Eugene pushed back his hat to wipe the perspiration off his brow. It was almost as hot as it had been back in the deserts of Egypt, but boy, he'd missed this valley. He patted the neck of the chestnut he was riding, glad to be on a horse rather than a camel and chuckled at the memory of riding those ill-tempered beasts. When he first rode one of the 'ships of the desert', the animal's attitude made him think of his brother Nick; loud, obnoxious and stubborn, but solidly dependable and willing to do a hard day's work. Eugene grinned and thought Heath would get a kick out of hearing the similarity between their big brother and a camel, sufficiently out of Nick's earshot, of course.

A rumble in the distance got Eugene's attention and he looked up to see dark clouds swiftly moving in their direction. The small herd of cattle, only a couple hundred head, shifted restlessly. Then, without warning, the beeves were startled by a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder that came out of the seemingly clear sky overhead. With a bawl of terror, a few of the animals took off and pushed the rest into a frantic stampede.

Eugene got his plunging mount under control and wildly looked around for his brothers. He spotted Nick just in time to see the dark-haired rancher's horse try to get away from the pounding hooves of the stampeding bovines, but the new mount Nick had decided to try out that day just wasn't quick enough. The shoulder of a barreling steer caught the unfortunate horse across the hindquarters. He went down and his rider managed to jump clear before getting trapped beneath the thousand pound animal.

"Nick!" Eugene spurred his horse toward his downed brother, heading off several steers rushing in his direction. Heath rode up a moment later with his horse Charger nimbly cutting off a few more beeves.

Nick slowly pushed himself out of the dirt with a groan. "Where the devil did that come from?" he growled, gesturing at the rapidly darkening sky.

"Dunno, Nick," Heath said with a shrug as he gave his brother a hand up. "Sky was all clear a few minutes ago, it's almost like someone up there's mad at us." Heath turned slowly to Eugene. "Or something."

"What do you mean, something?" Nick wanted to know. He limped to his horse who had just gotten to his feet, patted the black and started to check him over before turning back to Heath, who was still looking at Eugene. "Now wait just a minute. You're not still thinking of that ridiculous curse idea you had last night?"

"Well, it all fits," Heath replied. "Freak storm coming up like that, cattle stampeding, your horse going down…"

Nick was about to make a scathing retort when Eugene broke in, anxious to change the subject. "Speaking of storms and cattle, are we going after the herd or trying to get home before the rain really hits?"

Another boom of thunder reverberated over the valley, making the horses start.

"Those steers are probably scattered halfway to town by now," Nick conceded irritably, "it'll take forever to get them rounded up. Day's already wasted, might as well try to get under cover." He swung back onto his horse just as the skies opened up and soaked them all in a matter of seconds.

Heath gave Eugene a pointed look and the younger man averted his eyes.

The three sodden men arrived back at the house just as the storm abated and the skies became a brilliant blue once more. Heath again gave Eugene an accusing look as they grabbed towels from the bunkhouse to dry off, not wanting to endure Victoria or Silas' wrath by dripping all over the floor of the house.

Walking through the kitchen door, Heath managed to catch his mother before he completely ran her over.

"Is everything all right, Ma?" Eugene asked, concerned about the worried look on her face.

"I'm so glad you're home," Victoria said hurriedly. "I need one of you to fetch the buggy and take Silas into town."

Eugene felt a shiver down his spine as Nick demanded, "Why? What happened?"

"It's nothing, Mr. Nick." Silas came out of the house with a blood-spotted bandage around his hand and a few crimson spots of the cuff of his normally immaculate white jacket. "Mrs. Barkley, she just worries too much, is all."

Nick hooked a thumb through his belt. "Well, normally I'd agree with you, Silas, but that looks kind of serious."

"Just a scratch," Silas asserted. "The knife slipped as I was chopping vegetables, it's nothing to worry about."

Victoria gave her longtime friend and retainer a stern look. "Now, Silas, I'm sure it's going to need stitches. One of the boys will drive you into town to see Dr. Merar."

"I will, Ma," Eugene volunteered quickly. He didn't like the look Heath was giving him and wanted to get away before his blond brother started going on about ancient Egyptian curses again.

"Thank you, sweetheart."

Eugene hurried off to get the buggy. "Just a couple unfortunate incidents," he muttered to himself. "Absolutely nothing to do with those artifacts I brought home."

Some of the workers during the excavations had muttered about disturbing their ancestors and when they unsealed the tomb, a few refused to come back to work, no matter what the pay. The youngest Barkley was a bit surprised that the normally straight-thinking Heath was showing the same superstitious streak, but then, one never knew until confronted with a particular situation. Wondering what sort of things happened to that carnival Heath worked at to make him so skittish, Eugene continued to the stable to have Ciego hitch up the buggy for the trip to town.

The ride to town was uneventful, much to Eugene's relief. He and Silas talked about the various goings on in the valley over the period of the youngest Barkley's absence; not gossip precisely, but enough information that Eugene felt he had a good idea of the important happenings of the people he grew up with.

As they reached town, however, there was an unmistakable smell of smoke in the air and as they turned down the street where Dr. Merar's office was located, a crowd of people were standing in the street in front of Jarrod's law practice, along with the new pumper truck recently acquired by the fire department. Eugene pulled the buggy to a halt and both men alighted to stare at the burned shell of the building next door.

Eugene scanned the crowd for his brother's familiar face and sighed with relief when he spotted the dark-haired barrister's soot-stained form.

"Jarrod! Thank God you're all right! What happened?"

Jarrod pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face. "Fire broke out in the store beside my office. I think everyone got out okay, and the fire's under control, but… well, you can see what's left." The lawyer shook his head somberly. "And most of the books and papers in my office are ruined. It's going to take weeks to redo all that work." He regarded Eugene quizzically. "What are you doing in town, Gene? I thought you were out on the range with Nick and Heath."

Eugene gestured to Silas. "Silas had a bit of an accident."

"It was nothing, but Mrs. Barkley, she insisted I come see Dr. Merar," Silas explained. "If there's nothing I can do here, I'll just head to his office. I'll meet you back here, Mr. Eugene."

Eugene nodded absently as an uncomfortable thought entered his mind and demanded consideration. "Jarrod," he asked slowly, "weren't you going to bring one of the Egyptian jars to your office?"

"I'm sure it wasn't hurt in the fire, Gene," Jarrod reassured him. "The office mostly just suffered smoke and water damage."

"Uh, yeah." Eugene wasn't really concerned about that at the moment; he was thinking more of what Heath was going say, even though no rational man should believe in curses. "Well, as long as everything's okay here, I'm going to head over to Dr. Merar's and check on Silas."

"Could you let Mother know I'll be late for supper?" Jarrod sighed as he looked towards his office. "I've got a lot of work to do."

"Sure, Jarrod." Eugene walked slowly down the street.

But after things started happening, I can tell you it'd make a believer out of anybody. Heath's words echoed in his mind. Eugene told himself it was all a string of coincidences, but maybe, just maybe, a tiny part of him was starting to believe.