Hi everyone. I am sooooo sorry for the delay in posting. I've been on a homeschool camping holiday, which was great fun, and then after that had a lot of extra shifts in work, so haven't had time to post. Anyway, here's the next chapter at last, and I hope it was worth waiting for! :-)


Chapter 9 – A Desperate Search

When Joe entered Louise's room to wake her up that morning, he was surprised to find her bed empty, and her nightdress screwed up on the floor.

"Up already?" Joe thought in surprise. He shrugged his shoulders. She was probably in the barn with Salt. After all, she wasn't banned from seeing him – only from riding. She probably wanted to spend as much of her time with him as possible.

Joe bounded down the stairs and was greeted by Ben barking at him, "Stop running in the house!"

Joe sighed, but joined his family at the table with a smile. "Good morning!" he said cheerfully.

"Where's Louise?" Adam asked casually.

"Well, I guess she's in the barn. Haven't you seen her this morning?"

"I've just come from the barn," Hoss said. "She weren't there! Ain't she in her room?"

"Nope! She must've got dressed – 'cause her nightdress is on the floor."

"Maybe she's helping Hop Sing," Hoss suggested.

Ben sighed, "Joe, go and see if Hop Sing has seen your sister."

Joe went to obey and found Hop Sing finishing preparing breakfast in the kitchen. Louise was nowhere in sight.

"Hop Sing, have you seen Louise?"

"Numba one daughter? Hop Sing been in kitchen all morning! How you expect Hop Sing to see numba one daughter? Hop Sing not have time! Hop Sing cook for family, not watch out for Mista Cartlight's sons and daughter. Now numba thlee son leave Hop Sing's kitchen. Hop Sing vely busy today. Bake today – you out and stay out!"

Joe shrugged his shoulders and quickly left the Chinese cook's domain. No good in staying around Hop Sing when he was busy. He'd only get chased around with a wooden spoon!

"Well?" Ben asked.

"Hop Sing says he's been too busy to see her."

Ben ran a hand down his face in frustration. "Alright, everyone! Let's start looking for her. Think of all her usual places to go on the yard. She'd better be around some place close!"

Joe winced when he saw the stormy look in Ben's eyes. He had a feeling that Louise was going to be in big trouble.

Joe headed over to the barn first. Louise might be in the tack room, or up in the hayloft. Perhaps Hoss hadn't been in either of those two places. Of course, Louise wasn't really allowed up in the hayloft – but that didn't mean that it would stop her from exploring, although Joe hoped for her sake that she hadn't.

Joe headed for the tack room first. He looked around, but there was no sign of the little six year old. He was about to turn to go when he spotted the empty rack where one of the saddles should have been. Not any saddle, either. The missing saddle was Salt's!

Eyes wide with horror, Joe fled from the tack room and hurried over to Salt's stall.

"Please be there! Please be there!"

Joe breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the small pony sticking his nose over the door of the stall.

Thank goodness that Louise hadn't gone riding – or at least, tried to on her own.

But why was the saddle missing?

"Little sister!" Joe called, quickly making his way up the ladder to the hayloft.

But she wasn't up there.

Joe descended the ladder and kicked it in annoyance. Where was that little girl?

Hoss' search was not going any better. He was looking around Louise's hidey holes on the yard – a little hollow tree some way from the house but within calling distance, and other such places. But was she there? No!

"Well I'll be … where is that gal?" Hoss exclaimed, beginning to feel a little worried.

Adam looked around the places that he and his brothers had loved as boys – but either Louise had not discovered those places yet, or she just was not there. Whichever the reason, Adam's search was rendered as useless as his brothers'.

Like Hoss and Joe, Adam felt a mixture of anxiety and frustration as he gave up on his search.

Ben practically turned the house inside out, vowing that Louise was going to be very sorry when he got his hands on her. He had tried to enter the kitchen, but Hop Sing had the nerve to wave his wooden spoon in Ben's face as he sent him away.

"You vely unglateful family! You not eat bleakfast Hop Sing cook all morning for you. Hop Sing go away to China. Leave unglateful family! You stay out of Hop Sing kitchen. Numba one daughter not here. If Hop Sing see numba one daughter, then numba one daughter feel Hop Sing's spoon for making family miss bleakfast. Vely unglateful daughter!"

Ben could count on Hop Sing to make good his threat, and so he was confident that Louise was not in the kitchen. As she was not anywhere else in the house, his search was also a failure.

He wandered out of the house, and saw his three sons already conjugating on the yard.

"Well? Anyone seen her?"

"No sir," Hoss said, toeing the dust on the yard uncomfortably.

Adam sighed, hands across his chest, "I presume you haven't seen her, either Pa?"

"Well, you presume right," Ben said brusquely.

"Pa," Joe began.

"What is it, Joe?" Ben barked.

"Oh, well, I don't know if it's important, but … Salt's saddle is missing."

"Well, at the moment I'm more concerned about your missing sister. A saddle can be replaced – your sister can't. And as for …" he paused as his eyes grew large. "Wait a minute. Salt – is he …"

"No, she hasn't gone riding. He's still in his stall."

Ben let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Pa – you don't think anything's happened to her, do you?" Hoss asked nervously.

"No," Ben said with a little uncertainty.

Adam frowned, "You don't want to think so – but you're not sure?"

Ben glared at his son for reading his mind.

"Come on – she can't be far," Adam said confidently, putting a hand on Ben's shoulder. "She's obviously gone on foot, so she can't have got far! Let's saddle up!"

So the four Cartwrights tacked up their horses to find the missing member of their family.


"What did we take the girl for, Abel?"

"She saw us. We couldn't have her snitching. We ain't used to a way of life like this – and we ain't starting out careless like. Heck, if we do that, then we're gonna have every sheriff from Virginia City to San Antonio after our necks."

"But she ain't done nothing." There was a pause, "She's an awful lot like her, Abel, ain't she?"

"Who? Now, don't you go bringing her into this!"

"Why? Because she would have hated what we've done. So would Ma, and Pa."

"But Pa wouldn't have wanted us to lose all of what he worked for!"

"I know that, and … shh, she's stirring!"

Louise blinked her eyes and looked about her.

What had happened? Who was talking? She could hear voices – the voices of strangers – and that scared her.

She looked up and saw two men sat together in front of a campfire. One was poking the fire with a stick, and the other was clutching something to him.

Louise stood up and looked closely at the object in the man's arms.

She could see it clearly now.

It was a saddle.

Salt's saddle.

And then she remembered – she remembered everything clearly. It had been a long night. A horrible night! A night where she had tried to cry for help, but had only found a smothering hand clamped across her mouth. She had tried to bite it – and had been rewarded with a gag.

At least that gag was gone now.

"What are you doing with me?" Louise cried. "What do you want? Did Russ Clydesdale send you?"

"No man sends us anyplace," a voice spoke behind her.

Louise whirled around, and saw the man with the scar throw down a pile of kindling on the floor.

Louise screamed.

"Aw, Cain, you scared her!" the man with the limp said reproachfully.

"Who are you? Why did you come? Why did you take me? Why did you want Salt's saddle?"

"Whoa, little lady," Abel said. "Slow down. Never mind who we are. But we were after a little something that belonged to us. How are you enjoying your pony? Do you like him?"

"His name's Salt! But how did you …"

"Your brother bought him off of us," Abel explained. "But, heck, he took the saddle without paying full price for it. We're just claiming it back."

Louise frowned in confusion. Adam would never take something that didn't belong to him, she was sure of it. "But why did you take me?"

"Well, little lady, it's like this. You were about to scream – and we couldn't just let you make a noise at that moment. Your brother and daddy might not have understood why we needed to take the saddle back, and things might have got ugly. You understand?"

"No," Louise said honestly.

"Well, don't you worry your pretty little head none about it."

Louise shivered at the tone in the man's voice. His words may have sounded friendly – but he seemed … frighteningly determined.

"What are you going to do with me?" she asked.

"Do? Well, I don't rightly know."

"Won't you take me back? Please take back! Take me home!"

Abel burst out laughing, and Cain turned on her roughly. "Well you ain't going home, missy. Not ever!"

Louise's eyes grew wide, and then she turned and ran.


I'll try to post much more regularly now. Sorry again for the long break between this chapter and the last. Please review, guys! And thanks for reading!