Luke turned over in his sleep, turned over again, and woke to see Mark sitting by the banked campfire. He got up and stretched, then went over to sit next to his son. "Can't sleep?"

"No." The boy stared at the fire.

"Do you want to talk?"

"I don't know." Mark was silent for a long moment and Luke waited patiently until the boy went on. "I just thought it would be different. I thought it was exciting catching outlaws."

"I don't believe I ever told you that," said Luke.

"You didn't. I just thought it was." Mark poked the fire with a stick. "All the books make it sound exciting. This was awful, Pa. I was scared the whole time they were going to find out what I was doing. And I was even more scared they were going to catch you. Then they did and…" His voice broke. "And if they had killed you it would have been all my fault because I was the one who wanted to try catching them."

"Mark!" Luke put out his arms and pulled his son close, holding him tight until the boy stopped shaking. Mark sat back and his father looked at him very seriously. "Mark, no one is ever to blame for what someone else does. Each person is only responsible for himself. The Lord gave us free will to choose our own path and if someone else chooses wrongly, that's on them, not on the people they run across."

"I guess so." Mark shuddered. "It's hard to stop thinking about it, though. I said it was the worst when they brought you into the camp, but that wasn't really the worst."

Luke asked gently, "What was the worst? The fight in the saloon?"

"That was pretty bad." Mark's throat was tight. "We never talked to each other like that. And I didn't mean to hit you, Pa. I thought you would duck."

"Well, you caught me by surprise. You know you didn't really hurt me, don't you?"

"I know. But last night, when they brought you in…" Mark's voice was so low Luke could barely hear him. "What I said to you...if they killed you that would have been the last words you ever heard from me. That was the worst." His eyes swam with tears.

Luke put an arm around Mark and bent his head to touch his son's head. "No, son, that was the best. What you said saved my life."

Mark straightened up. "I didn't think of it that way."

"Well, that's the way it was." Luke frowned. "Of course, you didn't have to call me 'old man.' That was just plain disrespectful."

Luke's eyes were twinkling and Mark smiled that smile his father loved to see. "You're not as young as you used to be, Pa."

"Neither are you. In fact, you're just about a grown man. You know, Mark, if you ever do want to leave, strike out on your own, I wouldn't hold you back."

"I know." The boy sighed. "Maybe I will someday but for now, the only place I want to be is home with you."