Amelia slipped out the hotel room, carpetbag in hand and locked the door. Turning, she smiled proudly to herself, tossed the key in the air, caught it, then glancing down the hall, knocked on the door across the hall. The door cracked open and she saw the face of her brother David. Seeing Amelia he opened the door fully and let her in.

"Did you get it?" he asked her.

"Oh I got it all right," she responded enthusiastically, and reaching into the bag, pulled out Adam's hat and holster with his gun still in it.

A wide grin crossed her older brother's face. "Wonderful Amelia, just wonderful. How about his clothes. Did you get those too?"

She responded with a self righteous smile and pulled out pants, shirt and boots. David returned a wicked smile and, grabbing them from her, put them on over his outfit. Stepping in front of the mirror in the room he buttoned the last button, then reaching for the hat, placed it on his head. He turned towards her. "How do I look?"

She smiled at him. "Like Adam Cartwright himself." The two laughed wickedly.

"Let's hope the townspeople believe it. Now, let me get out to their ranch and finish up my business. Here, take these clothes from that drifter's body and put them onto Adam, then Duncan will help you get his body out of here and back to our ranch."

Amelia agreed and watched as David buckled the holster around his hips. "David, you sure this is gonna work? We're taking an awful risk."

He continued to tighten the holster's leather tie-down around his right thigh. "It's going to work Amelia." He saw that his words weren't helping ease her worry. "Amelia," he stated firmly. "Ever since we lost Pa I've taken care of you, haven't I? The Cartwrights have done nothing but cause our family pain, frustration and bad luck. Well, no more. Now it's OUR turn to be in control."

Amelia nodded her head reluctantly. David reached forward and took her in his arms, holding her close. "This will be good for everyone. We have our family back together, we'll have venged our father's death and…" He pulled her from his chest and looked in her eyes. "…and you'll have Adam Cartwright."

She couldn't help but smile at these words. Ever since she was a little girl she had been in love with Adam. She would see him when she would go riding, all proud and handsome on his chestnut horse. He never gave her more than a smile or some polite conversation, but she wanted more…. she always wanted more from him. Her father always said she could never marry a man like Adam Cartwright. Amelia refused to believe it. One day she finally worked up the nerve to tell Adam the way she felt. He was a perfect gentleman about it, offering her compliments and such, but the conversation boiled down to he wasn't interested in her. He claimed it was because he felt too much like a brother to her. It didn't make her stop loving him. In fact, it had changed her childish infatuation into a full grown obsession.

"I have to go now," David told her. "It will be late enough when I get to the Ponderosa - they should all be asleep. And I need to make sure the people downstairs remember that they saw me. Make sure that Duncan is downstairs when he's supposed to be."

Amelia agreed and watched her brother leave the room. Sitting on the bed she reached into the carpetbag for one more item. A pocket watch. Opening it she read the inscription, "For my son Adam on his sixteenth birthday. Love, Pa." Amelia rubbed her fingers across the engraved message then closed it and placed it in her drawstring purse. Standing up, she started to go back across the hall to check on her naked prisoner. She was stopped by a knock on the door. Answering it she stared face to face with her brother Duncan, David's long lost twin. He had shown up on their doorstep and told them the story of how their mother had left them years before. It had been a tearful, yet wonderful, reunion and the perfect opportunity to put David's plan into action.

*******

"How did it start?" Ben Cartwright stared at the blackened, tilting shell of what had once been his barn, unable to make sense of the loss. There hadn't been any lightening for weeks and his men were all too well trained to be careless with lanterns or cigarettes.

Joe shook his head, reaching up to wipe some of the sweat and soot from his brow. "Too early to tell. Hoss's inside, tryin' to see if he can find any traces - got all the animals out, I think. Sure went up fast." He glanced around. "Adam not back from town yet?"

Ben frowned. "No. Late."

"Yeah. Well. Not like there's anythin' he could be doin' here except gettin' toasted with the rest of us. Musta got held up."

"Till this hour? I'd like to know with what!"

Joe gave a knowing smile and Ben's frown deepened. "That had better NOT be it! He said he'd meet me over two hours ago…" he trailed off suddenly at the sight of one of the hands trying to round the nervous horses together and into the corral for temporary keeping. He squinted through the smudged air, focusing on one tall, high stepping chestnut, its white blaze like a flag in the darkness, who was resisting the wrangler and shaking its head restively. "Isn't that…?"

Joe followed his gaze and grinned. "Sure is! Untacked, too, so Adam's gotta be around here some…" His grin faded abruptly as he looked toward the barn, a new idea blossoming. He opened his mouth to voice his thoughts, just as Hoss emerged from what was once the barn doorway. Something in the way he was standing warned Joe even before he made out what Hoss was carrying in his hands: what was left of a charred black hat with a silver-studded band, and a familiar looking black holster.

Hoss looked from Ben to Joe to the objects he was clutching. His face was unreadable in the light and shadow of the lanterns but his voice was chilled and hollow. "Pa…" he coughed to clear the smoke - or something else - from his throat. "We found a body."

The idea for the fire is originally Carla Keehn's. The idea to have Adam's "body" in the fire and for the switch of clothing with the drifter was Becky Sim's.