Chris sighed and walked back in. Ezra looked like a man facing the gallows, and Maude looked appropriately maternal as she rose and glided over to her son. 

"Get away from me," he hissed. 

"I understand your resentment, Ezra, truly I do-- but in time, you'll come to understand that I only want what is best for Abigail-- just as you do."

"No you don't, Mother. All you've ever wanted is what's best for MAUDE."

She sighed, looking sweetly remorseful. "I know I deserve your low esteem. I only hope I shall live long enough to restore myself to your fond regard-- you are, after all, my firstborn, and my only son." And with that, she turned, dabbing at her eyes, and left the courtroom.

"Wonderful actress," he growled.

"The woman has missed her true calling," Josiah grunted, watching her go with narrowed eyes.

"Which is?"

"Just what you said... acting. She'd give the Jersey Lily a hell of a run for her money in front of the footlights!"

Ezra's smile was skull-tight. "That she would..."


~*7*~
Precisely at four o'clock, the bailiff walked to the front of the stifling, packed room and once again called court into session.

Just before Judge Travis' gavel came down, a boy rushed in, breathless. "Judge Travis, this telegram just came in to you, from Washington, Sir! It's urgent, concerns this trial!"

Ezra looked at the others, fretting. 

The judge took the telegram, opened it, and read it, his face registering surprise. 

"I request that this telegram entered in as a witness for the defense," Mr. Plimpton intoned, looking smug. 

After a moment, Judge Travis mumbled, "Agreed," and began to read. "To the Honorable Judge Orrin Travis: My dear betrothed, Miss Maude Geraldine Standish, telegraphed me, with the news that there is some question of her fitness as a mother. I urge you sir, to allow Maude Standish to regain her daughter, and bring her here to Washington. I have lost not only a beloved wife, but two children, as well, two years ago. I regard Miss Standish as God's blessing and as the agent of joy returning to our lives. My remaining daughter, Catherine, and I, look forward with eager anticipation to welcoming both Miss Standish and Abigail into our family. Signed, Eppa Hunton, Senator, Virginia."

Ezra leaned forward. "Josiah, I'm going to telegraph him..."

Josiah nodded, and stood. "May I approach the bench, sir?"

Ezra glared at Maude as she stepped down and Josiah and her lawyer approached the bench.

"Sir, in light of this unexpected, rather unorthodox, testimony, I would like a recess declared, to allow me to contact Senator Hunton-- cross examination by telegraph, as it were."

"Preposterous," Maude's lawyer sniffed. "I object."

"If I deny recess, then I will also strike Senator Hunt's telegram from the testimony, and allow the jury's current decision to be revealed here and now. Your choice, Mr. Plimpton."

The man glanced back at Maude, and then towards the Judge. "Objection withdrawn, your Honor."

Judge Travis grunted, and nodded at Josiah. "You have your recess, Mr. Sanchez, until two o'clock tomorrow afternoon."

Ezra followed Josiah to the office. "What are you going to say?" 

"The truth. We're going to enlighten him as to Maude's past. As a politician, I doubt he'd want that kind of skeleton in his closet for his opponents to rattle, don't you? And, if Senator Hunton backs off-- so will Maude, regardless of how this trial goes."

Ezra smiled and handed him the telegraph slip. Then he scowled as Maude walked up.

"I'd wager you thought I was making the dear Senator up out of whole cloth, didn't you?" she smugly purred.

"I admit, I did."

"I really am telling the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I have a nice, middleaged, handsome, wealthy Senator, with a tobacco plantation back home, and a thriving export business to boot. He has a lovely little blonde daughter, just Abigail's age, and they are both sooo lonely for the touch of a good woman." The smile Abigail turned on him was poisonously sweet. "Too bad you're of age, or Eppa may have even considered taking you in, as well! He sets such great store on family togetherness..."

"I wouldn't have him," Ezra growled.

"He's a fine man, Ezra. He truly is."

"He has one black mark against him, however. He's taken up with you."

Her fan flicked open and fluttered languidly. "Ah, but my dear boy, I've become a new woman, since you saw me last... Reformed by the love of a gallant man!" 

"Mother, drop it. You could no more be reformed than I could become female with a snap of my fingers!"

"Why Ezra! It saddens me to see you so bitterly cynical, at such a tender age!"

"I don't see why," he said, meeting her eyes. "It's a direct result of the way you raised me."

"Yes, I failed you miserably, and almost did the same with Abigail. I'm so thankful I'll have the chance to rectify my mistakes, in her case."

"Madame, that child will remain where she is," Ezra said coldly. 

"That, is for the court to decide," she shot back, equally coldly, and sailed away in a rustle of silk.

At the campsite, after dark, came the shout, "JD comin' in!"

"Hurray! J.D!!" Abigail scampered to the edge of the firelight, eager to pounce on the most playful of her uncles. JD slid from the horse. "Vin? Where's Abig---OOF!"

Giggling wildly, she wrapped herself around him, and did her best to tickle through vest and shirt. He spun around a few times, then lowered her to the ground long enough to shift his hands and lift her into a tender hug. "Hey, little monkey!"

"Hey J.D! I've MITHED ya!"

"I've missed ya, too. Hey...what smells so good?"

"We got a pronghorn! I thot it mythelf! The gun knocked me on my butt, but I got him! Didn't I Vin? We had to lay on our bellieth for almost 'ever, and the antth were crawling all over me, but I was thtill and quiet and we wath able to thneak up on him, then Vin held the rifle and tol' me to take the thhot and I pulled the trigger and that pronghorn went BOING! Right up into the air and then he fell right down dead and now we're gonna eat him!"

"Sounds great to me!" He set her down and petted her back. "Go wash now, okay? I need to talk to Vin alone for a bit."

"Grownupth! Ever' time they want to talk, they make me take a bath. Almoth wathed my thkin off, thince we been on thith trip... even Ethra don't make me wath tho much!" she muttered, stumping off through the twilight.

JD chuckled. then turned to Vin. "We got a curve throwed at us. Maude's husband to be wrote the judge."

Vin's eyes went wide. "Didn't figure he even existed! What'd he say?"

"That he wants Abby there." He held up a hand. "Josiah's wiring him back, 'cross-examination by telegraph' he said. Court's supposed to convene tomorrow afternoon. Chris wants to know if the same signal as before?"

"Yeah...same signal... " Vin looked troubled. "You think this fella really wants Abby?"

"Yeah, but I feel like Maude's blinded him but good."

"That's what I figger, too... what man'd want a woman like Maude, to marry?"

"She's got an angle going....aaah, here she is," JD smiled. "Beautiful as the sunrise...." he 
winked at the child.

She smiled at him, her face still gleaming with dampness, and crawled into his lap. "I'm havin' fun, but I'm gettin' a little lonethome for you and Buck and Jothiah and Nathan and Chrith and Ethzra... and ever'body!"

"You'll be with us soon enough, punkin. I know it." He buried his face in her black hair.

"I love you, J.D... when I grow up, I'm gonna marry you, you know, " she confided against his shirtfront.

"You'll have to fight Casey for that!"

"We both'll marry you, then."

JD laughed and held her close. 

He stayed for three hours and tucked her into the bedroll when she fell asleep. "How're you doing?" he asked Vin.

"I'm ok... she's a fine little wildcat. I figger I got the best of it, out here. How's Ezra and Chris holdin' up?"

"They're both nervous wrecks."

"Yeah, I can imagine so... any idea how this trial's gonna swing?"

"None. I'd have sworn we had it sewed up..."

Vin scratched at his stubble-turning-beard raspingly. "Yeah, this kinda puts a kink in things... them folks on the jury may think Shortie'd be better off in some big house with a lot of money and servants."

"If they rule against us, we're heading to Purgatorio."

"All of you?" Vin frowned. "Thought just me and Ezra would head that way."

"We're all going. She's our family."

"She is that... " Vin rose and took the meat off the fire. "Poor Shortie shot it and helped dress 
it, then fell asleep before she could eat it!" With a grin, he sliced a sizable hunk off onto a tin plate, and added a chunk of corn pone. He offered the rough repast to J.D.

"Thanks."

"Welcome." Vin fixed himself a plate, and put a bottle of whiskey between them.

JD rode back to town after dinner. Vin carefully wrapped the meat and cornpone up to keep for Abigail's breakfast, and lay down to a fitful sleep. 

Buck rode into camp about an hour after daylight, with a fresh dress for Abigail.

"A dress?" she asked, her mouth ringed with grease. "Does that mean we're goin' back to town today?"

"It means you MIGHT be," Buck told her, wiping her mouth with his bandanna.

"Vin, do I gotta put it on right now? I won't be able to climb like I wanted to..." 

"No, hon," Vin said. "A bit after noon, yeah. But not right now." 

Buck smiled. "Best get goin'...they're expecting me."

"Bye Uncle Buck!" Abigail jumped up to give him a kiss and a hug. He returned it and rode off, tears in his eyes.

~*7*~

Vin did his best to hide his agitation from Abigail, the next day. He felt like a man waiting for the executioner, as the shadows slowly got longer, and she happily built tiny playhouses and dolls with twigs and leaves. 

The six and Maude gathered in the courthouse. After the court was declared in session, Judge Travis called for the foreman of the jury to announce the verdict. The man pulled a folded sheet out of his vest pocket and handed it to the judge.

Judge Travis glanced at it, and handed it back. "Gentlemen of the jury, what say you?" he formally stated.

"We have discussed this at length...." he said formally at well. "And we feel that the best interests of the child Abigail Standish....." he bit his lip and looked at the tables. 

Ezra turned pale, his hands fisting on the table top.

".....is with the family she has known all her life. We believe her interests will be best protected if she remains in Four Corners." 

The courtroom erupted with cheers as Ezra and Josiah leaped to their feet, and the other four rushed them. The noise of celebration almost drowned out the sudden distinctive sound of two shots, from a pair of derringers.

"God, the signal!" Buck yelped, racing out. The rest of them followed, almost plowing through the crowd of wellwishers. 

Maude frowned, watching this odd display. Her frown deepened when Ezra's hat flew off and was left behind, the horses galloping at full-tilt. "What is going ON?" she gasped.

Mary looked stricken. "It was a signal... who could have fired those shots? Nobody else knew!"

"Knew? Knew WHAT?" Maude demanded.

Mary looked at her father-in-law pleadingly, then confessed. "They'd agreed, that if the trial went against them... two shots would be fired, and Vin would spirit Abigail away, to an agreed upon meeting place."

"WHAT?" Maude yelped. 

"Madre..." Inez whispered. "....and two shots were fired...." She ran to a tethered horse, and followed the dissipating dust cloud out of town. Only the Judge, who understood Spanish, understood the curses upon Maude's soul that Inez called down.

"And I don't know where they planned to go!" Mary wailed. "Chris wouldn't tell me, so I wouldn't have to lie if I were asked where they were!"

"You DARED to conspire to take her away from ME!" Maude exploded. Mary turned to gape at her, and Judge Travis lifted his eyebrow. 

"I didn't think she'd be happy with you. And the jury has agreed," the newspaper woman snapped.

"I am STILL her mother. And mark my words, I WILL appeal!" She swung around and stormed to the hotel.

"Not, poor Abigail... I hope they're going to take good care of her-- but I -ME- MY-- as if Abby's a possession!" Mary burst out.

The six burst into the campsite like a half-dozen avenging angels, closely followed by Inez. Her horse roared with exertion, but she was still cursing fluently.

The site was deserted, the smell of scorched coffee still rising from the ashes of the tiny campfire, hurriedly drowned by Vin's discarded potfull. 

Ezra immediately moved to a bare patch near the perimeter. Vin had taught him that a bare patch like that usually meant something had trampled. "Here!" he called. "Peso's tracks --star-shaped nail in the shoe! They went this way!" Without a backward glance, he nudged Chaucer's flanks and the chestnut obediently galloped off, following the tracks.

The rest followed close, eyes scanning the horizon, ears straining. Vin could disappear in plain sight. If he thought he was being followed, they'd have to go on into Purgatorio and wait for his arrival. Suddenly distant shots were heard.

~*7*~

"Shit! That's his mare's leg!" Chris raked his spurs across Midnight's belly. The six men tore across the rolling land towards the sound of gunfire, their own weapons at the ready.

"ABIGAIL!" Ezra hollered, Chaucer keeping up with the faster Midnight. His rider's eyes were almost as wild as his own. 

The last echo had long died away, and the blackpowder smoke had cleared from the air, by the time they came upon the trampled spot that mutely spoke of ambush and violence. Chaucer pranced in a circle as Ezra tried to keep him under control "Ten horses!" he called from the scurry of tracks. "Maybe twenty! Where's Vin and Abigail?"

The rest had fanned out, to search the area in a spiraling sweep. "Oh lord!" Buck blurted-- and swung off his grey so fast the horse shied, nearly tumbling him to the ground. 

"What?" Ezra's voice was cracking with the contained hysteria of a father who's lost a child in the woods. "Abigail?"

"No... Vin. NATHAN!" 

Nathan rode over swiftly. The tracker lay sprawled in the bloodied dust. He'd been shot in the arm, and obviously brutally beaten, as well. "My God...." Ezra's eyes widened as he recognized what he held tightly clutched in his grimy fist.

Abigail's hair ribbon.

"ABIGAIL! NOOO!" Ezra wailed, driving Chaucer in the direction of the tracks.

Nathan and JD stayed with Vin, while Chris, Josiah and Buck hightailed it after the frantic Ezra. When they found him, he was kneeling beside Chaucer, doubled over, his shoulders heaving with anguished sobs. They'd never seen him cry before.

"Hey... Ezra..." Buck stopped. 

Chris pulled up, then kept riding hard down the well-trampled trail of prints.

"Ezra... we'll find her..."

He looked up and mutely held up a hand. One of Abigail's shoes was in it.

Buck's hand closed over Ezra's shoulder. "It's jist her shoe, Ez. It don' mean nothin' cept maybe she's throwin' a fair fit on whoever's took her." Buck's attempt at a smile failed miserably. "'Sides, you know you can't keep that gal in shoes..."

Vin's eyes opened. "....Shortie...." he whispered.

"They'll find her Vin-- What happened?" Nathan asked, as he bandaged the worst of the tracker's wounds. Vin pushed him aside and struggled to his feet. He swayed drunkenly for a minute, then swayed over toward Ezra.

"....EZRA..." he lay his hand on the gambler's shoulders. "....WE FOUGHT THEM.... BANDITOS..." He swayed hard, nearly collapsing. "......ONE PULLED HER ON THE HORSE.... SHE CUSSED IN SPANISH.... BIT HIM... KICKED.... YOU'D BE PROUD...."

Ezra looked at him, anguished, and winced in spite of himself. "Why are you shouting?"

"Damn," Vin's voice was softer now. "I's shoutin'. Ez.....we did all we could....I'm sorry.....we'll get her back." 

"Yes...we will... you however, are going back under Nathan's care. You're injured, scarcely able to stand upright!" Ezra supported the swaying tracker, until Nathan and JD could step forward to take over, then, he mounted Chaucer and spurred off after Chris and Josiah.

Vin looked after him.

"Come on, Vin-- let's get you back to the clinic..." With Nathan on one side, and JD on the other, they managed to get Vin over to JD's horse. But the second Vin was on it, he spurred it and took off after the other three.

"He took my horse!" JD blurted, in shock and anger. "Damn it, Nathan-- he took my horse! And he's actin' mighty strange..."

"Yeah, well, he got his head bounced off a fair few fists, looked like, " Nathan gritted, and mounted up. "I'm going after him, likely the blame fool's gonna pass out and fall off.... " Putting his spurs to his horse, Nathan galloped after the others.

"Here, J.D.... take him," Inez shoved the reins of her borrowed mount into his hands. "I'll wait at the campsite for you."

He touched his hatbrim, "Muchos gracias, Inez," and swung up. 

"De nada-- just bring her back safe."

"We will," he promised, then slapped the reins against the bay's neck, and tore off down the unmistakable trail. When Nathan and J.D. caught up to the other four, they all found themselves in a town where they got no help. Nobody had seen anything.

"You're lying!" Ezra roared to the sullen crowd. "Usted es todos mentirosos!"

"Ezra, they're scared to death," Chris said. He then cried out to the crowd, "Volveremos mañana!"

"Let's go," he told the others, grimly. "We're comin' back tomorrow."

"Tomorrow she could be dead!"

"I don't think so," Chris said. "If she's alive now....she'll be alive tomorrow."

"She'd better be!" Ezra's eyes were wild... dangerous. The look he turned on Chris would have frozen most men's innards.

Ezra viciously jerked Chaucer's head around, and spurred the lathering horse out of town. "I'm not letting the trail go cold!" 

"We're not." Chris rode up beside him, caught Chaucer's rein. "We're gonna camp up there on that ridge, where we'll take care of the horses. She's here, somewhere -- the trail ends in town."

"Then we take their damn mud shanties down brick by brick! I'm not letting her stay there, with God only knows what being done to her!"

"Tomorrow, Ezra--- you'll do no good, running around in the dark, and if they make a break for it, you'll never catch them with Chaucer blowing and lathered!"

With an animalistic snarl, Ezra headed back up the trail, to the hill Chris had pointed out.

They joined him, and Buck took Vin's proffered eyepiece and scanned the town while they took care of the horses. Vin as still swaying a bit and was more silent than ever.

Ezra paced like a tiger in a cage, glaring down over the town as if he could strike death to Abigail's kidnappers by sheer ill will alone. Vin took his wrist. 

He stopped in midstride, and looked at the trapper with an odd combination of frustrated rage, and shared grief. 

Vin's eyes reflected it. Wordlessly, he pulled Ezra into a tight, brotherly hug.

Ezra returned it, then, pulled away-- anxiety not giving him an instant's stillness. He resumed his agitated pacing... lord, how he longed for a drink, but didn't dare cloud his senses with alcohol. It could mean Abigail's loss... "If she's hurt," he gritted, his hands fisting till his knuckles blanched. "I shall personally shoot every man woman child and chicken in that damned 
village!"

Vin frowned in confusion at his hands, his words.

Nathan caught the expression, and, his face turned slightly away, called softly "Vin!"

No reaction. "Chris, I don't think Vin can hear..." Nathan alerted their leader, and then went over to the tracker. "Vin... can you hear anything at all?"

Vin kept looking at Ezra.

"Vin!" 

Nothing.

The healer then touched Vin's arm. Vin jumped, a hand going for his gun. Nathan raised his hands, palms up, and then, touched Vin's ear, and shook his head with a questioning expression.

"NOPE."

"Nothing?" Nathan mouthed plainly.

"Quiet."

"Some hearing?"

Vin tilted his head.

Nathan held his thumb and forefinger a bit apart, then touched his ear and looked questioning again as he pointed to Vin.

"Sorry," he grinned sheepishly.

"Doesn't matter-- you're deaf as a post-- that's plain. Come here..." Nathan tugged Vin's shirtsleeve, to lead him into a brighter patch of evening light. Vin looked at Ezra and Chris, and rolled his eyes. 

Both of them looked stern right back. 

"They bust his eardrums, Nathan?" Chris asked, as the healer peered as best he could into Vin's ears.

"Leggo my hair, ya..." Vin growled.

Nathan tapped his nose warningly, and went round to the other side. 

"*I* got it," Vin growled, pulling his hair away from the other ear.

"Touchy sonofagun," Nathan muttered, looking into the ear. "I don' see no blood or fluid-- so his eardrums ain't busted. Don't know why he can't hear, unless its from one of the hits to the head..."

"OW!" Vin protested as Nathan ran gentle fingers near that ear. "Damn-- bet this is it..." The healer gently traced a puffy, purpling swelling, just behind the tracker's ear.

"OW, stoppit dammit!"

Nathan ignored him, till he was satisfied with his makeshift examination. "I don't think his skull is busted. Might a'known, though a lick like that would have laid out a Missouri mule!"

Vin pushed Nathan away, not enough that he'd fall down, but enough he'd stagger. "Lemme be, ya idiot."

"My favorite patient," Nathan grumbled goodnaturedly, and moved away. "Chris, maybe you can get through to him..."

JD was taking care of the horses in the meanwhile. Chaucer drooped, splay-legged, with his nose nearly touching the dirt, all out. Ezra frowned, walked over to the gelding and rubbed his neck. "I'm sorry, my friend....but she is my world." 

The horse gave a weary rumble of a nicker, and shoved his nose against Ezra's chest.

No one slept easy, that night. Chris dreamed he heard Adam crying. In his dream, he got up out of bed, leaving Sarah sleeping, and went to his son. Before he could cross to the bed, though, raging fire leaped up between them. In his dream, he tried to scream-- but was struck paralyzed and mute-- and Adam continued to weep... All the world was suddenly nothing but roaring flames, and soft sobbing. 

Chris sat straight up, panting, wet with cold sweat. And-- he still heard sobbing, so soft his own ragged breathing nearly drowned it out. A child's high reedy cry. Silently rising, he crept towards the sound, aided and then hindered by the scudding clouds that kept obscuring the moon.

He found a small, dark shape curled next to Ezra, who'd finally been overcome by emotional and physical exhaustion. 

"Abigail?" he whispered, scarcely daring to hope.

The dark head raised. "Uncle Chwis....I thtepped on a ca'tuth."

"Oh baby..." he whispered, gathering her into his arms. He rocked her close to his chest, the dream and his loss and her return all mingling together to almost choke him.

"Uncle Chwith...my foot hurtth..."

"I'll help you... " he came to himself, "You may have to be strong, though, sweetie, until we can get you home. Can you do that?" She nodded against his shirt. Holding her close, Chris reached over to roughly prod Ezra awake. Ezra jerked upright, his derringer SNIKTing into his hand.

"We can go home, now," Chris told him simply, as the moon unveiled once more to reveal who curled against his chest.

"ABIGAIL!" Ezra pulled her to him. 

"Ethra, they hurt Vin! And they were gonna keep me... but I got away when they wath all thleepin'... but I thtepped on a catuth! My foot really hurths!"

"Let me see...." he lifted the foot. "NATHAN!" he bellowed. "Nathan, it's Abigail!"

"Why were they gonna keep you, sweetheart?" he asked, touching her arms, her hair --- a thousand little touches to make sure she was REAL, solid --- HERE.

"The leader-- hith breath really THUNK!-- he thaid that they wath juth plannin' on robbin' Uncle Vin and thealin' Petho, but thince I looked like hith little girl that died, he wath gonna take me away from the gringoth and have me raithed as a good Mexican, tho hith wife wouldn't cry all the time no more.... They wath all dirty, and they all cuthed a lot in Thpanith..." 

Ezra kissed the top of her head. 

For a while, there was simply rejoicing-- then it dawned on the seven that they'd best make tracks back to Four Corners, before someone was noticed to be "mithing." Ezra rode with Abigail tightly in front of him. They'd make Four Corners an hour after dawn.

Abigail finally looked at Ezra with huge, hurt eyes. "Doethn't Uncle Vin love me anymore?"

"Of course he does... why do you doubt it?"

"He won't anther me."

"Oh sweetheart," Ezra hugged her closer, with the arm he had around her waist. "He can't hear you-- there's something wrong with his ears."

"Oooh. Thtop Chauther, pleath. Uncle Cwith, thtop Petho?"

"We can't, darlin', not till we're back in town."

"Jutht for a thecond?" 

"Sweetheart, we need to put as much distance as we can, as fast as we can-- between those men and you."

"When we thtop, I need to hug Vin."

"Sure, sweetie, when we get back to town."

She nodded and relaxed against her brother.

The dawn hours were slow as usual --- but that passed when the church bell began to ring frantically. When the citizens began to spill into the streets, Tiny, the livery operator ran from the church. "The Seven are coming back!" he cried joyfully. "ALL of them!"

And as soon as they came into town, Ezra urged Chaucer up to Peso, and reached out and grabbed the black's reins. Vin looked startled. Abigail leaned over and hugged him, like a bear cub.

Mary and Inez ran toward them, the people following. "Abigail!" a voice cried. "They got her BACK!" a man whooped. 

"My BABY!" The moonlight- and- magnolias voice rose over all the rest, as Maude elbowed her way through the gathering crowd. Midnight's bulk was suddenly in her way. "MOVE that animal!" she demanded, and yanked back on the horse's bit.

Chris then did something he'd never done. He removed a foot from the stirrup and gently, but firmly shoved Maude backward into the arms of the blacksmith. Ezra laughed giddily, and almost rode Chaucer straight up the steps to the clinic, following Vin-- or herding him, depending on the viewpoint. 

The good horse balked, though, three stairs up, and Ezra swung down and carried his sister the rest of the way, still chuckling. The rest of the Seven followed. Chaucer blew in equine amusement and walked backward down the steps. Perhaps it was God's sense of humour that let his flicking tail clip Maude across the cheek.....

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" she burst out, in shrill frustration, and gave the animal a shove, before barging up the wooden stairs. She found Josiah, JD, and Buck forming a human wall. "Let me IN! I want to see my daughter!"

As one, they walked down a step. Then two. Forcing her to back up. "This is... is... is.. " Words failed her-- and so did her sense of balance. She slid down the rest of the worn steps on her 
fashionably bustled rump.

JD tried to conceal his grin. The two big men didn't even try. Josiah shook his head, wondering what he ever saw in this lady. 

With a little shriek of frustration, Maude admitted defeat, and stalked off for the telegraph office. Judge Travis was there with Tyler, getting one from his wife. Maude waited with barely contained impatience, slapping at her dusty clothing, and pushing at her tumbled hair.

Tyler turned to look at her. "May I help you, ma'am?" 

"Yes, I want to send a telegram to Washington, D.C. To Senator Eppa Hunton, of Virginia." She shot a malicious look towards Judge Travis. "And also one to his lawyer."

Travis frowned. "Court's over, Miz Standish."

"For the moment, Judge Travis, for the moment... Now, if you'll excuse me?" She snapped the slip and pencil from Tyler's fingers and turned her back on the Judge, to compose her message.

He lay his hand on her shoulder. "What do you mean, for the moment?"

She brushed his hand away. "I mean, I intend to appeal your little bush court's decision-- all the way to the Supreme Court, if need be! _No_ one makes a fool of me and gets away with it. Not you, not the idiots on that jury, not even my own son!"

Travis slapped his hand down on the telegraph paper. "That's what this has always been about, isn't it?"

"I don't think my reasons are any of your damned business, Judge Travis!" she hissed, yanking the slip from under his palm.

"I think they ARE," he said coldly. "This has NEVER been about what was best for ABIGAIL, has it? It's been about what MAUDE wants. PERIOD." He bent down and scribbled on a pad, then slid it to Tyler. "Send that, NOW." Then he turned back to Maude as Tyler bent to his work. "You are a sorry excuse for a mother, Maude, and I for one am GLAD that you lost."

"Would you care to repeat what you just said, in a court of law? I'm sure it would aide my case that I had no chance of getting a fair hearing from you or from that two bit jury of drunkards and lay-abouts that you dragged in from the gutters!"

He smiled. "After that telegram Tyler just sent, you'll be lucky to get anyone on your side again."

Tyler clicked the last letters. "Done."

Maude's eyes narrowed like an angry cat's. "What did you send?"

"Should Tyler read it back to you?"

"He'd better!"

Slowly, Tyler began to read. "From Circuit Court Judge Orrin Travis. To the Honourable Senator Eppa Hunton, Washington DC. Your intended bride was caught in a scam to remove Abigail from Four Corners against the express wishes of her custodial parents. The child has been legally adopted and Maude was trying to sever those loving ties. I am sure that your kind heart will understand the grief the parents feel, especially now that Abigail has been rescued from a kidnapping attempt we can also pin on Maude. End telegram."

The woman's mouth fell open. "How DARE you insinuate I would do something so.. so... DASTARDLY as to put my dear child in a second's danger or distress!"

"Because, Maude," Travis said with a smile. "I know you."

"I had nothing to do with her kidnapping! NOTHING! I'M THE VICTIM HERE!"

He tilted his head toward the telegraph. 

"Explain it to Eppa."

"You miserable old sanctimonious toad!" Maude's voice was a furious howl. "I'll ruin you! I'll see you stripped of your cheap black robe and every case you ever tried overturned! Hell, they'll be digging up the men you hanged and forcing you to apologize to their bones!" Her deep south accent coarsened to a redneck twang. "If it takes me to my last breath, I'll see you knocked down to shoveling horseshit to buy stale bread, and then I'll see you in HELL!!" 

Maude's slam of the telegraph office door cracked the glass, and set the bell jingling hysterically. The telegraph began to click. "Is that from Senator Hunton?" Travis asked Tyler. 

"Yes sir, it is," Tyler nodded, his hand racing across his transcription pad. 

END