Out of the corner of his eye, Joe had noticed a stocky, middle-aged man when he entered the Silver Dollar and passed by his table on his way to the bar, but the youngest member of the Cartwright family had chosen to remain focused on the task at hand. A representative from the Carson and Tahoe Lumber Company was seated across the table from him busily writing down the final details of a contact that would be drawn up by the company's lawyer. It had been a challenge to negotiate the sale of a substantial amount of timber, but Joe had done right by the Cartwright name just as he had promised his father and Adam. As Joe held out his right hand to the agent to close the deal, the man at the bar began to speak loudly in their direction.

"Seems to me you're buying an awful lot of Cartwright timber." Seeing the frustrated look on Joe's face, the speaker smiled and held up his hand as he stepped nearer the table. "Sorry to interrupt. I couldn't help overhearing your conversation - but when a man's running for public office, I guess he's got a duty to keep up with what's going on. Just in case my campaign literature hasn't made it to VIrginia City yet, my name is Whitaker, Joshua Whitaker."

Joe avoided looking directly at Whitaker. "Yeah, I've heard of you, Whitaker. Now if you don't mind, we'd like to complete our business here."

The pushy man with unruly, graying red hair continued his verbal assault. "Well I don't mind, but maybe this fella here and the people he buys timber for should."

With a look of disdain, Joe responded to the intrusion. "Whitaker, I've heard that you've been shooting off your mouth all across the state of Nevada. I can't even begin to add up all of the accusations you've made."

Whitaker chuckled and continued. "That's probably because you weren't interested, young fella, but I've got something in the works now that's going to get the attention of you Cartwrights for sure." Joe's jaw clenched when the timber representative seemed to take more interest in what Whitaker was about to offer. "As a matter of fact, it ought to interest you, too, sir." Whitaker pointed directly at the timber man. "The sooner you know about it, the better."

Joe sat examining the fingers of his left hand trying with all his might to remain composed. The representative rose to his feet and attempted to take his leave. Whitaker moved in front of him and poked him on the shoulder as he went on with his tirade.

"Now you don't know it yet, mister, but you ain't got no business with them." Whitaker waved his hand sharply in Joe's direction. "That is unless the people you represent don't mind buying timber that was taken from stolen land!" Joe's face became hard as stone when the men sitting at the other tables started to murmur. "That's right, gentlemen. I accuse this man's pappy", Whitaker pointed at Joe, "Benjamin Cartwright, of having stole every foot of land his family lays claim to!"

Joe grimaced as he yanked on his gloves and glared back at Whitaker. It did nothing to slow down the loud-mouthed man who went barreling on ahead with his charges.

"Pirated. Stole in as horrible a bunch of crimes as the West has ever seen!"

Seeing trouble coming, the bartender told Whitaker to take his ranting outside.

Joe glanced back over his shoulder. "It's alright, Cosmo. Let him finish."

Joshua Whitaker moved in with purpose, waving his finger in Joe's face. "I accuse your pappy of being a tyrant - a common thief! Before I leave this town, everybody's going to know that I speak the truth!"

Joe's green eyes were on fire as he stood toe-to-toe with Whitaker. "Everybody's going to know before you leave this bar, Whitaker, that you're going to have to prove that every word you've said is true", Joe forcefully grabbed Whitaker by the lapels of his jacket and spoke through gritted teeth, "or take it all back."

Whitaker held up his hands to stave off those who were considering coming to his aid. "It's alright folks, it's alright. I expected violence. You can beat me up, boy, but you can't shut me up!"

"Proof! Proof, Whitaker, that every word you said about my father is true!" Joe growled into Whitaker's face.

"It will all come out, boy, but in my time, not yours. Do with me what you want! You can beat me, even kill me", Joe pushed the shouting man back as he released his collar, "but the truth will be heard over the sound of your hired guns!" Whitaker shoved Joe back a step when he tried to get around him and continued to poke the youngest Cartwright in the chest. "Wait a minute, sonny, I ain't done with you yet. Above the clank of the chains that you have used to enslave your neighbors..."

Joe reached back and punched Whitaker mid-sentence and then stormed out of the saloon as the candidate for governor fell backwards and laid on top of a flattened table. Whitaker shouted toward the swinging doors all the while gauging the reaction of his crowd.

"The truth! The truth shall set us all free!"

Later that evening at the dinner table, Adam applauded sarcastically after his youngest brother finished describing the events that had transpired earlier in the day. "Maybe you should run for governor, little brother!"

Adam's remark was met with a frown from his father.

Joe jumped up from the table and strutted away before turning back to face his family. "I'd stand a better chance of getting elected than Joshua Whitaker would and I'd make a much better governor at that! And don't you even think that I'm going to apologize to that blowhard after how he smeared our family's name!"

Adam got up out of his chair and turned toward Joe. "I'm not saying that Whitaker deserves an apology. What is deserves is our contempt and to be ignored. By hitting him you only fueled his ridiculous rhetoric and most likely turned it into tomorrow's headline on the front page of The Territorial Enterprise!"

Joe placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest. "Well then I say we use it to our advantage! He can't be allowed to continue to spread false claims all over the state of Nevada! I say we sue him for libel!"

Adam shook a finger at his brother. "And I say he's hoping that that is exactly what we do You couldn't have done more to help his cause than if you had personally gone out and gotten him thousands of votes! Joe, the man can't buy that kind of publicity!"

"So we just let him go on lying about us!" Joe countered.

Hoss listened with a pained expression as his brothers argued.

Having heard enough, Ben placed his hands on the table and pushed himself up. "Does anyone care what I think?", he growled and moved closer to the verbal fray. "My guess is that tomorrow Whitaker will forget all about the Cartwrights and shoot his verbal arrows at another unsuspecting target. That is unless we bring a libel suit against him. By not giving credence to his claims, he will soon move on to the next town and pick a new battle to draw attention to himself."

Adam nodded in support of his father's statements. "That's been his pattern so far. Bigger and bolder lies, bigger and more well known targets. It just makes Whitaker appear more important in the political arena. As long as we don't dignify his craziness with a response, he won't get any votes in the Comstock."

Hoss got up from the table and joined the others. "Well I sure hope yur right, Adam, cuz tomorrow Joe and me are headed inta town ta hire some more cutters so we kin fill that big contract. It's been a long day. I sure hope you fellas are done with yur hollerin' cuz I'm goin' ta bed." The big man headed for the stairs.

"Me, too." Joe followed his brother stiffly up the stairs without even offering Adam or his father a 'goodnight.'

After all the discord, Ben felt the need for a brandy. "Would you like a nightcap, Adam?"

"No thanks."

Ben poured his drink and took a seat in his leather chair while Adam moved to the hearth and stood with his hand resting on the mantel.

Looking thoughtfully into his glass of brandy, Ben released a deep sigh. "Do you really think that Whitaker has a chance of making some real political hay out of all this nonsense?"

Adam kept his eyes focused on the flickering flames in the fireplace. "I hope not, Pa, but you can never tell what will happen when people get stirred up. Suddenly every injustice that's ever been committed can get thrown in the lap of the perceived perpetrators."

Ben drew in a breath and held it for a moment before exhaling and taking a sip of his brandy.