Chapter 1

Face and his extended family joined the Chris Hale wagon train outside of St. Louis, Missouri, and Face hit it off with Barnaby West, who was only a couple of years older.

Barney did chores to help out and was a viable wagon train member. He mainly took his orders from Wooster, but any adult could ask him to do anything, and he had to obey. At the moment, he and Face were riding around, getting ready for the train to pull out.

They were two weeks out when two wagons overtook them. Face was riding on the other side of their wagon and didn't see the occupants as they attached themselves to the end. A rider hurried past them as he sought out Mr. Hale.

"Chris…rider coming fast," Cooper Smith, one of the scouts of the train, called out.

Chris turned to see the commotion. He halted the train to take care of the situation.

"Mr. Hale?" The stranger asked, looking at both Coop and Chris.

"I'm Chris Hale. What can I do for you?"

"My sister and I signed up for your train but were delayed. We are here now and wish to have our wagons placed in their correct location on your train. I am Robert Stevenson, and with me, I have two boys, Gerald and Thomas, plus Emily, my wife. The other wagon contains my sister, Minerva Ames, and her two children, Hollis and Benjamin. Hollis is her grown son, and Benjamin is her youngest," Mr. Stevenson explained.

"When we stop for the night, we will have a chance to place your wagons where they belong, but for now, stay where they are. We have several hours of daylight left, and I want to get as far as possible," Chris explained as he watched Stevenson nod and ride away.

"I don't think he liked that you didn't stop at once and place their wagons where they thought they should be," Coop remarked thoughtfully.

Chris nodded. "I just hope this will be our only problem with them." He then motioned for the wagons to resume.

The problems Chris hoped to avoid came about a week later when Face accidentally bumped into Mrs. Ames. "I'm sorry…." Face began to say when he turned to apologize and got the shock of his life. The person he had bumped into was the one who had caused him so much grief while at the orphanage. She was the sister of the Orphanage Director, Mr. Stevenson.

"You…well, you won't get away from me this time," she said as she grabbed his jacket and yelled, "ROBERT!" at the top of her lungs.

Her brother came running, but when he saw who she was holding, he began to smile.

"Now it is time that you get the punishment you deserved before you ran away!" He said as he approached the terrified boy. Face kicked out, catching Mrs. Ames on the shin and causing her to loosen her hold, which allowed Face to run away.

As he ran, Face could hear, "Catch him. THIEF!" in the background. He ran even faster until he ran past Hannibal and hid behind BA at their wagons.

Hannibal approached the boy seeing the fear on his face. "Face…what's wrong, kid?"

Before the boy could answer, the mob arrived, led by Stevenson and his sister, who was limping.

Stevenson started to approach Face, only to be stopped abruptly by Hannibal. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to get that runaway and punish him for stealing my sister's brooch. He also kicked her," Stevenson replied significantly, expecting Hannibal to allow him access to the boy.

"You lay one hand on that boy, and you will have to go through me!" BA held up his fists.

When he realized that BA wasn't going to allow him to take the boy, Stevenson added. "I was the director of the orphanage where this boy lived. It was during my term that he ran away. I never punished him for his crime. Don't you understand that the boy is a thief?"

"I'm not a thief. I didn't steal anything!" Face cried with anger as he came out from behind BA.

"You're a liar, boy!" Minerva Ames declared venomously. "You were caught with my brooch in your hand!"

"I found it on the ground, and you weren't there to see anything!"

"Are you calling me a liar, boy?"

"I'm only saying that you weren't there when I found the brooch lying on the ground. You came out of your house only after your son took it from me," replied Face as he looked up to Hannibal for help.

"Mrs. Ames, were you there when your son recovered the brooch?" Hannibal asked quietly.

"No, but Benjamin was there. He told me that he saw this boy holding my brooch." Minerva Ames replied.

"That doesn't mean that he stole anything, only that he had the brooch in his hands; so, his statement of finding the brooch coincides with your son's statement."

"No…I didn't tell my mother everything. He picked the brooch up only after it dropped from his jacket pocket." Benjamin Ames had just arrived and decided to add to his original story.

Coop rode up then and heard the last few statements that Minerva Ames and Benjamin had made. He didn't believe for a minute that Face was guilty of being a thief. He was a likable kid, and Coop felt he had been framed for the thefts. Coop was ready to step in if needed.

"He's lying! I only found the brooch on the ground, as I said earlier!" Face was near tears as he stated the facts.

"Don't be fooled by his tears…that's how the con works best," Stevenson said with a sneer. "I should know. I've dealt with him since he was in my care."

Face could hear the murmurs from the crowds as their disbelief of his innocence made him move closer to Hannibal.

"He's a thief, I tell you. First, it was my apples, and then he moved up to take my jewelry. If someone doesn't step up and do something, this boy will steal your valuables next!" Minerva Ames declared.

"I didn't steal your apples. I only took the fallen ones, and of those, only the ones that had fallen on your neighbor's property. And before you ask, I asked them if I could eat them. They, unlike you, gave them willingly to me. They saw that I was thin and figured that I was hungry!"

"Some of the ones I saw you eat didn't come off the ground, boy!" Minerva

Ames wasn't about to stop in her quest to paint him a liar and thief.

"I gave him those apples, mother." Hollis Ames had walked up and heard the accusations against Face. "He was one of my students and was always hungry in class. When I saw him picking up the fallen ones, I gave him some from the tree. If Uncle Robert had fed him better, he wouldn't have to look for other ways to get food!"

"I fed the orphans under my charge. This one was always getting into trouble, so I used many ways to get him to behave. Cutting back on his meals seemed to work well, but I did feed him!" Stevenson said indignantly.

"Well, obviously, you didn't feed him enough…he was listless during my classes, falling asleep when he should be paying attention. That all stopped when I started bringing him food for breakfast! He then became one of my best students."

"Mrs. Ames, I did ask you if I could have some of the apples that fell in your yard. Do you remember what you said?" Asked Face.

"Yes, I said no, because I was sure you would steal something of value once you gain entry to my yard, and I was right," she replied.

"Mother, did you ever think that, but by the grace of God, that starving boy could have been Benjamin? Wouldn't you want someone to take pity on him and feed him if he asked?" Hollis said to his mother.

"That's different, my Benjamin would never find himself in that position, and anyhow the boy wasn't starving; Robert was feeding him, just not as much because of his bad behavior. Robert was always telling me of the mischief he was getting into and how he had to use harsh measures to deal with him."

"That's not completely true. I admit that I did get into trouble sometimes, but many of the whippings I received were for incidents I didn't do," argued Face hotly.

Stevenson could feel the hatred towards the boy shifting towards him instead, and he had to turn it back. "That makes no difference. He was caught with the brooch in his hands, and don't forget he did run away. If he was innocent, why did he run?"

As the crowd surged forward, Chris Hale arrived.

"What's going on?" Chris shouted over the crowd quietening it at once,

"We caught a thief, Mr. Hale. We demand he be punished!" Stevenson demanded.

Chris looked around, trying to see who he was talking about. "Who?"

"The boy!"

"You caught this boy stealing on my train? When?"

"No, not on this wagon train but back home before he ran away. He stole a brooch from my sister, and he ran away before being punished," Stevenson explained. "He's probably a stowaway on your wagon train. He has no family."

"Yes, he does!" declared Murdock before Hannibal could speak up. "He has a loving mother and father." He looked at Hannibal and Maggie, who had joined the fray. "He also has two older brothers, myself and BA, who love and will protect him with their lives, and a loving grandmother in Mrs. B would watch over him and love him as one of her own. He has more than some kids have."

Face looked into Murdock's eyes and saw love radiating as he was pulled into an embrace by his brother. "BA and I will protect you, little brother," whispered Murdock in the young boy's ear.

"And if anyone doubts what my Captain has said, I have the adoption papers. My wife and I adopted my nephew soon after we arrived in St. Louis." Hannibal said firmly.

"Your nephew?"

"His mother was my dearest younger sister, who died from the consumption when the boy was about five. His father died during the war. I searched for him as soon as we discovered she had died, but because they were hiding from an abusive husband and father, she changed their names. It wasn't until after the war that I learned of Face's true identity."

"Face?"

"That's my son's nickname."

"So he has a family now, but it doesn't change the fact that he stole from my sister and ran away. Running away is a sure sign of guilt in my book. He's guilty because he ran. If he was innocent, then he shouldn't have run!" Stevenson declared.

"Face, why did you run?" Hannibal asked quietly.

"Because Mr. Stevenson was going to whip me. He told me that the next time I got into trouble, he would give me a strapping I would never forget!"

"How old were you at the time?"

"10"

"And had he used a strap on you before?"

Face nodded.

"Why? What did you do?"

"I took a piece of bread, but I was hungry."

"See, he admits to stealing!" Stevenson was quick to point out.

"How many licks did he give you?"

"Ten…one for each year of my age. I couldn't sit comfortably for days afterward."

Hannibal turned to the silent crowd and asked, "Now do you understand why he ran away? I don't know about you, but if I had been in his shoes and at his age, I would have run, too. If He had received ten licks for taking a piece of bread, how many do you think he would have received if they believed he took a brooch?"

The crowd began to dissipate when Stevenson yelled out. "I might have been a little heavy-handed at times, but this boy was always getting into trouble. It seems it wasn't heavy enough since we have shown you proof that he stole the brooch. My nephew saw the whole thing."

"No, Mr. Stevenson, it is only one boy's word against the other." Coop replied.

"Are you calling my nephew a liar, sir?" asked Stevenson indignantly.

"No more than you are calling Face one. It would seem that your nephew should have mentioned all he saw as soon as it happened, which he didn't. I suspect that what he added wasn't the truth. I think he 'remembered' that little bit to make the boy look guilty when his early statements didn't do the job."

"How dare you! My son isn't a liar. He just forgot that other part, didn't you, Benjamin?"

"Yes, mother. I didn't think that I needed to tell you everything. His having the brooch in his possession should have been enough to convict him."

"So, Mr. Hale, what will you do about it?"

"Nothing…you haven't proven to me that this boy is guilty of anything…and since he has been on this train, no one has had anything stolen. What happened years ago has nothing to do with now. In my book, this boy is innocent, and I had better not hear of you harming him. If I do, I will kick you off this train!"

Stevenson gave Face a glare but eventually walked away with his sister and nephew. This incident had not gone the way they had hoped, but not wanting to be kicked off the train, they had to abide by the wagon master's directive.