Chapter 3:

Within minutes, John had organized the search party to look for the children.

Sam was assigned to lead the main party, the hands searching every nook and cranny around the entire home and ranch operations area and then spreading outward from there. John held a few people back for special jobs.

He sent Reno up on the roof of the main house to join Chuck with another pair of binoculars. "Reno, take the new scoped Winchester. It's in the rack downstairs. You two are to search the outer perimeter for the children with those binoculars, but be on the lookout for any threats that might be made against the ranch while the rest of us are out searching. We don't know but this could possibly be an organized attack on the High Chaparral by Lord knows whom. You two will be the first line of defense if an attack begins and you have to hold them off until the rest of us can get back."

"Will do, Mr. Cannon. Now, go find those little ones."

Victoria mouthed a thank you to Reno as he turned to head into the house. He gave her an understanding nod in reply.

"Now, Mano, Buck, and Pedro, go out about a hundred yards beyond the fence and started circling. Spread out and try to pick up any tracks or other signs of the kids, or those who might have taken them. It's going to get dark in a few hours and we'll need all the luck we can get to bring them home before that. Now, go make some."

"Got it, Brother John. We's gonna find our kids," declared Buck solemnly as he swung up on Rebel. The three outriders went out in three different directions to cover ground as quickly as possible.

Victoria clung to John's arm, fighting tears. She wanted desperately to talk with him, but he had a couple more assignments to make.

"Roy, you've turned out to be one of our faster riders. You're to ride as quickly as you can to the south range to find Joe and the hands watching the herd." John reached in his pocket and pulled out the little notebook and pencil stub he always carried. He hastily scrawled a message and handed it to Roy. "Give this to Joe or Cookie as soon as you can find them. "Joe's to keep Cookie and a skeleton crew to mind the herd. He's to send Wind back as quickly as possible with the rest of the spare crew so they can join the search. Your horse will be tired, so you stay to help with the herd. This is important, Roy, but I know you can do this, okay?"

Roy tended to suffer from a lack of self confidence, but this time, he drew a breath and said, "Yes, Sir, Mr. Cannon! You can count on me!" He ran for his horse and was on his way just moments later.

"This may take a while, so we're going to need food and warmth as the temperature falls. Victoria, gather up cold weather gear and warm clothes and blankets for the kids. Have Violeta brew coffee and make cold food that we can transport and maybe a kettle of soup."

Victoria nodded having already planned to do as John said. She gripped his arm even tighter for a moment before relaxing it. "John, I'm so worried, but you have to go find Betsy and Bobby. Please, save them."

He drew her tight for a quick kiss. "We're going to bring them home safely."

A couple of minutes later, John was well past Mano and ready to do what some felt John did best: to yell.

"Bob-by! Bet-sy! Bob-by! Bet-sy! Where are you?" he called as he rode Billy well beyond the outer search perimeter, his eyes constantly scanning the distance for any sign of his kids. "Bob-by! Bet-sy!" he continued.

The search had been underway for about 20 minutes when Tex called out, "I think I've got something!"

Seeing no signs in his view, John rode back toward the ranch house. He called to Mano to keep searching the perimeter as he passed nearby. A minute later, he dismounted as he neared Tex's location, being careful not to disturb any tracks that might indicate where the children were heading.

"What is it, Tex?" he asked as he stepped up.

Sam was down on one knee next to Tex, looking at the marks on the ground. He was clearly worried as he did the rare action of dispensing with formality with his boss but also his friend.

"I think this is them, John. These look like their footprints, and I don't see any others, so it looks like they're out here on their own. They're heading west-northwest.

"Great work, Tex, Sam," said John as he took a closer look and found himself in agreement. "Let's fan out from here. Tex, you follow the tracks, and Sam, get the rest of the boys searching outward from here. I'll get Buck and them to join me in a jump ahead to see if we can cut them off."

~HC~

Victoria had gathered a bundle of clothes and blankets for the kids and thrown them in the back of the buckboard while Isabella was harnessing the horses and hooking them up to it. She ran to the bunkhouse and collected all of the coats on the pegs, too, and soon had them piled in the back, too.

Next, she checked in with Violeta in the kitchen. Violeta gave her a hug and whispered in Spanish that it would be all right, that the searchers would find the children and have them home soon. "I have the kitchen under control, Señora. Go help with the search."

Victoria nodded and thanked her before running back upstairs.

She reemerged from her room a couple of minutes later wearing her riding pants and boots. Donning her coat, she started to head out the door, but as she glanced at the ladder, she changed her mind. She grabbed the last pair of binoculars from the rack, put the cord around her neck, and started climbing up the ladder.

Popping the hatch, she climbed up to see both of the watchers looking around in surprise.

"I have to do something," she explained. "I have to help search for my babies."

Chuck approached and nodded to her in understanding. He bowed his head slightly as he started speaking before continuing to search the distance. "Mrs. Cannon, I'm so very sorry. It's all my fault that they're gone. I should have let you know that they were going inside. And I should have seen them going back out."

She shook her head. "Chuck, it wasn't your fault. I should have been watching them myself rather than asking you to do it. I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to slip away and work on their Christmas presents, but I didn't dream that they would run away. They're six years old! They know we love them. Why? Why would they run away?"

As she spoke, she too was looking at each little tree, bush, or clump in the distance, trying desperately to see her little ones hiding behind each spot.

"Mrs. Cannon, no mother can watch their kids all of the time. Everyone needs a break sometime, so you can't blame yourself. It's not your fault either. They're out there somewhere, and wherever they are, they have to know that you and Mr. Cannon love them, and that everyone here at the ranch will search for them until they're found."

Seeing tears streaming down her face, he reached out and gingerly took her in his arms with a very careful hug. He patted her back as he said, "They'll find them soon and it will be okay."

She thanked him and turned to begin searching through the binoculars. Adjusting them to her eyes, she silently prayed that her children would indeed be brought home safely and then started quietly humming a Christmas hymn to give her hope. It must not have been quite quiet enough, however, since Reno and Chuck were soon humming the same tune with her.

~HC~

The tracks continued on to the west-northwest in a generally straight line, as if they had a specific goal rather than just being lost as he had initially expected. However, John was at a complete loss as to why. He knew of almost nothing that would interest them in that direction between that point and the Santa Ritas. What could his children possibly be thinking?

Mano was out in front, leading the way. Suddenly, he drew up, and jumped down from Macadoo, looping the reins off to a small scrub. "This looks like something new," he called.

John and Buck joined him moments later. Pedro dismounted, too, and then waved to the rest of the search party following behind to move forward more quickly to join them.

Mano pointed to a small depression in the sand with a groove leading off in the same direction as before. "Look at this. It looks like they're dragging something behind them now. Betsy's been following Bobby to this point, but see here, when this furrow begins, she now appears to be walking beside him. It's not very deep, but it trails behind them, wiping out Bobby's right footprint sometime and the other one occasionally. See here, it's bumping over rocks and such."

"Good job, Mano. What could they be dragging? It looks…sort of like it's rounded, like maybe a pole?"

"Yeah, maybe," agreed Buck. "It don't look sharp like a corner, though it might'n be just be ly'n flat, and it's got a bit 'a weight to it since it ain't skewin' around all over the place."

Several of the other hands had come up and circled around, also being careful not to spoil the tracks ahead. On hearing the discussion, Randy spoke up.

"Excuse me, Mr. Cannon. I think I may know what that is. Bobby was trying to pull a pole out of that stack in back of the stable yesterday. He said he needed it for a game. I helped him get it out and then he stood it up on end. He said it had to be taller than Buck could reach."

John looked puzzled. "What game could they possibly be playing?"

"I don't know, Sir, but Betsy came up right about then and gave me a tin can that she'd gotten out of the trash bin. She'd washed it up clean. They asked me to nail it to the side of the pole on one end. It was only one nail, Sir, so I really didn't think it would hurt anything or that anybody would miss it. I'm really sorry, Sir."

"Thanks, Randy. You did nothing wrong, but I still don't understand what's going through their minds. The Santa Fe Railroad surveyors came through a while back trying to lay out the right-of-way they're planning to buy from us, but there's nothing that way right now except maybe a few survey flags and the Santa Rita range."

Buck was standing back with a strange look, as if lost in thought. He started saying something to himself and then turned toward Mano. "Mano, you's don't think that that those kids..." His voice trailed off in disbelief.

Mano was nodding to himself slowly even as Buck was speaking. His gazed snapped toward his friend and when their eyes met, he suddenly snapped his fingers.

"¡Aiy yi yi! John, I think we may know what the children are doing!"

Author's Notes: Thanks to Cathy for the lovely review and comments. Since this story is a lot different than my earlier High Chaparral efforts, I'd love to know and will appreciate your thoughts. Thank you!

According to the map of the area shown in Episode 1.22, The Peacemaker, High Chaparral Ranch was southeast of Tucson and to the east of a small mountain range which can be identified on a real topographic map of the area as the Santa Rita Mountains, with the Santa Rita Foothills probably located a bit north of the ranch house. A tall ridge substituted for the mountain range in the series. Mount Wrightson, to the southwest of the supposed ranch house location, is 9,453 feet tall, but much of the northern end of the range is between 5,500 to 6,000 feet above mean seal level. With the general area of the home being in the 4,000 to 5,000 foot range, it looks to me like the producers did a nice job of representing the area.

The first telescopic rifle scope was invented between 1835 and 1840 was the Chapman-James sight, invented as a collaboration between John R. Chapman, a civil engineer, and Morgan James, who actually built the device. Scopes became more widely available during the Civil War for use by snipers, and after the war by those in the general public who had the money and the patience to put up with them. Since early scopes were somewhat fragile, could not be sealed against moisture, and were therefore prone to fogging up, they tended to work better in fixed locations in dry climates such as might have been found at the High Chaparral.

Canned foods were invented due to a French initiative during the Napoleonic Wars. They needed to be able to feed their far-flung armies, so Nicolas Appert, a young French chef, is credited with the invention in the early 1800s. Canned foods were widely used and accepted in the United States during the Civil War, so they were soon common throughout the American West as railroads solved the shipping and distribution issues.