~CHAPTER 16~

Adam took a deep-cleansing, albeit tremulous breath and ran his still clammy hands over his face and waited a few moments to collect his thoughts before he began. They had reached the house moments ago, and now with Hoss sitting on the settee and Joe standing on the other side of it, Adam knew the time had come to fill his brothers in on everything. He just hoped that his suspicions wouldn't sound as ludicrous as he knew his brothers believed them to be when he tried voicing them earlier that night.

There had been no sign of Hop Sing when they arrived, but that wasn't too surprising. The little man had been wearing himself ragged for the past couple of days, and Adam was grateful that his audience was limited to just two. As he propped his foot up on the hearth's stonework, he leaned his arm against the hard chimney and looked into the flames, the reflection of their bright orange threads flickering in his dark eyes. "Do you remember Pa telling stories about coming west, where we traveled, how we lived?" Joe and Hoss's eyes mirrored confusion as the question took them by surprise as they were unable to see how that could possibly have any connection to the present situation.

"Yeah, Adam. O' course we do," Hoss replied, to which Adam nodded as if he'd never doubted it.

"Did he ever mention our journey through the state of Illinois?"

"Course he did. That was where he met muh Ma."

"Yes. Did he ever say anything else besides that? Anything about where we visited in Illinois or what happened there?"

"I don't remember him ever going into any particulars, Adam. He just said he met her in Illinois and that she and Uncle Gunnar owned a store there," Joe spoke up. "Why?"

Adam continued slowly, delving into his long past memories, trying to make his recollection as accurate as possible. "Well, there's something that Pa might not have told you, something he never really even told me; I just vaguely remember it. In the town where he met Inger was a man named Jason McWhorter. I remember Pa and Inger talking about him a couple of times after leaving Illinois, but it was always in private, when they thought I wasn't around or was asleep." He paused, trying to make up his mind about what he was really trying to say, enough time for Hoss to recollect a bit of information for himself.

"Illinois. Where that Chapman fellar was in prison. So you do remember somethin' 'bout that?" Adam nodded slowly before continuing, trying to shut out the sight of their now eager eyes.

"One night Pa and Inger got into an argument about McWhorter. I... remember them talking as if he had accused Pa of something, something that could have gotten him into a lot of trouble, maybe even thrown in jail, or worse. I can't really remember. Anyway, of course it didn't happen, and I never heard about him after that, but..." Adam ran a hand quickly over his face, knowing that his theory was on shaky ground at this point, for he had no evidence or memory to back it up. "Something serious must have happened to make him hate Pa that much."

"I still don't see what your connection is," Joe spoke up. "I mean yeah, they were both in Illinois, but Sam Chapman, from the looks of him, was a younger guy. If something did happen between Pa and this McWhorter character, how could he have known about it?"

Adam pushed away from the hearth and shot a quick, confident glance at Joe as if to say I might just know how before heading over to the desk. Hoss stood up and Joe got closer as Adam brought back just one piece of paper that he knew exactly where to find amongst the dozens still littering the desk.

"Here," he said thrusting it into Hoss's eager hands. "That's a list of convicts recently released from the Illinois Prison where Sam Chapman was kept. Read it."

Adam could tell when Hoss's finger, tracing each and every name, came to the right one. His eyes went no further, but took on a darker look as Adam continued. "You tell me the odds of these two men being in the same prison, at the same time, and not knowing each other; and, also, being released within a couple of months of each other."

"They almost had to have known each other," Hoss replied, mystified over the almost surreal turn of past and recent events. He looked up to study his brother's face closely. "Adam... what happened in that camp? You musta known about this 'afore we went chasin' after that feller today, but you decided not tuh tell us."

"I wasn't sure." Adam replied quietly. "I didn't want to hurt you two if I was wrong, which... I still might be."

"I understand all that, Adam," Hoss's no-nonsense tone could be detected underlying his understanding words. "But what happened that made you change by the time you made it back tuh us tonight?"

"Did they talk about Pa?" Joe put in quickly, no longer able to be patient and let the facts come as they may, but wanting all of them to hit him at once.

"They didn't say his name, but I overheard two of them talking about the hostage they have."

"What about 'im?"

"From what I could tell he's an older man, and they're using him to get all the information they need for raids on the Ponderosa. We've said they were well-planned, more like perfect. And like we said before... who else would have that kind of knowledge besides us?"

Hoss's gaze dropped and he stared off into space, his mouth set in a grim line. "No one else would besides... Pa."

Joe voice sounded rough and laced with uncertain emotion. "If it was Pa, why would he give information that would destroy this ranch, his ranch?"

"He wouldn't do it willingly, of course," Adam replied. "They must be threatening him with something."

"His own life?"

Adam slowly approached the hearth once more. "No... McWhorter wouldn't want to kill Pa. The only thing he'd be interested in is what he can do to hurt him. And we know he's not just after money. The killing of the cattle was enough to prove that." Adam hung his head suddenly. If by some awful happenstance, everything they were speculating was true... His brow furrowed in a sad regretful face as he thought about what his Pa must've gone through... might be still going through. How he must've suffered destroying what he had worked his life to build, destroying his sons...

"Adam... " he half turned his head at the sound of Hoss's voice so close to him. "If what you're sayin's true... and Pa's still alive..." He stopped right there. The ramifications of their Pa still being alive almost made him want to jump and whoop for joy and sit down and cry at the same time. If he was still alive...

If he was still alive... the words were knocking around in Joe's head, every other thought overpowered by this almost unbelievable idea. All these months of grief... Even when his mother had died, he had reached a point where he was able to say goodbye to her, no matter how hard that had been. He hadn't reached it yet with his father. What if he really was still alive? Just the possibility made his eyes bright with tears. "Adam? Are you sure? You sure about McWhorter?"

Adam nodded again, no longer even trying to find a way that he might possibly be wrong.

"Pa's alive." Hoss said softly, his face showing no change but his eyes revealing the emotions within. "And all this time we thought..."

"We were wrong. He's alive!" Joe stated again as he grasped Adam's forearms in sheer joy.

"Now remember. I don't have any verifiable proof that he is. It's just that everything, every last loose end, would make sense now if it was true."

"Adam, it has to be true. We never found his body even though all the evidence showed that he died at that river."

"Yes, but don't you see. If by some small chance it might not be..."

"Well, we can't go on thinkin' like that. We know fer a fact that they've got somebody up there against his will, and all the facts is showin' us it's our Pa. No matter what we do now, we gotta find a way to get him outta there, to keep him safe." Even as he was speaking, the realization hit Hoss that even though their Pa might still be alive, he was in grave danger. If this man was willing to go as far to take revenge on him after more than twenty-five years, there's no telling what he'd do. The thought of having him back after the living hell they'd been going through, and losing him again for real this time, would be….unthinkable.

"Hoss is right." Joe said quickly, his mind now abuzz with plans and possible courses of action.

"Tomorrow night..." Adam blurted out as if he suddenly remembered something. They looked at him waiting for him to continue his thought, but instead, Adam looked at the grandfather clock beside the door before heading over to the settee where they had deposited their coats, hats and guns. "No time to explain now; we've got work to do. I'll tell you on the way."

"On the way to where?" Joe asked even while he too donned his gun belt and caught his hat that Hoss tossed to him.

"Town. We'll need Roy's help."

It was bitterly cold. By all reasoning, he figured his duty shift should've been over hours ago. The end of the miserable task never seemed to be in sight, however. He continued his pacing back and forth, periodically putting down his gun and warming his hands beneath his arms while stamping his feet to revive feeling in them again. As the noise from his boots sounded along the path, he thought he caught something scurrying into the brush beside him. Figuring there was no harm in trying to find out what it was, he entered the brush if for no other purpose than to keep his mind active and his body moving to ward off the boredom and cold. As he entered the brush and his eyes adjusted to the even darker surroundings, he kept his ears open for the sound of rustling, indicating that the living creature was near. Instead as he moved further into the brush, his ears picked up the sound of his boot hitting something metallic on the ground. Bending, he felt around in the bed of dry pine needles until his hand closed around something cold and hard. Carrying it back out into the open where the moonlight shone more brightly, he was shocked to discover it to be a watch, and from the looks of it, a very fine specimen of one with the initials A.C. expertly engraved into the face plate. Almost petrified at the prospects of what this find could possibly mean, he rushed toward the cave and hollered to his comrades.

"Hey, where's the boss?"

"In the back cave where he always is," Hank replied. "Why?"

"I think he better take a look at this."

Jason McWhorter observed the silver timepiece with cold, calculating eyes, his lip twitching every once in a while, moving the jagged scar on his cheek in a distorted fashion. "Where did you find it?"

"Over just beyond the clearing, Boss."

He turned his eyes to one member in particular of the small group that had gathered around. "You didn't hear or see anything while you were on guard?"

Clint thought back. "There was one time I thought I heard somethin', but didn't turn out to be nothin'."

The Boss turned to the watch again, his thumb rubbing over the engravings in such a harsh and rough fashion that it seemed as if he were trying to rub the etchings right off. "Who told you about the hit?" he asked of Clint.

"I did, sir," Travis spoke up from the edge of the group, hoping he hadn't inadvertently done something wrong.

"Where?"

"On the edge of the clearing, opposite here."

The cold hard glint of vengeful satisfaction returned to the man's face. "Gentlemen, our plans appear to have just changed."