I understood that the steps I took led me to where I ended up. Where I ended up wasn't always where I started out to go. It took a long time for me to learn that. Samuel was taking steps for reasons I didn't know. His steps would take him to where he would end up. Neither of us knew where his steps would take him. I had no idea where he wanted to go.

Samuel was beaten by a brute, and he'd been shot, if he thought practicing his quick draw would keep it from happening again, good for him. I saw no problem with wanting to be able to defend himself. He was doing what he needed to do. I merely wished he could do it without a waist gun being involved.

When he wore the gunslinger rig to the firepit to eat, I did mention that. I acted like I wasn't looking at him when I spoke. It wasn't a criticism as much as it was an observation.

"Sammy Boy, we're all friends here, we don't come to supper armed," I said.

He walked back behind the wagon before returning without his waist gun.

I handled the meat the way I always did it, tossing a choice piece of fat in the air toward Demon. Like magic, it disappeared instantly. It could have dropped on the ground, but Demon saw it got nowhere near the ground. He was a wolf after all.

*****

Because the horses hadn't pulled the wagon in several months, I let them run a bit on the way to Denver. They spent their time grazing in the lush meadow that ran along the stream that fed the pond they drank from. They were better rested than I was, and I didn't like leaving John alone. Demon stayed with him, so he really wasn't alone.

Once Samuel walked out to check the trail for anyone coming, he waved me on, before he climbed back up on the wagon seat. I started the horses off at a trot. By the time we'd gone a mile or two, I let them run a while. They'd be back to grazing at their leisure once we returned from Denver. They didn't need much encouragement to stretch their legs and run

I hadn't gotten my strength back yet, since the shooting. Luckily I didn't need to do anything that required stamina. I rode Dobbin out to where we were surveying, and it was mostly flat land. We did work long hours but that didn't bother me that much.

I'd made a promise to Running Horse, and I would not go back on my word. I'd see him sometime in the spring. I didn't waste any time getting the survey done. I wanted to leave nothing to chance.

I took a day to go see if I could find more rocks that looked like there was ore in them. Mostly I picked these up on the floor of several caves we'd located. Samuel went with me and he offered to carry my burlap bag of rocks.

Sammy Boy was a big help to me. I didn't mention my weakened state of mind, but as time went on, his healing progressed better than my own. I remembered a time when I wasn't sure Samuel would live. He did live and he'd grown as tall as I was. Putting on weight didn't go as well as his growing taller. He was still very thin. He was becoming a man.

Samuel still had a bit of a limp. He'd taken a lot longer to heal because he hadn't used his muscles for so many months, but my paw gave him chores to do that helped him recover his balance and agility. He'd responded slowly as I was walking each day and I watched for Running Horse when I went to the river where there was a view of the trail west of the cabin.

Once Samuel began walking with me, I felt better. Seeing him respond and making the effort to come all the way back helped me come back as far as I did. His silence bothered me and both John and I talked to him like he was responding to us, but for the longest time he didn't talk, ask what happened to him, or ask where he was.

The day Running Horse came was the day Samuel said his first words. For the first time since Samuel joined our survey team, he was a chatterbox. He wanted to know where he was, what had happened to lay him low, and he wanted to know when we were going to start moving again.

He did remember we moved every day after we first found him. The further we moved away from his tormentor, the better he liked it. The closer I was to Running Horse, the better I liked it. I knew I'd finish healing when I was back in Running Horse's arms, Samuel's healing was more complicated than mine. He was younger than I was, and life's experiences made a larger impression on him because he hadn't lived very long.

Samuel, after being shot, was different than the boy we found. He hadn't mentioned Nester or his beatings. He couldn't see his back and the evidence Nester left there. It was my hope he'd forget Nester was ever in his life. It was only a hope.

How does a boy forget the man who beat him with a bullwhip?

I wish I could forget Nester. I wish I could forget how much I wanted to kill him that day almost two years before. I hadn't forgotten him. If I saw him… well, it wouldn't go well for either of us if I ever ran into him again. I saw Samuel's back, and I wanted to kill the man who did that to him. I didn't like feeling that way, but that's how I felt.

Like with so much of what I could control, Nester wasn't one of them, and when push came to shove, I wasn't able to protect Sammy Boy when Nester reentered his life, but that's getting a bit ahead of when we were heading to Denver. Heading to Denver, I knew all the steps I would take to get where I wanted to go. My life was suddenly predictable, or so I thought.

It sounded easy when I said it, but all steps aren't equal, and the trail is rarely smooth.

Samuel wanted to go with me to Denver, and John had no interest in leaving Paradise Valley. It's another reason why I let the horses run a bit. I didn't want to be gone any longer than the three days I told John we'd be away. I planned to return sooner than I told him.

It was a day to Denver, we'd spend a day doing business and we'd leave for home on the second day, and finish the trip back on the third day. By leaving Denver on the second afternoon, and letting the horses run, we'd camp a few hours from home the second night.

*****

It was a quiet ride into Denver. Samuel had gotten being a chatterbox out of his system, and he was back to hardly speaking. He stopped being jumpy before the incident at the cabin on the mountain, and after getting all the information he wanted, once his brain caught up with his surroundings, he knew all he wanted to know.

This was how it went up until the time before the surveying was done, and when we took the trip into town to get our goods and for me to send a message to Dan to alert him about the progress we were making and my plan to see him in the spring.

I gave Dan the information John wanted to go to George. I mentioned he'd found the horse ranch he wanted to buy, but I wasn't giving him the location of the property. I'd bring that with me when I came east.

"Phillip," Jack Armstrong, the assayer said as I stepped inside the assay office with my bag of rocks. "How's the surveying business today."

"Going tolerably well, Jack," I said.

"Is that sack for me?"

"Yeah," I said. "Want to know what I'm looking at," I told the assayer.

I let the rocks spill out on the counter. It looked like a lot of rocks had been dropped there.

"You won't be happy until I do my assaying thing. I can tell you what you got here," he said.

"Do the assaying thing. I want to know if there's gold or anything else in the rocks."

"Where'd you collect these, Phillip?" he asked, seeming to know what he was looking at.

"On the land I'm surveying. I picked them up there."

He looked at me as soon as I said it. He didn't believe me, and he was the assayer.

"So these are 1st National Bank's rocks?" he asked.

"Does it matter who the rocks belong to?" I wanted Jack to give thought to what I wanted.

He may know that these particular rocks didn't come from any particular place, but I wanted him to know that I wasn't giving up the location where they came from. Jack seemed like an honest fellow, but that's how a lot of folks got taken.

If someone acts and talks like a crook, you aren't about to trust them. I trusted Jack. He knew I wasn't giving him the straight scoop. I really didn't mind.

"No. No. If someone owns the land, they need to know how their rocks assay out is all," he told me with suspicion in his voice.

He glanced from the rocks to my face and then back to the rocks.

I understood he dealt with men who would do anything to get their hands on gold. I wasn't a man who had any use for gold, but I wasn't going to lead anyone to Paradise Valley, and that might appear to be me trying to keep secret the location of a gold mine. I imagine miners who struck gold were reluctant to tell anyone where he struck it.

How do you know who you can trust if you're sitting on a gold mine?

"They're property of the 1st National Bank. I want to know what they own before I wire them."

"I can tell you what you have here," he said.

"Assay them, Jack. I need to give the bank a proper reading on those rocks."

"Of course. We'll know in a minute," he told me.

Reaching under the counter, Jack Armstrong came out with a bottle the size of the eye drop bottle my mother used on her eyes. It had an eyedropper inside, and he squeezed the rubber nipple on top before the dropper came out of the bottle.

Starting with the largest rock, he put a drop of liquid on the yellow seam on three of them.

"What do you see?" Jack asked me.

"A wet stain on the yellow streak," I told him what I saw.

"You see how it just sits there, nothing is happening."

"Yes," I said.

Samuel leaned in to look at the liquid on each rock.

"It's gold," the assayer said.

"It's not doing anything," I said.

"No, and if it did start to bubble and react to the drop of acid, it isn't gold. Gold does not react to the acid. It's that dense. A solid mineral like gold can be that dense."

"Go figure," I said, learning as I went along.

"I'll give you twenty bucks for all of these rocks, if you want to get paid what they're worth."

"How much gold do you figure you'll get out of these rocks?" I asked, not being born yesterday.

"Forty to fifty dollars worth. I'll have to get the gold out of the rock, and for that I get the lions share of what you got here. You couldn't get the gold out if you tried. There is a process in removing gold from the rock. A mining operation requires a lot of equipment and a fair amount of knowledge, and you don't have either."

"No, I suppose I couldn't get the gold out. Do all the rocks contain that amount of gold. Twenty dollars for the lot?" I asked him.

"I'll gamble there's forty or fifty dollars worth. A little more a little less."

"So if I brought you a ton or two of these, we'd be talking a piece of change?"

"Hard to say how rich they'd be by limited samples. You got these from two or three different places, didn't you?"

"How do you know that? You're right, but how can you tell?"

"The rocks are different. The geologic structure of rock gives an indication of the location it came from. I've seen rocks brought from all over this country. I can identify the approximate location of rocks like these. Not always, but most times I can take a good guess."

"You know these didn't come from 1st National's land holdings?"

"West of their property. Doesn't have to be far west, but the land east of the trail has no mineral deposits of any magnitude that have been found. There are plenty of folks looking."

"You know this because of being an assayer?"

"You need to know something about minerals. Gold is a stable element, when some minerals aren't as stable. The first way to check to see if you have gold is the acid test. I didn't need to test it because I've seen a million of these rocks, these look like kind that contains a modest amount of gold. I'd need a lot more rocks to tell you how valuable the ore is. These samples only tell me there is some gold in these particular rocks. You need to mine forty or fifty pounds from one spot and keep those rocks separate from another forty or fifty pounds from each location you're mining. Is that what you really want to know?"

"Yes. How do I get fifty pounds of rocks from each site?"

"How many sites are we talking about?"

"How do I get forty or fifty pounds of rocks from a location?"

Jack laughed.

He reached under the counter and brought out what looked like a miniature pick you could hold in your hand.

"You use this on a wall where you are seeing if the rocks contain gold. If they contain gold, and you bring me the amount I said, I can tell how much a ton or ore from that location might be worth. It's not exact, but it gives me a good idea of the value of the ore."

"Do you have another one?" I asked.

He reached under the counter and brought out a second miniature pick.

"How much for both of these?" I asked.

"Trade you your rocks for my picks," he said.

"Expensive little suckers, ain't they?"

"Denver is a boom town. Everything is more expensive here. The men who sell mining equipment to the men who mine claims, make a hell of a lot more money than most miners will ever make."

I laughed.

"Why tell me all of this? I don't know anything about gold. You could just shine me on."

"You're the man with the rocks. I got no reason to lie to you. It's a lot easier to tell the truth than it is to make something up to sidetrack you. You're going to do what you're going to do, and I'm going to be here when you have enough rocks to tell me what your mine is worth."

"I'll take the two picks. You keep the rocks. Once I take time out from doing my survey, I'll bring you enough rocks to tell you something. You say forty or fifty pounds?"

"More if you can. Keep each site where you get rocks separate from other sites. That way I can give you a better estimate at which ore is richest. Use a separate sack for each location," Jack Armstrong told me.

"That's no problem," I said.

"I'll be here, Phillip. Remember what I told you. Few men who come to mine gold end up getting rich. I'm not rich, but I do okay because so many men think they'll get rich. I just happened to be handy when Denver decided it needed a city assayer. It's a good job to have in a mining town."

"I got no interest in getting rich, Jack. I just want to know what's out there."

"Be careful, Phillip. Lots of men are looking for a sucker to take for whatever he has found. There are bad men every bit as greedy as the miners, only the bad men don't want to work to get rich. They would just as soon take it away from someone else who does the work."

"I've heard stories about boomtowns," I said. "I should be carrying my waist gun, but I hardly ever remember to put it on. Don't care for guns."

"That would be a smart move. All kinds come here for different reasons, but they all figure on getting rich one way or another. They've found dead men in some of those mines. They didn't get that way from mining. Someone put a bullet in them, and once the mine is worked out, and the claim jumpers are long gone, someone looking for gold in places where gold has been found find the body."

"I haven't heard those stories," I said.

"Miners come to town after striking it big. They spend money like it's going out of style, and someone sees them, thinks they're a good place to start looking for gold, and the miner isn't seen again. They held one old boy up in the Astor for two weeks, waiting for him to give up the location of his mine when he showed up at the saloon with his pocket full of hundred dollar bills. They found him alive, he told his story."

"You make gold mining sound like a matter of life and death," I said.

"There are a thousand miners up in those hills. A few get taken, but they do get taken, and you need to know to be careful while you're in town. Bad guys aren't always smart, but they can be deadly if they surprise you. Wear your gun when you come to town, especially if younare bringing ore here. They don't merely want the ore. They want to know where you got it."

*****

I left the assay office to go to the general store. We needed to put in plenty of goods to last for the winter. No telling what kind of weather we might get. Samuel was helping the stock clerk load the wagon while I went to get a few things and settle up with the proprietor.

"I need some pitch, a half dozen short wooden handles, and some type of cloth. Not good cloth. Just some ordinary cheap cloth."

"You want to make torches. You got yourself a mine? You want to get some samples?"

"Something like that. Do you have those items?"

"Sure. One of my best sellers. I have handles with the cloth already on them. I sell pitch by the buckets. Usually two torches will keep most miners going for most of an afternoon. Let your torch soak in the pitch. They'll burn longer if you soak the torches."

"Half a dozen and two buckets of pitch. Add that to my total. Oh, add a box of .45 shells."

Once I settled up with the proprietor, I asked where he would eat if he were in town for an afternoon before taking the trail north out of town.

"Mamacita's. Best food in Denver if you ask me, but Mamacita is my sister-in-law. I'm forced to say that when anyone asks," he quipped.

I laughed.

"The food is good. I wouldn't send anyone to a place I wouldn't eat, no matter who owns it."

"That good, huh?"

"Best food in town according to Mamacita," he said again. "Straight down Halifax to the trail north, turn south. Mamacita's is a mile down on the left. Room for wagons in the back.

It didn't look like much on the outside. It was older than most of the newer buildings with fresh wood apparent on mostly unpainted outsides, which indicated how new they were.

Mamacita's was old.

Mamacita came to the table to thank us for stopping. She had a big Mexican smile and a relaxed manner.

"The food is good for you?" she asked with concern.

"Wonderful. Compliments to Mamacita," I said. "Her brother-in-law at the general store sent us here."

"You are speaking to Mamacita, and she must get back to catch up with my orders. Enjoy your meal. Come back to see us while you're in town."

She turned and went back to the kitchen.

I watched Samuel packing it away. He didn't eat as much as he once did, but I could tell by the way he was eating, this was good food to him. He watched other people deftly use tortillas to mop up juices and collect choice morsels that were quick to disappear.

He copied what he saw. I used my fork to do the same thing, and I mopped up juices with a tortilla. Samuel's technique was far more efficient than mine, but if I tried it, I'd be wearing the juices instead of enjoying the tortilla with my food.

"Great food. We'll need to remember this place, Sammy Boy. John would like this."

"Mmmm," Samuel said. "I sure like it. This is good eating."

We were on the trail later in the afternoon, and I didn't rush the horses. We'd done our business and we'd get far enough up the trail to be to the valley shortly after noon the next day. I'd let the horses run a bit tomorrow. They no longer had to keep walking day in and day out. Once back in Paradise Valley, they'd have a life of leisure.

*****

Now that we had torches, The first thing I wanted to do was explore the cave with the big chamber. I was curious about it. It's where Demon got lost for quite a while. It was interesting enough that he hadn't come right back when I started down off the cliffs.

Demon was right beside me when I climbed back up to the mouth of the cave. I lit the first torch and I had another one in my backpack. I brought one of the picks, but this wasn't a gather rocks trip. This was a take a look see trip. I wanted to see where the cave went.

Demon took off again. The torch didn't offer enough light to see where he got off to. He was heading across the chamber, and I could hear him for a minute or two, but whatever was back there, I didn't want to check out on this trip. I was more exploring for places where I could take the ore that I'd need for Jack to give me a reading on how much gold was here.

I backed up and found an easier way to go. It was directly off to the left right after I stepped into the mouth of the cave. It looked like a rock face, but there was a wide open area once you got to the rock I could see from the mouth of the cave, there was a space big enough to walk through. I needed to duck at first, but then, it opened up and the torch lit the area fine.

As I moved deeper into the cave beside the huge chamber at the entrance, this was more like what I expected a cave to look like. It would be easy to chip rock out of these walls.

It got bigger as I walked. I moved slowly. I could only see a short way ahead of me. I kept expecting a turn or change of some kind the further I went, but it stayed fairly consistent. As I checked my torch to be sure I wasn't going to lose my light source.

Demon caught up with me about that time. I could hear him panting. As I touched him with my hand, he was wet. I'd seen no sign of water and Demon went toward the back of the big chamber. It was far too big to think rocks there might contain useful ore. It's not a place I wanted to dig in, not knowing how easily the roof of the chamber might be brought down. I was curious about what might be back there besides water. It would need further investigation, but not now.

"Where have you been?" I asked.

He still wasn't talking.

I figured we had left the entrance about a half an hour before. I ran the torch up and down the wall to see what it looked like. It looked like a lot of rocks had been piled on top of each other. I checked as I walked back the way I came. I might see where that section of the cave went to another day.

I didn't want to use the extra torch if I didn't need to. I could make handles to wrap cloth on by cutting a branch for the handle. There was plenty of cloth and more than enough pitch.

When I mined the forty or fifty pounds of rocks, it was going to require plenty of light. I didn't want to get to picking at the wall of the cave and have it collapse on me. This trip was to give me some idea of where I would collect the rocks.

I got back to the campsite in time to watch Samuel cleaning two rabbits up for me to put over the firepit. Both were a good size and we'd be able to eat on rabbit for a couple of days. As soon as Demon smelled the rabbit meat, he took off and beat me back in time to eat some of the remains of the rabbit I wouldn't cook. Demon was efficient that way.

It was his appetizer. He would get his share of cooked meat and bones, and we'd still have enough meat left for a day or two. I pondered what I had seen and what I wanted to do about taking Jack Armstrong rocks from the cave I spent time in. I intended to look at other openings in the cliff I could see once I climbed up to the cave with the chamber inside. They all might not be caves, but where there was one cave, I suspected there would be more.

John had taken the cups and dishes to give them a good rinse in the stream, and when he came back he had that worried look he gets on his face. It didn't take long for me to get the low down on what was bothering him this time.

"He's back there practicing his fast draw."

"Leave it alone, John. It's his gun and he gets to do what he wants with it. You want to go back there and tell him you aren't going to let him do that? Maybe go take the gun away from him like some angry mother finding their kid with a cigarette."

I knew he wasn't going to do that, and that slowed him down a little. We ran into trouble on trails we went down. Creating trouble seemed like a big waste of time and energy.

"You didn't watch him get shot. I did. I didn't like it much. If he hadn't had that gun, he wouldn't have gone to the door to stand by you, Phillip. I watched both of you get shot."

'You told me it was his bullets in those two men that came to kill us along with Trag. Where do you suppose you'd be if Samuel hadn't had the gun. Those three would have come into the cabin to make sure we were all dead. They wouldn't want to leave any witnesses."

"Witness what?" Samuel asked, still wearing the gunslinger rig.

It was after supper and I would leave well enough alone.

"Witness you eat five pounds of rabbit for supper," I said.

"Did not. Didn't eat more than four pounds. It was good. Any left?"

I reached down to throw him a chunk of the meat I was smoking."

He caught it and began to chew the dried meat.

Demon watched him with anticipation, and Samuel tossed him the last two bites.

Demon made one bite out of it.

In spite of John worrying about things he couldn't do anything about, we were making the most of our time in paradise. We'd become a family, and now I began to worry about John, the horse ranch, Sammy Boy, and Running Horse. We were heading toward a collision and I didn't know what that looked like. Samuel and John were family. So was Running Horse.

When I went home to Running Horse, John was going to want to go to his horse ranch. I thought Samuel would stay with me, when John left, but I wasn't sure. The Pawnee village and the horse ranch weren't separated by that much, but it would take more than a day to get from one place to the other.

When I was alone, and before meeting up with Running Horse at my father's farm, I didn't have anything to worry about. John backed me up more than once, and he'd saved my life at least twice. I told Samuel I'd never let anyone beat him again, but my past got him shot. That bothered me. I felt responsible for both of my companions. That worried me.

I didn't use to worry. Things were what they were, and I was satisfied to let them be. As I recovered at the family farm, I worried I wouldn't recover. I worried I wouldn't see Running Horse again. I worried that I was no longer able to take care of Samuel and John. They both trusted me, and I worried I could no longer protect them.

I never could protect them in spite of putting myself in a position where I thought I could.

John had always been the worrier until now.

All the worry in the world didn't change anything, but I still worried. I felt weaker than I felt before. I once more felt as though a piece of me was missing. I couldn't identify what that piece was, but it was an important piece, and I knew where to find it.

Once I found it, what did I do about the life I was willing to leave behind?

It had been six months since I watched Running Horse ride out of my life again. It was more difficult than the day I rode away from him and from being Pawnee. If I wanted to live, I had to run and run I did. I'd spent a third of my life running, and I was still a wanted man.

Phillip Dubois wasn't a wanted man, Tall Willow was. Where had Tall Willow gone?

If I hadn't told Dan I'd do the Denver survey for him, I might have ridden off with Running Horse back in May. Dan wasn't the only thing that kept me from going home with my lover. I had a responsibility to John and Samuel. They had become part of my life. We had not talked about their place in my life. When I returned to Running Horse, decisions would need to be made. How John and Samuel reacted wasn't something I could predict. I would rather not lose them.

John had found his horse ranch. It was an hour horseback ride from Paradise Valley, but it was many hours horseback ride to the Pawnee Village. I had no desire to part with John or Samuel. The way Sammy Boy felt about Indians, he'd be right at home at the village.

More like a son, Samuel depended on me to be a rock he could lean on. John was more like my earth brother who walked beside me through adventures we'd shared for years. We didn't share the same blood, but we shared our lives. Samuel's feelings for John were almost as strong as his feelings for me. While John might be satisfied to be on his horse farm, while I was in the Pawnee village, I wasn't as sure about Samuel.

Family does split up, moving in different directions. We'd each make decisions about what was right for us. What was right for me was returning to Running Horse. John would send for Barnaby and take responsibility for him. Perhaps Barnaby and Samuel would become friends, which might change minds about who lives where.

My heart was in Paradise Valley. I wanted to own it. It seemed a perfect place to live. I couldn't live with Running Horse and live in Paradise Valley, but we could visit from time to time. I would seek to preserve it, but all beautiful places seemed to fall victim to western expansion. Sooner than later, the valley would be discovered, and once it was, its beauty would fall victim to the need for progress that I hoped wouldn't come.

Sitting around the firepit in Paradise Valley, these things came to mind. It all hinged on Dan's ability to buy my valley and John's. We weren't able to do that until my trip to St Louis. Making plans before we secured the land was foolish. I wasn't the only one thinking about what the future might hold.

"I'll need to find a way to build a cabin for us to live in, I figure I have plenty of time."

"We'll finish surveying in February, weather permitting. Don't want to be traveling in February. It'll take a couple of weeks to get the paperwork done. Maybe."

"I thought you might want to help me build my cabin," John said.

"I'll help, but after we go to St Louis. I want to go with Pop."

"If he can't secure the land, you're building a cabin for someone else. We'll make sure you get the cabin built," I said. "That's not a problem. I did wire Dan from Denver. I told him I was coming east with the survey Robby started and I finished. I told him you'd found your horse ranch. He'd need to get with George to buy it. I'm sure he'll advise George," I said. "You can take a trip into Denver and wire George about Barnaby. If we're going to be in St Louis in the spring, we can meet him when we go to meet Dan. That will save him from taking a stagecoach out of St Louis. We know what that trip is like."

"He'll need a horse. Me with a horse ranch and no horses, besides Chestnut."

"We've got to take the rocks I haven't mined yet to the assay office. Once I do that, there is nothing to do but finish the survey and take what I need with me to St Louis."

"By that time, we'll figure out if you want to stay in Paradise Valley or on the horse ranch. We'll build the cabin once the surveying is done, weather permitting . We can at least get a room bult with a fireplace that gives you shelter."

"If you're going to St Louis in March, I'll have George put Barnaby on a stage to St Louis to come back with you. That's if George even knows where Barnaby is, and if he still wants to come west to live on a horse ranch. He's seventeen now. I was well on my way to being a land speculator when I was seventeen," John said. "Barnaby could be anywhere."

"We've got time to work out a plan. If you want me to bring Barnaby back with me from St Louis, that's what I'll do. It won't be easy going on a tenderfoot. Make sure he knows what he's getting himself into. I'm not good at being nursemaid to a nearly grown man. I would bet the boy was never on a horse before."

"As I recall, he's pretty mature, and that's from going on three years ago. I can't imagine him being a handful. I don't even know if he wants to come here. I'll wire George and tell him what I plan to do if Barnaby is interested. I can ride to Denver and back in two days."

"Can't imagine he wouldn't want to get out of that city. There are too many people and way too much horseshit for a country boy," I told John.

We all rode to Denver, and stayed at the Astoria Hotel and Bar. John sent his message, which I didn't see, and we rode back to Paradise Valley the next day, after having a fine supper and a fancy breakfast with fresh fruit and homemade biscuits.

*****

Barnaby strolled into the 1st National Bank's offices and took a seat beside Oliver, the only messenger not out on a job.

"Barnaby," the man at the clerk's desk said, as he held up a note.

Barnaby just came in from a run across town, and he hoped to rest a few minutes, but as he read the note, he looked up toward George's office and sighed.

He climbed the steps with an extra effort needed to get the last few behind him. He went into George's office and dropped down on the chair across from his boss's desk.

"Barnaby, can't you sit up?"

"No. I've been across town and back since eight this morning."

"It's after ten. You been lollygagging again?"

"You left a note for me to see you, George. You're seeing me."

"Oh, yes, this came this morning. Benji picked it up at Western Union."

Barnaby took the telegram from George, sitting back down to read it. It was a good thing he was sitting down, because he might have fallen down when he read the words.

"We'll notify you in March before leaving Denver. Put Barnaby on a stage to St Louis if he is still interested in living on a Colorado horse ranch."

Barnaby jumped out of the chair and said, "Yes."

George had been worried that he'd lose Barnaby now that John found the place where he wanted his horse ranch. He'd been gone three years, and while he'd telegrammed George the year before, it was still against all odds he'd find the horse ranch now that he'd gotten well again. Benji was a little hustler, and Oliver was new and still learning the ropes.

Barnaby was and had been the most dependable messenger 1st National had employed.

"I take it you are going if I put you on the stage to St Louis?"

"I'm going, George," Barnaby said.

He got up, kissed George on the cheek, and he skipped down the stairs singing Yankee Doodle Dandy.

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"Majors & Miners"

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"Gold"

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