Ben and George were sitting by the creek, looking for fish and generally avoiding their chores when suddenly, they heard a dog barking. They looked to see a golden mutt of a dog yapping its head off at them and heard the sound of hoof beats in the distance.
Suddenly while the dog had them frozen in their tracks, two men on horseback rode up quickly, both of them with lassos in hand.
Ben and George stood there as the ropes landed around their bodies and cinched at the waist. Someone had lassoed them and looking into the men's stony faces, they didn't know who had done it. Outlaws? Rustlers? They knew people hated their uncle mostly bad guys.
Suddenly Marshal P.J. Braddock rode up to them and dropped off his horse to remove the ropes around the two boys.
"These two are Cord's boys…"
One of the men grumbled.
"How did we lose them…"
Ben and George just looked at the men not knowing what had just happened. One moment they had been lassoed, another the men were about to ride away from them.
Ethan rode on his horse in front of a wagon filled with men driving down a road. He saw a man stand in the middle of the road aiming a shotgun right at them in front of a wagon positioned to block passage. Then he fired a shot in the air, which made Ethan duck. When he rode past him, he tackled him and forced him to the ground.
"What are you doing mister?"
The man protested.
"You're with the mine. I don't want you on my land."
He struggled in Ethan's grasp.
"You can't shut down a road."
"I just did."
Ethan tried to reason with him.
"Look we're on our way to town. This is the only way."
An older man in a business suit walked up to them.
"What's going on here? We're on important business."
The man pointed at him.
"You're not driving me out like you did Jack Harkley."
The man in the suit gestured to another man behind him with a shotgun.
"Get the wagon out of the road."
The man pointed again.
"That's right. That's the way you operate. Pushing little people aside. You can't push them out. You burn them out."
Ethan got in the middle.
"This is no place to say. Take your complaint to the authorities."
"The mine owns the authorities…"
Ethan walked his horse as the man in the suit walked with him.
"Who said it Cord…progress has its price. Good might come of it. A school could go up where his house is. You're a family man you can appreciate that."
He walked away from Ethan who got back on his horse. He'd taken this job with the mine providing security to help support his new family…but the men in charge got on his nerves as often as not. No one said that you had to like everything about a job you took.
Joseph loaded sacks of grain into the wagon thinking of all the things he'd rather be doing when his eyes caught two little boys running across the street behind a building as fast as lightning.
Ben and George? What were they up to now? He walked to get a better look and saw an empty looking building but neither one of them. He walked back to the wagon to finish loading it. Being the older brother, he never got to play like they did.
Amelia sat in the bank dealing with the two bigwigs in town that owned the mine.
"The problem is I don't own the bank. My husband does."
The one sitting down named Mr. Sweet smiled.
"The mine's aware of your delicate domestic situation Mrs. Lawson."
She sighed, tired of the soft peddling.
"There's nothing delicate about it. My husband disappeared without a word two years ago. Until he's found, declared dead or something I don't own the bank."
God she wish she did so she could just sell it already, collect the money and leave town but…the laws favored the husbands over their wives and she couldn't change that.
Sweet leaned forward.
"But you are amenable to selling the bank aren't you?"
"I'm eager to sell."
She didn't want to be trapped in this god forsaken town the rest of her life.
"Good…good then…I'm sure we'll be doing business. Good Day…"
He stood up from his chair. The other man left with him. Amelia wondered what the two men wanted with her bank…but if they could facilitate a sale, she was all for it.
Claire and Joseph looked at George and an out of breath Ben, who looked like they'd been running hard all the way home.
Ben just stammered.
"W…W…W.."
Claire spoke softly.
"Slow down Ben it's all right."
George chimed in next.
"Men on horses and dogs. Bad dogs."
Joseph leaned forward.
"What are you talking about?"
Ben struggled with words but not George.
"They chased us. They were going to feed us to the ghost dogs."
Joseph lost patience.
"You're not making sense."
Ben drew a breath.
"F…Four riders and two dogs…"
George nodded.
"They thought we were somebody else."
Joseph sighed.
"Who?"
"The men?"
"No I mean who could they have mistaken you for?"
The two boys weren't making any sense and both Joseph and Claire wondered what had happened to shake them up so much. Claire just shrugged.
"But there no other children in Paradise."
Later Joseph Claire and the two younger boys walked down a street in Paradise.
"I'm not sure I saw anything," Joseph said, "but if they were children, they had to have come here."
George looked up at him.
"Why?"
"Because if they didn't, they just disappeared off the face of the earth."
They walked up to the abandoned building with boarded up windows.
"Goblins can vanish."
Claire sighed.
"There are no goblins George."
Claire opened the door and they all crept inside the darkened room. George looked around.
"Nobody's here."
Joseph looked at some boxes.
"Just wait…"
George and Ben looked among the boxes. Suddenly a mouse appeared on the floor and George ran screaming. Suddenly two Chinese boys appeared arms wrapped around each other.
George pointed at them.
"Ghouls…"
Claire brightened.
"Children."
Ethan and the wagon arrived into town and he pulled up alongside them before getting off and walking to the store. A man walked out.
"Good afternoon Mr. Lee."
The man walked past him as if he weren't there. Mystified Ethan headed into the bank where Amelia was pondering two sacks in front of her.
"What's wrong with Mr. Lee?"
She pulled the sacks towards her.
"He doesn't think he can trust you now that you're working on the mine's payroll."
He leaned forward.
"Why?"
"They made an offer on his store. Fortunately it was only half the original price."
She took the sacks towards the cabinets.
"Then he shouldn't sell…"
"He doesn't want to sell but he's scared. He thinks the mine's trying to pressure him."
"What do you think?"
"Well I think they're heavyhanded but it's their way to negotiate."
"Surprised they haven't made you an offer…"
She just looked at him silently.
"They did make you an offer."
She smiled at him as she walked towards the tellers' windows.
"I don't own the bank."
"Yeah well if you did…"
She looked at him.
"I'd listen to any reasonable offer."
He just stood watching her, trying to process that.
"You always did want to leave Paradise."
"Yes I did."
He paused choosing his words carefully.
"And it's true just like you said…you don't belong here."
She looked at him, believing that while she often thought it might be true, for him to say it…that was different. But she shook her head.
"No."
A group of men from the mine celebrated over whisky in the saloon.
"To the mine and a new vein of gold that will make Paradise into a boom town…"
Another man told him to be quiet.
"You want to drive prices up? And how are our negotiations?"
Sweet sighed, dealing with some paperwork.
"Our lawyers are looking into the bank problem. We're meeting a little resistance from Paradise Hardware. Chinaman doesn't want to sell."
The bigwig, Sinclair sighed.
"Tools…chemicals..weapons. What would mining be without hardware?"
Sweet lit a cigar.
"Of course we haven't made our final offer yet."
"Why in '49, the three richest men at Sutter's Mill were a land speculator, a banker and a hardware merchant."
"We'll get the hardware store Mr. Sinclair. You can count on it."
"I do…"
Ethan waited as Amelia locked the bank up. He saw the men from the mine walking down the street with purpose.
"That didn't take long. Looks like they're going to make Mr. Lee another offer."
Amelia shrugged.
"They're wasting their time."
"If they offer him enough money…"
"It's more than money to Mr. Lee. He worked so hard just to get that store. He worked for cash. In those days, no bank would lend him anything. To make it worse, he had to overcome a lot of…ignorance. It's more than a store to him. He won't sell."
They'd been walking down the street and Ethan watched her face light up as she talked about the hardware store owner. Well…good day Ethan."
He tipped his hat at her.
Sweet just looked at Mr. Lee and then headed out of his store.
"What are you doing?"
The men went to his guns.
"What's that?"
"I told you my store is not for sale."
Sweet walked towards him shotgun in hand.
"The establishment's about to change hands. You can make money in the deal or turn out. Your choice Chinaman."
Mr. Lee just stared at them.
"Get out."
"This is your property House Boy…protect it."
Sweet tossed him the shotgun.
"Get out of my store…"
The other man pulled out a handgun and aimed it at him.
"Goodbye Mr. Lee…"
Just then, Ethan walked inside the store.