Summary: Part thirteen of A Battle of Wills
Word Count: 4000
A Battle of Wills
“Lord, You don’t have to move me a mountain,
just give me the strength to climb.
Lord, You don’t have to move my stumbling blocks,
just give me the strength to climb.”
—Traditional Spiritual
Chapter 1
“Do you know what we are doing Sammy? Is it all clear?” Robert double-checked their plan. He was going to pay Joe back for saving him at the Golden Shamrock and he and Sam would rescue him from the ghost house.
”Sure just like the Trojan Horse. A few brave heroes are going to trick their way into the bad guys house. Now are you sure you know how to get Old Man Preston’s cannon?” Sam asked his older friend.
“Just like I said. My brother and me helped him put it away at New Years. It is right in the shed. And” He said patting the pocket of Adam’s coat “I have all of these. We’ll get into that ghost house and get Joe and Adam and your grandfather too. Those bricklayers from the Golden Shamrock will be banging on that front door in a few minutes. You go wait on that side of the house and I’ll bring the cannon round back.”
Sam nodded and raced off toward the Stoddard house and Robert loped quickly down the alleyway behind the O’Mara stable and headed to the Preston property.
Chapter 2
“What should we do with him?” said the burly older man still holding Sammy in his arms. No longer kicking and struggling, it was all the boy could do to not cry.
“You’d better ease up a little Flanagan, or there won’t be any question of what to do with him. You’ll be burying him. Don’t matter if you were the territorial governor in Nevada. You can’t go round killing little boys in Boston just because you catch them poking around my side yard.” Wilkes Harrison Smith remarked snidely.
“Bring the little brat into the house,” Laura suggested. “We can figure out what to do with him before someone sees him.” She glanced around over her shoulder hoping no passersby or neighbors saw the uproar the little curly haired boy was making. Who was he poking around the side of the Stoddard house? He looked vaguely familiar.
Wilkes was right. Sam Cartwright had become like limp rag doll in the big man’s arms and there was no fight left in him. Flanagan loosened his grip as Sam held still. The little boy hoped that the angry men at the building site had taken up Robert’s challenge and were going to come looking for a fight with Joe Cartwright very soon.
Sam realized he still had the matches in his pocket and for an instant his stomach twisted in fear that Robert may not have any with him. Their plan would not work if he didn’t.
Laura held the French door open as Flanagan carried the boy inside. Wilkes glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone else was around but didn’t see anyone. He followed Flanagan and Laura into the study.
Robert quickly ducked down behind the high untrimmed privet hedges just in time. Now the spook house had Sammy too and it was up to him to get them all out. Besides, Joe Cartwright would certainly kill him if anything happened to Sammy.
Chapter 3
Nevada Territory,
1857
“I sure wish we were riding into the Ponderosa right now,” Little Joe said wearily as they came to the top of the hill. He was still nervous from the last few days’ events. First the business with Mrs. Chadwick at Fort Mead and then the poisoned water hole today. Despite Hoss’s insistence that the Indian and his band was nowhere in the area, Joe was sure he saw Ka-Pusta in every shadow and behind every rock. Even Adam felt they were being followed.
Off to the west a bank of storm clouds were gathering high on the horizon. Occasionally there was a yellowish flicker of lighting far off in the distance and a low rumble of thunder that could hardly be heard above the sound of their horse’s hooves.
“We are all just plum tuckered out.” Hoss said wearily. “And nervous as long tail cats at a rocking chair convention.” He thought it was more likely that troopers were following them from fort Mead after their abrupt departure than any Indians in this area but he was not going to make his brothers more nervous with that comment.
Adam sighed looking at his brothers. “We’ll be at Indian Wells soon enough.” He rode next to Joe as Hoss pulled up the rear.
“A beer would taste mighty fine, even one of those warm ones up at Indian Wells.” Hoss commented from behind them as he looked at the gray billowing smudge on the horizon. They had been pushing the thirsty horses hard the last few hours as they headed towards Indian Wells.
“We’re gonna have to keep a look out in case of fires. The brush is tinder dry.” Hoss looked around. Every thing was tan and burned like a piece of toasted stale bread. “Hate to see what a lightning strike would do here.”
“That beer would be mighty fine, right now. Even one of those warm ones that Tom Young was serving. My throat is so full of trail dust; I’m having trouble speaking. “ Adam commented as they pulled up their horses under the cluster of dried out trees. The parched leaves hung limply in the baking stillness.
“What’s so bad about you being quiet?” Joe retorted grinning. As nervous as he was, Little Joe never lost the urge to tease one of his brothers. He slid off his horse and mopped his face with his shirtsleeve. He took off his hat and tried to knock some of the dust off himself.
Adam smiled back, glad to see Joe was finally calming down. “Hey, don’t forget you would be fresh vulture bait shot dead for fooling with a married woman if I hadn’t talked our way out of that jam in Fort Mead, Little Brother.” He climbed down from the saddle and stretched his aching back. “I know Adam and I really appreciate it.” Joe said seriously. “Just one thing. Was Mrs. Chadwick…” he stammered, “Was she.. You know. Naked?”
Hoss climbed down from Chubb to check her hoof again. Hoss looked up at his little brother and winked. “Guess you’ll never know, Little Joe.. You’ll never know.” Adam laughed despite himself. Joe had slept through most of his misadventure and he would never know how much he missed unless he or Hoss told him.
It had been a very long ride and they were not anywhere near home yet. They had left Fort Mead in the middle of the night and it was moving into the afternoon. They were all done in and the thirsty horses couldn’t last much longer.
Adam took his saddlebag down and started digging around inside. Maybe he had some jerky or some other food that he forgotten about. He had no luck. The only thing in the leather bag was the payment from the Army for the horses and some other papers, his last clean shirt and some dirty socks. He slung it back on his horse.
Hoss stood up and took the last half full canteen from his saddle. Taking a swallow he handed it over to Joe and wiped his mouth with the back of his beefy hand.
Little Joe drank a bit then he passed the canteen to Adam. “Boy, it’s hot as hell out there. This trip just gets better and better each mile. This is the first time in my life that I ever wished I was back in Virginia City sitting in school.”
“You know, I think we might be in luck. I think we have some water down that culvert. Look how green it down hill a bit,” Hoss pointed out. “It’s pretty steep but I think we can scramble down if we are careful.” They had been riding for hours and were hot and thirsty and falling over from sheer exhaustion.
All three of them walked carelessly away from the horses without tying them. Peering down the steep incline they could see a sparkle of running water at the bottom.
”I can do it!” Joe was glad to pay his brothers back for saving his tail at Fort Mead. “Give me the canteens and I’ll go down the slope. If I have trouble getting up, you can toss me a rope and pull me up. It sure will be easier for you guys to pull me up than to get Hoss back up. “ He was right. As the smallest brother it certainly made sense.
Hoss turned suddenly to the west. His blue eyes widened and filled with fear. “Look up at the top of the hill. That’s smoke up there.”
Adam looked up to the west where his husky brother was pointing. His stomach immediately dropped into his dusty black boots. “Hoss, that’s a fire and it is moving damn fast down the canyon right toward us.”
Before any of them could say another word the wind shifted and the fire was bursting down the slope directly at them and they were trapped between a flaming ridge of dry exploding pines and a rocky precipice on the other side. A fireball exploded from the top of the hill and a shower of sparks ignited the dry brush a hundred yards away from where they were. As the smoke blew towards them their skittish tired horses reared and galloped off away from the inferno.
Chapter 4
Adam stood up and then realised just how much serious trouble they were in. They were entirely surrounded by burning trees. Orange fingers of flame reached out to clutch them. He wasn’t sure which way was home and which way was the flaming inferno of hell.
Joe started to panic, but then remembered something that he had heard Adam say when he was a kid that you can’t out run a fire up a hill. “ Head down hill!” He yelled to his brothers.
“We have to find some water, Boys. The fire can’t cross water and so we will be safe.” Hoss told them. “Come on, we gotta go down the hill and find the river, then we’ll be okay.”
“What about the horses?” Joe shouted above the crackling flames, the popping of the parched pine trees, as they exploded up hill from them into a blast of yellow tongues. The sudden density of the acrid smoke choked them all. They had to keep their heads about them or they would be lost.
“They took off that way. We can’t go after them. We have to save ourselves.” Adam bellowed.” Get moving!”
Adam looked all around for a way through the trees and saw a small gap in the underbrush. “Go that way and don’t stop for any thing until you hit the river!” He ordered his brother. Hoss led the way and scrambled through the bushes with Joe following closely behind him. Adam brought up the rear looking behind him as the fire built up an orangey glow on the other side of the ridge. Bits of flaming ash filled the air. They half ran and half skidded down the slope grabbing handholds on branches and rocks to slow them as they tumbled towards the river.
His brothers were about a hundred yards downhill of him when Adam lost his footing as he stumbled over rocks, pine needles and loose gravel. . His boot jammed under a raised tree root and he fell hard ripping his knees. Adam tried to pull himself free but his foot was stuck tight.
Little Joe was halfway down the slope when he turned and looked over his shoulder and saw through the smoke that his older brother tangled up and trapped in the undergrowth.
“Adam! “ Joe screamed and turned to clamber back upon his hands and knees after his brother. Hanging on to vines and tree branches to pull himself back up the incline. Loose dirt and rocks broke off around his feet and Joe’s hat got knocked off and lost in the smoke.
“Keep going!” Adam ordered as Joe scrambled back up the steep incline towards him.
“And leave you to fry?” Joe knelt next to him and tried to yank his brother’s foot loose. A thick blanket of dusky smoke choked both of them. Adam could hardly see as Joe pulled futilely on his boot.
”Take your foot out of your boot!” He grabbed his brother’s leg at the knee and they both pulled leaving the boot stuck under the snake like root. Adam was free.
“I think I broke my ankle.” He winced.
“Get up” Joe ordered as he reached his hands around his taller brother and helped him stumble up on one leg.
“Run!” Adam bellowed as Joe started to choke. Wild animals trying to escape the fire ran across their path. Joe jumped back as a panicked deer crashed past them running down hill to the river.
Little Joe grabbed the back of Adam’s belt and began to pull him along down the steep incline. They made it down the hill but not without a struggle as thorny vines snagged their clothes and smoke blinded them. Joe could hardly see where he was going, but kept heading down the hill, managing to avoid falling burning branches as he went. Forcing their tired legs into a run, Little Joe and Adam made it to the water and slid down the bank. Joe was still hanging on to Adam’s belt and Adam had his left arm wrapped around his brother’s waist.
By sheer luck, they eventually found themselves at the bottom of the incline where Hoss had already slid. Hoss had just realized that his brothers were not right behind him when he hit the bottom of the hill. He was just about to climb back up when they staggered out of the underbrush. Through the blowing smoke, they could just about make out the river, a short distance away.
“Don’t hold on so hard, Adam, it hurts,” said Little Joe, coughing as he spoke. Adam held tight to his brother fearing he wouldn’t make it down the hill and if he did that they would lose each other in the thick vegetation. All their faces were smudged and black from the smoke that billowed around them.
“Help me with Adam. He hurt his ankle.” Joe shouted to Hoss.
Hoss wrapped his arms around Adam from the other side and the brothers stumbled the final hundred feet to the river. They looked behind them as the ferocious blaze came roaring over the top of the rise. “Take off your boots or you’re gonna sink like you have your pockets filled with horse shoes.”
“It’s hot enough for it to flash across.” Adam decided. “Stay under the water for as long as you can.”
”We can drown, Adam,” Joe’s hazel eyes were wide with fear. Hoss hollered above the crackling and snapping that was suddenly surrounding them. A singed jack rabbit ran past them to the water. The three brothers looked at each other. Each was thinking that this might be the last time they saw the others.
”It is that or roast. Get in as deep as you can and stay down.” Hoss ordered and he gave Adam and Little Joe a shove over the bank. They hit the water with a huge splash. Hoss dropped his gun belt and yanked off his boots before jumping feet first into the dark churning water, barely missing being hit as a flaming tree limb crashed to the bank just where the three Cartwrights had just been standing.
The fall into the water had knocked the air from his lungs and he needed to breathe. As Hoss poked his head above water he could see Joe and Adam hanging on to each other about ten yards away. The sky above them was glowing vivid amber. Black smoke choked them, as day suddenly became a hellish night.
Hoss ducked below the surface of the water and held his breath for as long as he could. As the air in his lungs was exhausted he tried again to kick free to the surface of the river only to feel a white hot pain go through his right shoulder as flaming debris hit him hard as he surfaced. Using his cold numbed arms, he tried to pull himself towards the land. He never saw the log that slammed into his back and shoulders, throwing him unconscious now into a pile of flaming debris just below the waterline. He was trapped under a fallen tree that was floating in flames.
Stuck under the rubble, Hoss was unable to swim towards where he thought the surface. As it was, he was running out of air by the time he broke through the surface the first time. He was beginning to lose consciousness when he sensed hands on him, clawing at him.
Adam had him by the left arm and Little Joe was pulling on the back of his shirt, trying to drag him to the surface.
But Joe and Adam also knew they still weren’t out of trouble yet. Pulling on his brother’s arm, Adam headed back for the surface with strong kicks but the current was swirling in chaos around him. Giving another mighty heave Joe and Adam pulled Hoss’ inert bulk up behind them only to find that they were in the middle of river where the force of the current was the strongest and the pieces of flaming and charred debris the thickest. They fought to keep the bank in sight, as they were pulled further down river and away from the fire. Between the smoke and the filthy water they were almost blind. They kept feeling things bumping into them as flaming twigs and frantic animals fell into the water. A panicked squirrel tried to scramble up Joe’s shoulder and he swatted it off into the water before he even realized what had happened.
Adam wrapped his arm around his brother’s chest and tried to head for shore but couldn’t. Even though he was a strong swimmer, with the extra weight of his unconscious brother he just couldn’t make any headway against the current and the charred wreckage that filled the water around them. Keeping his head above water, Adam gasped. “Joe, don’t fight the current, just ride it out and hang on to Hoss.”
But Joe felt the current give just a bit. Ignoring what Adam had just said he headed towards shore pulling his brothers behind him. As he neared the muddy bank, Joe could see that it didn’t rise above the water level. That was good since he knew they didn’t have the strength to haul Hoss up too far from the water.
With the last bit of strength in him, Adam tried to get them both onto the wet ground. It was impossible. As it was, it took every ounce of strength for Adam to hold his husky brother’s unconscious body close to his chest and keep his head above the water.
“I think I can hold him and you climb out,” Adam choked as muddy water splashed up his nose. Joe rolled on top of the bank and reached out to help Adam pull Hoss onto the charred weeds.
Dragging long deep breaths, instinctively, Adam rolled onto his side, grabbed Hoss and with what little strength he had left, shoved his brother’s body up to Joe on the riverbank. It still wasn’t far but it was enough for Hoss to be out of harm’s way. Joe lay on his stomach and clutched Hoss tightly by the front of his shirt as Adam hauled himself onto the bank. Adam’s fingers clawed at the bank digging into the mud for any traction possible. He scrambled on all fours over to Joe and helped him haul unconscious Hoss the rest of the way onto the muddy riverbank. They all collapsed into a wet, muddy tangled heap.
Chapter 5
Hoss was lying face down, head cradled on his arm, breathing painful ragged breaths, his chest hurting with every breath he took. He felt rather than saw his brothers next to him and put out a hand to touch them, more for his own reassurance than anything else. All he felt nearby was mud and some dry weeds. The rank air smelled of smoke and mucky river mud.
Hoss slowly came back to total consciousness. Laying face down on the mucky ground, he made a mental search of his body before even opening his eyes. He knew from just what little movement he had made that his right shoulder was in bad shape. He was also cold and wet and could feel the water running off his face. Shivering, he slowly opened his eyes and looked around. Adam lay a few feet away face down on the charred bank trying to catch his breath. Hoss could not see Joe but heard footsteps crunching around nearby. Hoss Cartwright could hear his name being called as if very far away.
“Hoss wake up,” Little Joe called to him. “I think he is coming to, Adam. What else should I do?”
“You need to get that water out of him. I’ll help you in a minute, let me catch my breath.” Adam lay motionless and exhausted. His face was bruised and muddy and his clothes torn to shreds. His ankle throbbed painfully.
As Hoss tried to sit upright a wave of coughing hit him hard and he lay back. “Hoss take it easy!” Joe pounded on his back until Hoss vomited up some more of the river water.
“You ok?” Joe asked knowing that his big brother was far from fine. He wrapped his arms around his brother’s massive back thankful that he was alive.
Hoss nodded and coughed again. Hoss closed his eyes again and faded out of consciousness leaning against Joe. Little Joe thankfully buried his face in his brother’s neck.
Slowly Adam sat up and reached for his swollen ankle. Maybe it wasn’t broken and just twisted. He tried to stand up and put a little weight on it. The pain was searing and realized he had been right the first time. His ankle was surely broken and he sank back painfully into the blackened grass. Adam could hear his brother’s ragged breathing beside him.
As Joe held onto Hoss he looked around at his brothers and tried to inventory their situation. They were in a terrible predicament, no horses, and no boots, all of them half drowned and covered with black filth. Hoss looked like he was badly hurt and Adam’s ankle was most likely broken.
”Adam, maybe I should try to hike out of here and get to Indian Wells for help.”
”Joe, you don’t even have any boots. Who knows where we even are and which way Indian Wells is….” Adam stared at his little brother. “It’s too dangerous, I won’t let you”
”What do you mean you won’t let me? You and Hoss can’t make it. And you can’t keep me from going. No one is going to expect us home for a few days yet and come hunting for us. I’ll get you settled for the night and set out when the sun rises…” Joe stubbornly argued. The sound of horses’ hooves approaching startled all of them. “Adam, we’re not alone.” Joe’s frightened voice announced.
Chapter 6
Boston 1871
The Coal bin of the Stoddard house
”Enough about that Adam. How do we get out of here and get Laura’s note to the courts?“ Joe looked around the coal bin. “This is the evidence that Will needs to go free!”
From outside their trap, on the street above their heads, the Cartwrights could hear angry shouts “Joe Cartwright you get out here and fight like a man. You damn bloody royalist!”
“Get out here laddie!” a voice with a think Irish brogue bellowed.
At the same moment, the Cartwrights heard someone slide back the bolt on the coal bin door. “You three, get up and move out here.” Simone flung open the wooden door and stood facing them holding a pistol”
Joe looked at the pink piece of paper still in his left hand. If their captors found it, the Cartwrights would never have the evidence to free Will from the murder charge. Joe quickly jammed the note into the top of his battered cast, hiding it deep inside.
WomenWritersBlock 