Hop Sing just finished getting supper on the table when Roy arrived. The sheriff was happy to see the doctor was still at the Ponderosa as he needed to talk to him about the death certificate for Misty Mae, but he knew it was a bad sign for Joe that the doctor felt unable to leave.

"How is Joe?" Sheriff Coffee asked to the room in general.

"I'll go check on him and send Ben down." The doctor answered, taking his leave.

"Ben, how is Joe doing?" Roy asked his old friend as he came down the stairs.

"No change that I can see."

"Any idea who did this?"

"It was Rick James. I'm sure of it." Ben repeated the story Joe had told him just last night. Was it really last night that he sat in his son's room talking to him after the nightmare? So much had happened since then.

"Ben, the girl died this morning. Now, I can go talk to him. If you file an official charge I can hold him until the judge comes in three weeks. After that I don't know what will happen without a witness."

"Are you telling me, Rick James is going to get away with murder?"

"No, I'm saying that to let the law handle it Joe's going to need to be a witness in three weeks in front of the judge."

"And if we don't let the law handle it?" Adam spoke up.

Sheriff Coffee looked at Ben's eldest and shook his head, "You know the answer to that Adam. I want him to hang too, but there is only so much I can do with one witness dead and the other one fighting for his life. Now, I will go arrest him and hold him until the judge gets here. I need you three to stay here and let me do my job."

With that Ben headed back upstairs to talk to the doctor. His son was a fighter. He would live to testify. There was no thinking about the alternative.

"Ben, I need to head into town to handle a few things. I'll be back first thing in the morning. If anything changes send Hoss. If all goes well I'll look at taking out the bullet tomorrow," Doctor Martin said as Ben entered the room. "Now, I need you to get some rest and be sure to eat something. I'm going to do all I can to save him, and he'll need you to stay strong."

After the sheriff and doctor headed back to town Adam and Hoss took a plate of food up to their father. They sat with him, making sure he ate enough to sustain him. When he was satisfied Adam stood and turned to Ben, saying, "Now, Pa, you go get some sleep. Hoss will stay here with Joe and I am going to check with the hands to make sure everything is taken care of."

"I'm staying here." Ben replied stubbornly.

"No, you're not, Pa" Hoss said, pulling his father to his feet and pointing him toward the door, "Doc Martin told us to make sure you get some sleep and that's what we plan on doing. Come back after getting a few hours and we'll let you stay."

Ben let himself be led out of the room, but instead of going to his own bedroom he followed Adam downstairs. He knew Hoss and Adam were right, that he needed to get some rest, but he was too tense to try just yet. He would work on the books to give him something to think about besides Joe.