The Bank Robbers
"Adam, you have to hear us out," Jax begged tears still falling.
"There's no excuse for what you and Joseph did."
"But, we were trying to help the town," Joe tried.
"The town doesn't see it that way."
"That's because they weren't there," Jax said.
"We had to do something," Joe said.
"Go to Sheriff Coffee," Adam said bluntly.
"But he was in Carson City," Jax said.
Adam looked back at his ten year old little sister and brother. Jax looked absolutely adorable wearing a green cloak with her small hands in a muff, and snow falling on her long brown hair. What wasn't adorable were the ropes tying both her and Joe to their horses, nor was the situation they found themselves in.
"You could've told me. You didn't have to rob a bank!" Adam said angrily.
"We didn't rob the bank, we hid the money," Jax said.
"Jacqueline, you took money that didn't belong to you."
"No we hid money that didn't belong to us," Joe corrected.
"So that's going to be your excuse when Pa asks? You hid the money to save the town."
"Yep and he's going to believe us too," Jax said
Adam just shook his head at his ten year old brother and sister before saying,
"He might, but I promise you this, it's not going to save your backsides."
"It might," Joe said hopefully.
"Sheriff Coffee is gonna look into it, so he might be on our side in the end," Jax said.
"I highly doubt it."
"You believe that we didn't steal the money for ourselves right?" Jax asked.
"Yes, but I also believe that what you did was wrong."
"So you won't help us with Pa?" Joe asked.
"Not on your life."
"Adam, we really didn't do anything," Jax said.
"You broke into the bank and took the money to our silver mine. That's doing something," Adam said.
"We didn't break in, we never left," Joe said.
"What do you mean you didn't break in? You don't have a key."
"We didn't need one," Jax said.
"We're here, save it for Pa and Sheriff Coffee," Adam said shaking his head. What was he going to do with these two? He couldn't believe they did this.
Three Days Ago:
"Don't go too far," Adam said as he walked into the mercantile. He smiled as he watched them run towards Dr. Martins'.
Joe quickly knocked on Dr. Martins' door.
"Hi Tim, can Billy come out to play?" Joe asked.
"Billy!"
"What are you guys doing in town?" Billy asked excitedly. The snow had school closed for over two weeks and he'd been dying of boredom.
"Adam let us come. I think we were driving Pa crazy," Jax said giving him a mischievous smile.
"Me too, I've gotten swatted by everyone in my family for being disruptive," Billy whined.
"Well get your coat on and we'll find something to do," Joe said.
"Let me ask Ma."
Three minutes later Billy was running out the front door, the twins followed him quickly down the street. Within seconds they were throwing snowballs at each other and making more than their fair share of noise.
After they were yelled at by numerous adults, they decided to take their fun down an alley.
They barely made it in when they heard the hushed talking.
Joe pointed to the three barrels and they crouched behind them so they could hear.
"We'll do it tonight. With the Sheriff out of town there shouldn't be a problem," A gruff voice said.
"Yeah, they're getting a deposit this afternoon according to the clerk."
Jax motioned for them to leave the alley.
"What are we going to do? They're going to rob the bank tonight" Billy said.
"We have to stop them," Joe said smiling.
"How? Sheriff Coffee is in Carson City until Saturday," Billy said.
"We can stop them," Jax said.
"They're bank robbers and have guns, we can't stop them," Billy said.
"We can set a trap," Joe said smiling.
"That won't ensure the money is safe," Billy said.
"We could take the money too," Joe said smiling.
"That's stealing," Billy said.
"We aren't going to spend the money, just hide it," Jax said.
"Maybe we should tell my Pa and Adam," Billy said.
"Come on Billy, we can do it. Just think we'll be heroes," Joe said smiling brightly.
"Yeah and we won't sit for weeks," Billy mumbled.
"I bet we can do it and not get a tanning," Jax said knowing Billy wasn't about to turn down this adventure if his backside was safe.
"There's no way. First how are we going to get the money out, second where are we going to put it, third how are we going to keep this away from our parents?" Billy asked.
"I can sneak in tonight before the bank closes and let you guys back in. We can take the money before we set the trap," Jax said.
"We can hide the money in our silver mines," Joe said.
"And we can ask if we can stay at each other's places. Plus we know what the bank robbers look like," Jax said.
"When we bring the money back our parents will know that we lied," Billy said.
"Ok, so how about this, you be our lookout tonight and we'll never tell anyone that you were a part of it unless they treat us like heroes," Jax said.
Billy considered for a few minutes and decided he could have a little fun and he wouldn't lose his ability to sit as long as he didn't get caught sneaking out of the house.
"Ok," Billy said smiling.
"Now all we have to do is get Adam to say it's ok for us to stay in town at your house tonight," Joe said. "Jax, you ask."
"No problem. Look he's just walking out now," Jax said looking down at the mercantile and started running towards him.
"Are you three behaving yourselves?" Adam asked the second they reached him.
"Kinda, we were having a snowball fight and we were told to go play in the alley," Jax said honestly.
"Did they have to tell you more than once?"
"Nope, there's more things to hide behind in the alley anyway," Joe said with a shrug.
"Did you get everything you need?" Jax asked. She already knew they wouldn't get the barbed wire for a couple of days at least.
"The barbed wire will be here in two days."
"So, are we staying in town?" Joe asked.
"Yes, let's go get a room at the hotel."
"Can we stay at Billy's?" Jax asked.
"Did Dr. Martin say it was ok?" Adam asked.
"Yep," Joe lied.
"Alright, but I want you in my hotel room at eight am sharp."
"Yes sir," the twins said smiling brightly.
Adam heard the panicked voices in the streets early the next morning. He was dressed and on the street in seconds. He saw his little brother and sister in the midst of everything.
"Jax, Joe, head up to my room."
"Adam…" was heard by both voices.
"Now!"
He watched as the twins run into the motel and could tell he was going to have to deal with two very pouty ten year olds the second he walked back inside.
"What's going on?" Adam asked Mr. Stanford the President of the Bank.
"The money's gone. All that was in the vault were these two," Stanford said pointing to two men with tied up with glue poured down them.
"Where's Sheriff Coffee?"
"Carson City. Adam, will you go out with the group to look for the money?"
"Do these men know where the money is?"
"They swear it was gone before they broke in. My thought is they had a partner that turned on them."
"Let me get someone to watch the twins," Adam said running towards Mrs. Martin. "Will you please keep the twins or ask your husband to take them back to the ranch?"
"They can stay, are they in your room?"
"Yep, thanks for watching the twins last night."
"Adam, the twins weren't at my house last night."
Adam took a deep breath and decided he would deal with that when they found the town's money.
For three days they rode over the countryside looking for tracks, but with the falling snow the tracks kept getting covered up and the ones that they found and followed were dead ends. His mind was working overtime trying to figure out how someone could break into the bank, but not break into the bank. That's when it hit him and four words went through his brain,
'I'm gonna kill them.'
"We should check and see if any of the groups found anything," Adam said.
"Sounds good," a few of the men said.
"I'm going to check one more place before heading back."
"Need another gun?" Tim Martin asked.
"Sure."
The second they were away from the group Adam said,
"I think the twins took the money?"
"Why would they do that?"
"Thinking it was a game or something. I swear those two don't have an ounce of sense."
"Do you think Billy was a part of it?"
"Was he at home the night the money was taken?"
"I think so."
"Then I wouldn't worry about it."
"Where would they take it?"
"I'm thinking the silver mines."
"Well let's go."
Three hours later they were at the mines and to Adam's utter dismay, his baby brother and sister were there putting something in their saddlebags.
Adam didn't say a word he just grabbed Joe pulled him over to the nearest boulder and started swatting hard.
"Adam, we can explain!" Jax called.
Adam's hard hand fell and fell until Joe was sobbing hard.
"Tie him to his horse," Adam said harshly pushing his brother towards Tim without even offering comfort to the boy. A rarity for Adam and Tim knew it.
"Adam," Tim said trying to calm down his friend.
Adam didn't listen he just walked over to his sister and gave her the same treatment he gave his little brother.
End Flashback
Sheriff Coffee and half of the town were standing outside of the Sheriff's office.
"We saved the money," Jax said smiling brightly.
"And we caught the bad guys," Joe said.
"Sorry it took us three days to get the money back, but Dr. Martin and Mrs. Martin were watching us like a hawk," Jax said.
The yelling became was indistinguishable. Adam had already worked on getting their bindings off. He lifted Jax down and did the same for Joe before holding out his hand for each of them to take. He escorted them inside and pointed to a bench. Both sat and wiggled trying to find a way to sit comfortably.
"Is Pa coming?" Joe asked. Listening to the crowd he and Jax realized that the town was not going to consider them heroes and that they wanted their father's comfort right now.
"I sent Tim to go and get him," Adam told him. "I'm going to give the money back to Mr. Stanford."
"Please don't leave," Jax begged.
He walked over to his sister who was shaking hard, put his hand on her knee, and knelt so he could be at her level,
"I'll be right back, promise."
Joe reached over and squeezed his sister's hand. Jax looked at him and smiled slightly.
Sheriff Roy Coffee looked at the two young children sitting on the bench and wondered what went through their heads. He knew the men in the cells were going to rob the bank, they had in fact robbed six banks and actually killed two people. What he didn't know was how the ten year olds were able to trap them and thankfully were not hurt in the process. The other thing he knew was that he was leaving their punishment to their father. The town would be fine the second he told them the whole story and when their money was safe and sound in the bank vault. They may even be thankful to the young children when they realize that what those two did actually saved the town's money.
Adam walked into the office a few minutes later.
"Was it all there?" Sheriff Coffee asked.
"Of course it was all there," Jax said indignantly and yelped seconds later.
"Apologize," Adam growled.
"I'm sorry Sheriff Coffee, I didn't mean to be rude, it's just Joe and I would never ever steal money."
"I know that Jacqueline, but you may have lost some," Sheriff Coffee said calmly. "So was it all there?"
"Yes, you were very lucky," Adam said looking at the twins.
"We were very careful," Joe said. "We were trying to save the money not lose the money."
They all turned and looked as the door was forcefully opened and an angry Ben Cartwright stormed in followed by Hoss. Jax and Joe were behind Adam seconds later, looking at their father's face they knew they were in a lot of trouble.
"Sit!" Ben growled harshly and watched as his twins instantly obeyed. He could tell from their squirming that Adam had already tanned them, but that little fact wasn't going to change his tanning them again the second they were home.
"What in the devil happened?" Ben demanded looking at his eldest. Adam was supposed to watch the twins, how in the world had this happened?
"We were playing in the alley, by the bank and there were these two guys talking about robbing the bank," Jax began.
"We couldn't let that happen, so we decided to stop it," Joe finished.
"Why didn't you get an adult?" Ben asked.
"We wanted to be heroes," Joe said honestly.
"You realize you could've been killed? Those two men have already killed two people," Sheriff Coffee said.
Joe and Jax looked at each other in shock.
"They killed people?" Jax asked.
"Yes and they could've easily killed you," Sheriff Coffee said.
"We really had it covered," Joe said.
"Alright I want the whole story right now, how did you get into the bank, how did you trap the robbers and how in the world did you get that money out of town and to our mines?" Ben asked firmly.
"The plan was simple," Jax started.
"Billy and I caused a distraction and Jax slipped into the bank and hid," Joe said.
"I could see the vault easily where I sat and I memorized the combination so we could take the money first."
"Why did you take the money?" Sheriff Coffee asked.
"What if the second part of our plan didn't work? The town would lose the money," Jax said.
"Soon as the bank closed Jax opened up the back door and I came in to help her pack up the money."
"At the same time, we started setting up the trap," Jax said.
"I didn't really see a trap," Sheriff Coffee said.
"Because it was really simple. We grabbed some paper and cut it to look like money and we covered it with glue," Jax began.
"When they reached and started to put the money in the bag their hands started to get covered with glue. They really didn't pay attention because they were getting what they wanted."
"When they tried to leave we tripped them, knocked them out, and tied them up," Jax finished.
"Why did you use the glue?" Ben asked.
"Because we wanted to make sure that the ropes held until morning," Joe said.
"How did you know you would have time to take the money to the mine and trap the robbers?" Sheriff Coffee asked.
"They said they were coming around midnight and the bank closes at five, we had lots of time to get there and back," Jax said with a shrug.
"Was Billy a part of this?" Adam asked.
"Just telling you that we were staying at his house and helping get Jax into the bank. He didn't think it was a good idea," Joe said.
"And he was absolutely right," Ben said angrily.
"Are we going to jail?" Jax asked with concern.
"No I'm letting your father handle your punishment this time, but listen hard Jacqueline and Joseph, I am the Sheriff of this town and you are not allowed to do my job ever again."
"Yes sir," they both said.
"Let's go," Ben said grabbing his children's arms and leading them out of the jail.
To Jax and Joe's dismay most of the town was still out there. They looked at each other and waited to hear what their father had to say.
"I'm very sorry for the worry my children caused you. They felt that they were doing the right thing and trust me when I am finished they will know that they were absolutely wrong."
Nods were seen throughout the crowd, but Ben still looked expectantly at his children.
"We're really sorry," Joe began.
"We were only trying to help."
The crowd parted and the five Cartwrights got on their horses and rode home in silence. The second they were there Ben helped his daughter off her horse and said,
"Settee."
Jax sighed heavily and grabbed her brother's hand walking into the house.
"What are you going to do?" Hoss asked.
"Tan their hides," Ben said simply.
"Pa, they really did help the town and I didn't go easy on them when I found them with the money," Adam tried.
"Adam, those men were professional bank robbers and killers, they could've been killed."
Adam just nodded his head and felt extremely sorry for the twins. Looking at Hoss, he could tell that his little brother felt the same way.
"Why don't you two stay out here, while I talk to them?"
"We need to do their chores anyway," Hoss said.
Ben smiled at his sons and walked into the house. Ben shook his head when he saw his twins heads together and then heard them whispering,
"Pa's really mad," Jax said.
"I know and my butt still hurts from Adam and riding home."
"We were really stupid though."
"Yeah, those guys could've killed us."
"I still think it was funny when they woke up and realized we trapped them," Jax said smiling.
"Pa would wash our mouths out for weeks if we ever cursed like that."
"I think the money part was even funnier."
"Yep, they couldn't believe that they were fooled like that."
"I'm glad Billy isn't in trouble."
"Me too."
"Where's Pa?" Jax asked realizing how long it had been since they came inside.
"Standing behind you," Ben said trying hard not to laugh at the look of horror on his children's faces.
"Um…" Joe began.
"I've been here for a while Joseph," Ben said knowing what his little boy was going to ask. "What was Billy's role in all of this?"
"Just a look out. He really didn't want to get involved," Jax said honestly.
"Please don't tell his Pa," Joe begged.
"He didn't touch the money and he never went into the bank."
Ben walked around the table and said,
"But he snuck out of his house, right?"
"Yes sir, but it was our idea," Joe said.
"We'll take more punishment," Jax added not that she wanted to.
"I'm sorry but his father should know."
Tears of guilt started streaming down the twins cheeks.
"You know he won't be angry with you," Ben soothed.
"We know, but Billy really didn't want to do this," Jax said.
"But we told him, we would be heroes."
"To some you are heroes and you did save the town's money," Ben admitted reluctantly before adding, "Even with that being said, what you did was very wrong and extremely dangerous. Joseph, go stand in the corner, Jacqueline, petticoats and pantaloons."
Jax froze when she saw her father taking off his belt. He'd never tanned them with a belt before.
"Papa, please," Jax begged.
"A few at the end," Ben said softly his brown eyes showing how much he didn't want to do this, but he wanted to make sure his children would never do something this dangerous again.
Ben helped his daughter over his knee and started dropping down swats fast and hard. The pink hand prints quickly turned to a candy apple red and Jax was sobbing hard. Finally, Ben tilted his daughter forward and landed swats on her sit spots and thighs before stopping.
"Four Jacqueline."
"Papa…please…don't."
Ben didn't say a word he just landed the four stripes of the belt directly on her sit spots. Once finished he pulled his little girl into his chest and let her sob. The second she was finished he kissed the top of her head and said,
"Go change places with your brother."
"Yes sir."
Joe walked over with his head down. Ben followed the same routine with his son. Once finished he called his daughter back over and put her on his knee. Holding them in his arms finally allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief. From the second Tim rode on the ranch, to this moment, he'd been running on pure adrenaline. His children could've died and that would've destroyed him.
"Pa, you're shaking," Jax said a few seconds later.
"You and Little Joe really scared me," Ben said honestly.
"Sorry Pa, we just thought it was an adventure," Joe said honestly.
"It wasn't. Please don't do anything like this again."
"We won't," Jax said smiling brightly.
"To make sure of this, you're restricted to the yard for three months and you will have extra chores during the entire time."
"Yes sir," they both said.
"I love you both more than anything," Ben said giving them one last hug.
"Love you too," Jax said.
"Love ya Pa."
"Aright up to your rooms, no talking."
"Yes sir."
Ben watched his children run up the stairs and smiled, knowing they were safe under his roof and not going after any bank robbers tonight.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!