder.

“Now that’s more like it,” joked Heath as the two walked into the house together.


“Good evening Mr. Nick, evening Mr. Heath,” greeted Silas as they walked in the front door. “Super will be on the table shortly, he added as he took their hats.

“Thanks Silas, we’ll be down just as soon as we clean off all this dust,” Heath replied as he swatted at the dust on his shirt.

“First dibs on the tub little brother!” Nick yelled as he pushed past Heath and ran up the stairs.

“I swear that boy will never grow up Mr. Heath,” Silas shook his head and smiled, “he’s been running up those stairs since he was a little boy always trying to get ahead of somebody.”

“Its Ok Silas, its kind a nice seeing some of the things I missed out on growing up in Strawberry. Makes me feel like I was actually here sometimes, I can just picture him chasing Jarrod or Audra up those very stairs.”

Silas watched as Heath walked up the stairs to his room, that boy was something special; it was nice seeing him finally at ease with his new family. Silas hoped that with time more and more of his past would become just that, part of the past. The boy was slowly letting his past lose its hold on the present, and for that Silas was thankful.

During dinner that evening Nick told the family about his and Heath’s up coming trip to Bakersfield to look at a small herd of cattle for sale at the Lockford’s Cattle Ranch.

“Now what’s so special about this herd of cattle that has you going all the way to Bakersfield might I ask, brother Nick,” inquired Jarrod while cutting away at his steak.

“Well if you really want to know, big brother, these are Texas Longhorn Cattle. I’ve been meaning to take a look at them to see if they'd make a good addition to our stock,” replied Nick looking at his brother waiting for his next remark.

“And what benefit would there be in doing just that?” asked Jarrod as he smiled and winked at Heath.

Heath could see Nick becoming more and more agitated with his older brother. Jarrod loved teasing Nick just as much as Heath did, and poor Nick never stood a chance against either one of them.

“Well since you’re giving me the third degree, these cattle are a little larger than our own cattle and travel better too,” replied Nick staring at his brother as if daring him to say something negative about them.

“Won’t these cattle eat more food Nick, since they’re bigger and all?” chimed in Heath smiling at Jarrod.

“What! Now you too!” yelled Nick pounding his fist on the table.

“Well it would only make sense that they would need more grain, Nick, good question Heath,” Jarrod remarked holding back his laughter.

Audra sat back and watched the banter taking place between her brothers, once again Heath and Jarrod had Nick just where they wanted him. It amazed Audra at the ease in which her two older brothers could rile Nick and she wanted to join in. After all hadn’t Nick teased her for years, she was only more than happy to have the chance to repay him.

“You know Nick, with the cost of grain rising every year do you think bringing bigger cattle onto the ranch is wise?” she asked in her best sweet and innocent voice while pinching her leg trying not to laugh at the expression on his face.

“Since when do you know anything about feed prices young lady!” bellowed Nick throwing his napkin down on the table as he pushed his chair back and stood up.

That was all Jarrod, Heath, and Audra could take, all three burst out laughing at their poor brother. Nick sat back down in a huff and stared at his siblings, but then even he had to smile and shake his head.

“Well maybe now we can enjoy what’s left of our dinner in peace,” replied Victoria as she smiled at her children. This caused all four of the siblings to laugh once again.


The next morning saw the pair off on their trip. Jarrod had work to do in Stockton for a few weeks so he agreed to keep an eye on things around the ranch for them until their return. The boys felt better knowing that Jarrod would be around the ranch to help look after Audra and mother.

As they rode through the countryside each brother was lost in a world of his own thoughts. Nick was thinking about what a fine addition to the ranch the new cattle would be. He had wanted to expand the cattle business for some time now and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to him. With Heath’s help the ranch had really begun to grow, funny Nick thought, it was hard to remember a time when Heath hadn’t been there with them.

Nick couldn’t think of a better man to share the duties of the ranch with, Heath loved the ranch just as much as Nick did. The pair seemed to compliment one another quite well, Nick was as out spoken as he was hot tempered but he was a born leader and the ranch hands would do anything for him. Heath on the other hand was quiet and reflective; he always thought things through before taking action or speaking. He was also the best horse trainer Nick had ever seen, why Heath was more at home with horses than he was with people.

Heath on the other hand, was riding along daydreaming about Anna Holden, seems he had been daydreaming about her a lot lately. Audra had introduced Heath to Anna at a fundraiser for the orphanage three months ago, seems Anna had just moved to the area from Boston after finishing college. Audra really didn’t think Heath would be interested in Anna since she was from the east and really knew nothing about the west, she was hoping Jarrod might find Anna intriguing maybe enough to marry one day.

Being a gentleman Heath asked her to dance, he was a little nervous at first afraid she might be another one of his sisters chatty friends and he would spend the rest of the evening listening to her babble on and on about her shoes, her hair ribbons, or some other nonsense. But that wasn’t the case at all, Anna had directed her questions at Heath by asking him his likes and dislikes. Heath was amazed, this woman never seemed to talk about herself at all and she seemed genuinely interested in his answers to her questions. She never dug to deep with her questions but kept them mainly directed towards the ranch and some of the activities that he enjoyed. This intrigued Heath; he felt at ease with this woman, it was the first time in a long time he’d felt this way. He definitely wanted to get to know Miss Anna Holden a little better.


The brothers took their time traveling down to Bakersfield, neither one had been away from the ranch for a while now and it felt good getting away for a little time together. Nick loved taking trips with his little brother it was on such trips that he had learned so much about Heath’s hard childhood. Heath had begun to open up more and more about his life before coming to live with them, but Nick felt there was still more that he was holding back. He was secretly hoping that Heath might open up once again to him on this trip, the more Heath opened up the better Nick hoped he would feel. The change in Heath over the last two years had been remarkable, oh he was still tight lipped and that frustrated Nick at times but the boy was finally starting to feel that he belonged really belonged. And now there was a woman in his life, Heath never talked about her much but then again Heath never talked much anyhow.

Nick had watched his brother talk to the young woman quite a few times, he could tell by the way Heath carried himself that he was falling for the pretty young gal. Nick also thought the young woman was falling for his brother too, she had such a sparkle in her eyes when she was around Heath. They’d make a great couple he thought as he looked over at his brother riding next to him on Charger.

“How about stopping and catching us some supper,” asked Nick as he started to pull back on CoCo’s reins.

“I thought you wanted to make it into Bakersfield tonight?” replied Heath as he brought Charger to a halt.

“We’ll get there first thing in the morning, no hurry really. I just wanted to spend another night out under the stars, looks like it’s going to be a warm one too,” replied Nick as he jumped down off his horse.

“It sure has been getting warmer these last few days. I’d rather spend the night out here instead of some stuffy hotel room too,” Heath said smiling at his brother. “I’ll tend to the horses and you get the fishing equipment ready, I’ll meet you by the creek in a few minutes.” With that said Heath led the horses over to a clump of trees by the side of the road and began unsaddling them.

Heath finished unsaddling the horses and gave them a quick brushing and rub down; leaving the horses to munch on the soft grass he began looking for Nick. It didn’t take him long at all to spot his brother, Heath watched as Nick ran and jumped around in the tall grass chasing something. Heath smiled to himself and thought, “that brother of mine may just be the biggest kid I’ve ever seen,” he laughed.

Looking up Nick noticed his little brother watching him and laughing, “What are you laughing at, boy?” he questioned.

“Oh nothing Nick, I was just standing here thinking that your just about the biggest darn kid I’ve ever seen is all?” replied Heath laughing even harder.

“I suppose you think your really funny now don’t you little brother!” Nick shouted back. “Now why don’t you get over here and help me catch some of these crickets to use as bait, I would like to eat sometime tonight.” He added as he resumed his chase.

Laughing and shaking his head Heath walked through the tall grass towards Nick. Once they’d captured quite a few crickets the pair made their way to the edge of the creek. Casting their lines in the water Heath reminded Nick that he should keep his voice down while fishing so as to not scare away the fish.

“I know that!” shouted Nick as he looked at his brother sternly.

“See what I mean, you probably just scared all the fish in a half mile radius away,” chuckled Heath.

“Well maybe I should just shove you in the water so you can check for yourself now,” shouted Nick as he stepped towards his little brother.

Retreating backwards a little, Heath gave Nick his lopsided grin and replied, “Take it easy big brother, I was just teasing you. Come on let’s catch some fish.”

The brothers settled down and soon had a string of bass waiting to be cleaned. “Your call big brother, you up to cleaning the fish or starting the fire,” Heath asked.

“I’ll take the fire,” Nick replied as he started gathering up some rocks from the side of the creek bed. “I’ll leave you with the smelly job. Make sure you remember to wash up when you’re done, I don’t want you stinking up the hole camp!” he smiled as he walked up towards the clearing.

The brothers ate their dinner together in piece watching the setting sun paint the surrounding landscape and sky in a multitude of vibrant colors. The air was warm and both brothers were in fine spirits as they relaxed in the soft glow of the setting sun.

“Heath, I’m not trying to put you on the spot here, but I was wondering how you were getting along with Anna Holden.” Nick questioned his brother carefully, trying to pry some information out of him without offending him or silencing him further.

Heath looked at Nick and then back at the setting sun, for a moment Nick didn’t think his brother was going to talk. But then Heath began to talk in a low voice,

“I suppose you could say things are going along just fine,” replied Heath quietly while looking at the setting sun.

“I enjoy Anna’s company and I believe she enjoys mine but that’s really as far as it’s gone.”

“Where do you want it to go Heath?” asked Nick, hoping that his little brother would someday marry this girl. Nick hadn’t seen his brother this happy since Maria. Anna was very different from Maria and for that Nick was grateful, Anna was much more caring and compassionate, very much like Heath. Anna seemed to brighten a room when she entered; her soft Irish accent was always a treat to hear. Whenever she became excited or retold a childhood story her accent stood out, the same thing always happened to Heath in those situations, but his was a soft southern drawl.

Nick thought he might have pried to deeply when Heath finally spoke up, “I’m not sure Nick, I think I may be falling in love with her and that scares me to death.”

“If you truly love her than you have nothing to fear,” Nick stated as he patted his little brother on the shoulder.

Turning to face Nick, Heath quietly replied, “Yes I do Nick, I fear ruining her life, her future. She’ll always hear people whispering behind her back on how she married the town bastard, I just can’t do that to her, she deserves so much better.”

Heath turned away from his brother and stared down at his feet, but not before Nick noticed the pain in his eyes. Those eyes held so much, Nick thought, you could read that boy like a book just by looking in those eyes. He hated seeing the pain those eyes held at the mention of the word “bastard”, damn his father! Sometimes he was so mad at him! Why did this have to happen, if only Heath could have grown up with him on the ranch, he would have protected his little brother. Maybe then those eyes wouldn’t show so much sadness.

“Heath, you wouldn’t be ruining her life! Especially if you two loved one another, there’s nothing greater than the love between two people. You’d have each other to lean on, to help guide each other through both the good and the bad times. You’d also have your family; we’ll always be there, for both of you. I’m sure nothing else would matter to Anna.” Nick spoke trying to ease his brother’s mood.

“But it would matter to me Nick,” he mumbled as he stood up and walked off towards Charger.

“Well now I did it,” thought Nick, “I pushed him to far. Why does that boy always feel he has to bear the weight of everything on his shoulders alone? Doesn’t he realize I’ll always be there to help him?” Nick knew the answer to this, of course he did. Heath had come so far in the past two years but something’s were just harder to overcome than others and this one was one of those. He’d make sure that little brother of his got past this if he had to drag him kicking and screaming.

Nick didn’t want to leave their conversation with such a bad ending and got up to follow Heath. He saw his brother through the twilight standing next to Charger talking to him quietly and brushing him. Walking up to him under the pink and purple sky of dusk, Nick tried to comfort his little brother. “Heath, I know you don’t want to talk about this but it needs to be said,” he uttered in a soft concerned voice. “You can’t let narrow minded people dictate your life, or Anna’s for that matter. You’ve got an entire family behind you, we can get through anything.”

“I wish it were that simple Nick,” replied Heath as he continued to brush Charger. “I just can’t, won’t, bring Anna into a situation where people will hate her and exclude her from everything just because of who she married. She’s so much better than that.”

“Heath,” Nick spoke moving up next to Heath and turning him around. “Don’t you think Anna would want to have a say in this little brother? You should at least talk this over with her; she’s a very intelligent girl. I’m sure she’d like to make up her own mind about what her future holds.”

Heath looked Nick in the eyes and saw how concerned he really was about this. Deep down Heath felt a glimmer of hope; maybe just maybe his brother was right. Should he dare hope? “Thanks Nick, I guess I do own Anna the right to make up her own mind. I guess now I just have to find the right way to bring up the subject.”

“Don’t worry little brother,” Nick replied with a big grin on his face, “These things usually find a way to surface, and you’ll be fine.”

Nick clapped his hand on Heaths shoulder, “Come on boy, and let poor Charger rest before you wear his coat off!”

Laughing the two brothers walked back to the campfire, settled in and talked about the ranch, women, their family, and their dreams well into the night before surrendering to the sandman.

The day dawned bright and hot, the brothers grabbed a quick cup of coffee and ate the last of the fish before saddling the horses and heading off towards Bakersfield. They arrived in town just before noon and decided to head over to the saloon for a drink and a bite to eat before heading out to the Lockeford’s Cattle Ranch.

“Boy Howdy it’s hot out,” Heath remarked as he dismounted from Charger and led him over to get a drink of water. “I haven’t seen it this hot in a long time.”

“No breeze either, this afternoons going to be brutal.” Remarked Nick as he fanned his face with his hat, “What ya say we head over to the saloon and get a nice cold drink and something to eat.”

“Did I hear you right? Did you say you were buying big brother?” Heath joked as he gave Nick a lopsided grin.

“Now I think you owe me boy, and after all you’re the one with all of the money.” Smiled Nick, walking across the dusty street towards the saloon.

The saloon was fairly quiet as the pair entered, there were only a handful of patrons seated here and there. The saloon itself was in fine shape; it was nicely decorated and very well maintained. Behind the bar was just about the biggest mirror either brother had ever seen. The mirror had a mountain scene etched into the glass all around the bottom, sides, and top of the mirror. The table and chairs the saloon sported were a little oversized and looked both comfortable and inviting. The floor of the saloon was all inlaid hardwood and boy did it shine, thought Heath. The banister leading to the upstairs was equally impressive; it was curved and rounded towards the bottom much like the banister at home Heath thought. If only Silas could see this thought Heath, he would really be impressed with the fine woodwork not to mention the fine up keep.

Just then the bartender spoke up, “What can I get you boys?” he asked.

“Two cold beers and some food would sure hit the spot,” smiled Nick as he leaned forward placing his elbows on the bar.

“Just so happens I got some stew cooking up on the back stove, would you two fellas care for a bowl?” he asked smiling at the two men.

“Sounds good to me Nick, how about you?” Heath replied as he patted his stomach.

“Stew it is then,” smiled Nick as he grabbed one of the two beers the bartender had placed in front of them and made his way over to one of the unoccupied tables.

The brothers sat down in the comfortable chairs, talked and drank quietly as they awaited their stew.

“Here you are boys,” remarked the bartender as he handed over two steaming bowls of stew, “enjoy, let me know if you need anything else,” he remarked as he walked back towards the kitchen.

“Boy Howdy this sure smells good,” stated Heath as he pulled the bowl of stew closer to him.

“Anything would be better than another meal of those beans of yours,” smiled Nick as he shoveled stew into his mouth.

“Oh don’t you worry big brother, I have plenty left for the return trip home.” Laughed Heath as he saw the blank look Nick shot his way at the mention of more beans. “I think I may even be able to come up with a few new recipes,” he added as he watched the corners of Nick’s mouth drop. Laughing to himself Heath started in once again on his stew occasionally looking up to catch his brother’s expression as he ate.

After the pair finished eating they may their way back outside into the heat and mounted Coco and Charger; and headed off towards the Lockeford Ranch. The ride itself wasn’t a very long one but the afternoon sun was just as Nick stated earlier in the day, “brutal”. Both the boys and their mounts were beginning to wear down in the heat, there was still no breeze at all and the sun seemed to just beat down upon them. The conversation between them had been limited due to the heat and both of the brothers had been riding with their heads down when Nick looked up and saw they were finally approaching the ranch.

The ranch was magnificent almost majestic, there were rows and rows of white washed fences flowing out from the main house up and over the hills as far as he could see. Contained in those fences were herds of the biggest most colorful cattle Nick had ever seen. The bulls and steers had horns that were at least 4 feet long and stuck straight out with a slight turn at the ends. The cows’ horns were equally impressive but slightly smaller and had a variety of twists to them.

Heath was amazed at the different colors within the herd; no two seemed alike at all. There were some that were mainly bright red with white blotches, others were black with white spots, some were brown and white, and some were speckled tan and white, some were even a burnt red color. They were magnificent creatures he thought, they seemed to take no notice of them as they rode past. They seemed content just eating the high green grass of the pastures, “pretty docile for such big creatures,” Heath thought as they made their way towards the ranch house.

The ranch house was something in itself to behold, it was constructed out of wood timbers and had several very large picture windows almost all the way across the front looking out on the grazing cattle. The house seemed to wrap around on its self and Heath thought it must be enormous inside. There was a large barn and corral located off to the left of the ranch house, and magnificent gardens in front of the ranch with hundreds of varieties of rose bushes all in full bloom. In the center of the gardens was a large stone fountain with water cascading down it’s three tiers and pooling around the base. There were stone swans perched on each of the tiers and in the pool of the base.

As the boys made their way closer to the front of the ranch house they noticed several buggies and backboards parked out front. They dismounted and secured their horses and made their way towards the huge front door. As they drew closer they could hear several male voices arguing and shouting inside the house. “From the sounds of it,” Heath thought, “it was a pretty heated argument.”

When they reached the front door Nick reached out and knocked, the voices inside the house seemed extremely agitated and growing louder by the moment. Upon knocking several times and getting no reply, Nick decided to enter the house. The door opened to a large greeting hall that was lined with several large hand painted scenes of everything from cattle grazing to cattle drives and even one sunset picture. Off to the right of the entry was an extremely large room with a huge fireplace made out of stone. Above the fireplace was a large painting of a Texas Longhorn Bull with magnificent horns and a fire red coat standing in a field of greenest grass the boys had ever seen.

Also in the room were about twenty-five men all arguing and yelling at one another. Most of the men’s attention seemed to be focused on one man with a long curly mustache and the largest cowboy hat either brother had ever seen. The man seemed to be trying in vain to calm the angry group down. Nick and Heath remained towards the back of the room so as to try and grasp just what was taking place.

“My entire herd has been wiped out because of your cattle!!” bellowed a stout little man standing in front of the fireplace.

“All my cattle are either dead or dying too!!” shouted another man, pointing his finger in the direction of the man in the tall hat.

“You sold us all diseased stock!!” shouted a man standing directly in front of Nick.

“What do you mean diseased stock?” Nick questioned the rancher who had spoken in front of him.

“I’ll tell you what I mean!” replied the man as he whirled around to face Nick. “I bought twenty head of those cattle,” he said as he pointed to the picture above the fireplace, “and now they’re all I have left! All my other cattle are dead! Over two hundred head!” he spat at Nick.

Nick thought carefully about his next question, he didn’t want to anger this man any more than he already was but he also wanted to find out what was going on here.

“What makes you think it was the Longhorn cattle?” asked Nick as he noticed more and more heads turning in his direction.

“I had over two hundred head of healthy cattle before I brought those Longhorns onto my ranch! And within just two weeks they’re all I have left standing, I’ve never seen anything move so fast!” he replied as he stared at Nick.

“The same thing happened at my ranch!” shouted a man standing off to Nicks left.

“And at mine!” shouted another.

“Have any of the Longhorn cattle showed any of the same symptoms as your other cattle?” piped up Heath as he looked around the room at all of the eyes now on him.

Heath had been sitting back quietly trying to absorb what was being said around him. But it just didn’t make sense to him; if the Longhorns brought a sickness with them then it would only stand to reason that they would also be sick. But by the sounds of it not a single Longhorn had died.

“All we know mister is that we all had healthy herds until we brought his cattle to our ranches!” shouted the man in front of Nick as he pointed at the man in the tall hat.

“That’s right!” shouted another man as he took a step towards the man in the tall hat.

“We want him to pay us for what he’s done!” shouted the man in front of Nick, as he too took a step forward.

For the first time the brothers finally heard the man in the tall hat speak up, “now wait a minute,” he stated, “My cattle are all in perfect health! I wouldn’t have sold them to you otherwise.” He stated as he removed his hat.

“That may be your story Mr. Lockeford, but I’m afraid we’re not buying it!” shouted the stout little man as he stepped forward. “The way we all see it is that you stand to make a lot of money if our cattle die and we’re forced to buy from only your stock!” He spat as he poked Mr. Lockeford in the chest with his finger.

“That would be crazy!” stated Mr. Lockeford, “I’ve done no such thing! Why I’ve known most of you men for over twenty years, have you ever known me to be dishonest?” he asked as he looked at the men around him.

“Greed can cause men to do strange things Fred.” Stated the stout man.

“George you of all people know I already have everything I could want right here with this ranch.” He replied as he looked directly into the stout mans eyes.

“Still Fred, you’re a man that never turns down an opportunity to make a profit. And you stand to make quite a profit off of this from where I stand.” Replied George Stanford.

Suddenly one of the ranchers rushed forward and grabbed Fred Lockeford by the arm. Heath quickly lunged forward to try and help Fred but before he could reach him a large burly man in overalls grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pants and threw him forcibly to the floor in a heap.

“Stay out of this young man!” he barked at Heath who was slowly trying to raise himself up off of the floor.

Nick was quickly at his brothers’ side trying to help the dazed cowboy to his feet. Once Heath shook the cobwebs out of his head he started towards the man who had so rudely flung him to the ground, but before he could get any closer Nick grabbed him by the shoulders. Heath flinched as Nicks grip caused a sharp pain to radiate down his left arm. Nick noticed the way his little brother reacted in his grasp and feared the man may have hurt Heath more than he was letting on.

“Heath, let it go, there’s nothing we can do for him now,” Nick said as he motioned Heath to look over at Fred Lockeford. The man was now in the grasp of about eight angry men, they were forcibly dragging him out of the room towards the front.

“We’re taking you to the sheriff!” shouted one of the men holding Fred.

“We’ll let the law straighten this out! Maybe they’ll straighten out that neck of yours too! Shouted another man following along behind the group.

Heath and Nick could only watch as Mr. Lockeford was forcibly and roughly dragged out of his own home. Following the group outside the boys could see that the men had thrown Mr. Lockeford into the back of one of the wagons and were tying his hands behind his back. Five men jumped up and into the back of the wagon to hold Fred as the wagon started to head away from the ranch towards town. The remaining men soon followed along behind on their own horses and wagons.

After everyone was gone Nick and Heath made their way slowly over towards Charger and Coco. Coming around the corner of the house Nick spotted the man who a few moments earlier had flung Heath to the ground like a rag doll. Nick immediately placed himself in front of his little brother as the man drew up in front of them. “If it’s trouble he wants, than that’s what he’ll get!” Thought Nick as he stared coldly at the man in front of them.

Heath quickly stepped in front of Nick, “I can handle my own battles,” he thought at he looked at the large man in front of him. The man was about a half a foot taller than Heath and probably a hundred pounds heavier. He wore faded blue overalls and an equally faded red checked shirt; obviously the man was a rancher and a hard worker by the looks of his well-calloused hands.

The large man held out his hand to Heath in a greeting as he spoke, “I’m sorry if I hurt you young man,” he said, “but if I let you come to Mr. Lockeford’s aid those men would have torn you to pieces.”

“No harm done,” Heath spoke as he shook the mans hand. “At least not to much,” he thought as he rubbed his left shoulder. He knew nothing was broken but he was having a difficult time lifting his left arm up any higher than chest level.

Nick who had stepped up next to his brother to defend him if necessary spoke up, “Just what the devil was going on in there?” he asked, still eying the big man just in case he was planning on making a move towards Heath.

“Well, Mr. Lockeford sold a lot of us ranchers some of his Longhorn cattle so we could expand our herds. We all thought we were getting a pretty good deal on the price until our own cattle started dying at an alarming rate.” He replied as he looked from one brother to the other.

“What makes you think the Longhorns are the reason for all of this, after all from what we’ve heard the Longhorns are the only healthy cattle left.” Replied Nick.

“The only thing we’re all sure of is that everyone who bought cattle from Fred Lockeford lost their entire herd. Those ranchers that chose not to buy any cattle have live health herds with no sickness what so ever.”

“Has there been anything else that the effected herds may have had in common, say the same grain or grazing pastures?” questioned Heath as he continued to rub his sore shoulder.

“My ranch boarders the DeWitt ranch, Mark didn’t buy any of the Longhorns and we use the same feed. His cattle are all alive and healthy, while all of mine save the Longhorns are dead.” The large man replied, putting his hands in his pockets.

“If you two came here to buy some of those cattle, consider yourselves lucky. At least you won’t have to go through what we’re all going through now,” he stated.

“That’s exactly what my brother and I were here to do, Nick and Heath Barkley,” replied Nick as he extended his hand towards the large man before him.

“Names Christian Hanna,” replied the man as he shook Nicks hand. “I own a ranch about ten miles east of here,” he stated as he looked off in the direction of his ranch.

“Can I ask how you know those men won’t hurt or kill Mr. Lockeford before they get him to town?” asked Heath as he looked up at Christian.

“I’ve known most of those men for years; they’re all decent hard working folk. They just want to see justice served is all,” replied Christian. “They’re not the type to take the law into their own hands.”

“Well it was nice meeting you boys; sorry it had to be in this fashion. I hope your shoulder is alright,” Christian stated as he watched Heath rub his shoulder. “I must be getting back to my ranch, don’t want the wife to send out a search party for me,” he joked as he walked the brothers over to their horses.

“It was nice meeting you also,” Nick stated, “if you’re ever in the Stockton area drop by and pay us a visit.”

With that the three men shook hands one last time and mounted their horses to begin their journeys home.



Nick and Heath rode away from the Lockeford ranch with still many of their questions left unanswered. But one thing was for sure, they were ridding away from the ranch without any of the magnificent Texas Longhorns Nick had hoped to purchase.

Nick was extremely disheartened over the whole mess; he kept replaying the day’s events in his head. The cattle looked so healthy and full of life, it was hard to imagine that they were carrying anything that could wipe out an entire herd of other cattle. “Why just look at those magnificent beasts,” he thought as the pair rode out from the ranch, “those bulls must way 1800 lbs or more.” Everything about the Longhorns looked just perfect, all of the cattle seemed to be well fed one might say they were even a little fat, they all had magnificent coats and the horns were at least four feet across on the bulls and a foot around near their heads. “They sure would have made a wonderful addition to the Barkley ranch,” Nick thought as he rode away from the gleaming white fences and the magnificent cattle that they contained.

Heath rode on in silence, the pain in his shoulder seemed to be getting worse with each step Charger took. It was now starting to affect the way his left hand gripped the reins, he could feel his hand getting weaker and weaker. He also knew that the mobility in his left arm was decreasing, he tried earlier to wipe the sweat off of his forehead using his left arm but all that managed to do was send waves of pain shooting down that arm and the left side of his chest and back. “Great, just great!” he thought as he rode on through the heat behind Nick. “I’ll never hear the end of this,” he thought, “I’m sure Nick’s going to be plenty sore when he sees how useless this arms going to be for ranch work for a while. Just what he needs something else to trouble him, I know his heart was set on those cattle.” Heath continued to think as his shoulder throbbed with Chargers every step. “The look in his eyes when he saw those huge bulls was worth the trip alone.” He only wished there was a way to restore that look once again in his brothers eyes, but he knew there was nothing he could do about that, at least not at the moment.

The brothers decided to camp at the same spot as the night before, but this time their moods were much different. They had both been in very a good mood the night before but now both brothers were brooding, Nick about his lost venture with the Longhorn cattle and Heath about his sore and useless shoulder. The heat was also beginning to get the better of them, there was still no breeze in the air to speak of, and even though the sun was setting the air was still hot and humid. Neither brother had been able to catch any fish; Nick thought it was all due to the hot weather. Those poor fish were probably all gathered in the deepest part of the stream they could find; otherwise this heat would surely cook them right in the water.

The boys decided to settle on eating some of jerky they purchased in town. Nick didn’t think he could handle any of Heath’s beans at the moment and Heath wasn’t sure he could even open the beans with his sore arm so the thought of having only the jerky was fine with him.

Nick had been watching his little brother since they dismounted and set up camp, he noticed how slowly his brother was moving. “It’s not like Heath to move like an old woman,” thought Nick, “I bet that shoulder is really bothering him, he’s just to stubborn to tell me. I’ll try to make things easy on him without letting on,” he thought as he announced in a loud voice that he was going to look for more firewood.

Heath watched Nick walk off towards the trees in the orange glow of the setting sun, once Nick was out of sight Heath began to unbutton his shirt. He managed to undo the buttons with his right hand just fine; slipping the shirt off of his right arm was a little bit more difficult though. As he gingerly tried to reach across his body with his sore left arm, he got no further than his stomach when his shoulder protested loudly. Gritting his teeth to stifle a groan, Heath used his right hand to slowly and carefully pull back the corner of his shirt covering his left shoulder. Looking at his swollen and discolored shoulder, Heath thought that maybe something was broken after all. His shoulder was black, blue, and purple; these colors ran half way down the left side of his chest as well. Although he couldn’t see his upper arm he had a feeling that it was equally as colorful as his chest.

“Damn it Heath!” shouted Nick as he looked down at his brothers shoulder. Heath jumped at the sound of Nick’s harsh voice, he hadn’t realized he was being watched.

“You should have told me it was this bad,” Nick stated angrily as he bent down to get a closer look at his brothers shoulder. “I would have taken you to the doctor in Bakersfield and let him look at you!”

“I’m fine Nick!” Heath snapped back. “ And I don’t need any one babying me!” he added as he tried to button up his shirt with one hand.

“Fine, you’re anything but fine! Why I bet you can’t even lift up that arm of yours!” Nick stated as he crossed his arms in front of Heath.

“It’ll be fine in a few days, Nick, it’s just a little sore now is all.” Heath stated as he rose slowly to his feet and stood in front of Nick. “You needn’t trouble yourself any about it.” He added before walking over to the campfire.

Nick stood where Heath had been for a moment and then ran to catch up with him; crossing in front of Heath, Nick stopped and stood his ground. “Listen Heath, I have no intention of babying anyone. You of all people should know that by now little brother.” He spoke in a soft voice. “Come on let’s see if we can at least make a sling up for you.”

Heath, who had been staring down at his feet while Nick spoke knew his brother was only trying to help him. “Why is it that I always manage to make things worse,” he thought as he shifted his gaze upwards to meet Nicks. “You’re right Nick, I just didn’t want to add to your worries. Especially after what happened with the cattle this afternoon.”

Nick placed his hand on Heath’s right shoulder as he spoke, “Heath you’re more important to me than any cattle. I can’t count on a cow to help me run the ranch now can I?” he asked smiling, trying to lighten the mood. “Let’s get that shoulder taken care of so we can both get some rest.”

Heath felt a little better as he walked towards the campfire with Nick. As he sat on a rock in their campsite, Heath watched Nick in the light from the campfire as he cut up one of his own shirts to make a sling for Heath’s arm. Heath was once again taken back at how truly caring that hardheaded brother of his could be.

“Thanks Nick,” spoke Heath quietly as Nick helped him into the sling.

“Next time little brother, just let me know when something’s wrong, deal?” asked Nick using his big brother tone.

“Deal,” Heath said giving Nick one of his lopsided grins.

The two brothers were soon sleeping quietly. The next week passed by rather slowly for the boys, the weather was still brutally hot which made the traveling slow going. The horses couldn’t carry the boys very far in the heat without resting and getting rubbed and watered down quite frequently. Heath’s shoulder was coming along nicely but he was still having a little trouble lifting it any higher than his chest. Nick checked it everyday to make sure the swelling and bruising was subsiding. Heath didn’t mind the attention much at least he had been able to talk Nick out of stopping at a few of the towns so he didn’t have to see a doctor.

The sun was setting fast as the boys decided to camp outside of Modesto near Salida for the night. Nick had managed to snag two rabbits so at least he wouldn’t have to endure another meal of his brothers so called beans.

“We should make it home tomorrow afternoon, I reckon.” Nick stated as he tended to the rabbits slowly roasting over their campfire.

“I can’t wait to hop in the tub and soak for about a week,” Heath chuckled as he lay back against his saddle.

“You’ll have to wait until I’m done first little brother,” Nick shot back with a big grin on his face.

Around the same time the Barkley brothers were settling down to their supper, a short distance away a little boy was also preparing a meal. But his companions were not anything at all like the Barkley brothers, not at all.


Jessie was still unnerved about yet another run in with Matt as he walked towards the stream to get water for supper. Matt had used that awful knife on him once again, and he reminded himself that yes he had actually hoped Matt would finally take things to far. “I’m sorry papa,” Jessie thought as a tear rolled down his face, “I just can’t seem to find any way out of this. I know you taught me better, I promise to try harder. Please forgive me.”

Bending down to gather the water in his bucket, Jessie noticed how stiff his back had become. He couldn’t feel any more blood running down it, so he figured the wounds must have stopped bleeding. “I better take off this shirt and wash it out,” he thought as he gazed into the running water. “Maybe if I rinse it out I can get some of the blood off.” Carefully taking off his shirt, Jessie turned it around and looked at all of the small holes poked through the fabric. Around the holes were traces of dried and drying blood, some of the spots were larger than others, “those must be the deeper cuts,” Jessie thought as he lowered the shirt into the water and began rubbing it together. “If I can at least keep this shirt clean hopefully I won’t get an infection like last time.” He shuddered as he remembered how close he came to losing his left leg from an infection just a few months ago.

Matt had lost his temper, again, and Jessie was unfortunately in his path. He stabbed Jessie in the thigh with the knife just to watch the boy suffer, some how inflicting pain on others always made Matt euphoric. The cut had become infected and Hank was forced to cut the infection out or Jessie would have died. He didn’t remember much of that terrible week at all, and for that he was at least grateful. But if he ever needed a reminder all he had to do was look at the horrible scar on his left thigh.

“No use dwelling in the past,” thought Jessie as he finished cleaning up his shirt. “If I don’t get back soon Matt will surely come looking for me,” and he didn’t want that, not at all. Jessie put his damp shirt back on, most of the blood had come out and the cool damp shirt sure did feel good on his sore back. As he grabbed the bucket of water and looked back into the stream one last time he noticed something that he hadn’t seen before. “Is that Hemlock?” pondered Jessie, “Water Hemlock?” Jessie tried to remember what his father had taught him about water hemlock. “Now I remember,” he thought and smiled, “this is one of the most poisonous plants around!” Jessie thought hard, if he could some how add this to Hank and the other men’s food without getting caught, maybe just maybe he could get away from them.

From what he remembered his father had told him it didn’t take much to poison a man, so Jessie carefully pulled one of the plants from the edge of the water and placed it with the turnip and greens he had already gathered. “I can do this,” he thought, “if I add just enough to make them sick, I can get away before they recover. And this time no one will get hurt trying to help me.”

The sun was setting quickly and the shadows were growing long as Jessie made his way back to Hank’s camp. His steps seemed a little lighter as his spirit soared with his new finding. The air was still hot and humid which meant tempers in camp would once again be on edge. With the heat this past week everyone’s temper had become extremely short, Jessie learned early on to make himself scarce when the men became agitated.

“I better get supper started before they come looking for it,” he thought as he filed the pot with water and hung it over the fire. He cleaned four rabbits, cut them up and added them into the pot with the turnip he found. Carefully checking around to make sure no one was looking he carefully cut up the Hemlock root and baby shoots and added it into the pot with some wild parsley. “Good,” he thought, “it looks just like the cut up pieces of turnip.” Jessie finished cutting up the greens he had found and readied some small wild snap peas. He didn’t think he could get away with putting any of the Hemlock leaves in with the greens because they were too easy to spot. So he quickly discarded them with the remains of the rabbit skins.

Hank could smell the rabbits cooking and it made his stomach grumble, “How much longer boy,” he asked as he walked over towards the pot.

Jessie tried to steady his nerves as he watched Hank peer into the pot of rabbits. He was sweating even more as Hank picked up the ladle and used it to stir the pot.

“What’s in here with the meat, boy?” questioned Hank as he looked over at Jessie.

“Just a turnip and some wild parsley for extra flavor,” remarked Jessie as he gathered up the bowls.

“This actually smells almost edible, boy,” stated Hank as he brought the ladle up to just under his nose. “So do I need to ask you again, how much longer?” he added in a louder voice.

“Just a few more minutes, I’ve almost gathered up all the bowls,” Jessie said as he quickly finished gather up the bowls and spoons. “The meats almost done.”

“Good, I’ll go get the men,” he stated as he walked away from the fire. “It had best be done when we get back, I’d hate to see Matt lose his temper again,” he chuckled as he watched the boy stiffen with his last remark.

“All right,” thought Hank as he walked back to the men, “we have this boy just where I want him. He’s ours to do with as we please, he’s so afraid of us he’ll do anything we say.” Hank let a short laugh escape his lips as he walked over to the men as they were preparing the wagon for later tonight.

“What’s got you in such a good mood,” asked Marcus as he watched Hank approach them.

“Nothing, I just like it when everything fits nicely together is all,” he replied with a smile on his face. “Come on suppers waiting, we need to get a move on soon. We have a few things to set up before the stage arrives.” With that said Hank turned around and walked back towards the fire and Jessie. A confused Marcus was close behind followed by Matt and the rest of the men.

Jessie heard them coming and quickly started putting the greens into the bowls he had brought out. Using the ladle he scooped out some of the meat and turnips and placed it on top of the greens in each of the bowls. He managed to add extra turnips to Hanks bowl, Hank was a large man and Jessie figured he would need to eat a little more of the Hemlock in order to make him good and sick.

Hank grabbed his bowl and sat down, he immediately began eating. Marcus came next and sat down next to Hank eating with just about as much gusto. Jessie stiffened as Matt grabbed his bowl and walked up to him. “This better be good, boy,” he sneered as he shoved Jessie down onto the ground.

Jessie let out a small cry as he hit the ground hard, “ I hope you choke on it!” he thought as he watched Matt take his bowl and walk over towards Hank. Dusting himself off he watched as the rest of the men grabbed their bowls and began eating. Hank was soon back up for seconds, Jessie was glad the men seemed to be enjoying their meal, maybe his plan was really going to work after all.

The men were soon done with supper and Jessie went about his normal post meal activities, which included washing the bowls and cleaning up after the men.

“Hurry up, boy!” shouted Hank as he walked over towards Jessie who was trying his best to dry the bowls quickly. “We’re gonna need you tonight,” he stated as he stopped in front of Jessie and looked down at the boy.

Jessie shuddered as Hanks words rang in his ears, “No!” he thought, “not again, please not again.” He didn’t think he could witness another one of Hanks raids, after the last one he knew he couldn’t.

About a month ago Hank had taken Jessie with them as they held up a stagecoach. He’d used Jessie as the bait to get the stagecoach to stop; he knew the driver would never suspect anything funny from a child. Jessie had been the perfect answer, the stagecoach had stopped right on queue and everything had gone off without a hitch.

For Jessie the experience had been terrifying, Hank had forced him to stand out in the middle of the road and ordered him to flag down the stage as it approached him. Jessie did as he was told and once the stage stopped Hank and his men sprung into action. No sooner had the driver stopped the stage than Marcus put a bullet in his head. The man fell almost as if in slow motion right in front of Jessie’s feet. All Jessie could do was to stare at him, the mans eyes were still open, but Jessie could tell they were unseeing.

The man next to the driver fell almost as quickly as the driver himself thanks to a bullet placed in his chest by Sam. The man lay on the ground clutching his chest and choking until Sam rode up and shot him again finishing the job. Jessie was in shock; all he could do was watch what was going on around him as if it were some terrible nightmare that just couldn’t wake up from. All he could hear was the beating of his own heart; he thought it would pound a hole right through his chest.

There were four passengers on the stage and they had all gotten out with their hands raised over their heads. They now stood facing Hank and his men, Jessie watched as Matt walked up to one of the two men and waved his knife back and forth under the mans chin. The man who appeared to be around Hanks age, pleaded with Matt to let his wife go unharmed. Matt just laughed and spat in his face, then to Jessie’s horror he plunged the knife right into the mans stomach. The man’s wife screamed and tried to run to her husband as he rolled around on the ground clutching his stomach. But Peter and Henry both grabbed her and dragged her away towards some bushes alongside the edge of the road.

Jessie watched on as Dave and Sam grabbed the other woman and forced her to the ground. Marcus and Matt grabbed the woman’s husband and cruelly held his hands behind his back as they forced him to watch what Dave and Sam did to his wife. Jessie couldn’t watch any longer and turned his back on the scene but couldn’t move from his spot in front of the stage. He could hear the woman screaming as Dave and Sam tore at her dress, her poor husband was begging the men to leave her alone. He could hear Dan and Hank laughing as they watched Dave and Sam have their way with the woman. He heard Matt’s remark to Dave and Sam as they finished with the woman, “come on, you two hold him now so we can have some fun,” he laughed playfully.

Jessie could still hear the man Matt stabbed moaning as he lay on the ground bleeding to death, he could hear muffled cries coming from the bushes Peter and Henry had taken the first woman over to. The man now Dave and Sam held was still begging for the men to release his wife who was now quiet as Matt and Marcus had at her. It was all too much for Jessie, he couldn’t bear to be a witness to this suffering any longer, the world closed in on him and he collapsed to the ground in a dead faint.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been out but he could hear Hank yelling at him to get moving. When he opened his eyes he saw what had become of the passengers on the stage, all four lay face down in the grass of the meadow dead. Jessie could see their bloody clothing and knew right away how they had died, Matt, Matt and his knife thought Jessie as his stomach began to rise. He couldn’t hold it in any longer, dropping down on his hands and knees he threw up what little he had eaten earlier.

Hank grabbed him by the back of the shirt and lifted him up, “Boy you sure got a weak stomach,” he laughed as he placed Jessie in the back of the wagon. Once in the wagon Jessie saw why Hank had picked this stage, there was a strong box with what could only be money or gold in it he thought. Hank had also taken the jewelry and wallets of everyone on the stage, some food and other valuable items.


“No not again,” Jessie thought again as he looked up at Hank, “please don’t make me do it again.”

Hank looked down at the boy, “did he look scared?” he wondered. He knew the last time the boy had come with them had been hard on him, “but damn it that’s why I took him in the first place, to do what I need him to do!” thought Hank as he grabbed Jessie’s arm. “Come on boy, let’s get moving, I ain’t got all day!” he added as he escorted Jessie over towards the wagon.

Jessie climbed into the back of the wagon and crawled under the tarp. Wrapping him self up into a tight ball he began to cry quietly, “I can’t! I just can’t do it again!” he cried as the wagon started to move. “Please Papa, help me,” he cried as the wagon drove away from camp.


Hank knew the stagecoach would be along sometime close after midnight; he wanted to make sure everything was in place before then. There were bound to be extra men riding on the stage, after all he didn’t think the railroad would want another payroll shipment lost. He knew the stage would once again stop for the boy, after all what would a child be doing out in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of the night to boot. He pulled the wagon off the road and steered it over to a clump of bushes, placing the wagon out of site he jumped down and pulled back the tarp.

Jessie opened his eyes as he felt the tarp being lifted; it was night time now and awfully dark. He was sweating a great deal as it was awfully hot under the tarp, he was grateful for the sweat, at least Hank couldn’t tell that he had been crying.

Hank watched the boy climb out of the wagon, “You remember what you’re supposed to do, right boy,” he asked holding on to Jessie’s arm.

Jessie nodded; his eyes downcast, he didn’t trust his voice for an answer right now.

“I don’t want any trouble from you, you hear!” he stated, as he placed his hand under Jessie’s chin forcing the boy to look him in the face. “Don’t give me a reason to get angry with you! Now follow me.”

Hank led Jessie across the field and up to the road, “here,” he said as he handed Jessie a lantern. “Stand here and flag down that stage just like you did last time! Exactly like last time, boy!” he stated. “That stagecoach will be coming down this way,” he said pointing down the road in front of Jessie. “I’ll be right over in those trees waiting for the stage to stop. Matt and the rest of the boys will be scattered all around here as well, you just do your job and everything will be fine,” he said as he turned and began walking back the way they had come.

“Did Hank’s hand tremble when he pointed down the road?” wondered Jessie as he watched him walk back towards the wagon. “He seems to be walking rather slowly too,” he noticed. “I wonder if he’s starting to feel bad, if he is maybe the others are too?” he wondered as he watched for the stage.

If Jessie had only known how well his plan was working he surely would have had a huge smile plastered across his face. Hank had been getting tremors running down his arms and in his legs for the past hour now. He couldn’t figure out what could possibly be causing them, his stomach also seemed to be on edge tonight. “Maybe I’m coming down with something,” he thought, “after tonight I’ll take it easy for a while,” he thought out loud as he readied himself for the stage.

Matt sat in wait atop his horse nestled in the tree line about two hundred feet west of the road, “man my stomach sure hurts,” he thought as he felt another cramp tighten in his abdomen. “I’m not sure how long I can stay in the saddle tonight,” he thought as yet another cramp made him grit his teeth. “Must be the damn heat,” he thought as a wave of nausea passed over him.

Hank’s other men were also starting to feel the effects of Hemlock poisoning, although they hadn’t yet realized that’s what it was. Being spread apart in wait for the stage none of the men knew how the others were feeling. If they had they might have realized sooner that Jessie had poisoned them during supper.

“Henry, what’s wrong?” Peter asked as he heard his brother obviously getting sick in the bushes nearby.

A few moments passed before Henry answered, “Don’t know Pete, but I sure am feeling pretty poor.” He had just barely gotten the last word out when another wave of nausea came over him. “I don’t think I can go on Pete, my legs buckle on me when ever I try to stand,” Henry almost moaned, as he was sick yet again.

Peter upon hearing Henry get sick, was starting to lose the battle with his own stomach. The cramps in his lower belly had been getting worse for sometime now, but he had tried to fight it off. After all they had a job to do and he didn’t want to get on Hank’s bad side.

“Come on Henry, Hank will skin us alive if we don’t get a move on,” Peter stated almost pleading with his brother. Upon getting no reply Peter jumped down off his horse and walked over to where his brother had been. “Come on Hen…” he didn’t even finish his sentence before he saw his brother slumped over lying on the ground. He quickly turned Henry over and was shocked at what he saw, just an hour ago Henry had looked just fine but now he was white as a ghost and had huge black circles under his eyes. His breathing was short and shallow, and this frightened Peter most of all.

“Henry, Henry,” he spoke as he shook him. “Wake up, come on now, talk to me.” Peter said as he started looking around to see if he could find one of the other men to help him with Henry, something was really wrong with him. Peter stood up and took a step forward but suddenly the world seemed to turn on him and he fell to his knees finally losing the battle with his stomach.

“Come on Pete, get yourself together, you gotta help Henry,” he thought as he tried to settle the cramps raging in his gut. Problem was he couldn’t get his legs to obey his commands and they were shaking uncontrollably. The last thing Pete thought about before he lost consciousness was how angry Hank was going to be with them.

Jessie sat out alone on the road hoping that the stagecoach would be running late tonight. If it were maybe Hank would start to feel worse and call the whole thing off. No sooner had this thought left Jessie’s head than he heard the distant sound of the stagecoach coming down the road. “No!” he thought, “it’s to soon!”

Jessie stood up with the lantern in his hand, he knew that if he didn’t do his part Hank would let Matt have him, and he didn’t even want to think about that. Tears began to run down his face as that awful night flooded back in on him. Here he was about to relive it all over again with a set of new victims.


Marcus tried to ready his rifle for the shot on the driver as the stage came into view. But he was having a hard time steadying his rifle; his arms just wouldn’t stop trembling. “What the hell is wrong with me,” he wondered. He’d been sweating heavily for about an hour now but he just attributed it to the heat. “I have ta get this shot off without a hitch,” he thought as he again tried to steady his rifle. “There’s bound to be more men on this stage, we can’t afford to have anything go wrong.”

Jessie watched with growing horror as the stage approached him, he began swinging the lantern back and forth trying to signal the stage. At first it didn’t look as though the stage was going to stop, but then Jessie began to notice it’s gradual slow down. His heart began to sink further as the stage slowed. “It did see me, why couldn’t they have just gone on by,” he thought as he watched the stage grow closer.

“I knew that kid would work out,” thought Hank as he readied himself. “It took awhile but we finally broke him,” he thought as he edged his way out towards the edge of the field. He watched as the boy continued to swing the lantern back and forth signaling the coach. The stage was almost to a complete stop when he heard the boy start to yell.

“It’s a Trap! It’s a Trap!!” screamed Jessie as he frantically looked around for Hank and his men. “Don’t Stop!! Don’t Stop!! They’ll Kill You!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. Jessie could see the confused look on the drivers face, “please don’t stop!” he screamed again at the driver, desperately trying to make him understand.

At that very moment both Matt and Hank had the same thought course through their heads, “I’m going to kill that boy!”

The stage came to a halt right next to the screaming boy, “what’s wrong with this kid?” thought the driver as he brought the team under control. “What’s he yelling?”

Just as the stagecoach driver finally managed to hear what the boy was yelling a shot rang out. The top of the wooden bench to the right of the driver splintered into a million pieces as a bullet tore through it.

“Damn!!” cursed Marcus as he tried to ready himself for another shot. His arms just wouldn’t stop shaking, he cursed again as he mounted his horse to move in on the stage. “Why hasn’t Sam fired at the other driver?” he thought as he raced across the field towards the coach.

Jessie screamed and stepped back away from the stagecoach as Marcus’s shot rang out. “I’m to late he thought! I should have warned them sooner!” he thought as he waited for the driver to fall dead in front of him, just as the last one had done. He was shocked as he watched the driver jump down and crouch next to the side of the stage with his rifle drawn.

“Get over here!” the driver yelled at Jessie waving his arms.

Jessie couldn’t move he just couldn’t believe the driver was still alive. It had to be a trick, Hank and his men never made mistakes, he must be dreaming. But if he was dreaming why could he hear the man talking to him?

“Come on kid!” the driver yelled again at Jessie. “Fred you OK?” he yelled as he tried to peer over the front of the stage.

“I’m fine Aaron,” came the reply from the other side of the wagon. “Did you manage to see where the shot came from?”

“No,” answered Aaron.

“Is the kid OK?” questioned Fred.

“I think so, but I can’t get him to come over here,” replied Aaron as he tried to motion Jessie over to him once more.

“Johns over here with me Aaron,” stated Fred. “I think we should stay put until we can find out how many of them there are.” He said as he tried to scan the dark tree line for any sign of movement.

Dave and Dan both saw Marcus ride past them towards the stagecoach, they quickly followed behind him. Matt had also started his quest towards the stagecoach, “Damn that kid!” he thought as he rode, “he’s going to be awful sorry this time, dead sorry!” Matt thought as he raced towards the stagecoach. The anger he felt towards the boy had at least for the moment managed to suppress his nausea.

Hank crept up towards the rear of the coach; his going was slow as he was having a hard time getting his legs to hold his weight. He could see two men crouched down towards the front of the coach, as carefully as he could he aimed his gun at the man closest to him and pulled the trigger.

John felt the bullet graze his thigh as he wheeled around and fired in the direction of the shot. His shot was true and found its target behind the stage.

“Uugghh!” Hank uttered as he flew backwards from the force of the bullet as it tore into his shoulder, “funny” he thought as he lay looking up at the starry sky, “doesn’t even really hurt,” he thought as he passed into unconsciousness.

Dave and Dan had just caught up with Marcus as the shots rang out, “Come on!” yelled Marcus as he quickened the pace. All three men rode towards the stage firing their guns.


Heath was quietly dreaming of Anna again, they were walking along the creek just south of the main house hand in hand. Heath loved the feel of Anna’s small soft hand in his; it seemed to fit perfectly as if it were part of his own. He could feel the tight grip Anna had on his hand; it was as if she never wanted to let go.

The warm sunshine shinning down on them made her hair sparkle, in the sun the red highlights in her hair seemed to burst forward and drown out the brown ones. Heath whirled her around in front of him and stared into her eyes. Her green eyes were so full of life that Heath could almost feel himself being drawn right up inside them. The light freckles running across her tan nose and cheeks seemed to dance on her face in the sun. Her lips were the color of a warm summer rose damp with the morning dew; they were perfectly shaped and so very inviting. He didn’t want to ever let her go, if only they could stay here forever just the way they were now.

Heath heard what he thought was a gunshot, he turned around to look but no one was there. Looking back at Anna she was suddenly gone, the landscape around him seemed to change shape before his eyes. The sun faded and darkness took over the landscape, finally coming out of his dream, Heath looked over at Nick.

Nick had also heard the shot and was up in a flash, “sounds like that was just over the hill,” he spoke as he grabbed his gun belt.

Heath was right behind him, the brothers made their way to the top of the hill and laid down on their stomachs as they peered over the top. It was hard to make out the landscape below due to the moonless night but the brothers could see the twisting road and what appeared to be a light coming from the road about a half mile in front of them. There was also something large stopped in the road next to the light but it was too dark to make out.

Just then another shot rang out, the boys could see the mussel flash located behind the object on the road. Then a second shot, this time with the mussel flash coming from the side of the large object. Nick and Heath heard a grunt as something or someone fell to the ground.

A series of shots started to ring out as the brothers saw a group of riders fast approaching the scene. Heath suddenly realized what the object in the road must be, “Come on Nick, that’s the stage down there!” he yelled as he started to dash down the hillside. “They need our help!”

“Heath!” Nick yelled as he chased after his little brother. “Damn him!” Nick thought, “What’s he trying to do get himself killed? We have no idea how many men are down there.” He had no choice now but to follow Heath down the hillside, after all it was his job to protect his little brother.

Matt could see the little whelp as he raced towards the stagecoach; drawing his gun he took aim at Jessie and fired.

Jessie felt the bullet tear across his upper right arm, the force caused him to spin around, drop the lantern, and land in the dirt. Shaking his head he tried to raise himself up off the ground to find out what happened. That’s when he saw the stagecoach driver, Aaron; the bullet that had grazed Jessie’s arm had struck him in the head.

“NO!” his mind screamed as he ran over to the stricken mans side, he was slumped against the front wheel of the stagecoach and Jessie knew right away that he was dead.

Aaron never felt the bullet that ended his life; he just slid down the side of the stage and came to rest against the front wheel. That’s where he now lay as the small figure of a boy stood crying over him.

“Everything I do turns out wrong,” Jessie cried in front of the lifeless driver. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he cried out as he dropped to his knees. “Please forgive me,” he sobbed as he place his small hand on the driver’s motionless shoulder, “It should have been me,” he sobbed, “It should have been me.”

Racing down the hillside through the tall grass Heath could see the riders fast approaching, he continued running towards the stage ignoring the strong protests coming from his left shoulder. He had almost made it to the stage when one of the riders fired a shot, Heath watched as what appeared to be a child spun around next to the stage and fell in the dirt. Heath quickly returned fire dropping the lead rider from his horse. The remaining three riders veered off towards the opposite side of the stagecoach.

Heath could see the small figure stagger over to the side of the stage, he could just barely make out the figure of what must be a man slumped over by the front wheel. By the time Heath reached the stage he could tell that the small figure had indeed been a child. The child was now kneeling next to the slumped body of a man. The child was sobbing uncontrollably, Heath reached out and placed his hand on the child’s back to try and comfort him. To his surprise the child screamed as he fell to the ground and curled up into a tight ball shaking and screaming.

Dave, Dan, and Marcus had all seen the shot that took Matt down; they quickly veered their horses towards the opposite side of the stage.

Nick who had been running along just a little bit behind his brother continued on towards the far side of the stage trying to keep the three remaining riders in view. He took his sights on the three and opened fire; Fred and John also opened fire on the approaching riders at the same moment.

Hank’s remaining men never knew what hit them as they rounded the far side of the stagecoach. Dan was the first man to go down as Nick’s bullet hit him squarely in the chest. Marcus barely had time to register the fact that Dan went down before a bullet slammed into his neck killing him instantly. Seeing his friends go down, Dave tried to turn his mount towards the tree line. He only managed to get about five yards before a bullet in the back brought him down as well.

It was all over quickly; Hank’s men were all down. Fred and John both turned around quickly as Nick came up beside them.

“State your name!” ordered Fred as he leveled his gun at Nick.

“Whoa there,” stated Nick as he raised his hands, “I’m only here to help,” he replied, “names Nick Barkley, my brother Heath is on the other side,” he said as he pointed towards the front of the stage.

“Sorry,” stated Fred as he lowered his gun, “my nerves are just on edge right now. Nice shooting a moment ago, we sure did need the help.” Fred walked up to Nick and shook his hand.

“Aaron, you OK over there?” questioned Fred as he turned away from Nick and started to make his way around the stage.

“He’s been shot,” came a reply from the other side.

Fred with Nick on his heels ran around the front of the stage while John limped over to check on the stages passengers.

Heath sat on the ground holding what appeared to be a small boy in his arms, the child looked terrible. Nick was taken back by the horrid condition of the boy, he was so thin, his cloths were in tatters, his right arm was soaked in blood, his skin was ghostly white, his eyes were clenched shut and he was shaking in Heaths arms.

Heath looked up at his older brother his eyes full of concern and compassion for the boy he held, Nick knelt down next to Heath to try and comfort him. He could see that the condition of the boy really unsettled his little brother and this concerned Nick.

Heath was quietly trying to calm the boy but nothing he seemed to do or say brought any comfort to the boy. He held on tightly to him trying desperately to reassure him that everything was going to be just fine and that he was safe now.

“You’re all right now son,” Heath repeated over and over softly to the boy as he rocked him and caressed his cheek. “I promise not to let anyone harm you.”

Jessie didn’t hear any of this, he had retreated into a world all his own. He was positive when he felt the hand on his back that Matt had been the one who placed it there. In his minds eye he saw Matt with his cold dead black eyes grinning at him, his mind had simply taken on too much and it shut down. He curled into a tight ball and screamed, waiting for the moment when that cold steel knife would slice him open and those dead black eyes would laugh at him as his life’s blood ran out on the ground.

“Nick we need to help him,” cried Heath as he looked up at him.

Nick wasn’t sure what to do, his little brother seemed to be slipping away with the boy. It was almost as if Heath had seen a ghost, thought Nick.

“Maybe I can help him,” replied a soft voice from over Nicks shoulder. Nick turned around to see what must have been one of the passengers off the stage standing behind him looking down at Heath and the boy.

Her skin was extremely fair; she had lovely long red hair that perfectly framed her face. Her stunning red hair and fair complexion seemed pale in comparison to her bright green eyes. As Nick stared into her eyes he could see the compassion and caring that they held.

The woman quietly moved past Nick and knelt down next to Heath with her arms extended towards the boy. Something deep inside Heath told him that this woman could truly help the boy and it was all right for him to hand the boy over to her, it felt almost natural as though he belonged to her, thought Heath.

He gently placed the still shaking child into the woman’s awaiting arms, the boy seemed to almost immediately calm down as the woman cradled him. Heath was amazed at the difference in the boy; he seemed to melt right into the woman.

“Think you boys can help me round up those men out there?” questioned Fred as he looked out across the field.

Nick looked over at Heath who was now standing next to the woman who was trying to comfort the shaken boy. Heath looked up and nodded to Nick.

“Sure thing,” spoke Nick as he walked over towards Fred.

“I’ll get us some rope down off the stage,” Fred stated as he climbed up onto the drivers seat.

As Heath turned to follow his brother he could hear the woman softly start to sing to the boy. Her voice was soft and very comforting, thought Heath as he strained to hear what it was she was singing. Her words floated softly up to his ears,

”Walking all the day
Near tall towers where falcons build their nests
Silver-winged they fly
They know the call of freedom in their breasts
Saw Black Head against the sky
Where twisted rocks they run to the sea

Living on your western shore
Saw summer sunsets, asked for more
I stood by your Atlantic Sea
And sang a song for Ireland

Drinking all the day
In old pubs where fiddlers love to play
Saw one touch the bow
He played a reel which seemed so grand and gay
Stood on Dingle Beach and cast
In wild foam we found Atlantic bass.”

“Heath you coming?” asked Nick as he watched his brother continue to stare at the woman and child.

Heath turned quietly towards Nick and nodded as he took one last look at the woman before heading off the help Nick. The boy seemed much quieter now he noticed, almost as if he were in his mother’s arms.

Jessie could smell pine trees, oh how he loved the smell of pine, "so much like home," he thought as he drifted in a comforting black sea. "I must be dead," he thought, "sure thought it would hurt more," he pondered as his confused mind continued whirl. "But if I'm dead, why does feel like someone's rocking me," he thought, confused by the rocking motion. He struggled to open his eyes; they were so heavy, why couldn't he open them. He felt so comfortable where he was; he hadn't felt this way since his Mama had last rocked him to sleep when he was sick.

If he listened hard enough he could hear the song his Mama had sung to him that night,

”Walking all the day
Near tall towers where falcons build their nests
Silver-winged they fly
They know the call of freedom in their breasts
Saw Black Head against the sky
Where twisted rocks they run to the sea

Living on your western shore
Saw summer sunsets, asked for more
I stood by your Atlantic Sea
And sang a song for Ireland”

A tear rolled down Jessie's face, as he was sure he could hear his Mama's soft sweet Irish voice singing to him. He could feel her gentle touch on his cheek as she wiped away his tears. He felt so safe and secure as though everything that had taken place in the last nine months never happened; it had all been a bad dream. He was once again safe and sound in his Mama's arms, where no one could hurt him ever again.

Nick and Heath followed Fred through the field over towards the downed men. Three of the four men in the field were dead, the fourth looked near death but he was still breathing. Nick gathered him up and took him back towards the stagecoach. Once the other men were brought in Fred went to check on the man John brought down behind the coach.

Drawing close to the man Fred could see how big the man was, "I'm going to need help with this one," he shouted back towards the stage. The man was at least over six feet tall and plum near close to two hundred and fifty pounds thought Fred as he bent down to check the man. He could hear raspy breathing sounds coming from the man, "but man what is that smell!" thought Fred as he bent down next to his chest. Now he could see cause of the stench, the man had vomited quite a few times and it was all over his shirt and the grass around him. There was also a bright red stain covering his left shoulder, "probably where John's bullet hit him," thought Fred as he tried to turn the man to check for an exit hole. Sure enough the bullet had gone clean through, the bleeding seemed to have pretty much stopped and for that Fred was grateful. "At least you'll be around to stand trial for all of the killing you've done," he thought as he pictured the face of his fallen friend.

"Phew! What's that smell?" asked Nick as he walked up behind Fred.

"Seems our friend here isn't felling to well," stated Fred as he pointed at the mess on Hank's shirt.
"He sure is a large fella," stated Nick as he tied the man's hands in front of him. "I'm not sure we're going to be able to lift him," Nick said as he marveled at the size of the man in front of him.

"No problem we'll just drag him by his feet over near the other ones. We'll let the sheriff figure out how to get them to the jail." Spoke Fred as he grabbed one of Hank's legs. Nick and Fred made short work of dragging Hank back to the stagecoach; Heath had just finished securing the other remaining prisoner when Fred asked Nick to ride up to Silida for the sheriff.

"I'll stay here with the stage and help John, if you can bring back the sheriff we can get this stage back on it's way." Said Fred as he headed over to check on John and the stage's passengers.

Nick informed Heath about their plans to bring back the sheriff before he took off back to their camp to get Coco. Heath decided to stay with the stage to see if he could help the little boy.

"Do you have any idea who that kid is?" Heath asked Fred.

"No not really," replied Fred. "Aaron and I just saw him waving that lantern in the middle of the road and decided to stop and see if he needed help. Once we got close he got all panicky and started yelling at us to get away," said Fred as he scratched at his head. "Just after that all hell broke loose, that's about all I know."

Heath looked at Fred with a puzzled expression, "you don't think he was with those men do you?" questioned Heath.

"Can't really say, but I don't see any other explanation, do you?" he asked.

"I guess not," mouthed Heath quietly as he turned to go and check on the boy.

Heath could still hear her softly singing to the boy as he approached them, her soft Irish accent making him think of Anna as she sung,

”Dreaming in the night
I saw a land where no one had to fight
Waking in your dawn
I saw you crying in the morning light
Sleeping where the falcons fly
They twist and turn all in your air-blue sky”

The boy was now fast asleep nestled with in the woman's arms, there seemed to be such a peaceful expression on his sleeping face. She continued to rock him slowly and run her fingers through his hair as Heath knelt down beside her.

"He looks much better," Heath stated as he looked down at the resting child.

"That he does Mr. Barkley, that he does," she spoke softly as she continued to rock the child.

"Please call me Heath, ma'am," he replied as he ran his hand through the sleeping child’s hair.

"Then only if you'd call me Mary, Heath," she replied with a smile. "Thank you for helping the boy," she added.

"You're the one who's helped him the most," Heath replied, as he looked Mary in the eye. Those eyes thought Heath; they showed so much caring and love, very much like his own mothers had.

"Your wrong there Heath," she replied looking directly into his eyes, "you're the one that saved his life, not me son. Here why don't you take him now, I had better be getting back to my family," she said as she handed the sleeping child over to Heath.

Putting her hand on the child's face she softly whispered in his ear, "go with Heath now son, I promise you he'll take good care of you. You're a good boy son, I’m real proud of you." With that she gave the boy a kiss on his cheek and turned to look at Heath. "I know you'll take good care of him," she said as she started to walk towards the rear of the stage, "thank you," she said before disappearing around the back of the stage.

Heath looked down at the sleeping child nestled in his arms, the boy still looked pale but there was some color coming back into his cheeks. He wondered just how this child got here, what could have happened to him, was one of the men they had captured the boys father? If so why did they try to kill him?

Heath was still sitting and holding the boy when Nick rode back with the sheriff and a few of his men pulling a wagon.

"Seems you had a little trouble out here," stated the sheriff as he looked at the men tied up next to the stage.

"Two of them are still alive," replied Fred as he pointed over towards the stage, "and there's a kid on the other side of the stage. We don't know where he came from, we figure he belongs to one of those men."

"If you can take my men back to town with you I can get this stage outa here and back on schedule. John here needs to have his leg looked at and I'll be back tomorrow to pick up Aaron and take him home," stated Fred as he looked over at the still body of his friend.

"I'm going to need you to give me a full statement when you get back to town tomorrow," stated the sheriff as he motioned for his men to start loading up the wagon. "I'll need statements from the rest of you and the boy now," stated the sheriff.

"I don't think you'll get much from the boy," Heath stated as he came around the front of the stage carrying the sleeping child in his arms. "He's gone through an awful lot and we should really get him to a doctor."

"Doc Bakers place is just outside of town," replied the sheriff, "after you get the boy settled I want you to come see me."

"Sheriff two of your prisoners will be need’in the doc too," stated Fred as he watched the sheriff's men load Hank into the wagon. "They have gunshot wounds and they seem mighty sick to boot."

"Don't worry I'll get them taken care of," he replied.

"Heath, I'll go gather up our belongings and meet you back here. Can you carry the boy on Charger?" questioned Nick as he eyed his brother.

"I should be fine with him Nick," he replied once again running his hand through the boy's hair. Heath watched Nick ride off and then turned his attention towards the sheriff and his men. He watched as they finished loading the men in the wagon and began their way back to Silida. He decided to walk over to the stage and thank Mary for her help with the boy one more time before the stage left.

He looked in the coach but didn't see her, "Excuse me Ma'am can you tell me where Mary is?" Heath questioned a very sophisticated looking woman seated in the coach.

"I'm sorry son, I have no idea who this Mary is that you speak of," she replied.

"She has red hair and green eyes, she helped me settle the boy here," Heath stated as he raised the sleeping boy up a little for the woman to see.

"Like I told you son, I know nothing of this Mary, my husband and I are the only passengers on this stage, have been all day." She replied looking over at a stout little man with very a expensive although tight three-piece suit on.

"That's right young man," the stout man added, "Just the misses and I."

Heath stepped back away from the couple not entirely sure what to think, where could she have gone. Certainly someone would have seen her wonder off, especially with all the commotion going on.

"Fred," Heath called out as he walked towards the front of the stage.

"Yeah, Heath?" questioned Fred from the drivers seat of the stage.

"Did you happen to see where Mary may have gone?" asked Heath looking up at Fred.

"Sorry son, who's Mary?" questioned Fred.

"The lady who helped me with the boy here," Heath reminded him.

"Sorry Heath, I haven't seen her since we left to go round up those men." He replied. "Besides she's not from the stage, Heath, I only have two passengers and their both here."

Heath gave Fred a puzzled expression before asking Fred if he was sure about only having two passengers. Fred assured him that he was and that Heath needn't worry about the woman as she probably just lived in the area and came around when she heard all the commotion. Heath felt Fred was probably right and sat down to await Nick's return.



“Good afternoon Miss Audra,” Silas stated as Audra bound through the front door untying her hat.

“ Good afternoon Silas,” Audra greeted as she removed her hat and handed it to him. “Are Heath and Nick home yet?” she questioned her blue eyes blazing.

Silas could see the sparkle in her eyes as she inquired about her brothers, “not yet Miss,” he replied noticing the sparkle leave her eyes. “But I expect them any time now,” he added trying to boost the young girls spirits.

“Thank you Silas,” she replied as she placed a hand on his arm, “is mother around?”

“Yes Miss, she’s in the study,” replied Silas, delighted to see some of the sparkle return to Audra’s eyes.

Audra turned and made her way towards the study just as Jarrod walked in the front door.

“Jarrod!” Audra shouted rushing over to give her big brother a hug, “you’re home early!”

“Now little lady just what did I do to deserve such a nice greeting?” smiled Jarrod as he hugged his little sister.

“Can’t a girl give her big brother a hug?” Audra asked as she smiled up at Jarrod.

“I suppose,” Jarrod smiled as Audra took a step back, “is mother around?”

“I was just heading in to see her myself,” chimed Audra as she took her brothers arm and led him into the study.

“Good afternoon Mother,” Jarrod spoke as he entered the room and walked over towards her and placed a kiss on her cheek.

“Jarrod, you’re home early today,” Victoria stated as she greeted her oldest child.

“That does seem to be the general consensuses around her today,” laughed Jarrod as he looked between his mother and sister. “Truth is I received a telegram from Nick this afternoon and I wanted to share it with both of you.” He stated as he unfolded the telegram from his pocket.

“I hope everything is all right,” questioned Victoria in a worried tone.

“It seems they ran into a stagecoach that was in the process of being robbed and intervened. They’re fine but their running a little behind schedule, seems they need to fill the sheriff of Salida in on a few of the details of the robbery. Nick also mentioned they may have a house guest coming home with them and they should be back in a few days.” Jarrod added as he folded back up the telegram and placed it in his pocket.

“A guest?” questioned Audra staring at Jarrod, “Did Nick mention who it is Jarrod?”

“I’m afraid Nick’s message was pretty brief honey, he didn’t mention any more than I’ve already told you.” Answered Jarrod as he sat down in one of the studies high back chairs.

“You don’t think Nick and Heath are in any danger, do you Jarrod?” asked Victoria looking over at Jarrod.

“No mother, by the sound of it I think everything is under control. But just to be on the safe side I’ve asked Fred to wire the sheriff in Salida for more information. We should have more concrete information tomorrow morning.” Answered Jarrod relaxing in his chair.

“Excuse me Mrs. Barkley,” stated Silas as he entered the study. “Miss Anna Holden is here to see Mr. Heath.”

“Please show her in Silas,” stated Victoria rising up out of her chair.

“Anna!” greeted Audra rushing over to greet her friend as she entered the room with Silas, “how nice of you to drop by.”

“Thank you Audra,” replied Anna as she returned her friends embrace. “Hello Mrs. Barkley, Jarrod, I’m sorry to drop in on you unannounced but I was hoping to catch Heath at home. He had promised to help me with some ideas for the upcoming dance next weekend and I was hoping to hold him to that.” She stated, a slight blush rising on her cheeks.

“I’m sorry dear, Nick and Heath seem to have run into a little trouble near Salida. They’re fine,” Victoria, added noticing the sudden look of fear in Anna’s green eyes, “It’s just going to take them a little longer to get home.”

“I certainly hope it’s nothing serious,” Anna spoke, her voice betraying her and letting out the concern she felt inside.

“Don’t worry,” answered Jarrod calmly, “seems those brothers of mine interrupted a stagecoach robbery. They’ll be staying in Salida for a few days helping the sheriff there put all of the pieces together.” He stated as he escorted Anna by the arm and led her over to one of the studies chairs.

“You know my brothers,” chimed up Audra, “they just can’t seem to keep their noses out of anything, especially trouble!” She added as she placed her hand on Anna’s shoulder and smiled.

“I hope no one was hurt,” spoke Anna, as once again the concern she had came through loud and clear in her voice.

“We don’t know all of the details yet Anna, but one things for sure Nick and Heath seem to be just fine,” stated Jarrod.

“Well Anna if you’ll excuse me I need to go and let Silas know not to expect those boys for dinner tonight. It was a pleasure seeing you again and please feel free to stop over any time your near by.” Victoria spoke as she placed Anna’s hand in her own.

“Thank you Mrs. Barkley, that’s awfully nice of you, I just may take you up on that,” Anna said as she patted Victoria’s hand and smiled.

Victoria quietly stood outside the study and listed to the chatter between her children and Anna. She was really starting to become attached to Anna, “that girl is like a breath of fresh air,” Victoria thought. She could see how happy Heath was at even the mention of Anna’s name, with Anna around Heath had been able to put more and more of his past behind him, and for this Victoria was extremely pleased. That boy was becoming more and more apart of the family, his bond with Nick was like nothing she had ever seen. They seemed to each know the others thoughts and had really begun to expand the ranch together, they were as one. Audra simply adored her fair-haired brother and he her, he seemed completely at home discussing the ranches finances with Jarrod as well. Her oldest and youngest sons also shared a special bond, Jarrod was just the person Heath needed in an older brother, someone to guide him with a loving caring hand. But also someone to challenge him, to draw things out after Heath had long since buried them.

But it was her time alone she treasured most with Heath, in the past few months he had really started to open up with her. She enjoyed the way he was finally at ease with her, he was no longer afraid to confide in her; for fear that he might hurt her. It was wonderful seeing him relax and able to drop his strong outer shell just long enough for her to get inside and try to heal it. Anna would do much the same for Heath she was sure of it, only she could help him in ways only a wife could.

Before walking towards the kitchen to speak with Silas, Victoria sent a silent prayer up to her husband once again thanking him for all of their children, and to add a special prayer for Anna and Heath.



Doc Baker walked out of his exam room towards the two men looking extremely pale and worried.

Heath was on his feet in a second, “how’s the boy Doc?” he asked while turning the brim of his hat over and over again in his hands.

“Well son, that boy in there is in pretty rough shape,” stated the doctor as he looked between both Heath and Nick. “Someone’s been using that boy as a punching bag among other things for some time now. He’s just plumb worn out.”

“What are you trying to say Doc,” questioned Heath as his concern for the boy was starting to show in his voice.

“Come on in and see for yourselves,” stated the doctor as he headed back in to the exam room.

Once Heath and Nick were in the room the doctor turned up the light beside the bed and the pale bruised form of a child took shape.

“I sewed up his right arm, it was a pretty deep gash and he lost a lot of blood, blood he couldn’t afford to lose might I add,” stated Doc Baker. “But I’m also concerned about his left collar bone, seems as though some how it was broken not to long ago and it really hasn’t healed well at all. Frankly I’m not sure how the boy manages to use his left arm that much at all.” Stated the doctor as he showed Heath and Nick the boys collar bone and the large lump that was noticeable there.

“There’s also evidence of several broken ribs, some still have some mending to do and a broken forearm that’s healed. But that’s only a small part of this boys suffering.” Stated the doctor as he looked up at Heath and Nick, “Look at this scar on his upper thigh, looks to me like someone had at him with a knife. If that’s the case I’m surprised this boy is even here today,” noted the doctor.

Heath looked at the large angry scar on the boy’s leg and felt the anger rise up within him. “How could someone do all of that to a child!” he thought out loud.

Nick who was equally taken back by the state of the boy put his hand on his brother’s shoulder to try and comfort him knowing right now he didn’t have any other answer.

“I’m afraid to say that’s not the extent of it,” stated the doctor as he turned Jessie onto his side, “someone’s been at this boy with a knife just recently, I’d say sometime earlier today as a matter of fact. Most of these wounds haven’t even had a chance to heal yet,” he said as Nick and Heath looked down at the awful mess that was Jessie’s back.

“There are scars and rope burns on both of his wrists and ankles too,” stated the doctor as he lifted Jessie’s small hand up for the brothers to see.

Heath was almost sick to his stomach as he thought about everything the little boy must have gone through, probably alone too. He quickly turned and fled out onto the doctor’s front porch and sat down hard on the top step with his head in his hands trying to control the rage that burned within.
Nick thanked the doctor and quickly followed Heath outside, sitting down next to him on the steps; Nick put his arm around Heath’s shoulders. They sat that way for quite some time before Heath began to talk; he didn’t look at Nick but stared off into the distance as he spoke.

“I’m sorry Nick, it just all came flooding back at once,” Heath spoke his voice cracking, “my uncle Matt, Carterson, the mine, all of it.” Heath let out a sob as Nick gripped his shoulders tighter and pulled his little brother into him.

“He’s so young Nick, who could possibly want to hurt such a young child?” he continued to breath heavy as Nick held onto him.

“Heath you of all people know what type of men there are in this world, we’ll just have to make sure none of those men ever get their filthy hands on him again.” Nick stated hoping his last statement would help. It hurt him so to see his brother reliving his terrible past yet once again, he’d give anything to change that.

“What’s going to happen to him now, Nick? He’s going to need so much help,” stated Heath as he sat up straight and looked at Nick.

Nick could see how upset Heath really was over this child, it shown through clearly in his blue eyes, what could he possibly do to make his brother feel better he wondered. “Heath why don’t we bring the boy back to the ranch, he’s going to need some place to recover and you know how Audra and Mother are when someone’s sick. It might just be what the boy needs,” smiled Nick, happy with himself for coming up with such a cleaver plan.

Heath thought for a moment about Nicks idea, “that just might work,” he thought his spirits brightening some. “At least I’ll be able to help him and keep an eye on him,” thought Heath as he rose to his feet.

“We had better get over to the sheriffs office,” stated Heath as he headed down the steps. “We can discuss your idea for the boy with him as well,” he said shooting a lopsided grin up at Nick.

Nick and Heath made their way back to the doctor’s office after a long talk with the sheriff. The sheriff had asked the brothers to send back the doctor, as he was a little concerned about the condition of his prisoners.

“I’ll be back shortly; can you boys keep an eye on the child for me while I’m gone? He still hasn’t awakened but I don’t suppose he will for a while now anyway.” Said Doc Baker as he made his way out the front door.

“Nick, you rest I’ll take the first watch over him,” said Heath as he started towards the exam room.

“Heath,” Nick replied catching his brother by the shoulder, “you look awful, why don’t you let me sit with him first.” Nick offered.

“I’m fine Nick, I just have to be there now, for his sake and my own, OK?” Heath asked his voice almost pleading.

“Alright little brother, but I’m taking over in a little while,” replied Nick slapping Heath on the shoulder.

“Thanks Nick,” Heath said before turning and entering the dimly light room.

Heath pulled up a chair and placed it next to the boy’s bed. The boy was so still and pale, all of the life in him seemed drained away. Heath clasped the boy’s cold hand in his and sent a silent prayer up for the boy’s recovery. It pained him to look at all of the abuse the boy had obviously taken, his bandaged arm, the lump on his collar bone, the faint bruises healing on his face. “What monster could have done this,” Heath thought again as a tear slipped down his face. “Just wait till I get my hands on them!” he thought as he watched the boy sleep

"Good evening Doc," stated the sheriff as he shook Doc Bakers hand.

"I hear you have some prisoners here that need tending too," replied the Doc.

"That I do Doc, seems these men tried to rob the stage tonight. Unluckily for them they ran into a little trouble though." Said the sheriff as he grabbed his keys off the wall and headed back towards the jails only cell.

"Strange thing is though, these boys have been awfully sick since they got here. And by the looks of them for sometime before that too," added the sheriff as he unlocked the cell door.

Doc Baker made his way into the cell towards the two men; the first man was a huge hulk of a man. His shirt and pants were covered in vomit and the doctor could see he’d taken a bullet in the shoulder. His coloring was extremely pale and his breathing was short and shallow. Doc Baker made his way over to the second smaller man whose head was wrapped in a crude bandage; he too had vomit covering most of his shirt. His color was a little better and he seemed to be breathing fairly well.

Making his way back over towards the first man he asked the sheriff for some hot water and clean towels so he could clean the men off properly.

"Don’t go to too much trouble over them now Doc, there just going to meet the hangman soon any how," replied the sheriff as he handed the clean towels and water to Doc Baker.

Doc Baker cleaned as much of the vomit off the large man as he could, he cleaned and dressed the shoulder wound. "This wound should heal up nicely, straight in and out," he thought as he noticed the large man’s breathing return more to a regular pattern. He brought the lantern closer and opened the large mans eye, the pupils were covering most of the steel blue in the mans eyes. "Looks like these boys may have been poisoned," thought Doc Baker.

He made his way over once again to the smaller man and began cleaning and stitching the gash in his head. Once the wound was cleaned and bandaged, he tried to clean up the rest of the man as best he could. Bringing the lantern close, Doc Baker leaned over and opened one of the mans eyes. He was momentarily shocked at what he saw, "the mans eyes were black, as black as night! How could that be?" thought the doctor as he baked away from the man.

"Sheriff, sheriff, I’m all through in here," shouted Doc Baker, eager to get the sheriffs attention. He wanted out of this cell and away from that man as quickly as possible, something inside those eyes had really frightened him. "My God," he thought, "had the little boy in his office been with these men? Now wonder the child looked so bad, he’d been living with the devil himself," thought the doctor as he shuddered.

"Let me know if their breathing changes at all, other than that they should recover within a few days. I think they may have been poisoned somehow so go light on the food for a while." Stated Doc Baker as he headed out the door, "also sheriff be careful around those two."

"I plan on doing just that Doc, the sheriff in Modesto is sending up some men to take them back there for trial in a few days."

"Well you know where I am if you need me," added the doctor as he left.



Jessie was still floating in the warm black sea when he thought he heard his Mama’s sweet voice calling to him, "Jessie, time to wake up now, Come on sleepy head." Why was it so hard to open his eyes? He wanted so much to be able to look upon his mother’s face, to feel her warm embrace, to touch her soft red hair, to see her beautiful smile once again shine down upon him.

As he struggled to open his eyes he let out a soft moan when he felt a sharp pain radiate down his right arm. "Stop it Thomas," he cried softly, believing that his little brother must be pinching him.

Heath heard the soft moan and quickly knelt down beside the boy once again taking the small child’s hand into his own. He thought he heard the boy mutter something, "Thomas, was it?" he thought.

"Don’t worry son, you’re fine now," Heath spoke softly as he watched the boy struggling to open his eyes. Heath took a small cloth from the nightstand, dipped it in the bowl and began wiping the boy’s head and face with the cool water.

Jessie could feel something soothing on his face and neck, "it sure does feel good," his tired mind thought. But who was that talking to him, he was sure only moments ago his mother had been with him. But this sounded like a man’s voice, "Oh NO!" Jessie’s mind raced, "Hank! They have me again!" his mind screamed as he struggled to raise himself up.

Heath noticed the boys breathing increase and the muscles in his body tense up. "Calm down son, you’re in good hands now," Heath tried to reassure the boy. This seemed to only make the boy more restless, "Please son take it easy, you’re going to bust those stitches in your arm." He stated pleading with the restless child.

"Calm yourself Jessie," he told himself, "it’s not Hank’s voice, it’s someone else," he told himself as he finally managed to open his eyes. It wasn’t Hank or one of his men looking down at him; it was someone he’d never seen before. The man had hair as light as the sun, he was about as tall as his Papa but he was much younger. It was the man’s eyes that really seemed to put him at ease, his sparkling clear blue eyes held so much concern and compassion in them, Jessie felt his body relaxing just staring into them.

"That’s better," Heath stated, as the boy finally seemed to relax a little. "I was afraid you were going to bust open those nice stitches the Doc put in your arm there," he said pointing to the bandage on Jessie’s arm. "My names Heath Barkley, my brother Nick and I brought you in here after the stage was robbed and we found you injured," he added continuing to wipe the boys face with the cool cloth.

"The stage!" Jessie’s mind raced again, "Hank, Matt! Where are they!?" He wondered as he frantically tried to focus on the room around him. He couldn’t get his tired eyes to focus, "they have to be here somewhere!" his mind screamed at him.

"Calm down little guy," Heath quietly spoke to the boy as he tried to calm him down again. The boy was looking around the room frantically as if he expected someone to jump out and grab him at any moment. He was starting to shake again; Heath was really starting to wonder if he should get the Doc when he realized what it was the boy must be searching for. "Those men! He’s afraid they’re still here!" Thought Heath as got up and sat down on the bed with the boy. Taking the boy in his arms he tried again to calm him, "You’re all right little guy," he spoke calmly while rocking Jessie. "Those men aren’t going to hurt you any more. They’re not here, your safe. I promise I won’t let them hurt you any more," he repeated as he continued to rock the boy.

It took Jessie a moment to realize the man was trying to reassure him that Hank wasn’t there. His eyes once again seemed so heavy and hard to keep open, he felt so secure in the strange mans arms. They were so like his Papa’s he thought as he slowly drifted off to sleep in Heaths arms.

It was almost morning when Nick walked into check on his little brother and found him lying in bed with the boy wrapped in his arms, both of them fast asleep. Nick pulled a chair up to the side of the bed and sat watching his brother and the boy sleep.

"Don’t worry little brother," Nick thought smiling at his sleeping brother, "I won’t let anything happen to either one of you."


Matt awoke with a blinding pain in his head, as he tried to open his eyes the light in the room hurt terribly. Everything seemed way to bright for him and he was having a hard time controlling his stomach. He reached a hand up towards his head and felt the bandage there as the memories of the stagecoach robbery came flooding back.

"That whelp!" he thought feeling the anger and hatred he felt for the boy boil inside of him. "I’m going to kill him nice and slow! Then I’m going to kill who ever helped him!" Seethed Matt as he tried to sit up. It took him a moment to gain his bearings as he slowly looked around the small cell.

"Hank!" he shouted, standing up quickly. The room seemed to go out from under his feet and he sat down hard on the cot. Regaining his senses he tried standing once again only slowly this time, as he finally found his feet he slowly made his way over towards Hank.

"Hank," Matt spoke as he gently shook Hank’s good shoulder, "Hank it’s me Matt, can you hear me?" He looked terrible, there were dark black circles under his eyes and his face was extremely pale, he felt very cold and clammy to Matt’s touch.

Hank struggled to open his eyes as he felt a hand shaking his shoulder, "Knock it off," he growled, turning his head to see who was bothering him. The moment he moved his head he knew it was a mistake, his stomach protested and his body was racked by dry heaves.

"Careful Hank," Matt spoke as he stepped back from the sick man. "Take it slow, you’re in no shape to be moving around," he added stepping back towards Hank after the dry heaves stopped.

"What happened?" Hank asked through clenched teeth, his eyes remaining shut.

"Seems we both took a bullet during the hold up," Matt stated as he sat on the bunk next to Hank. "That damn kid of yours warned the stage before we could get a shot off, they were ready for us." He said clenching his hands into tight fists. "I took a shot at the kid, I know I hit him but then someone shot me, that’s about all I can remember. That is except for having an awful pain in my gut. And by the looks of it loosing my supper," he added looking down at his soiled shirt.

"Something’s wrong with my stomach too, I can’t seem to control it at all," Hank stated wearily. "Who else is with us?" he added slowly opening his eyes again.

"No one Hank, it’s just you and me, I’m not sure what happened but since we’re in here I don’t think it was good." Matt stated looking down on his friend.

"How long have we been here?" Hank asked looking up at Matt.

"I’d say only about 8 hours or so now, the sun came up a few hours ago," he spoke looking out the cells only window. Looking back down at Hank he added, "I told you that kid was nothing but trouble! He’s mine now Hank, I’m going to kill that whelp nice and slow! Don’t you try and stop me!" he shouted angrily.

"Morning boys," greeted the sheriff as he stood in front of the cell. "You boys feel up to eatin some breakfast?" he added noticing the way the smaller man flinched at the mention of food.

"How about some water," asked the heavier set man lying on the cot.

"Be back in a jiffy fellas," replied the sheriff as he walked off to retrieve the water.

"Matt, what’s the layout look like," asked Hank as he tried to sit up.

"Pretty small jail, only seems to be this one cell," answered Matt as he moved to help Hank sit up, putting his back against the wall for support. "Haven’t seen anyone else except the one sheriff either," he added noticing Hanks heavy breathing as he struggled to remain sitting.

"What do you think our chances are?" Hank asked trying to steady himself.

"Let’s wait and see how careful that sheriff is when he brings back the water," answered Matt. "I think our chances are good if there’s only one of them," he added, "but first we need to get you up and on your feet." Matt said looking at his struggling friend.

"Here you go boys," stated the sheriff as he slid a pitcher of water and two cups through the iron bars of the cell. "Just let me know when you fellas feel up to eating something and I’ll have Laura fix it right up."

Matt watched the sheriff walk out the front door, "this guy is pretty smart," he thought, "he knows better than to enter the cell with two men in it even if they are sick. This may be a little harder than I had hoped, I wonder is anyone else managed to get away."

Matt poured water into a cup and tried to get Hank to drink it, he managed to get half of it down before he refused any more. He managed to coax Hank back down on the cot and got a cup of water for himself as he watched his friend fall back asleep. "I’ll figure a way out of this," he thought as he drank the water, "Then I’ll get that kid."


"Boy it’s warm out here," thought Peter as he opened his eyes, "where the heck am I," he wondered staring up at the treetops and the clear blue sky beyond them. "Boy my head sure hurts," he moaned struggling to sit up, "Damn! Just look at my shirt and pants, their covered with vomit," he stated out loud. "What happened?" he asked himself looking around, it was then that he noticed something lying off to his side a few yards away. "Henry!" he shouted quickly getting to his feet and half stumbling, half running over to where his brother lay.

Henry was face down in the grass next to a tall oak tree; Peter grabbed his brother by the shoulder and turned him over. "Henry, NO!" Peter cried looking down at the still form of his older brother, "please no!" he sobbed as he looked into Henry’s clouded unseeing eyes. "He’s so cold," thought Peter as he held his brother’s body close to him, "so cold."

Peter sat and held onto his brother’s body for a long time before finally letting go, he went about the process of gathering some rocks from the nearby hill and covered his brother’s body with them. "I’ll be back later to bury you proper Henry, I promise," he said as he walked out into the field to look for the rest of the gang.

He was still feeling a little dizzy when he thought he saw someone on the far side of the field near the trees. "Is that Sam?" he questioned himself.

"Sam! Hey Sam is that you!" he yelled waving his arms over his head.

The figure on the other side of the field waved back, but Peter thought the wave looked rather odd. It took him a lot longer than he thought it would to cross the field, his stomach was still not feeling very well and he had to stop and rest his weary head a few times. Once he neared the figure he could tell that indeed it was Sam. "Man he looks like I feel," noticed Peter as he drew nearer to Sam.

Sam was leaning up against one of the trees closest to the field, Peter didn’t think it would take much at all to knock Sam away from the tree. He looked terrible, there were dark circles under his eyes and he was pretty pale, not to mention he was sporting pretty much the same vomit stains as himself.

"You OK Sam," he asked stopping in front of Sam.

"Not to bad," he replied in a not all that convincing manner.

"Where the heck is everyone?" asked Peter looking around hoping to spot someone else from the gang.

"Don’t know," replied Sam, "I woke up here this morning and for the life of me I can’t remember how I got here."

"You look awful, Sam." Peter stated while watching Sam struggle to keep his head up.

"I take it you haven’t looked in a mirror yourself," he replied glancing up at Peter.

"No, I guess I’ve seen better days too," he replied looking down at his feet. "Henry’s dead," he added coldly while looking down at the ground.

"What! How!" questioned a concerned Sam, regaining his feet.

"I’m not sure, I found him this morning when I woke up; he was already gone." Stated Peter his voice trailing off as he finished his sentence.

"I’m sorry Pete," Sam replied, as he placed a hand on Peter’s slumped shoulder.

"Come on Sam, let’s find the horses and get a move on. We gotta find Hank, he must be around here someplace," said Peter as he began to look around the tree line for any sign of the horses.

Sam’s horse was still tied to a tree just a little ways behind their current location, as Sam made his way slowly to his horse, Peter noticed two other horses grazing close by. One appeared to be Matt’s horse and the other one was Henry’s, "Henry’s prize horse," thought Peter as he drew close to the animal. "Oh how he loved this stupid horse," he thought as he put his foot into the stirrup and mounted the animal. "I guess you’re stuck with me now," he added steering the horse over towards Sam’s.

Peter and Sam soon came across the spot where the stage had stopped for the boy. Both men could see all of the footprints and extra wagon wheels in the grass all around the site.

"Looks like there was quite a fight," stated Peter as he walked around the spot. "There’s an awful lot of blood around here too," he added.

"Let’s head back up to the cabin and see if Hank and the rest of the guys are there, if not then we’ll start checking the nearby towns." Replied Sam.

With that the two rode off towards the cabin……….



Heath awoke to find Nick sitting in a chair next to the bed with his feet up smiling at him as the early morning light fell across the bed. His back and shoulder were both a little stiff from cradling the boy all night but other than that he felt fine.

"Just what are you smiling at big brother," questioned Heath as he wiggled his way out from under the boy trying not to disturb him.

"Oh nothing little brother," replied Nick smiling, "just seems to me you finally found yourself a new teddy bear," he added chuckling.

Heath knocked Nick’s feet off the bed as he passed by his still laughing brother. "Real funny Nick, now quiet down, you’ll wake the boy," he added tossing his brother a lopsided grin.

"How was he last night?" asked Nick quietly, "looks like it may have been rough going."

"He was real restless when he first woke up, I was almost afraid he was going to jump off the bed. He finally quieted down once I held him and told him those men were gone." Heath spoke as he rubbed his shoulder. "I’m not sure what it is Nick but this is one special little guy," Heath said as he ran his fingers through the sleeping boys hair.

Nick watched his little brother as he stood next to the sleeping child, there were times when Nick forgot all about his brothers troubled past. It seemed to him that Heath had always been apart of his family. He could just kick himself for the time he wasted when Heath first came to the ranch to stake his claim, how stubborn he had been. But Heath had forgiven him and Nick had promised himself to make it up to his little brother, to make up for all of it.

"Come on Heath," Nick said rising to his feet, "Why don’t you go and get some real food into that stomach of yours. I can watch the kid for a while, I promise to come and get you if he wakes up," he added, slapping Heath on the shoulder.

"All right Nick, I could use something to eat," he stated looking back down at the boy. "You’ll get me if he stirs, right?" he questioned, turning a concerned face towards Nick.

"Sure thing little brother, now get a move on, the days wasting away," he replied shoving Heath towards the door.

"I’m going, I’m going," replied Heath as he walked out the door, "I’ll be back shortly," he added.

"Don’t worry I can handle a little kid," Nick stated, smiling at his brothers back. "At least I hope I can," he thought to himself, as he settled back down in the chair to watch the boy.

Continued…