A Close Call
By
Lynne C

Hoss was finding it hard to take in the situation he found himself in,
even as he dodged the bullets being fired at him.

He was riding along, intent on finding Adam, who had failed to return
from a trip to town, the night before, when a bullet ricocheted off a
rock, narrowly missing his head. He jumped down from Chubb's back and
headed for the nearest cover, a rocky outcrop. The bullets continued
to rain down on him and he fired back, not that he could see, at
first, who was doing the shooting.

Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of his assailant, in the rocks above
him, and he realised it was Adam.

"Hey, Adam, it's me, Hoss. What in tarnation are ya doin', shootin' at
your own brother?"

The only answer Hoss got was another shower of bullets.

"Dadburnit, brother, quit your firin', will ya? I said it's me, Hoss."

"Oh, I know who you are, Hoss, and just what you're trying to do,"
said Adam. "You're trying to get me to show myself, so that you can
kill me. Well, your plan isn't going to work and the only one of us to
be killed will be you, not me."

"What plan? I ain't got no plan. I was jest worried about what'd
happened to ya, when ya didn't show up in time fer breakfast, this
morning. Pa was frettin', too, you know how he gets? So, once I'd done
ma chores, I figured I'd ride into town and find ya, and this is the
thanks I get. Now, quit your nonsense and let's get home, afore Pa
threatens to nail both our hides to the barn door."

"I already told you, I'm not going to be taken in by your lies. It's
you or me, who's going to die, and I'm not about to let it be me."

Hoss was still completely in the dark as to what was causing his
brother to act this way, but he decided that his best course of action
was to keep Adam talking, and try and get the drop on him. At least
while Adam was talking, he wasn't so inclined to shoot.

"Why has one of us got to die, Adam? Pa and Little Joe will be waitin'
on us, back at the ranch, and they wanna see both of us ride in, not
just one of us. I know we sometimes fight, but I never thought I'd see
the day when we couldn't sort out our problems, except by gunplay.
We're brothers, for goodness sake, that must mean summat to ya."

"Yes, it means that you stand to gain a heck of a lot from killing me.
Without me being around, you get to inherit a bigger piece of the
Ponderosa. Well, I'm not about to let that happen, and so I figured if
I stayed out here, long enough, you'd come looking for me, and, here
you are, right in my sights."

Adam was not aware that while he'd been talking, Hoss had begun to
edge himself ever closer to his brother. It grieved him to have to do
this, but it was obvious that Adam was suffering from some kind of
ailment that was making him think that Hoss was out to harm him. The
only way that Hoss could see to help Adam, was to immobilise him, in
some way, and then let Doc Martin check him over.

Adam continued shooting at the spot where Hoss had been holed up, and,
fortunately for Hoss, it was a while before Adam realised, in his
befuddled state, that Hoss had moved.

"Don't you think you can get away from me, Hoss, because you can't.
I'm going to seek you out and, once I do, you are dead."

Adam stood up and began to walk towards the place where he'd last seen
Hoss, still not aware that his brother was creeping up behind him. He
stopped, in order to reload his gun, and as he did so, Hoss tackled
him from behind and knocked Adam to the ground. Adam dropped his gun
and it slid out of sight, onto the rocks below them. He tried to
retaliate, but Hoss had been able to beat him, in a fistfight, since
he was about twelve, so it was a rather one-sided contest. Adam was
also handicapped by the fact that he'd been drinking and this didn't
help his co-ordination.

"Sorry brother, but I had to do this to stop ya doin' summat you'd
live ta regret," and Hoss soon had Adam tied up and slung over the
saddle of his horse.

Hoss returned to the ranch and dispatched one of the hands to go and
fetch Doc Martin, from town.
Ben was sitting at his desk, in the main room of the house, and was
startled to see Hoss entering, with Adam slung over his shoulder. Hoss
laid his brother down on the settee and Ben was even more surprised
when he realised that Adam's hands and feet were bound.
Adam was unconscious and so Ben addressed his remarks to Hoss.

"Who did this to your brother, and why have you left him tied up?" and
Ben went over to Adam, and began loosening the ropes.

"Leave him be, Pa," said Hoss. "I was the one who knocked him out and
tied him up, but there is a very good reason, sure enough."

"You did this? But why? What's going on?"

"Please jest calm down, Pa and then I'll explain. I've already sent
fer the doctor, but I think it's best if Adam stays tied up, at least
until he gets here."

Hop Sing arrived with the first aid kit and a bowl of warm water, with
which to clean up Adam's cuts and bruises.

"You go get cleaned up, too, Mistah Hoss," said the cook. "That is
nasty cut over eye."

"I will do, Hop Sing, jest as soon as I've explained things to Pa. I
need ta tell him, in the hopes he can make some sense of it all, cos
I'm danged sure I can't."

Hoss sat down and told Ben the whole story.

"So, ya see, Pa, I really had no choice, other than to overpower him."

Ben leaned over and patted Hoss' hand.

"Of course you didn't, son. If you hadn't knocked him out, it's likely
that you'd now be carrying one of Adam's bullets in your body. But
what on earth could have caused him to act like this? Where was he
going, last night?"

"He said he was gonna go watch that mind reader, who was performing in
the Silver Dollar. I was surprised, cos Adam usually reckons all that
kind of stuff is rubbish. He asked me ta go along, but I weren't in
the mood fer a trip to town, after the bad day I'd had. Wish I'd gone,
now, then mebbe whatever's happened ta Adam could've bin prevented."

"No point beating yourself up about this, Hoss. We don't know what
went on, and if you'd been there, then you might have been affected, too."

Just then, Adam began to come round.

"Where am I? Who tied me up? Was it you, Hoss? Well, let me loose so I
can finish the job and shoot you down."

"Adam, that is enough," said Ben, in a voice that he used to use when
the boys were younger, and fighting amongst themselves. "I don't know
what's come over you, son, but until Paul gets here, you will stay
right where you are and you will remain tied up. This is your brother
you're talking to, you can't really mean him any harm?"

Adam's only answer was to try and break free of the ropes, but Hoss
had done too good a job and he soon discovered it was a pointless
exercise.

Hoss went into the kitchen and cleaned up his face, and then poured
out some coffee for all of them. He handed Adam's cup to his father
and Ben offered to help Adam drink some.

"I don't want any coffee," said Adam, sounding like a petulant boy. "I
just want you to let me loose."

"We will, son, just as soon as Paul's had a look at you."

Eventually Doctor Paul Martin arrived from town. He had spent the ride
out to the Ponderosa pondering on what Dave had told him, about Adam's
condition, but was still no nearer to knowing what was the matter,
even after examining the young man.

He drew Ben to one side and said, "I hate to admit it, but this has me
baffled, Ben. Apart from the minor cuts and abrasions from the fight
with Hoss, Adam doesn't appear to be suffering from any kind of
physical injury, but his brain is another matter. He's absolutely
convinced that Hoss is out to harm him and all he can think about is
killing Hoss, before Hoss kills him. There's no evidence of him having
banged his head, it's a complete mystery."

Dave had remained in town, after alerting the doctor that he was
needed at the ranch, in order for his horse to have a rest, before
making the trip back home. He'd ridden his mount pretty hard and so he
took the horse along to the livery stable for a rub down and a feed.
While there, he heard snoring coming from one of the empty stalls.

"Sounds like you've got a human guest, as well as a few horses," said
Dave, to Jake, who ran the place.

Jake smiled and said, "That's the Bonner brothers. They arrived here,
real late last night, demanding that I got their horses ready for `em,
but before I could, Jeff passed out and Rick weren't far behind him. I
was kinda glad they did, as they were both far too drunk to ride and
would've probably fallen off, on the way home, and broke their dang
fool necks. Mind you, Adam wasn't in that much better a state, when he
collected Sport."

"That's why I'm in town, this early," said Dave. "Hoss brought Adam
home, tied across Sport's saddle. I'm not too sure what went on, but
it seems that Adam tried to bushwhack Hoss. Anyway, the doctor's on
his way out there, now, so I hope he can find out what the problem is.
Hoss says that Adam was acting like he'd lost his mind."

Jeff Bonner was still sleeping, but Rick was awake and he heard what
Dave had said about Adam's odd behaviour. The news hit him like a
thunderbolt and he got up, as fast as he could.

"Hey Dave," he said, trying to control the shakes that were gripping
his body. "Did I hear you right? Did you say that Adam tried to kill
Hoss?"

"Yeah, that's what I said, all right. Why? Do you happen to know
anything about it?"

"If Jake can rustle up a cup of his strong, black coffee, I'll try and
explain."

Once Rick told Dave the events of the night before, the young ranch
hand insisted that the Bonner brothers accompanied him out to the
Ponderosa.

"You've gotta be joshing me, right?" said Rick, turning even greener
than he was, already, at the thought. "I ain't gonna go out there,
it'd be like Daniel in the lion's den. Ben Cartwright would string us
up, if I told him what we did to his boy."

"But you caused this mess, and so you're the only one who can put it
right," said Dave.

Rick thought on what Dave had said, and reluctantly had to agree with him.

"I guess I am the only one, ain't I? Okay, we'll come with you."

Jeff was now awake, too, and the two brothers were soon on their way
out to the Ponderosa.

When they arrived, Adam was a lot calmer, thanks to the mild sedative
Paul had given him, but he was still determined to kill his brother.

Ben was surprised to see the Bonner brothers with Dave. Adam had known
them, since his teens, but Ben had never been happy about the
friendship. Rick and Jeff made their living keeping only just inside
the law, and, occasionally, stepping outside of it.

"What are you two doing out here?" said Ben. "I didn't think you were
ever up before noon."

"We've come to help Adam, Mr Cartwright," said Jeff. "When Dave told
us how he was behaving, we reckoned that you needed us, so here we are."

"Thank you for your concern, Jeff, but I really don't see how you can
help," said Ben. "The doctor is baffled and he does have considerably
more experience than you do, when it comes to dealing with medical
matters."

"Oh, we know he does, Mr Cartwright," said Rick. "And we weren't
meaning no disrespect to the doc, here, but we are kinda responsible
for Adam's condition, so, in this case, we think we do know a bit more
than the doc does."

"Please explain, and do it quickly," said Ben, in a voice used to
being obeyed.

"Well, it's like this," said Rick. "We met up with Adam in town, last
night, and went to the Silver Dollar to watch that mind reading fella.
Adam, here, well you know what a cynic he can be, and he said it was a
load of bunkum and trickery and that the man couldn't read minds or
hypnotise folks. Now, Jeff and me thought different and so we decided
to prove that, for once, Adam had got it wrong. So, we paid close
attention to what the guy was doing. Then, later, when we were having
a drink, I bet Adam that I could hypnotise him. He just laughed and
said I'd never be able to do it. So I said think of the thing you are
never likely to wanna do, and he said, `What? Like kill my brother?'
and I said, yeah, and I bet him I could hypnotise him into doing it.
Well, I did like the guy did on the stage, but Adam said he felt no
different and so we just forgot about it. We had a few more drinks,
then he said he was going home and he left. Next thing I know, Dave's
in the livery stable, telling Jake that Adam tried to kill Hoss. So, I
reckoned we should come out and break the trance, cos I sure don't
want Adam killing either of his brothers."

Ben was ready to dismiss this as pure fabrication. He was waiting for
the Bonners to say how much it was going to cost him, to have them
break the spell Rick had put on Adam, but they didn't say another
word. When he looked over at Adam and then back at Rick, he could tell
by the expressions on their faces that there was some truth in the story.

He was still very sceptical about the whole thing, but decided to let
Rick try.

"Very well, Rick, in the absence of a more logical explanation, I am
willing to let you try and sort this out, that is, if Adam is in
agreement?"

Adam was still lying on the settee and had been listening, intently,
to all that Rick had said. He did recall some of what Rick was saying,
but things started to get rather confusing, after he left the saloon.
He couldn't believe that he had really tried to kill Hoss, and yet
knew that Hoss wouldn't lie about such a thing.

"Well, yes, I'm willing, as I certainly don't want to kill my
brothers, any more than Rick wants me to. I still can't believe that
he was really able to hypnotise me, but, like you say, Pa, why else
would I try and shoot Hoss? Okay, Rick, let's get on with it."

Rick was extremely nervous, now that he no longer had the alcohol
coursing through his veins, that had given him the courage to do this
trick, the night before. And he was also aware that all the eyes in
the room were fixed on him, even his brother's.

He took a deep breath and began to recite the words he'd heard the
Mysterious Malcolm, use, to bring the volunteers, from the audience,
out of the spell he'd put them under. Then he began to count down,
from ten to one, very slowly, and as he did so, Adam definitely began
to look more alert. He was gradually losing the trance like state he'd
appeared to be in, since getting home.

By the time Rick had finished, Adam was back to his normal self,
although still a bit shaken up, by the whole experience.

After apologising to Ben, Adam and Hoss, the Bonner brothers returned
to town, and although they, too, were rather upset by what had
happened, Rick did wonder if he might be able to use his new found
skills to improve their financial situation. However, when he tried it
out on Jeff, he failed to get his brother to do any of the things he
asked him to do. They eventually came to the conclusion that it was
probably a combination of what the mind reader and Rick did, that had
caused Adam to behave like he had.

Adam was just grateful that he was all right again, and extremely
relieved that, because of the alcohol and lack of sleep, his aim had
been poor and he hadn't actually shot Hoss.

Hoss was, of course, very relieved about that, too. He just wanted to
put the whole incident behind him, and so was glad that Adam felt the
same.
Joe, when told about it, had a few things to say, and was planning on
teasing his eldest brother, for a while, but Ben left him in no doubt
that doing so would be a bad idea. Joe was cute enough to take heed of
the warning and nobody talked about it, ever again.

THE END

Little Joe forever
Lynne
July 16th 2005

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