Summary: Part ten of A Battle of Wills
Word Count: 10,300
A Battle of Wills
Poison
“Anger is eating poison and expecting the other person to die.”
Anonymous
Chapter 1
Elm Grove, Nevada
1857
“Adam, pour it out. We can’t drink that,” Hoss bellowed in the dim sunrise from atop Chubb.
Adam Cartwright was hunkered down beside the water hole to fill their empty canteen. They had been riding hard all night from Fort Mead and this was the first time the three of them had stopped. Adam realized he was exhausted and doing things in a weary fog without paying much attention to what was going on.
”That water is bad, don’t you smell it?”
Adam scooped up a handful and held it near his nose. It smelled harshly metallic and nasty. The smell was so piercingly acrid that he snapped his head back. He was now fully alert as if he had smelling salts thrust under his nose. He wiped his hands on his dusty black trousers.
“It’s poisoned, arsenic probably. I can smell it from where I sit.” Hoss climbed down from his horse.
“You think Chief Ka-Pusta did this? It is something he would do to drive settlers away. “
“He might have but he knows the cavalry is after him.” Little Joe looked over at his big brothers. He had started this trip very full of himself as being on equal footing with them but the last few hours had humbled him. He knew he owed them his life. Had Adam and Hoss not walked into the bunkroom when they did, Major Chadwick probably would have shot Little Joe in cold blood in a staged drama of ‘protecting’ his wife from young Joseph Cartwright’s attentions. Poor Joe would have died in his sleep with out even knowing he once had a woman in his bed.
“Hope that Major Chadwick doesn’t have the cavalry out after us, Short Shanks,” Hoss lifted the horse’s hoof to see how Chubb’s injury was holding up on this ride. So far so good.
Adam rubbed the back of his neck and leaned wearily on a rough orange rock. They had been riding all night from Fort Mead after abruptly leaving and he was totally done in at this point. He and Hoss hadn’t slept in a day and a half. They realized that Mrs. Chadwick, like a she devil was luring them into some kind of horrific and possibly deadly situation with her husband and Adam couldn’t wait to get his brothers safely out of the region. Unfortunately they had a full day ride before they were any where near the Ponderosa.
Little Joe jumped down from Cochise and nervously looked for any signs that Indians were around. He recalled the awful experience years earlier when Ka-Pusta had attacked the Cartwright’s stagecoach. Had it not been for the quick actions of Miss Barbara of the Altamont Saloon, he and Hoss would not have gotten away with their scalps. Even though Little Joe was still itching to avenge the deaths from Ka-Pusta’s last raid on the ranches neighboring the Ponderosa, the weird happenstance the night before at Fort Mead had frightened him far more than the Indian confrontation. His brothers kept nervously looking out on the horizon to see if any troopers from Fort Mead were following them.
Adam had told him that all they needed was Major Chadwick telling the men that the Cartwrights had stolen their horses or assaulted Mrs. Chadwick or stolen the payroll. Adam said he wouldn’t feel really safe until they were back on the Ponderosa.
“I doubt if Ka-Pusta came this far south. After he killed those folks in the last raid he high tailed it out of here. We haven’t heard hide nor hair from him in a long time,” Hoss started walking around the rocky edge of the pond. He kicked at a few dry clumps of rock in an attempt to see any moisture. It was all dusty and bone dry.
“Some folks say Ka-Pusta disappeared up into the Northwest Territory and is settled in up in the Cascades.” Adam added.
Hoss walked wearily around the water hole. Other than a coyote chewed carcass of an antelope half buried in the sand and a bleached skull of a buffalo, there was no sign of anything. “No tracks around here. No one has been around here in a long while.”
“It is probably arsenic from some of the mine run off. “ Adam decided. He stood next to his brothers and looked around the arid water hole. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as the dawn broke.
“There hasn’t been rain up here in months and the water levels are really low. Those abandoned mines up here are filled with all sorts of messes and minerals and chemicals from the old stamping operations that are going into the ground water and the streams.”
“They are filled with everything but silver and gold,” Hoss added.
Joe smirked. “Meanwhile you have guys like Pa’s pal Otis Massey thinking he is going to make the big strike.” Making a joke always made him feel less nervous but neither of his brothers was in a laughing mood.
”Saddle up boys. We have to ride to keep riding to the next water hole,” Adam ordered.
“Do we have enough water to make it?” Joe asked. His stomach was growling as all he had eaten was some jerky and hard take Hoss had in his saddlebag.
“ Think so, it ain’t too far to the next water hole.” Hoss reassured his brother. “Don’t suppose it will be to much of a problem. Not like the problem you would have if you drank this stuff.” He chuckled. “Just button up your britches, Little Joe and let’s get a move on it.”
Joe looked down at his trousers and realized Hoss was teasing him. He was still shaking from the last night’s escape and now finding the poisoned water hole unsettled him even more.
“Think it may be poisoned like this one Hoss?” Adam tipped his black hat back on his head and looked up at his husky brother.
He shook his head. “If it is fouled from the mines it won’t be. The next dependable water is up by Indian Wells. Those underground streams are real deep.”
” We there were only a few days ago and they had plenty of sweet water. If it is from Ka-Pusta he wouldn’t bother with Indian Wells anyhow, there are too many guns up there for him to attempt any thing.”
Joe agreed that they had no choice but head that way. It seemed like a lifetime since they had been warned about the major’s wife by the bar tender at Indian Wells. Joe was more than finished with this adventure and longed to sleep in his own bed with his Pa snoring in the next room. He glanced nervously over his shoulder and swung up on his horse.
Adam reached up for his canteen and took a long swallow and handed it up to his younger brother. Joe drank some and passed the remainder to Hoss.
“What do you think, Hoss? All of a sudden we are a real long way from home.”
Hoss took the canteen and filled his hat with the rest of the water and gave it in turn to each thirsty horse. He looked up at the sun. “We can be there in a couple of hours. We’ll be ok with what we have here.”
Chapter 2
Ponderosa Ranch,
July 6, 1870
Dear Family,
I am so relieved at Joe’s progress. It is the best news I have gotten in a very long time.
The railroads timber cutting is moving along well. The rain held us up for a few days but the crew is not more than a day or two behind schedule and will make it up. Joe, check the specifications on the enclosed items and see if you think you can work up the bids. Wire me the figures, as I want to put the papers in before I leave for Boston.
Kate and Adam- The Virginia City School Board has voted to build two new buildings and hire some more teachers for a comprehensive program for the upper grades. By the time Sam is in those grades, they will be more than ready to offer him a decent education here in Virginia City. Phil is sending you the Enterprise so you can read the minutes of the meeting. The vote was almost unanimous.Joe- I got some good prices for the last horses that were auctioned and will be riding over to Genoa to check out some Herefords that came out of Texas over at the Double L Ranch. They are the same line that you and Hoss wanted last year, Joe and I hope I can get some for our herd.
Sam- I am looking forward to you taking me to the monkey house and showing me how you sail. I would be proud to take a sail with you, Captain Doc. It has been a long time since I was part of a sailing crew and I may be a bit rusty.
Still no word on Andrea and the baby but I still have hope.
Sorry for the brevity of this letter but Hays is ready to leave for the auction and we need to get going if we are going to examine the stock ahead of time. See you soon.All my love,
Pa
PS Send my best to Will and tell him to hang tough. I will be by his side as soon as I can.
July 7, 1870
Dear Adam and Joe,
I saw Phil Bartlett in the post office when he was mailing that package to you. He let it slip that he was sending you Foster’s papers. Please be very careful, my darlings. I have known you boys and your dear handsome father a very long time and would not want anything to happen to any of you Cartwrights. Over the years, do to my relationships with various members of the community and my being a close observer of human behavior I know there are many disconnected threads in this knotty situation. There are many horrible things associated with Cherry Creek and powerful men who cannot let the truth come out.
Please be careful.
Watch out for politicians who are snakes in the grass.
Please take care and send my love to Katie. Foster was a wonderful man and would not want her to take any risks to unearth old truths.
Nothing you will find out is worth Kate’s safety or yours.
Affectionately,
Miss B
July 6, 1870
Boston Tribune
Cartwright Murder Trial Adjourned for Three Days
Judge Seymour Nickerson has adjourned proceedings in the William Cartwright trial until next Monday due to the injuries to the defendant. Sources have told this reporter that accused murderer Cartwright attacked his own wife during a visit in the Municipal Jail.
“That maniac murderer went for her throat for no reason and we had to beat him down good,” said jail guard Simon Morrison. “We had to break a billy club over his head to teach him a lesson.”
Chief guard, Captain Caleb Oakland denies that undo force was used by his men.”That Cartwright is a crazy killer. My men had a difficult time restraining him He sure looks guilty to me.”
Defense Attorney Laurence Preston Sr. has petitioned Judge Nickerson to investigate the handling of the event and the injury to his client but has refused comment to this journalist.
July 8, 1870
Dear Joe,
Hope you are feeling better. I think of you often and hope your recovery is going well. Buddy still plays with the wooden horse you gave him. Ohio is not all I hoped it would be. It is very difficult living with my parents. I forgot how badly my father drank and how much my mother nagged and the farm is more run down than it was years ago.
I am hoping to study this fall for my teacher credential. . I should be done by spring and then will be able to go elsewhere and be able to support the children. The baby is starting to walk and looks so much like Dean in her coloring.After all the years being with the Newkirks and your family I truly forgot how miserable my family was and I hate to have my children live under the same roof with my parents for longer than they already have. My sister will watch the babies for me so I can go for the teaching credential at the state normal school. She and her husband are anxious to find work elsewhere as staying with my parents on this worn out farm is not enough for them to make a go of it. We plan to all go together and they can find better land for their own farm. Perhaps we will look into the Dakotas or out to California. Nancy Foster wrote that Virginia City is booming and expanding the schools. Hays said that Casey looks more and more like Dean every day.
Give my love to Katie and Adam and Mr. Cartwright too. I miss you all.
Bonnie Newkirk
Chapter 3
Boston, 1870
“Dr. Meyer is coming by soon. I asked him to see to Will. I don’t trust that prison doctor and he looked like the guards broke his arm when they beat him.” Adam announced. “He said he would stop by on his way home with Preston to tell us how he is doing.”
“That’s awful.” Emily O’Mara said. “That place is so inhumane. Isn’t there anything more you can do?”
“This looks like a guest list for a meeting or a party,” Emily held up a scrap of paper that listed names. “Some names are crossed off and others are circled. Beck, Coffee, A. Cartwright, B. Cartwright, H. Cartwright, F. Dayton, J. Dayton, Duprey, S. T. Flanagan, Foster, Fischer, Jackson, Harrison, Dr. Martin, Dr. Smith, C., Warner.”
”It is in my uncle’s handwriting. Maybe this is the Cattleman’s Association?”
Joe looked at the list. “No Katie, Doc Martin never was in the Cattleman’s Association and neither was Mr. Fisher. He was a mine owner. And some of them have other notations,” Joe tried to read the little comments in the margin. “It says here things like ‘ask if they know about land’ and ‘do they have land near Dayton’ ‘ land on Cherry Creek”. Maybe Pa can figure this out. Wait a minute; some of these are people who had land that would be adjacent to the Cherry Creek Dam. Some of the circled names are ranch owners who would have been flooded. Who is T. Flanagan?”
“Ted Flanagan, the Territorial Governor when this was a problem. Remember you brought him to the Ponderosa n the snow? He lives right here in Boston.”
”Didn’t we see him at the opera all the time?” Dennis recalled.
“This looks like an errand list or a list for the mercantile,” Kate read “Check bank balances, wire, RR, wire, cherry, cattle deed, lumber also. I don’t think we have anything important here,” She tossed the list down.
Kate sighed as she looked up from the papers she was examining. The crate sat in the middle of the porch on a wicker table and each adult was reading through the random stack of papers. So far the only thing Kate found that was of interest was a bundle mail tied with a piece of red twine. “This looks like Uncle Foster had just picked up the mail and it must have somehow got mixed in with the rest of the papers. There are some bills and subscription renewals and even few letters for my parents. Nothing here about Cherry Creek or Harrison.” She fanned the letters out on the table in front of her.
Kate opened an invitation for her late parent for a long past costume party that the Fischers had given. “Wonder what Mr. Fischer wore to this.” She giggled as she showed Adam. Her husband was sitting next to her with Sam astride his lap. Adam snickered and raised his eyebrows knowing what Fisher was wearing when he died upstairs at the Altamont Saloon. It sounded like Katie had somehow heard that story too even though Ben sworn him to secrecy on that tale.
”Preston said he got an adjournment for a few days but going after Laura for no reason surely doesn’t help his case.” Dennis added grimly. “If the guard hadn’t pulled him off her, he would have choked her. They said he jumped right over that grill work and went after her while she was visiting him.”
“There had to be a reason. Laura must have done something to set him off,” Joe was sure Laura was behind all of Will’s troubles. Joe wondered if Will even had even attacked Laura or the guards just made that up as an excuse to beat his cousin. “Was anyone else there besides Laura and the guards who beat him?”
Adam shook his head. Maybe Joe was right about Laura being involved and the beating was all a set up.
Kate put her iced tea glass down on the wicker table and squeezed awkwardly around the cluttered table towards her brother in law.
“Joseph Francis Cartwright, if I didn’t know better, I would swear you were getting a black eye.” Kate held Joe’s chin in her hand. It was hard to see in the flickering candlelight.
“Really Katie? A black eye I can’t imagine that. It must be the light out here. ? Maybe it is this haircut I just got this morning.” He ran his fingers through the shorter haircut he got as a welcome back gift for his father. There was no way Joe was going tell his sister in law that Robert had started a fight with four angry knife wielding drunks and he and her ten year old son were smack in the middle of it.
“Sure Mama, it is Uncle Joe’s haircut. The barber shaved him too. He looks real handsome don’t he Emily?” Sam embellished from his seat on his father’s lap. Joe looked at his nephew and winked. Emily nodded in agreement. She thought Joe looked extremely handsome anytime she saw him, fresh haircut or not.
Adam looked across the porch and remembered that his brother had come into his office with the boys, late that afternoon filthy and sweaty, his shirt damp and grimy. Joe’s face was bruised and was rubbing his bad shoulder. but he had the biggest grin on his face that Adam had seen since he arrived in Boston. Adam just assumed that Joe had gotten grubby helping the boys work around the Golden Shamrock and was so preoccupied with Will that he didn’t think to ask how the afternoon went until Kate brought it up. Now, noticing the looks being exchanged around the porch, Adam knew something else had happened at the waterfront saloon.
Sam could feel his father’s iron grip on his shoulders. As Kate exclaimed over Joe’s eye, Adam squeezed Sam’s shoulders so hard that the boy winced.
“Oh, he knew it. He and Robert owed Joe big time for this! He had insisted that they keep their deal a secret, and would only discuss it with each other when alone Sammy thought. Uncle Joe had always been so brave and now Robert knew it too.
“I hope you don’t mind but I am so tired, I’m going to go upstairs and turn in early. I can’t look at these old papers any more,” Kate told the group. Dennis stood up and assisted her to her feet.
“And don’t you dare ask me if I am all right, Adam Cartwright. I am fine. I am huge and tired and your child is doing a square dance on my interior. I spent the last three hours reading through Uncle Foster’s things to find nothing of interest besides a few grocery lists and an old party invitation. They can wait one more day after all these years. I need to get out of these tight clothes and lie down. “ She kissed her husband sweetly on the cheek. “Good night everyone.” All the rest of the men stood up as she left the porch but Robert leaped across the porch and held the door for her.
Adam smiled at her, and his brother noticed how his jaw was set and the skin around his eyes was tight with concentration. He was clearly trying his best not to upset Katie but he was definitely worried that she was all right.
“Cowboy, I have eight children and just leave her be. Katie is fine. It is July and hot and raining all the time. She is tired but she is really fine. Go up in an hour and check if you don’t believe me. Bet she is sitting up there writing her “Frontier Lady thing” Bring her a cup of tea and go rub her feet. And if you are smart, you will bring her a nice bouquet of roses and some candy tomorrow too. I learned that by number three. That last month is a very long month, Adam. And if you ever want to get near her again you better shut up and smile for the next few weeks.”
Joe laughed at how Adam was being raked over the coals by a more experienced man. Kate was right that Adam was being a wet mother hen.
“Now, that Kate is out of here, you three what is going on? How did you get a shiner Joe?” Adam leaned forward.
Sam looked at his Uncle. Joe was smiling wider than he had been in months and despite the bruise on his cheekbone his hazel eyes were shining.
“Sammy what really is going on here?
“Robert and I swore to Uncle Joe that we wouldn’t tell Mama and upset her.”
Joe clung to the hope that Adam would agree with his logic. He loved Kate with all his heart and would do anything to keep her happy and unworried.
“Yeah. I swore. You wouldn’t want me to break a promise, would you Adam?” Robert looked over at Joe to see what he would say. After this afternoon, there was nothing he wouldn’t do for Joe Cartwright.
“Oh?” Adam raised one eyebrow in an uncanny imitation of his father. “What happened Joseph?”
”Adam, anyone ever tell you that not only do you look like Pa but you sound a whole lot like him?” Joe adjusted the sling on his cast and grinned at his brother.
Emily laughed at how adroitly Joe was sidestepping both Dennis and Adam’s questioning. He was smiling but she could see by the way he was rubbing his shoulder that it must be bothering again. She slid closer to him and started massaging his neck. Joe smiled even wider.
But rather than answer him, Adam asked, “So who won, Little brother?”
”Uncle Joe beat the tar out off them Pa!” Sammy crowed. He slid off his father’s lap again and started dancing around the porch swinging his fists in imitation of the fight.
“He sure did! You should have seen him Adam.” Robert added.
“Do you want me to go up and get you some medicine, Joe? “ Emily continued to rub her hero’s aching shoulder pleasantly. Joe leaned back on her comfortably.
”I’ll run up and get it, Aunt Emily,” Robert offered and jumped to his feet. They all noticed that Robert was doing a chore without being asked.
Chapter
Adam finished reading another letter from the mound on the table. It was mixed in the random hodge podge of Foster Wallace’s papers. He couldn’t believe what he read and examined it a second time before he said something.
January 4, 1854
Dear Foster,Thank you for the information regarding settling in your area. I received a very cordial letter from your Doctor Paul Martin welcoming me to Virginia City and saying, as you hypothesized, that there was certainly room for another physician to set up a practice in the area if not in Virginia City itself.
I plan on leaving as soon as I can as conditions herein Boston have become unbearable for me. Most of my patients have abandoned me .My wife and children are unable to walk down the street with our heads held high. The embarrassment of finding out what my family has done is unfathomable. It is very difficult to be the “white sheep” of a family such as mine.
My eldest son Wilkes refuses to go with his mother and us is heartbroken. He wants to remain here in Boston and continue his education. He says he will join us when we are settled in Nevada. I suspect my wife’s brother Bob has something to do with this decision. Since the sinking of the Sea Breeze Bob and the other Harrison’s appear to have ample money to persuade a young man to defy his father. The investigation into the sinking of the ship appears to be over and nothing can be proven, but I know that the ship was scuttled for the insurance on the cargo. The Harrison’s have been deceiving insurance companies for years by making false insurance claims on cargo that supposedly was stolen or destroyed and then they sell the cargo. It was hard enough to keep my mouth closed on these crimes but it was my wife’s family and she asked me to be silent. However this time the Harrison’s went too far and sank an entire ship including the innocent captain and the entire crew. The owner of the ship, Charles Bruce even lost his son Charles Junior, a classmate of my son Wilkes, in the disaster .I can no longer stay silent and give my approval by not disapproving of their nefarious behaviors.
The Harrisons have threatened me and I feel that they are capable of almost anything. The only way I can disengage myself from these situations is to go west and make a fresh start. Should I be called to testify in court I would have no choice.
We will be leaving Boston as soon as the snow melts and hope to be settled near you by next fall. I will be making arrangement with a wagon train through my friend John Robinson. He and his wife have three children, as do I and we shall make the trips together. My dear wife is afraid of hostile savages but I assured her that we will be safe and the Cavalry does a fine job of keeping settlers safe on their journey. Robinson hopes get a job in one of the mines near Virginia City or do some of his own mining near Fort Mead.
Hopefully Wilkes will join us after his graduation and I can remove him from the undo influence of the Harrison family but I fear he already is lost forever to us.
Regards to the rest of the Wallace family. Thank you for the copies of the Enterprise .My wife sends her regards to Mim and your brother and his wife and little Kate.
Sincerely,
Doctor Eldon Smith
Adam looked across the table at Dennis O’Mara. His father was the captain of the Sea Breeze.
“Dennis, I think you might want to read this one.” Adam handed him the letter written so long ago by some friend of Kate’s father.
Chapter 4
Dennis walked out on the front porch. “ Joe, Come back inside. Dr. Meyer is going to tell us what happened with Will. Maybe you can think of something we missed about Laura or the guards.”
Dennis looked over at Joe and realized he was leaning stiff armed against the porch railing and looking very pale. “Joe are you all right?”
Joe shook his head. He was suddenly feeling so sick that he couldn’t even say anything.
“Listen, you go on upstairs and lie down. You still look a little green. You need anything?”
“Um, uh… s’cuse me. I uh, don’t feel very good. I’m going to be sick, I need to get some fresh air.” Joe took a deep breath. He pushed Dennis away and turned to look out at the street hoping that the porch would stop lurching to match the rocking in his stomach.
Joe heard the door open behind him.
“Joe, you okay?” It was Adam. He had just come downstairs from seeing to his wife and was ready to hear what Dr. Meyer had to say about Will’s condition in the jail.
Joe realized that it was hard to keep the porch and everyone on it from spinning. “Oh, this is no good.” Joe said to no one. All he could think of was that he needed to make his stomach stop spinning. He had been feeling so fine only a half hour earlier. But as soon as everyone went back into the house for pie, Joe started feeling miserable again. If he could just get some air he would be fine again. Then he would help Adam and Dennis get Foster’s papers straightened out. Stop the spinning. Then go in and go through the box of papers that Phil had sent. Yeah that’s what he would do.
As the poison took its toll, Joe’s head throbbed as he struggled to understand why he suddenly felt so dreadfully sick. The headache he felt was like no other he had ever had and his burning stomach was coming up his throat. He felt horribly ill, unable to remember what had happened last. He was soon sick again as the poison Laura had put in the bottle moved through him.
Joe stumbled over to the porch railing and held his head down as the house and the people spun and his stomach revolted. Joe felt ice move through him. Then he was hit by a wave of burning heat.
“Joe are you all right?” his brother walked behind Joe. Adam put his hand on Joe’s trembling shoulder.
“He looks awful.” Joe heard Dennis’ voice from far off.
Joe shook his head. “I’m going to be really sick, Dennis.” He leaned over the rail and vomited everything he had eaten that entire day into the blue hydrangea bushes below the porch. Joe felt his stomach seize and the cramp was intense. It grabbed him hard and he leaned over the railing and almost fell off the O’Mara porch.
Chapter 5
“Let’s get him some water.” The doctor said at a loss as to what to do this time. He poured a glass of water from the nightstand and passed it over to Adam. He held it up to Joe’s mouth but he refused it. He pushed his brother’s hand away and moaned loudly.
“Move aside, I’m gonna be sick again.” Joe said as he jumped off of his bed and hurried across the room to the washstand. He leaned over the basin and emptied his stomach. Adam moved toward Joe and placed his hand on the back of his neck as Joe continued to wretch up his guts.
Dennis was totally distraught in seeing how suddenly and violently sick Joe had become.
When Joe got to the point where he could again stand upright again, Adam’s strong arms encased his shoulders and he led him back over to the bed. Joe eased himself up to the headboard and flung his head back breathing rapidly. He closed his eyes and put his right arm in the cast across his chest.
Adam moved to stand right along side of his brother, and leaned against the headboard of Joe’s bed. He wrapped his arm around Joe’s shoulder and could still feel his brother’s the slender body shaking violently.
Doctor Meyer reached up to rest his hand on Joe’s forehead he couldn’t detect any sign of a fever. He could see that young Cartwright was pale and sweaty.
“This is the worst feeling that I have ever felt.” Joe confessed and then his teeth began to chatter. A chill came over him and his shaking became far worse than before. Joe sank down heavily in the bed and the doctor pulled the sheet up over him. He heard Joe’s breathing becoming less labored and noticed in the lamplight that a little color was coming back into his face. Joe took a few sips of water from the glass he offered and handed it back to him.
“Joe, tell me what happened.” Meyer picked up his left hand and took his pulse.
“It was all very quick. I felt tired, sick, and my head hurt. My guts feel like they are being ripped out of me…. And you know the rest. What is it Doc, what happening to me?”
“I can’t really say at the moment.” Doctor Meyers stood up and went to fetch his bag from the dresser where he had placed it on entering the room. “I’ll just give you a examination, make sure you didn’t hurt your shoulder and your hand.” He paused, thinking what do next.” Joe, this has nothing to do with your surgery.”
He turned to Adam and said, “Don’t let anyone come in here, especially Mrs. Cartwright or any of the children. I still don’t know if he is contagious. Maybe it is food poisoning and if it is you are going to have a lot of real sick people here tonight. Check with the servants also. Mr. Cartwright, Mr. O’Mara, you both wait can downstairs and let me examine my patient”
“Dennis go down and how Katie and the boys are. The doctor and I can see to Joe. If it is all the same to you, I’ll stay up here.” He had absolutely no intention of leaving Joe that night.
Sam was standing in the doorway as Dennis left.
“Go back downstairs, Sam.” Adam put his hand on the boys shoulder.
“I want to see him.” Sammy twisted away from his father’s hands and started back to his Uncle’s room.
“No, Sam.” It was a command, and grudgingly Sam halted.
“You stay downstairs with your mother. The doctor has to be sure it is nothing contagious and he said your mother and all you kids have to stay away. And I’m not asking you, I’m telling to stay out of Uncle Joe’s room.”
“But Pa, he needs me.”
”But nothing, go downstairs now,” Adam closed the door with his son on the other side.
Adam settled into the armchair near the bed and waited for the doctor to examine Joe.
“How is my brother?” Adam asked as the doctor finished examining Joe twenty minutes later.
Joe lay quietly in the bed. His face pale and eyes closed.
”Well, other than that big gouge in the cast, his surgery is quite fine. I can’t for the life of me figure out how a man can damage a cast like that. I can probably remove the cast next week. I can’t say for sure, but the last time I saw some one this ill with these symptoms it was from poison.”
”Poison?” Adam asked, “Are you saying Joe was poisoned?”
The doctor nodded “Looks like that to me. I think we got to him in time though. Lucky he didn’t hold much of it in his stomach or he would not be here now. He’s doing fine at the moment.” The doctor reassured them. “Just needs to sleep for a while.”
“How could Joe get poisoned?” Adam still couldn’t believe what Meyer was saying.
“What did he have different than everyone else?” Meyer started packing up his instruments.
”Nothing, we all had the same meal… some pie later on. Only the medicine that he has been taking.”
”Medicine? What medicine? “
“The medicine on the dresser. The medicine you sent over.”
Meyer walked over to the dresser and pushed the bottles and jars around. He opened each one and held it up to the light streaming in from the front windows and sniffed each one. The last one he opened was the new brown bottle of painkiller, the one Joe had complained about the bitter taste; the one Laura Dayton had tampered with. Meyer pulled the cork out and sniffed at it. His head snapped back at the pungent odor. “This is it. Smell this.”
He held the bottle up to Adam’s nose. Adam smelled a harsh odor. He pushed it quickly away from him. It had a vaguely familiar metallic smell.
“Now smell this” The doctor opened another bottle. It should smell like this. It is the same compound just in different proportions.” Adam smelled a bland medicinal smell
“It shouldn’t smell like that. Someone put something in Joe’s medicine. Someone poisoned him.
Chapter 6
The grey light of the rainy early morning was just beginning to push back the night as Adam descended the stairs into the hallway of the O’Mara house. He had spent all yesterday evening and most of the night sitting beside Joe and he was exhausted and in need of a cup of strong coffee. He was glad that his father would be arriving in Boston in the next few days to share some of this worry. Joe was so homesick.
The sight that met his eyes as he reached the back parlor brought a ghost of a smile to Adam’s lips despite the long night. Katie was lying on her back fast asleep on the settee. In her hand she was holding her note pad on which she was writing her “Frontier Wife” column. A soft wool blanket had been laid carefully over his wife, probably by Dennis, as Emily had spent the last few hours with Adam at Joe’s bedside. Adam gently removed the papers from her hand and put it on the end table. He leaned over and softly kissed her forehead and smoothed her brown hair.
Robert was sleeping squashed on the smaller settee on the other side of the room. His long legs dangled over the upholstered arm of the settee and his arm trailed to the floor. Adam was surprised that he wasn’t up in his own comfortable room. Maybe he really was worried about Joe, like he had said.
Sam was sleeping on the floor beside Katie’s couch with his head cradled on the pillow from his room, Adam’s tan coat draped over him. He had cried himself to sleep sincerely believing he was some how responsible for how terribly sick his uncle had become. Sam felt that his taking Uncle Joe’s gun from the wardrobe and the fight in the Golden Shamrock were the cause of all the problems. Little Sammy didn’t know yet that Laura Dayton Cartwright had substituted poison for Joe’s medication and the poor child had no reason to feel guilty about his uncle’s poor health.
No one but her lover, Wilkes Harrison Smith knew yet what Laura was plotting.
Kneeling beside the couch, Adam gently put his strong arms beneath Sam’s knees and shoulders with the intention of picking his son up and carrying him upstairs but the movement disturbed the boy and he stirred and woke.
“How is Uncle Joe?” He rubbed his eyes.
”He’s sleeping. I think he’ll be fine”
Sam wrapped his arms around his father’s neck and hid his face. “Sam, he’ll be ok. You can go up and see him in as soon as the doctor says so and Uncle Joe is awake.”
Sam clung to Adam until the man gently unravelled him self from his son’s octopus grasp and set him gently back on his bare feet. The boy had lost too many people in his short life and couldn’t bear any more.
Robert sat up and looked at Adam “I covered them over, Adam. They all fell asleep but I was waiting up for you. I was really worried about Joe.”
Adam looked at Robert. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.
Kate stirred and looked up to see her husband.” Adam! How is Little Joe?” she repeated the two boy’s concerns. She struggled to sit up and her husband gave her a hand.
”He’s seems fine. Emily is up there now. But don’t you or any of the kids go up there just yet.” Adam was still nervous that the doctor might have made a mistake and Joe’s illness was contagious. It was hard to believe that Joe was poisoned.
Katie, are you sure you are all right?” He smoothed his hand over her cheek.” Did anyone else get sick during the night?”
”No. Everyone is perfectly fine. Even all the household staff. So it can’t be food poisoning or someone else would have gotten sick too. Robert stayed up with me.”
Adam glanced over at the big blonde boy sprawled across the room.
Adam nodded. “We all ate the same things. Are you sure you are ok, Kate?” Adam couldn’t stop worrying about her and their unborn child. His own mother had died shortly after he was born and Marie had a miscarriage after Little Joe.
”I’m fine. I just can’t sleep when you aren’t there.” It was peculiar. When Adam was travelling she never had trouble being alone in their bed but if she knew he was in the same house but they were not in the same bed, Kate always got lonely for him and couldn’t sleep.
Adam sat down on the edge of the couch and took her hand. “Joe was asking for something to eat so I think he is feeling much better. I think taking care of our new baby is going to be easier than tending to my little brother.”
“Thank goodness. I’ll get up in a minute and tell the cook to make him some tea and toast to start.”
“I’ll do that. If that is ok with you.” Robert offered from the other side of the room. “I want to help Joe.” Adam nodded and the boy stood up. He seemed to be trying hard to be helpful. Maybe Joe’s efforts were working.
“And he seemed very pleased that Emily was sitting there when he woke up. He told me to go downstairs and Em said she would take care of him.”
Kate laughed.” Sounds like Joe is just fine.”
“I’ve seen him look much worse after a big night at the Silver Dollar.”
She looked the clock on the mantle. “Do you want breakfast? It’s almost time to get ready to go to court.”
“They adjourned until Monday but Dennis said he would go and keep Will company. I hope Preston comes up with something for Will’s defense during this adjournment. If we could just find that note asking him to come to the house…”
“Adam, maybe it fell out of his pocket. Like the times I lost my homework.” Robert suggested as he walked toward the hallway. “I once lost money from my pockets and it rolled under the rug. Aunt Emily helped me find it.”
Sam nodded in agreement. “Pa, maybe it is still in that spook house. Your grandfather’s house.”
Maybe Robert had a solid idea. Will had been so insistent that he had put the note from Laura into his pocket. Maybe it had fallen out and it was still somewhere in the Stoddard house. Maybe he should go there and look around while the house was empty. Adam certainly could remember his way around the house having lived there for four years. It would be easy to get in through the French doors in the study at the rear of the house. Adam recalled that even if those doors were latched, they could easily be jiggled open. He doubted that Smith had made many changes in Abel Stoddard’s house since he bought it. Dennis had told him that when the estate was settled the buyer had even purchased most of Abel’s furnishings.
“Adam, maybe the ghosts got it and hid it.” Robert remarked. “I still say there are ghosts there. If no one is staying there why did I see lights over there at night?”
Chapter 6
Just as he remembered, the study doors swung open as soon as he twisted the brass handle and put his broad shoulder against it. As Adam walked across the study of the Stoddard house he could see the big carved desk his grandfather had sat at when he last argued with him and tried to convince Adam to stay in Boston by prodding him with lies. It was more to the side of the room than Abel had it but it was the same massive, imposing desk. The deception by Captain Stoddard was a lifetime ago.
This was also the room where Louella Smith had been murdered. Her body was found in the middle of the room with Will beside her. Will insisted he had been lured to the house by a note from Laura but unless the note appeared there was no way the jury would not convict him.
Adam took off his rain-spattered hat and put it on the edge of the desk. Looking around the room, he remembered there had been a fine oriental rug on this floor when he lived there. Perhaps, it had still been there when the murder occurred and had been rolled up. He scratched his head. The rain increased in intensity and rattled the windows. He was very tired from sitting up all night with Joe but by the time he had left the house, the doctor had pronounced that Joe was going to be fine with a few days rest.
The rug, Adam recalled. Maybe the note had been rolled up in the rug when the room was cleaned up. For an instant the hair stood up on the back of his neck as he recalled the gory mess in the Ponderosa after the shoot out with Striker’s men. The blood stained rugs were rolled up then too.
Scanning the room, Adam spotted the rolled up rug lying like a fallen timber on the opposite side of the room under the long legged side table. Adam strode purposely across the room and dragged the rug to the center of the room. He unrolled the blue patterned rug. No luck. The only thing in the blood stained rug was dust. Adam leaned over and unevenly rolled the rug back up into a long bulky cylinder. Bending over to drag it back where it had been, Adam could see under Captain Stoddard’s desk. There, in the shadows under the desk was a piece of pink notepaper. He left the rug in the middle of the room and knelt down. Reaching under the desk Adam pulled the note out. Before he could examine it, the hallway door to the study swung open and he jammed the piece of pink paper into his vest pocket.
“What are you doing poking around here?” Growled Wilkes Harrison Smith standing in the doorway. He was pointing a pistol at Adam. “Another burglar in my house!”
Cartwright froze and raised his hands. Suddenly Adam realized that reflected in the hallway mirror behind Wilkes he could see his cousin’s wife, Laura Dayton Cartwright.
“Me? What are you doing here Laura?” She stepped boldly into the room next to Wilkes.
“I’m not moving until I hear some kind of explanation.” Adam stared at Laura defiantly.
Adam heard Wilkes cock the pistol. “Mr. Cartwright I have been waiting to deal with you for many years, ever since we met in the University Club. I haven’t forgotten. Now I have the pistol and you are unarmed. Shall I tell your wife that you died like a man Walk down the hallway, Mr. Cartwright? ”
Adam looked at the face of Wilkes Harrison Smith and realized that this was the same person who had trifled with Emily so many years ago. He was older and had a beard, and was heavier set but it was the same sneaky man. He had never connected the ordinary name Smith with both incidents.
“And if I don’t follow you?” Adam glared at them.
“Then we’ll kill you too, Adam.” His cousin’s elegant blonde wife spoke the words quietly. Laura heard Adam catch his breath sharply, and Smith must have caught the sound too for he smiled slightly, teeth showing straight and white in the dim light of the hallway. “And then we’ll kill your brother too. If he isn’t already dead, “ she added. Her grandiose mind was racing like an over wound music box.
“Already dead?” Adam muttered angrily. What were they talking about? Could they have had something to do with Joe getting poisoned?
Then the insane idea hit Laura. If Adam and Joe were gone, who would inherit all of Ben Cartwright’s money? Hoss was already dead. Will Cartwright? Maybe Kate? What if Kate was dead too? That was a line possibly worth pursuing. Get rid of Wilkes and stay with Will Cartwright? He did fight so well with those jail guards. If he could be the heir to old Ben Cartwright’s money, she could be the rich as Mrs. William Cartwright. If Ben’s sons were all dead, Will could take over the Ponderosa. Laura licked her lips thinking of how devastatingly exciting Will looked fighting with the jail guards. Laura pushed the complicated idea from her mind for a moment.
Adam stood uncertainly for a moment, his eyes on the weapon trained on him. Realizing he hadn’t a chance of getting to Smith before the man pulled the trigger, he finally complied and went down the hallway to the back of the house near the kitchen.
Then Smith very calmly walked Adam to the top of the cellar stairs and said in a tone of voice that was almost polite and charming, “Let this be a lesson, Mr. Cartwright. When you are told what to do, you do it, and don’t talk back.”
Adam saw the man nod – not at him but somewhere behind him. He turned to look but not in time to react as a billy club was brought down on his head. He felt his knees weaken and fought the blackness but collapsed. The two men stood over Adam on the floor of the hallway. Rough hands dragged Cartwright to his feet and pushed him down the hall to the top of the cellar stairs.
With that jail guard Morrison pushed Adam down the long cellar stairs.
The stairs were steep, and Adam threw his arms out to grab something but had no way to protect himself from the impact as he tumbled down them. He rolled forward and slammed head over heels down the stairs. Adam was flung around each time a part of his body hit the steep wooden steps. He hit the back of his head on the last tread as he tumbled down to the stone cellar floor. He came to rest at the bottom of the stairs dazed and barely conscious.
Chapter 7
It took a moment to remember what had happened to him, as he tried to clear the exploding fire works from his eyes Adam tried to think of how he got where he was. He broke into the house to look for the missing note and someone was waiting inside, an angry someone who caught him poking around the murder site. He remembered seeing Laura and Smith and two other men. Just as decades earlier, Adam had seen Amanda and Dennis reflected in the hallway mirror outside his grandfather’s study, he had seen Laura Dayton Cartwright wife of the accused murderer and Wilkes Harrison Smith, husband of the murdered woman embracing. They clearly knew each other very well.
Joe was right; Laura was somehow involved and had set up Will to take the fall. Why else would she be in this house with the husband of the murdered woman?
Adam Cartwright felt nauseous, as his head began to pound. He reached up and touched the blood gushing from a gash in the back of his head. There was more pain coming from his left leg where his knee had hit hard on the wooden stairs. The pain was pretty intense as Adam slid his had down his leg he felt the tear in his gabardine trousers and the swelling in his scraped knees. Standing cautiously he took a few steps forward, his hands out stretched in the darkness.
Stoddard had his ship’s carpenters build this house long before Adam was born and the upright posts were made just like the masts of a schooner. The cellar of this house was almost like the hold of one of Stoddard’s sailing ships. The small windows were at ground level ten feet above his head.
In the blackness of the cellar, Adam felt around until he found a rough upright post to pull himself up and made it to his feet. He then leaned against it, trying to help his throbbing head and figure how to get out of this mess. He had seen a flash of who the other men were before they hit him and he tried recall that they were. One was heavy set and dark. The other man was taller and had a blond moustache. They looked so familiar but Adam could not place where he knew them. Then he remembered. They were the jail guards he had when they visited his cousin, Oakland and Morrison.
He tried to recall from years earlier how the cellar in the Stoddard house was arranged. Adam’s grandfather had shelves along one wall and beyond the staircase, rooms filled with trunks and barrels. Abel had a wine cellar and a coal bin on the north side of the house. Beyond that he couldn’t really remember any more about the cellar. He had rarely gone down there except to help his grandfather move something heavy or select a bottle of wine for dinner or set a mouse trap for the housekeeper.
Cartwright tried to stand, as the pain wracked his bruised body. Everything hurt from his fall, as he attempted to gather himself together He slid back down to the stone floor and leaned against the mast like post.
Adam reached into his vest pocket and found what he had been looking for. The note to Will was still there. They had not realized that Adam found the missing piece of evidence that would clear Will Cartwright, the note summoning him to the murder scene. Just as his cousin, Will had claimed all along, Laura had made him come there and he was innocent.
Adam unfolded it carefully and in the dim light coming from one of the ground level windows far above his head, he examined the piece of pink stationary.
And, as Adam looked at it past memories flooded into his brain, it was written in Laura Dayton’s curling feminine handwriting.
It said:
Darling Will,
Meet me at 356 Robert Charleston Street at 8 PM tonight. It is very important.
I love you and will be anxiously awaiting your arrival.
Laura
Will had not been lying, He was innocent and someone had set him up to take the fall, his own wife, Laura.
Chapter 8
“Hey there, Sam.” Joe looked up from the book he was reading to see his nephew standing uncertainly in the doorway. “Come on in.”
“You sure you’re up to visitors?” Sam asked, advancing slowly towards the window seat. “You probably need to rest. I can come back later.” Sam took a few steps into the room. He worried that his uncle was still angry with him for all his recent misbehaviors, shooting his gun, breaking the window, sassing him back and calling him Uncle Cranky. Joe got hurt protecting him in the Golden Shamrock.” I’m sorry for all the trouble I caused Uncle Joe.”
Sam tentatively walked closer to his Uncle. “Come sit up here with me.” Joe patted the window seat next to him. “You can check out my view up here. I’ve done plenty of resting. I rested all day today and yesterday too. I really feel better and am so sick of resting. We can go shoot off those leftover fire crackers tomorrow or the next day.” Joe closed his book firmly and laid it down on the windowsill. “Come look at the stars with me. It really is a clear night. Look!”
Joe pointed to the ebony sky. “If I don’t look around too hard I can convince myself I’m back on the Ponderosa when it is dark enough and the sky is clear.” Joe pointed out some of the constellations to his nephew. “That’s the Big Dipper. And the North Star. You can always find north by finding the Big Dipper. Just the same as at home.”
”Where did you learn that Uncle Joe?”
”My Pa showed me when I was very small so I wouldn’t get lost on the range. He learned all about the stars when he was a sailor. And some your father showed me. He would tell all those myths too.”
“He tells me them too. When he puts me to bed.”
”I liked the ones with the Trojan horse. That was one dang big horse. And just a few brave men put one over on a way bigger army too. Just a few clever horsemen beat out the other soldiers. They snuck up on them and got them good. “ Joe smiled. “That and the ones where Zeus and the other guys would have a big fight and battle it out.”
”I like those too. They argue and make storms and throw lightning bolts at each other.”
”Wouldn’t want to get hit by a bolt of lightning. That must really smart.” Joe made a silly face like he was hit by a flash and Sammy laughed.
”Did they shoot them?”
”No, Sammy. They had big swords in those days. Guns weren’t invented yet.”
Sam sat quietly next to his uncle looking out at the darkness.
“You sure you are feeling better, Uncle Joe? The police was here before. They took all the bottles and Pa and Dennis told them how sick you were.’
”I know, Doc. They talked to me too. They wanted to know who would want to hurt me. And I said that I couldn’t think of anyone.”
“Uncle Joe, the police made me tell them about the fight in the Golden Shamrock. Pa said I had to tell even if I said to you that I wouldn’t. He said he wouldn’t let Mama know and get upset. Do you think those guys you hit poisoned you?”
Joe shook his head.” They were just a bunch of drunks in a saloon, Doc. They probably have a fight in there half the time they get a few beers in them. Anyway how would they even know where I was or even get into my medicine?”
Sam looked at his uncle and reached out to pat his hand. “Pa will watch out for you and me and ma and the police. Bet Sheriff Coffee would find them faster and Clem too.”
“I want to hear what’s going on with you, Doc.” Joe didn’t want Sam to dwell any more on this matter. Let the police and the adults do the worrying. Sam had too much worry already in his life. He pulled his nephew closer and kissed the top of his head.
“Tomorrow grandpa gets here on the train.” Sam snuggled into Joe’s side.
Joe smiled. ”Tomorrow? That’s great. I really missed him. I kind of lost track of the days again being up here.”
“Pa went up to Albany with Mr. Preston,” Sam ventured. Uncle Joe had been sleeping when the messenger brought a note claiming it was from the lawyer’s office. No one in the house noticed that it was the same boy who had brought the poisoned medicine for Joe.
Joe tilted his head and looked at his nephew. “He went to Albany? What would he do that for?”
Sam shrugged” I don’t know. I suppose to get something for Will’s trial. Maybe he can get him free. Some boy brought a note to Mama from the lawyer’s office that he went. And they weren’t sure when he would get back to Boston. Dennis said he would fetch Grandpa from the train station. Could you tell Dennis to take me along? Maybe he won’t find grandpa without me.”
”I’m sure he will do fine. You just stay here and keep me company. You know, I saw your father go over to the Stoddard house yesterday. Just before lunchtime. Guess he went over to the lawyer’s just after that. I didn’t see him leave that house though, I guess I fell asleep”
”Maybe the ghosts got him,” Sam looked very serious. His brown eyes filled with tears.
Joe laughed. “Sam, come on you know there are no such things as ghosts. Don’t listen to Robert. Is he filling your head with foolishness about spooks in the Stoddard house again?”
Sam slid nervously closer to his uncle’s side.” No sir. I just think he might be right and I wish I knew my Pa was ok. He went away and didn’t tell me good-bye. Mama said he didn’t take a bag neither.”
“That doesn’t seem like your father.” Joe stopped short and was silent. Sam was scared enough. Adam always was so conscientious to make sure everything was in place whenever he went on a trip, Joe thought to himself.
“What if Robert is right, Uncle Joe?” Sammy whispered looking at his uncle.
”Well Doc, I think we can take a stroll over there in a day or so when the doctor says I can go out and just see how many ghosts there are. How about that? Even take Robert with us. I sort of would like to see Captain Stoddard’s house up close and I am really sick of sitting up in this room.”
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