THE GUNFIGHTER
This
story is a sequel to False Witness and although it would be possible to read on
it’s own, you will need to know the background about the character Butch Thomas
and how he and the Cartwright family came to know of each other.
I
have changed my mind slightly for this story and it will take place only 3
years after Thomas was sent to prison for the attempted murder and kidnapping
of Little Joe Cartwright. That makes Joe
19 years old for this story and suits the theme of the story a little
better. I was originally going to have
it five years afterwards at the age of 21 years.
Hope
you enjoy this one as much as False Witness:
Three years earlier these few words echoed in Joe
Cartwright’s memory:
“SOMEDAY I WILL COME BACK. YOU AND I WILL MEET AGAIN – I PROMISE”
and now the
story turns another page and continues:
For
Joe Cartwright, the day would begin as any other. However by the end of it, he would question
some of the everyday things that he did out of routine and often took for
granted. There would be events that
would shape his way of thinking and actions for many months ahead……………………..
The
Cartwright family were currently finishing off breakfast at the beginning of
another routine day on the Ponderosa.
Ben
Cartwright, the Patriarch of the family rose from the table first and took his
gun belt down from the credenza before starting to buckle it around his
waist. “Joe I still need you to be at
the timber yard after lunch sometime today.
With all of the break-downs we have had lately and men leaving, I still
need an extra pair of hands there.”
“Sure
Pa,” Joe replied as he drained the last of his black coffee from the cup and
now got up from the table himself and joined his father near the front door to grab
his own hat and gun belt.
“I
just got to go up by that north-easterly paddock to take a look at the fence
that those fellows were supposed to fix yesterday. After that I will head down to the timber
yard and give you a hand,” Joe said to his father.
“Don’t
you trust the men you hired enough to complete the job on their own Joe?” Adam
said partly in fun at his younger brother.
“Frankly
no,” Joe’s curt reply came back. He
wasn’t cranky with Adam, more with himself about not having looked more at the
men he asked to do the job. He was
sure if he checked into their backgrounds he would find some dishonesty or
other criminal activity.
There
were just some men when you looked at them that gave you a bad impression from
the start and the two Joe had hired a few weeks ago certainly fell into that
category.
“You
aiming to do their work for them Little Joe?” Hoss asked.
“No
I am not. If I find that fence not
fixed properly, I am going to make sure they go back there and complete the job
properly, all night if necessary,” Joe said with a little edge to his
voice.
Joe
was only 19 years old but already had a lot more responsibility as a supervisor
on the Ponderosa than most of his friends had on their family ranches. And while Joe admitted himself that he had
a whole lot more to learn yet about how to successfully run the ranch the way
his father had done for all those years, he was determined not to show
uncertainty in front of the hands.
If
he expected them to respect him as a leader and a boss, than he needed to show
that he could do it without his father and brothers to back him up all of the
time. Sooner or later a time would come
that he only had himself to rely on together with all that he had learned.
“You
take it easy out there today Boss,” Hoss joked at his younger sibling, laughing
a the title he afforded Joe.
“You
just make sure all your work is done by the time I get back here this
afternoon,” Joe said in his best “Pa voice”, returning the joke. There was a time not so long ago that he
would have flown off the handle at such a remark even though it had been made
by one of his own family.
“Could
you imagine working under Joe if he was your Boss,” Adam said as they watched
Joe head out of the door and out of earshot.
“Frankly,
I rather not find out older brother,” Hoss replied. “I have been on the end of Joe’s temper one
more time than I would like to remember.
I don’t think he’d take to kindly to having me on his work team
anyway. I would always just be in the
way like I was standing over him or something.”
“I
think you right there Hoss,” Adam commented, he too knowing all to well the
wrath of his much smaller sibling when he was riled enough about something.
For
the first hour and a half that morning, Joe did exactly as he had told his
family that he would do and check the north-easterly fences. Despite Joe’s poor opinion of their work
skills, the two of them had done a decent enough job.
There
were a few loose strands of wire that he tightened up and they certainly left a
mess behind in their wake. But overall,
Joe could see that they had at least achieved the task they had been set.
Joe
stopped his horse and allowed himself a well deserved short break and cool
drink. He poured some of the water in
to his hat and then offered the cool liquid to Cochise.
The
day was beginning to get hot already and Joe could already feel the droplets of
sweat running down the back on his neck underneath of the collar of his work
shirt, making him just that little bit more uncomfortable.
“Come
on
There
was quite a distance between the area of fencing that he had been checking and
the timber yard. The sun was
incredibly hot all the way and was now directly overhead as a very hot and
weary horse and rider came into the timber yard.
Joe
got off his horse and used the bandana tied around his neck to wipe some of the
perspiration from his brow. He then
led Cochise over to a nearby water trough and let the animal have his fill and
find some respite under the shade of a tree.
Joe
had even splashed some of the stagnant but cool water over his face and
shoulders in an effort to cool himself down after the hot ride from the
north-easterly pasture.
As
Joe now walked towards the building that was used to house the various saws and
machinery, he was struck by how quiet the place was. He hadn’t noticed it when he first arrived,
but even now there wasn’t anybody to be seen around.
“Pa?”
Joe called as he walked through the doorway.
He paused momentarily to allow his eyes time to adjust to the bright
sunlight outside. The building itself
was fairly dark and shadowed.
“Over
here Joe,” came the voice from his father.
Joe relaxed a little and strode over in the direction from where the
voice had come from.
Ben
Cartwright was currently in a bend-over position trying to tighten a large
rotating arm on one of the buzz saws.
There were four all together at the timber yard.
The
logging season had yet to begin properly but when it did start the saws would
be kept going from sun up to sun down in order to cut the timber in time to
meet demanding contracts back in San Francisco and around the nearby Virginia
City mines
Ben
stood up to greet his son and wiped away the heat from his own forehead, which
was replaced with a frown at the trouble he was having in getting the equipment
working properly.
“Still
having problems Pa?” Joe asked, already knowing the answer to the question.
“I
am afraid so Joe,” Ben said with disappointment in is voice. “I had to send the majority of the men home
for today. It will be quite a while
before I can get this arm working right, if I can get it working and there is
no guarantee of that today.
“I
thought it sounded a little quiet around here when I came in,” Joe said in
response. He knew that this wasn’t the
first set of problems his father had been having with the timber saws. The place itself had been a constant
stream of headaches and breakdowns for Ben over the last month.
“So
I guess you won’t be wanting me to hang around here this afternoon,” Joe said
with a little hope in his voice of having some time to himself. He had had very little time off lately due
to the work load with the fencing repairs that needed attending too.
There
was a cattle drive due to begin in a few weeks time and there would be a lot of
work needed leading up to the drive and then the drive itself, so there would
be no time anywhere in the near future to relax and allow oneself to wind down
a little.
“There’s
plenty of chores for you to attend to back at the yard young man,” Ben said in
mock sternness, seeing the unspoken thoughts in Joe’s head of an afternoon
off. On the contrary he knew that he
and all his sons had put in some mighty long days and weeks lately and they
could use a break and some time to themselves.
“Actually
Joe, what I need is for you to wait here with Tom while I go back to the barn
and bring back one of your brothers or maybe both and some more tools to try
and fix this thing,” Ben now said.
“Sure
Pa,” Joe replied knowing that his father had come to rely on him more and more
lately. He didn’t mind at all. The timber yard needed to be operational if
they were to have a successful winter this year as well as meet their contractual
obligations.
“What
can I do to help while you are gone Pa?” Joe now asked.
Ben
stood up and brushed the dirt combined with oil on his hands onto a strip of
cloth that was laying nearby. “Not
much son, I think some of these parts will have to be taken out all together
when I get back and then hauled to town on a buckboard to the blacksmith to see
if he can repair any of it.”
“If
he can’t then I will probably have to send a telegram to
“Some
of the shafts on the arm need to be mended and there is more than one of them
that I think are past repairable state.”
“Do
you need to have all four of the saw’s repaired Pa?” Joe now asked, trying to
think just how much further such a detrimental act would allow the timber
contract to get behind.
“No
Joe, I know what you are thinking and I know too that we just can’t afford time
wise or financially to do that. I
will take these two here out,” Ben said pointing to the buzz saw he was
standing behind and another one across the floor.
“The
other two can wait until we get these operational again. Then once the parts are either replaced or
mended, we can do the others,” Ben said as he now strapped back on his gun-belt
and prepared to head back to the Ponderosa.
“How
long do you think before you come back with the buckboard Mr Cartwright?” Tom
now asked. Tom Withers was a middle
aged man with no real family in
As
years got away on Tom and his back started giving him trouble. At one point he was just going to quit his
job and move onto greener pastures somewhere.
But Ben wouldn’t have any of that knowing the man was too valuable an
employee to allow just to wander off into obscurity.
A
few years ago Ben suggested that Tom try helping out at the timberyard instead
of working with the cattle. As it
happened, Tom found an almost natural affinity for leading others and in no
time at all found himself to be one of Ben’s most trusted Foreman at the
timberyard.
“Oh
I’d say about an hour at least Tom, maybe two,” Ben said. “You and Joe wait here and I bring back the
wagon and some more help. Some of
those parts are going to be tricky getting out and will probably have some
weight behind them.”
“See
you soon Pa,” Joe said as he watched his father
as
he rode away.
****************************************************************************
“Well
now then young Joe, what should we do with ourselves while we wait for your
father to come back with the wagon?”
Withers now asked. The man had seen Joe
grow over the years. At first, a
lonely boy without a mother but a strong family network to guide him with all
of the love and understanding he needed.
Tom
had not been at the ranch when Marie had suddenly passed away due to a riding
accident. He had arrived a year or
two after but had been told of the family’s tragic loss. At first he had known very little about Ben
Cartwright and his sons.
Adam
had been going away to college about the same time as Tom first started working
with the men. He had seen a much
younger Adam try and assume his father’s role in many areas of the ranch. By the time Adam had returned from his
college days, Tom had noted that whilst Adam still admired and respected his
father’s opinion and judgment, Adam was now more determined to prove to people
that he could make it on his own without his father
being
there to guide him all the way.
Hoss
had never really tried to follow in Ben’s footsteps. Tom had watched Ben guide the larger boy in
all aspects of ranch life, but is seemed when it came to knowing what the animals
wanted, Hoss already knew.
From
a quite early stage in his life Hoss had always concerned himself with the
welfare of the animals and making sure that they were always well-cared for and
looked after.
There
had been many long nights for Hoss caring for an injured horse’s leg before
lameness was allowed to sit in. Others
where Hoss was determined to help a young female cow bring her young newborn
calf into this world a little easier.
Hoss
had never shown a real interest in learning from books the way Adam did. Hoss preferred to learn first hand, with his
own two hands and sweat to make it happen.
Sure there were a few mistakes along the way, but mostly Hoss was
respected for his casual but good-natured attitude and friendly outlook on
life.
Tom
felt a genuine connect with a man like Hoss because he too hadn’t really taken
to getting any schooling in life and had let life lead him along for most of
his journey. Only time would
tell
where he was headed next.
In
many ways, Joe now was at a similar stage in his young life as Adam had been
before he went away to college. Always
wanting to please his father and get the men to notice him for his own
abilities. There was still quite a way
to go for the youngest member of the Cartwright family, but in many ways Joe
had already found his confidence and self-assurance qualities much earlier than
most gave him credit for.
“I
say we try and start taking some of these rotary arms apart before Pa gets back
Tom,” Joe suggested. “We have plenty of
time and there is two of us. We
haven’t got anything much better to do until he gets back anyway.”
“Yep,
the sooner we get it done young Cartwright, the sooner we will be finished,
that’s my belief,” Tom replied and now rolled up his sleeves ready to start
work.
Joe
now removed his gun belt and laid it inside his hat on a table. After seeing the amount of grease and oil
that his father had managed to get on his hands, he too rolled up the sleeves
of his shirt and prepared to give Tom a hand.
“You
undo the nut Joe and I will try and pull the arm off towards me,” Tom now
instructed. “Once I get it over the
shaft far enough we can both pull it off together and lean it over against one
of the walls there until your Pa gets back with the wagon to load it into.”
Joe
nodded in agreement to the roughly made out plan of disassembly. He now picked up a large wrench and placed
the correct end around the nut that held the rotary arm in place on the buzz saw.
At
first it was tough going and it didn’t look as though the nut was going to move
at all anytime soon. Joe pushed and
pushed, trying to get his force to allow the nut to come loose. After a few minutes with no result, he
paused briefly and took a break from the strenuous effort
“Boy
this nut is tighter than ever and it doesn’t want to come off,” Joe said with a
little annoyance in his voice.
“Steady
Joe, take it easy, it will come, just keep trying,” Tom said as he tried to let
the young man put some of his unspent frustrations into the handle of the
wrench.
Tom
had always been told about Joe’s willingness to temper quick and let loose with
words or his fists when it wasn’t needed.
He had even witnessed some of that untapped anger when Joe had been
riled at one of his brothers, Adam or Hoss.
Tom
always believed though that all Joe needed was someone to talk to him in a calm
voice when he got mad and talk him through his frustration and anger rather
than let him put it into actions or words.
Understanding and patience was a key ingredient in it all and he often
shared plenty of it with Joe and the other members of the Cartwright family.
Joe
gave Tom a quick grin at the man’s casualness to the whole thing. Tom never seemed to get ticked off at
anything Joe told himself. He then put
the wrench back on the nut and took a deep breath before continuing his
efforts.
On
the second attempt, Joe gritted his teeth and spread his legs a little further
apart to give him more leverage. It
worked and Joe smiled in relief as the nut moved about a quarter of an
inch. A few more harsh turns of the
wrench and the nut was fully loosened enough for Tom to pull the rotary arm
forward on the protruding shaft.
Joe
now put the tool down as he and Tom put their both hands on either side of the
large piece of machinery and prepared to lift it out of the housing.
“Ready
Joe?” Tom asked as he got himself ready to support the heavy weight using his
legs and back for solid support.
“Ready,”
Joe said in reply and he too prepared to take the weight of the large arm.
Everything
was going according to plan as the two of them started inching the arm over the
large shaft. What they were not
prepared for was the sudden movement of the buzz saw blade that was held a few
inches back from the arm.
In
a split second, the buzz saw blade was sliding back towards the two men without
any sort of barrier to halt it’s separation from the main part of the saw
table.
“Look
out Tom!” Joe shouted as he could see the blade starting to come towards
him. Instinctively he let go of the
rotary arm and in fright took a step back to avoid the edge of the blade.
Tom
had heeded the warning, but with Joe letting go so suddenly on the other end,
Tom’s release of the rotary arm came a second too late. Before there was any time to react, the
blade’s serrated teeth caught Tom’s right forearm just below the elbow.
In
a matter of seconds, Tom had collapsed to the floor and was shouting out in
agony at the pain that was coursing through his arm.
Because
the rotary arm was still over the shaft, this prevented the blade from coming
off any further and avoided the potential additional threat to Joe and the
already injured Tom.
Joe
now jumped to the side of his friend.
To his horror he could see a large amount of blood pooling around the
limb and beside Tom. It was difficult
to see at this stage how much damage had been caused by the blade or see the
wound itself.
“Wait
here Tom, I will be back in a second,” Joe said as he hurriedly got to his feet
and ran towards a table that contained a few scraps of fabric. He was in luck today and was able to find a
fairly large piece that was made of a thicker material.
Joe
ran back to Tom who was now very pale due to the amount of blood loss he had
sustained in such a short space of time.
He folded the fabric up into a thick pad and now pressed it firmly
against the area where the blood seemed to be coming from.
After
a few minutes of constant pressure, Joe could see the blood beginning to soak
through the material underneath his hand.
He knew that he didn’t have much of as choice about keeping the
makeshift bandage in place. He
couldn’t get up to replace it with another piece of fabric from the table for
fear of Tom loosing any more blood.
“Tom
can you hear me?” Joe asked, his voice sounding a little panicked.
Joe
looked behind him towards the door of the timber yard in hope that somebody
would soon be coming to help. He had
to get the man to medical attention but had no means other than his own horses
of doing that. He doubted that he
would be able to keep the bandage of the man’s arm sufficiently enough for the
trip back to
“J-Jo-e
………..,” came the whispered voice from Tom’s lips. The man’s colour was not very encouraging
and his voice sounded laboured and raspy.
“Tom,”
Joe whispered back, not daring to ask any further questions. There was a mask of pain on the man’s face
and his lips had become a line pale line due to the tautness of the skin on his
face.
“W-water….
p-p-please………,” the man begged, hoping that some sort of relief would come from
even a mouthful of liquid.
Joe
heard the man’s request but hesitated a moment whether he should get the
canteen still tied to his horse Cochise or not. If he didn’t the man would be thirsty and
might die from no water. If he did go
then the wound would be free to start bleeding heavily again before any medical
help could be sought.
“W-water………..,”
he asked again, Tom not bothering or having the strength to continue the
question.
Joe
couldn’t deny the man’s second request and with real apprehension in his mind,
got to his feet shakily, not letting go of the blood-soaked wad of material
until the last second, ran to Cochise and yanked the cord that held it securely
to his saddle. The strap broke at the
sudden force behind the pulling and allowed the canteen to tumble awkwardly
into Joe’s outstretched hand.
Joe
looked down with apprehension at the blood soaked cloth he had left over the
wound as shuddered in relief to see it still mostly in place. The pain had Tom writhing around at various
and unpredictable intervals but the cloth seemed to have adhered slightly due
to the large patch of blood despite the movement.
“I’m
back Tom,” Joe said as he fell to his knees and tried to unscrew the lid off
the canteen. Joe ran the first few drops
of water over his open hand and winced slightly at the warm temperature. It wouldn’t be much relief for Tom but some
he supposed.
“Help
will be here very soon Tom,” Joe said, trying to ease his friend’s suffering
with nothing but hollow words. Truth
was Joe wasn’t sure when his father would be back with the buckboard. Ben probably was only half-way back to the
ranch at most by now.
Joe
looked down at Tom’s face, trying to use the man’s facial expressions as some
sort of crude gauge as to how the man was doing. And if the expressions were anything to go
by, Joe could already tell that the man wasn’t doing so great. His eyes were only half-open and his
features when not taunt with pain were slack and pale from the blood loss and
the on-set of shock.
Joe
had known from discussions with Doctor Paul Martin over the years that in most
serious accidents, shock was a major contributor to deaths. Shock was often hard to notice at first and
even when it was detected, there wasn’t a whole lot somebody could do to
prevent it happening. Usually the
patient’s blood pressure would drop along with the body temperature.
Joe
even contemplated the risk of him leaving Tom alone to go and get help quickly
on Cochise, but that idea was soon ruled out.
Tom would certainly be dead from blood loss before he managed to get
back with help. He had to try and help
for as long as was necessary until the help came to him and Tom.
At
one point, Joe’s curiosity got the better of him about how bad the damage was
to Tom’s arm. He looked at Tom and saw
the man was somewhere between unconsciousness and awake. On the plateau that decided life and
death.
The
man didn’t even budge as Joe tried to see if the bleeding had subsided at
all. The temporary bandages were
already blood-soaked and crimson in colour, so it was fairly hard to tell if the
bleeding had even slowed at all.
Joe
cautiously lifted one corner of the bandage near him and looked
underneath. Usually Joe wasn’t too
squeamish around blood or such things.
He had seen men shot to death before and had seen people die of sickness
and fever. He had even been forced to
put down the odd cow of calf that was suffering from injury.
But
no matter what he had seen in the past, he couldn’t have prepared himself
enough for the site of Tom’s badly damaged limb. The arm was almost severed all the way
through, with bone and muscle fibre clearly visible through the bloody mesh
that was still attached to the flesh.
Strong
will power and the need to stay by his friend at a desperate time was the only
thing stopping Joe from running outside and retching out the insides of his
stomach. He hurriedly recovered the
arm with the bandages and looked over in fear that Tom might have been aware of
how hurt he was. Thankfully for Joe
though, Tom was still in a state of semi-consciousness.
Joe
sat with a stoic expression in his face, giving the almost unconscious man sips
of tepid water as necessary and trying to put as much pressure over the wound
as possible to stop the bleeding without causing Tom any unnecessary pain. Lord knows that the man was already
experiencing more that he should have to.
Joe
could still see the images in his mind without looking down at the man’s
arm. He gave a silent prayer to God
that help would soon arrive before it was all to late for a good and decent man
such as Tom.
********************************************************************************
Back
at the Ponderosa, whilst Ben’s trip had not been a slow one, he had arrived
back at the yard to the ranch without any incident. Unaware of the harrowing torment that Tom
was currently experiencing or what Joe was being forced to watch the man
endure.
To
Ben’s surprise and relief, both Adam and Hoss had been in the barn when he went
to start organising the buckboard to retrieve the broken parts from the timber
yard.
“What
are you two doing here this early?” Ben asked them as he walked into the barn.
“We
just got here ourselves Pa,” Hoss answered for both him and his older
brother. “We got finished a little
earlier that we thought.”
“That’s
good then, if you are not too busy I could really use both of you to help me
take this buckboard back to the timberyard.
When we get there we will have Joe and Tom to help us remove some of the
parts from two of the main saws and bring them into
“Order
from
“That’s
what Joe was worried about just a short while ago when I told him what needed
to be done,” Ben replied, a little smile coming to his lips about just how much
alike his sons thought about things from time to time without even knowing it.
“Joe
back at the timber yard then,” Hoss enquired, knowing that Joe had planned to
travel to the north pastures earlier in the day after he left the house. He was pleased to hear that the fencing
must have been fixed enough to Joe’s satisfaction for him to already be at the
timber yard.
“Yes,
he was thinking he could get out of work a little earlier today until I asked
him to help with the disassembly,” Ben replied with a smirk.
“Come
on then, we had better give you a hand to take the buckboard back and be there
in person to disappoint little brother,” Adam commented.
“After
today I just might grant his request you now,” Ben now said upon
reflection. “He has been working
particularly hard over the last few weeks.
We all have been and with the mill only going to be working at half capacity
and most of the fencing being repaired, I might just let him have a night in
town tomorrow night.”
“How
come he twists your arm just the right way Pa?” Adam asked good-naturedly.
“He
doesn’t twist my arm anymore than you two do,” Ben said trying to point out
that he treated all of his sons equally.
There was no doubt in anybody’s mind, least of all that Joe had a
special place in Ben’s heart.
There
were times when just the right look would make Ben break out in laughter or
make that Cartwright heart shatter into a million pieces at the sight of a
solitary tear running down the young handsome face.
Ben
loved Adam and Hoss dearly too, but Joe was the one who continually caused the
most worry about coming home late from a night in town or what might happen out
on the trail miles from anywhere.
There was just something Joe’s energy and enthusiasm that made him
having something to look forward at the end of the day worth living for.
“Oh
sure he doesn’t Pa,” Hoss said with a air of disbelief. “We know that’s right don’t we Adam.” he
added with a jibe.
“Every
single day Hoss, every single day,” Adam said as he started leading the two
wagon horses out of their stalls.
Once
the buckboard was ready, the trio started back towards the timber yard. It had been about an hour since Ben had left
Joe and Tom alone.
Ben
and Adam rode their own horses Buck and Sport whilst Hoss had opted to leave
Chubb behind and drive the team and the wagon.
***************************************************************************************
Back
at the timber yard, Joe was becoming more and more concerned about the lack of
response that he was trying to encourage from Tom. He tried his best not to jostle or move the
man too much, but he needed to make sure that the man didn’t expire before help
could arrive.
The
water canteen was almost empty now and the tepid contents seemed to have done
very little to relieve Tom’s pain and suffering. The bandages were now soaked with blood
and were beyond the point of being of much assistance except stem the flow
somewhat.
Joe’s
own clothes were now covered in blood from chest height all the way down to the
knees on his trousers. He had managed
to pull Tom’s head onto his lap to try and give the man a little cushioning and
comfort behind his head. Something he
remembered Doc Martin telling him that the head should be higher than the feet
if someone was going into or already in shock after an accident.
Joe
could use a drink of water himself about now but he didn’t dare drink any of
the diminishing liquid he had beside him.
There were only a few more mouthfuls left and he wouldn’t give himself
one ounce of relief when Tom was a long way from receiving any.
He
found it hard to gauge how much time had passed since his father left to return
to the Ponderosa. Had it been minutes
or hours? He couldn’t be sure but was forced to endure what seemed like an
eternity for someone to come and help.
As
Hoss and the others neared the timber yard, at first there was nothing out of
the ordinary to alert them of the devastating sight that would greet them once
inside.
Adam
was the first to note how quite the yard seemed. He was aware that there was only supposed to
be only Joe and Tom there at present, but still the closer they got, the more
uneasy he found himself becoming. He
couldn’t quite put his finger on it at the moment.
The
curiosity and the unrelenting silence made Adam pick up the pace a little on
his horse and he was now trotting into the yard rather than just walking at
normal pace.
“Joe
are you in here?” Adam said as he tethered his horse beside Cochise. He felt the neck of Cochise in an attempt to
dispel his notion that something was wrong.
The animal was cool to the touch so Joe hadn’t been riding anywhere over
the past half an hour or so.
Ben
was now dismounting himself from Buck and had begun to note the uneasy look on
his eldest son’s face. “Joe, Tom?” he
found himself calling out after Adam.
At
first there was no response to their voices.
This made them even more fearful that
something had occurred since Ben’s departure. The three of them now remained totally
silent, listening for any signs of Joe and Tom in the yard.
Hoss
stopped the buckboard just outside the door to the saw mill so it wouldn’t be
such a long distance to carrying the heavy parts that needed repairing.
“I’m
in here Pa, hurry quick!” came the quiet voice to their calls. It was at that moment that Ben and his
sons first though there must have been something wrong with Joe himself. When they entered the saw-mill building in a
rush to his frightened voice, they were shocked and alarmed at the blood they
could see smeared over his clothes and hands.
“Joe
are you alright son?” Ben said as he ran towards Joe.
It
was only now that he noted the prone and very unresponsive form of Tom laying
across Joe’s legs. Ben looked into the
eyes of his son and saw only fear and sadness. Joe’s face was unnaturally pale but it was
eyes that held Ben’s attention the most.
They spoke of what the boy had witnessed that had left his memory with
painful images and shocking scenes.
“What
happened here son?” Ben asked gently, all to well aware of Joe’s delicate
state. It was clear to him that both Joe
and Tom needed attention. Adam and
Hoss were now kneeling with their father, they too stunned by the amount of
blood they could see over their friend Tom and brother Joe.
“The
saw fell towards us, I let go and yelled out to Tom to watch out, but he
couldn’t let go quick enough Pa,” Joe said as his voice began to crack at the
reliving of the nightmare.
“The
blade of the saw hit his arm Pa, it’s real bad.
I don’t know if he is going to………..,”
Joe continued, the tears now welling in his eyes and unable to say the
words that were clearly on his lips.
He couldn’t bring himself to say the words that Tom might die or already
be dead.
“Pa
why don’t you take care of Joe while Hoss and I take care of Tom. He needs to have that arm wrapped as tight
as possible and then we can take him back to
Ben
nodded his head, grateful for the fact that his other two sons had indeed
accompanied him back to the timber yard.
He moved to the side slightly so that Adam and Hoss could manoeuvre
Tom’s inert form enough to lift him from Joe’s legs.
“How
long ago did this happen Joe?” Ben now asked in a soft voice. He needed to gauge how long Joe had been
alone with Tom after the accident.
There was no telling what sort of affect an accident of this type might
have on a young man of Joe’s age.
“It
happened not long after you left Pa,” Joe admitted, his bottom lip trembling. Joe had always prided himself on trying to
act like a man over the last year or so.
Right now though his emotions were running too deep and raw. The memories were too fresh in his mind.
Whilst
Ben sat with Joe on the floor for a few minutes, Adam tried to assess what help
Joe had already tried to give Tom after the accident. He noted the bloody-stained bandages and
immediately sent Hoss off to look for other pieces of fabric around the
building that might be able to be used.
Adam
picked up the water canteen he saw laying beside Joe’s foot. He recognized it as his brother’s and shook
the bottle to see how much remained inside.
When he noted the almost empty contents, he was thankful that Joe had
thought to give the bleeding man as much water as possible. It was the only way the body could try and
make up for the large amount of loss.
Adam
looked over at Joe and noted the fear and strain on the younger man’s
face. He knew that what Joe needed most
now apart from his father and brother was reassurance that what he had tried to
do at least helped some if not saved the man’s life.
“You
did good Joe, you really did,” Adam said.
Hoss was now returning with a large sheet he had found and immediately began
tearing it into long thin strips.
These he now started wrapping carefully with the assistance of Hoss over
the blood-stained ones and around the wounded arm.
A
few mumbled words and grunts of pain from Tom alerted them to the fact of just
how much pain the man must have been in right now. Adam was unable to see the extent of the
injury for the time being. He did not
dare remove the bandages Joe had already applied.
“It’s
bad Adam, real bad,” Joe voiced to his brother, as he watched his two brothers
dress the wound as best they could for now.
Joe’s face turned a shade paler at the memory of the mess he had seen
left of the man’s arm.
Ben
thought for a moment that his son would be physically sick or might pass out he
was so pale. He knew that what Joe must
have seen had been very horrific and he didn’t quite know the words to say to
his son that would make everything seem alright.
“You
meet us back at the house Pa,” Adam now said, noting his brother’s sickly
appearance. The boy had suddenly gone
all quiet and withdrawn into himself and that wasn’t a very good sign for
someone like Joe.
“I
know he is probably going to be a long time in attending to Tom, but would you
ask Paul to stop by later on this evening if at all possible. I think we are going to need him too,” Ben noted as he looked down at Joe who was
now leaning against him for both physical and emotional support.
Joe
didn’t even move very much as Adam and Hoss began moving Tom towards the
waiting wagon. At one point he looked
up at what they were doing but it was like watching something in slow
motion. He couldn’t even be really
sure that was he was seeing was really happening at the moment.
Hoss
and Adam made sure that they took very slow and steady steps towards the wagon
with their friend Tom. The man had once
again moaned in deep pain from even the slightest movement but had once again
surrendered to the pull of unconsciousness.
The
back of the wagon was already lowered so that they could load Tom in without
being forced to lift him any higher than necessary. There was a few more spare sheets that Hoss
had found in addition to the one they had torn into strips. These would serve as the only form of crude
comfort on the long, slow journey back to
Ben
and Joe both watched the wagon until they could only see the cloud of dust left
behind in it’s wake. Ben now turned his
attention to his remaining son and the one who needed him most at the moment.
Joe
sat in a trance like state for a further few seconds. He was lost somewhere in his own thoughts and
it took a gentle shake of his shoulder for him to look up and realise that his
father had been trying to talk to him.
“What
did you say Pa?” Joe asked in a voice that tried to mask the mountain of
emotions running through his body at the moment.
“Come
on son, there’s nothing more we can do here today. Let’s get you home and out of those soiled
clothes,” Ben now suggested, trying to direct his son’s mind to more mundane
matters.
It
was only now that Joe truly drank in the extent of the blood on his shirt and
pants. He knew that Tom had lost an
awful lot of blood. He had spent the
best part of an hour trying to stop it from the man’s arm. But until now he never even thought about it
being there as a reminder.
“There
is a lot of it isn’t there?” Joe said, a statement rather than a question to
his father. His mind seemed still to be
a little vague and his actions were a little too lethargic for Ben’s liking.
Joe
now tried to pull himself to his feet in order for him and his father to begin
the journey back to the Ponderosa. The
first attempt was unsuccessful, as was a half-hearted second one.
Ben
used a steading hand to help his son to stand upright, although with the current
paleness of his face, he was once again worried that his son might not remain
so for very long.
“Come
on Joe,” Ben said in a calm, soothing voice.
The effect of the deepness of his voice seemed to wash over Joe like a
wave, the young man not even giving the slightest bit of resistance as he was helped to walk to his
waiting mount.
Ben
was even reluctant at first to allow the young man to ride on his own. Joe’s complexion was awfully pasty and Ben
couldn’t be sure that he wasn’t suffering some minor symptoms of shock at
present.
Despite
his fatherly concern, Ben was also wary of trying to smother the boy with his
worry and concern like he may have done with a much younger Joseph.
Joe
was at an age where he was trying to prove himself not just other, but his
family as well, probably more than even the people in
Ben’s
worry wasn’t without basis though as he helped his son from arm’s length
towards Cochise. The young man’s gait
was unsteady to say the least and there was a definite faulting to his steps.
“You
feel okay Joe?” Ben now asking an obvious question.
“Yeah
Pa, just a little giddy after seeing all the blood I suppose,” Joe
admitted. His voice though spoke of
being a little more than dizzy. Ben had
no doubt in his mind that his son was a ‘little
dizzy’ from what he had seen plus a whole range of mixed emotions right
now.
Joe
made it to his horse without any drama, but found himself pausing briefly and
holding desperately onto the saddle horn as he leaned heavily into his horse to
prevent his father from gauging just how “giddy” he was. May it was the hot weather too he told
himself, remembering how warm it had become sitting on the floor with Tom until
help arrived.
Ben
wasn’t fooled in the slightest though and knew he would need to keep more than
a good eye on his youngest son on the ride back to the ranch.
Joe
mounted slowly and a little stiffly, not quite the catapult into the saddle
that his horse was used to first thing in the morning. The youth was normally so vibrant and full of
life that even his four-legged friend seemed to pick up on the downcast
appearance and the lack of energy from the rider on her back.
Ben
had told himself that he and Joe would take all the time they needed to ride
back. Hoss and Adam wouldn’t be back for
a few hours at the earliest and there was nothing else to rush back to except
chores that probably would have to wait until morning.
Joe
was in no condition to ride hard and fast today anyway. His back was slumped and his posture gave
away his feelings entirely as Ben watched his son from behind. The shoulders although hunched, were also a
little tight from tension, probably the weight of the guilt he was carrying with
himself at the moment over the accident.
Joe
never engaged his father in conversation.
The two rode in silence, Joe never looking once from side to side at the
terrain they were travelling in. His
eyes remained downcast towards his saddle and he was relying heavily on his
horse’s knowledge to get him home. He just wanted his mind blank. Not to think, not to talk, not to do
anything. He wanted to believe that
none of this had really happened.
When
Joe and his father eventually did ride into the yard at the Ponderosa, a few
hands were surprised to see both of them in such a state. A few of them were almost ready to run to
their boss’s aid in case he needed help in getting Joe down from his horse when
they spotted the large blood stain on the young man’s shirt.
A
quick grateful but warning gesture from his hand though, made them keep their
distance. His expression was such that
they knew he would let them know what had happened later on. Right now Ben had to focus his attention on
Joe and get him into the house and cleaned up.
One
of the hands did come forward now and offer to put the horses up and give them
both a good rub down. When Joe didn’t
object to somebody else seeing to his horse, Ben knew that it was a sign of
just how dejected and depressed Joe was feeling right now. Normally on any other given day Joe would
never allow somebody else to care for his horse unless he was injured.
Joe
let Cochise’s reins fall and started walking towards the homestead as if it was
the end of another long, hard day.
Today though would be unlike no other in Joe’s mind for quite some time
to come.
Joe
opened the front door to the home and started unbuckling his gun belt. His motions were autonomous and lacked any
thought about them. It was just
something he did everyday of his life for the last few years, right now with
his mind deeply concentrating on other matters
Hop
Sing came out to the living room from his domain in the kitchen and was about
to greet the family home when he spotted the condition of Joe’s clothing. All at once he went off into a worry-filled
tirade of words, his questions directed at Joe about what had happened to him
and wanting to know why he was coming home in such a state.
But
today Joe just looked at the little Cantonese man with an uninterested look on
his face and then ignored the questions all together as he headed for the
staircase and his bedroom.
“Hop
Sing,” Ben said in a normal voice, hoping to explain to the man what had
happened to his favourite member of the family.
Hop Sing continued his tirade though, not hearing Ben talking to
him. The tirade soon switched from
English to Cantonese as the questions now went from Joe back to himself and
other members of the family and how they had allowed this to happen to number
three son. Ben had repeated the man’s
name twice more when
he
came to the conclusion he wasn’t being taken any notice of.
“HOP
SING” Ben now bellowed in his best scolding voice. The one often kept for his youngest son upon
return from a very late night in
It
had the desired effect though as the little man just about jumped out of his
skin at Ben’s loud shout. It was Hop
Sing’s turn to shout back now in response to his employer’s
“Why
you yell at Hop Sing? Hop Sing see
blood all over Lil Joe. Hop Sing want to
know what happen. No need to
shout. Hop Sing just beside you – ask
nicely and Hop Sing talk to you,” he said in an indignant voice before
repeating most of the same accusations in his own tongue.
“Hop
Sing I yelled at you because I have already tried to get your attention three
times,” Ben said in an exasperated voice as he rolled his eyes slightly at the
Little Cantonese man’s antics. He knew
that Hop Sing was worried about Joe.
“There
was an accident at the timber yard today.
Tom Withers was badly injured.
Adam and Hoss have taken him by wagon to
“Joe
is very upset by what happened. He is a
little nauseous from the sight of all that blood I think, and apart from that I
think he is beginning to blame himself or what happened. I wasn’t there when it happened so I didn’t
see it. Joe told us all when we
eventually got there,” Ben now continued.
“Could
you please get a nice hot bath ready for Joe in the bathhouse. I want him to get out of those blood-stained
clothes as quickly as possible. It is
not going to help him forget what happened or forgive himself if he still sees
the accident,” Ben asked.
“Hop
Sing sorry, not know, but worried when see Lil Joe with blood. Thought Joe hurt. Joe not hurt on outside but must be very
hurt inside. Hop Sing get bath ready
chop chop,” the little man said and scurried away through the kitchen to the
bathroom to do exactly what was asked of him.
Ben
couldn’t help but agree with the servant’s words though. Yes Hop
Sing I think Joe is hurting inside. Very
much. I just hope we can make it alright
again for Joe.
********************************************************************************
Whilst
Ben and Hop Sing were having their discussion downstairs, upstairs there was a
totally different scenario being played out.
When
Joe first entered his room all he had wanted to do was bury his head under the
soft pillow on his bed and try to forget everything that had happened that
day. A quick look down at his clothes
though and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to do that just yet.
Instead
he went over to the open window in his room and let the hot breeze hit him as
he stood there trying to make sense of actions that were out of his
control. The air was sultry and dry,
much how Joe felt inside right at this very moment.
Joe
lost track of time as he became immersed in his own thoughts by the
window. He didn’t know whether it had
only been five minutes or a couple of hours, when he felt a light tap on his
shoulder.
Joe
turned around and wasn’t surprised to see his father looking worriedly back at
him. He couldn’t blame the look on his
face though, Joe didn’t have any determination in him to make it look as if
everything was alright at the moment.
“How
are you doing son?” Ben found himself asking.
There wasn’t any other way of putting the question, no matter how it
sounded.
“I
don’t know Pa, I really didn’t know,” Joe replied blandly, and nothing could be
further from the truth. He didn’t
really have answer to afford to his father.
“Why
don’t you go and have that bath that Hop Sing is getting ready downstairs. By the time you get out of those stained
clothes and get out, you will feel a whole lot more refreshed and Adam and Hoss
might be back by then with some good news about Tom,” Ben suggested.
“What
am I supposed to do Pa, wash away all the guilt I have?” Joe asked
bitterly.
“You
shouldn’t need to feel guilty son, what happened at the timber yard today was
an accident and nothing more than that,” Ben now said trying to reassured his
son.
“But
I do Pa, I can’t help it. Why did it
have to be Tom that got hurt so bad. I
was there too. Why didn’t it happen to
me and not him? Why him Pa?” Joe asked
as he allowed his emotions to get the better of him.
“I
don’t know why Tom was the one to get hurt Joe, I can’t explain that to
you. I can’t explain why these sorts of
accidents happen,” Ben said knowing that Joe’s mood was darkening by the minute
and the boy seemed to becoming more and more caught up with the guilt that he
did have.
“It
should have been me that got hurt today, at least I could make some sort of
sense out of it,” Joe said as he now walked away from the window, trying to
avoid the topic of conversation all together as well as his father.
Ben
didn’t say anything further about Joe’s comment. He shuddered to think of what might have
happened if Joe was right and it was his youngest son that was taken to
Joe
had gone out of his room, down the staircase and out to the bathhouse without
saying a word to Hop Sing. The little
Cantonese man had tried to say something to him about the bath being ready, but
Joe wasn’t listening to anybody at the moment except the thoughts in his own
head.
Hop
Sing, being the usual diligent person he was though had made sure that all the
essential items were left in the bath house for Joe. He had left fresh towels and lots of natural
smelling soaps to invade Joe’s senses and try and relax his tense body.
He
even left some carefully dried lavender leaves on a shelf in the room and
sprinkled some of them in water so they could infuse with the hot water and
steam. Lavender was well known as a
relaxant and often used by Hop Sing.
Joe
shut the door behind him and stood behind the door for a moment, trying to let
the steam work to alleviate the tension that he felt. He started to take off his clothes, but as
he did so, he couldn’t avoid the blood stain that stood out on stark contrast.
Frustration
got the better of him and he ended up ripping several of the buttons off the
bottom of the shirt. The shirt was
hardly going to be used again anyway he told himself. The blood had even soaked into the waist
band of his trousers.
“This
is Tom’s blood,” Joe reminded himself.
The stains were dry now, but the images of fresh blood were all still
too real for him at the moment. He
still didn’t know how Tom was.
Had
he made it into town to be patched up by Doc Martin? Did he loose anymore blood on the way? Joe didn’t think the man could have afforded
to loose too much more. How was Doc
Martin going to even help the man once he got there? From what Joe had been
forced to observe, the injury itself was severe and he didn’t know if Paul had
the expertise.
Joe
was now fully undressed and carefully eased himself into the steaming hot
water. At first his muscles had tensed
up even more to the heat, but then started to relax as the water began it’s
healing power and allowed the muscles to become subtle and smooth.
Joe
lay his head back against the rim of the bath tub and closed his eyes while he
allowed his body to soak in the hot water and let the steam surround him.
Back
inside the house, Ben was talking to Hop Sing about Joe’s words back in his
room and his moody disposition. Hop
Sing tried to be positive and told the Patriarch to give his son some time to
think about what happened. Hop Sing
promised to cook a hearty meal for all and have it served a little earlier this
evening, hoping that Joe might take the opportunity of an earlier night to get
some rest after such a harrowing ordeal.
At
some point whilst he was still soaking in the water, Joe distinctly heard the
sound of a wagon coming along the road outside. He hurriedly got out of the tub and donned
on the clothes Hop Sing had left. He
hadn’t bothered to dry himself properly and thus presented himself at the front
door to greet his returning brothers, dressed in tan trousers, a wet unbuttoned
shirt on his back and tussled, damp hair hanging over his forehead.
Ben
looked at this son and normally would not have approved of such a hurried exit
from the bath house, especially still dripping wet. Today however, he knew that his son’s mind
was on other more important things and knew that the boy’s rush had been to
hear about Tom.
“Hey
little brother, you look like a drowned rat,” Hoss said, trying to interject a
little humour into what felt like an awkward moment.
“Your
supposed to take a bath without your clothes Joe,” Adam now said in fun, trying
to lessen the blow for his brother that he knew was coming.
“Don’t
worry about me, tell me about Tom. Is he
alright? Did he make it to
“Now
Joe, I know you are anxious for news about Tom, but how about we let your
brothers get inside the house first and then they can tell us all? Let’s move over to the settee,” Ben
suggested. Joe did as he was asked, but
was still clad in his wet shirt and trousers and had no intention of attending
to anything else until he heard what Adam and Hoss had to say.
“Tom
made it to town okay Joe,” Adam now explained.
Hoss was happy enough to let his older brother tell the story. After what he had seen of Tom’s injuries as
they went to Doc Martin, he couldn’t help but think that what Joe had been
forced to deal with had been a lot worse.
“Then
he is still alive then?” Joe said, a glimmer of hope for the man in his voice.
“Yes
he is still alive, he has lost a lot of blood though,” Adam now commented,
looking briefly at his father before continuing. Joe had been too distracted by his own
thoughts to see the looks exchanged between father and son. He knew that Tom had bleed a lot, his
clothes out in the bath house were a reminder of that.
“What
does Paul think Adam?” Ben asked for his son.
“Paul
thinks he will be okay,” Adam said and paused briefly to gauge the reaction of
such news on Joe’s face. “He is trying
to build up the man’s strength again with lots of sugar and salt in his
water. Paul says Tom needs as much
liquid as possible at the moment to restore and try and make up for what was
lost.”
Joe
seemed to be getting impatience with every new word that Adam spoke. Fine so the man had to make up some blood
that he had lost, but that still didn’t answer Joe’s burning question.
“Will
you get to the important parts Adam!” Joe said in a disgruntled voice. He no longer had the patience or the will to
put up with one of his brother’s long explanations. “Let you brother say it in his own words
Joseph,” Ben now said, trying to quell the burning fire within this son that
threatened to boil over. But Joe
couldn’t sit still very long waiting and now found himself get up and beginning
to pace back and forth behind the settee impatiently.
“Paul
thinks he will be okay,” Adam said, a hidden lump forming at the top of this
throat as he knew that he was only giving a partial explanation to his younger
brother. Hoss knew the whole truth as
well but both erred on the side of caution as their brother’s current agitated
state and kept part of what they knew to themselves for the time being.
A
brief glance once again from Adam to his father, told Ben that there was more
than Adam was telling but he would wait until later to reveal fully what he and
Hoss knew of the situation.
“Paul’s
coming out later on this evening after he finishes. You can get him to explain Tom’s injuries a
little better than I can and he can probably give you a better prognosis of his
recovery by then,” Adam now said.
“Why
is Paul coming out here?” Joe now asked, not having heard his father ask for
the doctor’s presence at the ranch once he was finished tending to Tom. From the look of Joe’s state of mind at the
moment, Ben was rather glad that he had asked Paul to come. He could sure use the physicians advice at
the moment on how much effect this accident and the news of Tom’s injuries
would have on his son.
Ben
was trying to find the words to explain to his son about why Paul was asked to
come that wouldn’t have Joe going off in a fit of anger about being treated
like an invalid. Hop Sing was the one
who can to his rescue on this occasion though as the little oriental servant
came bustling into the living room announcing that supper was ready.
“And
I am as hungry as a bear too Hop Sing,” Hoss said with delight at the mention
of food on the table. He was also hoping
to take Joe’s mind off the visit from the doctor.
Joe
seemed to let the question slide for now as he too headed across the room
towards the dining room table. He sat
down and looked at the fully laden table that Hop Sing had prepared.
Joe’s
mask like expression on the outside though hid his true thoughts and feelings
inside. Food was the last thing on his
mind at the moment. His stomach was
twisting and churning in knots still over the accident and food just didn’t
sound very appetising.
He
could feel and see the eyes of his family on him and his empty plate. He was tempted just to excuse himself from
the table and head to the living room again or his own room. However just to keep his father from worrying
even more about him and his state of mind, Joe put a small amount of meat and
vegetables on his plate.
Happy
enough to see some sort of nourishment on his plate, the other family members
resumed their evening meal. Joe used a
fork to stab aimlessly at a stray pea occasionally and used the tip of his
knife to prod at the slice of beef that lay in front of him. For the most part though, he just didn’t feel
very much like eating.
Twenty
minutes later, Joe had succeeded in eating no more off his meal and instead
drained his coffee cup and used the napkin to wipe his hands before excusing
himself from the table and walking over to the settee.
Once
in the living room, he lay himself fully down on the settee and lay back
against the cushioning arm rest, laying his arm across his eyes as if trying to
shield the light from them. He gave a
tired sounding sigh and appeared to be trying to go to sleep.
“He
didn’t eat a darn thing off his plate,” Hoss whispered to his father and
brother whilst looking across the room as his younger brother’s out-stretched
form.
“Shouldn’t
we get him to go up to his own room and bed Pa?” Adam asked, a little concerned
for his brother’s obvious negative attitude.
“No,
leave him where he is. It will be a lot
more casual for Paul to take a look at him down here rather than have him
kicking and fighting through a series of questions if he were sound asleep and
woken up in his bed,” Ben replied.
“He
is not taking this accident very well Pa is he?” Adam commented.
“No
and he blames himself for the whole thing,” Ben responded, whispering the
conversation he and Joe had earlier about why the accident had not happened to
him. Hoss had paled slightly at the
thought that Joe wondered why he had been spared. Like his father, Hoss couldn’t have imagined
how they all would have reacted if the person laying in Doc Martin’s right now
was Joe rather than Tom.
For
another ten minutes or so, the conversation at the table turned to other
matters on the ranch. Joe seemed to be
at least half-dozing on the settee, so his family respected his need to rest
and allowed him the silence to do so.
Just
as the family where preparing to leave the table, a knock was heard at the
front door. Adam approached it swiftly
and greeted the person they had been waiting for: Paul Martin.
“Hello
Paul,” Ben said as he walked forward and shook the doctor’s hand. “Glad you could spare the time to come out
here,” knowing that Tom would be still needing the man’s care over quite a few
days.
Paul
Martin took off his hat as he entered the residence and took note that only
three Cartwrights stood at the doorway.
He was about to mouth the question of where Joe was until Ben pointed to
the settee and the now sleeping form.
Paul
nodded his acknowledgement and carefully walked over to the settee so as not to
disturb his patient too much. Adam and
Hoss had already explained to him who Ben wanted him to look at when he got
here. Adam had explained as best he
could about how long Joe had been with Tom after the injury and what Joe’s
state of mind had been when they had left in the wagon.
All
in the room had thought that Joe had fallen into a much deeper sleep, but
unfortunately he had been able to hear most of what was going on around him.
“I
don’t need a doctor Pa,” he said in a quiet but sombre voice.
“I
am not out here to look at you Joseph,” Paul said, telling a little bit of a
fib. “I am here to let your family know
about Tom Withers.
The
mention of the name soon had Joe awake and sitting up straight, ready for the
answers. Paul smiled inwardly as he knew
he could best gauge Joe’s emotional state by mostly watching his facial
expressions and gestures. It was plain
to see right now that the boy was tired, but he would wait a few more minutes
before giving Ben a more detailed diagnosis.
“Tom
is still alive Joe,” Paul said as he took the liberty of sitting down on the
other end of the settee. “He is going
to be fine in a few weeks, just needs lots of rest and recovery to get back on
his feet again.”
This
information seemed to bring a slight smile to Joe’s face but Paul knew it
wouldn’t last after the next sentence he had to say. “But……………” he said and
paused.
Paul
looked at Joe and then to his family and knew there was no other way of telling
them the next bit of news. “But I am
afraid Joe, that I had to remove his right arm below the elbow. The damage was far to great and the nerves
and muscles were severed beyond repair.”
At
first Joe seemed to not comprehend what the doctor had just said. Then slowly the words began to seep into the
understanding part of his brain. He
ignored the part about nerves and muscles.
The part that was now echoing in his head said “remove”.
“You
mean you had to cut off his arm,” Joe now said in alarm and backed away from
the doctor slightly before getting off the settee altogether and beginning to
pace back and forth like he had done earlier in the day. “You cut off his arm,” he repeated, not
blaming Paul but finding it hard to believe that part of the man’s arm had to
be completely removed.
Joe
felt as though somebody had just punched him in the stomach and he was
struggling to get his breath back that been torn from his lungs.
Paul
looked at Ben and could see the man’s worry on his face about the effect of
such devastating news on his son. Paul
could see immediately that the fears Adam and Hoss had voiced earlier about
Joe’s emotional state were now at least coming true.
“I
am sorry Joe, but the nerves and muscles just couldn’t be saved. They were cut and there was no way for me to
make them heal so Tom would have use of his arm again. If I had tried to patch it up, infection may
have set in that would slowly travel up the rest of his arm and into his blood
stream,” Paul said, now explaining the damage further for Joe to understand why
he had to do it.
“But
you cut off his arm,” Joe now said, almost shouting back at Paul. Ben realised that Joe’s guilt would now
manifest itself and multiply exponentially.
It was as is Joe thought the doctor threatened to remove his own arm.
“How
will he be able to live now?” Joe asked, directing the question as no one in
particular.
“Well
after the wound heals, he will be able to resume a relatively normal life
Joe. He might not be able to do some of
the things he used to do, like work at the timber yard. But there will be lots of other things he can
learn to do. He just has to be taught
to use his other hand more,” Paul explained, hoping that Joe would see the
positive side of such a nasty accident.
“But
working at the timber yard is all Tom has even known,” Joe now said. “He can’t do a lot of other kinds of ranch
work because of his age now.”
“He
can be taught though Joe, lots of people have a disability and are
rehabilitated back into the community, doing a completely new but useful service,”
Paul said.
“I
don’t see why he has to re-learn to do anything at all. This whole accident should have never
happened in the first place,” Joe shouted.
Before
the doctor or his family had a chance to get him to calm down some, Joe headed
for the stairs and onto his bedroom. A
few seconds later there was a resounding slamming of the timber door.
“What
can we do to help him Paul?” Ben asked as the furrow of worried on his brow
deepened. “He seems so down on himself
and no matter how much you try and explain
to
him that it was an accident, he still thinks there is something he could have
done to prevent it.”
“Actually
feeling guilty is a part of getting through it Ben,” Paul replied as he looked
towards the closed bedroom door. “I know
it doesn’t make much sense right now, but the things that Joe is doing and the
emotions he is going through is all perfectly normal for someone who has been
through something like this.”
“There
are a few phases people often go through when they experience a traumatic event
and they include mood swings like guilty, angry, sad and denial. Joe might experience any one of these or all
of them at any stage or sometimes together in any random selection. There is no real way of knowing what is going
to be like from one day to the next for a few days. You and Joe just have to take one day at a
time and adjust accordingly depending
on
how he is coping that particular day,” Paul explained.
“But
is just being there enough Paul?” Ben asked, feeling a little helpless that
they all they could do was sit and watch mostly as Joe was forced to battle his
own demons the majority of the time.
“In
Joe’s case, knowing how his emotions often get the better of him, I’d said
yes. For a while he may seem secretive
and withdrawn, even angry and bitter, but then after the initial shock wears
off some, he will be looking for someone to talk to. To tell how he was feeling then and now and
that’s when he will probably turn to one of you or all of you to share those
feelings with,” Paul said.
“Apart
from that just observe Ben and keep me informed. Let me know if it starts to affect his sleep
pattern too much over the next few nights.
He needs to rest at night because his mind will be working overtime when
he is awake. If there are any other
unusual symptoms beginning to appear, let me know and I will look at him
again,” Paul said as he prepared to leave.
Sometimes
the hardest part of his job of medicine was not knowing the answers to give his
patients or their families. Everyone
looked to him for advice but sometimes it just wasn’t there to give and
sometimes the hardest wounds to heal of all were those you couldn’t see on the
outside.
“I’ll
come out in a day or two anyway and let him know how Tom is fairing. I’d say sooner or later Tom might be asking
to see Joe anyway, for his own piece of mind.
Tom is awfully fond of Joe too and this family from what I know,” Paul
said as he stepped out the front door.
“Goodnight
Ben, Adam and Hoss,” the doctor said as he got into his buggy and prepared to
drive away.
“Good
night Paul,” Ben said as he waved the doctor off, his thoughts though were of
his youngest son up in his room at the moment.
************************************************************************************
“You
want me or Adam to go and check on him for you Pa?” Hoss now asked at the two
brothers followed their father back into the house. Both of them already knew the answer to the
question before it was even uttered.
Ben
didn’t seem to note the presumption of the comment though “No that’s all right,
you boys please yourselves for the rest of the night before bed. I will check on Joseph in a few minutes and
see if he will talk to me.”
Ben
paused slightly at the bottom of the staircase and questioned whether he should
go up straight away or give his son a little more time on his own to come to
terms with what he had been told.
No,
even though he knew he had to let the boys sort out some problems for
themselves, this sort of problem needed to be shared with others. Otherwise he had no doubt that Joseph would
torment himself to no end trying to find a solution that wasn’t there to be
found or a cause to the accident that just wouldn’t come to him.
Ben
went to the door but knocked rather lightly in case his son was getting some
much needed rest. Somewhat to his
relief when the knock went unanswered and he did open up Joe’s bedroom door, he
could see Joe stretched out on his bed with his back towards the door.
His
posture suggested that he wanted to turn away from the rest of the world and
have them leave him alone. Ben was
having none of that though, aware that Joe’s current emotional state was not a
healthy one for any drawn out period of time.
“Joe?”
Ben whispered as he went inside the room to check if his son was really asleep
or just trying to block out everyone.
Walking
very softly over to the bed, Ben leaned over slightly so that he could see
Joe’s face. He had to smile slightly to
himself as he did see Joe apparently deeply asleep. The boy’s face was smooth and free of any
distress or lines at the moment, making him seem much younger than this 19
years.
Ben
could relax a little as he saw that his young was indeed getting the rest he needed
so much. He now walked around to the
other side of the bed, intent on dowsing the low burning lantern on the bedside
table. Joe’s tiredness must have
allowed him to doze off before he had a chance to put it out.
Just
before Ben had a chance to douse the flame, a dull ray of light shone from it
across his son’s sleeping face. It was
only now with the added light that he was able to see the faint tear stains
that had been left behind, almost invisible.
Ben’s
heart few a little heavier as he realised that his son was already trying to
hide his feelings from the rest of his family and crying in private was part of
that secrecy. He didn’t want his father
or brother’s to see a weaker side of him when he had been trying so hard over
the last few months to show just how much he had matured.
Ben
couldn’t resist the urge to smooth back some of the fallen locks of hair over
the young man’s forehead. He had
learned a long time that touch was something Joe often sought when he was
feeling saddened or depressed. Would it
help this time around?
“I
know you feel bad about what happened to Tom today Joe,” Ben started to say
softly, knowing Joe probably couldn’t hear the words. “But you have got to give yourself to time to
adjust, like Tom will have to, like we will all have to,” he finished off. He too didn’t know what Tom Withers was going
to do after his arm had healed enough to return to normal life. Maybe normal was too strong a word to
use.
“Goodnight
Joe,” Ben whispered. If he stayed too
much longer he risked waking Joe from his much needed slumber.
Ben
now walked to the door and was just about to close it behind him when a voice
came to him, “
Ben
smiled slightly, he had been fooled by his son’s appearance of slumber but
wasn’t cross at Joe for the minor deception.
He knew it was part of the phases that Doctor Paul Martin had explained
about downstairs earlier. Withdrawal
and secrecy seemed to be the first chosen part of Joe’s healing process.
As
Ben left the room he found both of his older sons Hoss and Adam waiting near
the top of the staircase for news about how their younger brother was
fairing. Ben raised questioning
eyebrows at them thinking that Adam would have been reading in his own room by
now and Hoss possibly already asleep. It seemed that they too were concerned by
Joe’s earlier outburst.
“How’s
Joe doing Pa?” Hoss asked first.
“I
thought he was asleep Hoss, but he was still awake just now,” Ben replied. He decided to keep the information about
Joe’s crying a private thing between father and son. Joe’s brothers didn’t need to know or be
told every little detail.
“Hopefully
he will be in a much better frame of mind tomorrow,” Adam said, trying to look
at the positive side of what had already been a harrowing day. “He is tough
“Thanks
Adam, I know you and Hoss will be there for your brother when he needs it,” Ben
responded. “For now though, I say let
Joe come to us when he is ready. Give
him a little space over the next day or so but keep your eyes on him from a
distance.”
The
three eldest Cartwright’s then proceeded to go about their own thing for the
remainder of the evening before retiring to bed. Ben fought hard against the urge to check on
his son once more as he went to his own room.
He had to remind himself to give his son the space that he had spoken of
to Hoss and Adam.
If
Ben had of been in Joe’s room that night, he would have found that sleep was
the last thing on his son’s mind at the moment. Joe was now laying on his back, still fully
clothed except for his boots. His hands
were clasped together behind his head on the pillow and his gaze was directed
towards the ceiling.
Apart
from the images of the day going around and around in his mind, Joe’s conscious
was also fighting with the turmoil within.
How can I just sleep as if nothing
is wrong Joe asked himself. He knew
that Tom’s sleep at the moment was not a natural one. Probably due to the drugs and painkillers
that Doc Martin would have had to use to amputate his arm.
Just
thinking about the image of Tom now with half a limb missing brought shivers to
his spine. He brought his own arm back
in front of him and looked at the flesh and bone below the arm on his right. It was hard to picture what Tom’s useless
arm now looked like. All sorts of bloody
and gory scenarios played out in his mind
Joe
knew that it would be at least half an hour before Adam or the rest of his
father would be rousing to start the day.
This was the perfect opportunity to get a cup of coffee downstairs
without having his family watching over his shoulder. He knew they wouldn’t be very happy with what
they were greeted with. Joe could feel
the slight puffiness of his eyes from lack of sleep. By this afternoon they probably would be even
more noticeable.
Joe
didn’t bother changing the trousers he was wearing. He pulled a fresh shirt out of the chest of
drawers across the room, careful not to make any noise for his family’s
sake. Oncedressed and with his boots on,
he silently went down the stairs towards the kitchen to see if there was any
coffee brewing.
Joe
was a little startled at first by a noise coming from the kitchen. He soon realised though that it was only Hop
Sing. The little Cantonese man was
always up and busy before anybody else in the household. Hop Sing was also a little startled by the
appearance of a Cartwright this early in the morning: especially this Cartwright.
“Lil
Joe, what you do out of bed so early?” the man enquired as he looked behind Joe
to make sure that nobody else had arisen at this hour. He had barely had enough time to put the
coffee pot onto brew and breakfast would take another half an hour to prepare.
“I
didn’t mean to scare you Hop Sing,” Joe said sheepishly at his friend. ”Do you have any coffee ready please?” Joe
asked as he rubbed tiredly at his eyes.
“Joe
not sleep good,” Hop Sing said, more of a statement than a question as he
looked over the young man’s features and could notice faint lines that indicated
Joe had not slept very well the night before if at all.
“No
Hop Sing,” Joe said in an uninterested tone of voice as he sat down at his
regular place at the table. It was
taking all of his concentration from resting his head on his arms right here and
now and nodding off to sleep on the dining room table.
“Coffee
be ready soon,” Hop Sing said before going to check the pot on the stove to
validate what he said. He was worried
about Joe and so didn’t say anything to him further about not having slept
properly during the night.
When
the coffee was finally ready and Hop Sing brought a steaming hot cup out to the
table, Joe had accidentally fallen asleep.
Hop Sing was almost going to let the young man continue his brief
slumber when the aroma of the coffee aroused Joe’s senses and he woke on his
own. “Thanks Hop Sing,” Joe said as his
cheeks took on a little bit of colour due to his embarrassment at having fallen
asleep at the table. He sipped at the
hot liquid hoping it
would
revitalise him enough in some way to get through the day. He had a lot of work planned for today. If he was lucky he would be too busy doing
other things to think about Tom’s accident too much.
Joe
drank the first cup of coffee rather slowly, but then downed the second one
rather quickly before heading towards the credenza to get his gun belt and
hat. Hop Sing had just emerged from the
kitchen with a food laden plate. He
looked a little surprised to see Joe’s chair vacant.
“I
am over here Hop Sing,” Joe said as he buckled the gun belt around his
waist. “I won’t have time for breakfast
this morning. Too much to do but thanks,
maybe I can eat it later,” he added, seeing the dismayed expression on the
Cantonese man’s face. At first he
thought the man would be mad at him about not eating a decent breakfast. Lord knew he had had enough lectures from his
father over the years about proper eating habits and the importance
of
a hearty breakfast to sustain your throughout the morning.
Hop
Sing grumbled a few disgruntled words about cooking for people who didn’t eat
and about why he bothered to get out of bed in the morning. Joe didn’t hear most of the conversation
anyway and the bits he did hear and understand he chose to ignore. Hop Sing knew that Joe had no intention of
eating the meal at any stage today. It
would probably end up being consumed by Joe’s larger brother Hoss who never
said no to another helping.
Joe
didn’t think he could really face food at all this morning anyway, but that wasn’t
entirely the reason for his skipping breakfast. After second cup of coffee he had just
glanced briefly at the clock in the living room as it chimed
Joe
told himself that he didn’t particularly want to be there this morning to greet
their questions about how he felt and how he was coping. He just decided the best way to deal with
the whole situation today was to ignore it and keep going about things as
normal.
Joe
hadn’t been wrong about his family soon being up and around, although he wasn’t
quite right about their order of appearance at the breakfast table this
morning. About ten minutes after he had
saddled his horse and ridden away from the ranch towards the northern-easterly
pastures, his father Ben and older brother Hoss came down the stairs. Adam joined them no less than five minutes
later and eagerly poured himself a cup of hot coffee to start the day.
“Morning
Hop Sing,” Hoss said in a cheerful voice.
He could see plates of food already on the table meant for the
meal. What he also spotted was the fully
laden plate of Joe’s uneaten breakfast that Hop Sing had yet to attend to. Hop
Sing had been distracted by his efforts to get everything done in time he had
forgotten about it.
“Gosh
darn it Hop Sing, you are just the best, having already laid out my breakfast
on the plate and everything,” Hoss now said as he sat at the table and prepared
to take his brothers breakfast. He
noted a few things on the plate that were slightly out of character. The eggs were a little over done than he
normally liked and there wasn’t nearly enough on the plate than he would have
normally served for himself.
“You
trying to put me on a diet or something Hop Sing,” Hoss poked in fun as he now
added to Joe’s uneaten portions. Hoss
and his father hadn’t even thought that Joe might already be awake and been
downstairs before them. It was not a
usual occurrence for the youngest member of the family.
“Please
don’t do that Hop Sing, we have a lot of work to do today and we can’t afford
to have Hoss telling us that he his hungry half the day or keeling over on us
from lack of food,” Adam now said with his dry humour.
“Complain
complain, all family do is complain,” Hop Sing now said in his own defence as
he had overheard Hoss’s unintentional jibes at the food. “Mr Hoss eating Lil Joe’s breakfast,” he
added matter of frankly.
“Joe’s
breakfast, but he ain’t even out of bed yet Hop Sing,” Hoss now said. He hadn’t meant to upset the little oriental
man at this early hour of the morning.
For
the last few minutes, Ben had been content to let the bantering between Hoss
and Hop Sing slide. There wasn’t a day that
went by that Hop Sing and Hoss weren’t arguing to some extent about the size of
portions served or the frequency of meals.
It was hard to keep up with a man Hoss’s size whose favourite pastime
just happened to be eating.
Ben
put his coffee cup down though when Hop Sing mentioned about the breakfast
plate being Joseph’s.
“Hop
Sing I wasn’t going to disturb Joe so early this morning. I was going to let him sleep until he was
ready to get up on his own,” Ben said.
“I hope you two boys will help to shoulder the extra work for a day or
so for your brother until he is in a better frame of mind.”
“Sure
Pa, you know we will help out anywhere we can,” Hoss said eagerly. He would go to no ends to help his younger
brother out after what he had seen him go through yesterday.
“Lil
Joe already up hour ago. Have coffee,
saddle horse and gone to start work,” Hop Sing now informed Ben.
“Joe’s
already left?” Adam said with a slight edge of concern in voice. Normally he would be scoffing at such a ridiculous
notion about Joe being up so early in the morning.
“You
sure about that Hop Sing?” Hoss said with a similar tone of disbelief as his
older brother. “You ain’t been dreaming
or something have you?”
“Lil
Joe already leave, rest of family have breakfast and do the same,” Hop Sing in
a huff and quickly turned to go back in the kitchen. He mumbled about having known if he had seen
Joe or not that morning.
“Seems
as though younger brother didn’t get as much sleep last night as you thought
Pa,” Adam now said in all seriousness.
“Yes
Adam, I think your right in your assumption.
I only hope that he can find a way to get through this on his own if he
won’t let any of us in. Not sleeping or
eating isn’t going to help the process either,” Ben said as he tried to figure
out what to do next about Joe.
“Well
Hoss and I could try and keep an eye on him today like you asked us to,” Adam
now suggested as he prepared to get up from the table and leave for the
day. “I can try anyway, I have a full
day of work myself.”
“Yeah
me too Pa, but I will try and ride up his way some time today and see how he is
getting on,” Hoss offered.
“How
about we try and convince Joe to go and visit Tom in a couple of days when he
is feeling a little bit better?” Adam now asked. “It might help Joe come to terms with what
has happened by seeing that Tom is going to be alright. I am sure that Tom would be happy about the
company too.”
“That’s
not a bad idea Adam, but I would have to check with Paul first and see how
Tom’s doing. I don’t think it would
help Joe any to see Tom if he was still in a considerable amount of pain. Might undo all the good intentions we have,”
Ben said.
“Joe
hasn’t got a lot to do today that would keep him at it all day. Maybe the lack of sleep will get the better
of him around lunch time and he will come back for lunch and take have himself
a little nap,” Hoss now said, trying to reassure his father that Joe would be
okay.
“Maybe,”
Ben said and left the sentence unfinished as his mind started to wander about
Joe and what other things he needed to attend to today. First off was the timber yard and the
cleaning up after the accident and seeing to the men who would have turned up
for work.
Adam
and Hoss had left for work shortly after breakfast and were now headed in
different directions to complete the tasks assigned to them. Ben had also saddled Buck and was now seen
riding towards the timber yard.
Most
of the men would be sent home for today at least with the promise of still
being paid. He didn’t know if the
compulsory closure of the yard would extend any longer than that, putting their
already tight schedule further behind.
Ben
reminded himself that it didn’t make a difference how long the timber yard took
to get back to full production. The
timber yard was important but his son’s well being and health were of more
importance above everything else that might be going on around at the moment.
***************************************************************************************
The
first few hours of the day seemed uninteresting to Joe. He rode Cochise around the northern pastures,
with no real recipe for what he was to do.
There were a few chores that needed attending to, but all he felt like
doing at the moment was riding.
It
wasn’t fast riding, more slow and rhythmic but it seemed to calm down his
nerves some and allow him time just to let the scenery go by without causing
him to think too hard.
Things
dramatically changed though as he approached the line of fencing that he had
checked on only the day before. The
fence had been mended to his satisfaction but what he saw taking place at the
moment, made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end.
The
canopy of the trees shielded him from being seen at the moment which was a plus
in his favour. He pulled Cochise off
further into the trees and then dismounted and drew his gun as he hid behind a
nearby tree and watched what was going on not too far away from him.
A
short distance away a group of three men stood, Joe recognised two of them as
being the men who had been told to repair the fence in the first place. The other fellow they were talking to
seemed to be a stranger. Joe wanted to
know why these two had invited a complete stranger on to Ponderosa land without
permission.
From
where he was standing, Joe could overhear certain parts of the ensuing
conversation between the trio.
“When
is the hit going to go down?” came the question from one of the hands hired by
Joe.
“As
soon as possible. I don’t what them
nosy Cartwrights finding out about this until after the job has been
completed,” came the reply from the stranger.
“You
said we would get a fair cut in this if we did what you asked and kept our end
of the bargain,” the second hand now said.
“You’ll
do what you are told and keep your mouth shut and then maybe you’ll get what is
coming to you,” the stranger now warned.
From what Joe could see and hear, he was obviously the leader of the
trio.
Joe
was a little too impulsive though as the anger in him began to rise that
something underhanded was about to be carried out with him or his family
knowing.
“Hold
it right there!” Joe now shouted at the three men as he slowly emerged from
behind the tree with his gun firmly in his left hand and drawn, ready to be
used if necessary.
At
first the men seemed startled and didn’t quite know which direction the voice
was coming from. They soon saw the
youngest Cartwright approaching them though and the two hands knew that they
were in trouble as Joe would have already recognized them.
“Uh
Mr Cartwright, this isn’t what it looks like………….” one of them tried to start
saying in his own defence but he knew it would be a fruitless exercise.
“Save
it, I don’t want to hear your lame excuses,” Joe said with a hiss, not in any
mood to compromise or listen to any alibi.
“But
Joe we was only………….” the second fellow piped in a little uneasy at the sight
of the firmly gripped weapon in Joe’s hand.
He knew from what he had been told by other hands on the ranch that Joe
knew how to handle the gun and his draw time was very fast.
“Get
out……..all three of you,” he now said and gripped the gun tighter and pointed
it towards the trio in a threatening manner. “Don’t come back here or you will have me to
deal with and find yourselves doing a stint in the jail or a while.”
The
stranger hadn’t heard of Joe’s gun skills.
He barely knew who the young man was.
He knew he was a Cartwright and that the plan he had hatched out was now
blown to pieces by his sudden appearance and interruption. He thought he might test just how good his
young man though he was with a gun. He
was no slough himself and would put the Cartwright to the test.
Joe
saw the man reach for his gun and knew exactly what the stranger had in mind,
“Drop it or you’ll regret it!”
“I
think I can take on a young snip of a kid like you,” the man retorted back,
still edging his hand closer and closer to his holster.
Joe’s
temper got the better of him and he holstered his own gun and took two paces
backwards away from the stranger, ready to draw.
The
two ranch hands immediately got back away from the pair seeing what was about
to happen. Neither of them breathed a
word about who they thought might win.
From where they stood both Joe and the stranger looked pretty evenly
matched rivals.
“Last
chance to back out kid,” the man said as he gripped the cigar between his teeth
a little tighter. His plan had
originally been to do old man Cartwright out of a few head of steers over a few
nights. The enticement of having the
dead body of one of his sons to deliver back to him was also very
appealing. He was no murderer but took
any chance that came along to come out on top.
“The
three of you just need to turn around and get off our land before you get into
more trouble,” Joe said. He knew that
he would have to report the men’s actions to his father later on and that Ben
would want to be involving the law in such matters.
For
the next 15 seconds there was a silence between the two men. Joe kept his fingers nimble and moving but
slightly away from his holster. The
stranger’s hand rested very lightly on top of his own holster, trying to win
very second of advantage that he could.
Then
in the blink of an eye both men went to draw there guns. Joe’s speed had to be seen to be believed
and the two ranch hands gasped out loud as the youngest Cartwright now held the
iron barrel at the other man, threatening to aim with deadly accuracy.
The
stranger had barely gotten his own gun out before he looked down the bore of
Joe’s gun. He swallowed slightly as he
looked at the pistol pointed towards him.
He knew that the younger man had been faster and that only Joe’s good
nature had prevented him having a piece of lead in his chest right at this
moment.
“Get
Out,” Joe said in a low, deep voice.
The
stranger and ranch hands knew that they had no choice but to comply with Joe’s
demands. They scrambled towards their
horses and only looked back once they had begun to ride away at a pace. The stranger was still cursing at being
beaten by someone half his age.
Joe
still had his gun drawn as he watched the trio ride away towards
Paul
had said that Tom would be able to be retaught to use his right arm to do everyday
tasks that he had accomplished with his right arm. Joe looked down at his own left arm that
still held onto the gun. His hand was
fast at drawing, he knew that and had been told that by many men before. He used to pride himself at the fact that he
could draw faster than most boys his own age and most men he had known.
Joe
had rarely been forced to draw his gun on many occasions before. A few, when things had gotten out of hand
and he or somebody else was in danger of being seriously hurt. What would happen if he couldn’t draw so fast
with his left hand? he asked himself.
What would happen if he couldn’t use his left arm to draw at all or even
fire a gun?
Joe
now holstered his gun and started walking back to his horse Cochise who was
waiting patiently underneath the canopy of the trees. He couldn’t get the question out of his
mind no matter how hard he tried. He
couldn’t come up with a plausible answer either about what he would do if he
found himself in Tom’s situation.
Joe
didn’t feel much like working and started heading back towards the ranch. The subject about him being able to use his
left arm and Tom’s accident plaguing his every thought on the ride back. He thought it best not to bring up the
subject to his family though as they would only worry more about him.
Ben
was actually seated at his desk in the living room when he heard the front door
open and was surprised to see his youngest son amble into the room. He inwardly sighed in relief that he seemed
to be in one piece. His expression still
gave away his tiredness but other than that Joe looked okay.
“Hi
Joe,” Ben now said, trying hard not to start the conversation with “How are you
Joe?”
At
first Joe seemed content enough to be caught up in his own thoughts as he
unbuckled his gun belt and removed his hat.
He ran a hand through his tangled curls at the front only to be reminded
once again that he was using his left hand again.
Joe’s
face seemed to frown all of a sudden and Ben wondered what thoughts were
running through the boy’s head that would make him have such an
expression. He noted that Joe’s mood
seemed no better than it had been yesterday and his body language suggested
he was tense about something.
“Caught
some fellows up near the northern fences trying to plot out a plan,” Joe now
said to his father, hoping that changing the subject would help him.
“Oh
what were they doing?” Ben said wondering if this was the reason for Joe’s
moody behaviour.
“I
don’t know what they were planning to do but it can’t have been good,” Joe
admitted, cursing himself for not waiting longer to find out what exactly the
men had intended to do. He had only
succeeded in running the men off. No
telling if they would be coming back or not.
“I
had to warn them off with force,” Joe now said, hoping that he wouldn’t have to
elaborate further about drawing his gun on the men.
Somehow
though Ben drew the assumption that some degree of gun play had come into the
picture. He was thankful that everything
must have worked itself out okay and nobody was hurt.
“We
might have to keep an eye up there for a few days in case they come back. Two of them were those two I had repairing
the fence the other day, I didn’t recognize the other man,” Joe explained.
“Would
you like something to eat?” Ben now asked, hoping to get his son to eat
something. He nodded in agreement to
Joe’s statement about keeping an eye out for the men he had run off the ranch.
“Nah,
I don’t think so Pa, I am kinda beat.
Rather just lay out here for a minute and maybe close my eyes for a
while,” Joe now said as he sat on the edge of the settee and removed his boots.
Joe
now lay back against the arm rest and closed his eyes. Due to the tiredness he felt, it didn’t take
but a few minutes to see that Joe was drifting towards sleep. Hopefully all the things he had been
thinking hard about would leave to sleep in peace for just a few hours.
TO
BE CONTINUED…………………
Hi
Everyone – this is the first instalment of another long story – I know this
doesn’t look much like a sequel yet and Butch Thomas probably won’t make his
appearance until sometime through the next chapter – but I need to do all of
this set up writing before hand so that the story makes sense later on.
The
story is going to get fairly complicated after a while with the number of
characters involved so I will break it up for easier reading. The end of the next chapter should leave no
doubt in your minds that Butch Thomas has indeed returned. Joe is now much more grown up since last
meeting and the games that Thomas has in mind take on a much more mature
nature.
Not
much has happened in this chapter – much more to come – next chapter will see
how Tom deals with the loss of his arm and Joe asks himself some serious questions
that he doesn’t know how to find the answers to.
Please
let me know what you think so far – I thrive on reviews and look forward to
each one.
Thank
you for all those who had input into this first part.
Please
keep reading and hope you all enjoy the story so far.
JULES