Ben Cartwright rode through the gates of Fort Addington—flanked on either side by his two youngest sons, and followed by Bill Half-Foot—with his chest puffed out like the general of an all-conquering army. So, he hadn't gone into battle for his eldest boy yet, but Ben was determined to start in the way he meant to go on: with all the bluster, confidence and strategy of a General Winfield Scott.

He had arrived that morning, loping towards the fort gates with a fiercely determined expression carved on his face; pulling up sharply when hallooed by a familiar voice from the grove of trees where Hoss, Joe and Hanska had made their camp. It had been a month since he'd seen his sons, and he had greeted each man with a solid handshake and a firm grip to his shoulder. Despite his worry as to why Adam was incarcerated in the fort, he hadn't been able to keep a wide grin from animating his face at the sight of his boys healthy and unharmed.

He was introduced to Hanska who briskly nodded at the newcomer and took himself off to the edge of the camp to watch the comings and goings at the fort.

And there was another man breaking bread with them. Ben swiftly took in the heavily-fringed jacket and pants, the slight paunch over a wide belt of ammunition and the leg placed stiffly out in front of him. Bill Half-Foot grinned as he raised a tin mug to Ben.

"You'll have to forgive me for not gettin' up. Ma foot don't always behave itself, and today it's decided to be as lazy as one of them stray dogs in the mid-day sun."

Ben moved over to shake the man's hand as Hoss introduced them and enlightened his father on how Bill knew Adam. Ben had immediately lowered himself to share the felled log that had formed a handy seat in the camp, and pumped Bill's hand with energy.

"If it hadn't been for you…finding Adam when you did…" Ben found it hard to speak. He cleared his throat and refused to give up his grip on Bill's hand. "If it hadn't been for you, I'd…we'd never have gotten him back. My boy would have been lost..." Ben's eyes were starting to glisten, causing the man next to him to start fidgeting with unease.

Bill flicked a glance at Hoss and Joe, who stood watching the conversation, and then back at Ben. He reached around to slap Ben on the back. "Gahhh, let's raise a toast. To ya boys, and the trouble they gets themselves in."

Ben laughed, aware his display of emotion had embarrassed the hard-edged army scout, courier, translator, whatever it was he happened to be on this particular day. But Bill's deflection had worked, and Ben's mind was once more focussed on the present. The four men raised mugs of thick black coffee, each in their own way wondering about the fate of Adam in the fort.

Ben had listened with dismay, and growing anger, to Bill's account of Adam's treatment in the cells. This was old news to Hoss and Joe who sat quietly, not taking their eyes from their father's increasingly downcast features. They weren't surprised when Ben jumped to his feet, his shoulders rigid with fury, and made as though to stride to the fort there and then.

Hoss had followed his father up and placed a calm hand in the centre of his father's chest. "Goin' in there all a-rage and steamin' like a newly castrated bull ain't gonna help Adam none."

Ben glowered at Hoss, his brows low and heavy over rage-black eyes. But a few deep breaths later he had calmed and with a few slaps to his back, Hoss propelled him back toback to the fallen log.

"That's the second time in two days I've had ta stop a Cartwright from chargin' in there like a stampeding steer," muttered Hoss as he sat back down resumed his seat, throwing a glance towards his younger brother.

Joe looked away sheepishly.

Ben's shoulders sank as he settled back himself on the log. "I guess we know where Joe gets his temper from."

Ben's forehead creased again. "But how in the world did he end up in there? All I know is what was in that wire you sent me and that was that Adam was locked up…again. What is it about that boy; always getting thrown behind bars?" Ben grumbled and then pointed his finger at his youngest son. "It's a good thing you sent that wire to where you did, Joe. It was delivered to my hotel in two different towns. That was good thinking, son."

Hoss shifted forward on another log that he'd heaved into the camp a few days earlier at the arrival of Joe and Hanska. "Pa, it's a long ol' story, but let's just say we was freeing some o' Hanska's pals from an army convoy and Adam got caught."

There was silence, the proverbial calm before the storm. And then came the eruption.

"You were what?" Ben was on his feet again, his voice echoing off the nearby trees. The horses attached to the line next to their camp raised their heads sharply, startled by the sudden shout. Hanska swivelled around at the noise. Ben's eyes narrowed as he viewed his middle son and then, much to Hoss's consternation, Ben's voice dropped to a low, deadly level. Bill grinned at the discomfort Ben Cartwright could instil in his grown sons.

"Why don't you start at the very beginning? And don't try to sugar-coat it."

Hoss's face screwed up. His cheeks bulged as his top lip curled back and his blue eyes sought to look at anyone but his pa.

"Hoss!" Ben barked.

Hoss jumped slightly, his Adam's apple rose and fell in his throat and he took a deep breath. After a quick glance at Joe, he started to relay the story of everything that had happened to them since they'd arrived in the Ute village. He told of their mission to find the late-returning party which contained Wanekia and Adam's daughter. He spoke of their discovery that the army had taken them; their swift ride to the fort and the ensuing rescue. His voice was subdued as he told his pa Adam had somehow been captured and was now locked up in the stockade. When he had finished, all was quiet in the camp. Ben paced a few steps towards the fort. His sons watched his head drop briefly to his chest as he let out a heavy sigh.

"You are trying to tell me that you, Joe and Adam, and a trio of Ute Indians, went up against an official army convoy."

"Well, Pa, Adam thought his wife and little gal were in the wagons—" "

Ben spun around. "It doesn't matter what Adam thought, you and he broke the law."

Hoss's head dropped, followed a few seconds later by Joe's.

"Don't you boys understand?" Ben had traipsed back to where they were seated and stood over them with his hands planted firmly on his hips. "You broke the law. Adam broke the law. I can't just march in there and demand they free him. They have all the power of the law on their side."

Ben looked at his two chastened sons before stiffly turning and moving to sit back down heavily next to Bill.

"And you say he has changed back into his Indian clothing?"

Hoss looked over at his youngest brother but Joe's head remained lowered; the memory of that first sight of Adam dressed in buckskin and with warpaint adorning his body was still too painful. Hoss turned to his father and nodded his head.

"Yessir. I didn't think I'd ever see Adam lookin' so…diff'rent. He seemed more Injun than when we found him in Darwin."

Like his boys had done a few moments before, Ben's head dropped, a sense of hopelessness starting to wash over him. Not only had Adam got himself into deep trouble with the army, but, from what Ben had heard, it seemed Adam had opted to turn even further away from the life he had once embraced. Ben was beginning to realise his own naivety in believing that Adam would simply revert back to the way he had been before. He had been blind to the severity of the changes in his eldest son; they weren't just skin deep, they had been scored into his heart and soul.

Bill looked at each man in turn and then spoke. "Well, there may be a-ways outta this."

Three heads shot up.

"See I was talkin' to one of the boys in the fort there. Me and him goes back a long way. Used to know his older sister quite well. I swear she could crack walnuts with—""

"UmUm, Bill." The half-breed flicked his head up, distracted out of his reminiscences by Ben's quiet, reproving tone.

"Ah, yeah, well, as I was sayin', I was talkin' to young Rowdy—he works in the captain's office lookin' after the commander's books an' such—and he said there was no official order ever issued from Fort Penning about moving the Ute people to a reservation."

An angry voice exclaimed behind them. Hanska had jumped up from where he had been crouching and run the few steps into camp on light feet. He dropped to his heels in front of Bill.

"Matwau told us the white man come to the Ute hunting ground. He said the soldier take our people to far- away land."

"Matwau? That's the fella who took Adam from ya village and ? Lleft him in the desert to die?""

Hanska was on his feet again. A stream of Ute hissed from his lips as he stood bristling with rage. Hoss spoke Hanska's name, breaking into the man's tirade. The Indian stopped and once more dropped to his haunches. He pulled his knife from his sheath, and ran running a finger along the shiny blade. "If Liwanu had not killed Matwau, I would slice his throat slowly until his blood had soaked the earth."

Ben looked nervously at the Indian but then quickly diverted his attention back to Bill. "Are you saying that this…Matwau…lied about the Ute being taken to a reservation?"

Bill nodded. "According to Rowdy, there ain't no reservation, and he'd know. If the captain knows, then he knows."

"Then where were they taking the Ute boys? And what about Adam's wife and his friend?"

"Rowdy didn't say as much in so many words, but I get the idea them Ute boys weren't going to a good end. Like as not they was gonna be taken over the territorial line and left on another tribe's land. Theys were headed south, weren't they?"

Hoss nodded.

"It's only my opinion, but I reckon those boys were going to be taken into Arizona and left where the Navajo could find them."

Hanska spat forcibly when hearing the name of his sometime enemy. Bill raised an eyebrow.

"As you can see the Ute and the Navajo don't always see eye to eye."

Ben rose to his feet and paced around the small camp. "None of this makes any sense." Ben He stoppedpaused with his hands on his hips facing the fort and then . He turned to face his audience. "This man…Matwau…tells you," he looked at Hanska, "that your people are being moved onto a reservation by the soldiers. But it's a lie, not true at all. And then Adam is snatched by this man and taken to the desert to die to die." He hesitated for a moment as his mind worked through what he knew. "But then the people who waited behind for Adam are rounded up by soldiers." He looked pointedly at the men starring back at him. "Hoss, you told me earlier it was this Matwau who betrayed the Ute to the army, who led the soldiers to where the villagers were."

Hoss nodded. "Yessir, Adam told us Matwau wanted the land the mountain village was on for his own people."

"So what does the army get out of it?" Ben's brow was furrowed as he tried to work out the motivations for the Ute being rounded up. "If they have no official orders, if there is no reservation to put them on, then why bring them back here? Why go to all the trouble of transporting them out of the territory? And Hoss, you said the young men were hidden away in a wagon? That's almost unheard of!"

Bill leaned down to massage his gammy foot. It had lacked pretty much all feeling ever since the horse Bill had been riding as a boy had slipped and gone over on its side, trapping Bill's foot at a crooked angle. Every now and then, however, he was beset with pins and needles. He pulled his foot into his lap, yanked his boot off and kneaded the flesh to remove the painful prickling. "Mebbe we'll never know why," he grunted as he attacked his foot with pressure, "but it seems purdy clear to me the captain there in yonder fort was in cahoots with Matwau to get them Ute off their land."

Ben settled himself next to Bill. "But what on earth would an army captain get out of it besides a whole heap of aggravation?"

Bill scratched his chin. "That I ain't so sure about. Mebbe Matwau promised to behave, not cause trouble." He shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows."

Hoss and Joe had watched the exchange without saying a word. But now Hoss rose to his feet. "It don't matter what that captain is gettin' out of it. We've got enough to hang him by his toenails."

"But we have no proof." Ben was on his feet.

"But, Pa, we don't need no proof. We jus' gotta make that captain think we have."

Ben had reached out and gripped his boy's shoulder, looking slowly around at the men who had all risen to their feet. He nodded. "Okay, let's do this, let's go get your brother."