7

The trials for Topaz and the men that Earnest had hired to attack the Ponderosa were set within a week. The men Earnest had hired had all come from Reno. Their trials were held in Reno and most of them were convicted of some form of complicity. Most escaped with prison sentences. One man hanged.

Topaz was to be tried in Virginia City. Given that he did not speak, and no one knew if he was even capable of speech, time had to be taken to find a lawyer who could actually communicate with his client. The crowds of men hanging around the jail, or lingering in the saloons till all hours, ebbed and flowed. Most of the feeling toward Topaz was hateful and bigoted. Roy spent every day guarding the man under the barrage of comments, shouts, jeers and unlawful demands. He had his own feelings toward Topaz, given what he had done to Adam Cartwright, a man that he had known since Adam was a boy.

Roy asked for a special meeting of the town council, and asked that the judge who was slated to hear the case, also be in attendance. The council met in the Virginia City jail, where Roy had coffee waiting. The blinds were pulled and he'd spoken to the usual crowd of hecklers, warning them to spend their evening hours elsewhere. A part of him wanted the crowd to stay, and give the council members a taste of the misery he'd been through in the past week. Another part of him wondered if his tolerance of the crowd would look like a lack of authority to the council members.

The meeting began at seven pm and ended at three in the morning. When Ben and Adam Cartwright left to get a room at the hotel the decision had been made to move the trial to Carson City. It would be held at the newly constructed courthouse and but for the witnesses and a few members of the press, the jury, judge and court officials, the trial would be closed to the public. When the judge left Virginia City the following morning to finalize the details with Governor Blasdale, he was met with resistance. The governor was so staunchly against holding a private trial that the judge had to send a telegraph to the supreme court for permission to overrule the state official.

The added delay nearly cost Topaz his life.

When the announcement came to Virginia City that the trial would be delayed an additional week, the youngest, and angriest, of the men started two separate brawls in saloons at opposite ends of the city to draw Coffey and his deputies out of the jail. The single man that was left was knocked out, tied up and locked in Topaz cell. The thing the men didn't plan for was how difficult it would be to control Topaz long enough to hang him.

Topaz left the men with two concussions, bruises, a broken arm, a broken hand, and ten missing teeth among them, before returning himself to his jail cell. In the hours that Roy spent cleaning up the mess that the rioters had made, he did everything he could to get Topaz to talk. If only to explain why he had turned himself back in, instead of running. Roy wanted to know if it was intelligence that had motivated the big man, or the same sense of security that prompted a horse to return to its stall after throwing a rider. But Topaz remained silent. His silence, and Roy's curiosity, led to a visit from the town doctor the following morning. The doctor coaxed Topaz into allowing a full examination.

So far as the doctor could tell, all the parts of Topaz that were required for speech were in perfect working order. The man could clearly hear them. He just chose to be silent. While they waited for the authority from the supreme court, Roy spent most of his days in the jail, talking to Topaz. He did everything he could to get the man to speak, either in his own defense, or just to bargain for himself a little peace and quiet. Topaz even played a game or two of checkers with the sheriff, but his mouth remained stubbornly closed.

The last week of August was spent choosing a jury. Topaz' lawyer was appointed by the state. John Hunt was in his sixties. He had once had a private practice of his own, but had settled into working as a defense attorney in the capital for the security it provided. He was well spoken and well respected in the courtroom, but frequently remained quiet when Roy would have liked him to speak up. He may not have asked all the questions he should have of the prospective jurymen, but Roy could hardly say he was giving an inadequate defense for a man who refused even to defend himself.

The jury was selected and the trial began the first week of September. Bill Ford was the prosecuting attorney and he carried himself as if he had already won the case. The charges were numerous, and since Earnest and most of the men he had hired, were not there to take the blame, every penny worth of damage, and every scratch suffered by a citizen of Virginia City, had been laid on the ample shoulders of the one man to have survived. John Hunt's position was to prove that Topaz was only a cog in the machine, and that Earnest had been behind the plot, backed by bigger men with bigger plans. As an accomplice to the crime, and possibly as an accomplice with diminished mental capacity, Hunt hoped to get Topaz a prison sentence, instead of a hanging.

They sat through hours of testimony from business owners and residents who had witnessed the explosion. The military men that had been called to support Coffey the night of the explosion testified to what they saw and heard. Each testimony spoke to the violence and fear and the damage it had caused, but few could speak to the actions Topaz had taken. Even Ben Cartwright's testimony was picked apart, much of it discarded but for the times when he could identify Topaz as solely responsible.

When Adam testified he spoke calmly about the beating. Most of the bruises had healed, but the headaches had remained, and the pressure of testifying, with Topaz sitting across from him had his head pounding. Adam, as a witness for the prosecution, was questioned by Bill Ford first. When Ford sat down, the ladies in the jury were murmuring, wiping tears from their eyes and fanning themselves. The judge asked if they needed a recess and gave them five minutes to pull themselves together before allowing the defense to question Adam.

Hunt started by asking Adam to repeat parts of his testimony, focusing on Adam's claim that each action Topaz took against him was preempted by a command from Earnest. Adam felt anger flutter in his chest but he sat calmly and answered the questions, doing his best to change little about his statements. When Hunt began to ask Adam if he thought Topaz would have acted on his own without Earnest ordering him to, Bill Ford objected.

"Adam Cartwright can hardly be expected to speak for the defendant. It has been previously established that before these events, they had no relationship."

The objection was sustained.

Hunt then asked, "Did Mr. Topaz threaten your life at any time?"

"He broke my ribs and nearly choked me to death. Yes, my life was threatened." Adam said.

The judge halted the murmurs that followed with a few pounds of his gavel.

Hunt gave a ghost of a smile and asked, "Did Mr. Topaz use words to threaten you?"

"Topaz has never spoken to me." Adam said. The man in question was looking at the table top in front of him, as he had been for most of the trial, seeming to be a thousand miles away.

"So Mr. Topaz never expressed to you an intention to do harm. The intent to do bodily harm came from Mr. William Earnest, correct?"

"Topaz made the choice to follow the commands that Earnest gave him." Adam said.

"We've previously established that you didn't know this man before he began beating you, Mr. Cartwright. How can you possibly know what he chose to do?"

"Are you implying that Earnest forced him to accost me?"

"I'm establishing, Mr. Cartwright, that there may have been extenuating circumstances that led to the unfortunate damage done to your person. That it was not Mr Topaz' intent or plan to harm you, but that he was persuaded to do so by an outside party."

"When Mr. Topaz…" Adam began, "choked me, and hit me, he was smiling. Earnest didn't tell him to smile. He enjoyed hurting me, Mr. Hunt." Adam said.

"You can't possibly-" Hunt began, but Bill Ford stood.

"This line of questioning is coming dangerously close to harassment, your honor."

"I'm inclined to agree, Mr. Ford. Mr. Hunt, have you reached your conclusion?"

Hunt stood for a moment, looking like a horse fighting the bit, before he backed away from the witness stand. "I have, your honor."

"Cross examine?"

Ford stood. "After Earnest gave Mr. Topaz direction, did Mr. Topaz appear to hesitate before carrying out those instructions?"

"No."

"Did he appear to show remorse, shame or regret after causing you harm?"

"No."

"Were you in fear of your life from Mr. Topaz?"

Adam hesitated a moment. His fingers closed into fists and he considered the big man sitting mute at the table with his lawyer. When the silence lasted long enough for him to notice, Topaz lifted his head and met Adam's gaze.

"No." Adam said.

Ford blinked then asked, "You may have misunderstood the question. Did you have reason to believe that Mr. Topaz could kill you?"

"He could have killed me, yes."

"Thank you, Mr. Cartwright."

"He didn't." Adam added, causing Ford to turn back to him. Ford cast him a questioning look, then laughed softly.

"That much is evident to the entire court, Mr. Cartwright. Thank you."

Adam stepped down and strode out of the courtroom, followed by Ben. They walked down the steps and onto the boardwalk. The skies were dark with storm clouds, heavy with rain. The storm might break and force them to stay in Carson City overnight, or the rain might hold out until nightfall. The rain could last for a few hours, or a few days. There was no way to know for sure, and no way to predict how much they would get. The unpredictable nature of a storm had always held Adam's interest, making the approach of clouds on the horizon something that he looked forward to. This storm felt like it was his kin. It matched the storm in his head. The doubt that Hunt had put on things he thought were undeniable fact. Topaz' intent hadn't been in question in the moment, or in the month that followed.

Now Adam wondered. Now Adam wanted the man to speak for himself. And he wanted to be there to hear it. He wanted Topaz to explain why he smiled, why he seemed to enjoy it. Why he seemed so eager to please Earnest. Why he had been so precise, practiced, almost surgical with his actions.

There were other witnesses scheduled to follow that day, including the Tungstens, and the next day would be for Roy Coffey to give the evidence he had collected in his investigation. Then the jury would be left to deliberate. Adam wanted very suddenly to wash his hands of the trial, but he had promised Sarah that he would support her and her family while they testified. When the court reconvened he was there with Ben in the front row of seats, listening intently to each of the Tungsten women as they described the attack on their ranch house, being wrongfully held against their will, and Sarah's nightmare ride to the Ponderosa.

Hunt did his best to be respectful to the women with his questioning, but Adam could see some of the women in the jury shaking their head in disgust at his tactics. The Tungsten women spoke plainly and earnestly, gaining sympathy from the women, and arousing the protective natures of the men.

By the end of the final day of testimony, Adam was certain that Topaz would be found guilty of most of the crimes on the docket. He wasn't certain that Topaz would hang for those crimes.

With their presence no longer needed, and with the start of a cattle drive already weeks overdue, Adam and Ben returned to the Ponderosa. Adam was left to look after the ranch while Ben, Joe, Hoss, Hop Sing and the other hands drove the cattle to San Francisco.

The drive was only three days out when the jury handed down guilty verdicts for half the charges. Topaz was convicted of illegal imprisonment, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, complicity in a plot to assassinate the state governor and, of all things, trespassing. Much as the men of Virginia City might have wanted those charges to add up to a hanging, it didn't happen. The judge sentenced Topaz to thirty years in prison.

Topaz spent three days in the prison at Carson City before an attempt was made on his life. When he was moved to solitary, and a guard was caught trying to shoot him, Topaz was moved overnight to a facility out of the state.

The attempts on his life, despite the fact that Topaz had not once spoken to anyone about the crimes committed, seemed to continue to point to bigger forces at work. Forces that were conveniently ignored with Topaz serving a prison sentence. Adam had to admit, if only to himself, that the care taken to protect the man before, during and even after the trial impressed him. He chose to see it as an indication that Nevada was maturing as a state.

When Ben reached San Francisco with his boys and the cattle drive, he found a letter waiting for him. In the envelope were a dozen clippings from the local papers and a short letter from Adam.

"Pa,

Thought I would catch you up on the latest news. Re: Topaz Removed from State Prison, I understand that he is now being housed out of state. No one knows his location and Roy has been strongly discouraged from asking. Re: Anonymous Donation to Virginia City Following Explosion, the donation came through the governor's office, and he is taking credit for it. Roy and I have other suspicions. Re: No New Transportation Laws Confirmed, The governor's visit yesterday confirmed his retraction. It looks like the Transcontinental is the clear winner.

Mrs. Tungsten has invited us to their home for Thanksgiving celebrations. I accepted in your stead.

Safe travels,

Adam."