Chapter 4

Matt and Festus walked to the court office of Judge Brooker. The first person they saw was Judge Brooker's assistant, Todd. Todd recognized the Marshal immediately.

"Marshal Dillon, how can I help you?" asked Todd.

"I'm here to see Judge Brooker. Is he available?" Matt asked.

"He's in his office," Todd replied.

"Much obliged," Matt said as he and Festus went towards Judge Brooker's office.

Before entering, Matt knocked on the door. He could hear Judge Brooker saying to come in, so he and Festus walked in.

Judge Brooker looked up from his desk and saw Matt and Festus. "Matt, it's good to see you. I'm guessing the reason you're here is your missing deputy."

"Yes, it is. You remember my other deputy, Festus Hagen."

"I do. Hello, Mr. Hagen."

"Hello, Judge," said Festus.

"Let's get down to business. I'm guessing you didn't see your deputy on your way here, otherwise you would have said so," Judge Brooker said, looking at Matt.

"No, we didn't. We were hoping we would. I think it would be almost impossible to track him now. Different people come and go between Dodge and Hays. How would you know which trail to follow?" said Matt. You could hear the frustration in his voice.

"Golly bill, Matthew. Newly and Les' tracks would be fresher compared to other tracks. I would be able to see that," said Festus.

Matt and Festus finished their conversation with the Judge and left his office. "Festus, I think we should go to the telegraph office and send out wires describing Newly and Les. Maybe someone saw them. We'll have them send responses back to Dodge"

"How far do ya reckon we should send them there wires?" asked Festus.

"The more ground we cover the better. Let's do a radius of seven hundred miles. I know that's covering a lot of area. But like I said, the more area we cover the better."

Matt and Festus walked over to the telegraph office to send the wire. They walked up to the man behind the counter. Matt was the first to speak. "I'd like to send a wire to all telegraph offices within a seven hundred mile radius."

The officer grabbed a piece of paper and waited for Matt to tell him what to send. "Send this. 'Dodge City deputy missing. *stop* Name Newly O'Brien. *stop* Height six feet. *stop* 175 pounds. *stop* Hair and eye color brown. *stop* That should be good."

"Matthew, ain't ya gonna send out a wire on Les Dean?" Festus asked.

"Festus, something tells me the two of them aren't together anymore. Right now my concern is Newly."

"Let's head back to Dodge. We can ride for a few hours and then set up camp for the night," Matt said to Festus.

Meanwhile, Newly had been thrown from his horse, hitting his head when he landed on the ground. His horse took off and ended up at a water trough of a ranch. The horse drank the water as if he hadn't had any water in days. The woman who lived there noticed the horse and went up to him. She saw he had a saddle and other gear, and she knew he wasn't a wild horse.

"You obviously belong to someone. What did you do with your rider?" she asked. "You're obviously not going to answer me. You came from the northeast, so I'll go that way. Sutler!" she called.

A dog came running towards her. She took Newly's horse and put it in the corral and then saddled her own horse and took off towards the northeast. Sutler followed her. She hadn't ridden too long, when she spotted something up ahead. Getting closer, she realized it was a man. She approached him and checked to see if he was still alive. She determined he was and tried to get him into a conscious state. He was injured and there was no way she could help him out here. By the grace of God, she was able to get Newly into a semi-conscious state. Because of that, it was much easier to get Newly mounted on the horse. The woman knew she couldn't ride on the horse too, so she walked back to the ranch, leading the horse. Sutler followed along.

Matthew and Festus had been riding back to Dodge, when they noticed an old campsite. "Lookey here Matthew. A campsite. Do ya think it belonged to Newly and Les?"

"It's hard to tell. I see tracks that go east. Why would Newly and Les go east?" asked Matt. "I don't want to follow a trail that we aren't one hundred percent whom they belong to. I say we just go back to Dodge and hope we get some responses from that wire we sent."

"I'm afraid yer right. I just hate feelin' like I ain't doing anything," Festus sighed.

"I know, Festus. I know," Matt sighed as well.

After bedding down for the night, Matt and Festus journeyed back to Dodge. They rode up to the jail to unpack their saddlebags and then took their horses to the livery stable. Their first stop after the livery stable was the telegraph office. They wanted to see if there were any wires in regards to Newly. Unfortunately, there weren't any telegrams.

Both men walked over to the Long Branch. Kitty and Doc were sitting at a table. Kitty noticed them first. She also noticed that Newly wasn't with them. "You didn't find him," she stated.

"No, I was hoping we would meet up with him on the way to Hays. We went to the Hays telegraph office and sent out a wire describing Newly. It's going to be a waiting game, but all we can do is hope we get responses," said Matt.

"For Heaven's sakes, weren't there any trails to follow?" asked Doc.

"There were multiple tracks," said Matt. "But which ones do you follow?"

That night Matt and Kitty were in her room. Kitty knew how stressed and frustrated Matt was. She had her tub filled with hot water where they enjoyed a very relaxing bath together. Bath done, Matt and Kitty climbed into bed. Matt may have been stressed and frustrated, but being with Kitty did help to alleviate that. It wasn't long before a lovemaking session began.

Out in the Arizona territory, Newly had been sleeping for several days at the woman's ranch. Finally, after three days, he awakened. He looked around, not knowing where he was.

"Well, rise 'n shine. Welcome back to the land of the living. I was beginnin' to wonder if you would ever wake up," said the woman. "Since I have no clue who you are, I have to ask what your name is. You had no identification on you."

Newly could only stare at her. He had no idea who he was or where he was from. Newly couldn't give an answer.

TBC