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Chapter 16
Heath's faltering steps left him in the wake of preoccupied family members and hands that swept Nick into the house and upstairs to his room to await the doctor's arrival. As he climbed the front steps, Ciego was already heading out of the house. As he passed the young rancher, Ciego placed a comforting hand on the younger man's shoulder. Heath did not raise his eyes to meet those of the Mexican wrangler. Thinking he understood Heath's preoccupation and caught up in the need to hurry on his desperate errand, Ciego mounted his horse and headed to find the doctor.

Not yet ready to face the others, Heath took the back stairs that he had snuck down such a short time ago. A lifetime ago.

Maybe no longer than what was left of Nick's lifetime.

For a moment Heath paused on the stairs as the horror of that thought washed over him, leaving only a sick, empty feeling inside. White-knuckled, Heath gripped the banister. Would that he could hold his brother's life a firmly as he did that familiar strip of wood. Resolved to do just that, Heath resumed his climb up the stairs with a strong determination to make sure that his brother survived.

The scene that Heath took in upon arriving at the door of Nick's room would have looked to the unfamiliar eye as utter chaos. After living two years with his adoptive family, Heath knew better than that. Nick was settled in the eye of a hurricane that was aptly named "Victoria" and two of her children were whirling about, seeing to their Nick's comfort much to his annoyance. He scowled at them all as he rubbed his leg above the bite to ease the pain. The area around the bite was a swollen and fiery red. But Heath had seen rattlesnake bites before and something was different.

Often the skin around the area bitten would swell so that it would actually split, causing vast tissue damage and fearsome wounds. The snake's bite could also make blood flow more freely. Nick's leg wound looked painful but nowhere near as severe as Heath had expected. Exhausted, Heath negotiated his way to a chair at Nick's bedside. Equally weary brotherly eyes met each other. Nick's pain and annoyance at all the fussing was met by a tired, crooked grin.
In answer to his brother's unvoiced complaint, Heath gently quipped, "Leastwise, if they're fussing over you, I'm left in peace."

Lines of exhaustion ran into those of pain in the dark cowboy's face, but his own strained smile met his brother's.

"You look like hell."

"Could be looking worse." Heath drawled. "If it weren't for a fool older brother of mine."
Jarrod tried to lighten the concern in his voice as he parried, "Brother Heath, kindly be more specific when you bandy about words like fool and older brother."

"Naw, I doubt anybody would get you two confused."

Nick favored both of his brothers with a pointed glare, but the levity was erased instantly as he failed to stifle a gasp and his hand clenched at the pain in his leg.

"Nick, dear. Is it getting worse?" Victoria's face was intent on reading her son's face. He might fool his brothers, but not her motherly scrutiny.

Nick shook his head in the negative, though his breathing seemed slightly harsher.

With an earthy honesty that Jarrod had come to expect from his youngest brother, Heath looked intently at Jarrod and murmured in almost a perplexed tone, "It should be a lot worse. Something's not right about this."

"Heath Barkley, what is the meaning of such talk?" scolded Audra.

Jarrod chimed in quick defense, as his mind had been traveling along similar lines. "No Audra, Mother. Heath's right. It's been almost an hour since Nick was bitten by that rattlesnake. Everything that I have read about bites of this nature leads me to believe that he should be much sicker than he is."

"Thanks Pappy. Next time you have pneumonia, I'll give you a cup of tea and tell you to stop breathing so heavy."

"Now Nick, I'm not minimizing the pain you are in. It's just that…"

Before Jarrod was able to complete his last thought, Nate came running into the room, a mason jar gripped tightly in one hand. A scrap of crumpled paper grasped tightly in the other.

Panting, the boy gasped out, "Mr. Nick! Mr. McCall said that you needed to see this right away." Holding the jar as far away from him as his short arms could manage, the others got their first good look at what the boy was holding.

The clear glass jar had a bit of cloth covering its mouth and secured around the lip of the jar with a length of tightly held twine. At the bottom of the jar was a small amount of vaguely amber fluid that moved sluggishly around the bottom of the container. Thought the rest of his family was confused, Heath knew with certainty that his brother was going to be all right. In his relief, he grasped his brother's shoulder and closed his eyes with a small prayer of thanks.

Victoria sensed the relief in her youngest son and turned her confused gaze back to her oldest. Jarrod's own understanding was just a step behind Heath's as he recalled reading about Indians that milked snakes for their venom to use as medicine and even poison. Heath's perspective had allowed him to see the two punctures in the material on the edge of the glass.

Nick's head swiveled from one face to another in confusion at the strange reaction that his brothers were having to Nate's jar.

Jarrod was the first to break the silence.

"Heath, is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah – I think we have our answer as to why Nick is not much sicker than he is."
Nate brought the jar up to his face, almost crossing his eyes as he peered at the container, trying to figure out how it could be the answer to anything. Jarrod snapped out of his elated reverie stepped over and gingerly pulled the jar out of the bemused boy's grip.

"Would someone care to enlighten ME as to why my two brothers look like throwing a party? You know, the guy that got bit by the snake." Instead of answering, much to his annoyance and that of his mother and sister, Nick's brothers seemed to continue talking in code.

"Looks like he milked it, Jarrod."

"We'll need the doctor to confirm that."

"Confirm WHAT? Dammit, will you two stop talking in riddles!"

Though Jarrod thought Heath looked visibly exhausted, he beat the lawyer to satisfying their much-annoyed brother.

"Nick, you didn't get bit with the full strength of the snake's venom. It looks like this snake was milked of its venom." Nick shot a confused look at Heath and the latter continued his explanation. "Heard tell from a Modoc friend of mind that the Maidu would tip their arrows with rattlesnake poison." Pointing to the mason jar now safely out of the way on Nick's dresser.

"Think that this is someone's way of updating the practice. Indians probably used animal skin instead of cloth, but the result's the same. Heard tell that the snake needs time to replenish its venom, so we got lucky."

"But what you're really saying is that this was done on purpose, but not to kill me?"
Victoria's reasoning as sharp as her eldest drew the final pieces together. "More correctly - not to kill Heath." Turning to Nate, she asked, "Do you remember this container being in Charger's stall?"

"No Ma'am! Not even when Mr. Nick here got bit. We moved Charger to clean the hay outta the stall and check for wholes in the boards where a rattler could come in. This was a'sittin in the middle of the stall when I came back from cartin' out the last bit of straw. I called Mr. McCall right away."

Obvious to everyone with alarming clarity was that the enemy was so close. Closer than any of them had possibly imagined.

Jarrod walked over to the boy and ruffled his hair. "You did quite well young man. Good thing that we have you there keeping an eye out for us. Why don't you see if Silas has some sugar cookies? Cleaning out a horse stall can work up a powerful appetite."

"And thirst, too!"

Audra allowed herself a smile. "I bet Silas has some ice cold lemonade to chase down those cookies."

With a high-pitched "Yee Hah", Nate started to run out of the room when he turned back and pressed the all but forgotten paper into Heath's hand.

"Almost forgot Mr. Heath. This was with the jar and addressed to you." Nate dashed out the room thoughts of snakes and scarier things all but forgotten now.

Jarrod watched as Heath unfolded the paper. Heath's face, already unnaturally pale, turned ashen. With thinly veiled anger, his younger brother crumpled the note in one hand and stood and turned as if to leave. Heath's next words did not enlighten anyone in the room.

"Not safe for ya'll. Gotta leave now…"

Victoria started to protest when Heath stopped suddenly.

If Jarrod had not been so intently watching his brother for signs as to what was in the note, he might not have been in time. His only clue was Heath's failed attempt to reach for something to catch his fall and his eyes as they rolled back into his head. Jarrod heard both his mother and Nick call out "Heath" as he reached to grab the younger man under his arms. Jarrod gasped as his hand touched a hot wetness along Heath's side that had been hidden by his dark maroon shirt.

Nick was already painfully moving over on his bed to make room for Heath. "Lay him down over here, Jarrod – next to me - here. What's wrong with him?"

"He's bleeding. I think it's his shoulder, again."

"Oh God, Jarrod, he fell. In the stall. He fell so hard, I think he passed out. We left him out there… alone."

As Jarrod lay Heath down, Victoria's attention was drawn to Heath's left hand that still gripped the wad of paper tightly. A thin telltale rivulet of blood traced its way from beneath his cuff and down his hand. She delicately spread the note, her heart breaking as she noticed Heath's blood discoloring one corner of the paper. Knowing that her children needed to know what it said as much as she did, she read the note aloud.

"Heath Barkley -

I see you missed the punch line of my joke entirely. But your brother Nick seems to have gotten the point. Too bad. But I still have time to sharpen my delivery. At least he got a little taste of what I'm saving just for you. Guess I'll have to be more careful. The rest of your family might not appreciate my sense of humor."

The note was unsigned.

TBC…

So did you all expect that little twist? I had to make sure that our Nick stayed in one piece - relatively. Who knew you could get story ideas from old National Geographics?
The Maidu are a tribe originally located in North Central California. Actually quite close to Barkleyland. And they really did sometimes dip their arrows with rattlesnake venom. Though the actual "milking" part comes more from modern knowledge – though the animal skin is a possibility – it comes directly from my imagination and no misinformation or disrespect intended. Just a little poetic license.