Summary: Part fourteen of A Battle of Wills
Word Count: 5400
A Battle of Wills
“If you dig a pit for someone else, you fall in it together”
–Proverb
Chapter 1
”Adam, I’m going to try to hike out of here and get to Indian Wells for help.” Little Joe said firmly.
”Joe, you don’t even have any boots. None of us do! 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.” Hoss coughed again from where he was lying.
”What do you mean you won’t let me? You can’t even walk. 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. “ Joe argued loudly. He knew he was right.
“Joe, how are you gonna..” Hoss raised himself on his elbow and tried to say something, but started choking again and fell back on the ground.
“Hoss, you need help real bad. I’ll get you both settled for the night and set out when the sun rises…”
The sound of horses’ hooves approaching startled all of them.
“Adam, we’re not alone.” Joe’s frightened voice announced. He was so defiant a moment earlier and now he just hoped it was his Pa coming to take them home. The three battered brothers all looked up as Ka-pasta and four of his braves rode into the burned out clearing where the weary Cartwrights were huddled together. One Paiute brave was leading Chubb, Sport and Cochise by their reins.
“White Devils!” Ka-Pusta greeted them. “We have your horses.”
Before Adam could stop his little brother, Joe jumped to his feet. “Ka-Pusta! Please. We mean you no harm.” It was the same Ka-Pusta who years earlier had attacked their stage and almost scalped Little Joe.
”Little Joe! Stop.” Hoss reached forward to snag his brother before he got them into more trouble with the Indians. Joe was just out of his reach and Hoss started to cough more river water out of his choked lungs.
Ka-Pusta stared down from his horse at the three Cartwrights. ”You are three miserable filthy, half drowned white men. You don’t have guns or boots or even horses. You are a beaten lot. It would be easy to kill you.”
”My brothers are both badly hurt.” Joe pleaded. Adam struggled to get to his feet.
”Joe, give me a hand.” He leaned heavily on his younger brother and stood facing the rogue Paiutes. He was going to face Ka-Pusta standing like a man, with dignity, not crumbled in the mud.
“I know you! “ He looked at Adam and Hoss.” I remember you from long ago. A gast oif a vail zeit far a mayall. A frequent guest becomes a pest. Your father is a friend of Dancing Water.”
”Dancing Water?” Joe asked.
“Miss Barbara.” Adam muttered. He nudged Joe to be quiet.
Joe looked at his older brother. How did Adam know what an Indian called the owner of the Altamont Saloon?
“I give you back these horses, weak white devils. You leave this place. In exchange for your lives, you tell your father to stay away from Dancing Bird. A fremdeh bissen shmekt zis. Another man’s tidbit smells sweet.”
Before Joe could say anything more, Adam dug his fingers into the boy’s tired shoulders. ”Thank you Ka-Pusta. We will tell our father what you said and how well you treated his sons when they were in need.”
”And all of you tell your father that Ka-Pusta does not do what the Cavalry and Flanagan claim. A ligner darf haben a guten zickorin. A liar must have a good memory. You tell them that! “
”We will if it is so,” Adam answered as calmly as he could. He took a deep breath and shifted his weight against Little Joe. Joe wound his arms around his taller brother and tried to stand taller and straighter, like Adam would want him too.
“Me ken nit foren oil alleh yariden oif ail mol. You can’t ride in all directions at one time. Tell that to Flanagan when he accuses me of things I did not ever do. Chadwick and Flanagan” Kapusta spit out the names of the Territorial governor and the same army officer who had almost killed Little Joe.
The three brothers remained silent. Joe looked questioningly at Adam who shook his head again in a warning for the boy to be still.
Ka-Pusta turned to one of his men and said something in Paiute. The brave dropped the reigns on the Cartwright’s horses.
“Nit kain entfer is oich an enfer. No answer is also an answer.” Ka-Pusta spit out.
Adam nodded. He accidentally put some weight on his injured leg and winced with pain. Ka-Pusta stared at them from the back of his horse and smiled smugly.
“Indian Wells is this way,” he pointed with his fist punching the air. He wheeled his horse around in the direction he had come. As fast as the Indians rode into the clearing, they galloped out again into the blackened woods leaving the Cartwright’s horses behind.
Joe eased Adam to the ground, as the broken ankle couldn’t hold him up any more. “Go check the horses, Joe, “ he whispered hoarsely. If the horses were all right, they would ride out as soon as they could get Hoss moving. They could make Indian Wells in an hour if they tried. Hoss needed to be inside for the night.
Little Joe ran over to their horses to check what Ka-Pusta had done to them. They seemed fine and in good shape. Clearly, the horses had been nowhere near the fire and had been watered and fed by the Indians. All of the empty canteens had been filled and tied back on the saddles. Joe rested his face against Cochise’s neck and patted her nose. “I thought I’d never see you again girl.” The horse nickered in recognition of her owner’s voice.
“When you finish kissing your horse, Little Brother, fetch me that saddlebag.” Adam called.
Joe yanked Adam’s saddlebag off of Sport and ran over to his brother. Adam tore it open. The cash from the army was completely intact. Next to the money was a loaf of bread wrapped in a piece of vaguely familiar pink and blue flowery cloth.
Chapter 2
December 15, 1854
Dear Foster,
Spoke to Ka-Pusta and I believe he is telling the truth and was not doing what Flanagan and Chadwick claim. He will not come and speak to you, as he fears coming out of hiding. Sorry I couldn’t do more. Please keep this in confidence.
Barbara
Chapter 3
Boston, 1881
Kate Cartwright, spent most of the gray, humid morning digging through the crate of papers and ephemera that Philip Bartlett had sent from Virginia City. She still was not convinced she was going to find anything of value in the stack but she needed to keep busy. She felt hugely pregnant and wanted to keep her mind off of Adam’s continued absence. She missed him desperately and was becoming increasingly concerned that she hadn’t heard anything from him beyond a note that a boy delivered saying that he and Mr. Preston went to Albany, New York.
Kate caught her breath as she reached into the bottom of the crate and pulled out a small, green canvass-covered notebook. It contained Uncle Foster’s daily notes. The fat notebook was about six inches long and four inches wide and had tan lined pages. Kate Cartwright smoothed her hand over the cover and opened it up. . She hadn’t seen one of these little notebooks in years. She stared at her uncle’s scrawling handwriting filling page after page. Auntie Mim always used to tease him that if anyone read what he jotted down, they would think it was the ramblings of a feeble-minded escaped lunatic rather than an intelligent newspaper editor.
All day long, wherever he was, her uncle would write things down on little scraps of paper. Only Foster could make heads or tails of his little lists and snips of papers and receipts he would stuff into his jacket pocket and into his vest. It was his own filing system, he would say. He would jumble together lists of subscribers and notes for editorials and quotes he would find for Reverend Felcher to use in a sermon with cigar bands, bits of string and labels from packing crates. Kate could picture her uncle sitting near her at the white painted kitchen table while she did her homework. Every night he would empty his pockets onto the kitchen table and sort it all out in his little notebook. Foster ordered them from the same company that supplied the newsprint for the paper and each Christmas they would send him an extra dozen wrapped in red paper as a gift. Each time he filled one; Foster Wallace would take a new little notebook from a stack on the creaky wooden shelf that divided the pressroom from the front counter at the Enterprise.
A big pile of notebooks crashed on top of the man who shot him when Kate pushed the shelves on top of him the January night her uncle was murdered. The last time she remembered seeing any of these queer little books was when Little Joe and Phil helped her Aunt clean up the mess after Foster’s funeral. There had been a whole crate of notebooks and Mim had shipped them back to the paper company for a credit on newsprint that they needed at the cash poor newspaper. Kate thumbed through the little notebook looking for something that might be important. She found something but she wasn’t quite sure how to decipher it. Adam or Ben would be able figure it out when they came back.
November 15 Did Newkirk recognize H? Ask if Hays or Noah knew him in NY. Before Dayton was shot, someone shot at Hays and Noah. Does Ben remember? Ask Adam too and Hoss. Dayton killed for land by H. Ask Frank Dayton. Is John Dayton still at Fort Mead with Chadwick? Check deed transfers. Cherry Creek border.
November 30 Buy more ink from Vansant for press. Check Flanagan and Harrison. Deed shows both names. All land on Cherry Creek.
December 3. Snow again. Ask Barbara about Ka-Pusta. Why Flanagan pushes to get Ka-Pusta? Chadwick too. Get Union Pacific map and check the route through Ka-Pusta’s territory.
December 8. Ask Hank and Adam to examine the maps again. Southern boarder of Indian Land goes along Cherry Creek. Roy Coffee, Duprey or Ben may remember. Hank needs to check mineral rights and maps. Adam in SF until next week. Remind Joe to take maps home.
December 10 Harrison and Chadwick both own land in Mass. Harrison and Flanagan Chadwick own mine in SF. Get candles for tree. Katie wants new gloves for Christmas. Opera tickets for January for Hank and Leah. Mim?
December 12.Flanagan and Harrison/ Union Pacific/ Sea Breeze / Captain O’Mara dead. Chadwick at Fort Mead appointed by Flanagan. Deeds in Chadwick name? John Dayton stationed at Fort Mead. Send letter to Dr. Smith. Mim wants paisley shawl. Too sensible.
December 14 Does Chadwick wants Duprey ranch section? Ask Harrison. Contact Dr. Smith when he arrives. Buy Mim shawl and a foolish bonnet.
December 25 Christmas. Good dinner boring sermon tree almost caught fire. Next year fewer candles shorter sermon. Mim hates bonnet loves shawl. She is too practical. Next year we will have more money and less need to be practical.
December 29 Felcher needs better sermons or he will bore us to death by Easter. Cherry Creek Mineral rights, or water, MAPS show the land that the RR wants Cherry Creek right of way. Is Flanagan on the payroll? If Dam passes Harrison and Flanagan will steal from ranchers by flooding them or taking away their water and making their land arid and turn it around to RR.
Jan.4 Check which way Duprey will vote. Bet he will vote for Harrison’s side to spite Ben Cartwright. Tell Phil to order more newsprint and ask for 30-day credit until advertisers pay. Need new press. Check if Bank will make loan.
Chapter 4
“I just checked the stable, Kate. Joe told me before they left that we should continue, um, finish our discussion er conversation we were having. He and Mr. Cartwright must have come back from the jail and left again. The horse and the carriage have been put away and Joe’s suit jacket is laying over one of the partitions. Joe said he was going to …to continue a.. um conversation we were having this morning.” She wasn’t about to tell Katie that she had been waiting to be alone with Joe ever since they got interrupted in his arms this morning. Now Emily was definitely disturbed that he had come back to the house and not even come in to find her. She had imagined Joe and she were coming to some sort of new stage in their slow moving relationship.
“Emily, where do you think they went?”
”I’m not sure. Maybe they took the boys and went down to the pier with Dennis to meet Amanda’s ship. But Joe said he was coming right back to spend some time alone together with me.”
Kate smiled for an instant at the idea of Joe and Emily having some sort of plan to be alone together.
“Excuse me, Mrs. Cartwright,” the butler interrupted walking into the parlor carrying a tray. “A telegram just arrived for Mr. Cartwright.”
”Mr. Cartwright? Which Mr. Cartwright?”
”Mr. Benjamin Cartwright.” He handed the envelope to Katie. “I brought you some lemonade too.”
Kate sighed with relief.” Thank you. Maybe it is from Adam. I can’t believe he left without saying goodbye and is just first sending us a wire.” She tore open the envelope. Emily and the butler could see her face fall. “It’s not from Adam. It’s from Philip Bartlett, back home.” Her hand was shaking as she handed the canary paper to Emily.
Elm Creek
Mr. Benjamin Cartwright, Boston, Mass. Ben Cartwright-The Boston Lawyer is Preston Stop Using Lowell name Stop Letter to follow
Phil Bartlett.
“What does that mean? Preston? Will’s lawyer? “Emily looked at Kate’s distraught expression.
”Ben said that Phil was headed up to Elm Creek for the Massey Auction. Oh my goodness. Andrea’s attorney in Boston is Laurence Preston. Andrea Lowell, that was her name growing up. Andrea Lowell not Cartwright.” Her hand went to her mouth. “They were looking all over for Andrea and she was right here under our noses.” Kate shifted as her baby suddenly gave her a sharp kick. She patted her belly “You miss your Daddy too?” she said to her baby.
Emily’s gray eyes widened. The lawyer that Stoddard and Bruce had been using for decades and the same attorneys who were defending Will Cartwright from murder charges were also the attorneys that Hoss’s widow was using as her agent. Preston, Preston, Mason and Brady was a big firm with lots of clients and no one would ever have connected the widow and the baby with the Cartwrights if she was using her maiden name.
“Preston in Boston and Andrea Lowell. They had said she was in Europe and the lawyer was Preston.” Kate repeated she put the yellow paper back in the envelope. She reached over and took a sip from the frosty glass of lemonade the butler had brought.
Shall I do anything else?” the Butler stood politely waiting.
Suddenly Emily remembered the day she was waiting in the Preston’s office. It was the day she purchased the shirts for Joe and the gloves for the awards dinner. She was waiting for the Cartwrights to finish meeting with Mr. Preston Senior about Will’s defense just as Laurence Jr. had just finished seeing the beautiful red headed widow with the baby. Her husband had been murdered in a bank robbery just before the baby was born. “Kate, does Andrea have red hair?”
“Yes. Red hair. She was in school with Little Joe and me when we were children.” She pulled the telegram out of the envelope and stared at it again as if it would magically make her husband reappear.
“Katie, I saw her.”
”What do you mean?” She put down the glass and stared at her friend.
”I saw her with the baby. Kate, I was in Laurence’s office, just before Independence Day. They were there. A red headed widow who lost her husband in a bank robbery.”
”Hoss was shot protecting Sam from bank robbers.” Kate couldn’t take any more and started to cry. “I’m not waiting any more. Adam is gone and something is dreadfully wrong with this whole thing. And now Joe and Ben and the boys…” the words jumbled out her mouth.
Emily pushed the papers over, sat on the arm of Kate’s chair and wrapped her arms around her. Kate sobbed into her shoulder. “I want to call the sheriff or the constable or the marshal what ever you call them here. Right now. The police.”
”I’ll take care of that immediately, Mrs. Cartwright,” the butler said and he rushed out of the door just as a loud explosion rocked the neighborhood.
Chapter 5
Two crowded hacks tried to pass the knot of congestion and a small child hollered out the window.” Mama what is going on?”
“Hush Ethel” said Amanda O’Mara. “Curiosity killed the cat and hollering from a carriage is very déclassé”
Dennis O’Mara and two of his sons climbed out of the crowded hack and tried to see what was holding them up. Dennis had spent all morning rounding up his wife and children and her guest, Dr. Smith from the pier where their ship had docked. It took close to an hour trying to sort through who was riding in what hack going home and who was riding in the hack with Andrea Lowell and her baby. Ethel set up quite a fuss wanting to be with the baby and finally Dennis got furious. He just scooped her up and started ordering everyone about. Junior and the other young man, Red, or Billy or William or whatever his name was would go with Andrea and take her to her appointment down town. He left Francis with the luggage and the trunks, jammed a wad of bills into his hand and ordered him to arrange to get it all home. Then he swung a wailing Ethel over his shoulders and crowded the rest of the group in two more hacks and headed home.
Now they were almost home and there is a yelling, screaming mob surging not a block from his house.
A large crowd of interested onlookers had, by now, gathered on the sidewalk in the drizzle. The explosion of Old man Preston’s cannon and a round of what seemed to be rifle shots had rocked them all from their luncheon tables and quiet afternoon chores. All over the neighborhood, people emptied from their homes and ran toward the Stoddard house and the abandoned construction site.
”Do you think the explosion had something to do with the work men building the new house?” asked Mrs. Jansen. “Were they using dynamite?”
“I don’t think so. There doesn’t seem to be anyone working there right now,” responded her housekeeper as they walked briskly toward the Stoddard house.
As they got closer, the woman could see a crowd of people in front of the old Stoddard house. A knot of burly workmen was in the center of the confusion. They were shouting and pounding on the front door of the austere house. One red headed man pitched a badly aimed brick angrily at the wall just missing the front window.
“Cartwright! Get out here now and fight like a man. You one armed son of Queen Victoria!” a man bellowed.
An all out shouting-match in the middle of the street was an event not to be missed in the quiet upper crust neighborhood and add into it the men bellowing outside the old Stoddard house, the sight of the murder by the notorious William Cartwright. The men were hollering for Cartwright to come out side and fight. Had Will Cartwright escaped from jail? What indeed was going on?
“What is all this commotion?” Mrs. Jansen turned toward her neighbor Mrs. Preston who had come strolling down the street with her grandson, Laurence III in a wicker pram.
“I have no idea but I do hope the constabulary appears to quell this dreadful racket. I am expecting my daughter and daughter-in law for tea any moment and this certainly is disconcerting.” Just at that moment Mr. Jansen rode up the street in his surrey and seeing his way was blocked parked between his home and the Stoddard house tying the team at the iron hitching post that was mounted at the curb on a block of granite. Spotting his wife and housekeeper in the crowd he briskly walked over to the gathering crowd. More people started spilling out into the street from houses all up and down the street.
The front door swung open and the angry workmen rushed inside the Stoddard house like a pack of barking wild dogs. ”Joe Cartwright! Get out here and fight!”
Chapter 6
At the direction of Ted Flanagan, Simone had taken the Cartwrights out of the coal bin and brought them upstairs to the main floor of the house.
Flanagan was waiting upstairs in the bedroom and had told Wilkes Smith to question them and find out how much indeed they knew about what was going on. If all the Cartwrights knew was the disgusting relationship between Smith and Laura and the set up of Will Cartwright, Ted Flanagan was home free. Let the cards fall where they may and if that Boston tight ass womanizer Wilkes Harrison Smith swung from a noose, so be it. As long as he left his vixen behind for Flanagan.
“Maybe,” Flanagan thought, he could get the entire mess pinned on Wilkes Smith. And perhaps this blonde Laura Cartwright would find a former territorial governor more to her liking than Smith or her jailbird husband. After all, Flanagan decided, despite being considerably older than Laura, he was a well to do man and on the board of the railroad and well connected in fine society in Boston. Laura would look very lovely on his arm at the opera opening this fall. And he thought she was giving him the eye last evening at dinner. She was flirting with him right in front of Wilkes.
Flanagan needed to know if would get away with all this. If any of the Cartwrights had somehow seen him or connected him to this whole mess, Flanagan would have to deal with his old friend, Ben and his sons in a more permanent fashion. A shame but a man has to do what a man has to do to make his way in the world.
In the midst of this whole disturbance Flanagan and his guards caught some neighbor boy poking his nose around the back yard. The boy wouldn’t even tell them his full name and would only say that his name was Sam. Now the boy sat upstairs locked in the attic until he figured out what he should do next.
Chapter 7
With luck, in the opinion of Ben Cartwright, it might even come to blows. If it did, maybe he and his sons could escape from their captivity in the Stoddard house. Just as the guards took the three of them at gunpoint upstairs to the foyer the workmen forced their way into the house calling for Joe. Then they all started fighting. This whole thing was getting more outrageous. It might just come to blows.
Certainly it looked as if it could, with the two of them standing toe-to-toe glaring at each other. Snake wouldn’t retreat from prison guard Simone. If the bricklayers started pounding their captors, maybe the Cartwrights could break away and get out the back door.
“Adam, Joe, watch for your chance to high tail it out of here if you get the chance.” Ben directed. “Even if only one of us breaks away, he can go for help.”
Snake’s breath was rank in Oakland’s face. “We want Joe Cartwright and we know he is here, Bucko.” Disgusted, the angry guard pushed him away. The bricklayer pushed back, harder. Both huge hands shoved against the burly guards chest.
The guard swung the first punch but the bricklayer ducked and shoved past him. He grabbed Ben Cartwright and shoved him aside to get to Joe. He punched Joe in the chest and Cartwright crashed into Oakland. Joe swung his cast at Simone and knocked him into the corner of the wall. His pistol clattered across the floor and under the hall console table.
The infuriated guard was knocked off his feet and into Danny Sullivan who hit him with a sharp left. Ben scrambled to his feet and ducked as Snake flew at him .The bricklayer missed Ben and crashed heavily into the round table in the middle of the hall. The table overturned and the crystal vase of flowers crashed to the floor. A pool of water and shattered glass spread on the polished floor.
Sullivan brought his fist up in an uppercut designed to take Oakland’s head off. It connected, quite solidly, with Oakland’s face and lifted him off his flat feet. Oakland staggered for his balance as he skidded on the spilled water. The skin over Oakland’s cheekbone had split and in a moment there was blood on his face and on his shirtfront. Oakland was enraged as he regained his feet and lunged for Sullivan. Other men scattered out of the way as the two men started to trade blows. The angry guard leaped forward with a killer’s gleam in his beady blood shot eyes. He stalked over to where Snake was standing and unloaded a roundhouse right at Snake’s head. Snake saw the punch coming and ducked. Simone’s fist crashed into Danny Sullivan ripping a gash in Sullivan’s forehead followed by a right uppercut that sent him spinning around and onto the floor. Snake threw a punch at Oakland and knocked him against the wall with a resounding thud.
Ben pulled Joe back by his shirt and said, “Watch for a way out of here.” He was fearful that Joe would once again get seriously hurt and all surgery would have been wasted.
“Who are you to hurt my cousin you damn blaggard!” Snake leaped on Simone’s back and Danny Sullivan pounded him from the front. One of the other bricklayers swung at Joe and he took heavy punch on the mouth that split both his lip and the attackers knuckles. Joe pulled out of his father’s grasp and landed a solid blow with his left hand that sent Oakland sprawling backwards into a table. Adam grabbed Oakland by the collar and swung him into the third heavyset bricklayer who punched him in the face.
Adam drove a left hard into Oakland’s midsection. “You son of bitch. Get off my brother. You thought you could throw me into a cellar for two days.” He punched Oakland in the face. “And this is for my cousin.” Adam hit him with a hard left and then a second blow with his right fist.
The guard absorbed the blow with his stomach and swung a right and a left at Adam’s jaw that knocked him backwards onto the floor again and into Danny Sullivan.
”Let me at that Joe Cartwright!” the third bricklayer hollered as he swung at Simone. Wilkes Harrison Smith who was running down the hall towards the rear of the house. Smith had heard the commotion and gone to see what was happening. As soon as he saw the brawl in the foyer he spun on his heels and ran down the hallway. Adam scrambled to his feet and gave chase skidding down the hall.
Joe’s fist grazed the top of Oakland’s head and he swung his cast into his gut. Danny Sullivan saw that Simone was coming at him again. Before Simone could reach him, Joe regained his feet then lowered his head and rushed Simone, knocking him backwards onto the console. There was a cracking sound of splintered wood as the front of the console collapsed beneath the force of their momentum and weight. Simone struggled to his feet and charged at one of the bricklayers. Ben grabbed Joe a second time and shoved him into a corner and stood blocking him from any attacker.
”Stop fighting Joseph before you get hurt again.” Ben bellowed. “Right now!”
Just at that moment a huge explosion crashed into the back of the house as Sam and Robert shot off the Preston ‘s cannon. The sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the house. Smoke and the smell of gunpowder wafted from the rear of the Stoddard House.
Suddenly, the front door burst open and four blue coated Boston Police officers pushed through the door way.
“Hold it!” The sergeant bellowed waving his pistol. “All of you ruffians freeze where you are or I’ll run you all in for disturbing the peace or shoot you right here,”
“That won’t be necessary, officer.” Ben Cartwright started stepping forward away from Joe. He put a hand briefly on the sergeant’s blue shoulder, taking it away quickly when the officer glared at him.
”Mind your own business, Pal and get back with the rest of the hooligans.” He gestured at the coal-blackened rancher with his pistol.
“Maybe I’m making it my business,” Ben bellowed. “These men have been holding me and my sons here against our will. I’m Benjamin Cartwright.”
Oakland jumped forward and he swung at Ben’s head. Another officer grabbed the prison guard roughly from behind and held him back.
Joe found himself face to face with Snake Sullivan. The enraged bricklayer was a good fifty pounds heavier than Joe and was ready to swing at him.
One of the officers was caught in the narrowing space between the two angry men, put one restraining hand against each man’s chest. “Now, you two jest quiet down an’ listen to the sergeant,” He looked from one furious face to the other.
Snake bristled automatically at his tone and stepped up close. “And who are you siding with this feller Joe Cartwright?”
Joe flashed Snake his best smile,” It’s good to see you boys again!” The rowdy workmen had unwittingly freed the Cartwrights from their captors. Snake being totally unaware of what was going on in the Stoddard house just assumed Joe Cartwright was being sarcastic and challenging him to another fight. He lurched forward.
“I don’t want no more a’ this.” The policeman ordered grabbing Snakes arm.
“This feller said that the Irish is the curse of Boston. Did you hear me?” Snake pulled himself out of the officer’s grasp and lunged again at Joe Cartwright. Snake swung at him and Joe, knowing his father would kill him if he continued fighting, ducked as the officer caught the blow on his chin.
“You hate the Irish, do ye?” and Snake finally grabbed the front of Joe’s blackened shirt and smashed him with a straight left that caught him full in the mouth and knocked the him backwards into one of the officers. Joe wiped the blood out of his mouth and staggered to his feet just as the front heavy front door crashed open.
Two more blue-coated Boston police officers pulled out their pistols and shot a warning shot into the ceiling. The sergeant shouted, “Now, all of you freeze just where you are.” His men started sorting out the men in what was the bizarre combination of a brawl in the middle of one of the finest homes in the city.
“Now you,” he gestured at Ben Cartwright. “What’s going on here? We got a call from Mrs. Cartwright around the corner saying that her husband and his brother and father were missing and had been seen going into this house.”
Ben sighed with relief and stepped forward. He was covered with black coal dust and his suit was torn. “I’m Ben Cartwright, Officer, these men were holding me and my sons against our will in this house.” He gestured at Simone and Oakland.
The sergeant stepped forward and the other officers shoved the two guards against the wall and the officers handcuffed them.
Continue on to Battle of Wills Part 15
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