So as Kybo said, i'm picking up his/her story. Just hope that it's good enough...
Mason felt his hart skip a beat; he stared blankly at the entrance for a few seconds then darted back to where he left Clay.
"Clay! Clay! Get up you good for nothing…Clay!" Mason yelled as he reached his partner, who was now staring to wake up.
"What the…Mason I'm going to kill you…" Clay growled as he started to pick himself up.
"We got a problem Clay, I found the kid. Found out where he's gone…" Manson choked.
"Then what's the problem? Where is he?" Clay glanced around, and he finally noticed where he was, or at least close to. "Ah, damn."
It had been two hours since Adam had arrived home with news Joe wasn't at school. An hour and a half since Hoss and Adam had met Ben on the rode leading into Virginia City. And an hour twenty minuets since they had found Kennings and then Joe's prints.
Ben had sent Hoss to get Roy, Adam had ridden back to the Ponderosa to get hands and wait for Roy. Ben now rode alone searching for any clue to where Joe may be.
This morning Joe had begged him not to go to school, he had wanted to stay home and help with the new horses the ranch had gotten. But Ben had put his foot down, and sent him on his way.
When Adam had told him that Joe wasn't at school, that the teacher hadn't seen him, he had thought Joe had been skipping. Anger had been his first reaction, his first conclusion that Joe had been disobeying him.
'Shows what you know you old fool,' Ben said as he continued to follow what he hoped was a trail that would lead him to Joe. 'There you were jumping to conclusions about your son, when he's in the hands of a murder. And you always tell them to think things through.'
The trail was leading him farther away from the Ponderosa and Virginia City and closer to the moutons, or as the ranch hands called it, 'Minors Land.' As he rode Ben raked his mind for what he knew about Kennings, and could only come up with a few scarps of knowledge. He was a stranger, a kind of shady fellow, who spent a lot of time in the salon. Rumor was that he had stolen Yankee gold. But there wasn't any truth to them, none that Roy had found. 'Or where they….'
Hoss had reached the Sheriff in record time, and it wasn't long before the two of them had raced back to the Ponderosa with a few other men from Virginia City. The Cartwright's had many friends, who were all willing to lend a hand in the Search for little Joe. Adam greeted the small posy along with a ranch had named Willy.
"Hoss, Sheriff…" Adam called out to the approaching men.
"Adam, Hoss told me what you found, is there any other sign?" Roy asked coming to a halt in front of him.
"No, Just Kennings and Joe's prints. Pa's out trying to find the trail now. What I think happened is that Little Joe saw the murder and then got taken," Adam told the others.
"But Adam, why'd they do that? Why not just leave him?" Hoss asked his older brother.
"Because they want to make sure that he doesn't get the chance to say anything. Which means we have very little time," Adam said, for a brief second Hoss could swear he heard the slightest hint of fear.
Roy nodded, "I suppose you already have your hands fanned out?" he asked, nodding at Willy.
"Yes sir, the others are checking Ponderosa land starting from the rode and moving back. If it's alright with you I can take the posy up through the moutons, start looking up there," Willy said. Willy was one of the Cartwright's best workers; he'd been with them for two years after spend ten years trapping animals up in the moutons surrounding the ranch. Roy and everyone else knew that if Little Joe had been taken into the moutons Willy would find him.
"Sounds good. You men," Roy shouted, addressing the posy, "Follow Willy, he knows where to go," Roy turned back to Adam and Hoss as the others rode off. "Now then, I want you boys to take me to where you found the body and lets see if we can find your father."