Chp 3

Author's Note: Just a quick thank you to Beverly, whom I can not pm. I appreciate you. As I do all of you who have been so kind to me. God Bless you, my friends.

After supper was over, Kitty, along with fifteen year old Martha and twelve year old Jane, cleaned up the kitchen. Matt and Bud retired to the living room while Kitty put the rest of the children to bed.

Ten year old twins Abby and Ricky went easily as did eight year old Eliza, but Georgie cried pitifully when he realized she wasn't going to stay with him. "Georgie," she sighed. "It's alright. Really it is. I'll just be down stairs."

"No!" he protested loudly. "You stay."

Martha stepped up beside Kitty and tried to tuck the little boy's covers in but he pulled them back out again. "He misses Ma an awful lot." She said sadly. "She seemed about the only one that understood him. He's not like the rest of us."

Kitty remembered Doc saying that while Georgie wasn't retarded, he was a little different and would probably always need care, even after adulthood. Shaking her head, Kitty gathered the little boy into her arms with a sigh. "I'll take him downstairs with me." She told the girl beside her. "Maybe I can get him to sleep."

"Yes, Ma'am." Martha answered. Then just as Kitty reached the door, "Miss Kitty."

Kitty turned back. "Yeah?"

"I'm awful glad you and Marshal Dillon are here. We all are."

Kitty smiled sweetly at the young girl and held out her arm. Giving Martha a quick hug she nodded. "I am too."

Downstairs, Matt and Bud sat in the living room, stoking the fire and waiting for Kitty to rejoin them. They decided to wait until she was there, so Bud would only have to relate the painful truth behind his parent's death once.

"I'm sorry it took me so long." Kitty said as she entered carrying Georgie. "A certain young man wasn't quite willing to go to sleep just yet."

"Georgie," Bud started but Kitty stopped him.

"Bud, don't worry about it. He'll probably go off to sleep here shortly. In the meantime I don't mind holding him."

Bud took a breath in exasperation at his younger brother but shrugged and gently ruffled his brother's hair as Kitty took a seat beside him on the couch, nestling Georgie in her lap.

"Like I said earlier, this has been hard on him, hard on all of us actually. But he and Ma were extra close. Sort of like me and Pa."

"Bud," Matt asked quietly, "what happened? I mean besides the accident."

"A man named Cayden Graham happened." Bud practically spit the name out as though it left a bad taste in his mouth. "He bought the ranch next to ours about a year and a half ago. At first he was kinda friendly to us, you know waving if he saw us, offering help if we needed it but things changed kinda sudden and he stopped being so friendly."

"What do you mean?" Matt asked. "Why?"

"He decided he wanted our property." Bud answered. "He told Pa, he wanted to expand his ranch. Pa, of course, said no but then things started to happen. One of our ponds was poisoned, fence line was cut and some of our stock let loose, hay field burned. About a month ago, a burr was loosened on the wagon while Ma and me was in town and it was just sheer luck it fell off while we were still in town and could get it fixed and no one was hurt."

"Graham admit he did this?" Kitty asked. "Or do you at least have any proof that he did it?"

"No, ma'am." Bud said ruefully. "But it has to be him. Nothing else makes sense. There's a man in town that runs the assay office, name Ed Zeeger, he and Pa were friends. He told Pa that Fletcher Parsons and a couple of other men were in his office with ore they wanted him to analyze. They didn't say where they got the ore, but he overheard one of them say something about the Trekadera."

"What's that?" Kitty asked. "And who is Fletcher Parsons?"

"Parsons is Graham's foreman and the Trekadera is an old abandoned mine on the back side of our property. Pa had an idea Graham wanted our place, so he could reopen the mine and work it."

"This Zeeger," Matt asked, "did he say whether the ore he examined was any good?"

Bud nodded. "Yeah, he said it had some gold in it but not a lot and even though he hadn't seen the mine, he figured it would take a ton of work to get anything worthwhile out of it."

"Obviously this Graham fellow doesn't believe that." Kitty said, gently rocking a drowsy Georgie in her arms.

"Either that or he knows something more than Zeeger or Jeff knew." Matt responded thoughtfully.

"Could be." Bud answered. "Trail City's not much of a town but it's the closest one in these parts. Pa said Graham figures on building Trail City into something big with him running it."

Matt nodded, fully getting the picture. "I see. He figures if he has the backing of paying gold mine, he could do it."

"That's what Pa thought, at least. And I do too." Bud confirmed.

"Has he tried anything since your parents died?" Kitty asked.

Bud nodded. "He came here once and offered to buy the place from me to 'help me out', he said. But I turned him down. I told him my Uncle Matt the US Marshal was coming and he'd be taking over." He looked over at Matt. "I'm sorry. I didn't intend to put you in the middle of this but I didn't know what else to say."

"Don't worry about it." Matt said as he stood up and paced over to the window, looking out at the now darkened landscape beyond. It was obvious to him now why Jeff had sent for him. He had needed help and figured Matt was the right one to give it to him. What Jeff hadn't figured on was getting killed or Kitty coming. "Lord," Matt thought. "I wish I'd known all of this before now. I could've kept Kitty at home and safe."

"Marshal?" Bud interrupted his thoughts. "You got any idea what we can do now? I mean, I know this place, and my brothers and sisters, are my responsibility and all, but I sure could use some advice."

Matt turned back around to the youth with an encouraging smile. "I'm going to give you more than advice." Matt told the boy, seeing relief flood his young face. "I gonna help you and together we'll figure out a way to stop Cayden Graham."

TBC